Fearless

Sena and Aiyana slept over at their grandma's house after Thanksgiving, and while they were there, Ed and I watched Fearless, the 2006 Chinese movie starring Jet Li.

I loved it. We only watch movies two or three times a year, so when we do I want to pick something that won't leave me with the feeling that I just wasted a couple of hours. I was very happy that I followed my friends Matt and Shandra's recommendation with this one. I loved everything about it: the martial arts, the story, the teachings, and the gorgeous scenery. There's a quote in the trailer, by Lao Tzu, which reflects on the theme of the movie:

Mastering others is strength. Mastering oneself makes you fearless.

Beautiful movie, definitely not a waste of time.

Peace

I have been so happy reading my poetry book before falling asleep at night. Below is another poem I really like by Sara Teasdale. Another nice thing that happened is that Sena and Aiyana have taken quite an interest in poetry as well, even though we're done studying it as part of homeschooling for a while. They still read and recite poems just for fun, and for me that is a beautiful thing to see.
 

  Midsummer night

 

Midsummer night, without a moon, but the stars

      In a serene bright multitude were there,

Even the shyest ones, even the faint motes shining

      Low in the north, under the Little Bear.

 

When I have said “This tragic farce I play in

      Has neither dignity, delight nor end,”

The holy night draws all its stars around me,

      I am ashamed, I have betrayed my Friend.

 

Two pictures and a lovely poem

November afternoon: Sena, Aiyana, and their cousins Julia, Stella and Lucy reading books together

And a beautiful poem by one of my favorite poets:
 

Prayer

by Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

Until I lose my soul and lie
Blind to the beauty of the earth,
Deaf though shouting wind goes by,
Dumb in a storm of mirth;

Until my heart is quenched at length
And I have left the land of men,
Oh, let me love with all my strength
Careless if I am loved again.

Morning milking routine

It snowed overnight and everything was very pretty under a light white blanket this morning.

Here is Opal waiting for to be milked under the peach tree.

 Sena, saying good morning to Jasmine.

Sena's asked if she could help me milk Opal, and I agreed. She's been coming out with me for about a week now. Here she is washing Opal's udder before milking.

 Aiyana's been coming out too, and spending time with the calf, Olive. Here she is brushing her.

Sena, milking while Opal is eating her treats. This morning we gave her brussel sprout tops, carrots and turnips. She loves her treats and waits for us eagerly every morning.

Aiyana getting a kiss from Olive.

Looks like she liked it.

Aiyana's good friend Yo is visiting this weekend. 

More kisses?

Peace

Apples harvested before frost

Happy Opal eating a cover crop of rye, vetch, clover and forage radish. Look at how lush that looks! The cows love it. I am very excited that now the covercrops we plant to sustain the soil over the winter not only do that and improve the soil for next season, but also provide a source of food for the cows at this time of the year when grass has pretty much stopped growing.

Aiyana with the dress my mother bought her in Spain. She wore it for Halloween. Sena wore a Pilgrim outfit (and won a prize for most original costume at gymnastics) but I don't have a picture unfortunately.

Peace

Yesterday was Sunday, our relaxing day, but it didn't turn out so. In the morning, we found out that the weather forecast changed from 29F to 23F for last night's low. That's quite a change and it put us in frenzy mode. Everything that's still out in the field, that could survive a light frost had to be re-evaluated whether it could take a hard frost (which 23F certainly is) or not. Sparing the details, our day ended up being running around between spinach, cabbages, beets, bok choi and many others, and covering everything with row covers and sand bags (many, many sand bags) against the frost. And then recovering, again and again, because the wind, which was blowing strong at 30+ mph kept ripping the covers right off as soon as we put them on. That's winter production. I always think "this is not worth it", but keep doing it anyway.....

At one point, after a couple of hours of sand bags and row covers, I lay down on the ground to rest, and it felt so blissful that I almost throughout that the whole ordeal of covering and fighting with the wind and running around like mad was worth it just for this relief. I must suggest that if you haven't laid down on the earth recently, you treat yourself to it. Pick a nice clean spot, with unsprayed grass if possible and just let your body be supported by the earth. To me, it feels like therapy, and if you have the luxury of a few minutes of peace and quiet just to do that, and pay attention to the sights and smells around you, I bet you'll feel restored. I did, and got right back up and into it again, with the covers and everything else.

We also had to pick forage radishes for the cows, because we thought they'd all get ruined by the cold, so I picked as many as I could and put them in the root cellar where they should store for months. Ed harvested all the apples that were left on the trees, which turned out to be about 5 bushels, so today I'm canning apple sauce.

After all that, it turned out the forecast was off, and the low was only about 32F, which made all that work unnecessary...But I guess better to be prepared this way, than to end up losing all the veggies and fruit that we could've saved. It had to be done anyway, hard frosts will be coming soon, no doubt about that.

We've been making fires every night now, which is one of my favorite things about the cold season. I've been bringing hot rocks from the stove in to warm the bed at night. I love that.

Opal and Jasmine and Olive are doing well. Milking is a little harder in some ways, with the cold mornings, but easier in others, such as lack of flies. I am much more bundled up when I go milk, which makes it harder to move around, and my hands are cold, which makes me reluctant to put them on Opal. Poor girl, she's all nice and warm, and then I shock her with freezing hands on her udder, but she's so good, she doesn't complain and warms me right up. Sometimes I hug her around her huge belly just to be near her, feel her heat and smell her amazing smell. Aiyana said this morning that I smell like cows, and I don't mind that one bit. I love that their earthy sweet smell is on me.

Peace