Owling

This past Monday, part of our homeschooling was going into the woods to look for Barred Owls. We studied up on them beforehand, and even learned to immitate their call. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, perfect for being in the woods. We hiked and called the owls, a little shy at first, but then with more courage. We thought, at one point, that we heard an owl call back. Not sure though, it seemed quite far away if it was there at all. What's sure is that we did manage to scare away some crows.
I have some funny videos of us calling the owls, but it turns out they're too large to be loaded here. So I will just post some pictures instead, although the sound effect was really most entertaining.

 We spent quite a bit of time by this little brook. The girls played and I simply enjoyed being there.

Peace

monochrome time of year

the great maple in front of our house

cow pasture

 moon through maple tree branches

peace

Colorful pictures from the past 2 weeks

We've had some amazing sunsets recently.

 Our Delawares

 Last roses of the season.

Peace

Tonight is supposed to be really cold. We're expecting a low of 18F, so this afternoon we harvested most of what was left in the field and got it all into the root cellar: radishes, turnips, chard, carrots, beets, and apples.
This morning it snowed, and it was beautiful. Sena and Aiyana were very excited, and I could not help but feel that way too. It's always like that for the first snow of the season.

Ed and I will be teaching a course in December, right here at our farm. I'm pretty excited about it. It is called "Grow Your Own Food" (more info here). People have asked us to teach a course like this in the past, so now that we're actually doing it, we'll have to see what the interest level is.

Enjoy the cold air coming in. Time to slow down for the winter!
Peace

Barred Owls and Shooting Star

On Monday, after homeschooling, I went out by myself for a bikeride. On my way back home, I was on a small road bordered by woods, when I heard and then saw two barred owls. They were making amazing sounds, the "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all" call that is typical of them. It was so loud, and it went on for a long time, high up in a tree very close to where I stood transfixed. I dared not move, for fear of scaring them away. After some time, they flew deeper into the woods, and I got back on my bike, feeling excited, as if a gift had been given me. I couldn't wait to tell the kids about what had happened.Cornell Lab has a picture and description of Barred Owls, along with sound recordings of their call. The call I heard is under "Pair caterwauling" and "Various Hoots". They really sounded like that.

Later that night, I got into bed and was thinking about the owls. I've heard owls hooting before, especially at night, and sometimes during the day, but they've always been far away. I looked out the window into the night sky, and just as I was about to close my eyes, I saw a shooting star. I felt as if the universe winked at me.

Peace

behold the mighty forage radish

we plant forage radish in our cover crop mix. it's supposed to be good at loosening up the soil especially if you have compaction (you can see why), and at reducing nematode problems (which we don't have, but that's what i read). we ate some and it was spicy and sweet.

Cape Cod - Part 2

On Tuesday we biked 17 miles to the National Seashore on the Atlantic side of Cape Cod.

Little boardwalk leading to the beach.

We had a family handstand competition.

 Ed and I could get in a handstand but could not match the kids at holding it.

The shore looked beautiful with dark clouds gathering overhead and bright sunshine breaking through.

The Ocean gives me the gift of forgetting myself when I see it.

 Sena in a handstand.

 And other funky poses.

Playing at running away from the waves;

And just having fun;

We had lunch on the beach, but by the time we finished, it started to rain. We got on our bikes to head back to our yurt. The rain did not last long, however. Soon the sun re-appeared, and with it a beautiful rainbow.

A brief stop on the side of the bikepath. Sena is looking at an old man with a nice and very friendly greyhound, who stopped to talk to us.

Foraging on the trail; Ed is handing Aiyana some wild grapes that he just picked, probably the last of the season.

 Sena's tongue stained by wild grape juice;

 And Aiyana's;

Sena, enjoying the bikeride;

 Aiyana being silly;

 Ed

I love Aiyana's expression in this picture. She's just so light hearted - she is my teacher on how to enjoy things and live in the moment.

 Enjoying a cup of hot cocoa at a little herb store/cafe.

Aiyana is an animal lover. She is drawn to all living creatures and has no fear. They are also drawn to her. Here she is patiently waiting for a shy chipmunk at the edge of our campground to come closer to her.

 Our yurt and camping spot;

On Thursday, our last day, we went to the Natural History Museum in Brewster. This is a picture of a native plant, but unfortunately I forgot its name.

Peace

Our trip to Cape Cod - Part 1

We went to Nickerson State Park in Cape Cod last week from Monday to Thursday. The weather was mostly beautiful, with sun and a few showers on Tuesday and Wednesday evening.

We stayed in a yurt, which was very basic and great for our needs. There was barely anyone else in the park. We brought all of our own food, because we can't get any better food anywhere else, but we did stop for coffee and croissants at two cafes, which was a treat for the girls and I. Bringing our own food and camping stuff was time-consuming for sure, but it was worth it in the end, and it did help keep costs down as well. The Cape can be really expensive, depending on your traveling style, but for us it turned out quite cheap, and very much to our taste. It was nice to be in the woods, with lots of privacy, and to cook our own food on a home-made stove that Ed and Aiyana built the days before we left.

Most of the time we were there we biked. There is a great rails-to-trails network of paved bikepaths, safe for the kids to ride on, and very beautiful, as it winds its way through woods, marshes and other such wild areas. On Tuesday we biked 17miles, which was the longest Sena and Aiyana have ever biked in one day. They don't have gears on their bikes, so this was quite an accomplishment, especially for poor Aiyana who was peddaling like crazy on her little bike. I guess it's time for better bikes.

Here are some pics:

Taking a break at a scenic marshy area. For the Native Americans who lived in this area, marshes had spiritual significance, being places where the ocean meets the river. Marshes signified transformation, and I read that people often went there to meditate and pray when things were about to change in their own lives.

Sena, having a little treat at a local cafe.

 Getting the home-made tin can stove ready to cook dinner

My venison stew, made with the deer that was causing crop damage last year, plus our own carrots, potatoes, rutabagas, onions, garlic, and herbs. The wine I added was not ours, but it did bring a nice flavor. Yum!

Sena and Aiyana enjoying some warm milk (not from our own cow yet, unfortunately, but that's another story).

Aiyana sitting on a big boulder which was most likely deposited there during the last ice age.

In the woods;

 Coming to a beautiful pond.

The bikepath, sunny and inviting.

 Aiyana

Could not help myself with the pictures, I thought the path through the woods was so pretty.

 Making some adjustments to Sena's bike and bag.

More to come...

we complain so much about not having enough time, but what do we do with the time we have? mostly waste it.
i'm done with that. i feel something brewing. maybe something big, maybe something un-noticeable from the outside. i don't know how it's going to manifest, but i want to stop living a scripted life. want to shed the fears that keep me from living.

on wednesdays, sena and aiyana have gymnastics and i usually drive them. but today ed wanted to drive, so i found myself with some extra time. i decided to ride my bike around town and do some errands. i forgot how much fun it is to ride my bike. it has been a while... i forgot that feeling of freedom. i feel pretty attached to my bike. it's like an old friend that has seen me through some fun times, and some difficult times. i rode it through asia for 3 months in 2001, on a trip i will never forget. now i rarely ride it, but when i do, it's a pleasure.

tomorrow is the last day of our CSA. we had a good season, and despite some setbacks in june due to rainy cold weather, overall we had good harvests. we had more than enough for everyone in the CSA, and i feel at peace that we provided what members paid for and more. i take the CSA very seriously, especially the fact that people pay us in advance for the season. i want to make sure we deliver what they pay for, even though some important factors are out of my control - weather for example. i used to get very anxious when something went wrong with a crop, but over the past few years, i learned that even if one or two crops suffer, other crops will not. there are usually ways to mitigate setbacks, and the fact that we grow 40 different crops and have flexibility with planting times gives us a lot of resilience. we may have problems with two or three crops, but 40 crops are unlikely to all suffer.

so with the CSA ending, and with plenty of food stored for the winter for our own family, i feel a sense of relief and satisfaction. we still have crops in the field, and we will still sell through out email list, but there's no commitment. we will sell as long as the weather permits and as long as the crops hold up, before the hard frosts come.

to celebrate the end of the season, we are going to cape cod for 3 days. we are camping in a state park, in a yurt. the girls are very excited. the park is connected to a rails-to-trails network, so we are bringing our bikes. we plan to ride and explore the cape and the national seashore. there should be plenty of outdoors things to do. i just hope that the weather holds up.

it feels good to be alive.
peace

we had some strong winds this past week, and many leaves fell to the ground. the trees are more and more bare with each passing day, and the ground is covered by a thick leaf mulch, which will protect the soil over the winter. the geese call from up above, another sign that winter is coming. nature is drawing in for the cold season.

sena and i preserved some herbs for the winter this week. we collected nettles and sage for tea; oregano, thyme and marjoram for seasoning. we put the herbs in paper bags and hung them in the kitchen to dry. we also harvested dill, cilantro and lovage and dried them in the dehydrator. when they were done, we put them in glass jars on the spice rack in the kitchen. they were bright green and looked pretty among the other spices.
the house has been smelling heavenly with all these drying herbs, and twice on thursday i left my work outside and walked in just to enjoy the aroma.

we are homeschooling again, now that fall is here. ed does moslty math and spelling with the girls. he works with them in the afternoon. i work with them in the morning, and we do writing, history and geography, natural sciences, spanish and logic. we don't cover all this every single day, but go through a weekly rotation of subjects according to a schedule we made.
the girls love history and geography the most. aiyana also loves spelling, and she's really good at it. sena loves logic games, and she does them without being asked to. she also really likes fractions.

by teaching sena and aiyana, i am learning a lot myself. like them, i love the history and geography lessons. i remember when i was a child, history was my favorite subject, especially ancient history, but with testing and other kinds of school pressures i slowly lost interest. i always got good grades, but on a personal level, i stopped caring. now, because of sena and aiyana, i've rediscovered my interest and i feel lucky to be able to learn and share with them. it's a great bonding experience.

one thing i love and hope to get them more into is maps. i find it very relaxing, and at the same time exciting to look at maps and find different features, like rivers or mountains, and imagine what a particular place must look like.

all this being said, my number one reason for homeschooling is because i want the kids to be outside. i want them to acquire the deep sensory memories and awareness which only intimacy with nature can give. connection with nature in early childhood is of outstanding importance to me. i found from my own experience that whatever happens life, this is one of the few precious things we can come back to when we need clarity and support.

peace

Columbus Day

columbus, cortez, pizzaro: three europeans, who crossed the ocean driven by curiosity, yes, but mostly by greed and arrogance. they killed the native people through deceit and disease; they enslaved them and disrespected their culture; they stole from them silver and gold, and stole from the earth.
why are we celebrating Columbus day? to me, this day stands only as a reminder that greed, deceit and arrogance have always been important forces in the history of the world.
the only positive aspect i see in Columbus day is a reminder that we need do better. are we doing better?

i feel like the weather has been outstanding lately, every single day.
from the moment i wake up and look outside the window, i feel an urgency to live and take in the day fully.
i like to drink a glass of water as soon as i get up, and then go out and breathe in the fresh fall air. those two things, water and air, so fundamental, so good, but so easy to overlook when the mind is clouded with worries and anxieties. but, i've been lucky to be alert in the morning, at least enough to appreciate this beautiful autumn we're having.