Request

Hi! If you are my friend or my family member and you are reading this, would you please send me an e-mail at my windstream address? I lost my e-mail address book, and I would like to have you all back! Thank you.
Much love from Dare

Snowstorm of the Week

It took a long time for winter to get started this year, but I think it's safe to say that it is definitely here now. Here is a picture from yesterday, when we were having the second big snowstorm in two weeks. (The picture is taken from the living room window. That is the road there, in between the guard rails.) This one was supposed to be bigger than last week's, but it has turned out to be a less-snow, more-wind-and-cold type of storm. They say we may get another storm next week. I'll take a white Christmas, but I hope the planes will be landing in Pittsburgh on Tuesday!

Painting

Here are Katie and Amanda, painting pictures in the kitchen.

Wedding Day

Saturday was Jeremy and Jill's wedding. We were very excited about it all, and very happy for J and J. David was the ring bearer, and did an excellent job of walking s-l-o-w-l-y up the aisle (only forgetting to pause for the photographer, but nobody's perfect, right?) and not dropping the rings. Benjamin and Rachel handed out programs, and got to wear a boutoniere and corsage. While the bridal party posed for pictures after the ceremony, the guests all had Christmas cookies and milk in the fellowship hall. After the briday party was announced, there was dancing and square dancing and dinner! It was a wonderful celebration of a wonderful event.

Jeremy and Jill

Jeremy and Jill with many of the kids who attended the wedding

David in his tux

Amanda, Katie and Rachel all dressed up and ready to go

First Snow: November 6, 2010

It wasn't much and it didn't last, but they had fun. The first snow of the season! And hot cocoa at breakfast! They have to wait for the first snow before they get hot cocoa.


Poor Leah had to stay inside the house.

Sunday Walk: Oct. 24, 2010

Rachel climbed all the way out on this cherry tree downed over the creek. She got out so far she was perched about 25 feet above the rocky creek bed. I pretended to be cool and coached her backwards until she could get down. Afterwards, I could hardly get my heart to stop pounding! I try to live by the old ad saying, "Never let 'em see ya sweat!" but it isn't always easy.


We told Katie to watch her step in the cow pasture, but I guess she forgot...



Three little monkeys.




Benjamin the brave, standing by his fort.

Leah Turns One

Leah turned one on October 21. I know everybody says the same thing, but it is so hard to believe a year has passed already. It makes me a little sad, but we were happy at her party. Grandpa and Myma were there, Brian and Dee, Jeremy, and all of us, of course. Even Uncle John and Aunt Ruth came and visited early, before their chore time, to wish Leah a happy birthday. We were babysitting a little friend that night, too, so Leah got a chance to share her cake with someone almost her own age!

Sunday Hot Dog Roast

We had a hot dog roast today with extended family. Much fun was had, even though it was chilly and misted almost to the point of rain while we were getting started cooking hot dogs. The wind ended up blowing the clouds away, though, and we had a very nice time.

Officer Marshmallow, Guardian of the Fire
(they have these new campfire marshmallows in the grocery store now: WOW!)



Baby Princess with a pink marshmallow on her s'more



Court Jester

An intruder is spotted: a fledgling bird (with a very emotional and vocal mother in the branches above).

Even birdie gets a snack, but we didn't fry his worms.

Something Unusual

We have a lot of groundhogs around here. There is a particularly fat and audacious one who lives richly on my garden produce when it is in season. Right now, though, it is baby groundhog season. Our neighbors caught a couple yesterday, and brought them over for us to see. I guess they were cute, but I could not say that I like them, babies or not. (By the way, I don't think it was very smart to catch them. Baby groundhogs are aggressive and amazingly powerful.) But all in all, it was pretty interesting.

Leah Learns a New Trick, and Mommy Gets a Surprise

Leah Carole has learned to sit up, and we are so proud we had to put her picture on the blog!

I got a surprise the other day when I went into the bathroom. I am used to surprises of the unflushed variety, as well as the wet-towel type of surprise, as well as the loose-toothpaste-cannon surprise. This was the first time, though, that I have ever surprised a dinosaur in the middle of his bath.

Baby Chicks and a Funny Story

This spring we took the plunge and ordered twenty Barred Plymouth Rock chicks. Our friend Alice ordered them for us along with her own, and when they arrived she drove them over to us. The kids had been anticipating the chicks' arrival for weeks, and were very excited when Alice drove up. Alice, being a generous person, had brought us some eggs from her existing flock when she brought the baby chicks. The kids were running to greet her, eager to see the new babies, when Alice stepped out of her truck holding...two cartons of eggs. Their faces wereso funny! Eggs? This was not what they had been expecting! But the carton of chicks was soon to follow, and, much to their relief and excitement, the adventure began.

Here are some of our chicks (the dark ones), plus 25 meat birds from the same order that we were keeping for another neighbor for that first day. The yellow ones are very cute, but we like our Barred Rocks.

Here they are after some time has passed, pretty feathers growing in.

This chick is a good sport.

This is what the chicks looked like yesterday, all ensconced in their new chicken house in the back yard. One chick died. Out of the 19 remaining, six seem to be hens. I was hoping for 10 hens, but we will take what we get. I hope to have one of the Amish families around help me with preparing the cockerels for their future usefulness in a couple of months. We think we would like to keep one rooster, but we will see about that! Any advice, chicken-meisters?

Spring in the Pasture

One job that comes around every spring is to walk or drive the pasture fences to find areas that need repair. It is nice to have the kids along on these errands. They have been cooped up all winter, and then the sun comes out, the grass turns green, the breezes blow, and kids just celebrate! This was such a cool, crunchy green day in May.

Go-Daddy and Goo-Mommy on the Farm

The cows knew that something was up.

When Goo-Mommy fed the calf, though, their fears were assuaged.

Change that cap to a FeedMaster, and they'd fit in perfectly!

No farm adventure is complete without a little target shooting.

Old Dead-Eye

We got some grandparents on the farm! Even though my parents would probably agree that they are not really "into" milking cows, I think they had a good time on the farm.

Maple Syrup

Late February, early March:

I did not get as many pictures of the process as I wanted to, but our neighbors, the Williams family, tapped our trees for syrup again this year. It is a really fascinating process they use to turn maple sap into syrup. We all enjoyed tromping through the snow to empty the buckets from taps around the yard. We dumped them into a big drum, and Mr. Williams would come when the drum started to get full, and pump it into a tank on his pickup. (They have about a bazillion taps. The ones around our yard are really nothing, but we felt like we were helping!) After he took it home, they boiled the syrup. I guess you will have to wait until next year for pictures of that! We all thought (and Amanda was particularly hoping) that the sap would taste at least a little bit like maple syrup, but alas...it's pretty much just water with imagination.

Katie's Making Bagels!

When you are a displaced New Yorker, sometimes you must take matters into your own hands. (The kitchen is gutted right now, as you can see in the background.)

Preparing the dough

Letting the shaped dough proof.

Boiling the bagels.

Good enough to eat! (Even if the focus is off.)

Want a bite?

Baby-San

I found this really cool pattern for kimonos on the internet. (Thank you for sharing, Amy Finlayson!) This is a test run, with some pants from another pattern. We think Leah Carole looks very nice in her Japanese getup.

February Cookout

Benjamin had been collecting the funny pages out of the Meadville Tribune for almost two years. The collection was threatening to overrun the boys' closet and take over their bedroom, there to stage a complete upper story takeover within months. David and I convinced him to get rid of the comics, only by offering to let him burn them in a fire outside. Benjamin, never one to miss an opportunity to press his advantage, agreed to this ONLY IF the fire were accessorized by hot dogs and marshmallows. Knowing when to take an opportunity and run with it, I went right out and got the junk food that day. We ended up cooking the hot dogs on the stove, but there was just enough heat to partially cook the marshmallows. I am glad we did not need this fire for survival!