All in a Muddle

When I was a kid we lived near the beach. My Grandmere and Grandpere lived a block from the beach. So we swam and swam, played in the sand, and then we ran back to their house and were STOPPED in the yard so we could get hosed off before a proper shower.

There was giggling, wiggling, showering, and then usually something cold to drink. Fresca was popular at the time.

Today my little family lives nowhere near the beach, but the kids make do as kids always have. Summer water fun is far away, but near to home we have the winter wonderland of the pasture outside our door.

And the first storm of the year brings the mud. Do we have mud! Oceans of mud. Piles and piles of mud in puddles; and since we have kids we have kids in puddles.

Now of course you can't just splash a bit, you have to splash a long while. This is not nearly as much fun to do alone as with your sister or brother. Certainly mud applications involve far more than just the boots and clothing. Hair is a fine target, and as indigenous populations around the world will attest, skin applications are of primary importance. Urgent in fact. Opportunity to bond with one's fellow mud lingerers should not be passed by.

When we lived in more temperate climes, we used to have the kids construct mud puddles with a shovel and a hose. The front yard was fine with us, just build a bridge so mom and dad don't fall in. The neighbors were aghast. Perfect lawns and all.

Perhaps the reason I really found Robin to be my soul mate was her reaction to the mud puddle Aliana had made. She didn't shriek or scream about the hole in the yard...she just asked Aliana which plastic animals were best suited to the swamp. I believe hippos were chosen. Well done.

Now we have two little ones again, and while we can't really excavate around here, neither do we have to. Mud abounds. Winter has taken over for summer, the mountains for the beach and the more things are different the more they seem to be the same...

And then there is the hose, the squealing, the dancing around ...and something nice to drink. We'll skip the Fresca though. Being a cold wet day I think we'll go with some hot spiced milk. Cinnamon sounds just about right.

Harvest and Hunker Down

Home school, stay at home, home bound, home round, home hound, home rule, home on the range.

We're in the last little bubble of warm weather here in Calaveras County, trying to get our minds around the notion of long-johns and wood burning stoves. While all this is looming, the day is quite warm and sunny and everyone is still in shorts and sandals.

We did however, have our first good frost, and the local wisdom is that good hard cold is coming soon. We've got out the long coats, I'm having to put away my summer suits (wedding season is later here but is also winding to a close...hooray for holiday family portraits!) and get out the mud boots.

Robin's got the kids' loft in great shape, and our room and the rest of the house are finally in a state where she's happy and comfortable. This is pretty important as our place is small and during winter it's where we spend our time.

This time of year is a bit odd, as there's still quite a bit of food left in the garden, but we know it'll all die soon if we don't bring it in. Our tomatoes were fantastic this year, and my Bulgarian Carrots (very hot orange peppers) were magnificent. So we had salsa of course. Corn was not so great and the kids had fantastic luck with the squash and pumpkins. We grew a few odd varieties and a couple that were just fun because they get so huge.

I had a great conflict about the bees this year. I had hoped to harvest some honey, and this year was going to be the first when we'd have enough. But I decided that I'd let the bees keep their honey another year. We've only got the one hive and I really really want the colony to get well established here.

I'm not sure harvesting would hurt. I'm actually pretty sure it's totally benign. But something just felt right about letting the girls have their feast. Our orchard is coming along nicely, despite the deer visits from time to time. Between our bee colony and our irrigation system it's thriving, so giving back the honey just seems proper.

Next year, there'll be jars and jars.