Our Weekend Adventure

First off, I have to share a picture of Matthew in his latest look. The kids found this hat for Matt on our trip home from Virginia. They all agreed that this hat was definitely a 'Matthew hat'. Matthew must agree because he's never far from his new hat. As many of you know, this past weekend held a new adventure for Wayne and I. We've both been very busy making items to display and sell at a booth at our local farmers' market, fall festival. Here are some of Wayne's latest creations...

Saturday morning we loaded up our handcrafts and set up the booth on the community field in the center of the village. As the morning progressed the threatening gray clouds gave way to beautiful sunny, autumn weather. We weren't sure how many people would come out for the 'first annual fall celebration', but there were LOTS of people even with the competition of four other local festivals and sporting events.

We had lots of people stop by and discuss our work. Many people took business cards. I received orders for alpaca socks and Wayne has people interested in ordering items for Christmas. We also learned that the group that organized the event plan on renting a storefront during November and December for local artisans to display and sell their crafts. This same group is hoping to rent a 'permanent' storefront shop on Main Street in the spring where the artisans/vendors can take turns tending the store during operating hours. We didn't sell much at this market, but we made lots of contacts and it was a good experience.

One of the best parts of the day was being able to sit back and do what I love to do without feeling guilty about not doing housework or other 'urgent' duties. What made the day extra special was having young children stop and watch with wonder as the 'fluff' became yarn before their eyes. They wanted to know how that happened. A couple of young ladies didn't hesitate to climb up on my lap to 'help'. This little girl is the daughter of the man that cuts our hay. We had just met and she couldn't wait to try her hand at spinning. After a few moments of guided spinning, she had a wonderful time of keeping the pedal moving. Who knows, maybe these little girls will be the ones to keep the spinning tradition going for the next generation

Jonathan's Butterfly

Several days ago we watched Jonathan's monarch chrysallis hatch and the butterfly emerge. What an amazing miracle! Jonathan was so excited and kept saying, "Happy birthday, monarch!" As it was trying to spread it's new wings, I noticed that there wasn't enough room between the milkweed leaf and the side of the jar. I gently reached in to shift the leaf and the butterfly started crawling up my arm. Before I knew it the butterfly had climbed up my arm and was making its way across my back. We were finally able to get it transferred to some flowers in a vase where it rested until ready to fly. The next morning we put it on the back porch and 'somehow' the butterfly made its way out into the big beautiful autumn world and has been flying around the back yard.

A few days later, Jonathan came into the house excitedly carrying his newest caterpillar to go into the 'bug jug'. He's faithfully collecting fresh milkweed leaves for it to munch on so it'll become fat and turn into a chrysallis. I guess Jonathan plans on farming butterflies!

Our September School Trip

Several months ago we learned of an opportunity to visit Colonial Williamsburg during a special "Home Schoolers Event" in which the admission prices were drastically reduced for home educators. Wayne encouraged me to sign Marc, Rachael, Katelyn, and myself up for the program. Through the efforts of the children saving their earnings from jobs and birthdays and early Christmas gifts from a friend, we were able to head for Virginia last Friday.

We had an added blessing of being able to spend Friday afternoon and evening with our friends Bill and Barb in Maryland. We were neighbors when we lived on Andrews AFB oh so many years ago, so it's always a treat to see each other. They have a great B&B!

The 2 little guys stayed home with Dad for the weekend. They had a good time with lots of picnics in the kitchen and kept Dad from getting bored.

Now, for some reason my "Williamsburg!!" blog will not load up just below this entry. In order to 'view' our trip in chronological order, you have to click onto the "Williamsburg!!" title on the right under the 'Home' section. After that you can come back to the regular blog entries and read on about Jamestown.

Jamestown

Sunday afternoon the rain let up and we headed to Jamestown. There we toured the site of the first English colony in America.

Our history curriculum covers Jamestown over the next couple of weeks. I think the kids will have a much better appreciation of what the people endured after our visit here.

There were glass blowers performing their craft. It's amazing to watch.

After Jamestown we went on to Yorktown. We watched the orientation video and then drove around the battlefields a bit. The rain returned so we decided it was time to head back to the hotel and find a restaurant.

Pit Stop on the Way Home

The kids decided that they would like to stop at Mt. Vernon on our way home so we packed up the car, grabbed our complimentary breakfast and headed north by 7:20 a.m.

Here the kids have their picture taken with the Washington family...There were no lines to get into the mansion, which was a very nice surprise. It was a beautiful day to tour the plantation.

We spent about three hours at Mt. Vernon and decided it was time to head north to home. As we walked to the car we met up with an unexpected surprise...

A 'walking stick' was making its way across the sidewalk. We watched it for a few moments and then piled in the car for the 5 1/2 hour drive home.

What a great trip!

Busy Days

The past few weeks have been busy getting in veggies from the garden, tidying up flower beds that have gone to seed, and preparing for the cooler days of fall.

The boy goats have grown to the point where they needed to be separated from the girls. The boys are not happy with this move and make a point of telling the whole neighborhood that fact. At night we have to shut them in so they will quiet down. Since the shelter in their pasture didn't have a door on it, Marc would move them to the alpaca barn and shut them in since the alpacas typically spend the warm evenings outside. Here's a picture of their first move to the alpaca barn...
And here are the alpacas wondering why these strange creatures are in their barn...
Today Wayne and Marc built a new 'buck bunkhouse' that we can shut the boys in at night. The alpacas are happy to have their barn back to themselves.

The other day Wayne was helping me clean the dust off the coils of the refrigerator. Ian wanted to help put things back together. Right after this picture was taken he handed Wayne the screwdriver and said, "Here you go, I've done enough."

Here is what I've been up to in my 'free time' over the past week ...
The yarn is all handspun alpaca, the knit neckwarmer and fingerless gloves are from handspun wool I spun from roving purchased at Rhinebeck a last year, and the goat milk soap is curing for the farmers market/craft sale on the 25th. I'm working on a earwarmer this week and have spun 2 more skeins of alpaca. Before I know it the 25th will be here so I need to keep spinning and knitting.

Mysteries of Nature

We have a mystery plant that I'm hoping one of our readers will be able to identify...

This came along with a transplant of some thyme I got from my parents' garden when I visited Maine. They don't know the name of the plant either. The blossoms look like a big star before opening.

Jonathan LOVES butterflies and we had a wonderful discovery the other day while walking in our field...a Monarch caterpillar!

We brought the caterpillar and it's milk weed and put it in Jon's 'bug jug'. Two days later we witnessed the caterpillar changing into a chrysallis.

It was amazing to watch. The caterpillar cooperated by performing this miracle before our eyes while the boys were doing their lessons at the dining room table. We called everyone to the room and we watched the process. Now we're counting down the 12 days for it to hatch into a new butterfly. (The due date is September 13th)

Here is Jonathan pointing out his new 'pet'