Nighttime Nature Walks

Baby F wanted to come outside while I was taking pics of L with the Giant Silk Moth but refused to get dressed so we had an audience. 🙈 Living out in the country our neighbors are few and far between. We enjoy the privacy but I also enjoy chatting with them when I can. For the most part, they are the friendliest neighbors we have ever had (minus a few but maybe they just need to warm up to us still or hey, they could be introverts like me!). They also look out for us and seem to know our routines, especially when it comes to me and Baby F.

 I talked about our nighttime nature walks over on IG but I don't think I mentioned it here. Every night now, Baby F goes up on me in the Tula babycarrier and we take a nighttime nature walk (you can actually see some of our videos from our nightly walks in my highlights above the pictures here. It is currently the 5th circle from the left). The first half is spent identifying things we see in nature and spotting animal tracks, etc. and then on the way back home I sing him to sleep. I love our special one on one time.

If someone sees a bear anywhere nearby they will drive out of their way to chase me down on my nighttime walk and let me know. I try to be very aware on our walks knowing that we are deep out in the country and bear sightings are very common (in our own yard, too!), not to mention the couple of speeding cars that come barreling down our narrow road. We keep our walks at the same time every night mostly to be consistent with Baby F's bedtime but also to make sure we are not out walking in the dark. Well, last night time got away from me and before I knew it we were leaving for our long walk as the sun was nearly set. By the time I reached our turnaround point it was already pitch black out. Shortly thereafter one of our neighbors drove past. He turned around and came back to us and with a concerned look on his face asked if we needed a ride. I explained to him that I was trying to get Baby F down and thanked him for stopping. He drove ahead, turned around again and asked if he could at least give us a flashlight. We chatted a little and I again thanked him but declined. By that point we were close to our house.

It may have been a small act of kindness but I was so touched by his concern. He reminded me not only of the good that really does exist in this world but of Who provides this good and how some days His love comes through others.

Nighttime Nature Walks

Snippets

Our school year begins Monday and I am still doing last minute preparations so this blog post is just little snippets of our lives the past couple of weeks. I have to thrown in here just how excited I am for this school year. I have been a rather reluctant homeschooler up til now (I am not saying I am head over heels still, but I am getting there). There is something about this year that has me so enthusiastic about schooling. Maybe because it is Little L's first real year, or how much I planned out, or maybe even the crazy strict homeschooling laws here that will keep me in line (somewhat joking there). I don't know, but I am going to embrace it! We'll start our day off with a special back to school surprise breakfast treat - waffles with whipped cream. 😋



Little L has been having fun digging for treasures on the banks of our creek. There is one special place her calls his mine where most of the treasures are found, especially after the flooding. He has quite a stash of old glass bottles from that mine but the ones you see above I just can not get clean. The top photo shows how they were when he dug them up and the bottom one is after I scrubbed them with baking soda, vinegar and thieves soap. I got them mostly clean but as you can see in the one bottle there is something stuck inside. Kevin thinks it might be old hardened stove polish (that is what the bottle once held). Any thoughts on how to get it out?



Made my first ever sauerkraut thanks to a great group of ladies I joined at our local library. It was very Home Fires-esque. I look forward to the next meeting. I was the youngest one there which was a bit funny but eh, that's okay. This is from the group's flyer:  "FULL CIRCLE FUTURE HARVEST is a group of like minded people that meet throughout the year to discuss what WE CAN DO to improve our lives as well as those around us. The programs are presented by the group and community members, including Master Gardeners and healthcare professionals. The group promotes the importance of having healthy soil and growing non-genetically modified seeds to produce nutritious fruits and vegetables, as well as explores the use of functional medicine. Applying these practices to our lives help us attain and maintain a higher quality of life."



Little L's latest creation out of Kevin's old construx - a helicopter. It has already been taken apart and made into a corn combine. He is obsessed with those right now. In September he gets to go visits one of Purple Grandma's friends and ride in one as he harvest the corn. That will be quite the big day for him.



There is a big possibility one of our chickens might be a rooster. This is Egger, one of Little L's chickens. We are a bit nervous about the outcome of this if Egger really is a rooster. Thankfully we live out in the country where we are zoned for roosters so either way we won't have to find him a new home. Phew!!

Snippets

Continuation?

I suppose this post is somewhat of a continuation of my last summer post. I am just loving this place where we live. Although the flooding we had last week wasn't exactly the most fun I have ever had. 😬 Our normally docile creek took over a lot of our land (I shared a video of it in my stories on Instagram), including flooding our basement waist deep, as well as completely flooding many of our neighbors' land and homes. It also knocked the power out and closed all the roads around us. At least we were warned before we even moved in to never store anything in the basement. I am so glad we listened to that warning. The rain has been gone for about three days now and things are drying up. However, as of right now our forecast says rain every day from Monday until August eleventh. 🙏

As I am sure you can imagine, 61 acres calls for something with a bit more power than a push mower. Granted some of the acreage is hay fields and some of it forest but there is still quite a bit leftover for us to mow on a regular basis. A riding lawnmower to the rescue. The boys watched in awe when it was delivered to our home (Baby F watched with some crazy, crazy bedhead going on). I don't know who was most excited about it's arrival - the boys,K, or Kevin. K got the honor of being the head lawnmower. A job she is thrilled to have. I think in her mind she is imagining she is driving a car as she mows. Hey, I wouldn't blame her. It is great practice for when she learns to drive - something that is not too far in the future!

I shared one of the above photos of Baby F's playspace on Instagram but forgot to share it here. You see those feathers on top of his teepee? Those were found on our land and thanks to our new favorite nature find book Bird Feathers* we discovered they are wild turkey feathers. Those photos are a bit old now. They were from when we first moved in and I hastily threw it all together (hence the wrinkled teepee). Things are a bit different now. I will have to get some photos this week to share with you. It feels so good to have space for play again.


p.s. - Our wooden trapeze bar/swing is from Wiwiurka  and Baby F's playhouse can be found here.*

*Affiliate link.

Continuation?

Our First Friday Rhythm (and Fourth of July)

Those curls! Swoon
Found these images on my camera. Looks like K was playing around when I went to get the watermelon wands:

This year's Fourth of July celebration may have been our best yet (although I don't know that I will ever be able to top the first year). I think spending all day with the chickens helped (and watching them eat watermelon). It was simple and low key as always with plenty of room for play. Each year we basically spend the entire day outside and the kids get to stay up way past their bedtimes to watch fireworks and roast vegan marshmallows over the fire. I always look forward to this day. Time spent as a family with no computers, no phones and no distractions I think we need to have more summer days/nights like this.

I have been playing with the idea of getting a projector so we can watch movies outside in the evenings under the stars. While we still do not do very much screen time, we started a tradition of having a movie night on the first Friday of each month. Don't tell anyone but we even eat some junky food like pizza and ice cream for that one day a month. *gasp* We call it First Friday Family Fun Movie Night.  A good long name to bring about giggles among the children trying to say it. So far the Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Narnia and some Shirley Temple movies have been enjoyed. It is so hard to find wholesome family movies now - we really struggle with just finding one good one a month! Any suggestions?

Our First Friday Rhythm (and Fourth of July)