Celebrating life!

Alida sacked out while nursing, so a nappy walk was unnecessary (even if I was looking forward to it).  Instead, I'm trying to complete a few tasks that require screen time (tasks that I put off partly because I'm tired of being in front of a computer after my days at work and because they are nearly impossible to do with Alida's little fingers anywhere nearby).  I just taught Kali how to balance a checkbook since she is now the proud owner of her very own checking account (which she hopes to use to deposit duck egg money and purchase duck feed, if she can find anyone that wishes to purchase duck eggs from her).   Now she is off to harvest the last of her popcorn, since cutting down the corn stalks to dry is on the list for today.  You may wonder why we are drying corn stalks - after chopping them up in the chipper they should make great cover material for the composting toilets.  Yes, we are still pretty excited about that system!

Before diving into my computer "tasks" I did a quick peruse on facebook and got well educated on the shut down of our federal government.  Thinking about that and some of the people near and dear to me who are undergoing very difficult times, it's hard to write a post that focuses on the joy and celebration that has been part of recent days for us.  It seems that life is almost always a complex mixture of joys and sorrows, celebrating and grieving, life and death.  As we were sitting around the fire on my birthday evening, Jason and I were asked to share some of the highlights of our year.  My mind went blank initially and even upon further reflection very few major things came to mind - the kinds of things one might expect to share as highlights.  Instead what flooded my mind were all the simple joys that are part of our everyday life here on Fruit Farm Lane.  I could list hundreds but here are just a sampling since I last posted:

Canning many quarts of applesauce on our porch!

Digging sweet potatoes with both girls and making rolls with the vines.

Grinding our home grown corn and using that cornmeal in pizza dough

The dough was also enhanced with lots of pureed stinging nettles and our chicken eggs then topped with various kinds of pesto, homemade sauce chock full of Tangly Woods produce, kale and zucchini from friends and neighbors...

Watching the girls cuddled up reading together and hearing Kali try to teach Alida to read.

It's the simple pleasures that stem from the cycles and seasons of our life here that create a sense of being overwhelmed by the abundance all around me - the abundance of food, the abundance of cuteness, the abundance of friendships and meaningful interactions with those who live with and near us, the abundance of beauty... 

I love that each season brings different things that we anticipate and look forward to. And since each new season brings new things to enjoy, it's hard to feel very sad about the ending of the previous one - and sometimes it's downright easy to celebrate.  I ate our very last fresh tomato today with absolutely no feelings of regret as I chopped up the vines in an effort to get a start on the fall garden cleanup.  On may way to the garden I popped a ripe sweet persimmon into my mouth - one season ending, another just getting started! 

The cool mornings and evenings bring a sense of anticipation for the first fire in the woodstove, but it would be a little ridiculous to do one just yet!  We have taken advantage of some cool evenings to enjoy building fires in our outdoor fire ring.  Family and Tangly Woods' folks joined us on my birthday evening for pizza pockets over the fire.  I never get tired of that meal - and am always full before I wish to be.  The following evening, Jason and his birthday party attendees (about a dozen men!) enjoyed eating supper around the fire - which was sandwiched in between starting to dig our "pond" and several hours of serious ping pong playing!

 So September has come and gone and October is upon us.  The large batch of green tomato salsa cooling in the fridge will give me reason to be creative with making meals in the near future that are enhanced by salsa!  The canning shelves are full, the freezers are requiring increased creativity to fit more into and the root cellar is filling with squashes, potatoes, and onions.  I'm hoping that the lessening of food processing and preservation will not only open up more spaces for family walks or game playing or reading stories, but also tackling some of the piles of various things that have accumulated around the house during the intense season of planting, weeding, harvesting and putting up for the winter.  We'll see if our girls are as excited about house cleaning and organizing as they are gardening together.  I won't blame them if they aren't...