I'll touch on just a few of the themes of late: blueberries, water, weeding, harvesting and, the constant around here, entertaining kiddos!
Blueberries: the season is here in all its glory! As mentioned before, Kali is on the picking crew again this year and so I'll actually have to wake her in about an hour (around 7) so she can get to her job at 8. She's really enjoying it and steadily improving on speed. The quality of her picking was top notch from day one, so speed is really her main area for improvement. She is so good at sticking to something and if she sticks with picking blueberries she'll be a really valuable crew member in a few years. As it is, I'm really enjoying when she gets to help pick for us now as she contributes considerably to our freezer stash! I've enjoyed three nice stints in the patch and hope for a bunch more in the coming days. The bags of blue in our freezer are slowing stacking up!!
Water: we have now had two non rainy days in a row (though yesterday it did spritz on us a bit and the day before there were a few thunderheads forming which miraculously didn't turn into anything - Alida was inside when she saw the clouds and got worried that all the rest of us outside would get stuck in the shed during the storm without her. I found myself tempted to tell her that that was not going to happen and she was silly for worrying and then remembered that just the day before Jason had in fact gotten stuck in the shed for quite some time when a storm cropped up quickly with lightening close enough to strike the hill behind us!)
The pattern has seemed to be some combination of clouds and sun for the first part of the day and then when I'm getting Terah down for her afternoon nap the sky starts to darken, clouds roll in and then dump. It's been incredible, really! It has felt like we now have a rainy season of sorts and after so many days like this and knowing our garlic patch smells like a swamp, I've had this deep desire to find the "plug" for the sky! No such luck!! And some plants are actually doing great with the extra/excess moisture. Our basil looks fabulous currently, the peas did better than they have in years, and if we get cucumbers for each flower in the patch right now we'll be swimming in them. I also feel grateful for a dry house and no destructive flooding! That said, the peppers and tomatoes would really enjoy some heat and sun. And it looks like that is coming our way with 90's in the 10-day forecast! I'll be longing for 60's and clouds here before too long I'm sure!
We have enjoyed two recent swimming stints at a friend's pool - once as a family for our June family night planned by Alida and once last evening when the girls and I stopped in for a dip while in town doing errands. Kali is becoming a real fish! For a child who has never had a formal swimming lesson, she is quite the swimmer (I guess I should stop being surprised at things like this: she is now able to play two handed piano tunes...). Alida wants to learn to swim but won't try most of the things we suggest just yet. Terah is a force to be reckoned with in the water. Last night she was in a large inner tube and wanted me to let her float away from me. She is NOT safe without very close supervision and unfortunately she is no longer interested in the very safe floaty boat we were generously given by family when we were up in PA (she loved it the first time around and then I guess it was old hat and she wanted the novelty of big people things or no floating devices at all...). I imagine she has the potential of being an early swimmer. I know these short stints in the water have made all the girls eager for our upcoming week in Cape Charles!
Harvesting: We are now in the time of year when we have to put "harvest day" on the calendar for every other day. We are still in the thick of berry season, and the first wineberries are starting to open! We have made a few batches of jam: blueberry rhubarb, gooseberry and currant to date. We just pulled our hull peas but are still enjoying sugar snaps and a few snow peas. AND cucumbers have started and we have double the area planted in them this year and it looks like we'll be able to stock up on pickles!!! Beets are ready to harvest any time so beet chick pea patties with dill cucumber sauce will make it on the menu shortly. Jason recently harvested barley and got it out of the weather yesterday (only some had sprouted due to all the rains).
Yesterday we finally decided it was time to cut our losses and harvest the garlic (and we pulled the potato onions at the same time). Our garlic patch clearly suffered the worst through all the rains and we knew it was not going to be pretty. It was definitely not our most enjoyable garlic harvest - due to the swamp smell and the mud and the rotting garlic bulbs. Note the picture below: garlic without roots is NOT a good sign. That said, there was also some really nice bulbs in there so not all was lost. Jason has been inspiring me to always try to notice what is going well so as we pulled the garlic, I celebrated the beautiful bulbs and also the sweet potatoes and pepper plants we added to that rotation this year. We will get multiple crops out of that field... Just for comparison, last year we harvested about 10 bushels of garlic and this year we were shy of 4 and a portion of that may be a complete loss. BUT there will hopefully be enough for pickle making, salsa/pasta sauce and seed for next year. Maybe more. Time will tell how it holds up...
The one other kind of recent harvesting was a small chicken butchering we did together the other day. A friend was interested in some stewing birds and Jason had a handful of roosters that he was done breeding. I've been trying really hard to do a lot of my inside cleaning/cooking/food preservation stuff while Jason is doing morning chores so that I can join in the outside farm/garden work for a good stint before lunch and then putting on my office work hat during Terah's afternoon nap. It's been lovely when the stars align and it works out. It did the other day for me to join in butchering. I will admit that there have been many a butchering day where, if I'm honest, I'm not at all disappointed that my task list keeps me from helping. I am "happier" cooking for those butchering or watching kids or doing any number of other things. Who "likes" to feel uncomfortable? Who enjoys a job that comes with an underlying feeling of being nauseous most of the time? And I have a pretty strong suspicion that doing it more often would not change the discomfort or nausea, and that's ok with me. It's something I want to get good at (or I'll start with aiming for "ok") living with. I feel a deep gratitude for the ways these animals participate in and contribute to our homestead. It's not easy to kill them. 
The notable thing about this butchering was that Kali was engaged in her duck chores and Terah and Alida were around playing on the concrete pad and watching. I was so impressed with Alida. She was the most incredible mentor and big sister ever. I was in the thick of it plucking feathers and so Alida was "Terah's person." Terah was not so sure about the whole thing. She's been around it before but my sense is she is just getting old enough now to kind of "get it." She was saying things like, "that rooster won't crow anymore" or "it doesn't feel anything now..." She would get curious and want to come over and watch and then be a bit hesitant or unsure. Alida was SO sweet. She would say to Terah, "You aren't so sure about it? Should we take a little walk?" and off they would go for a spin around the driveway until Terah's curiosity got the best of her and she wanted to come back for another look and time of questions and comments. Alida helped her so much to take it in at her own pace and in her own ways, interspersing some tricycle riding in there and all. By the end, Terah's nose was right in it and she was very interested in exploring the different colors of chicken feet!
Cute kiddos: I saved the best section for last! Where to start?
Let's start with a video, in case you are getting tired of text. A week ago we enjoyed a lovely visit from my sister and the girls just soaked up the time with their aunt (we are looking forward to a repeat today!!). Terah is really into "reading" and many times when we sit down to read stories at nap or bedtime, she'll pipe up, "I can read that one." I never turn her down as it is pretty cute to hear her recite the stories from memory OR I'm often so sleepy that I catch a wink or two while she is "reading." She read most of The Interrupting Chicken here. It's even better if you know the book, as it's likely you won't understand all of what she is saying but she's pretty close to right on for a lot of it!
While on Terah, the other day she was playing with this little basket and for some reason got it into her head that she was a "capstone" when in it/wearing it like this:
This cracks me up because when Kali was about two, I heard her one day "reading" to herself and talking about "theories." It was at that point that I realized I had probably been taking her to a few too many of our graduate students' final capstone presentations. Terah, on the other hand, has never been to one since she is not the placid child Kali was. :) BUT she sometimes enjoys leftover snacks from capstones and hears me talking about preparing for them. So above is her variation of a capstone, never having experienced one in person!
All our kids are enjoying berry season and our white raspberries are so big this year that they can be lovely caps on one's fingers:
After the first "sisters' cooking night" was a smashing success, they suggested and planned another one. I should say the younger girls wanted to do it again. Kali was willing, as she is so flexible and patient, but this time I was home to watch it unfold. And credit must be given where credit is due: our eldest should get a few stars in her crown each time she agrees to one of these! There is a lot of enthusiasm at the beginning and then the younger two get bored or only want to do the fun things or head off leaving Kali to it alone or fight over who gets to do what tasks. She handles it remarkably well, but I do have a new perspective the next time this comes to a family meeting! We did enjoy a delicious spaghetti squash meal and then the squash halves made excellent boats. There was a fun little adventure to the stream to float them!
The other evening we enjoyed a lovely visit from relatives that live about 45 minutes or so from us. We all love getting together with them. Family members who are sweet, kind, fun, interesting, and enjoyable to be with - who could ask for more! The most touching part of the evening was seeing Terah become fast friends with my great aunt (who I adore!). They were so sweet together playing and reading stories. I went over at one point to take a few pictures and my aunt noted to me that she was the only one having a certain "problem." She said that as she was playing with Terah she felt like she was playing with Sarah Ellen (my mom). How cute that playing with Terah reminded her of 70 or so years ago when she would have played with Mom as a little girl. I love that!The most entertaining part of the evening, besides learning the new card game Exploding Kittens, was Alida's silent auction. So clearly the Mininger Reunion silent auction now two years ago was a memorable experience for her. I had no idea but she told me the other day that she still remembered her bidding number: 11. And she has been very interested in earning money, in general and in particular for the girls treehouse fund they are working on with friends. So she cooked up the idea to hold a silent auction and what better group to do it with than our Mininger relatives coming to visit, who also happen to be joining me and Mom as the planning committee for next year's reunion. Perfect! Alida often cooks up grand ideas and sometimes struggles with the follow through. Not so on this one. She did need some reminders to "stay on task" if she wanted to have it ready in time, but spent most of the day preparing.
She made some new things, chose to auction off some previously made items and spent hours preparing bid numbers, bid sheets, and other signage. In the end she had a dozen items to auction off from note cards to a flower bouquet to pottery to hot pads to pictures to finger knitting AND my was she excited. This was just her thing!! And it was a smashing success. She ended up earning nearly $20 for their treehouse fund, which far exceeded her expectations. I have enjoyed using my hot pad already, and I've already used my two tree/bird cards!
I'll close with one more cute Terah story and then our most recent unfortunate car experience, that ends well, and then I need to get Kali out the door!!
Last week at a meal where our meal time blessing card was for us to each share one thing we were grateful for Terah said, "I'm thankful for the food and Mommy sitting down." I burst out laughing. I don't know how deeply she thought about that, but I think probably her experience of me is of me bustling way more than sitting! It was a good reminder to take moments to sit together, as much as she also seems to thoroughly enjoy being my side kick for a good bustling stint!
And now the car: this will hopefully not be any kind of recurring theme in our lives! On Monday I headed out the door (much to Terah's displeasure) for a work goodbye lunch for a colleague. I was leaving just a few minutes after I wanted to and so as I backed up and noted a gasoline smell, I attempted to talk myself out of being worried about it. I am super sensitive to car smells and always fear the worst. I tried to reassure myself that it was probably nothing and would dissipate. This time my worry was warranted! As I headed towards Keezletown, the gas smell increased tenfold! After about a mile there was no denying that something was amiss. I pulled over and stepped out to see gas spraying out of the underside of the car. Not good! Here I am late for my luncheon, a mile from home with no cell phone and a clearly malfunctioning car.
I made a quick decision, which looking back was probably unwise, to go another 1/4 mile to a friend's home. I pulled into their driveway, turned off the car and jumped out as quickly as I could. I'm sure I looked crazy to their dad who happened to be in the driveway when I pulled in. I was very shaken by the whole thing and my stomach was just churning, wondering if the car could have exploded or caught fire. I ended up borrowing the friend's car and arrived at the luncheon only fashionably late and considerably rattled. I can't say I enjoyed my lunch all that much...
Long story short: lots of phone calls, got the car towed to our mechanic, learned there were two holes in a gas line, will be $170 poorer, the car could have caught fire if there had been a spark, we are relying on the graciousness of three people to loan us cars until we get ours back on Thursday, I'm fine and the car will be fine, I'm so glad it didn't happen with the girls in the car with me or when Jason was on his way to WV, and I really hope the critters that were likely the culprits go enjoy some berries or nuts and leave the underside of our car alone. Can we really not design cars to prevent this? This experience has been a tad like me breaking my cell phone - it drives me crazy how much our lives rely on a working vehicle! But, no, we have not decided to give up our car...yet! Now back to cheesemaking I go...
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