Saturday, November 17, 2018

Soccer's over, leaves have fallen, and our first snow and ice!

Cold weather has arrived! I'm typing this having now thawed from this evening's soccer game and in the front room near the woodstove! This week we had our first ice/snow/sleet, which didn't amount to much but enough to make the outdoors a winter wonderland and to take out our power for over 24 hours. It was not a planned vacation day, but it was amazing how the loss of electricity slowed down life considerably (and I kind of enjoyed it). Yes I was eager for the water to come back on so I could wash a day's accumulation of dishes. But I was dismayed by how within a moment of the power coming back on, I felt anxious and a flood of all the things I could (and should) now do. It reminded me a bit of dropping my cell phone and deciding not to replace it. No, we are not giving up electricity...yet. BUT it was a shocking reminder to me again how much we rely on it and how much it controls our lives. I don't like that! I did enjoy heating lunch on the woodstove and making buttermilk cheese there as well!

The power outage also made for a memorable first sleepover for ALL of our gals at Emily, Jonas and Ivy's home. The older girls had multiple times in the past, but this was Terah's first time and she was excited! I hoped the power outage would not be unnerving for her especially, and some texted photos of them making shadow puppets and Terah with her little headlamp on helped me fully relax knowing they were having a grand time. We enjoyed a rare evening with my parents (with the ability to finish our sentences without interruption) and savored sleeping side by side without our littlest in between us. That said, I was excited to be reunited with them the next morning!
We got one day of leaf raking in before the winter weather. We hope to get back to it, maybe as soon as tomorrow. Jason and I are still nursing sore backs and so we were both trying to be careful with our leaf loads. It was about as fun as we remembered it! The only part of the morning that was unsettling for me was when I raked up a bunch and heard some kind of hissing/squeaking sound. I didn't think it was a snake but couldn't place the sound and then I saw something that was clearly not a leaf. It ended up being a red bat. We aren't sure if it was well or not, but we put it into the woods and put some leaves over it for warmth and hoped for the best!
The biggest news is that this year we have two additional leaf haulers - mighty cute ones at that!

See for yourselves. Here's Alida at it:


Of course Terah didn't want to be left out of the fun. She made it all the way down the hill to the leaf pile with her load. I love that working together as a family is one of our favorite ways to spend a day!


And here's the rest of us at it - yes, lots of smiles that day! 
 As of this evening, another fall transition is upon us. After a soccer season full of rain cancellations, the season came to a chilly end! Last week and this week the league gave up on the soccer complex where they normally play and utilized the EMU turf field. Both weeks were COLD but this morning Alida had the added adventure of playing on a field covered in ice and snow. For some of the kids, they were clearly DONE with soccer for the year and READY for snow play. It was rather entertaining to watch the focus be diverted over and over again from the soccer ball to snow ball material. By this evening, the fields were clear for Kali's last game. For all of our girls the next season will bring changes - Kali will need to move up to the high school teams, Alida is very ready to move up a level too and Terah will be old enough to start if she wants (and her parents can handle a third soccer player in the family). In the meantime, I've been trying to explore if there are any options in the area for youth to play field hockey. I recently got my sticks out and Alida clearly has a natural affinity for the sport and seems to really enjoy it. So we'll see where that leads, if anywhere.
So here's how our trio feels at the end of the season. Terah was sticking her belly out as far as she could and we all had a good laugh at it so figured it was worth sharing:
In other news, the corn is all shelled (thanks to lots of helping hands and the power outage and bad weather for working out doors). We are now in the midst of sorting through our black bean harvest - it was hard to know if it was worth it to spend the time sorting them as up to 1/2 are spouted/molding. It was just that kind of year for some crops. But after enjoying them last evening with dinner and refried for lunch today, we'll be completing the sorting job. Yes, we can buy black beans but we can't buy these black beans. Yum!

I'm still having fun making cheese and right now am just 1 cheddar block shy of having my whole shelf full in my makeshift "cheese cave." Two weeks ago three women connected to Allegheny Mountain Institute came for a cheese making day. One of them has successfully made feta, which I really wanted to learn! I have a gallon jar of feta in brine in the fridge that will be ready to try shortly. Fingers crossed, as my one and only other try did not end in feta. The good news is that this time the blocks of feta are still well defined, whereas last time they all dissolved back into a cheesy glop! We were even able to finish up our cheesemaking in time to enjoy a hike to the lake (it was gorgeous with the leaves at the peak of their colors - though I must say I'm enjoying the photo now more than I enjoyed the scene then - since we had lost one of our fellow hikers by the time we got to the lake and I wasn't really able to relax until we were reunited!)
And, finally, we are enjoying a stint with my folks in their quarters upstairs and the Christmas music is floating down the stairs. There's a festive feeling in the air and the train is now set up in the common room again. The excitement was palpable when the train started going up. Terah and Alida were practically jumping up and down and Terah kept shrieking, "I so 'cited...I so 'cited..." That she was!
In closing I will say that I continue to feel mixed emotions about this blog. I feel like I am normally trying to put up posts in haste and with multiple distractions, and so it seldom includes the things that I'm feeling, pondering and wrestling with deeply. It might name from time to time some of the hard stuff but it clearly emphasizes the fun, beautiful, exciting things. But just this evening I was talking with a friend staying with us who is teaching a weekend class at CJP. She noted that the class reflected in a circle process something that is bringing them joy right now. A number of them expressed gratitude for the question - noting that it's been such a painful and difficult time that they have not taken time to reflect on what brings them joy. So maybe that could be a helpful way for me to think about this blog - it often gets me in touch with the people, activities and things that bring me joy in life!

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