November's scrapbook pages

You can hopefully look forward to 3 guest blog posts coming in the next week or so. In the meantime, here are a few snapshots of November in advance of Jason sharing about his recent lobbying experiences and chicken butchering, Terah and Alida sharing about their double sleepover adventures, and Kali about her time in Pittsburgh (though she has yet to agree to write this blog post, so I may still have a bit more convincing to do!).

November held some traditionally "Novembery thing" and a few firsts!

Jason did his first ever "virtual seed saving workshop" with the JMU Community Seed Library. 

We found a yummy way to use the last packets of Chicha Morada we had gotten from Bolivia for our wedding punch (yes, 2 decades plus ago). It was actually tasty blended with milk and frozen cantaloupe. Now I'm kinda sad it's gone!

Kali learned to use a chain saw for the first time when working up a pine tree we had taken down.

While still healthy, this tree was leaning uncomfortably towards the house.

It's looks different, but I'm more or less already used to it.

We determined today that leaf raking for the fall is done - there is always more than could be raked, but at some point there are diminishing returns and we reached that point today. We have spent blocks of a half dozen or so days collecting this year's supply from our neighbors' lawn. And with my parents and Tala and five rakers in this family now, we had quite a team of helpers on some occasions. Even my mom's foot is healed enough for her to join for a short stint on one occasion! 

We've mulched garden beds and paths, given the swing set a fresh layer of pine needles and leaves, shared a few loads with the pigs if there were acorns mixed in, a few loads chopped with the mower for the indoor toilet cover material, some to chicken coops and then put the rest in our big leaf pile for the year. We'll use it down for animals and gardens and the humanure compost.

An evening activity in November was shelling corn - and with that has commenced popcorn seed testing. We are also doing a lot of delicata squash seed testing as often as we can fit squash into a menu for a meal.

There's been a lot of winnowing and tucking away of seeds for the winter. Getting the common room cleaned out in time to set up the train was a recent accomplishment.

And while I'm on the computer for many hours of most weekdays, our kiddos can often be found puzzling/playing/reading/making Christmas ornaments/baking or otherwise hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa.

Recently, Alida was pleased to be able to slip away JUST HER to play the Farming Game with Tala in her room. She was happy to not have to share that time with any of the rest of us. And it sounds like she was a very successful farmer also!

Now I'll pass the keyboard to other members of the family and next up from me will likely be an account of this upcoming weekend's hog butchering. I guess it's about time to get emotionally prepared for the days ahead!