June came to an end and we plowed into July! I feel like I should start each blog post with a whole list of disclaimers, but that's gonna make for a rather repetitive "scrapbook" when I print the year out into book form. But, needless to say, things haven't slowed up at all. And some days I handle that reality better than others. This blog has been "under construction" for a number of days now and depending on the day I'm working on it my feelings about all the good things we are up to shift rather dramatically. But I'll say it again - part of the reason a radical pruning job of our life's activities is so hard is that we like and want to do a lot of things. We'll see if this winter gets us any farther on the process - we clearly aren't embarking on any major pruning until the more dormant season (which we are decidedly NOT in right now!).
So here's a bit of how we ended June and welcomed the first part of July.
June 30 - Waiting on a baby is hard! I would like to launch a campaign against the idea of "due dates." I hate how pregnant people are given a due date and told that the baby could come before or after but that date gets cemented in our minds with the feeling that anything before that is "early" and anything after that is "late." The longest days of my pregnancy with Kali were definitely the 4 days after her due date before labor started. So sometimes distractions are very helpful and we were happy to provide one - Corey, Ivan and Cyrus joined us for a fun evening of food and Ransom Notes - and an impromptu pregnancy photo shoot!
Also, for the record, last hatching eggs of the year (WE PROMISE) were placed under a broody hen!
July 1 - We enjoyed a family gardening day. I was so occupied plowing through the list that I neglected to take many photos of us working together. Some of the things that filled our day included planting out the last flowers and the remaining sweet potatoes and peppers (so no more plants to baby along on the porch), tying up asparagus; harvesting Sirvinta wheat and the remaining hulless barley, mowing between flour corn crates, okra and cantaloupe thinning and transplanting, mulching cantaloupe and sweet pepper patches (and putting pepper poppers over plants), and seeding buckwheat where the wheat had just been. AND, very important, a smoothie snack break. It was a typical day in that the younger gals flitted more from thing to thing and needed some convincing now and then to keep at it. Kali is a way more reliable source of assistance (once she is out of bed, breakfasted and done duck chores - let's just say our family gardening days do not start at the crack of dawn!). 
This is a very good way to end a gardening day!
July 2 - We bookmarked our Sunday with social things - hosting once and being hosted once. Emily, Jonas and Ivy joined us in the morning for brunch and then in the evening we walked down the road to celebrate Christen's birthday! She had made a glorious meal for those of us gathered - I love the tradition she introduced us to of the birthday person gifting their loved ones with something on the day of their birth! We were definitely gifted a feast!
And later in the evening Luca found a VERY tiny toad.
This marked the weekend when we were getting enough extra milk to start fermenting chicken feed again. It's been an awful year for mice in the coops and we think part of that is due to them having access to leftover dry feed. We hope this shift encourages them to go elsewhere!
July 3 - So weird to have a day where I have no memory of what filled the hours of my day while Jason was away working at one of his regular client's homes - fixing a mailbox, trimming trees, cleaning out a little pond, etc... My guess is that I spent a lot of the day washing dishes, some time chopping things, probably made some cheese, fed kiddos, kept up with stuff on the farm/chore front, did some emails and listened to a few podcasts and attempted to keep my head around our families comings and goings. But I'll never know for sure!!
July 4 - Jason threshed wheat for much of the day with some helpers for part of the time. I was tending the gardens with some thinning, transplanting, removing crates, taking out pea vines, etc...The drying trays are starting to get loaded in the common room.
Terah has had a thing since she was very tiny about squeezing herself into small spaces like this. She was just doing it this evening with a stool turned upside down. When she was itty bitty, she did it in the soft blocks basket and tipped right over - but that experience clearly didn't deter her too much!
July 5 - Jason and girls headed to PA without me for the annual summer Benner family time at the home place in Pennsburg. It was a FIRST in our married life with children for Jason and the kids to leave on a trip with me remaining behind. We have done the reverse plenty of times when a house project needed us to clear out to give Jason time/space/no disruptions/etc... It was a STRANGE feeling to have them drive off. I was staying since I was on call for doulaing for Corey and while it ended up that no baby came while they were gone I was glad to be close by for some moral support and physical companionship! I think maybe Jason and the girls enjoyed the trip the four of them (not sure if they would admit this, but I wondered if it felt more relaxed without their high strung mother/wife!!). They did make a 4.5 or so hour trip over 7 hours because of both the speed Jason prefers driving and various stops for potty breaks, leg stretching, and lemonade!
I spent the afternoon into the evening chatting without interruptions and with nothing else breathing down my neck (since we had thought we'd all be in PA and so hadn't made farm work plans). It felt really unusual and nice to have no other schedules to coordinate when we decided to meander to the blueberry patch!
July 6 - This was the main Benner gathering day and I was especially sad to miss meeting my newest great nephew. Jason furnished me with a few pictures, but that didn't satisfy my desires (side note: the kids spent SO much time in the pool there and there's not a single picture of them swimming...).
I was able to sooth the sadness of missing being with one sweet baby by squeezing in a visit with baby Alida. I was also grateful for the opportunity to go to the H'burg OBGYN open house to make some additional connections with local OB's and midwives.
July 7 - Jason came home! And I'm still cheering Corey on in the waiting. And I continue to be obsessed with sky photos!
July 8 - Jason and I worked around home together Saturday - we weren't doing the same things (he did a lot of scything and I did chicken coop bedding clean out/restocking), but it still felt like a joint effort. By evening it was clear I was needed elsewhere so I easily shifted my mental and physical energy from home to our friend's home and laboring space.
July 9 - Nothing is more important to note on this day but that I got to hold Little Bear for the first time - he's here and he's healthy and so precious! And he was welcomed into a home that eagerly anticipated his arrival and is full of love!
While I was witnessing and supporting Bear's birth, Jason shook A LOT of butter!!!
July 10 - I arrived home around 2:30 a.m. and Jason somehow managed to not hear me come in, turn on/off lights, put my stuff away (not all that quietly), take a shower and crawl into bed next to him. It wasn't until he woke up in the morning that he realized I was back! He's got his own white noise machine with the CPAP. It felt very good to take several naps, but I honestly think my "birth adrenaline" kept me going through the first day of sleep deprivation. Later in the day Jason got to meet Bear AND we were treated to a delicious meal made by my mom in the evening. It's a much quieter version of our Tangly Woods meals when the girls are elsewhere!
July 11 - We worked around home that day and this was the day the adrenaline fully wore off!!! This also happened to be the day that Jason took MANY photos trying to get one of the groundhog with the chickens.
July 12 - Our girls returned today from a very FUN and FULL week with Benner relatives. It was really good to have them back, even if I knew we were likely in for a big crash! I was hoping the transition home would be a bit easier because the first cucumbers were waiting for them.
Jason was at Christen and Jonathan's. He's trying to get their kitchen wrapped up before our August trip. It's definitely not been ideal for several births, a major construction project and a very busy farming season to all collide!
The girls got to meet Bear that evening, which was pretty sweet!!
July 13 - Our "Luca day!" He's always so excited to go to Tangly Woods. If we get to the driveway and I go past to check the mail, he is quite insistent that I need to turn immediately!
In the afternoon Kali and Jason gave blood and I came away with two bandaids on my fingers. I guess I should not be surprised my iron was not high enough with how run down I have been feeling. I'll give a try again this week and then we are thinking of hosting a blood drive for Nora'a 16th birthday this fall.
July 14 - Jason's last day working construction for the week. I spent half of the day snuggling this cutie pie and then did our weekly errands.
It's not bad coming home from a full day in town when you return to a meal like this. Kali cooked!
July 15 - We enjoyed picking wineberries with the Showalter Godshall's. Newsflash: the Myers-Benner's were all in the car BEFORE 8 a.m.! We picked several gallons which we have been eating with homemade vanilla pudding and we made some freezer jam and some cooked jam.
It was a very social day (which for me is exhausting and good!). We went to a 40th birthday and then to help Corey and Ivan for a few hours and then a 30th birthday party. It was a good long fun tiring day!!
It was pouring when we arrived at the second outdoor party. Terah just embraced it!
July 16 - Jason and I knew that since we were gone most of Saturday that we'd need to tend to the farm on Sunday. So we scurried most of the day and we got a lot done, though the list almost always grows faster than we can do things! I did stop long enough to admire this flower!
We dug the volunteer potatoes out of the corn/squash patch and it was a lot of digging for one meal's worth. Next year we are gonna leave them go until the following year if we remember and see if that yields more.
Disclaimer: I gave up finishing this blog post last night because I was falling asleep while I was typing. And I was typing nonsensical things. So apologies for the quality of the writing but it is a good snapshot into my mental state. I did do some major editing this morning of the sentences that made little sense!
July 17 - This was a chicken butchering day for Jason and a morning and evening chores of various kinds on the farm, house cleaning, and tons of kitchen time for me. In the evening these two became quite a bit lighter - Terah donating 8 inches and Alida about 12! They are now extra bouncy!!
July 18 - Yesterday was a day that I couldn't have done without the girls. Terah will often ask me if they were more helpful than she had expected or if I got as much done as I was hoping or if things were easier with them. If I hadn't had 3 extra team members we definitely would not have finished house cleaning and there would not have been flower bouquets on the tables and I would have been in a much worse mood when Jonathan, Christen and Luca arrived for dinner.
I take full responsibility for the fact that I truly can't rein myself in sometimes. I was determined to get on top of the contents of our fridge and it was harvest day and Jason was working away from home so I was on for chores and so on. In addition to making several batches of pesto (with the first homemade parmesan we've had in a LONG time) AND roasting a squash for taste testing (it was not great) for Mom to use AND fermenting the first batch of pickles, the girls helped me make this delicious feast:
- Rice with a new favorite dish of Tangly Woods' pork, collards, and black eyed peas
- Dinner rolls inspired by my mom's tradition of blending leftovers and putting them in bread (this included a whole smattering of OLD pesto dressing and dips, as well as some farmer's cheese curd)
- Steamed yellow squash
- Roasted sweet potatoes and beets
- Dilly cucumber salad
- Steamed green beans
- Chocolate persimmon muffins
- Pumpkin gingersnap ice cream dessert
And, as always, we were well entertained by this cutie pie!!!
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