Two weeks of news and a week until the birthday celebrations commence...

When a faithful blog reader checks in about the lack of recent news, it seems a good nudge for some Tangly Woods scrapbooking updates! While everyone else is occupied elsewhere and before we all head out to play "hide and seek" with the potatoes in our potato patch (it's looking like the potatoes may not be just hiding, they might be somewhat nonexistent!), I thought I'd share some highlights of the last two weeks. I'll start with a "lowlight" - I'm sitting here with my 4th mug of tea for the day trying to soothe my throat on its 4th day of hurting. The cold (acquired from the first week of outdoor soccer???) started with Terah and then landed in pretty close succession on Alida, Kali and me. Jason has seemed more or less spared to date, which is a remarkable pat on the back to his immune system. It seems to be lingering in its ickiness with me, and I've definitely had some moments of feeling like throwing a fit (I've dramatized some fussing about it with my family to acquire some doses of sympathy). It's just been a REALLY long time since I've had a cold like this and I forgot how utterly frustrating they can be. So this week had a lot less little people time in our lives as we cancelled all our in person gatherings to try to keep this isolated to the 4 of us! So here goes, my updates written as best I can with a clogged head:

Friday, September 8 - Jason (with some help from Alida) FINISHED laying the stone for the bike shed wall. This was cause for shouts of jubilation and feelings of relief! Jason has proclaimed that he will not do a wall like that again in the future - as always he has learned a lot AND sank a lot of time and energy into the learning! Next up is pouring the bond beam around the top tomorrow, which he is currently building the frame for. 

While Jason built a wall from stones found on our land, I toiled away all afternoon in my postpartum doula job. See how bad you should feel for me?! I mean I had to deal with this view for several hours straight. What a hardship! 😉

Saturday, September 9 - A "all hands on deck" day at Tangly Woods! And thank goodness helpful moods were mostly present for a lot of food processing and cleaning, culminating in hosting friends for dinner in the evening. A wonderful, exhausting, productive, fun family day (at least I love these kinds of days, even if we probably attempted more than was reasonable for the allotted hours)!

I try to offer the kiddos options of ways to be helpful so they can choose out of the vast array of things to do what sounds most enjoyable to them. One of the chosen tasks that Terah did was vacuum the carpet, and she got very creative on her ear protection from the noise!

While I can't be sure, I think this might have been Kali's last big bean snipping day. All the bush beans are out but the yellow and purple pole beans are making a little resurgence/comeback and so we keep getting a little mess of those to enjoy every few days.

Jason picked almost all our grapes that morning and we did what will probably be our one and only grape juice making day of the year. That suits me just fine! I would miss not doing it at all, but we still have a lot left from last year's massive juicing day. It was a good grape year and, thanks to my mom, there's also a lot of Tangly Woods' grape pie fillings in the freezer!

Once the juice making was well underway we shifted to tomatoes - with more hands available we tackled both salsa and pasta sauce (Luca and Jonathan swung by for a brief visit and lended their hands to the project). Terah didn't need ear protection for this part but both she and Jason needed eye protection from the shallots!

The canners were still rolling when our friends arrived, but everything else was wrapped up...

After a taco meal, we enjoyed a lively game of Ransom Notes. Here's a sampling from one round.

Sunday, September 10 - Our Sundays have been fuller than we often wish for them to be, but on this particular day there was enough wiggle room to slot in some hours for Terah, Alida and Jason to spend in the wood shop together (I am not to ask questions around my birthday). In the afternoon Emily, Jonas and Ivy joined us for snacks and MORE Ransom Notes.

In the evening, I had an initial doula conversation with a new family. For whatever reason, it seems like I'm falling into a pattern of working with a trio of birthing people at a time. I'm enjoying accompanying three new families who will be welcoming little ones in December and January. The work continues to feel energizing and the dose just about right for this stage of our family and home life. 

Later that evening we welcomed lots of RAIN!!!!!!!! Sunday nights the girls put themselves to bed so Jason and I have time together. Kali had classwork occupying her in the upstairs guest room and Terah and Alida didn't want to be too far away during the storm, so they took over Grandma and Grandpa's entryway in their absence and were quite happy there!

Monday, September 11 - Ahhhhh, we woke up to a foggy rain washed world covered in spider webs that we could actually see (much preferred over finding them with my face as I walk around the land!). 

We enjoyed a visit from our friend Bill (also one of my former colleague's) for brunch and then the girls enjoyed a final slip n slide at Ivy's before their FIRST SOCCER PRACTICE. Alida and Terah were very excited and nervous about playing. Kali was about as chill as she normally is about coaching!

Side note unrelated to anything said so far but here's where it fits: Jason has been eating A LOT of bread/mayo/tomato sandwiches...

Tuesday, September 12 - My day started with a belated but delightful birthday hike with my dear friend, Amy. At the last minute I was unable to attend her birthday celebration. So I promised a birthday hike to Hensley's Pond just the two of us, complete with coffee and birthday treats. I am learning more all the time how much I'm not very energized by large parties (unless I'm hosting it or have a very clear role to fill) and how much I enjoy one-on-one time with dear ones in my life!! And it was reaffirmed once again how I much I love Hensley's Pond, in every season of the year! The purples and yellow right now are downright exquisite!

The day was bookended with time with loved ones as Jonathan, Christen and Luca joined us for supper. So much sweetness! Luca's vocabulary is expanding and his words and phrases quickly get adopted in our household. A favorite right now is the way he says, "OH NOOOOO!" There is a lot of "Oh Nooooo's" in our home these days!

Alida was a trooper rolling out tortillas for multiple meals in close succession. Though for a few days both she and Terah were quite sore from the combo of slip n sliding and the start of the soccer season.

ANOTHER side note unrelated to anything said so far but here's where it fits: The pigs have been eating A LOT of apple/pear scraps now that cider pressing has commenced at Jonathan and Christen. They are very pleased about that!

Wednesday, September 13 - Jason and two of his chicken contacts at Oak Spring Garden Foundation had a long day butchering 30 of our birds! The girls enjoyed their first soccer games.

Thursday, September 14 - Lately we've been feeling really grateful for two vehicles. There are multiple days right now where both are in use. Like this day, where Jason was working a Sassafras Enterprises job away from home, Kali had class and I had an afternoon of postpartum care in town. I don't enjoy paying for or maintaining two vehicles, but it was clearly time for the expansion of our fleet! 

I don't have any pictures of Jason's tree clearing work from that day, but those pale in comparison anyway to the little people pictures I do have from the day! The day started with the fun Thursday morning ritual of Luca waking up the younger girls and then my afternoon concluded with a cat having had enough of seeing me snuggle a baby and decided to get in on the love. 

Friday, September 15 - Jason did more tree of heaven removal at the same home as the day before and he did take one photo of an ant eaten trunk (feeling very affirmed in the importance of taking the trees down before they came down in a way that would cause harm). I got another little Bear fix when I dropped some things by and Bear even "helped" me while I cooked some food for them (he provided all the cuteness one could need as he sat wearing the baby booties I made him in Nora's little blue seat). It was while I was in town that I got the news that Terah's throat was sore...the beginning of this particular viral saga!

Saturday, September 16 - This was Terah's blah low energy day of the cold and so she puzzled and communed with visual media for much of the day, after giving a little burst of energy towards the family gardening day by helping clear the vines and weeds from the cantaloupe patch. Alida was very eager to tend to Terah's needs as much as she could (getting her out of more of the farm tasks!). But I will not complain as she also cooked that evening and we savored her first go at pepperoni rolls (probably not the last!).

The main harvests of the day were the dry beans (both the brown beans and black eyed peas) and the brown-seeded amaranth. Kali was a steady presence and help with both of those tasks, while I was mostly occupied cutting out the bush beans and chopping them up for chicken bedding and then working on making tomato paste as we get towards the end of the tomato season.

Sunday, September 17 - OUR IOWA CHICKS HATCHED - 9 OUT OF 10! What a good first-time broody hen and she is one good mama! There are 6 little dark ones and 3 light colored ones. It's been so fun to watch them - they are a novelty since we don't normally have new chicks in the fall!

We also welcomed a tiny bit more rain (but not enough to keep us from getting the sprinkler irrigation rotation up and running again).

Terah welcomed her first early birthday present. We wanted to give her this little personal fan while she still had some hope of using it in 2023. I honestly don't know if she has used it in bed yet (the reason we got it for her in the first place), but it has been brought to the dining room table at meals a few times now!

We did NOT welcome 3 more of us landing the cold Sunday evening into Monday...

Monday, September 18 - Chicken processing day for Jason, and too big of one for one person for one day. Will we remember that next time? His first job of the day was clearing off the seed counter so it was free for cutting up chickens. I always think it's fun to see him working with all the pill containers that were from my Grandpa Bucher's medical practice - the Tangly Woods pharmacy.

Then at the end of the day he was working at making chicken sausage patties from my dad's baby bathtub. We are all about repurposing sentimental items around here I guess!

A lot of my day was both doing and dealing with the harvests. Overall things are slowing day with some lasts, but there are also some firsts. On that particular day I harvested the last of the grapes for fresh eating. And I also harvested the first delicata squash for roasting. Most of the vines still look decent so we are leaving them on awhile longer but trying something where we harvest them now as we want to eat them rather than waiting.

Some of us were on the droopy, low energy day of the cold at this point.

Tuesday, September 19 - I think I officially hit the "grouchy, fussy day" of the cold here and it has more or less continued since. What felt like a very minor virus is moving through our girls a lot quicker than their mother. Is it at all due to me not lounging around but instead pushing to keep stocking those canning shelves? I would chide myself (before you do!!) except that I almost feel worse laying down right now so I kinda feel like I might as well can some more diced tomatoes or make a large vat of raspberry jam (true examples) than lay around feeling miserable... Anyway, this was the day for canning the chicken broth and then threshing the amaranth. Jason graciously picked the meat off the chicken carcasses (which I really do not enjoy doing when it's mostly the feet, necks and bones). I was happy to take over from there and canned 3 rounds of broth throughout the day.

The mama and chicks appreciated that they were brought the few heads that were white seeded rather than the desired brown.

Wednesday, September 20 - And that brings us to yesterday! After missing Monday's practice due to illness, Terah and Alida had enough energy to join their soccer games last evening. Alida's game, in particular, was a nail biter for this mama on the sidelines. I had to laugh when I crossed paths with a mother of one of Alida's teammates who admitted the game had her in a sweat. She noted how she needed to chill out. I could probably use the same advice. It was a super well-matched game with lots of action all over the field. Alida's team pulled off a 3-2 win with a goal within the last minute or so of the game. I told the girls on the way home that I wanted some credit (a pat on the back would do) for mostly reframing from any coaching from the sidelines. There were parents on either side of us at Alida's game that were not nearly so restrained!

And now it's Thursday and we are missing baby and kiddo time with multiple little people this week in an effort to not pass this nasty bug to any of them. So I've been catching up on putting canned goods away and other puttering and as soon as we tank up kiddos on mac and cheese we'll be headed out to see what we find in the potato patch... 

Probably by the time I write next I'll be 45 and Jason will be 47. Terah's counting down the days (with her birthday chain) until she is 8, but we have to slip in two other family birthdays in there before hers!!