We'll see if I can top the last blog in length and number of photos. Here's goes nothing... I know at least three people got through that one, so kudos to my parents and a dear friend who will receive her Tangly Woods' cookie reward this week! It is a good exercise for me to look back and document. If for no other reason, it helps give me greater understanding for my tiredness (in addition to the fact that my body is currently trying to fight off a viral memento from our recent family reunion)...
Nephew season now feels like somewhat of a distant, but sweet, memory! I think our ping pong table got more use in that week than it has cumulatively for a few years! The kids also interspersed ping pong with "farming" some.
We said goodbye to this dynamic duo on Saturday, July 6th and spent much of the following day in an "extended family meeting" which we called a retreat day!
The day was full of everything from minor schedule conversations to talking about how we can say "no" and not take on other people's feelings or feel unduly responsible for their feelings or actions. It's refreshing to have our 8 year old exploring this now, while her mother is attempting to face this square on in her mid-40's!
We ended our day together in a friend's pool. We hadn't even left when there were requests to come again. It was a gorgeous evening. I was rather distracted by the popping in my shoulder and left feeling kinda discouraged about my foray into PT to try to address my arm numbness and tingling and netting me very "poppy shoulders." But the water still felt good.
We weren't quite done our special visits as the following Monday our normal family farm work day was split apart by enjoying a visit from both my sisters and their partners in the middle of the day. Mom treated us all to a favorite: taco salad, cardamon bread and topped it off with a blueberry cheesescake! It had been a very long time since we had all been together - the time felt like a very big gift to me. The ping pong table got some more use along with both of our wooden marble games (one of which went back up to PA with them). We played with marbles, while reminiscing about playing that game with our Grandpa Bucher using peanut m&m's. Yes, we did eat them after using them as game pieces! 
Even with a 4+ hour break in the middle of the day, our family plowed through the list we had accumulated for that Monday. Our planned family garden days have been a game changer this year. Having a day set aside where I can plunk tasks all week long and then have 5 of us (working at different speeds, abilities and attention spans) out there together feels so good. And we often have some "garden chickens" accompanying us these days!
I'm usually moving too fast to notice all the things happening in the gardens, but I do have to take moments here and there to delight in the row of flowers Alida is growing. Speaking of noticing things, I've initiated a game with Jason called, "Can Janelle notice something before him?" Whether he wants to or not he's playing, as he clearly notices about everything happening around here. I'll see something and get excited about mentioning it and say, for example, "Hey Jason, look at these odd trombone squashes!" Inevitably the reply will be something like, "Oh, yeah, that odd plant that has ones that are a combo of male flowers and female fruits?" So far my best bet is noticing something in the sky, as he is looking down and around more often than up!
Top News Flash: This cutie pie is 1!!!! While I might be inclined to ponder how that happened, I'm sure his parents would mention that is was not just one day at a time but one long night at a time. Bear has brought so much joy and delight into this year for me and I savor our snuggles and play times! It was really special to celebrate with him and his family. Jason, Alida and Terah had fun making him wooden spoons for his birthday. In addition to wooden utensils, he loves berries, watering cans, and cooking with me OR in our play kitchen. Recently he was here a day that Kali was baking and he definitely wanted to be wherever the person with the mixer was! In all instances one must watch out as he is developing quite a little arm - he can clear his coffee table of toys in a few minutes flat! He's also a confident biped now, often choosing walking over crawling. 
Following all our visitors and Bear's birthday, we had a few "normalish" days - garden harvests, food processing, Jason working on his Sassafras cabinetry job, and just keeping up with farm plants and animals. Blackberries are waning now, but not before I was able to make a massive batch of blackberry jam (and not before the first red and white raspberries are coming ripe). We are in the thick of "pickle season" - I've got 21 quarts on the canning shelves and 2 gallon jars of ferments in the fridge AND we haven't had to look elsewhere for dill heads yet. Not sure I'll make it through dilly beans without having the scrounge for fresh dill, but so far so good! Beans have just started and we've been eating lots fresh and I froze my first gallon bag full yesterday! Jason said, "You can't have too many beans in the freezer" and I think that is probably true with our crew. The rattlesnake beans, that I love raw, are just a tad behind so we should be munching on those soon.
I was successful at finding an inside (i.e. cooler) job for Alida one day but it was clearly still daunting. It takes a lot of sage to fill both solar dryer trays and then at the end you have one small jar of dried sage to show for all your labor! She might be playing it up just a tad here...
There's no perfect time to insert a photo of my very distinguished husband, but he has "graduated" to reading glasses. So I'm getting used to seeing him do his (dreaded) business computer work with them on, as well as when reading in bed at night. While he looks much more in his element with a scythe in hand outside, he's pretty cute even when slogging through paperwork...
When not with his eyes glued on the computer, he's been busy keeping up with the grain harvesting, drying, winnowing, and threshing! I believe the barley, wheat, peas and rye are all done, but I honestly haven't been able to keep track of all the drying trays in the common room.
So circling back to speaking of looks, both Jason and I are sporting a new one (in addition to the glasses)! Karen and Ezzie came to hang out with us on the 13th and she did the honors of cutting something shy of a foot of hair off both me and Jason. Despite the length being about the same, mine weighed double his. My head feels much lighter and Jason no longer needs to fear his ponytail getting caught in a machine. There was also plenty of time for some games and to enjoy dinner together. Ezzie was VERY glad that there were some extra scrambled eggs for him! He's so cute and I love trying to earn brownie points from him - I'm not sure I'm still as favored as Grandpa, but I'm working at it!
This past week was NOT a normal week! At some point in the week I found myself MARVELING at any family who manages to maintain their sanity with a school schedule M-F for much of the year. Now granted that doesn't include dousing one's children in sunscreen daily (not my favorite mom job!), but still! Alida and Terah participated in JMU's morning soccer camp for the week and we miraculously got there on time every day. Kali helped with transport, but I was tasked with the daily wake-up-by-starting-sunscreen-application job. They enjoyed it and also weren't pining for more hot sweaty mornings by the time Friday rolled around.
As we got into July, I started to think about corn and how eager I was to replenish our supply. I reached out to the farmer that we normally glean from and he said I'd be on his radar. I was worried he was going to reach out right during the busiest week of July but then I looked at last year and saw that we froze corn the beginning of August and so I relaxed! Well...Wednesday of camp week my cousin, her husband and two kiddos came for an overnight stay. It was so fun to connect with them again and have our kiddos get to know each other. As we gathered at supper the hoped for (but also dreaded) text came: "would you be available to glean corn in the next few days?" We were headed to the same reunion they were in WV on Friday and so that left the very next day (when I would be caring for Bear all day and Jason was supposedly doing cabinetry work). Long story short: Jason did not do cabinetry work and Bear helped us freeze corn!
We did about 6 bushels last year and did an overflowing 8 this year. We'll see if that lasts us this time around. I feel like we've got our system pretty polished at this point, and it was sweet to add a little one back into the mix (something we did for years but not when we simultaneously had 3 bigger kids who were super helpful). It was a chaotic, busy, sticky and fun day! Dad helped with shucking them in the morning, Mom helped with washing and starting to cut off and Alida and Terah cut off a bunch when they got home from soccer. Jason and I were runners keeping all the systems going, the husks and buckets of cobs distributed to animals and getting the corn into the freezer as quickly as possible. We were ready to start cleaning up by late afternoon (and that was with not starting until after 9 a.m. when Jason got back with the carload of corn). I'm never as excited to wash the floor than I am after freezing corn!
I wonder if anyone else has corn frozen in a bag labeled this way! Kali has taken my love of numbers to a whole new level!!
While corn freezing went supremely well, we still had to clean up, tie up loose ends on the farm and pack so we were ready to leave for WV the next day after chores, soccer camp and town errands. It was after 1 a.m. when I finally crashed! Kali was up beyond me working on her fun project. She hatched the idea of doing a gingerbread replica of The Old Mill (the water powered grist mill my family owned and operated in Harman, WV for many years) for the silent auction at the reunion. She thought of the idea days before leaving, bought the supplies on Wed and started it on Thurs (yes, that was our corn freezing day and the day prior to our departure!!!).
My kids never cease to amaze me, and this was another one of those times!
Safely over the mountains and posing with her two helpers!
We stopped by the mill so she could pose beside it with its likeness.
The Mininger Reunion hadn't happened for 5 years and yet it had the same joyful, fun, connecting warmth that this family so often exudes when it comes together. This is far from a homogenous group of humans, but we share something very special together (a sense of shared heritage and the love of a place that has nurtured and tended us in profound ways).The weekend was full of meaningful conversations, large bubble making, remembering those from our family who are no longer physically present with us, so much delicious food, shuffle board and other outdoor games, a very entertaining silent auction (Terah DID end up with the Skittle disperser for a whopping $39!), a family hike (for those of us not managing the silent auction), a meander through the Old Mill (including ogling an old seed cleaner), and much more.
This bridge crosses the stream that ran in front of my grandparents' house. Us kids spent MANY hours damming that stream when I was little and I have so many found memories of playing there. The stream doesn't have water in it now since the dam has broken down and is no longer diverting water to the mill pond. It was both good and sad to take the girls by some of these places full of family memories as it highlights the changes (both the positive ones and the ones that feel more like deterioration or loss).
The reunion ended midday on Sunday and Jason and I left for home, leaving this crew in Harman for a few more days of fun. We got home to a house/farm that had been tended so wonderfully in our absence - our new farm sitter had gone above and beyond, leaving us a loaf of homemade double chocolate zucchini bread. We have already asked her when she wants to farmsit again!!Well, the crew is now nearing home so I better end this blog post and get ready to be smothered in hugs and kisses!
