We are about to transition from counting the days until Kali comes home to counting the HOURS! The first leg of her long journey went well and she should now be in the air between Bangkok and Frankfurt. While I know her feelings are mixed about leaving (understandably so), the feelings amongst those of us here at Tangly Woods aren't very mixed. The excitement in our home is building exponentially, along with the eagerness to hug her! Since she didn't have to run between terminals in this layover in Bangkok, like she and Tala did on the way to the Philippines, she got to enjoy meandering around the airport. It was so lovely to be able to connect easily with her during the long layover and see the pictures that struck her fancy to take while exploring. For once I might have been more, or at least as, relaxed as Jason since they kept changing the gates for her next flight's departure which is a pretty horrible nightmare for Jason. So everyone was happier when we knew she was boarding! And now I can obsessively check the flight tracker online. So far they have gained 1 minute in the air... (and now hours later as I come back to keep working on this, they have gained 2 minutes!)
So knowing that we'll be focused on welcoming Kali home and readjusting to setting the table for 5, I wanted to update this scrapbook now. Also, after Jason and I had a long unpleasant session last evening again going round and round on how we want to store pictures and videos over the long term and how we feel about the various platforms available and the potential ethical and philosophical considerations that are entangled with the simple practical logistical ones, I'm determined to at least continue putting some of our highlights in this space that I can print into a book at year's end. That gives us at least one way of looking back that we can hold in our hands and that isn't a big unorganized mess of random photos, precious memories, etc... So here goes!
While Kali was getting to enjoy the Pacific Ocean,
I finally took Terah and Alida for a swim in a friend's pool.
They'd love to swim much more regularly. I wouldn't mind a few more dips myself. Just been hard to figure out the timing with all the other things we are trying to give time and attention to each week. The combination of heat and rain has made things GROW!! Terah's popcorn is nearly double her height.
While on the gardens theme, a few more food pictures are in order with some corresponding updates. Green bean season and tomato season are officially overlapping. Yesterday I canned the first batch of diced tomatoes and another round of dilly beans.
Our green beans keep pumping out the beans. The bean beetles are gaining ground but the patch is still worth picking every other day. Freezer space is becoming more and more precious.
Kali might get to snip some yet and make at least one bean tower. Terah and Alida did one one day, but if I'm honest their enthusiasm for bean snipping turned out to be more talk than action. Or else the timing just hasn't worked well to often coincide with their "helpful mood" moments!
They would much rather disappear upstairs and puzzle. They often do so with Grandma, but they enjoyed a puzzling stint with Ivy recently when she was over to play. They've soaked in a lot of fun cousin times recently, including Ivy joining us at Tangly Woods for a fun sleepover.
In addition to their love of puzzling, if I open a watermelon from the garden, this is what it looks like after about 5 minutes!
We spent the last two days of July freezing corn! Our rough ballpark guess is that Jason gleaned (paying about 1/4 the price the farmer gets at the market) over 40 dozen ears of corn. We were wise to split the job into two days. Terah and Alida really chipped in and made the two days more fun. They both helped husk and both did some cutting off - Terah was pretty pleased to be allowed to help with the cutting part. The corn was as delicious as ever and the freezer is stocked with well over 200 cups of corn! We'll be glad for it all winter. The pigs are still enjoying the cobs that are fermenting in their slop. And it gives me the yearly excuse to wash all the floors. There's nothing like the mess of a corn freezing weekend!
I really love processing corn! It's the kind of project I love organizing, creating systems that work well and then executing them. Jason and I make a really good team on food processing days!! Here's a few other things I love:
1. What our table looks like on harvest days (which currently are every other day)!
2. The clouds, sky, plants and animals together!
3. DUCKLINGS!!! Yep, I'm head over heals. They are so cute and their mama hen is doing so great with them. It's probably worth admitting here that we had decided before Kali left for the Philippines that we were going to simplify and NOT hatch ducklings. But then I learned Jason was tucking away hatching eggs "just in case." Well, that was my downfall. If we have the eggs AND we have a broody hen, wouldn't it be such a shame not to hatch some? Of course! So we did and I'm in love!
4. Finding/taking time for experiments! Trying out vacuum sealing some of my cheddars to see what we think. They are molding so rapidly in our humid root cellar that I wanted to try some alternatives. Oh, and I love cheese! :)
Well, I better wrap up as the younger gals are in the bathtub together and they are going to get chilly or cramped in there together soon. AND they both woke by about 7 or before this morning - which is unheard of. So early to bed for us!!
On Saturday we had our first large (over 20) chicken butchering of the year. It was so nice to have friends come out to join us for the day! D mostly helped Jason with the butchering and O hung out with me and we enjoyed making some cheeses together. With the complications covid avoidance brings, it has sometimes just not felt worth trying to do some things. But the day reminded me how very much I like the bustle of more people around engaged in various activities together. It was a fun day! Chickens got butchered and cheese got made. But alongside that was lots of fun chatting about life and enjoying good food together.
And Alida even got to learn to fly D's drone!
It's fun to have some overhead photos of our place in the lushness of summer!
Yesterday, he got to try the "puffs" that Kali had given to Alida for Christmas as a joke, since she loved them so much as a baby. When he could get them in his mouth and keep them there, he seemed to enjoy them a lot. 
Some of us have an easier time sharing snuggle time than others. Jason and Kali love him dearly also, but are less insistent on fair and frequent turns holding him. I admit that I'm in the other camp, though I did give up my spot at the table by him last evening to let Terah and Alida sit on either side of him. There's never a lack of willing arms and I will say that my heart about burst when I peeked into our bedroom the other day to see Alida rocking him while he drank his bottle and singing one of the lullabies that Jason wrote. Here's a few other photos I couldn't restrain myself from sharing!
We love our solo times with Luca, with the perk of giving his parents some two-handed-focused time. But we also love when the whole family joins us, as they did last evening. It's been awhile since we had a table of 9 spanning 4 generations (the 3rd generation - my parents - were missing this time around). Uninterrupted conversations of much depth are a bit hard to come by at this stage of family life, but just being together feels precious. After a dinner of the last sausage gravy over sweet potatoes until the next hog butchering, we enjoyed Kali sharing some of her Philippine photos and stories. 
