friends thanksgiving

history-rick and his friends have been celebrating friends thanksgiving since 1994.  after they all graduated from college they began meeting together for a weekend full of fun and food.  over the years the original crew has moved apart and some now live too far away to make it for the annual celebration but...there has also been quite a few (me included) new and newer friends that now gather together to continue to celebrate friendship and food.  really, doesn't every just want more than one chance to eat multiple desserts after stuffing ones face with a huge plate or two of good food!?  on saturday we prepared to host the annual friends thanksgiving at our house. well...fifteen years later and lots of new friends and some old ones as well, friends thanksgiving is going strong.  i believe we had about 28 people here for a true pot luck style feast.  we started preparing the night before.  rick built the table and benches and we rearranged furniture to make sure we would all fit at one giant table (we did!!).  the morning of rick prepared our turkey and i prepared some cranberry sauce and made some beeswax tea lights to go in the candle holders we had for our wedding centerpieces!  then rick and nahum set the table and soon after we all gathered and ate and ate and talked and ate some more...and then we all finally slept...some a bit earlier than others!

 

 

 

 

 

 

fresh from the greenhouse and garden...in november!!

last night i took a headlamp and went to the greenhouse...it was pitch black out with only a sliver of light coming from the chicken coop.  even with my headlamp i could barely see.  but i cut greens enough for our dinner that evening.  i also harvested a bit of the spinach to throw on top.  we had a fresh smoked ham steak from our little home built smokehouse and some corn and peas from the freezer.  and since apparently i can't have a meal without fresh hot baked bread...i baked off the rest of the dough from the fridge.  

but back to the fresh greens...in november...it was like a little slice of spring and summer.  they were so perfect...and no slugs to boot!

i added a bit of the carrots that rick and nahum dug this past weekend and a fresh onion as well.  rick and i are hooked.  now we will always be planting winter greens!  

and in other garden news:  rick harvested the rest of the rutabagas and beets.  we are going to use the brussels or most of them for a yummy recipe for thanksgiving.  we still have some chard and a lot of kale out there.  i believe there are also a few heads of cabbage left as well.  and leeks.  don't forget the leeks.  

 

 

 

 (excuse the little boy dirty runny nose!  all these harvest photos by papa!)
and our little ladies...the new chickens have been laying eggs for us, as well as our older ladies who just had molted not that long ago.  i always relax a bit more when the eggs are rolling in thinking that if all else fails at least we have fresh eggs.  how funny considering we have two and a half freezers full of our homegrown food plus a pantry mostly full of jam and some remaining jars of our maple syrup.  we have peaches and strawberries and blueberries for fruit packed into the freezers as well.  but for some reason those fresh eggs make me  happiest!!   

 

p.s. check out another great giveaway from gardenmama.  i think you will really like it.  i know i do.  it is a sweet memory capsule designed to hold whichever memories you hold dear by metalsmith amy from ag ambroult.  good luck.

creating keeps me sane!

this is not such a new revelation but one i *discover* again and again.  the past few tuesdays i have been heading down to my neighbor's house just after we finish dinner to work on some of my projects.  it is time where i can enjoy a hot cup of tea (not one that i have poured hours before) and spin or knit or felt but mostly spin.  we chat and work on our projects and talk about what we would like to do with our wool or fabric.  (she is my wool supply for the dolls that i make.  it is the extra that comes off the feeding wheel of her drum carder.)  she also has an incredible space dedicated to her stash...i mean her crafting.  it is such a quiet house.  so peaceful.  anyway...the day after i am there i always feel so much happier and peaceful.  i feel like i can really attend to my kids.  my patience lasts longer.  i also tend to work on more and more throughout the week to attain that feeling on other days as well.  it is a jump start to my inspiration board and project list.  last night i was able to complete one bobbin of yarn which isn't much but just enough to make me happy. 

 (this is the only photo i took...i was too busy spinning and drinking hot tea!)


at our school i have been more daring with the projects i do with the children.  on tuesdays when there are only 3 (and little zevy, of course) children total, including nahum, i have been trying some new projects with them.  this past tuesday we made stuffed corn pillows for the upcoming thanksgiving holiday.  inspired by the book the creative family i intended to make stuffed traced hand turkeys. but once at school that day, i realized that two of the three children were vegetarians and it didn't seem right to make a turkey for the center of their table when they didn't eat meat.  so in mid sentence i switched it to corn and we still got to trace our hands!  i traced each of their hands for the corn stalk part and then drew a basic corn shape for them to decorate as they pleased.  i used canvas that i had in my stash leftover from the college days of art and painting.  i brought in my fabric crayons that i had bought eons ago but never used (but really wanted to!) and a small container of embroidery floss and some sewing needles.  i also brought my iron to set the crayon on the fabric.  our project took forever but came out so super cute.  after they decorated their corn they sewed around the edge, stuffed it with sheep wool, finished sewing it up and voila!  before they sewed it up i asked what they were thankful for and wrote it on the back.

 (i know they hardly look like corn...but really it was a last minute switch from the turkey.  and anyway they are heartbreaking-ly cute in my opinion!  i love the all pink.  but really i am just so proud that they all did their best and it was two of the kiddos first time sewing!)

so now...after a very long post i must get on with my work.  currently (i just finished another waldorf soft baby) i am working on my season's round package for send off here in the near future! 

 

our really homegrown, homemade weekend.

friday night...

 

saturday...

 

 

 

(the idea for these super wonderful beeswax ornaments came from gardenmama's blog...for the complete how to, go check it out!)
sunday...

homemade noodles (by rick) for a homegrown and local feast which included a lobster (from just down the street) and noodle main course with our own leeks and carrots and the foraged chantrelles from this summer .  our garden fresh kale with some of the freshly smoked (by rick!!) ham (our own) sauteed in some oil.  we ended the meal with a pumpkin and apple (both ours) pie sweetened with our own maple syrup.  we were all in heaven over this meal as it was a first for everything but the pie!  

we lit this meal with one of our freshly made beeswax candles!  what a great weekend spent creating and sustaining with my family at home:) 

p.s.  and look what has already started to arrive.  yikes, already.  we still have tender young greens in our greenhouse and now we must begin to think about next growing season already?!  yippee...

martinmas and our lantern walk

well we did it.  we had our lantern walk.  it was so sweet...rick and nahum and zev and i.  a few years ago we went to a little festival but there were none that i knew of this year.  today at school we made our lanterns.  we went with the glass jar and tissue paper version since i felt the watercolor paper lantern would not last as long here at our house.  plus, nahum has grand plans for his lantern and its use year round so i figured it needed to be something sturdy.  we even used it this evening to take our dog out, rather than a flashlight.  anyway, the past few days at school i have been singing, i go outside with my lantern, for the children and telling them stories of lanterns and about st. martin.  it has been a lovely little festival to share with them.  nahum was able to tell rick about it this evening and i am so impressed that he was actually listening to me tell the stories. when we got home from school we pretended to have a lantern walk through the house since rick was still home for his lunch break.  and then while we waited for it to get dark and rick to return home from the rest of his work day nahum needle felted while i worked on his homeschool journal (notes and ideas for next year) and made applesauce.  it was a really sweet way to spend my afternoon.  the first picture is our little class with their lanterns from today.  and then our little family celebration follows.  the last picture is of the entire family with our lanterns in the reflection of a door.  

 

 

 

winter garden goodness!

i had almost forgotten what we started...or rather that we started anything at all in the greenhouse until the other day and i cannot believe how much our little greens have grown.  we started winter lettuce mix, spinach, and mache (which has not really done much).  the greens and spinach are looking lovely and will be ready for eating before too long.  i am looking forward to eating some fresh salad from our farm in november and december (we don't usually eat salad greens again until the spring so this is quite the treat). 

...and in the hopes of getting outside wednesday night for a lantern walk i have created a scene for our nature table to show nahum what we will be doing.  wednesday is martinmas, a festival to celebrate our inner light as we head into the winter/dark season. (there is more to it...go google it!)  we will be making lanterns in school that we will be using for our little walk. 

 

(i may add another friend or something else but i am not sure...)

welcoming november

i do love the month of november.  there are not many obligations.  my work has settled down.  i return to the outdoors with my children bundled for the winds and occasional flurry.  i love the feeling as my cheeks turn red with cold.  i love the sounds of crunching leaves.  i love the sight of my children in their woolens and fleeces with their own red cheeks.  

my mother and father have been away for one week and one day and will not return until next thursday.  we have therefore been blessed with gemma.  she is a five year old australian shephard.  with lots and lots of energy.  she forces us out of doors when it is sleeting:)  although, by the time we make it to the walk we had driven through the storm to sunny skies.  we have been on five walks with her (and they are not easy!!).  ...so i have ditched the camera for the last couple as she is a bit rambunctious and it takes a lot of attention so she doesn't pull my arm out of its socket:)  but here are some of our walks with her both near where we live and down on the island.  (mom...today she went swimming, rolled in the dirt repeatedly and then proceeded to sit in both nahum's car seat and the one we keep in the car for little m..  nahum's is in the wash now since it was soaking wet and smelly...aaaaaaahhhh gemmma how we love you.) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p.s.  tonight i watched most of mary poppins with nahum.  he doesn't watch much t.v. (maybe only once a month...if that?!) and only the past couple of times will he sit through to beyond the credits (in the beginning).  tonight as we settled into one of my favorites i enjoyed watching his face smile and body move along with the show. he only wanted to see the rooftop scene since i had told him about that up front.  we ended up forwarding to it since he told me his eyes were burning and he wanted to go to bed:)