the incredible hulk invades the yurt

Posted on December 30, 2008 - Filed Under kiddo life | 3 Comments

It all started with the arrival of a little lego Hulk, one of a hundred million legos, purchased in a tub from the thrift store.

” Mom,” said Luc, “Why is this guy’s pants all ripped up? And why is he green?”
Well…
Off to google! Where, like Godzilla before him, we found a million images, youtube clips, [...]

how to milk a goat (2 of 2)

Posted on December 27, 2008 - Filed Under goats, honeymilk farm | 7 Comments

As I was milking this morning, it occurred to me that I had left several things out of my previous milking post. I thought I would put them here. These are the things that become automatic and thus invisible, like trying to give directions to someone after you’ve lived somewhere so long you’ve forgotten all [...]

building the tool shed (2 of 2)

Posted on December 23, 2008 - Filed Under alternative building, honeymilk farm | Leave a Comment

Continuing along. After the beams were up and attached to the foundation, Paul began collecting rocks for the masonry. Here is the beginnings of the rock pile, plus some kid-art, chalk on a board.

More rocks.

The roof was dried in by late summer. Here you can see the first course of stone work going in in [...]

building the tool shed (1 of 2)

Posted on December 19, 2008 - Filed Under alternative building | Leave a Comment

I posted the other day about the nearly completed tool shed. It occurred to me it might be fun to go back and see it in progress.
Here it is, one year ago, December 27, 2007:

See that trench they’re digging? That’s it. Or the beginnings of the foundation, anyway.

Isn’t this the cutest work crew you have [...]

a superhero origin story, and some hair

Posted on December 14, 2008 - Filed Under kiddo life | 1 Comment

We had a huge rainstorm the other day. “The whole world is flooding!” said Sophie. Actually, it was just our driveway. But the kids had fun playing in the puddles…until it started to thunder and lightening.
Luc, particularly, doesn’t like thunder. So we ran back inside and stripped off the wet stuff while it crashed and [...]

how to milk a goat (1 of 2)

Posted on December 9, 2008 - Filed Under goats, honeymilk farm | 14 Comments

First off, I’m not documenting how to do that whole squeeze and roll thing you do when you hand milk a goat. There are two reasons.
(1) Fancy kicks! OMG! She gets annoyed, she demands more sunflower seeds, she says quit it already, and she says it all with her hoof. You have no idea how [...]

twilighters deserve some respect

Posted on December 8, 2008 - Filed Under writing | 3 Comments

I went to see Twilight yesterday. It was okay, kind of uneven—parts of it drew me in (ex. the baseball scene) and other parts kicked me out (ex. Edward Cullen’s make-up). I’m not a fan, but I was interested enough that when I got home, I got on-line and poked around for scoop about a [...]

diggers watch tv, too

Posted on December 5, 2008 - Filed Under kiddo life | Leave a Comment

Luc is enthralled with big machines. Bull dozers, backhoes, excavators, trenchers, dump trucks—driving past a construction site these days causes the backseat to erupt into squeals of “It’s a crane! Mommy, a digger! Mommy, Mommy, a front loader!” A couple of weeks ago, I ran across an ad for a construction site video for kids, [...]

fall colors of a different kind

Posted on December 4, 2008 - Filed Under kiddo life, making things | Leave a Comment

I did a big batch of clothes for the kids this past week-end. That is, I dyed a bunch of white things from dharmatrading because, as every mother knows, cold weather comes and you realize that nothing from last winter fits them anymore. I have posted before about my whole scrunch dye set up. Right [...]