Rutabaga Dreams

Yes, the weather has started to turn up in our lovely mountains. It should probably get warm again for at least a little bit, but the lovely, long, warm days of summer are finally over. On Wednesday night we had our first autumn rainstorm, and today it is raining again. I was fairly certain the rain was coming on Wednesday, so I managed to get just about everything under cover that needed to be covered. Matt helped me get even more things under cover yesterday, so we’re in pretty good shape now as far as rain is concerned. We were at the property for most of the morning, but the kids (Gregory especially) started getting cold so we thought we’d retreat to Matt’s grandparent’s house where Matt’s mom had a pot of soup on the stove and some bread in the breadmaker. Being on the property in the rain is a lot easier at night than it is during the day!

As I think I’ve mentioned we do have a trailer, but it is currently up on the well road. We needed to get gravel on the road before we brought the trailer down onto the parking pad and thankfully we were able to do that before the rain started. We also have a septic system in place (it was finalized on Friday) so we should be able to hook the trailer up to the septic once we get it down. We have a friend who is going to help with that once it stops raining - we’ve tenatively scheduled to do it on Monday. Once it is down we’ll put in the new battery, hook up the propane tanks, and see if we can get the systems fired up. I’m really hoping that we can do all that without too much trouble. Once that’s done we should be able to move into the trailer sometime in the next week or so. I’m glad the weather has turned like this because it is making me look forward to living in the trailer, despite the cramped quarters. We went up and spent some time in the trailer on Thursday morning because it was still cold and damp. Emma enjoyed being able to color on a flat table rather than a picnic table covered with a tablecloth and Gregory helped me poke around at the various cupboards and such as I tried to figure out where everything is. It was really nice to be out of the wind for a little while!

I’m somewhat sad that our time in the tent is drawing to a close, because I’ve enjoyed living that close to the outside elements - especially when they were fairly benign! I also enjoyed being able to easily transition between typical inside tasks like cooking to outdoor ones like gardening. For some reason when I am living in a house the door seems like a big obstacle to me - like I need to always have a big block of time available in order to go out and work on something outside. I’ve really enjoyed this blurring of the boundries and how it has allowed me to shift from different tasks so easily. I hope I can retain this lesson and continue to do this, even once we do move “indoors” - or at least more indoors than we’re living now!

And last but not least, here’s a picture of Gregory that Matt’s Mom took last weekend. Gregory was getting really tired in the workshop so Matt got Gregory’s chair for him and put him in it. Gregory promptly fell asleep and proceeded to sleep there for about an hour.

Everything is still going really well here in camping land.  We’re all getting in really good shape with all this walking and work we’re doing, and it has been fun to see the changes in our bodies over the last 6 weeks or so.  Matt has lost at least 2-3 inches from his waist and is much more muscular in general - his wife approves.  :-)  I’ve lost a few more pounds and put on more muscle, which, coupled with the dirt is not exactly the most attactive look for me.  Matt is kind enough (or oblivious enough) not to say anything.  The kids have both shot up at least an inch or two, and they are both leaner and more wiry.  Even Gregory, at 20 months, is a muscular little fellow!  *grin*

I’ve been keeping busy in my camp kitchen.  I’ve figured out how to make bread (yeasted and quick), muffins, pigs in a blanket, cornbread, and crackers in our BBQ.  I don’t get the same oven spring on the yeasted bread that I do in an oven, but otherwise it works quite well.  I do miss my KitchenAid, but I’m getting better at kneading by hand.  I used to do it several years ago, but I kind of lost the knack when I switched to the machine.

The kids are still really enjoying the property.  Gregory has taken to carrying a hammer with him where ever he goes.  He finds it first thing in the morning, and it frequently is placed right outside the tent when he goes to bed.  (No, I will not let him sleep with the hammer, although he’d like to!)  He’s starting to say more words, but it is a slow process for him.  He’s getting there though, repeating more words and trying to say more phrases too.  Even with his limited vocabulary, he still does a pretty good job and getting his point across through words and gestures and he doesn’t (usually!) get frustrated quickly when we don’t understand him.  He is walking very steadily all over the place around the property and climbing after his sister in some places too.  They are having a blast together, although they do squabble over the hammers at times (you’d think with three hammers it would work out…).  Here’s a couple pictures of Gregory - one with his two favorite things (he was tired and went into the tent on his own), and one showing just how dirty this little guy can get in the course of a morning.

Emma is doing very well too.  She loves ranging all over the property and she’s created her own pizza shop and her own house amongst the downed trees and other landscape “features”.  She spends quite a bit of her day lost in play, improving her areas with pieces of scrap wood and various things she finds around.  It is really quite amazing to see her imagination at work, and to see what she comes up with!  Emma and I started back at school at the beginning of August, and everything is progressing very well.  We are currently doing school in the early afternoon, while Gregory naps.  Her main subjects right now are Math, Latin, Copywork/Handwriting, Reading, Religion/Prayers, and Memorywork.  I’m really pleased with everything we’re using and how it is all going.  She’s enjoying it too, just in case you’re wondering.  :-)  Here’s Emma showing off her climbing abilities and also one of her reading to Gregory.

We recently aquired a dog from the county shelter.  She’s a five year old black lab mix that the shelter named Jocelyn.  We call her Jos, since she responds better to that and it just seems more like a dog name.  She’s really sweet, and great with the kids - very gentle and calm.  She unfortunately has heartworm, but we’re working on getting that treated through the shelter so that we don’t have to shell out quite so much money to take care of it.  She fits in really well with the family, and we all really like her.  Here’s a picture - she’s a little hard to photograph because she keeps running up to me whenever I point the camera at her, but this gives you an idea at least. 

And now it is long past time for me to head home and get some lunch!  I hope you all are doing well!