How they grow

These are the homestead critters in July.

The cow is huge and getting bigger. We never got him castrated so he has just grown and grown. He goes on October 9.
Barley man is growing. He was sick for a while. Has worms and lice too. We got everything fixed and he is growing big now. We need to get him a lady friend. Hes so lonely.
The chicks are little chickens now. The white ones will visit the butcher at the top of Sept. Several of them broke out of their run and we havent been able to catch them.
The ducks are the clowns of the property. Everyone enjoys watching them splash and play. They are wretched roomates for the turkeys though.
The red ladies are locked up for now while the 70 chicks take over the chicken pasture. They are not thrilled and have decided to molt instead of lay. After the white birds go to butcher all the red - young and old- will run together on the pasture. There will be alot of wrangling for position but in the end they will all be happy.

Dying Vayda hair pink

Vayda has been dying (no pun intended ;) to have the underside of her hair dyed pink for ages.

I have made her wait for years. My only grumble about it is that I dont want the girls to start dumping toxic waste on their heads.
Well, I buy organic dye for myself and the company just started making hot pink and purple and other wacky colors so Vayda jumped on the phone and ordered herself a box of pink from Mother Earth store in Geneva. She finally pinned me down and got me to do it for her. The dye went on well but definately did not turn hot pink. I guess we needed to bleach it first. Hummm. Well, that brings us back to toxic waste. So Vayda decided that she was 'fine' with the burgandy color she got but still wants hot pink at some point.

Beauty and the Beast

So- where was Elanee while we were all over here entertaining Destiny?

She was running back and forth to Ovid- on her bike by the way- for practice....

She was part of the Between the Lakes Players production of Beauty and the Beast. She was a bar maid (in the blue kerchief) Sorry the pics are so bad but that is just how my camera did it. She also played a cork screw. I always knew she was a little screwy ;)

Jody, Ben, Vayda, Maya Rae, Ravyn, and Saige and I all went to see the production and bumped into friend Emily- along with others.

The show was great!!! Elanee has found her passion. She made a ton of new friends and she cannot wait to do this again.

Exhausting !

As you might imagine, all these exciting events ran us ragged!

Most of all mom!!!! Man! Was I fried!!! I'm tellin ya.

After the first week Destiny was ready to go home. Again, she was only 7 yrs old and she was missing her grandma. We found that she has a wonderful family who cares for her well. I told her repeatedly that I was happy she missed her family because that meant that she was happy at home- and that made me very happy. After caring for this kid for two weeks it would have killed me to send her back to an unhappy enviroment. That was not the case thank goodness. Honestly, it was so nice to just have this lovely, talented, brilliant little girl from a different (than ours) but perfectly nice family.

When we put Destiny back on the bus it was bitter sweet. We were all ready to go back to our own lives but knew we'd miss her. The great news is, if she is into it, and we are up to it, we can invite her back next summer.

The Piggery

This was my favorite activity while Destiny was with us.....a visit to the Piggery!

The home schooling group from T-burg made arrangements for a tour so we joined in.
The Piggery is a farm in Trumansburg. Its a family run farm that raises organic pork, free range, on open pasture. These are the happiest pigs I have ever seen! They run of many acres of rough pasture. There is brush, grass, trees with shade and a pig's bliss- mud!
The natural spring in the back provides a pig 'spa'. Its a pig's heaven I'll tell you! They were rolling and splashing happily in the water and mud. There were 40 babies running in clusters.
We learned the pigs in a natural setting are (obviously) healthier and more gentle than your average factory farmed pig. I found the whole thing very cool and VERY inspiring!

A night at the fair

Well- you cannot visit the country and skip the county fair!
Luckily the Seneca County Fair was going while Destiny was here so I took Vayda, Ravyn, Maya Rae, Destiny and Saige for an evening of fun.
The big girls ran around together while I took the young group around. They saw the critters and displays, rode the rides, ate fried dough and won a prize.
In the end we had tired and happy girlies!

Horse Back Riding at LouAnns

One of the highlights of many happenings with Destiny was a visit to Aunt LouAnn's house.

She kindly had us over and gave the kids an opportunity to ride her horse.

Vayda LOVES riding so she thought this was great!

Thanks again LouAnn!!! ;)

Our Fresh Air Kid

*Destiny Stepney *

For years we have wanted to try having a Fresh Air Kid.
I had a little boy back when Elanee was 1 yr old. We had a great time. Even so, I kept worrying my way out of going for it again. A Fresh Air kid comes from NYC and stays for 2 entire weeks. Thats a long time if things are going badly. But, after Elanee spent 2 mo and Vayda spent 1 month in South Carolyna with my dear friend Lauretta I saw how an extended stay away from home can open the mind of a young person. I have come to believe that no matter how bad off or how well off you are- stepping out of your reality and emersing yourself in another's can be life changing. I think the ealier that can happen the better.

So, that is what stopped me from stopping myself again this year. We signed up and went through the possess of being interviewed and background checked, etc. Then on the second week of July we drove to Ithaca and picked up our little girl at Stewart park.

Her name was Destiny. She was 7 yrs old and she was from Brooklyn NY. This was her second time being a Fresh Air kid. It took us a few days to get adjusted but then we were off. Ms. Destiny was great. She was full of energy and made us laugh. She thought we were nuts! We dressed wierd, had a strange van (thought my driving was completely rediculous! All that waiting and being patient was just unspeakable ya know ;), our food was odd (what do you mean no McDonalds?), and no TV??? What!? She was bewildered by Maya wanting to play with Barbies and Bobble heads. It took us days to figure out that she plays group games.

We made it our business to keep her entertained and to show her our world. I took the kids to every State park within reach. They swam in the lake several times. Jody took the kids biking on Sundays. She and Maya played dress up. She showed us her hip hoppin dance moves!

I took them to a horse show in Trumansburg.

The girls painted canvases on a rainy day.

They had a long afternoon at the water park in Geneva.

We had a picnic lunch at the falls overlook.

We did normal stuff too...like make applesauce and strawberry jam. (I sent a jar home with her)

We turned gourds into bird houses.

Jody and Destiny bonded over a map of NYC! They actually found her building. Its that big!
We had a back yard camp fire.

We went to a birthday party for one of Maya's friends from baseball. It was at the pool in Seneca Falls. Destiny was at home in the pool. She said, "This is how we swim in the city". :)
The kids just chilled with ice cream cones in the back yard.

Vayda's first job experience

This is The Village Soft Serve in Ovid.

Vayda was so very excited to be hired by them in early July. She was the youngest girl working there. She worked there just 5 times. All seemed to be going well and the boss told me many times how wonderful Vayda was and how well she was doing. But then- on a Friday, she was left to work under a 19yr old girl for just a few hours. All seemed to go well but after that the boss 'turned on' Vayda. We really dont have any idea what went wrong but the boss called Vayda and told her that she was angree didnt know if she wanted Vayda back. After a few days of millin it over Vayda called her boss and said she didnt want to work there anymore.

Everyone was proud of Vayda for standing up for her right to be treated with respect. She was much, MUCH more brave than I have been in similar situations.

So- it was an unfortunate first job experience but we are proud of her for doing her best.

Bumper Sticker

This says it all. Vayda saw this and was just appalled!

Funny Stuff man!!!! LOL!

Scooterin

This afternoon I took Saige and Maya Rae down to Kendia Road wtih their scooters.
Kendia Road is one of several back ways to get into Sampson state park. We just park at the dead end and walk in.
Its an old paved road but its blocked to traffic so its overgrown and wild. Very pretty and peaceful. There are lots of trees and wild flowers along with rasberries and varied tiny critters and birds.
Maya Rae and Saige are big into the scooters but use them only in the house because there is no smooth surface in the yard. For 20 min or so we had a really great time. The kids were back and forth and just tearin around on those puppies.
Then Saige stopped short and wiped out. Poor kid ripped up her elbow, hands, hip, leg and knee. The mom in me knew to have bandaids on hand for this little adventure so I quickly

patched her up.

After tears and hugs we decided to return to the van. I just wanted to get Saige back home and cleaned up. She looked aweful.

Even with things cut short Emma was wiped out and over heated. So it goes.

Whos Amish Country?

Amish WHAT!?!?!

So...Vayda and I were shopping at Sauders (our local bulk food grocer) the other day when we came across this! I had to buy it so I could scan it and show the world.

This is absolute proof that people will buy anything.

And sadly...

Because I have shown this to several people and they had no idea what was so silly about it I will spell it out.... The Amish dont have electricity LET ALONE microwaves.

But- if they did have those things I guess this is what their popcorn would look like.

South Carolyna Flash Back

I have to flash back for a moment. I meant to put this pic up ages ago.

Right after we went to the Pokinos this spring Miss Vayda went home with the George family. They are family friends. I met Retta (the mom) in second grade and now she is married to Russ and has three boys- Quddus, Vahid and Ruhi. They live in South Carolyna.

Last year Elanee spent an 2 months with the Georges and this year Vayda spent one month with them. Vayda came back on Mothers Day with a zillion stories. She was all charged up with the Baha'i Faith and had many accounts of new friends and experiences. She was excited and wanted to jump into service projects here. Elanee was the same way when she got back.

I think taking a kid out of their comfort zone and emersing them in a totally different experience does a world of good towards opening the mind. Good stuff.

Above is Vayda in the ocean with her friends.

Human peace sign

I hope she doesnt mind but I stole this post from my friend Judy's blog....

I didnt even know this took place but I think its seriously cool!

Close to 6,000 Ithacans stood up on Sunday — each with two fingers thrust to the sun-drenched sky — in support of world peace, and in the shape of a peace sign.The massive human peace sign, which stretched from one end of the field in Stewart Park to the other, was composed of 5,814 festival-goers who stood for 20 minutes as volunteers recorded the crowd's attempt to set a Guinness World Record by creating the largest human peace sign.

Jody and Maya Rae out for a ride

This Sunday while I was here baking 17 bread pans of cake for the freezer and the girls were cleaning out the chick boxes- Jody and Maya Rae went out for bike ride. Jody pulled Maya and her scooter-complete with basket and bell- down to Sampson where she boogied around and then spent an extended time playing with kids on the play ground.

My new apron

This is my new apron :)

I used an old denim 90s dress that I aquired some place. The dress had a big full skirt so I cut it off and designed an apron using its natural curve and hem. I like the way it turned out. Now I need to make a second one (at least) so I can have one to wear when I am washing this one.