happy (very late) birthday, Cash

Posted on September 19th, 2018 by mountain girl  |  2 Comments »

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Somehow it’s the last half of September. Whaaaaaaaattt?

Since I last blogged, Cash and I both had birthdays in July, David went to NYC for two weeks in August, and the kids started school. Now we have a clutch of eggs ready to hatch, we just took a 4-day trip to Winston-Salem, and Hurricane Florence brushed by.

Meanwhile, I never posted any of it–I must have been too busy living it. 🙂

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I can’t cover all that, but the least I can do is give a shout out to our Cashy-Burger, who turned six on July 30. David set up a treasure hunt through the house and land that ended in the ’66 Mustang with a pile of presents. Later we had a crazy birthday cake made of shortcake filled with ice cream and topped with whipped cream, cookies and cherries. Courtesy of Mama Bear, of course.

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It’s hard to believe how that little snuggly burrito of only 6 years ago has become virtually an adult in a kid’s body. He’s sharp as a whip and reminds us of that all the time. He does math in his head, reads every road sign and restaurant name, pores over graphic novels written for teens. He plays the bad boy but has a heart of gold, and he can turn a mean southern accent on or off at the drop of a hat. He can also fart at will–inserting it punctually into any rap song he makes up–but we don’t consider that an asset.

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Here are a whole bunch of pictures that sum up Cashy-life. We love that boyoy.

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eleven years old

Posted on July 10th, 2018 by mountain girl  |  2 Comments »

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Happy birthday to my girl. I can’t believe you’re eleven, when it seems like you were just toddling around in your little red cowboy boots. You’ve grown into such a thoughtful, kind, and mature young woman. I love that you would rather have a container for your plant than a Barbie doll; that you enjoy reading books more than watching Disney princess movies, that you like jeans and t-shirts better than frills and bling. You’re smart and intuitive, you do your own thing and go your own way, and your friends just naturally follow you. Your Dadda and I are so proud of you, and so happy with who you’re becoming (and who you’ve always been). We love you, baby girl. Have a happy, happy birthday and a wonderful twelfth year!

wimbledon bound

Posted on June 16th, 2018 by mountain girl  |  1 Comment »

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Today we spent the morning practicing archery, and this afternoon David headed to the airport to catch a flight to London.

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Cashy and I made lemon glazed muffins Thursday, and we had an early Father’s Day celebration. Each day has been a little more bittersweet as today came closer, but it’s finally here and we sent him off with lots of love and kisses.

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This envelope message was Cash’s idea. He turned his heart into an apple. 🙂

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Happy Father’s Day to our Dadda. We love you and miss you so much already!

last day of school

Posted on June 8th, 2018 by mountain girl  |  1 Comment »

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Just a few pics of our kids today. We are so proud of them and love them so much! I just hope we still feel that way by the end of summer break;)

Cash had an amazing kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Mckee. She made the transition of switching schools in the middle of his kindergarten year so much better, and we’re so happy we had her and her awesome assistant, Mrs. Peace. That’s Cash’s bestie, Russ, getting a bear hug in the lunchroom.

Zia was called on stage several times at the awards ceremony this morning. She made the all-A’s Honor Roll, was recognized for her recorder accomplishments, and received the President’s Award Gold Certificate (signed by Mr. Trump himself) and pin. She was one of  only five students in the entire 4th grade to receive it! We’re so proud of her, especially after switching schools twice recently, including transitioning from Montessori to year-round public school to traditional public school. They weren’t easy transitions, but she is super self-motivated and pushed herself to excel.

And now she’s finished with elementary school (whaaa??) and will be starting middle school in August. I can’t believe that’s here already! And my baby will be a first grader. I’ll get off my tissue box now and get our summer vacation started!

it’s me again!

Posted on June 1st, 2018 by mountain girl  |  Comments Off on it’s me again!

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Wow-I’ve been gone from this space for almost three months! I’m not sure where the time went, but our days have been chock-full. I’ll just work my way back here slowly, because if I try to do more than that, I’ll never get anything posted. Or, I’ll end up with a novel. Actually, I might anyway.

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First of all, we’re loving our farm, and all the abundance that comes with it–sun, rain, work, play, veggies, flowers, rashy plants, creepy creatures, and this grass that nevvvverrrr stops growing.

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We’ve been eating sugar snap peas, brand-new carrots, spicy radishes, and all the leaf lettuce and kale we can chow down. Yesterday we harvested a huge pile of the tallest bolted lettuce I’ve ever seen and hauled it to our neighbors’ pigs. Just look how cute this farmer boy is.

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Today we picked our first ripe tomato! Pretty soon we’ll be overrun with more of them than even a born tomato lover can handle.

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Cucumbers, zucchini, garlic, onions, potatoes, beets, pumpkins, watermelon, cabbage, and broccoli are growing like weeds, grapes are budding, and blueberries and wild blackberries have begun ripening. Next year we should have elderberries from the canes we planted.

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Early in the spring, I planted one of our raised beds with carrots, and now it’s also thick with tomato plants I never planted. We also have mystery potato plants springing up everywhere, and two entire half-barrels of some kind of flowering squash vines which I also did not plant. Things just grow here.

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Especially kids! And turtles.

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Our pond is home to a giant bumpy old turtle (Zia stepped on it once and got a quick nip in the boot) and countless smooth-shelled turtles that sun themselves on the rocks and slip off when we come near.

The five hens are doing fine and we get 3 or 4 blue eggs every day.  We’ve had two large rat snakes curled up in the chicken coop, each with an egg in its belly, and another extra-large one down at the pond.

The great blue heron still makes his visits to the pond, and several groups of Canada geese have stopped to rest for days at a time. We’ve had voles in the garden, guineas and deer running through our fields, and a mystery attacker that crept through one night and snatched a little fawn we spotted earlier in the day–leaving one tiny hind leg lying in the field.

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David got a crazy case of poison ivy that lasted a month, and we’ve taught the kids to identify all the poisonous plants we know of on the property. I found a wolf spider crawling in my bed the other night, and caught a tick scuttling up my ribs a couple of weeks ago. Thankfully, we haven’t encountered any venomous snakes or spiders yet.

Every cloud has a silver lining, and in this case, it’s more like a golden one. We didn’t have any of these pests in the mountains, but neither could we grow our food. (Especially without seeds:)

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Our flowers are blooming so profusely that we catch glimpses of new varieties all the time. We have a row of newly planted lily trees in the garden from bulbs David’s mom sent, which I think will become a high hedge by next year. The magnolias went through their wilty season, are blooming, and new leaves are beginning to pop up among the old ones.

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To end this novel, here’s a lovely pic that sums it all up–chickens, grapevines, raised beds, lightning, and a rainbow. Full of promise and unpredictability–like this amazing crazy place we moved to.