Happy Halloween!

Here is our Island Princess, Artemis (daughter of Zeus, twin sister of Apollo) and the classic Halloween Ghost.

And here is our Gypsy enjoying her Candy.

And here are the girls teaching Izzy the art of the Candy Swap.

We had an unusually mild night (weather wise) for trick-or-treating with plenty kids swarming the neighborhood.

Tooth Fairy

Maren just lost her 3rd tooth.  Kirk found this note under her pillow along with the tooth...

Dear Tooth Fairy,


Please give me $200 for my tooth.
Hello, thank you for the money.
Next time I will probably keep the tooth.


Love, Maren

The Harvest

It's harvest time at the farm.  Some things we have planted (corn and sunflowers).  Everything else we are discovering as it comes.  There is an orchard with at least 20 trees.  It's kind of like 'The Secret Garden' and we are in the process of clearing out the weeds and overgrown vegetation to discover what lies underneath.

Kirk's field of dreams (a.k.a. the corn patch) has given us lots of corn to eat and share.  The girls like the corn so much, they will munch on it raw while we are at the farm.  We planted yellow and red corn.  FYI... red corn looks interesting, but doesn't taste nearly as good as the yellow.

My 'frutarian' children love all of the fresh fruit and are great helpers when it comes time to pick.

  Plums, apples & pears from the fruit trees.

 And, after all of the work, there is time to play. 

Hannah has found a friend next door (Lindsey) who has horses... perfect!

Work Detail

This weekend at the farm, we involved the girls in a few work projects.  While Kirk and I rolled a culvert down to the creek to make the beginnings of a bridge, Hannah and Paige were in charge of bringing the branches of a downed tree over to the burn pile.  They were good workers and made a great team.

Peaches, and Pears, and Apples! Oh, my!

I don't know what possessed me, but I've been on a canning binge this past month.  Normally I do a batch or two of pear sauce. And that's all.  My neighbor has these amazing seckle pears that make super sweet pear sauce with great texture and no added sugar.  But after a rather heavy pruning last year, there were no pears to be gleaned,

and this year my cupboards were feeling rather empty,

and the fruit at the fruit stands looked rather appealing,

and I went a little crazy.

It all started when my good friend Cassi did a day trip from Spokane to be my applesauce partner.  We tackled several boxes of freshly picked apples from the Whitby's. 

It is never safe to attempt applesauce without help. 

We make a good team. 

We make a good mess. 

We always wonder why we do it. 

In the middle of winter when we open a can of applesauce and enjoy it's fresh taste,

we remember why we do it.

 Processing outdoors on the camp stove is a lifesaver.

 After the applesauce came pears, which I always swear I will NEVER DO AGAIN.  Until next year, when I forget and do it all over again because, like childbirth, I forget how much work it takes. 

Then I did peaches for the FIRST TIME.  They weren't as bad as pears and I know I will have to ration them because my kids will beg eat them everyday, all winter.

This is why I dislike canning... the big mess. 

 But, with a little help from my favorite stove cleaning product 

and lots of elbow grease, it (usually) comes clean.