Working the Horses

The horses needed their hooves trimmed again so Whit harnessed up Scooby and had him drag the stock into the barn from out back. The project went better than expected. Everyone was cooperative standing there, so it didn't take long. Since Patrick was the last one into the stock, he got to be harnessed to pull it back out of the barn. However, before he hooks any of the horses up to pull, Whit usually walks them a bit just to remind them of what they're supposed to be doing. Pat is pretty funny. No matter what he's doing or pulling, he prances. I really think he likes the entertainment and challenge of pulling something.

Here he is pulling the stock back out of the barn.

Last year, when the weather was better, we had taken the horses to the fields where we're cutting hay so they could be harnessed to help. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do that this summer, so the boys are a tad bit bored. They haven't been worked enough lately and it shows. Pat didn't follow directions pulling the stock out as well as Whit wanted, so he got to do a little extra work this day.

Whit hooked Pat up to the sled and had him drag it around their field in figure 8's. The next morning, bright and early, they were at it again, and Whit had helped TBear harness Magnum. TBear has been working with Magnum in the mornings too, while Whit deals with Pat and Scooby.

We've decided that Magnum really can't be ridden, but he seems to like walking around the field. I'm sure he's been bored this summer too.

TBear and Magnum on their way back to the barn from the horses' field.

TBear and Magnum are doing a good job learning to work together. TBear needs the practice, and Magnum is pretty patient.

Woodshed Modification

Long, long ago, and actually rather far away from the foothills of central Maine, before we had children, we used to live aboard our sailboat. Every so often Whit would get the urge to make a hole in it and install a decklight, or a new through-hull for something. Regardless of what it was, I always felt very insecure when he pulled out his hole saw. Making holes in a boat while it is sitting in the water always seemed kind of risky to me (Yeah, yeah, it was in the deck or above the waterline...that's not the point! It made me feel insecure, okay?) Not only that, I always wondered if he was changing the integrity of the hull or something every time he made a new hole. It drove me crazy.

Twenty-five years later Whit is no longer working with weenie hole saws. No, now he uses a Sawzall which will cut through just about anything...wood beams, angle iron, you name it, I think he's cut it. It came in really handy when he was renovating this old farmhouse. I am no longer nervous when Whit pulls out his saw. For starters, you can't sink a house by making a hole in it. Secondly, he's pretty darned good at making things look better after he's used his Sawzall. : )

Last winter we had a lot of snow. A real lot. But we didn't know that yet in January. We hadn't dragged in all of our wood for the winter yet. It was still out in our side lot, so we hooked up Scooby one day and spent a few hours retrieving wood from the pile out there. The only problem with this is that we have to travel from the lot on the north side of the house around to the door to the woodshed in the dooryard on the south side of the house.

This is the north side of the house. The white section in front of the horses is our woodshed, but there's no door there.

So we had to drive around the front of the house to get to the door on the south side of the house.

On one of our slow, drizzly weeks, when we couldn't be out cutting hay, Whit decided to pull out his Sawzall and modify the shed a bit.

I had to check it out from the outside. Whit is cutting around the wind brace. We need that.

It does look like a hole in the wall now, but later he will make a cool sliding barn-type door for it. Before it snows. Meanwhile, we have a quicker way of getting the wood into the shed, and the added bonus of a little more light in there.

The woodshed has a dirt floor on which Whit laid stone. He's raking it even before he lays the pallets down again to keep the wood up off of the ground. (It stays drier with the air circulating under it.)

Ta da. It looks a lot neater, plus I like the easy access to my garden without having to walk through my laundry room with yucky boots on.

Fresh Air Friend

Our friend, Anthony, arrived from New York on July 8th this year for a two-week visit sponsored by the Fresh Air Fund. I was surprised, when we added it up this year, that this was Anthony's seventh summer visiting us! This is also the year that Anthony has grown taller than I am, and his feet are bigger too. In fact, he's also going into high school this year. So many changes in a year! Where does the time fly?!
July, unfortunately for Anthony, is usually the height of our haying season. July and August are when we finally have enough dry, sunny weather to get the hay stored in the barn for the coming winter. Anthony is a real trooper and pitches in to help with everyone else around here. He tells me he enjoys the job. All I know is that he keeps coming back, so maybe he really does. :)

This has not been an optimal summer for haying, however. In fact, it's been downright depressing. We had planned to start haying in June and get possibly three cuttings in this summer. Ah, yeah...the best laid plans of mice and men. Instead, June was a total washout... we had almost three solid weeks of rain. July was only marginally better. The rain let up a little, but not enough to make any real progress. So far, we have only been able to cut enough grass for about 250-300 bales at a whack because that's all we can dry, bale and pickup by the time afternoon showers roll through every few days. I think we've got about 500 bales in our barn and 1000 in our hay partner's barn. At that rate, it's going to take a long time to get the 2000 bales we need for the winter in our barn, never mind what we usually sell as extra. Farmers around here are exceedingly concerned.

Pictured here is a typical afternoon. See how dark it is? We got to the field around lunchtime to start baling and picking up. It hadn't started raining yet, but it was very cloudy and threatening. The weather prediction had been for sunshine a day longer, but this is New England. It was too late for us to change plans once the hay was cut and lying in the field. We have to do our best to get it baled and picked up as quickly as possible. The issue is if it doesn't dry enough before we start baling, it just molds and rots. It's junk after that.

I drove around baling the hay, while the guys and my sister followed close behind picking up bales as fast as they could. (My sister Julie's out front, Whit's stacking, and TBear's driving the tractor. )
It started to drizzle by 2pm, and then it just opened up and flat out rained. The boys were literally running around the field trying to get the hay loaded. There was no hope that day for the grass. I stopped baling and let it all lay. We packed it up and went home.

Our slightly soggy hay crew, minus my sister and Whit. ; )

This particular story actually had a happy ending though. The next day turned out to be unexpectedly beautiful, sunny, and hot. (Fortunately that New England thing was working for us this time. :) It was perfect drying weather. We salvaged that field of hay by tedding it again and letting it dry out completely before we baled it.

Thanks to the frequent showers, it wasn't all work while Anthony was here. Usually I get lots of pictures, but I've sort of fallen down on the photo thing this summer. I did take the boys down to the town landing for some fishing and swimming. We spent another afternoon at a friend's house on another pond where the boys were able to swim some more and do some kayaking.

Here, Whit and the boys went sailing. (See? I'm having photo issues... I didn't get there until they'd come back and had already picked up the mooring and were dropping the sails.)
We hope Anthony enjoyed being here again this summer as much as we enjoyed having him. He's a great kid, and we look forward to doing it all again next year!

Grammy and Grampy's Visit

I have been seriously remiss in updating the blog. We've had company and other chores to accomplish, but it seems that once I get a little behind, I seem to get really behind. Here's an attempt to give an update on what's been going on for the past month.

Just before the fourth of July Whit's parents arrived for a week-long visit. The weather mostly cooperated. (The fireworks were rained out here the first night, but it was clear the next night.) His parents have been traveling around the country in their lovely Newmar RV, which is rather large and draws a lot of attention when they arrive. We get comments from the neighbors about it for weeks afterward. Nothing unkind, mind you, just "hey, saw the bus in your driveway..." :)

Here, TBear and Sunny watched, fascinated, as Grampa maneuvered the RV into the graveled parking space Whit created for them next to our vehicles. With the almost three weeks of steady rain we had in June, he needed to create some sort of a pad to make it easier not only to level their RV, but so they didn't sink up to their axles in mud!

It fits in the spot he created nicely.

Hugs all around. We were very happy to see them! They don't like to come up during our winter and we have a hard time getting away from the farm, so we're always happy when they come for a visit once a year in the summer. Gram noted that TBear is as tall as she is now. : )

The parking excitement over, Sunny happily goes back to playing in the mud with Jagger's chuck-it and ball. Boy did we have a lot of mud this year. I'm pretty sure we're setting records for rainfall this summer.
Nutmeg came home for a visit too while Grammy and Grampy were here. (She's been traveling around New England for her job this summer.) TBear was ecstatic to get his first new computer for school from his grandparents for his birthday this year. Thanks to the foul weather, Meghan had lots of time to help TBear get it set up, and then they played Civilization against each other.
Grampa is very knowledgeable about engine mechanics, and TBear has been anxious to learn more. The engine of our antique Farmall Cub tractor has been in need of an overhaul for awhile now, so TBear and Grampa disassembled the engine while he was here. As soon as Whit gets the cylinders rebored and finds new pistons for it, he and TBear will put the Cub back together again. Stay tuned for more about that later.

NESI Strings Camp

June 21st-26th was the New England Suzuki Institute's strings camp, held at St. Joseph's College on beautiful Lake Sebago. TBear and I went for the week. However, instead of staying in the dorms we chose to stay at the lovely Family and Friends Campground in Standish. We were combining 'business' with pleasure since TBear loves to camp, as did some other strings campers that week. Our site was next to a frog pond, which also happens to be full of fish, but we somehow managed to forget the fishing pole this year. I'm not sure TBear would have done much fishing anyway since it poured most of the time that we were there. The campground owners are very accomodating, and encourage the strings students to use their lovely lodge with its piano for practice. TBear chose to practice at our site instead because there were quite a few piano students staying there that week too, so we left the lodge and its piano to them. Because it poured all week, this is where he wound up doing most of his practicing. : )

We were exceedingly thankful for the big, new, beautiful tent that my brother mailed to us from Ohio just before we left. We were able to store all our cooking gear and food in the tent with us, as well as the chairs! We listened to the rain come down night after night. At the beginning of the week, we also listened to the wind whipping the trees around and flapping the tent sides causing us to wonder if we might wind up in Texas! That lasted about four days, then finally, on Thursday, the wind died down and we had a little sunshine and warmth. Friday turned out to be fairly sunny too, and I was able to mow our lawn on Saturday after we got home. But it's raining again today.

Not one to let a little rain stop him (no thunder or lightening), TBear went swimming in the campground pool. I watched, hood pulled up, and TBear's t-shirt protecting the book I was reading from the rain. He had a good time. That's a nice heated section of the pool he's sitting in. He tried hard to get me in with him, but I wasn't biting. It wasn't the getting in that bothered me so much as the getting out again. Brrr.

TBear thoroughly enjoyed this year's strings camp. Each day he not only had a semi-private master class (seen here with his teacher, Joanne from Ohio, I think) but he also was part of a chamber group for the first time this year, which he really loved.
In addition to all that playing each day, TBear chose two other classes to attend. The first additional class he chose was a fun kind of music theory class called Sight Singing. The second was a Musical History Tour, which was a fabulous preview to what we'll be studying next year in history. I took copious notes, which will hopefully still make sense to me as I dig them out again this year when we get there. The guy who led the class was a stitch to watch and listen to. He kept the kids enthralled, telling them the story line of various operas, which he also had them come up and act out as he told the story, before playing some of the musical scores from them. It really was a very cool way to learn about the history of musical eras and what events sort of heralded each one in, or delineated the time periods. (I think the opera being described here is "La Boheme.")

For example, we learned that the Baroque period was heralded in by the invention of opera in 1600 when Claudio Monteverdi wrote "L'Orfeo." It was the first dramatic, musical (or operatic) presentation of the story of the legendary musician Orpheus, who tries (unsuccessfully, I might add... I guess it's tragic opera :) to get his beloved Eurydice back from the Underworld by the power of his music. What is memorable about this particular opera, we learned, is that it was the first masterpiece of its kind, and is the most often told.

Another interesting observation we made in this class about the Baroque period was the connection between the fascination with, and advancements made, in science and its reflection on music composition. William Harvey discovered the human circulatory system, Johannes Kepler came up with the laws of planetary motion, Galileo (known as the father of modern science) improved the telescope and was the first to clearly state that the laws of nature are mathematical, and so on. Composers of this time, such as Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel, created more mathematically organized music. Besides cantatas, minuets, gavottes, and bourrees, Bach was a genius at writing fugues. (One of my favorites is his "Little Fugue" in G minor.) Bach was so influential in the Baroque period that it ends when he dies in 1750.

On the last night of strings camp, the fiddle class plays for a contradance. Preferring to play rather than dance, TBear got copies of the tunes, spent a short while brushing up on them, and then played with the fiddlers. It was a great time. Afterwards, when we returned to the campground, the owners invited all the families to make ice cream sundaes and swim for an hour to celebrate the end of our week. They really seem to enjoy having the young musicians stay at their campground, and they always make us feel so welcome every time we stay there. In spite of all the wind and chilly rain, it really was a fun week of music and camping.

Nature Journals

Monday was a beautiful, breezy, sunny day, so TBear and I took some time in the afternoon to walk to a field near us where the wild lupines are just blooming. We took our nature journals, pencils, watercolor paints and some water in my backpack. When we got to the field, we looked around for the best spot to sit and draw and paint.

Just sitting and observing the grasses, the buttercups, the lupines, and the day itself was so peaceful and relaxing. We don't get out nearly enough to draw, but we do the best we can.

Lupine

TBear's watercolor of the lupine

Happy Birthday, TBear!

TBear turned 12 years old today, a pre-teen for only one more year. It's hard to believe time has flown by so fast. In fact, I spent some time today going back through all my pictures and reminiscing about the last 12 years. I thought I might share some of them.

His twelfth year was a good year for a new set of wheels. If his older sister's frugality is any indication, hopefully this set will take him through college. : )

Going backwards in time, this was TBear's 11th summer. He was big into RC planes. He amused himself with them while we were baling hay until it was time to pick it all up. He still enjoys the planes.

The year he was 10, the two of us went to the New England Suzuki Institute strings camp in Standish, ME. We stayed the week in a campground on a site that was next to a catch and release pond. How cool was that?! He got a lot of fishing in around the music.
For his 9th birthday, TBear's grandmother gave him a trebuchet to assemble and test. Those babies can toss some bean bags!

The year TBear turned 8 yrs old, we bought our farm in Maine, and discovered we had bats roosting under the metal roof of our house and in the attic. We have since enticed them to a bat house on the side of the barn, and sealed up the entrance under the roof. We decided to do a unit study to learn more about them that year. They are very cool creatures, and we love to see them arrive each spring since they like the black flies more than we do.

And of course, 7 was the age of the two missing front teeth. : )
When TBear was 6 years old, I was doing Konos' Ancient History with his big sister, Riss. TBear had fun creating Spartan garb. (He's still making those wooden swords. : )

This lamb was given to TBear when he was 5 years old. The lamb weighed only two pounds at birth, and its mother rejected it, so the young lady who owned it and was in high school, gave it to TBear to bottle feed and save. Dimi is alive and well... still!

He went through a very cute cowboy phase when he was 4 years old.

This picture is proof that this little boy was putting together K'nex models at the age of three; a gift he shares with his sister Nutmeg. It sure surprised me. He could follow the picture directions to assemble them. We still have all those K'nex too. I love toys that last.

TBear had an ice cream cake when he turned two years old. It's still hard for me to believe this was taken ten years ago.

I didn't have any digital pics of TBear when he was one; at least, none that I could quickly find. I guess two was the year we went digital. So here ends the tour back in time.

My baby is now twelve years old...imagine that.