winter hike

This space here has seemed like a far off distant life I used to live.  Where did I even find the time to post so much?  I found myself going through this blog and the previous one last night and I felt kind of melancholic.  My kids have grown up so much.  Amelia is in high school!  In a way, when the kids were littler than they are now, only a year ago even, life seemed simpler to me.  Cuter almost and most definitely more tender.  There seemed to be more art going on, although much of our days are spent drawing, painting and being creative. It's just different. We stayed home a lot!  These days we are involved in so many activities outside of the house.

One thing I can say is that I've found my home school groove.  Five years ago when I started this journey of teaching my kids at home, I really struggled with what kind of homeschooler I was.  Was I an unschooler?  I kind of was/am.  Was I a Waldorfy kind of mom?  Most definitely I feel drawn to that style.  I can't even remember how many years I've been homeschooling but it's definitely been at least 5.  I think it takes that long to feel confident. If you would have told me that I'd be homeschooling my daughter through high school, I would have laughed in your face!

We went for our hike this weekend along a canyon just east of Reno.  We'll be skiing soon and we won't be able to do much of it in the next couple of months.  It was a beautiful day, sunny but cold enough to need layers the first mile.

I'd like to get back into posting pictures and words here.  At the moment I feel a bit rusty.  But, I'm going to give it a try.

fermenting the cukes

Lately, my preferred method for preserving cucumbers has been fermenting.  Too bad we planted so many Japanese cucumbers because I could have used them this year.  Instead, I ordered a lug from our local organic farmer.  You don't know what a lug is?  Neither did I.  But, I ordered one from the farmer.  It turns out that a lug is just a measurement that they use.  In this case it was a box of cucumbers.  Maybe 20-30 pounds? Anyway, a lot of cucumbers!!

Obviously I decided I was going to ferment a LOT of pickles this year. You might say I love fermented pickles. And last year I didn't make enough.

I may have forgotten one little detail which is where the heck I'm going to store all these jars!  I always make things work.

I am now the proud mama of these beautifully, bubbly, cloudy, garlicky fermented pickles.  I actually got one more larger jar and filled that up.  My husband took all the really large cucumbers left over and made a batch of bread and butter pickles today while I was at the store.  I think we're set in the pickle department?!

Do you ferment?

lazy summer

These lazy summer days.  Yesterday I had some things to do and I totally blew them off in exchange for staying close to home.  We did a little laundry, a trip to the farmer's market and a stop by the post office to send Amelia a care package (a duffel bag, gluten free lemon bars, toothpaste and a card).  But mainly, we did much of nothing. I'm not much for packing my schedule full of activities because we do enough of that during the school year.

Summer = LAZY

Not that my summer has been uneventful.  Amelia has been away at summer school for 5 excruciating weeks.  The boys and I have been sprinkling our days with fun activities while she's been gone.

Months ago when summer was just a page on my calender, we applied for a two night summer camp for Solomon.  That happened last weekend and I envisioned that page on my calender in my mind and checked it off of our summer plans. I'm now looking forward to Amelia coming home in 12 days.

We still have plenty of summer left and I'm happy about that.  I need that recharge time in the summer to think and plan for the school year coming up.

on our way to Solomon's summer camp

I hope you're summer has been fun!

mountain cool

This is up in the Sierras and part of the Pacific Crest Trail.  We've been here many times and have backpacked on this same trail.  It's a beautiful spot and because it's up in the mountains, it's cooler than the valley floor.  Summer hiking has officially started!

sunny days

Although we could use more snow here in Nevada, I can't complain about these sunny days we've been having. It's important that I take advantage of these moments of goodness when I can.

I've been thinking more about what I'm going to grow this summer, taking inventory of our seeds and plotting my rows.  I love this time of year because it's still winter, yet I can take these warm days and really start to imagine the seedlings coming up, the sunflowers rising to the sky and the endless days of watering, weeding, harvesting and preserving.  But, I won't get ahead of myself.

This is what's going on in our garden right now.

The garlic peeking out.  It's under the the chicken wire to keep our chickens from scratching it all up.

Amelia's handy work.  She's made a fort in her garden with sunflower stocks and tree branches.

Solomon helped too.

Our silly broody chicken.  At least it's cool so she won't bake in the chicken house.

Are you thinking about summer?