Harvest Time

Zeal at the park last week

Avery's dog poop sign for our front yard. Mama helped with the dog and writing, but the person and the poop are all Avery's.

Chris has been doing some fall gardening. 

About a month ago, he amended the soil and planted a carrot bed and a beet bed.

You can see the rotatiller on the left.

Our first loofah is growing on the chicken wire frame on the right.

Chard, kale, and lettuce for the 3rd and 4th beds.

These are the beautiful purple runner bean plants we originally got from Roger and Donna's garden 5 years ago. Each year, we eat some of the beans and save some others. They are striking.

The workers gonna work, work, work, work. And players gonna play, play, play, play, play.

Underneath all that nasturitum and weed matter was the densest, darkest compost for the new beds.

Other forms of amending the garden...

Figs! Our fig trees are only producing a dozen figs but our babysitter, Emma, got these from her aunt's house. We dehydrated them, some whole and some sliced. 

They came out great! (no pic of final product)

The whole ones are plump and still a bit juicy (so refrigerating is needed) but the slices are totally dry. Both are perfect for snacks.

Full Belly Hoes Down Festival 2015

Every year, we go to the Hoes Down Festival up in Guinda for some rural fun. 

This year, we had one of the best Hoes Downs because the weather was not too hot and the boys did really well. 

The only picture we have of the farm's surrounding hills was taken at sunset.

Avery is in orange, in the front.

We watched two sheep shearing sessions.

Adam and kids joined us. Here we are felting wool. 

There is always a fabulous circus, complete with a circus family of 5!
This is our Christmas card picture plan for December 2018.

Tula rides down the conveyor belt into the water.

This is what courage looks like.

Zeal hopped onto the small stage. He just wandered up there between acts while we were eating lunch. He wasn't a big performer at first, but started dancing later.

Avery actually did this. And Zeal's job was to stir up the water for extra challenge.

Some young musicians from Davis.

And the good news is that we go back next weekend to Full Belly Farm for a friend's 40th birthday camping weekend! See you soon, goats and sheep...

Mama Flying Solo

Chris had a songwriting conference last weekend, so I had to plan lots of outings for these two rambunctious boys.  Day one: Fairyland. Day two: the zoo and a bike/scooter ride. 

Not photographed: the 5 loads of laundry that weekend, the two epic tantrums, and the joy on my face when instacart delivered groceries at 8 p.m.

We ran into Ilyse, who took this photo outside of Fairyland.

The Wild West

The toddler merry-go-round

Zeal was a little cautious

Avery felt more relaxed

He's now bigger than Snow White!

Then we stopped at Astrid's 12th birthday party, where we learned about the Yogurt Game. It's pretty hilarious and definitely a party game worth repeating. Blindfolds, spoons, and yogurt. The observers give directions to the blindfolded feeder.

It was chilly in the evening, so we cuddled up and drank warm milk by the faux fire.

Then to the Oakland Zoo!
Avery pushed Zeal through much of the zoo, asking him questions like "Do you want to see the sun bears, little brother?" It was sweet.

The otters were active

Zeal wanted to ride the giraffe's back. "Zeal go giraffe's back!"

Another, more sophisticated merry-go-round. 

Zeal finally got into it, doing a forced cackle the whole ride.

Our friends, Naomi and Emmet, had just visited us from New York. 

They gave the boys these visibility vests for safe rides to the park. 

But safety vests don't keep your scooter from getting caught on a mailbox leg...

nor do they keep you from falling onto your own scooter... 

nor from scooter tip overs.

With Zeal's novice scooter skills, it took 20 minutes to go 3 blocks.

And then there is always the chance of two safety vests being drawn to each other and crashing.