Purdyville

Dad has been working in the garden just about every day. After all the initial roto-tilling was done, he made raised beds and planted carrots, beets, swisschard, and lettuce and spinach also (I think; I can’t remember for sure). The majority of the time, however, he’s been digging a sort of “trench” all around the […]

Instead of sledding . . . . . . Justin and Owen made snow boulders! Owen is usually the first of the little kids to go outside. He is what I call the “Great-Day Heralder”, because he’s always on the lookout for Great Days and proclaims them with much enthusiasm. On such a day, he’ll […]

The chickens always get out. Sometimes, in the winter time, when there’s patches of grass that there’s not any snow in, the chickens get out, and sometimes in the springtime and summer and fall they get out, but the ducks get out near winter time under the apple tree to eat fresh grass. (Also OF […]

As many of you know, we haven’t exchanged gifts for Christmas for many years. Instead we have a family party on Christmas Day, which has come to be known among the youngest in Purdyville as "Food Christmas," much to my chagrin. I have to admit, we do have a lot of food, and we try […]

I first noticed that the wild strawberries were coming on when Justin and I were walking up to the woods together. “Oh! Cadie, look,” Justin said. I looked to where he was pointing, and there, down in the grass, was a spot of red–a wild strawberry. “Oh, yeah!” I said, and we both started looking […]

(Anyone who doesn’t know what that means has missed out on the best children’s books ever written. For proper pronunciation, you should hear Arnold Lobel say it.) As far as I am concerned, we are not at the lowest point of winter there ever is. It’s not so bad in November and December. There’s still […]

I think we’ve hit the bottom of winter. This is to say I think we’re past the half way mark, not that the worst is over. I certainly hope the worst is over, but sometimes winter gives the worst in the second half. It’s been a pretty tough first half of the winter, so I’m […]

A Quiet Thanksgiving Thanksgiving passed without much ado. We went to Nate and Sharon’s for a Thanksgiving family gathering. Winter family gatherings are more difficult than summer get-togethers. Being stuck inside with a lot of relatives . . . well, it’s noisy. And, with the number of relatives in the family, it’s really crowded as […]

The Beginning of The End Butchering was an early November affair this year. The chicks of this spring didn’t fatten up quite as fast as I would have liked, but by early November they were ready to go. Or, I should more rightly say, I was ready for them to go. That is one advantage […]

Winter has arrived. It has come swiftly, suddenly, and with savageness. October was, over all, a mild month. There was no bitter chill, and even days when the weather was unusually mild. Frost, this fall, came very late. So, as fall gave way toward winter it was mild weather leading into . . . what? […]