Let's Go Fly a Kite! (Thomas at Three)

For Thomas's birthday this year, we invited his friend Anna over to make kites.  As is tradition, we held the celebration at Mamaw's.  We made paper kites for indoor decoration, and an outdoor kite for flying.  Unfortunately, by the time we finished the outdoor kite, the breeze had vanished and darkness was approaching, so we all agreed to go inside and feast upon roast chicken and cake and save the kite flying for another day.

In looking back over the previous year, Thomas has made enormous strides in becoming a "big boy."  He gave up his crib for Mommy's old trundle bed, and he decided that pooping in his pants maybe wasn't such a good idea after all.  He still looks like his mommy, but he is a "fixer-upper" like his daddy.  All and all, he is making his way to being a productive citizen!

Daddy working on the kite

 Attempting to launch the kite

Playing hide and seek

Taking pictures with the very old Polaroid camera

Anna and Iguana Iguana (her favorite of Thomas's toys)

Blowing out candles on the kite cake

Unwrapping Barbara

Operation!

Trying out the new toaster

Happy Halloween, Tom Tinker!

Thomas chose (wisely) to be a handyman for Halloween this year.  The major part of his costume--his tool belt--was covered by his jacket for the party, so here are some pictures of him playing the part throughout the year.

Thomas and Daddy moving the laundry room sink

Thomas and Daddy tearing out a wall

(Construction work is so much more fun in Mommy's heels!)

(Helping Daddy work on the leaf mulcher)

Carving Out Good Times: Halloween Frolic 2012

Here are some pictures from Walnut Grove's 2012 Halloween Frolic.  Again this year, festivities included carving menacing or jolly jack-o-lanterns (your choice), sipping hot cider, nibbling caramel apples, and chatting by the fire.  There was also a fair amount of romping and aar-ing thanks to costumed pirates, ninjas, and poker cards. Hurricane Sandy also made a brief cameo appearance as she slammed the laundry room door shut and shattered all the glass in it.  Luckily, though, we missed her leading role (aka pouring rain) by about an hour.

Around the cider

Carving pumpkins

Glowing Jacks

The Childress Family as a "Royal Flush"

Anna Butterfly

Scream!

Arr!

Special guests Maggie and Canine Cooper

Thomas "carving" his jack-o-lantern, Scarface

Morning after touch-ups

Smiley and Scarface on the fence

"Little House" or Haunted House?: 10 Years at the Farm

1919

2012

On Halloween day 2002, Lance and I signed the deed that would make Walnut Grove Farm our own.  Ten years later, we are older, hopefully wiser, definitely more tired, and thankfully more sarcastic.  Though originally envisioned as something akin to "Little House on the Prairie," in many ways, our homesteading and restoration story has unfolded more like a Stephen King horror novel with a vengeful and animate house at the center.  (Case in point: Hours before this year's Halloween party, the wind blew the exterior door to the laundry room closed, shattering all the glass in its window.)   Perhaps if we had signed the deed on Christmas day, things would have gone more cheerily? But all horror stories are really just projections of our own fears and frustrations, aren't they?  The house isn't cursed, we are.  Is this REALLY how it goes?

Overall, the enduring lesson has been a very Buddhist one: nothing is permanent.  We were not the first inhabitants of Walnut Grove, and we will not be the last.  The world changes ownership, after all. Just as the families before us were unlucky in their loss of the farm (the great-nephew of the original owner had the farm sold out from under him; the woman who lived here for 25 years before us lost her husband to a younger woman and subsequently had to auction off the farm), we were lucky to find such a beautiful place to create our home, and though we have suffered many a stressful moment working on it, we have yet been forced to give it up against our own volition. (So take that Halloween House Curse!)  We hope that it will provide an inspiring and instructive environment for Thomas to grow up in, and that he will choose to be its next steward.  (If not, then note to new owners:  Don't leave the laundry room door open!)

House, Halloween Day, 2002

House, summer 2004

House, January 2006 (when Mike began construction)

House, Halloween day 2012

Back of house, 2004

Back of house, 2012

View from front of the farm, Halloween day 2002

View from front of the farm, Halloween day 2012

Exchange Place Fall Festival

Here are some pictures from this year's Fall Folk Arts Festival at Exchange Place.  Thomas is quickly become a helper in the kitchen.  His favorite activity is washing dishes (and occasionally making mud soup.)  For our menu, we focused on dishes that represent the marriage of Native American and English foodways.  As you can see in the picture above, Thomas was quite taken with the roasted trout that still had eyes!

Sunday's menu: 

venison stew, baked Indian pudding, pumpkin pie, 

and bread baked in the outdoor oven

Debbie mixing up the Indian pudding

Thomas and his friend Gable washing dishes

Thomas's friend and mentor, Jake, stops by to help

Thomas and Mommy walk to the barn

Papaw stopped by!

Thomas (aka Captain Underbite) and his friend Leon ride on Max, the horse

Don't fall off!

Favorite activity of all: eating kettle corn!