Lately On The Homestead...in September

 When Friday came last week I couldn't believe it, now here we are again. I'm wondering if truly we are moving faster around the sun. I wasn't sure if it was just a statement that grown-ups made or is it so, that time is going by faster.

 Last month I started a "job". Two days a week I go to Bryon's shop in St. Paris. From 12:00 to 5:00 I play secretary, hunt and peck on the key board entering invoices, basic bookkeeping, and working towards getting the books up to date. At this rate I've got a job for life. I actually like it. I can't believe how much I can do in that space of time with out interruptions. These two days probably have a profound effect on having Friday appear again so quickly.

  The garden is doing very well. I have already met my goal for green beans and there are still blooms coming on. But this time of year every thing starts getting bugbit pretty bad. I'll probably just let them go and mature completely for seed and a few dried beans. Patiently waiting on the cabbage, potatoes,carrots, kale, and watermelon to finish. In the meantime basil, tomatoes, peppers, beets, and green beans are keeping us busy filling up the pantry.

  We lost half of our chicken to "something" or "somethings" this summer. We have been blaming the killings on a fox that we saw earlier this summer. Its been heart breaking seeing my flock dwindle to 10 chickens. We closed up the chickens and at this point we don't have free range eggs any more. The "whatever" went so far as to orphan 9 chicks, and I lost one of my favorite hens , an orange Araucauna. Fortunately we have other mother hens willing to adopt. At this point we have 15 new chicks (hen raised), and you can almost guarantee 50% or being roosters. I really don't know why I love chickens, they are such dumb animals, but I do. This year I spent a lot of time organizing the setting hens and we now have an official maternity ward. I love to watch the mother hens "talk" to their chicks, I spent a lot of time just watching them. Motherhood in any creature is beautiful.

   Abigail spent a month in West Virginia, soaking up guitar and fiddle music from my mom and her music group, reading by kerosene lamplight, hauling drinking water from a spring, and learning to sew on a real treadle machine(the same one I learned to sew on!) She came back quite a bit "older". I hadn't realized how much I missed her until she came home.
  Nathanial has been a real working man this summer, working at the neighbors mowing and building, earning a wage. I am so proud of him. He really stepped up to the plate when Abigail was gone. His help with everything from dishes to diapers was done with amazing cheerfulness. Alas, once Abigail returned it was gone, but just knowing that it's there, inside him, waiting to come to surface when needed. Just like his father, ready to slay the dragons of the day for the lady in his life,

  And maybe in a week or so I'll have a toilet graduation party for Timothy. Just when I thought about giving in, he volunteered  to do his business where it belonged. And  to think it all came about by a broken flush handle! True Plumber's son.

   Of course I am working on getting more organized...that's what not having any fooling around time gets you- a need to hold it all together. A few years ago a friend gave me a Keeper of the Home planner. I found it again cleaning out the school room. Couldn't have been found at a better time...