4 years and 4 months and two wheels...

Here is a video with audio of Keenan on his pedal bike after 10 minutes! I cannot sing the praises of the Strider balance bike enough. For the last 1 1/2 years he has been scooting around on his balance bike. Essentially a bike with no pedals. It is supposed to be much easier for them to learn to balance without pedals. Once they learn how to balance, riding with pedals is pretty simple.

fish and green things...

Summer has arrived with it's glorious heat and explosion of greenness and mowing. The strawberries we planted last year are blooming like crazy. Keenan holding up the first brook trout of the year. He has on face paint from an earlier event, he is a snow tiger. Asparagus but we can't pick until next year. And, of course, peas!

I had a great birthday. It was spread out over a number of days. Michelle and I had a real stay out until midnight date while Keenan had a sleepover at Granny's place. The morning after our date I went on a nice bike ride all morning. All of my birthday cards arrived exactly on my birthday, don't know how everyone pulled that off.

amazing sunrise...

Amazing and 100% photoshop free. Yum.

ski action...

New skis for the little one. Yesterday we slid down the driveway for a while. Today he asked to go down the road to our neighbors field and we went down a good sized little hill with him between the legs! Much fun. Had a wonderful holiday with Michelle's sister, brother in law and nephew and her Mom.

the polar express...

We recently met up with Keenan's 2 buddies and their families. There is a train ride/Santa adventure in White River Junction that is themed after the book The Polar Express. Fun and hot chocolate was had by all.

unimog birthday...

At a recent birthday party up on top of a grand sized hill in Washington, VT there was this wonderful beast. The unimog is a very impressive German vehicle. These folks are some of the only people I can imagine who live up such a crazy road that t hey actually need one. Check them out...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unimog

halloween...

Posting a bit late...but here are some Halloween pics. Went to Montpelier and then to Granny's after for candy eating and hanging out. Keenan decided the next day to trade most of his candy for a toy!

chaga...

Chaga is this big gnarly fungus that grows on yellow birch trees. It "...contains large amounts of betulinic acid in a form that can be ingested orally, and it also contains the full spectrum of immune-stimulating phytochemicals found in other medicinal mushrooms..." We were walking through the woods and knocked a big piece down, brought it home and smashed it up (it is like wood). Michelle ground it up and makes Chaga Chai with it. I add it to my coffee. Yum.

warren falls...

The parents/grandparents are visiting. Having a great time so far. We went to Warren Falls and ate lunch at the Warren Store. Have also made the journey to the Montshire Museum. It is an unusually well done kids/natural history/ecology place near St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Keenan always loves it when the size of the family expands. It is really nice.

s240 camping...

Went on a little s240 (sub 24 hour) overnight bike camping trip with Mike. We stayed at a lean-to in Little River State Park in Waterbury. The general idea is to get out wherever for a bit. Was nippy, 21 degrees overnight. Nice fires and down jacket inside the sleeping bag to stay warm. I was actually quite comfortable except for numb toes at 5 AM. Might need to add down booties to winter camping list. We encountered a doodling porcupine on our way in!

more pictures from this year...

falling...

The season has arrived, we have proof! Beautiful colors this year. The garden is mostly closed up. Still need to plant garlic at the end of the month and dig under the winter rye. The garden was much more productive this year than last. Lots of eating from the garden. Lots of meals composed mostly of food from the garden.

Keenan is in his first year of "preschool". He is spending the day on monday and tuesday at Orchard Valley Waldorf school. He is really into it so far. The other day a kindergartener said "I'm in kindergarten", to which he apparently replied, "Well I'm in preschool." The school is located on a gentle hillside that was an orchard/farm six years ago. It is a beautiful setting. Last weekend we went for a festival, gathered apples and made juice in a cider press. Fun. There was a play with a giant dragon.

Lots of bike riding and walking lately. Also playing bat. (whiffle ball) Eating cold weather foods and enjoying woodstove action.

fishing...

In case you didn't know, fishing is very serious business and not to be lightly disturbed.

summer garden...

Some recent garden activity. The plants are huge this year. Three yards of compost in the fall and three yards of composted manure in the spring! Michelle has done most of the work. I like gardening but work is so busy in the summer.

pancakes for breakfast...

Keenan cracking eggs for breakfast. It has been a good summer so far. Lots of gardening, canoe and working. As always summer in Vermont is so short and sweet. Just enjoying every minute as much as possible. Check out my new business website at sticksandstonesvt.com

access to upper levels...

My current happy home project is building stairs for our house. Our floorplan has a loft on each end of the house to be connected by a catwalk. I finally have time to build our stairs to get up. We have a loft ladder but with a three year old it is no longer a great thing.

So the stairs...the stringers will be these two big live edge slabs. They are 9 quarter by about 20 inches. The stairs will be set back in them so you are down in the live edge a little bit.

winter biking again...

Here is the current winter ride. Trek 950 mtn bike with road bars. Had it powder coated this spring so it wouldn't fall apart from rust. Nokian studs and fenders. Tons of winter fun with the dog runnnning behind!

wet day salamander play...

Rainy day today. Cleaned up a few odds and ends. Did some estimating. Cleaned some clothes. Then I saw this little guy on our road. He was out for a very leisurely stroll. A very cooperative subject.

bikation and causation...

Saturday in Burlington biking. We met up with Mike http://littlecircles.blogspot.com/2008/10/cut-via-bakfiets.html and Eva for a fun little ride out on the causeway in Burlington. Later Michelle and Jen and the rest of us met up for some food at Stone Soup in Burlington. Now Michelle and I are all set for our big city experience for a while. Since we are accustomed to the sensory experience of a dirt road and the woods it seemed like a lot of sensory input even to be in a small city on a Saturday evening. Funny, huh? It was lots of fun, Keenan was totally wired and stimulated.

wild foods hike...

apples which were made into applesauce

Rosehips which were made into rosehip syrup, full of vitamin C. Yesterday Michelle and Keenan and I hiked up bald hill. The fall colors were amazing. We gathered wild apples for applesauce, rosehips and hawthorn berries for medicinal syrups on the way. It seemed as if our rainy weather was great for the wild foods if not for our gardens. I have never seen rosehips quite as bright and bursting as these. The Hawthorn trees were so full of berries that you could pull them off in giant clusters! It has also been an amazing mushroom year. Michelle made the food and syrups from them.