I've been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the kids this week. We're now at the part where Charlie might find a golden ticket in his chocolate bar. I stopped reading just before we found out, time for bed, but Wynn is super excited for Charlie and hopes he does get his ticket. Laura being back with us tomorrow is like that, but better :)
Going back, I'll try to recount each of our days.
Saturday
After Laura left I started up the DR Brush Mower and gave it a test run in the orchard - to clean up the ground brush and saplings that have begun to take over. It worked pretty well. Kids and I made quick-bread-pizza for dinner and went to bed.
Sunday
I finished mowing the orchard in the morning - kids were great - Wynn is such a good big sister and watches over Willbo, and he of course makes it easy. It was mother's day and GG's birthday so we made some special cards:
Then we got in the truck and headed out to Grammy and Grampy's to celebrate Mother's Day with them plus Great Grammy and Grampie too. And we spent the night there, which was great because it's been cold and the chimney at Uncle Stan's was taken down in order to repair it - so no woodstove heat made for a damp cold night on Sat.
Monday
After breakfast we headed back to Stan's, I really wanted to get the Chimney done. We stopped at Great Grammy and Grampy's so that I could get advice on building the chimney back up. Then we were off to Stan's! The kids self-entertained - again - while I went up on the roof, pulled off the temporary tarp, and began cleaning mortar off the old bricks in order to recycle them. I also had to clean off the old lead to reuse it for flashing. Plus make new flashing out of some SS sheet metal. By mid afternoon I had put a foot or so of brick up plus got all the flashing in place. I ran out of mortar so I stopped, which was just as well since the kids were in need of daddy attention. We got the woodstove going, even though the chimney would ideally have been taller, but the heat was SO nice.
Tuesday
I promised the kids I would do no work today, I've been feeling guilty and they were happy to have me back as a playmate. We took our wild edible field guide and went around the orchard looking for other edibles, and found some :) Though now I can't remember what they were called. Wynn was pretty stoked to also discover Dandelions were edible, so she and Willbo organized a buffet of them and other wild probably-not-edibles:
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| Eat your heart out |
Liz and Chris had invited us over so we went of course! We stopped along the way and found more wild edibles: Fiddleheads! Then we spent the afternoon with Chris/Liz, saw tractors, and enjoyed kavass and cider. Back home we went for dinner and bed.
I stayed up late, most nights I've been doing so, to catch up with BCM work but tonight I also installed a new kitchen faucet that wouldn't spray and leak everywhere! Small pleasures.
Wednesday
We decided to head home to Orono today but first we wanted to go check out a small stream that Rex our neighbor had told us about. It was a 1/2 mile walk and very nice cool clear brook:
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| **x toes :) |
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| They were more impressed than this photo indicates! |
We headed back to the farmhouse, made a quick snack, and then got back to Orono.
Thadius was outside and immediately greeted us. He also apparently has enjoyed the huge folded up house tarp on the front porch while we were gone.
The kids played with Evan and Jordan. Then we went to bath and bed. Oh, and I did a massive cleaning of the house and beddings - cleaned/vacuumed everything!!
Thursday
Library day, first time we've been in several weeks, Willbo skooted there and Wynn and I walked. Kids were interested in the spiders on the bridge and Willbo took it upon himself to save the flies from one of the webs.
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| There is a spider web in this shot, hard to see though |
To our delight Sarah was at the library with Lizzy and Sebastian when we arrived. So more playmates for the kids - I wanted them to get their fill so this worked out really well!
This is also when we picked up our copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Wynn went back for lunch with Sarah and kids and Willbo and I walked home, stopping at the swimming hole so Jessie could take a dunk. And so Willbo could smell the flowers :)
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| green, lots of green |
Sarah dropped Wynn off around 2ish and the kids again played all together. Wynn also did some cuddling with Thad:
Then my kids and I headed off for Newman Hill for the MTB race - I couldn't believe this was actually going to work out - me getting to race - woohoo!!! Kris was there with Paige and Cole (more playmate playtime!!) and so together, with all the other riders, we headed into the woods to the start. Andrea was scheduled to arrive any moment so Kris and I went off at the start and not 2 minutes in I heard the dreaded pssssssssst of air... come on! Fat bike had a flat tire, sigh, no race I guess. I didn't have anything to fix it with, no one else did either. So I walked back to where the kids were and hung out with them and spent some time talking to Andrea about vision quests and other interesting topics.
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| Kris wearing his game face! |
Post-race (Brian won again) we enjoyed some Pizza back in the parking lot and then headed home for a bath and bed.
Friday
Got up, packed up, and headed back north to Springfield. I managed to finish the chimney today, meet with two barn-restoration experts, and go for a ride with the kids - what a good day! I think I did and OK job with the chimney, maybe a good job if the varying brick sizes and shapes are taken into account + that this was my first chimney project ever. I couldn't find a rock large enough for a cap, so for now there is a sheet of aluminum held in place by two concrete pads. I just want to keep the rain out of the chimney/house until something prettier can be found.
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| Kids made a hand print, foot print, and 2 cookies with the leftover mortar |
Barn guys, Chris and Dylan, were not what I expected. They are in their 30s and dressed pretty hip! I was expecting some older more blue collary dressed folks I guess. They came up from Troy and spent an hr or two inspecting the barn. They provided some rough estimates ($8-20k) but also some more inexpensive actions we could take to keep the north wall from racking the structure further out of whack. They were nice guys, professional. But it won't be cheap to fix the barn, not if we hire out, not really a surprise in hindsite.
Grammy arrived to say hi sometime during the above, she stayed for a couple hrs with the kids, which they LOVED. They love their grammy :) Willbo also went poopoo and was able to sit all by himself on the little hole (there is a big and a little one we discovered this week, well atleast I never noticed this until now).
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| He says he feels cold when the poopoo comes out, must be the fresh air on the bunda :) |
And the best part of the day - is - our bike ride!!
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| Sillbo Willbo & Wynnetta Bean |
We rode up the fairgrounds and then down a dirt road. Our plan was to do a loop and come back on the snowmobile trail, the same one that starts behind Rex's house, but this end of the trail was going to be really tough on bikes, especially for Wynn. So we just turned around and came back the way we came. We did a lap around the fairgrounds too, just for fun.
My new bike rides so much better than the old Cross Check does with the bike seat. Willbo loves it of course, he wanted to keep going but Wynn was tired. We only rode 3 miles but it was 6pm and had been a long day. We had spaghetti for dinner with fiddlehead marinara and read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for a bedtime story, Willbo fell asleep after 2 chapters. Wynn wanted me to continue after 3 chapters, but it was 9pm already. Hence why we stopped on such a cliffhanger - would Charlie get his golden ticket?!?!
I'm off to bed now too. Tomorrow morning will be so wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!
