Maira Kalman: Back to the Land

Maira Kalman, she who re-inflamed my ire for Benjamin Franklin earlier this year, has written a lovely little illustrated thing about local-ness and chickens and slowing down and future generations. It's on the New York Times website.

Our chickens laid four eggs today. Thanks for sharing, chickens.

Anniversaries

Tomorrow is the 5-year anniversary of Fergus' leukemia diagnosis. He's doing great now.

Insert contemplative commentary here.

Eclecticly Tabled

Eclecticly Tabled
Originally uploaded by baseballpajamas

The eclectic table is ready, the bird brined overnight, and now she's
in the oven. It's hard to tell, but the centerpiece consists of a
photo of our actual turkey, taken tuesday morning (we didn't raise
her, one of the kids' teachers did, but she's ours now)....

T-Day Prep

T-Day Prep
Originally uploaded by baseballpajamas

Fergus makes his first pumpkin pie....his favorite.

Thankfulness

Norah had a friend, Erin, over for a sleepover on Saturday; I think that was the first time Norah has had a friend over for the night. Fun was had by all (despite a certain level of girl-intensity) and a fair amount of sleep even happened. Norah has declared Erin her "BFF" (Best Friend Forever?), although Norah seems to enjoy a lot of people at school. Frankly, Erin probably has a lot of BFFs, but she and Norah do have a good time together.



The sleepover came a day after the annual "Harvest Supper" potluck at the kids' school. For that event, many of the kids had written statements and poems (many with illustrations) describing what they are thankful for.

Fergus, for example, was thankful for cats.

Other kids were thankful that they were driven to school each day, or for chinchillas, or for "fish and knives," or that Stevie Wonder is still alive.

One student said she was thankful for veterans, including her dad, and thankful that her dad was "not dead" (we patted him on the back and said we were glad too).

Some of the kids, Norah included, were feeling too shy to read their thanks out loud, so one of the teachers, Shawnee, read those.

As it turns out, Norah (that delight) is thankful for: "Oxygen, soil, water, fire, books, shelter and Erin--because life wouldn't be possible without six of these things...and Erin makes me laugh."

Sigh of pride. Sigh of thankfulness.

Final harvest

This afternoon Norah and I dug up the last of the potatoes--one of the funnest things about having a garden. It's particularly fun when you plant several varieties without any plan... Harvesting then becomes a kind of treasure hunt:

"I've got a red one!"
"Here's another white!"
"Oh! A purple!"

This harvest was almost an afterthought; I almost let it lie. Still, Norah and I came inside with fourteen pounds of potatoes.

Bring on thanksgiving.

Tonight In Montpelier: Rock Lottery 2

I'm still too run down to attend this event, but it sounds like fun. Several "False 45th Record Club" participants, including Mike Donofrio, are mentioned in this story. If only I could play my accordion worth a shit!

Source: Vermont Public Radio


The Lamb Abbey is located near Finkerman's/Ariel's, next to the Source (Subaru repair shop).