Farmers

Tuesdays are our day to spend with a group of wonderful unschooling families. Usually we go to a park or meet in our neighborhood, but today we went to a farm. A local couple has lived on and worked this farm for 41 years. The lady now has breast cancer and the man recently had surgery, so they are unable to bring in their harvest this year and are struggling with all the work a farm requires. So unschoolers to the rescue! We went and picked grapes and raspberries and tomatoes and peppers. Then in exchange for getting to keep the produce, we raked and hauled some wood.

We were told we could take home what we picked, so the boys said that they wanted to carry their raspberries home "in their bellies". They spent a huge amount of time picking and directly eating the raspberries. Miranda tried them for the first time and decided that she loved them and proceeded to eat some, very slowly as is her style.

The most amazind part of the day for me was watching my kids just go and gain

a little confidence and explore a bit. Joey has always fancied himself a bit of a Steve Irwin, but I don't think ever had quite the confidence to go out and catch snakes. Probably because of me and the caution I bring to those opportunities. Well today, we both just let go. At one point, a very small garder snake crawled right across my foot as I was walking and while maintaining my composure, I managed to yell, "Hey, here's a snake" and then was immediately swarmed by a gaggle of wild, free children ready to catch it. They did and passed it around and then set up a habitat for it. Joey decided that there must be more and started hunting. He spent 2 hours hunting snakes, digging in the brush and under leaves. He caught two more small ones and a larger one as well. It as if he was channeling Steve Irwin himself. I had a few fears of "what if he catches a poisionous one instead?" But had to let that go. I was really proud for him, but more importantly, I think he was proud of himself.

We got three plastic grocery bags full of a variety of grapes. Having already made more grape jelly than we will use this year, we decided to make grape juice. Miranda, having absolutely no interest in catching snakes, wanted to help me with this when we got home. All we

did was wash them, take them off the stem, puree them in the blender and then strain them. We discovered that just that is too strong, so we use one part grape juice to one-two parts water and add a tiny bit of sugar. Miranda was really getting in to making the juice and understanding the process and experimenting with the finding the right mixture. I

had to run out for a little bit and left Miranda to continue with making the grape juice. Now Miranda loves food and not just in her mouth, but on her hands and on her body and on all of the space around her. Food is simply another art medium for her. So I was a bit surprised when I returned and she was still making the juice and hadn't gotten the least bit "creative".

I am enjoying this bounty of the land and learning new ways and revisiting some old to preserve it. It is wonderful to have the space in my life to do this.

Loving the Relaxed Life

Oh how we love the unschooling life.  Now that we have had the taste of freedom that comes from living without school for 18 months, I can't imagine how we could ever go back.  Being able to go at our own pace in the morning without having to rush is a gift I am completely grateful for.  "Mom, will you read me a book?"  "Mom, can we play a game?"  "Mom, I want to be a geologist when I grow up, can you help me learn all about geology right now?!"  Yes, yes and yes!  To have the time and space to be able to say yes is luscious.

I used to treasure my evenings after the kids went to bed as my "alone" time and my time to get things done that I wanted to do.  But these days, the kids are staying up as late as or later than us, so I wake before them and have my coffee, check emails and make a list of ideas I have for the day.  No matter how relaxed I get, I will always be a list person.  It isn't a curriculum or an agenda, just ideas that have popped into my head and maybe a few things I must get done.

Today I bought a mini fridge, on craigslist of course!  I am stumbling into making cheese.  Last week I made mozzarella (look for a posting on this soon).  This week I want to make some soft cheeses.  Maybe next week, cheddar.  Although I still need to figure out a way to press the cheddar.  So the fridge?  I need to let many of the cheeses age for many months at a constant 55 degrees.  Since our basement is occupied and therefore heated, that is out.  Some of my neighbors have a ground fridge (aka deep hole in the ground).  Buying a used mini fridge was much simpler that that!  Maybe someday we will dig.