January 19, 2016

they don’t realize they have an audience

…and a flock of snow sheep with a little lambie ~ she loves this so much!

So much snow that the house wears a snow skirt!  Once in a while, we hear a crunching slide, startling all of us, and then a huge “whuuummmmmmp!” as it falls to the ground below.  All the fenceposts wear hats of sorts and  we are walking around so high above the garden beds.

Nyla likes to keep dry in the soft bedding she made in the hay.  We keep the hay in our greenhouse for now, close to the goats and sheep making for more efficient chores twice a day.

What a snowy winter we are having this year!  Such a contrast to last year’s very dry, barren winter.  I recall missing the snow so much and though we were gardening in March, I felt a seasonal disorientation.  Certainly this year is making up for it with deep drifts all around the property.  Every afternoon we are outdoors sledding and making forts.  I find it funny that my kids are drawn to build their thrones and caves and flock of snow sheep just outside the garden near all the animals.  I suppose we just naturally are drawn to this zone of the property…and of course I love that.  I spend a good amount of time with my sheep while the kids play.

Across the sheep pasture is the temporary romancing pen for our doe, Heidi, and her visiting amour.  Hershey is a very large Nubian buck who has been blessed to make any human giggle by his forward pointing ears.  So far he has been with us for ten days and our whole barnyard absolutely stinks!!!  Honestly, a rank billy goat looking for love is absolutely the stinkiest creature ever!  My sheep ram doesn’t smell at all so this positively bowls me over.  I look at his photo on here and I can taste his scent!  Really!!!  Good thing he goes home soon…as soon as Heidi will allow him to do the deed!  I can understand her hesitation.  Poor guy…he really is a sweet fellow, but goat cologne is not my thing.

With the new year, we have fresh ideas for our homeschooling.  My oldest is still learning at home, but he is also attending a local school part-time.  Big changes for us, and I miss him so much the two days he is away.  It is pretty amazing to have such a flexible school system here and we picked two days that seemed hard to resist…the first is ski day at the mountain, which was an easy decision to make.  The second day is at school, part of which the teacher takes them outside to snowshoe or ice skate.  In the afternoon, there is a program called Destination Imagination where the kids work cooperatively in small groups to create working inventions.  Forrest loves it!  Really, this is just like the homeschool coop we participated in the last three years (and still do with my younger two kids).  It has opened up a new world to Forrest, some of which is great and some of which we have to wade through and filter out.  A work in progress, this homeschool journey…it will be interesting to see where it leads.  I’m grateful we still do the bulk of learning at home together as the Norse block we have been working on is stretching on as it is fascinating!

Sunshine loves grade 1 work…alphabet and reading and number work (her favourite!) and painting.  Together we painted wintry scenes with watercolour and sprinkled salt all over them to create a snowy look.  I forget how much I enjoy painting with my kids and I am loving how wintertime brings more craftiness into our home.

Forrest is lucky enough to get both school ski day and homeschool ski day every week.  They all love skiing and Huckley sets out his gear the night before…

 Sunshine helped make a pillow for a friend’s birthday party on the weekend.  She picked out the fabric and I sewed ~ another easy project that only took 20 minutes to make.  I am really liking the inspiration of fast and easy projects after the long haul of endless hat knitting!

And when we are back in from outdoors, there are lengthy Uno marathons and puzzles to piece together.  I set up a puzzle during the holiday season, not knowing how challenging it was.  At 1000 pieces it is quite difficult, but it doesn’t stop anyone from sitting down for a few minutes, which can easily turn into a half hour, and trying to find a piece or two.  I love puzzles and it is so fun to sit alongside my kids and work on them together.  Really, sharing any of my favourite things with these three people makes my heart so full and happy!