busy days outdoors

These last few days, the most likely of places you’ll find us is outdoors. In the garden (by the lovely Pasque flowers), by the pond (feeding the trout), in the woods (clearing brush with machetes (!) ), in the barnyard (with the silly goats or peaceful sheep), or running about in dress-ups…embracing the wide open spaces and fresh, spring air.

While we were waiting for the sheep shearer to arrive (more on that next week), the kids found a pile of treasures in the overcrowded shed. They hauled out a bike trailer and assorted gadgets and spent the better part of an afternoon rigging the frame to be a helicopter. I walked by several times, and noticed their dedication and was impressed with their earnest belief that it truly would fly. After a few hours of building the helicopter, their efforts were obvious within seconds that it was a doomed flight, destined to never make it off the ground. No one was that disappointed, and they dismantled it with surprising good humour. I think they appreciated that most of the fun was in building it, together, and all the laughter they shared over the silliness of it all. This was made all the more special to my mama’s heart as it was an activity of cooperation and good humour, without the typical sibling quarrelling. I’ll take those wins as they come, for sure!

Sunshine has always been a little more independent from the boys, enjoying her solitude as much as the companionship of others. I was a lot like that ~ perhaps I still am? ~ and while some days she likes to dress up in her own imaginative world, there are other days she joins the boys in their battle games. You can tell by these photos which dress-up day was with her brothers and which day she was lost in her own world.

I made some delicious grain-free, low carb crackers yesterday. Super savoury and tasty, they go so well with cream cheese, hummus, soup, or piled up with melted cheese and onions as a plate of nachos. My kids love them, which is great considering it can be difficult to find good bread and cracker alternatives. We use almond flour or coconut flour for baking, and after a year of eating this way, I am filing away a good amount of tasty recipes.

My boys devised an ingenious (?) way to fetch wood for our cookstove. I was dubious at first, wondering why they simply didn’t do it the “easy” way. However, listening to their giggles, it is clear that this is the best way to do wood stacking chores.

As we are clearing land for this year’s pigs (all 10 of them!), we discovered our long-abandoned outhouse. We debated moving it to a location where we’d like to build a guest cabin one day or fire it up and burn it….guess which got the most votes?

It went up slowly at first, and then the fire consumed it so rapidly, it was humbling. A good lesson for the children (and both of us) in how destructive fire can be. Luckily, we had hoses on hand, but didn’t have to use them.

When Papa went back to work in the mountains, the kids and I visited our favourite goat farm. It is a long-standing March tradition to go see our friends, and the original home of our own Heidi and Willy. I think no early spring is complete without seeing several bouncing, mischievous goat kids at play and bottle feeding them their lunch.