Let the records show that Isadora has started her first business, an egg business. Given her penchant lately for all things “club” and paying homage to the “Lovely Ladies” moniker she bestowed upon the flock 5 1/2 years ago, we’ve decided to call it The Lovely Ladies’ Egg Club. It’s a chance for her to have some honest responsibility, with
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“What a remarkable way for this land to provide,” Andrew exclaimed after returning with a limit of trout caught the morning of the season’s opener. Accompanied by his eager apprentices, he won us a trout dinner in less than a half hour. Remarkable, indeed. We are so grateful to this land and to the vibrant brown trout who we count
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On Friday night we huffed and we puffed and we brought home our piano. Our living room is complete; I smile each and every time I walk through the room, still shocked to have realized this lifelong desire. We have a piano. No, none of us play. Officially. But it’s getting plenty of play time, even out of tune as
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Last week I elected to have my eyeballs lasered to correct the nearsightedness that has been a part of my life since third grade. My glasses sit on my nightstand now, unused since Thursday, rendered obsolete. It is thrilling to be without them, even while my vision is stabilizing. The recovery period for the procedure I had (PRK) is more
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Eggs – the laying of and the hatching of – have so permeated my thinking these days that I was naturally reminded of this gem of a video, captured a few months after we moved here to the Acres. It’s casually narrated by a 2 1/2 year old Isadora. The hens were not impressed with the intruder, egg-laying-kin or not.
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I arrived at Steinbeck in a roundabout way, but from this vantage point the journey seemed inevitable. Last summer’s drought was one to inspire the casual and not-so- use of the phrase “Dust Bowl.” The summer months were peppered with the moniker, the frequency of its usage increasing in direct proportion to the distance from the last measured rainfall. I
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A friend came by a few days ago to instruct us on the ancient art of psanky, or Ukranian Egg Dyeing. In just a couple of hours, we covered the basics and got down to designing our own eggs. Psanky is basically egg batik. Beeswax is used as a resist, applied in a fine line with a kistka, the reservoir
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It was the answer to the question I had posed to her at the beginning of the week: “What do you want to learn about?” Sulfur, geodes, malachite…even behind glass they capture the attention of the Girl Who Collects Rocks Everywhere She Goes. The Boy? He was only in it for the dinosaurs. Where are the dinosaurs? No. Where are
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It’s high time I told you about our band. It’s called Fiddle Dee Dee, in an unabashed reference to Gone With the Wind, and is comprised of two members – me and Isadora. Not fiddlers by trade, we began taking lessons together in September. And it’s been a bumpy ride, Folks. So bumpy. Learning something new is HARD and it
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It all started innocently enough. Errol wanted to go outside; I joined him. He reveled in the fact that he was walking on the lake, frozen like a giant ice cube. I brushed away the snow with the edge of my boot to reveal the ice beneath. That simple act set forth a cascade of events which culminated in the
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