Chopping down the sunflower stalks and stripping them for treasures.

Dash has built a "fermenting" area, lots of buckets and containers, full of all sorts of plants he's gathered, plus dirt, compost, water... It stinks. He loves it.

First day of kindergarten!

that is both a barn and a "spinning wheel" - he's making yarn...

Working on some songs - drawing out the different instruments (in blue) and singing (in green)...

Jammin'

"I think baby cousin might like to wear a dandelion in her hair too..."
(And that evening "baby cousin" Pippa was born!)

He loves his bathrobe :)

Summer in the city -

A little naked guitar at the neighbors

Arrival of the bees...

huckleberries in the forest...

 

building the top bar hive

The best preschool teacher you could ever hope to have - Miss Kelly...

Dash & his friend David crossed the bridge from Faery Garden to Kindergarten today

 
 

 

 

With Jack & Silas on their Daddy's lap - watching the Water Tower Bucket Boys at the Farmers Market...

building the sandbox...

singing songs out the window to the neighbors...

ferry trip up the ramp, over the bumpy "beautiful" road and back again...

Making christmas meals for the squirrels and birds at Nana and Papa's house...

and auntie, who always enjoys a nice snack of raw millet...

More snow! Well over 18," with drifts up to 3 feet - we're completely snowbound...



a tired, tired, snow-chapped face...

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but we have well over a foot of snow now.  This morning there was a quarter inch of ice on top and Dash chopped a path through it using his garden hoe.

the snow has been falling all day, icy cold, swirling wind and a lot of fun! We skied the neighborhood, walking to the top of our hill to the forest; a steep hike but worth the ride...

Thanksgiving day was spent: setting up a puppet show story...



getting wet in the woods while the turkey cooks...

and eating lots of delicious food with great friends!

Getting the holiday lights up...

Happy Birthday!

the coconut cake with apple-quince cream was a big hit...

sharing lunch with his friend at school...

...wearing his birthday crown.

Halloween: Dash as a fairy (his "beautiful, colorful wings" are behind his back) with his best buddy - the one man band

wanting one to look just like Tasha Tudor's "Pumpkin Moonshine"

8:00a.m. Lowes Hardware - gotta beat the crowds...

We went to the Swallowtail Harvest Fair today and had a wonderful time!
Highlights:
* Baby ducks & chicks to be held, goats to visit
* Examining the glider in the field
* Beanbag toss to knock down pumpkins
* Lovely Jack & the Beanstalk puppet show put on by the school in the barn
* Listening to music, watching the dancers, and dancing with Gigi, Mr. Trent (the much-admired assistant for the outdoor kindergarten) & Mommy.
* Making a pinwheel of card stock, beads, wire, and dowel
* Running through the hay bale spiral over, and over, and over...
* Fresh pastured chickens for sale - "it was just killed this morning so it will be a little stiff if you cook it tonight. Wait a day!" Seriously. That is fresh.
* Lots of sunshine, happy kids running around, enjoying the fall air!

Fall has arrived at the market; we picked up our last CSA box this week and it was a wonderful year for the harvest. Many, many "farm box pies" were mixed and enjoyed and we look forward to next years farm share!

Picnic dinner on the deck - the bounty of our CSA box! (Wintergreen Farm's tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, broccoli, kabocha squash, and corn...& Cattail Creek Lamb from our farmer's market)

...he put a flower in his water glass to make it beautiful

a song to sing while shucking corn (the cornsilks are the hairs) -

I missed the first verse, but here are the lyrics to the second:

"...and then you cook it with some butter and water.
it looks...
it takes a little while to get off the hairs.
sometimes the caterpillars come through the very soft skin!"

Farm box dinner

New boots for school!

Dash likes cake...a lot.

quiet time at the beach with Nana

loving the summer cherries!

Saturday at the Market -

where we ran into a friend...

San Francisco Trip!

seeing the sharks and rays -

cable car excitement!

visiting cousin Ed's firehouse

visiting Great-Grandma and sharing strawberries -

We visited nine different playgrounds on our trip -

first merry-go-round ride -

and down to the Pacific for a few minutes on our last full day -

thanks to Auntie & Tom for such a great time!

How excited is Dash to ride a cable car in San Fransisco?
"I am excited as much as from here to Seattle - that is far!"
________________

Auntie: "I'll be picking you up at the airport in a black car."
Dash: "As black as the middle of the night?"
________________

When taking off his shoes and smelling his feet (gross, I know):
"Ooo! They smell like a skunk eating a fox...which smells terrible! Or a fox eating a skunk...which is even more terrible!"

if you put a hose in a molehill...


(You must click on the above pic for the full effect)

Giving Nana the garden tour...

found a little garter snake in the grass

buddies...walkin' at the Mississippi Street Fair

(thanks for catching such a great moment)

we picked raspberries and tayberries this morning!

Summer days are spent...

reading...

having strawberries all your face and playing with friends...

making pies...

without pants of course - because it's hot.

Yum...licking the beater! (Dash and Mama picked strawberries at Bella Organic Farm on Sauvie Island - mixed them up with coconut milk for icecream!)

New apron

Building a house

Conversations

Dash - We will need to put my wheelbarrow away high in a tree.

Mommy - Why do we need to do that?

Dash - Because the foxes will try and eat it because it tastes like cinnamon.  Foxes come at night when people have jars of cinnamon and then they throw it into their mouths and they eat it.  So we will need a tall ladder to put the wheelbarrow high in a tree so that they will not get it.

-------------------

Dash - How do you make cow cheese?

Mommy - Well, first you milk the cow, and then you put the milk into a big pot, and you stir it,  and then....

Dash - How do you milk a cow?

Mommy - Well, first you...

Dash - And how do you make goat cheese?

Mommy - Just like cow cheese - first you milk the goat...

Dash - How do you milk a goat

Mommy - Just like a cow.

Dash - And how do you milk a chicken?

Mommy - Well - you can't milk chickens - they don't have milk.

Dash - Well how do you make chicken cheese?

-------------------

Daddy - I'm not going to work today because it's a holiday.

10 hours later...

Dash - Is it holinight now?

Out looking for foxes in his "moss and grass hat" and safety glasses because "looking for foxes is dangerous"

So we are deep into the age of analogies; here's just a few recent ones (I have no idea why ants feature so frequently!):

To describe how quiet the tea kettle might be whistling (because it wasn't boiling yet but he wanted it to be hot, and he hoped it was perhaps just whistling quietly) 

"I think it is as quiet as a mouse snuggling an ant" 

"I think it is as quiet as an ant snoring"

And when hoping that a mixing bowl would cool off enough so that he could stir in the next ingredient:

"It is as hot as an ant on a fox"  (which was too hot)

And then a few minutes later:

"It is as hot as an ant on a child...which is a little bit cooler."

cutting up the first strawberries of the year(hooray!) for Mother's Day

In the forest

and at his "store" in the forest, where he sells "pumpkins and kabocha and apples and radishes and salmon and berries"

Dash's favorite form of lunch - his own table, with his books...

Dash's first fish! Dug the worms and reeled up a little flounder-

unhooked him and watched him swim away...