When life gives you lemons...

... you've just got to make lemonade; lucky for me, we got a bushel of free apples! So applesauce it was...yum,yum...
 I have also been playing with the dishcloth pattern, well, mainly I just ignored the pattern and did my own thing...I've got to say, it is über cool to have handmade dishclothes...!
and I have also been trying to understand my new serger (I broke the needles twice so far), but I managed to finish this cute little skirt for Maura - please note it matches the headband she is wearing on the making bread post...I'm thinking I'm not going to be able to freehand it this time...I made the skirt without measuring or a pattern, but I think it might be a good idea to follow some patterns to try to figure out how clothes really come together....hmmm...

My little acorn doesn't fall far from the tree

Better late than never...

These are two of the gifts the kids got....Maura has been in love with a tiny plasma car for the last couple of years, Santa probably decided she now needs a larger version, they both loved this and even I fit into it...!
Remy said that he has been wanting a car racing track "all his life!", well, thank you Santa, he loves it...!
My recent graduate had fun cracking some of our fall harvest walnuts...
..and we opened a yummy bottle of wine...!

Not Dinner!

Mr. Sassafras was able to catch on of 'our' pheasants the other day, so he brought it over for us to see....
...he is sooo soft and colorful,
..'don't worry little guy, we won't eat you..."
"Wow, he really is soft..."

A very wet weekend....

...So we mostly stayed indoors, except for the necessary chores- performed by Remy...The children painted and I knitted - an ultrashort scarf   - or neck wrap...you pick!  Then to the gym for yoga ....aaaah! I mean, ommmmmmm.....

Baby, it's cold outside....

This is the ice the kids broke off the watering trough...
...the car window, very snowflaky...
the pretty, frozen flowers : (
the barn...
..and the pasture....

We have been having record low temperatures, it's not supposed to snow here, you know....but of course, the kids are loving it, there is no actual snow, but everything is frozen, they have been collecting frozen objects...they put the blocks of ice on top of the posts and 24 hrs later, they are still there..!

...this one's a whopper!

...slowly, but surely, the amount of eggs we get each day keeps increasing...so much so that Remy now needs to bring a basket instead of just putting the eggs in his pocket - and yes, many an egg did break in this fashion...but just look at this cuties...and then please compare to the GIGANTANORMOUS speckled turkey egg we got two days ago...!

Yummy breakfast

This was our breakfast this morning - I surprised the kids when they came in from the foggy, freezing pasture with these yummies we used to have in the café - they are  called gigi's after one of our dear customers who has since passed away...

No Christmas tree here yet...

....because 'someone' decided to camp in the middle of the room!!!!  Yup, they put the tent up the day after Thanksgiving and it's still there!!!

Ahoy there...!

We took a ride on a Tall Ship ....with REAL pirates...!  At the dock, we ran into our friends, and it made the ride that much nicer, the kids all had a blast, the ship was gorgeous, and Maura got to help with the sails - ! Remy ran around and got to explore below deck, as a souvenir, he got a GOLD COIN!!!!  Maura got a lovely brick of tea - yum...!

Science Museum

First, they tried the flight simulator...then made magnet constructions.....
...on to the bubbles...
 built a Remy-bot....
  - and a Maura-bot...
   ...they work !!!!!!

Friday morning "lights.....

Remy was barely awake when he ran outside this morning - there were a couple of  wild pheasants  to be seen out in the pasture ... they flew off as soon as he got there but it was still "really cool!"...And since he was out already, time to let the sheep and Bobo the llama out, pet his chicken Sherman in the barn, check for eggs (three so far), check the pheasant coop for eggs, pet his pheasant Blackie, run around the pen, chase the two chickens that somehow escaped during the night and put them back in the 'soon to be dinner' cage...and check to see if the baby bunnies were born yet...