2011-10 OCT

Pumpkin Patch 30 images	Bloedel Reserve Hike 26 images	Chickens! 65 images
Fish Day 22 images	Gazzam Lake 11 images	Woodstack 17 images

1	2 First Sunday of the month is Farm Kitchen breakfast out in Port Gamble area. So much food, and so fun!	3 Afterwards you can walk around the grounds, feed apples to the draft horses and enjoy the flowers.	4 Amazing. I love these! Angie - what are they?
5	6	7 Lots of French-toast-fueled mischief afoot now!	8 Running running running all over!
9	10	11 Then for dinner (but who needed dinner after that?!) we got to enjoy Matt and Melodie!	12 So fun to reconnect with friends after 5 years as if no time had passed at all. They did a great job dealing with the incredible noise that fills our house when boys are excited and playing instruments for guests. Dave made incredible potato salad from our friend Betsey's potatoes which she farms with the help of two draft horses. I think she is just incredible!
13 Designing the run portion of the great coop building project. Getting Dave's input on paper before proceeding. This has been a collaborative project spanning many months and many miles! Now Gramma and Richard are on site for the final phase! I know it will involve some consternation and lots of laughs!	14 Learning to rope! I finally got it! I now have a "steer" made of madrona attached to a fence post. Dave has not commented on that decoration...	15 Silly boys doing chicken faces!	16 Our zuchini is growing!!!
17 Ft. McHenry!	18 Now off for a little farm touring looking for eggs. Sam was off from school that day so we got his company, too!	19 At Laughing Crow Farm where Cassie very kindly introduced us to Red and Abby, who help cultivate the fields.	20 There's the cultivator.
21 BIG draft horses!	22 Testing to see if a cabbage head is ready. It needs to be very firm.	23 It was grey out, but really so pretty because the sun popped out over the rolling hills just as we were touring around.	24 That is their chicken tractor! They move it from spot to spot so the chickens can feed and weed!
25 See the sun now?!	26 "A weef!"	27	28 Rolling Bay area is where we live, and you can see why it got named as such.
29 Go Sam!	30 Ben is out cultivating the pen area. He LOVES the "baby hoe" - loves it. I don't love worrying about two boys hoeing within inches of each other. But that is what they have been doing while we build the run for the chicken coop.	31 Singing the national anthem and reciting the story of the War of 1812 and its epic battle at Ft. McHenry, which inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the words to the song.	32 A little beach walk with Ben in Indianola - GrownUp Eagle enjoyed it very much.
33 Showing him a huge jellyfish!	34 Not sure what this thing is...have to look it up.	35 This is a dogfish. There are a ton of these small sharks so the fisherman toss them out.	36 The seagulls enjoy lunch on them!
37 Showing GrownUp Eagle a big eagle totem. This land is the Port Madison Indian Reservation.	38 Our home at night with the monster pumpkin!	39	40 I run in to let the chickens out on our way to school. They laugh hysterically as they watch Merlin RACE around the coop trying to catch a hen to make a baby chick! He was really desperate this morning - he even raced UNDER the coop. Not much clearance for a huge bird like him!
41 Sweet girl - I just love her. She was so cuddly when the new hens arrived. After a lot of love and attention and helping her get on her own two feet she is thriving now. I even gave her water from a dropper. Now she is much more independent and stands up to the other hens when need be. Even Merlin!	42 Doing letters with Ben involves lots of hands-on stuff, like chasing him with letters, or taping the J to the JELLY!	43 Sam practicing guitar before his lesson. He has almost got the Star Spangled Banner down!	44 What a cute cute road, reminds me of Europe. It looks bleak and grey here. It is. But being out with the boys makes it fun anyway - they always dial up the color with their antics, and we heard a sea lion barking somewhere out in the distance.
45 I want this!!!! Only $400!	46	47	48 Chicken "recess" after school is so much fun! We let them out into the big pen where they just run wild. Ben is feeding HollyRamona chard! He laughs like crazy as she jumps up to snag a bite.
49 Sam is guarding the dust bath area - there is real warfare over the prime spot, which is just to Sam's right. Can you see Merlin eyeing Sam?	50 Finally, HollyRamona has bagged the prime dust bath spot, so we're going to fend off the intruders. It's important to let them do the dust bath because it keeps mites from taking hold.	51 Back off, PeckyBecky!	52 Go!
53 HollyRamona shares with another of the "first hens" - the ones we first adopted.	54 More crowding into that prime spot! But sharing nicely now, thanks to Sam's admonishments. See Merlin???	55 Chicken recess with playmates - spaghetti, a worm gathered from under a stump, and a chicken anatomy sheet.	56 While waiting for friends to show up for recess with the chickens, Ben shows Merlin what's inside him.
57 At the laundramat - our washer was broken for 14 days! I am sure glad to have it fixed! A nice lady gave the kids a quarter each for MORE candy!	58 Ben doing morning chicken chores with me. This is scratch that we sprinkle around and feed from our hands. He takes such good care of the chickens, making sure the favored "first hens" get preferential treatment.	59 Biking in Poulsbo along the waterfront.	60 Such a good biker now! He does 5Ks with me trotting along.
61 After the fish hatchery, we (well, Jon!) cleaned and filleted the salmon.	62 This is a male salmon. Note the grisly hook nose!	63 The females are in the slats waiting to have eggs harvested. The salmon swim upstream, get caught in the net, get a swift bonk on the head with a bat, and are then used for egg and sperm retrieval to create the next generation of fish.	64 Male again.
65 See me and Ben on far left? That is Kathy and Anneliese, Calleigh and Jon with us. Ben has his stuffed salmon in his hand to watch.	66 Having a soda with Daddy while working outside :)	67 Is that Daddy patting HollyRamona?	68 And checking eggs!
69 Poor Ben very sick with the stomach bug that went through the town.	70 Naughty Merlin hopping out!	71 Teaching Baby Tad about the color green while out on a hike.	72 Finding some blow-down to report - Ben is a trail steward now.
73 This is what Sam wants to be next year - a Gormidian. It's a creature with one eye and eight legs. It lives in another solar system, on a planet called Lavaland. He made this up all himself.