the little egg collector

Tuesday's little tag-a-long

Beach and B

BC the hoarder gets help

Late last week BC finally found time to have the portable sawmill over to tackle some of the piles of salvaged hardwood trees he has lying about the farm. Yeah, he even has a collection of salvaged trees...

If you didn't know BC is a materials hoarder.

  

Nice wood! 

farm

oh 'deer' daughter

When I looked up from the garden to see all this going down I was shocked to find you standing in for your brothers.

See my sisters and I were not allowed to do things like this. Girls didn't mow the grass.  We didn't chop wood or dig in the earth. We just didn't. We weren't allowed. We weren't supposed to want to.

And as I watched you struggle with work and the weight of all that was before I wanted to say one thing to you, my sweet child; 

Dear Daughter, You are welcome.

afternoon eggs

in the dark

 We went at night.  It was dark and much too crowded... but it was the space he had for her.  After work, after dinner, after a stop to IFA for hay,  a few must take phone calls, and an emergency horse fence repair.

 She had only waited a year to show him: The Clock Tower photo.  The blue ribbon it won hangs in her room beside the rack of gymnastics medals.  In the ribbons place, the photo is framed and matted beside the framed explanation of what makes this wall of photos special.  A selection of last year's winner chosen to travel.

 Of course, she showed him this year's winning photos too.  

Awkwardly and shy, not sure what he would think, not sure what he would say.

He followed her through the crowds and the flashing lights.  

In and out of musty barns. Half emptied and dim.

Past the cages of animals who should have already been sleeping.

Through the salty-sweet smells and the striated night.  

  She showed him the booth she bought her new favorite sweater from. In return for the night tour of her day world, he bought 2 tickets for the big yellow slide.  And she and I climbed the stairs high over the night carrying heavy woolen blankets to ride down on.

 He sat at the bottom waiting for us holding our bags. He even snapped a few photos. 

The Fair at night with him is a very different place.

It's sort of a whole new world.

busy, busy, busy

Just like everyone else that we know we've been busy. As a family over the previous 2 weeks, we spent a ton of hours Fall Cleaning and organizing the house. It ended in a yard sale this weekend followed by a huge haul of leftovers carted off to a local thrift store.  

That's BC reading from Hollow City among the yard sale clutter. 

Speaking of BC. He's been busy in the wood shop crafting a pair of custom reclaimed wood coffee tables and a cutting board. All three items are up for sale (ksl classifieds) if you are interested.

Beach has busy creating too. She entered the school year with a project already due: Utah State Fair Photo Entries. It's meant taking a few trips to the local photography store for printing and matting. Here is a preview of 2 of them. She turns them into the photography judges at the end of this week.

There's been lots of family time too. Visits from the Kids with Baby J. Baby's mom LOVES the horse. And more meeting of cousins for the first time. 

This is my mom sitting with one of her childhood friends at a family dinner my parents held over the weekend.

The start of school was good. It feels really great to be back in school <3 Minus the long nearly unfruitful hunt for shrinky-dink paper which of course turned up at a store right under our noses! With the photo entries all ready to turn in we can start planning the next big project. 

 Beach and Sophie got a chance to go to Lagoon on Saturday! 

(Kat, thank you so much for making this possible for them.)

 Closer to the home and to the heart we have been dealing with a dog that is at the tail end of his life. We have had Moses (a full-bred standard poodle) since he was 8 months old. Adopted him from a local shelter after his first home gave him up for being too wild. At 14 years old, his back legs are failing, his sight and hearing are gone, and he walks around seemingly confused most of the time...sigh. 

I spent most of this weekend between the yard sale, late night driving ninjas home from Lagoon, popping in on the Millcreek Farmer's market for corn, and Sunday dinner at my parent's, sleeping. Yep, all this fun and busy and back-to-school kids at the gym using my phone to call home sick last week:c I am a little under the weather myself. I am hoping the next 2 weeks are less busy.