Halfway 2021

When I finished writing in December, I thought, ooh, maybe I can go back to posting here every month or two.  Then I went back to work, and needless to say, now it's June.  But it's been a good few months.

We had some really nice snow this winter, and enough cold that when we went to Moraine State Park an hour north of us, the lake was entirely frozen such that we all hiked across it to the other side. We decided we should go back in summer to see it when it was liquid as well (although haven't done that yet).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We figured out how to get our wood stove up and running, and have now started cutting wood for next year (we are lucky enough to also have electric heat so there are options!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We started going on a weekly hike in nearby parks, seeing some new spots as well as some we were already familiar with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then we had a long long long quarantine. Noa's teacher at school ended up getting covid, so we all got tested. Noa was positive and the rest of us were negative. She had a fever for two hours or so and was done.  The next weekend Oren had a fever for a couple of hours, so we all got tested again.  He was positive, the rest of us were negative. Then the following week Li'el was positive and the rest of us were still negative. So it was this slow slow march; none of the kids were old enough to "isolate" so we wore masks at home and tried to eat slighly distanced, but otherwise didn't worry too much about it. In the end, actually, Eytan, Mike, and I never got covid, but it was a 5-week quarantine where we were all virtual for school/work, and those weekly hikes got paused.  

Coincidentally, the day before this all started, I happened to have had finger surgery (nothing big, but still) and then over the course of the next few weeks all the kids also had cases of lice and Mike had some weird aches that may or may not have been linked to what has recently been diagnosed for him as lyme disease (which he has probably had for at least a year or so of achy joints, etc.).  We also had this episode where Oren kept telling me there were wiggly things in his poop, and asking what can live in poop, but each time he called me over to look, they had "disappeared" and so I figured it wasn't anything. And then after a few days of daily reports on this, I started asking some more questions and finally I did see them. Turned out to be pin worms. So all in all it was a medically exciting time.

 

Covid purim megillah reading on zoom.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, a friend was getting rid of a piano, so we brought it home and the kids spent lots of time playing around.

We celebrated Oren's sixth birthday (lego person cake) in February, and Li'el's eighth in April.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saba and safta came to visit for passover. We harvested horseradish from last summer's garden for the seder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also got to zoom in both my brothers for seder (see computer sitting on basketball net and silly screenshot).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snowy winter was followed by a nice sunny green spring, except for one last snowstorm on April 1st.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And as people got vaccinated, they came to visit. Mike's dad and step-mom, and then Mike's mom.

 

 

 

 

 

And the kids all played spring soccer, which was fun, but also busy, as each age group took a different night of the week, and with our range of age groups that meant someone always had soccer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My work was fine at the start of the semester, then it got to be a bit of a pain, and then we had another round of personnel changes, which has meant more work but also a lot more freedom. So that I've appreciated. Because I had been supposed to be on sabbatical, someone else was teaching one of the classes I normally do (Dairy), so I got to sit in on it a little and help with their cheesemaking (see feta below), and it was pretty interesting to get to see someone else do the class in a different way.  In some ways, the semester was easier than previous years -- in part probably because of the pandemic, I only had to go to campus on the days I was teaching, and could work from home other days. I had also just had a semester off.  And we had a new Dean. And Mike was still staying home, which meant someone else being point person for kids and house stuff, and an easier option for when in-person school had a remote period. But I still got tired and worn out -- maybe in part because there was less interaction with the people at work I like and then at the same time we didn't have any breaks in the calendar (so that students wouldn't be tempted to travel).  Anyway, same questions as always of how to deal with an intense job that doesn't stop long enough to actually recover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In unrelated news, when I went back through pictures in our camera to find some to show you (yes, we still have a camera; yes, still flip phones too), I found a whole bunch of photos and videos a la Eytan. He started talking about making "time slap" videos, which I eventually realized were "time lapse" videos, but I like time slap better.  Here are some of the photos (not time slap ones), mostly of our yard and plants, and also including a chicken-egg comparison and a goat video.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And other pictures of kids working on stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Mike figured out how to make layered smoothies of rainbow colors.

 

And students from my program who were developing a baking mix asked if Eytan and Li'el could test out the recipe at home, as they wanted to make sure it was doable for all ages.  So they made biscuits.

 

And other creations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At times when their normal school was off or remote (and we weren't quarantined), kids still kept going a couple days a week to outdoor "forest kindergarten." It didn't end up being that often in the winter/spring, as their school was mostly open, but they liked getting to have some "wildwoods" days too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And when school was back in session, the three bigger kids transitioned to walking to the bus stop on their own. Mike or I had walked them during the first half of the year, because there are no sidewalks on our road, but the biggest house between ours and the bus stop is abandoned, so they could actually walk across the field and make it there without getting too close to the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We still drive Noa to school (until she is 5!) but with pandemic rules, all pickups and dropoffs are outdoor. So, while we haven't been inside the school, here are some pictures that teachers have sent out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eytan's class moved into the school auditorium to have space for desks 6 feet apart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has also been nice for kids to have some friends over again here and there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And we have had some changes in animals too, now that we have space and zoning that works for livestock again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to our chickens (who are now laying a lot, and so for the first time since Wenatchee, we are once again distributing eggs to friends again), we hosted a herd of goats from Allegheny Goatscape who needed a place to overwinter (they work during the summer clearing brush in various spots, but stayed in our barn from November to April). Fun to try on mostly full-sized goats on for size (versus our dwarf ones) and to have a donkey with them.We also got to put them out in our pasture to eat in fall and spring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is how we moved them -- a lure with grain and a follower to herd them in their pen for the day. 

We also have a LOT of wild turkeys in our neighborhood.

And a LOT of deer. Not sure if you can see them well on the picture, but there are two little fawns below.

In more recent excitement, after the Allegheny Goatscape herd left, we were trying to figure out who would eat down our pasture. Our previous goats were still on my campus, and doing well there.  We tried to get some sheep (craigslist) but the owners didn't end up able to catch them when we went to pick them up.  And so we happened upon some calves (craigslist too). Turned out they were actually too young to eat the grass yet, so we borrowed our other goats from campus for a month to keep the grasses down a bit, and once the cows get bigger, they should be able to keep the pasture in check. These were the two calves riding home in the minivan (from an hour or so away, in Ohio) at 3 weeks old.

They are two months old now, still need bottle feeding, but soon enough should be "earning their keep."

They have grown a lot -- here is a video of them doing laps, which is apparently one of the ways calves play.

So that's it from here. After school let out, we discovered the township pool and the township library in our new area (both now reopened). Eytan and Li'el both know how to read now, and so they have been blown away by the library and all the options that now opens to them. Li'el is nursing a broken toe (bike riding), and meanwhile, Mike's brother/sis-in-law/niece/nephews are arriving this week to visit from Nebraska, and then we all plan to visit his other brother/sis-in-law/nephews in D.C. for a couple of days (then maybe to NY to my family and make a little round-trip of it). But aside from that week away and a week or two of camp for kids, we hope to mostly be home this summer.  So with that, I'll just leave you with kid pictures.