Scarecrows and such

Our town started a new activity last year.  The Historical Society thought it would be a great idea to do a scarecrow fund raiser.  They sell the head for a fee and then the person buying it comes up with a clever scarecrow to house the noggin.  Last year, they sold out of the 50 they had made. This year, they sold out of the 100 they made and there's already a list for next year.  Pretty cool idea, I thought, and money raised for a great cause.  Enjoy some of the fun antics we have going on around town, won't you?

Josh, the pizza chef and butcher extrodinaire at your local general store.

The EMT outside of the fire station and ambulance service.

That's one GIANT spider at the Brown's house!

you can't see in this picture, but boy to the right is playing Super Mario on a fake tv, the little girl in front is walking their dog, Mom's harvested the garden in the back, not sure what Dad's up to...

At a local beekeepers house...

At the oldest resident's home, she's got got the Boston Post Cane this year and is 94!

Headless Horseman indeed!  We'll miss the person who used to ride up and down the street on Halloween night dressed at the headless horsemen with her bay horse, they moved to Tennessee this year.

an ode to the snow lovers...

A local artists home, pretty neat and it's rained a bunch since this was taken and the painting looks the same!...

At a retired shepherd's home...

Where we get our hunting licenses and deer cutting station...

Their daughter is an adult ballet dancer...

And Maestro's favorite, a Patriots fan watching tv with his big bowl of snacks, soda and magic 8 ball...

If I get a chance to get out and take more pictures, I'll add to this, there are 100 of them around town, after all! 

Scarecrow adventures to you, ~Peacemom







Can You Smell IT?

I woke up this morning, and autumn struck me.  There's a special smell to the air when it's becoming autumn...clearer, crisper, chillier...I dug out wool socks yesterday and smiled as I pulled them on to sit in our wonderful sun porch and have hot tea, with toasty toes.  It was not iced tea that I reached for as I have all summer, but wanted to hold the mug in my hand to feel it's warmth, to inhale the vanilla goodness, see the steam rising.  Flannel, wool socks and hot tea, perfect comfort are these.

Now, anyone that knows me, or if you've been following my blog for a time know I am totally obsessed with the Fall Equinox season.  There is something very interesting that happens to me during this time of the year.  I don't know how or why, because certainly in this day and age we've got all modern conveniences that basically totally negate this visceral reaction that I have to the cooler temps, the color of leaves changing, the need for another blanket on the bed.  The ingrained sense is this...it's time to get the hunkering down started.  I have a drive to make sure there's wood split, the shelves in the pantry are full of canned goods, the sweaters and wool socks should be in good working order or mended if need be, the fall comforter needs to be hung on the line and freshened up.  All these things harken back to a more basic time, don't they?  But, they honestly do exist in my nature, the drive is there and starting up with full force. 

As I woke this morning to work in total darkness, I noticed that first light didn't arrive in the sky until about 5:50.  At the height of summer, it began getting light about 4:10 in the morning, so oh yes,  the days are definitely shorter.  That's sometimes a bit tough for me being the morning person that I am, I'm ready to go with first light usually.  But when first light doesn't come until almost 6:00am, and I've got to be up at 4:45 to start work...that's a tough one some mornings.  My internal clock pushes out too, and suddenly I should have been up earlier and now it's 5:30, messes up the whole flow of my day.  I don't use an alarm clock, I've got one in my brain.  It takes a little time to adjust to the fact that  I need to get up in the dark rather then the light.  And I've been doing this for over 40 years, you think I would have the hang of it by now!

 I do so love waking to a chilly house in the morning.  It's not yet the cold of winter, it's the feeling of cozy-the feeling of wanting to pull the blanket up close to my ears and rest for just a few more minutes.  That chill when it's not yet time to turn on the furnace, but time to just put on a layer or two.  Cozy is just the right word for that feeling.  And I know I'm in full autumn swing when I reach for the hot tea mug and make that the first beverage break of the morning.  In summer, I have iced tea going all the time, in fact I drink about 2 quarts a day (unsweetened, I don't muss it up with sugar or anything else), but fall/winter/spring it's hot tea all the way.  I'm not a hot weather worshipper, in fact, as you probably know, I really, really dislike being hot.  I much prefer the need to add layers of cozy clothes and blankets then get to the summer heat where there's just so much I can take off an not freak out my neighbors.

This week's autumn preparation will include harvesting the copious apples on the trees in our current yard.  They are spotty, funky in shape and multicolored, but taste great.  So, I'll be saucing and for the first time trying my hand at canning my own apple juice.  My boys prefer it and I figure if I can stop buying the organic kind in the plastic bottles for a while and have a few gallons preserved for them for winter, that's a win-win all the way. 

Wood smoke on the air this morning...can you smell it too?

Wishing you apples and wool socks of your own, ~Peacemom

Gaa Gaa Gaa, it's Peaceable Wild Kingdom!

Good Morning, Friends and Family,

We have turkeys. They are wild and really cool. The neighborhood mascots have become quite fun to watch as they've grown. We first discovered them in the spring when we heard the tell tale "gaagaagaa" in the woods. These turkeys don't actually gobble, they more make a "gaa" sound in rapid succession when they are talking to each other. It's pretty funny to hear. They have become the main attraction when they are outside doing what turkeys do and that is eat. They spend most of their day pecking in the neighbor's lawns. The neighbor across the street is like us, he does not use any chemical fertilizers on his lawn and has an abundance of weeds. Now, on the surface this may not seem like what you'd want for a lawn, but it's really a very healthy environment for lots of critters, including whatever bug or grub it is that these turkeys find delectable. They have scratched some patches in his lawn bare to dirt.

Originally when we spotted them, there were two adults and 6 babies. The babies were so cute and we would always stop what we were doing to watch them. Now, as the summer and autumn have progressed, it's tough to tell the babies from the adults as they are just about the same size. And all six of the babies made it. I cheer for the mama whenever I see them because I know how hard that feat was to accomplish. We actually do have some wild dogs living in the woods adjoinging our properties, so that is even more amazing in light of that fact. Good mama and daddy!!

They are smart little birds with bb sized brains. They know where the good grub is and where the best places to avoid are. Unfortunately, they seem to avoid our yard as one big party they don't want to be invited to. This is understandable with two boys running around outside most of the day, making noise (and oh, do they make noise), laughing, fighting, playing with toys (which are strewn everywhere no matter how many times we clean it all up during the day). Like I said, these are not dumb birds. They also won't let me get close enough to them on foot to get a reasonably good picture of them, so above is what I was able to manage. I was trying for the cool Thanksgiving card shot with my neighbor's lovely door decoration and the turkey in the foreground. Unfortunately, I could not get close enough, even with my big lens, to capture the shot I really wanted. But this one is cool, anyways.

I really wish these little harbingers of fall would come over to our yard and scratch away. We could definitely use a decrease in the grub population in our yard and goodness knows the soil is packed hard from kiddos running around on it all the time, so they could come over and do a little tilling for us while they forage for grublets. I've not been able to convince them just yet, but don't be surprised if you spot some cracked corn on the lawn...I won't know how it got there, but I just hope the little fairy that spreads it actually attracts them.

Wishing you the blessings of turkeys in your lawn, ~Peacemom

Our own cooking show

Good Morn to you,
Just wanted to post a recipe for some yummy pumpkin bread that Little Red and I made the other day. He's really becoming quite adept with the mixer and is loving not fighting over who gets to mix the wet or dry ingredients. Since both boys love to help cook, and both love to do the wet ingredients, we have to switch off who does what each time we cook together. Now, Little Red gets to do wet AND dry and life is good in his little world. This having big bro gone to school for 4 hours each day is not all bad after all.

He's been having some fun with me during this time. I've purchased a few workbooks and we do our "school work" for 1/2 hour each day and we have set up a bit of a routine already. Once we wave our final goodbye to Maestro each day, we usually hop in the car if we need to go somewhere and head out first. This gives Little Red something to look forward to as he's always ready for an adventure. And let me tell you now, anyone who doesn't have at least two children wouldn't know this...it's absolute heaven shopping with just one of the boys at a time. Instead of dancing around, singing, knocking things off shelves, chattering incessantly, the list goes on, Little Red interacts with me, is well behaved, asks me questions, isn't hopping around like an ant with his butt on fire, it's all good.

After errands are completed, we usually come home, have that 1/2 hour of school work, then it's snack time. After snack time, we usually will make something together, some days it's cooking, some days arts and crafts, whatever the mood strikes me that day. Then, here's mommy's one big guilty pleasure that I've not been able to indulge since they stopped napping years ago...I turn on...shhhhh....don't tell anyone else, okay?....the Food Network....and watch a cooking show! A whole half hour of cooking, and no one jabbers through the whole thing, I can actually hear it AND get to increase my brain power instead of just listening to (let's face it, can't watch it) Curious George for the 453rd time. Oh, I love it! And, Little Red even likes it too. He says things like "YUMMY, that looks good" and "Can we make that, Mommy", oh it's music to my ears. I so rarely get to watch any TV that is adult TV and to be honest, most of the time, I don't care. I prefer to read at night once I crawl wearily into bed, so it works out just fine most of the time. But, I do miss the days when Music Man and I would snuggle up on the couch with some buffalo wings and the drink of choice and camp out for whole afternoons in the fall and winter and watch the Sox or Pats and enjoy a peaceful afternoon together. Though I'm not a football fan at all, I am a Music Man fan, and snuggling up on the couch with him didn't need an excuse! Time alone? We NEVER get that now, and I do mean NEVER. You parents know what I'm talking about, I know you do. I guess as they get older perhaps this will change, but I'm not holding my breath. I think life as we knew it is gone for good. But, when I look at my wonderful little men, I don't mind so much, they are more inviting then a Sox game most days!!

Now that the cooler temps are rolling in, I hope you'll try this delicious bread recipe. The boys like it a lot and have been eating muffins for breakfast for 2 days now.

Little Red's Pumpkin Bread

1 cup canola oil

2 1/2 cups sugar (I didn't say this was high nutrition this time around, did I?)

4 eggs

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/3 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 cup water

1 15 oz can pumpkin

1 cup dried cranberries, raisins, or both

Grease bottom and 1/2 in up sides of three 8x4" loaf pans (or one 9x5" and 12 muffin cups), set aside. In an extra large mixing bowl beat sugar and oil with electric mixer on medium speed. Add eggs and beat well; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl combine flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add dry mixture and water alternately to sugar mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.
Beat in pumpkin. Stir in cranberries and/or raisins.
Spoon batter into prepared pans. Bake in a 350 degree oven 55-60 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, cool completely on racks. Yum mo!!