Halloween and the first snow...

Not on the same day but here in the same post!

Here are the kids in their Halloween costumes.


Tristan was a pirate (inspired from our boat ride this summer, Jaclyn!). He looked very dashing in his seaman garb. I made the pants (a bit tight) and red sash and he is (shhh) wearing one of Abigail's dress shirts with the rose embroidered collars tucked in. He kind of looked like a waiter until the head scarf and sword were added! He had a great time trick or treating. Besides one of neighbors here on the mountain, we just went to a handful of houses near Matt's parents' place. Tristan loved it. I don't think he really understood what we were doing but he throughly enjoyed knocking on people's door and receiving a hardy hello.


Abigail was a fire fighter (not a fireman and she will correct if you say it wrong :). Great goodwill find! We made the axe and she was ready to go. She loved the candy, of course. But she would not say trick or treat or thank you this year!


Also, this Monday was our first snow. Nothing sticking to the ground...yet. Mt Greylock, the highest peak in Mass, has snow on it and today I noticed from town so do a few peaks of our mountain. We leave for NYC on Sunday until the end of the month. It will be interesting to see what the place looks like when we come back.

We will be staying in Manhattan. Hopefully I can post from there. Pray for good weather and safe travels!

peace

The perfect New England fall day

Today was one of those infamous New England days. The sky was an amazingly vibrant blue, the air crisp but the sun warm, some colors still on the trees. Perfect. We went for a refreshing hike around our neighbors' property through peaceful hemlock and pine groves (as peaceful as a 1 and 3 year old will let you be). Then we came home to be greeted by some of the staff bringing us butternut squash soup and homemade pumpkin pie. Yummy!

What could be a better close to the perfect autumn day than carving pumpkins, eating warm, crunchy pumpkin seeds with friends?







This pumpkin was carved by a friend of ours. Abigail has been obsessed with the Bearenstain Bear books lately. And this is a "Space Grizzly" character from the book Bad Dream. Awesome work!

Matt and I are leaving for NYC tomorrow for an overnight. Post some stories and pictures when we get back.

Watch out world!

It has finally happened...our satellite internet was installed today!! My world is changing! I just had a web chat with a friend, a web chat! I couldn't even download a picture and now I am chatting. Crazy. So expect pictures, videos, madness.

For example, we are storing up like squirrels here. We ordered 5 cords of wood for the winter which is being delivered 1/2 a cord at a time. I don't even really now how much a cord of wood is but I am learning. Here is a picture of one row of our wood stock which is 1/2 a cord. There is another row behind it and several stacks of wood in the back that are waiting to be split.


Here is Tristan taking after his daddy hefting logs bigger than himself.


We also picked up a bushel of pears yesterday. The orchard was in a beautiful spot right at the base of Greylock Mt which is the highest mountain in Mass. Here a a picture of 3/4 of the bushel stashed our oven to ripen for canning. I have to keep reminding myself not to turn on the oven or we will have a lot of baked pears instead of canned pears. More pictures to come of the canning process itself later this week.