Activities

I have always said that I want Scout to not have too scheduled a life. Lots of free time to play and enjoy being a kid, thats what is important. She does go to more activities than we thought she would. But she LOVES them all. So now we think it is important to expose her to as much as we can and let her decide what she wants to participate in...whether it is many or few or none. We know she loves them. We always ask if she wants to go, if she says no we would stay home. It never happens. If there is a week off she has a sense that too much time has gone by and starts asking to go back. She still has lots of time everyday to be free as a lamb and always will...the beauty of unschooling.

Tonight was swimming. She has been going every week since she was 6 months old (we took the summer off but went swimming at the beach every week).

We just want her to have fun, to enjoy being in the water. She will learn all she needs in her own time.

And she has, she swims with a bubble, jumps off the side, goes underwater, blows bubbles and can climb out on her own.

It is great family time, we always try to be there together.

Tonight she floated. Look at that right foot, such effort and concentration.

She did it on her own. Floated. No one asked her to try it.

Life is Good... and happy!

Enjoying the last days of winter

Spring/summer is coming. That means the crowds are heading back to the Cape. We definately spend more time at the beach from fall to spring...we stay home more in the summer, away from the crowds and traffic.

This is the Sandwich boardwalk during low tide. It leads you across the marsh to a beach. Notice the lack of crowds.

Scout had asked to go to the beach. Seamus came along for the walk.

During high tide the water comes right up to the boardwalk.

You can paddle here and, during high tide, jump off the boardwalk.

The boardwalk was built by selling planks. Everyone was sold.

Notice the bump out. During the summer these are needed for carraiges and people to get by each other.

Looking across the marsh into the bay.

One tired little girl...

one happy dog!

Life is Good...enjoying the last of winter.

Tilling

We have received the emails....apple tree, aspasagus, rasberries, blueberries are on the way. There is more to come...peach, plum, pear and cherry trees. Our quest this year is to become as self sufficient as we can. We have eleminated our cable bill and we all have diesel cars that get 42 miles to the gallon. We are hoping for wind power later in the year. But right now we are focusing on our food. Not only fresh and organic but free. We chose to plant things we love that seem expensive at the market. Asparagus is the best example. We chose the largest spurs so we will actually be able to harvest some this year. Then we can expect to harvest from our bed for 20 years or more. We love cherries too, but they cost so much. Now we will have our own. All the trees were ordered in dwarf size, not growing more then 6-8 feet high. We will espalier them along the side of the garden. A technique that started back in the 1600 century and it produces more fruit for its size then full size trees.

We needed to take down a tree. Look closely in the upper right corner and you can see the stump. The tree needed to land between the wood shed and the new bed. Murph dropped it perfectly, without breaking anything!

The the ground needed to be dug up to ready it for the trees. Nothing has every been planted here and it was compacted tightly. We decided to rent a tiller. The best $39.00 we ever spent! It took only a few minuted to prepare the soil...it would have taken all day by hand. We also used it to dig a trench over by the horse run-in to start a french drain project. Next we will put up the supports for the trees. Check back for our progress.

Garden happenings

Spring is coming and there is a lot happening in the garden.

The horses have an afternoon napping ritual now that they can count on sunny afternoons. If you look closely there are 4 horses lying down with 1 guard. Tonto is the guard today.

Here is a close up, only Little is out of the shot.

We have bog plans for the vegetable garden this year. We just finished 3 new raised beds. We are putting a fence around the whole thing to keep the chickens out. This year we are adding an asparagus bed, berry bushes in the garden and several fruit trees which we are going to espalier.

Scout is back in the sandbox...preparing meals all day long!

Bulky coats have been put away.

Spring jackets and sweaters take their place!

Picnics in the garden again...Life is Good!!

A trip to the beach, a lesson in death

We had a great day at the beach and an opportunity to talk about death.

Scout said the day before she wanted to see the water. Already she is a Cape girl.

We loaded everyone in the truck and headed out. We are so lucky that one of our (yes, one. WE have 3 ocean and 3 pond beaches!) town beaches is Sandy Neck . It is 7 miles long, we can camp there, build fires, drive the jeep on and ride the horses. As you can see the dogs can enjoy it too.

We LOVE collecting treasures.

The landscape looks different every time. Today, lots of smooth stones and tumbled shells.

Finding crab shells

Walking Seamus

We believe death is part of life. It is something that should be talked about as easily as anything else in your life. There are photos of a dead dolphin coming up. If you don't want to see them stop looking now.

We came upon this dolphin on the beach. It was a great opportunity to talk about death. What you talk about is personal to you and your family and not important here. We talked about it. At the same time we talked about it's body parts and how it swam. It all seemed normal to Scout.

Living in the woods and on a farm we will continue to have these opportunities. We will continue to talk about it.

This one was about 75 yards away from the first. It was much smaller, maybe a baby.  We talked about bones and felt our own bones.

We learn something everyday, each night we marvel in all the learning opportunities that we encountered throughout the day. The life of an unschooler...Life is Good!

Sleep Ponies

Horses only lie down to sleep a few hours a day. Because they are prey animals, and they do nit get up quickly, it is a dangerous position to be in. In a herd at least one horse will remain standing as the guard.

If you look closely you can see 3 horses sleeping.

Here is a better shot.

Little "Frodo" stands as big "Little's" guard.

I heart faces- best February Face

This weeks I heart faces challenge is February Faces. I will see if I can get the link right. Wish me luck!

February Faces