Crops of the Seasons

We spend a good deal of time with my couin Tim and his girlfriend, Tamara. In some ways, they lead totally different lives than Raph and I. They are very career-oriented, which Raph and I would rather not work at all. They work very hard, while Raph and I like to work as little as possible. (Whatever that means for teachers.)

But we share some things in common with them too. When they aren't working, they like to get out and do things, like kayak, which is cool because they bought two inflatable kayaks this year, which we've been able to use on occasion which has been great. They also look to go to the beach, though Tim has a habit of resembling a lobster after such occasions.

These are sun-dried tomatoes from our garden!

But the biggest thing we share in common is FOOD! We all love to eat. Tim recently started a blog about food, called Crops of the Seasons. We shared in the creation of the garden. We shared a share at a local farm's CSA, which for those of you who don't know what that means, stands for Community Supported Agriculture. When you buy a share at a CSA, you are paying a farmer up front for a box of food every week for the entire growing season. In this way, farmers can plan on how much to plant, and also have some money up front to help them start. This year was a very difficult year for Maine farmers, as it virtually rained for the entire month of July. Farmers watched their crops rot in their fields. Our farm, Wolf Pine, did okay, but there were a few times that I thought to myself "I thought there'd be more." Whether or not it was financially worth it is up for debate, but I know the four of us feel good about supporting a local farm, helping to make sure that their land remains farmland, and that we know where our food comes from and who grew it.

And now we've started "winterizing" (as Tim calls it.) But like everything else Tim does, we have to do it big and complicated. So we spent hours last weekend making filling for raviolis and then rolling the homemade dough too. And we only finished half of what we had hoped to accomplish. Poor Makili didn't get to bed until 9:30, when we finally gave up for the night and decided to eat some of our creations. They were AMAZING! A lot of the fillings we had grown ourselves. It was pretty cool. We actually went back there on Raph's birthday to eat some more. I don't think that these raviolis are going to make it very far into the winter, but that's okay.

Tim and Tamara were also our guest babysitters on Raph's birthday. Our first non-mom babysitters. And they did great. So now they can babysit AGAIN!

Raph Joins the Club

Raph turned 30 this week. We didn't do that much. No crazy all night parties or anything. I did bake him some cookies, and we did go to the movies all by ourselves. Tim and Tamara babysat. And now I've thought of all kinds of occasions where we could get them to babysit.On Wed, we had a little party at our house. Raph's grandfather, Rudy came and plucked the corn out of our garden.
We stood outside on what my grandfather would have called "the most beautiful day in the history of the world."

We have known since we moved here that many of Raph's relatives on his dad's side live in Kittery, since this is where is grandmother was raised and she was one of 10. But we never met them until Wed. We met three of Larry's aunts and uncles and a cousin as well. In case you're wondering, yes, that is a LOT of people in our house.

Makili has gotten tall enough that he is trouble with anything on a ledge or a table. He took a chunk out of Raph's birthday cake (though there were three birthday cakes thanks to Ann.)
It's already getting tight with 30 candles on the cake.
But Raph did a great job of getting them all out.
And like his buddy Ethan said, 30 isn't so bad, except for all the old jokes.

On Vacation

I've been on vacation from the blogosphere lately.  The weather has been idyllic, the bugs have started to wane (a bit), the solar dehydrator Raph got me for my birthday has been hot, the garden has been very productive, and so I've been spending my minutes in other ways.  I also got a new stay-at-home-mom job, which has certainly eaten up some more of my internet time.  Things are good though and Makili is terribly cute of late.

Here he is telling me "Don't bother the driver."  I said this to Raph while driving one day.  Obviously I was pointing and Makili started shaking his finger at us too.  Now it's a little joke between the three of us.
Here he is signing "help."  Or "get off your lazy ass mom and come over here and push me."   These, by the way, are the free cars we got at the dump last week!
And here he is just being damn cute.

Summer Eating and Alternative Baby Entertainment

Can you belive how beautiful this yellow heirloom tomator and purple basil are?

And Makili's newest favorite form of entertainment, riding on scooters and lawnmowers. Here we go! Already?

Beach Nostalgia

We've had some glorious beach days, like this one with Lucy and Amy. I met Amy when I attacked her at the caucus, excited to meet anyone in the area with a baby! We've seen each other a few times, but hopefully more in the future. This day we happened to run into eachother at the beach. And we spent some time watching charming Lucy eat sand. Makili tried to kiss her. Can you blame him?



But as I sit here writing this, I am having a serious bout of Hawaii nostalgia. The weather lately, blissful sunshine, cool breezes, quality of light that hurts, has been bringing in on. And then I turned on Jack Johnson on the Ipod tonight and I seriously got teary, missing another life. Another way of life. Water, wind, sun, kids (that could talk), independence, romance, activity. Climbing waterfalls, jumping through waves, surfing badly. Sweating with the fan in your face. Youth. I'm not complaining. I'm so happy with our life here, but sometimes I do feel the pull for what once was.

TaDa!

This is sweet corn from our garden! A miracle! Seriously. I have learned a lot about growing corn since the May day when I innocently stuck those kernals into the ground. Things like corn is wind-pollinated (who knew and thanks Debbie) and sun makes a big difference (which might explain why our corn patch looks like a commercial for a cell-phone company - you know the ascending bars). BUT, it grew, and while we won't get a lot of corn it IS delicious.
Makili saw me walk in with the shucked corn and made such a stink about eating it that I had to go and pick him an ear, which he sucked every kernal off of. The kid knows what he wants.

Kute Kane.

beach days are winding down

sam's grouchy face which made more sense when he threw up on the way home.

A Blur

The days are whipping by me lately, so full in so many way. My munchkin is officially 14 months old and both charming as hell and a little menace. Some tidbits about him.

He walks, climbs, and tries to run, regularly face plants, but never cries about it. He is suddenly very interested in rocking horses and riding vehicles. He also likes the Little Tikes slide I recently got for him at the used store.

He still nurses pretty frequently, but eats a lot as well. He'd eat anything, but LOVES watermelon, blueberries, and peaches the best. He digs carrots and potatoes too. When he is done eating he mashes his food with his hand and then throws it on the floor. Lovely. He also has a tendency to bite the tops off of avocados or cucumbers, even in the grocery store which isn't cool.

His language has made leaps and bounds lately. He signs more, milk, all done, phone, help, eat, fan, and all the parts of the "wheels on the bus." He also waves hello and goodbye and gives hugs and kisses. He tries to say balloon, blueberry, dada, dog, kitty-cat, broom, and ball. He understands A LOT! He still can sit down, lay down, go see_____, go get______, wheres?, in addition to countless random words.

He sleeps from about 8:00pm to 6:00am, and then naps for about 2 hours at some point in the day.

He loves both his grandmas a lot, but also like lots of other people. He'll pretty much go with anyone who will show him something interesting.

He loves to play jokes, or be surprised. He loves other kids and laughing at them. He also like to make huge messes. Yesterday we played 52 pick-up. He is infatuated with the vacuum and points at it with much worry, though he wants to push our broken little sweeper around a lot and is also infatuated with it.

He has just started whining a lot when he is frustrated which is a little annoying.

Winners and Losers

To start, the winner of contest #2 is Emily!  Thanks for all the comments!  Emily, since you're coming to visit anyway, I'll hold onto your winning jam selection.  It will include my latest batch which is a mix of peach, blueberry and blackberry, called Love Hurts Jam, which I made with homemade apple pectin, which I will post about separately!

And onto other contests.  We participated in our first chowda cook off at the Dumont's house last weekend.  I thought Raph should have won, because his vegetarian clam chowder was SO AMAZINGLY good!  But alas, to all the other tasters (like over 50) there wasn't enough chunks of lobster and clams to make the cut.  In any case, it was super fun.

Sam liked it as you can see!

Camille was in charge of all the administrative aspects, signing people in, handing out the testing sheets, etc.  
Bertrand had his personal accordian accompaniment in Jesse who added a few chords to every important announcement.  Jesse had bought it that day and could already play it.  We got it at a yard sale, and Evan got a Tim and Becky got a fiddle...good day for the Moore clan and instruments.

Nicky was cute as always.


Farm hands on a baby.  Good stuff.
I'm not doing the weekend justice with words, so I hope some of these images convey how awesome it was.  Rhode Island is a magical place, and I'm so glad I get a taste of magic regularly.  It is such a magical mix of stunning place, people who know how to live, and good food!