For the record.

I thank my lucky stars each and every day that we did not move to Maine.

That is all.

Back to school.

For most families. Not for ours, yet. We have a couple years ahead of us before back-to-school looms large. We can't afford preschool or daycare, so LW stays home with me until she starts public school.

Even so, I've done some clothes shopping for the Little Woodchuck over the past month when I had little bits of money. Mainly, I hit the thrift shops and bought ahead clothes for the coming fall and winter. Everything has been washed, sorted, and carefully stored away until needed.

But yesterday I went on a little spree. A family member generously gave me a gift certificate for the Carter's children's clothing outlet up in Brattleboro, and I had a discount coupon as well. LW needed pajamas for winter, and a coat for fall, and some socks. I found all those things at Carter's and now we're all ready for the coming cold weather. The only thing lacking, at this point, will be a new pair of shoes and some winter boots. LW's feet are growing very quickly, and she's outgrown the size 7 toddler sneakers and shoes that were too large at the beginning of the summer. I'll try to find a second-hand snowsuit, too, as she's outgrown last year's suit and we spend so much time outdoors in winter. I'm knitting two sweaters for LW right now, and I'll start on warm socks and mittens soon.

The cashier at Carter's handed me an additional gift check good for $10 off a $35 purchase, but I have no reason to go back in September and spend any more money. I'll find someone who can use this gift check, as it's a considerable savings.

Today the weather and temperature is very much to my liking. I love cool weather, always have, always will.

LW's birthday preparations start this week. I want to be well-prepared in advance for her party.

House and home.

We survived our meeting with our accountant. Phew. Glad that's over. With two home-based businesses and a farm business, tax preparation gets us all very frazzled.

Looks like we'll get enough money back to replace our aged chimney. We had a mason over this morning, and he gasped quietly when he saw the condition of the chimney. I told him I knew it would not withstand another winter, he said "I'm surprised it's still standing right now." Gulp.

There are so many repairs this old farmhouse desperately needs, but there's never enough money to do them when I want to or when they need to be done. We live so very frugally, but the end of the month finds us completely broke no matter what I do to cut costs. We have only one, very old car (circa 1992), we make all our food from scratch including bread, I forage for wild foods and barter for food when I'm able, we buy our clothes from the thrift stores, I've taken to recycling yarns and fabric from thrift store purchases, we don't take vacations or do anything extravagant. I honestly don't know what more we can do.

I found a maple-leaf viburnum growing out back by the edge of the wetland. I'm hopeful it's the edible variety, Viburnum trilobum, and not the inedible look-alike Viburnum opulus. I'm corresponding with a biologist at the University of Maine to find out. I sent him close-up pictures yesterday of the petioles which, apparently, have the only distinctive visual features that differ in the two species. I'm waiting anxiously to find out the verdict; if the shrub is trilobum, then it's a good food source for us. Fingers crossed. Here's a picture of the viburnum, which is loaded with fruits this year:

Less humid.

I woke up this morning and felt tons better. The humidity had dropped and the air pressure had risen.

Tomorrow we meet with our accountant to do our taxes. We had to have a filing extension this year because too much work was going on in the spring. Everything in our lives takes ten times longer now that we have Little Woodchuck.

And now it's off to the playground. LW now has a tricycle and needs a paved surface to ride it upon.

I'll take a notepad with me and start planning her birthday party. We had an awesome party for LW last year, and the kids we invited all had a good time. It was an outdoor party, with a leaf pile to jump in, a sand table to play with, balls to kick around, bales of hay to climb upon, buckets of apples to feed the livestock, and tables full of yummy healthy snacks for the children and adults to enjoy. I think we'll do the same sort of thing this year, but age up the activities a little bit.

I am a cold weather creature.

This heat and humidity the past week has been so hard on me. I miss springtime, fall, and winter! The livestock are sick of the miserable weather, too, and spend a lot of time sleeping and panting in their stalls with fans trained on them. They should be out grazing, packing on the pounds for the upcoming winter. Every one of them is underweight for this time of year. I had the large animal vet out this week and all checked out healthy, thank goodness. Doc Schmitt assured me that as soon as the weather breaks, the animals will likely dash out to the pastures and graze, graze, graze.

I've been baking peach tarts and blueberry tarts lately. Found a terrific recipe, and it works well for so many fruits that are coming into season now. I want to plant two peach trees, and asked one of the Clarks for suggestions. I've got a small list of varieties to consider.

I'm sewing a cute dress for Little Woodchuck. Nearly finished, just have to do the hem and buttonholes. Singer sent me a replacement sewing machine for free, and the new one is working so well I can't believe I put up with the old one as long as I did (two years). That machine was such a headache it took all the pleasure out of sewing. I've got two years' worth of sewing projects to catch up on, now that I've got a good, working machine at last.

The county fair is coming up soon. I'm entering four items in the Roundhouse this year. Little Woodchuck is looking forward to the Fair. This year she'll be old enough to ride on the kiddie rides!

Playdates.

I love playdates for the Little Woodchuck. They save both our sanities.

And that is all for today.

She reads.

I forgot to mention that two weeks ago, the Little Woodchuck started to read. She now has five words that she can read. This is incredible for a child who is 2 years old. We're astounded and proud.

We never, ever pushed reading on her. She seems to come to it naturally. Both me and Mister Woodchuck were early readers, but not THIS early! I know that we read to her more than our parents read to us, so that's probably a factor.

Last week was just crazy.

On Monday, we noticed something was wrong with one of the livestock. I raided the livestock first-aid kit and treated the animal. By Tuesday afternoon, things were much worse. After a quick trip to the vet to pick up emergency supplies and three hours of some pretty intense treatment, we stabilized the animal by dark.

I had nightmares all Tuesday night, dreamed that the animal didn't survive. Ran out to the barn at first light and was relieved to find her much improved. Had a farming colleague stop by on Wednesday afternoon to look her over, and got the thumbs up on both the treatment and the fact that we stopped something this fatal so quick.

The animal is responding beautifully to continued treatment, even at her advanced age of 15 years (most of her kind don't live much past 12), and I have no reason to believe that she won't survive this. Phew. I've known this animal since she was a baby, she's been with me her entire life. She's more than just livestock, she's family.

Mom stopped by this morning and we made huge batches of dill pickles to keep over winter. Good stuff. It's my German grandmother's recipe and it's a winner. This afternoon I'll pick some of the blackberries and make a nice coulis from them.

More effing rain today. I'm so done with rain. And still it comes.