Vermonters are Amazing

This past week while on vacation, it occurred to me how amazing it is that Little Man is able to grow up in a community surrounded by incredible people; one composed of complete strangers and close friends.  There were all these little things that happened, that brought me to this realization and I am grateful for each one. 

For starters, complete strangers can be a blessing from God and the source of warmth on a cold day.  On two separate occasions, I was given a free cup of coffee on cold,rainy days by complete strangers.  The first instance occurred on Tuesday, when myself and a few mom friends decided that we were going to slog through the rain and wind to see the animals at Shelburne Farms.  The walk from the visitor center to the Children's Farm yard is about a half mile, and about half way there it started to rain/sleet.  Thankfully there is a bakery just off the courtyard that just serves wonderful baked goods.  As we all huddled inside, we asked the nice gentleman baking if there was a place that we could get coffee.  Since the farm is not officially opened for the season yet, the location at which we could have secured a cup of coffee was not open, however, the nice baker had just made a pot of coffee and pulled out three coffee mugs for us on the condition that we brought them back when we were finished.  In the shelter of the courtyard, we drank hot coffee and chomped on various freshly baked goodies.  The second instance occurred in the rain and hail at a track meet on Wednesday when a mother who had been sitting in her car watching myself and fellow coach run the girls long/triple jump brought us two warm cups of hot chocolate. After standing in the rain and hail for almost two hours, this woman was my hero. 

 In addition to complete strangers, Vermont farmers are incredible people and worth every minute you are able to spend with them (I am slightly biased because my grandparents were Vermont farmers).  Little Man wanted to see where his milk comes from this past week and not only did one of the gentleman who worked on the farm show him where it came from, we were also able to check out the new baby calves on the side of the barn.  The man who owns the farm was on the other side of the farm at the time we were picking up the milk, but later took time out of his date night with his wife (both incredible people) to come over to me in the restaurant, to let me know he was bummed that he had not been around, because he wanted to give Little Man a ride on the tractor. 

Finally, Vermonters take care of each other.  Most Vermonters I know are not trying to make a profit, but take care of each other.  A couple I work with, also runs a therapeutic farm and posted on the local forum that they were giving away aged manure (an amazing and sometimes expensive thing for anyone who owns a garden- we spent $140 on compost last year for two raised beds).  While I was there, talking to them, they had said that not only had they offered to give away the manure, they were delivering it by the truckloads to people who could not transport it.  In addition to this, one of our good friends also made sure that we left her house with some wonderfully tender asparagus right out of her garden.  Fresh greens never tasted so good. 

As you can see, we are blessed to live in an incredible community; and it is even better knowing that most of the state we live in is like our little town. 

Activity: 5 miles yesterday (not as long as I had wanted) a hike in the woods with little man and 3 miles today.

CompostFest

Only in Vermont would you be able to find all of your friends celebrating and having a good time on a cold day at a place that sells rotting dirt.  Such was the case today at CompostFest at Green Mountain Compost. This is the place we bought all of the compost for our raised beds from last year.  They changed locations last year and today was their official open house and the kids had a blast despite the cold (Thankfully they had warm drinks for the adults and children. The kids/dads all opted for ice cream). The part that made it even better is that everything was free.

Since Ben and Jerry's brings all of the waste product they produce from making ice cream here, it was only natural that the kids would be planting seeds in Ben and Jerry's containers.  The woman helping Little Man was even kind enough to tell him that the flowers(bachelor buttons) he was planting are edible.

 Then of course there was a big pile of dirt for the kids to dig in.  Little Man was so into his digging that he missed the fact that all of his friends had climbed to the top of the large mound. 

 He finally caught on.

 After listening to some music and sipping on warm cider, everyone piled over to the large trucks.  We learned very quickly that you can pile several kids into one of these things and the adults can stand there and talk while the kids entertain themselves.  Of course the dads need to get in on the big truck action every now and then.

It was a great morning, however, I am very grateful to be back in a warm house with a cup of hot chocolate. 

Activity: Day off; long run tomorrow

The Amazing Duck!

Note: This was supposed to be yesterday's post; however, due to a child who woke up screaming with an ear infection shortly after he went to bed, it was not posted.  Sorry for the delay.

Had anyone told me the exponential rate at which ducks grow before I owned then, I would not have believed them.  Now that I have ducks, their growth rate amazes me.  We have owned our ducks for 5 weeks now; below is the growth we have seen.  The first picture was taken the day we brought them home. 

 At the end of week 1

 Week 2

 Week 3:They had their first bath this week, the water bin now lives in the brooder with them (it is a very large brooder).

 Week 4: They ventured outside for the first time.

 Just this past weekend, they look like full grown ducks.

Activity: 3 mile run

Early Spring Blooms

I decided to devote a day to flowers since I take so many pictures and spend so much time making my gardens look just right. This way, I actually get to share some of the pictures I take throughout the week.  The following flowers are currently in full bloom in my garden and around the house.

Lungwort: Supposedly it is a shade plant, however, I transplanted some of it to the shade and the stuff in the sun is doing significantly better. 

This barrel is by the door I walk in and out of every day. The flowers make me smile.

Activity for the day.  Sadly after raking out jumping pits for two hours in the rain at a track meet, I only managed to run....one mile.

Evolution of a Boy

When I first introduced my son to gardening, he responded in a way I had not expected; complete and utter disgust for the bugs.  I was a little concerned because, in my mind, little boys love bugs.  Fast-forward two years later, and the little boy who would not go near worms is digging furiously in the ground and looking under rocks for them so he can feed them to the chickens. 

In addition to this, Little Man recently received a bug jar.  He loves the thing and is amazingly fascinated by all of the critters he can find in the garden.  Below, he is curiously inspecting a snail he recently discovered.  He was fascinated with the creature and did not once flinch at the slime that was being deposited on his fingers.  I am not 100% sure what caused the shift boyhood, but I will gladly embrace the curiosity with all things slimy.

Activity: A walk around Shelburne farms and the surrounding hiking trails with friends and a 3 mile run.

Slacking on the Accountability

I recently realized that there is really no point to accountability if I don’t post what I am doing on a regular basis.  One post a week, or every other week, means I can schlep the rest of the week and then post my long runs on Saturday.  Not much good for accountability. In an effort to get past that, I have decided I am going to try and do daily posts to the best of my ability; I do understand that there may be weeks that there is just nothing to write about.  Given that there are only 6 weeks left to the school year and then I begin my summer break ,this should be a do-able plan.  Here are my thoughts: 

Monday:  Potpourri, we typically do a bunch of random things over the weekend, so why not?

Tuesday: The Evolution of a Boy

Wednesday: My Garden. I take a million pictures of my flowers, I figure why not share? 

Thursday: The Animals

Friday: Food and Other Edibles  ("other" edibles? Does this scare anyone else, too? -editor)

Saturday: Sustainability

Sunday: Running

To keep with the accountability part: my activity for the day included swimming for an hour and a half with Little Man and the grandparents and running 3 miles. 

Party in the Tub

The ducks are old enough to go for a swim, however, since keeping themselves warm is still an issue, we decided to bring them into the house for their first bath.  It was quite the amusing night at our house.

To start with, from what I read, there should be an exit for the ducks to get in and out of the water as they wish.  So we started with a tub and they refused to use the boards, however, were able to climb in and out of the tub on their own, so much for the stupid boards I dug for in a spider infested corner of the shed.   Note the big issue with the tub

See the problem yet?.........

We ended up filling the tub and providing something for them to stand on if they so wished.  They did not and I think were pretty miffed when we decided it was time for them to get out of the tub. 

Happy Birthday To Me!

My version of cake

A good meal

Woman's World Championship Hockey Game!

Cherry Blossoms

Before I take the branches outside to the compost pile, I thought I should probably let my two readers know how it turned out, since we had better results than last year.  Below are the final pictures of my cherry blossoms taken about a week ago.  As you can see, they did actually bloom this year, although not the big pretty pink flowers I was hoping for.  They were tiny, but the branches did actually bud and bloom.  Once they had bloomed as much as they were going to, the flowers lasted for about 5 days and then everything turned brown.  Oh well, I'll just have to try again next year and see if I can get slightly better results.  At least they bloomed this year, which is an improvement from last year. 

Activity for the day: 9 mile run on a bike path

In the eyes of a child

Little Man loves using our little digital camera; the following is a composition of our lives from his perspective. Apparently I have no head in his world.

 In Little Man's world the ducks are viewed from outside the box.

In Little Man's world, this is what my daffodils look like. 

 In Little Man's world the only flowers that really matter are the ones he planted; especially the tulip bulb he managed to sneak into the vegetable garden.









Activity: 2.5 miles

Socializing Ducks

Had anyone ever told me I would be learning how to socialize ducks 3 years ago, I would have laughed at them.  Now Andy and I find ourselves trying to make our ducks a little more people friendly.  What we have learned so far: the little buggers are fast! To complicate matters further, you can't pick them up one by one; no, unlike chicks, they must travel as a group.  Ever try picking up three little ducklings all at once?  Not an easy task, my friend.  The again, one would assume it should be an easy task, because when they realize they are about to be picked up, all three flock to a corner and bury their heads.  Simple answer scoop them all up at once......not so in our family.  You see, the one that Little Man lovingly refers to as Quack (or Loud One as I like to call him), is incredibly fast, unlike his duckling counterparts.  The result, you are left holding two ducklings, while one frantically runs around the brooder looking for his friends.  When you try and pick the crazy duck up (while holding the other two) he frantically runs away---still calling to his friends who have nestled into your lap at this point.  Eventually he is caught and so happy to be nestled into your lap with his buddies that he poops on you.  There you have it, the joys of socializing a duck. 

Acitivty for the day: A speed workout that I should have done last week and a little jav throwing.