Autumn's bounty

The growing season has been productive here in the Pacific Northwest. Not that we grew much in our own garden, but we are loyal customers at the Port Townsend Farmers Market (sic: the apostrophe is officially missing from the name; a cowardly decision if you ask me). Two weekends ago, when Sierra was visiting, we were charmed to find Midori Farm selling the biggest leeks any of us had ever seen.
We bought two and let Soren run around with one. He literally stopped traffic in the corridor as two other shoppers joined me in whipping out their cameras and trying to capture his glee. P.S. Thanks to Kathie M. for the new knitted hat!
Later, Soren marveled at these stalks of chard that are still growing in our raised beds. We added them to a risotto we made incorporating as many local ingredients as we could: foraged chanterelle and cauliflower shrooms, pastured-pig ham from Walker Mountain Meadows Farm just to the south of us, Walla Walla sweet onions. Yum! (I just finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma and never want to eat factory-farmed meat again...)
And I'll sign off with this picture of Soren having a ball during our county's Farm Tour in September. This was the precise moment I decided I needed a new point-and-shoot digital camera, one that fits into my fanny pack. (I'm still looking.) Again, Soren's photogenics kicked in once he was hoisted up to the wheel of this stationary old tractor at Red Dog Farm. I gave a camera-wielding out-of-state tourist my email address and he sent this adorable thumnail, but by the time I (busy mom that I am) emailed back to ask for a high-resolution version, he said he had deleted the original files. Aaaackk!! Why would anyone do this when computer memory is so cheap??? Oh, well. The moment was captured in digital minature, so at least I can share it here with you.
By the way, we signed up for a Winter CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) "share" from the above-pictured Red Dog Farm and are really looking forward to it starting around Thanksgiving. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about how we cook up all the yummy produce we receive in our weekly box.

Happy eating to you all, and make the Earth happy in your eating, too.

Concrete up, garage door poured (!)

No, of course it's the other way around! As of this week, the concrete is poured and the garage door is up at The Nest. The interior walls also went from yellow (insulation) to white (drywall, taped and mudded, yet to be textured).
Soren missed the excitement of the cement truck because we were in Colorado, but I must say it was nice to return from that trip and find the driveway and pathways all finished. Above, a view of the dirt we've been dealing with for two months now.
Here's the tinted concrete being poured. We matched the color to the existing patio and the garage floor. That's Duke, our contractor, at right, supervising every move.
Viola! New pavement AND a garage door. The door turned out to be a color that matches the window frames, so for now we're not going to paint it.
A test opening by the guys who installed the door.
And here are two photos shot today. The top one shows all the new concrete, connecting our existing under-deck patio to the road. Soren already loves to run around and bounce balls on it. We will replace the fence and gate as soon as we're ready for another project!

And this last one shows Our Little Helper Soren. "He can't wait to grow up," Jeff says, and when he earnestly copies the adults around him, it shows.

Snow in Colorado

It snowed four inches on our second day visiting Nora in Fort Collins, Colo., and here are some pictures as proof. It's a novelty for us Western Washingtonians, so we don't really mind the inconvenience. But I wouldn't want to have to coordinate getting Soren out the door in the appropriate outerwear every day for the next six months. Look at how wet his feet got!
Soren loved clearing snow from Auntie Nora's sidewalk and road. He is such a good little helper, once a task is demonstrated.
The next day the temps were still in the high 20s, so we bundled up to take a walk on a trail along the Poudre River. You can see not much snow had melted. Here's a family portrait, sans Soren: Ann, Nora, Shelly, Bill.
Here is Soren modeling the necessity of layering. We bought the vest and some other warm clothes at the ARC, Nora's favorite thrift shop here.
Down the trail he goes...

(Soren talks about his new friends on his blog.)

Visiting Nora in Colorado

I'm posting in real-time at the end of our first full day in Colorado, where we are visiting my sister Nora for five days. Soren and I left Jeff working in Washington and made the trip with my parents, Bill and Ann (thank goodness for grandparental assistance on the flight here!).

It's nice to get out of PT, and we needed to see Nora in her graduate-school setting. She's been at the University of Northern Colorado since August 2008 and will finish her master's in public health program next May. The school is in Greeley, but she lives in Fort Collins -- both are north of Denver.
Nora hadn't seen Soren since June (here's a reminder of how much littler he was back then) and is thrilled that he is so much more mobile and able to really PLAY on the playground.
Devoted auntie that she is, Nora wore Soren in the Ergo when it was time for his one nap of the day (about 50% of our days are uni-nap now). The tour of her graduate-student office was just not exciting enough to keep his eyes open -- he fell asleep while she was checking her email.
I'll close with these photos (by Nora) of Soren with his grandpa Bill's ukelele. It's amazing how naturally he strikes the folk musician pose.
We look forward to three more full days of grins, then we fly back on Tuesday. For more grins, see Soren's blog for pix of today's pumpkin patch visit.

A note about the weather: we're getting our first taste of winter, with wet, non-sticking snow falling as our plane landed yesterday and now drier snow frosting the ground as we head to bed, although it was a lovely, clear and even warm day. Maybe Soren will get to frolick in the white stuff tomorrow!

September progress on The Nest

Didn't mean not to post any photos of the construction in September, but it appears I didn't. So here's a compressed record of the past month's progress on our two-car garage and The Nest (office/guest room).

Before the roofing material went on, the first color was applied with the spraying of the underside of the overhang. Blue, just like on The Roost. As you'll see, we planned to have the exterior of this new building closely match our existing house. So the trim is red and the doors will be yellow or blue.
All in one day the roof went on, a nice reddish composite shingle. Soren and Jeff admire it from our deck.
The siding is Hardipanel, which also sheathes the lower floor of our house. The eaves are shingled.
Our windows had been back-ordered, but eventually they arrived. Our contractor figured out a way to start siding before they were here.
Don't the shingles match nicely? Well, they should. We had one pallet of these lovely reddish cedar shingles left over from the construction of The Roost, and for six years now it's been taking up floor space in our tool shed. Finally the pallet is out of there! And there are just enough shingles left over to adorn a future playhouse for Soren (!). Our contractor has been saving bits of other construction materials for this project, too.
The driveway pour has yet to happen, but we are eagerly awaiting it, because we've been living with dust for so long. Our street has quite a slope to it, and our contractor determined that the driveway apron we were required to pour for the main house was also too sloped for him to work with. So eight feet of existing asphalt got torn up by this excavator, and the grade has been further leveled.
Then, alas, the same excavator (well, its operator, really) hit a water line. In this photo, the water is spraying high in the air because the excavator bucket is positioned in the shooting water stream.

I was in the bathroom at the time, as Soren had just pooped on the rug during a brief period of diaperlessness (ah, joy) and I was wetting a cloth for clean-up. Suddenly the water pressure dropped, and I knew just what had happened. Our water was only shut off for the afternoon while the pipe was repaired, and Soren napped most of that time, so it wasn't too much of an inconvenience.
The electrician and plumber have been busy in The Nest, and this photo (with my dad in the frame) was shot just before the insulation went in. Dad is leaning on the corner of the framed-in bathroom. The floor-to-ceiling black pipe to the left of him is where the kitchenette sink will go.

We're still waiting on drywall and that driveway pour. When they happen, you'll read about it here!

Hanging out with dad & friends

Soren's been a pretty happy chap lately. He regretfully says "bye-bye" to Jeff in the mornings when he leaves for work, and reaches frantically for him when we see him at the end of the day.

I love the vulnerable and sleepy expression on his face here! By the way, Soren's vocabulary consists of about 20 spoken words now (current favorites are BIKE and BANANA) as well as 25+ signs. He only has to see a sign a couple of times to start using it, if it's something he's very interested in. Right now, the neighbors' ducks across the street get a sign when they quack, airplanes when they fly overhead, and recently he picked up HORSE after the farm tour on Sunday (sorry, no pix of this event--I just couldn't juggle my big camera and him).

(Which leads me to mention I'm wanting to get a small point-and-shoot digital camera to carry in my purse or diaper bag. I'm leaning toward a Canon ELPH Powershot. Any favorites out there to recommend?)
Pix from recent playdates with Django (above) and Tayla (below). Soren's saying to Tayla, "That carrot looks pretty good. Can I have it to add to the carrot stick I already have stuffed in my cheeks?"
Fall is here! Enjoy it.

Strum sticks and more

I feel inspired to blog before bed because I just watched a movie about blogging--and French cooking. Yes, Julie & Julia (that would be Julia Child). It was my first movie at a movie theatre (our beloved Rose Theatre) since before Soren was born!! Ack, I couldn't believe it had been that long.

Went with two other mama friends (thanks, hubbies, for making it happen!) and I won the Monday night door prize of a gift certificate so I can come back and see another movie (sooner than 12 months from now, I hope) AND a pound of butter. Just watch the movie and you'll see why. Why didn't the main character gain any weight after cooking Julia Child's recipes for one whole year?!
So, things have been moving along at The Roost. Soren's diet now includes nuts (almonds and pecans were the first) and if ham is on the dinner menu, he won't eat anything else. The Nest has a roof, just in time. And we just enjoyed a three-day weekend with fall weather making a wet and windy entrance. But we got in a bike ride today as a family (Soren in a seat behind mine) and we got out to the Andy Mackie Music Festival on Saturday (as we did one year ago with newborn Soren--it was my first outing downtown as a postpartum mama and Soren blogged about it then). We enjoyed my dad's company, as he came over for a day visit. He shared these photos--thanks!

Andy is famous for giving harmonicas away to children and teaching them how to play them. He also sells and gives away simple strumstick kits. My dad has made one. Soren enjoyed strumming all of the ones on display.

And then he brought the harmonica Andy had given him last year and surprised him by playing it pretty darn well. He sounds like a blues musician, I kid you not. We have recordings! The second picture is of Andy kneeling on the makeshift stage to admire Soren's playing. He says he'll see Soren up on stage with him if he can just live a few more years. If you want to know more about the Harmonica Man's truly heart-warming story, watch this 2:30 minute video that was aired on CBS on May 2 of this year.
A few more pix of our cutie, with someone else's dog and with our nearly 3-y-o friend Evie. They happened to be color-coordinated!
Well, THEY SAY parenting gets easier after the first year, and we, in our tired haze, choose to believe that. Who knew one little person could take so much adult time and energy?? Do we hear affirmation?