Busy Hands Homestead

100% rain in the forecast. I waver.  Should we?  Shouldn't we? And then I decide. We should. We definitely should use Ivory's school free day to drive across the border into Idaho and hike to the Jerry Johnson hot springs. I chop carrots, apples, cheese and pack up crackers, hard boiled eggs and almond butter. I wrestle sleepy kiddos out of pajamas and into clothes. I cram the dogs into the tiny hatch back space in the back of the car. We are on week four of this year's field season.  Adam leaves early in the morning on Monday and often doesn't return until Friday night.  The weekends are taken by catching up on garden chores, laundry, dishes and packing him up again for the next week.  He has been working hard outside all week and I have been running a household.  Our needs clash.  I want out and he wants a chance to sit down. This isn't just about my need to walk under the trees, to get out of town and ignore my never ending to do list. ...

This fantastically awesome photograph of me was taken by Sylvan on the very tip top of  Waterworks Hill.  It is the hill I can see out of our east windows.  The three of us have never made it to the top for the following reasons:  1.  We walk to the trail head.  Even though the trail head is just at the edge of our neighborhood it adds just enough distance to the trek that we have to turn back way before the top. 2.  I let Sylvan walk.  He is slow. So slow.  It took us three hours once to walk from the car (lesson learned from reason 1) to just past this little draw and back to the car...  I could point the very spot out to you from my yard.  It was at once a far distance for Sylvan to walk and so, so very far away from the peak.  3. We leave our house to close to lunch time and we go home to eat.  So today we: 1. drove to the trailhead 2. Sylvan walked the way DOWN. 3. were on the slopes by 10:00 ...

The kids and I walked through our garden this morning an snipped flowers for our first summer bouquet:  some roses, a sprig of lemon balm, parsley blossoms, bolting radishes and flowers off of what I am fairly certain are pretty, but invasive, weeds.   It sits in front of me as I trail shapes onto the cups that I threw during yesterday's nap time.  While the children sleep an apple tree moves through the seasons; carrots, beets and cabbages grow  in rows; and hens peck at scratch. Today's nap time creations. 

Fairy slipper - This is the first one we say, and then we noticed them everywhere. A two year old chopping down morels with glee!   A quick dip in the hot spring.  We made it home just as it was getting dark.   When we got into the car it was just after 7pm (Montana time). We had been tromping around the woods for 9 hours.  No complaints from the kids...  we stopped at the Lochsa Lodge for dinner... and did not clean our kitchen.  Here is our loot: 8 lbs of morels!

I woke up and put on SANDALS! Mediterranean Pasta Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Fresh Basil in a giant wood fired bowl I threw out of 25 pounds of clay  A Northside get together at the Northside Park

After a string of super busy weekends (What weekend?) during which Adam was finishing some projects, I finally got everyone out of town and into the woods: 

Images included: boat wildflower insect music I hope it includes some of this summer's highlights.. Let me know what you think.