The Binker Files

Winter Wonderland

It is still only November, but we are all ready for the holidays here.  On Sunday, we headed out into the San Juan National Forest to hunt for the perfect tree.

We didn't find the perfect tree, but we did find a pretty good one.

The day was lovely and we enjoyed our hike through the snowy woods. 

Silas really loves decorations and was thrilled to help hang the ornaments on the tree.  Levi reminds us of cats we have known, he spends all his time trying to destroy ornaments.

We think the tree might have looked better wwhen it was standing snow-covered in the woods, but it is growing on us.

Pie for Breakfast

I always make a lot of pie on Thanksgiving so that we can enjoy it for breakfast the day after, one of my favorite things.

Although I haven't eaten meat in about 18 years, yesterday's dinner was the first vegetarian Thanksgiving we've ever had.  Mark usually likes to cook a turkey, but he wasn't up to it this year, so we had a Tofurky instead:

It was actually pretty good, but I don't think I'll have it again, it feels wrong to me to serve something out of a box on Thanksgiving.

Silas was my helper yesterday, cutting up the pumpkins, making the pies and cranberry sauce.

The dinner was kind of a failure, we ate way too late, Silas and Levi had snacked all day and didn't eat anything.  Levi decided to paint instead.

So far, the day after Thanksgiving is turning out to be a much more exciting, we woke up to a big surprise this morning - snow!

There will be no shopping for us today, just playing in the snow and eating left-over tofurky sandwiches.

Problem Chicken

We have an unusual flock of hens.  Parsley, in particular, is one strange bird.  When she was younger, she was so aggresive, I worried she was a rooster.  Since receiving so much attention from Silas, she has mellowed and no longer charges and pecks, but now seems somewhat obsessed with us.

One afternoon, the boys and I were upstairs reading in bed after a nap and heard thumping on the stairs.  Silas asked me if it was a monster, I thought it was Moose slowly dragging herself up to to the second floor.  It was Parsley.  She came into the bedroom and jumped on the bed.  Silas put her back outside and she came back up three more times.

The weather is still so warm here, we leave the doors open during the day.  Parsley is always coming in to check on us.  Levi always lets me know when the chicken is in the house, he points and yells "Si Si!" repeatedly.  He calls all chickens Si Si now.

A Dream Crushed

For over a year now, Mark and I have harbored a dream - someday we would move to the sleepy little town of Paonia, Colorado.  We have heard such great things about the place, it has been described to us as a wonderful little town with friendly residents, fantastic outdoor pursuits, surrounded by world-class organic orchards, vineyards and farms, very family friendly and offering affordable real estate.

We imagined ourselves purchasing a little piece of land by a creek and homesteading.  We'd build a small strawbale house and greenhouse within biking distance of the town and all it has to offer.  Whenever Silas asked for an animal, a bunny for example, I'd say "when we move to the Paonia, we can get one".

We went to Paonia on Friday, intending to stay the weekend.  We lasted two hours.  The town had sort of a Livermore Falls feel to it, definitely not for us.

What will we dream of now?

Bread

I have been trying to learn how to bake good whole wheat bread for almost a year, ever since I got this great book from Marsha & Bernie as a Christmas gift.  So far, my results have received mixed reviews, Silas likes the bread from the store better.  I recently was given a very exciting gift from a bread-baking friend, which has been a huge help in my bread baking experiment, a lump of whole wheat sourdough starter:

I keep the starter on the counter, feed it a little flour and water everyday and it grows.  Wild yeast and lacto-bacillus cultures live in the starter, which leaven and flavor the bread.  The whole thing seems quite magical!  When the quart jar is full, I mix it with water, flour and salt, work it very little and end up with three loaves of bread. 

I love the simplicity of it and, although I'm still working on finding the right proportions and oven temperature, the bread tastes pretty good!  Even Silas approves of it.

Today, we'll be enjoying our bread with an extra-special treat:

Fresh tomatos!  We found this lone, little tomato plant in our garden in September.  It was nearly strangled by the wheat crop and the weeds and the two green tomatos were the size of peas.  We brought the plant inside and have been waiting patiently for this exciting day.

Edited to add:  Our lunch was delicious, the tomatos were a taste of summer in November!

Tiny Nudist

Levi hates to be clothed.  The mornings here have turned cold.  When there is frost on the ground and you can see your breath, Levi wants only a pair of shoes to keep him warm.

See it to believe it

Silas has a little friend named Aiden.  They've known each other for about a year and play together fairly often.  After playgroup the other day, Silas kept referring to Aiden as a girl.  I reminded Silas that Aiden was a boy and he said, "No, Aiden can't be a boy, she is a girl." 

Aiden's long hair does cause a lot of people to assume he is a girl, but I didn't think Silas, with such long hair himself, would make that leap.  When I asked him why Aiden couldn't be a boy, Si said, "Boys can't have red hair, only girls and ladies can."  Apparently, Silas has never seen a male with red hair!

He is starting to believe it might be possible for a boy to be a red-head, but I don't think he is convinced.

Pack Rat

It seems that Silas has developed some pack rat tendencies, perhaps an inherited gene from his Papa's side?  It started with things found outdoors, like this:

We have piles of pine cones, sticks, rocks, feathers and nuts all over the house.  He also drags home big sticks and branches whenever we hike or hang out at the river, most of those are scattered around the yard. 

This past week, he has started to collect something new:

Food.  This is what he has saved so far today, extra-long penne pasta and three blueberries that were stuck together when they were frozen.  He doesn't want to eat them because they are special, he just wants to keep them.

Playing with the black widows

About once a day, while playing outside, Levi goes missing.  Silas and I will run around the yard, yelling for him.  Almost always, he is playing under the porch.  When Silas finds him, he'll yell, "he's in with the black widows!"

Obviously, these two boys don't share my fear of poisonous spiders.  I've warned them to keep clear of the places where black widows typically live, like under porches, but that doesn't stop them.  At first, it really upset me when I heard that one of them was playing in with the black widows, but I've grown so used to hearing it, it sounds almost funny to me now.  We haven't actually seen a black widow yet, though.  I probably won't think it is so funny then.

Poison

Silas, like all kids, loves to do whatever the big people are doing.  For a long time now, he has wanted to brush his teeth with the grown-up's toothpaste, not the fluoride-free kids paste he typically uses. He recently started using the fluoride paste occasionally, but with a lot of warnings about how dangerous it can be if swallowed.

Tonight, after brushing, he exclaimed proudly, "I am learning to use the poison, I'm really getting used to it!"