Five stars, Migrating, Armed with a Sharpie

1. The movie Buck is an excellent documentary! It's the story of Buck Brannaman who some call The Horse Whisperer. I would recommend this movie for everyone, not only horse people. One of many quotes I especially like:
"You know a horse is pretty sensitive. A horse can feel a mosquito on their butt in a wind storm."
2. I noticed a plume of gray smoke off in the distance. I didn't think much of it until Tess exclaimed, "Look at that flock of birds!" It was a lot of birds.
3. Organizing and cleaning makes me extraordinarily happy. It might actually be a curse... I'm not sure. But I felt good all day after I sorted, labeled and organized all our old paint cans in the basement.

Composer unknown, A challenge, Craving

1. Among the box of music we bought at auction last summer was this handwritten music score titled, "A Christmas Carol to My Washington Family" from 1937. Today I found the perfect frame for it and now it is sandwiched between two pieces of glass and sits atop our piano.
2. Steve gives me second chances when we play pool.
3. I made a rich chicken and rice casserole with mushrooms, pimento and crunchy sliced almonds. I use whole milk and a vegetable bouillon that B. brings me from Germany. Pure comfort food for a cold and rainy night.

I can't look, Her favorite subject, Not many of these left

1. I used to help Steve's grandmother periodically clean out her file cabinet. It would take all day because she would read every piece of paper, stop and cry. I attempted to do a bit of my own file cabinet purging today. I didn't get far before I ran across this drawing done by Chelsea when she was 4 1/2. Notice the color of the streamers? They reminded me of the photo from last Saturday-they match her jersey 20 years later. I don't dare go back to the filing cabinet because at this rate, it will take me all day. : )


2. While packing her ample school lunch she says, " I wish lunch counted as a subject because I would get an A."
3. Balmy temperatures and dwindling daylight allowed for an evening walk. We picked up a few acorns as we went along.

A Vagabond Song by Bliss Carman

There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood-
Touch of manner, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.

The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry
Of bugles going by,
And my lonely spirit thrills
To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills.

There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir;
We must rise and follow her,
When from every hill aflame
She calls and calls each vagabond by name.

*Tess took this photo from the hill next door.

No drivel here, Our road, Winterizing

1. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner is, by far, one of the best books I've read in ages. He is an author whose writing is pure art.
2. Only in the glory of autumn do we return home with such fanfare as a road strewn with gold coins.
3. Down comforters are hauled to the laundromat where I sit for an hour or so, breathing the clean scent of detergents and warm dryers. Back home, I hang them in the sun and breeze before returning them to beds that are made up with fresh sheets. Bed time will be a treat tonight.

Comes with a history, The thoughts of a parent, But it needs to be sterile!

1. Steve is really smitten with his new toy. He researched the company that made the table, measured bolts and boards and came up with a manufacture date in the 1920's. I like to imagine the places and things this table has seen.
2. The top is made from three pieces of slate, each weighing 250 pounds. There were no men around to help him carry them down from the truck. Daughter #3 was happy to oblige. "Aren't you glad you have a strong daughter?" she asks me with pride. A simple, "Yes!" doesn't suffice, but I don't bore her with my long answer.
3. Chelsea and Tess decide to build terrariums in some gallon bottles, but we have no potting soil. Steve finds this amusing. In typical dad-style he says, "You mean we have five acres out there and you have no dirt?"

Saturday's #1 A beautiful day for a race, #2 Amazing endurance

Chelsea after competing in her first Cyclocross race. Thirty minutes of slugging through fields, up hills, over barriers and through mud.

Chad is cheering Chelsea on with a cowbell. We cheered from the sidelines, but Chad ran right into the course to cheer his wife on.

Chad's turn. The 'A' class entries spent 45 minutes (!) doing the same. It's a grueling task, but everyone is lighthearted and good-natured about it.

Chad and his main competitor coming up a hill.

Bodies and bikes are covered in mud at the end.