down time

Today was nice because we stayed home. We don't do that much around here, at least not when the weather is nice and there are fun things to do outside. Yesterday it was not very warm outside, but we spent the day with the homeschool gang on a field trip to a farm in Glencoe, MN. We took a hayrack ride through a corn field and learned about different kinds of corn and gourds. The farmer who drove for us was a great teacher, full of facts about the plants we saw, and a natural ease with kids. Kids got to hop off the truck and pick corn and gourds to take home. Then we drove through the pumpkin patch and watched the truck tires smash dead pumpkins. That was the highlight for Maggie, she found it hilarious. We went back to the animal area and fed cows and goats, then held baby chicks. Frank saw a herd (?) of black baby pigs and chased them. Maggie made friends with a little girl who works at the farm, and they played with pumpkins and picked apples. We picked eggs from the hen house to bring home to eat. It was a little heartbreaking when Frank came up to me carefully cupping an egg in his hands, "Mom, can I bring home this pet?" He had just been holding a baby chick in the same way, cupping her and holding her so tenderly. He really wanted a chick to hatch out of one of our eggs! When we were leaving Frank said he wanted to bring his dad back here so that he could pick up all the baby animals too. We will definitely be doing that! Today we cooked the eggs for breakfast, and also made applesauce with Maggie's apples.

www.fallharvestorchard.com

My mom was a little under the weather today. She thinks she is getting a cold, and she has a rattley cough. I'm praying she doesn't get sick, because pneumonia came on so quickly last time and that was mid summer. Good news yesterday was that her back scan did not show cancer in bone. "Just" a jammed disk in her back, which is causing the back pain.