Summer Days

Austin and I have fallen into a nice summer routine of working in the mornings, then picking up the kids, coming home, and working on our house and yard and barns. Howard "Farmer" Gray is here for a few weeks, which is wonderful -- he's been pruning and roto-tilling and playing with our delighted kids. He'll be exhausted by the time he goes home.


Here are a few random pictures. . .

• Gavin's new method of eating a peanut butter sandwich. Batman sunglasses required.
  
  
  
  
  
• Carousel at the Shelburne Museum. We thought it was just an art museum, but the eccentric heiress that collected all the great art also collected buildings, trains, even a huge steamboat. All are meticulously restored and open for exploration. Gavin's favorite part of the trip was the map of the grounds, "Just like Dora!" Lucy's favorite is below.

• Berries, berries everywhere! Last week, there were just the right amount of blueberries and raspberries to pick in the morning for breakfast. This week they are out of control. Yesterday I picked enough raspberries for two batches of freezer jam. Today I have to attack the blueberries . . . jam? muffins? both? And now the blackberries are starting to ripen. You are cordially invited to come pick as many as you like.

Tractors!

The new Gray farm felt like an authentic farm this week when the Youngs arrived to cut and bale our three acres of open field. First, Jeremy came on the blue tractor to cut the grass down.

The mown grass sat in the field for a few days to dry, then, yesterday, Jeremy came back on the red tractor with a big baler attachment to transform the cut grass into huge round bales. Gavin and I watched the whole thing. Farming is a great spectator sport! Gavin's favorite part was when the tractor stopped vacuuming up the dry grass, opened up at the back, and "pooped" out a bale. We sat and counted all the bales each time a new one came out.

A few minutes after the baling started, Jason came on the little green tractor to pick up the bales and load them onto a trailer attached to a pickup truck. We sent 16 bales of hay from the Gray farm up to feed our friends the cows, and had a great time watching the tractors on the field.

More natural bodies of water . . .

Yesterday, our friends the Bedells invited us to their family "camp" on Peacham Pond. We all had a blast. The kids swam for hours. I thought they were going to grow gills! Lucy's favorite activity was running as fast as she could the length of the dock and jumping off the end.

The kids got out of the water briefly for a canoe ride with Austin, but then they were back in the water for more swimming.

Who needs a pool?

Lucy and her friend Riley swimming and playing in the creek . . .

New Jersey Campout

I arrived home from Germany just in time for our annual campout with Jason & Rachel & Joe & Sarah & families! This is a tradition going back to 2001, before any of us had kids to complicate the packing. Memorable past campouts include 2002 at the yurts in the Adirondacks, with Sarah & I both about ready to pop with Lucy & Ben, and 2005 in Syracuse, when Sarah spent the night at the hospital giving birth to Ava rather than sleeping in a tent as she had planned (clearly, Ava didn't want to miss all the fun!). My personal highlight from this trip was seeing Rachel the size I was at the 2002 campout. We are looking forward to having new little kid(s) at next year's campout, crawling around in the dirt, marveling at insects and splashing in the water.

Some highlight pictures from this year's campout at Bass River State Forest in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey . . .

Next year we're hoping to host the campout here in Vermont. There are lots of beautiful places to go . . . the Lake Champlain islands, Camp Joseph near the memorial, Allis State Park a few minutes away. Or we could camp in our backyard. We do have swimmable, fishable natural bodies of water (Jason & Joe's requirements) right on the property. And plenty of interesting wildlife in the neighborhood. As of two nights ago, we can add a black bear to the list of animals we've seen in Vermont. He wasn't in our yard, thankfully -- just ambling along the road on his way to the river. Looked like a huge black lab with tree-trunk hind legs. Very cute (from a distance!)

Elephants

Sunday afternoon I was driving through Augsburg with some friends and saw two elephants waiting for the bus.

They were standing alongside the road, next to a bus shelter, placidly munching on some long grass.

I was told that they probably weren't waiting for a bus, their trainers from the nearby circus camp probably brought them there to eat the grass. Still, it was a pretty unusual sight. I told the kids and they were jealous. They only get to see moose and deer wander by at home. They want to come to Germany where drivers have to watch out for elephants.

I'm leaving tomorrow, finally, to return to the land of moose. I went to Ulm today and found a wealth of research treasures, which the good women at the archive are busy copying for me. They will send them to me at Norwich, where I can explore them when I have some time. I can't wait to come home to my beautiful house and my beautiful children and my fabulous husband. I love you guys!

Gruß aus Deutschland!

I'm still in Germany, but I'm halfway done! I have been in Augsburg since last Saturday, working mainly at the city library (there's not much in the archive I need for my current project, though it feels strange not to go there every day like I used to do). I am finding some good material on the construction history of the churches, so I should be able to write my article about changes in church art and architecture after the Reformation. I am also finding some really interesting stuff -- like that one of the chapels in St. Anna's church had its internal entrance bricked up so it wouldn't be part of the Lutheran Church anymore, but the chapel continued to be shared by both Lutherans and Catholics until 1750, more than 200 years! I can't wait to find out how they managed it, I hope I can find some more details.

I miss my family, but it looks like they are managing just fine without me! I will be home soon.