So I haven't been around these parts in a while....not quite sure why. I still keep thinking of blog posts in my head, but never seem to get them onto "paper" (or the screen as it were).
I think it's partly - once again - not being sure what direction I want to take this blogging thing in, maybe partly just wanting to step away from it for a bit, and partly just too damn much other stuff going on.
Like...summer. Somehow the whole summer slipped away without any real posting. So, in a nutshell, the summer was good. Lots of road tripping - Vermont, Maine, New York, Vermont again, North Carolina - twice. Let's just say I put a lot of miles on my little car. Layla and I saw our old Vermont crowd - which was wonderful, she had a fantastic time at camp, I got a little sojourn in Maine, a quick visit to mom and dad, back home, back to get Layla. And then, since apparently Layla and I hadn't had enough time on the road we zipped down to Ikea in Charlotte, NC to get her a new desk (and to blow her mind with the Ikea experience). Then a few at home weeks and then off - en famille - to a week on the Outer Banks. In between was lots of gardening, dance classes, cleaning up from the crazy derecho that blew through here at the end of June, seeing friends, constantly pushing stepson to do all the things necessary to find his first real job (he moved out and started last week!), and planning and reading for the new homeschool year. Oh, and training.
Training for what, you ask? Why for the Asheville Half Marathon happening today! In exactly 2 hours. About 6 months ago I teamed up with my pals and neighbors Mariah and Deb and started running, and we decided we needed a big goal to aim for. We decided on a half marathon (although Mariah is a seasoned half and full marathon runner) and I, of course, insisted it needed to be in a cool place that had lots of great food to reward ourselves with afterward. Hence, Asheville, NC. Of course, I neglected to do my research until after we signed up and we have since discovered that Asheville's half marathon is considered one of the hardest in the country because it's crazy, freakin' hilly (um, perhaps because Asheville is in the mountains???!!!). Oops. Well, you might as well aim high, right? So we drove here yesterday, carbo loaded last night, and we'e off at 7:15am tomorrow morning.
It should be interesting...!
In other news Layla and I have kicked off our 3rd homeschool year and I think this will be our best yet. We've got some new materials, a newly mature 6th grader, and a number of other activities we're helping to launch that will make our experience even more broad and engaging. And we have a determination to hit the road more and see a lot of what Virginia has to offer. We started with a family trip to Monticello 2 weeks ago that was great fun for everyone...and that resulted in an article for a homeschooling magazine for me.
During my year in Virginia, and the 6 months leading into it, I've benefitted greatly from the resources and individual advice/support from The Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers, and decided it was time to give back. Especially given that oh so creative - and clear! - demonstration of the need for more volunteers put forth at last spring's conference. So it looks as if I'll write an article here and there and also take on being the Regional Coordinator for Roanoke. Should be fun and, even better, connect me with more cool homeschool people.
And how are the chickens, you ask? Well, we had a rough spring with poor Myrtle being sick and Dominique with 2 injured wings. Plus, a bumpy start with new chicks - getting 4 and losing 1 - Hera - the first night. By June I was hopeful we were out of the woods, but when I returned from the VT/ME/NY road trip I came home to a Dominique who was clearly failing...and had been for a while. I don't know what went wrong in the end - she seemed to recover from the wing injuries, and was ok for a bit, but then seemed to go downhill. By the time I got back there was clearly some neurological problem that resulted in her not being able to physically pick up a piece of food. She'd peck at something but couldn't connect - her head would go too far left or right or not go down far enough to touch it. So she was slowly starving to death. So, so sad. I hand fed her for a few days to see if she would rally but clearly whatever the problem was was not going away. So we had to make the call. Poor, sweet Dominque - she was one of our favorites.
Myrtle, however, seems to have rallied. She clearly misses her sick room pal, Dominique, and is more of a loner now. She lost her place in the pecking order during her time healing indoors and when I put them both back out - before we lost Dominique - they would always hang together away from the other chickens. She had a brief period of acting unwell again in August, and she's still not back to laying, but she's running around and looking perky so I'll take that for now. And there's definitely a strong bond between Myrtle and I given all the months of caring for her - we always chat a bit when I'm out with the chickens.
The new babies are fully integrated with the big girls and Artemis Frances is well on her way to being the dominant chicken. She's tall and full of attitude and chases her little sisters away whenever they come near food she's eating. Xena's still the crazy, half-blind chicken with her huge topknot of feathers...and somehow her wackiness keeps the others from bothering her too much. They just kind of ignore her. Athena still seems to be the baby of the group and gets chased away by all the other chickens except Xena, but she simply circles around and comes back in from another angle. She's clearly smart though because in the morning when I let everyone out, and all the other girls run out to explore their yard, Athena goes back into the coop and eats her fill without anyone to hassle her.
I'll let this be the start of catching up, and hopefully, restarting this blog thing again. Maybe I'll even put together a little slide show of our summer fun...and of course, an half marathon report!
