And Then There Was One

It was back to school for our eldest two boys this morning.  They were so excited and everything went according to plan.  

Everything…including Alistair’s reaction to being left behind by his big brothers.  “But I want to go to school too!”

Things for the big boys seemed to go a little bumpier once they got to school.  Seamus' report was that he "understood absolutely nothing" and did not say a single word all day.  For this mega chatterbox I find this a bit hard to believe but I am sure he will begin catching on to the French before we know it.  At least Seamus managed to stay in the right place for the whole day.

Liam, on the other hand, managed to get himself turned around after venturing to the bathroom early in the day and ended up waltzing into the other grade 3 class accidentally and sitting down in an empty seat there. He apparently remained in the wrong class for several hours.  By the time someone noticed that he was misplaced, he had already got recess (with the wrong class) and so got a recess do over (with the right class this time).  I suppose there are worse mistakes to make than ones that gift you with an extra recess on the first day of school!  Liam was in good spirits about his misadventure upon arriving home but reported that he had to use his spare mask because he snotted up his original one when he was informed that he was in the wrong class.  There may have been a few tears.

On the whole, not terrible reports for the first day back, at least everyone is in one piece.  I am sure things will improve as routines are learned and friends are made.

For Alistair's part, he bounced back to his usual happy self, helped along by a few fresh blackberries from the garden and a chocolatey condolence donut delivered by Grandma.  

On the whole, it was a wonderfully quiet day on the farm for me.  Though, I might have missed my munchkins just a bit; there were warm triple chocolate cookies awaiting them on their return home.

Bidding the Summer Farewell

Today, on the last day before school, we repeated a routine that we have followed too many times to count over the past eight months.  We ate a healthy breakfast, packed a hearty lunch, filled our water bottles, pulled on our socks and tied up our hiking boots.  Today, on our final weekday hike of the summer, we headed off to Gatineau Park to explore Pink Lake.

Maybe it is just because I am feeling nostalgic, but our 5.5 hour (approximately 13 km) hike seemed to be the perfect culmination of our summer together.  Liam, Seamus and Alistair have been my constant companions - sometimes perfect, often exasperating and always exhausting.  We three have been inseparable for the last 18 months.  I hope this time together is one they will look back on fondly and cherish for being one long and epic adventure that we shared.

During today's hike, we saw a little bit of everything that we have seen so many times on our other hikes of Ottawa and the surrounding area.

We found mushrooms.

Felt dwarfed by absolutely huge trees.

Can you spot Ali?
He's so very tiny.

Marvelled at hidden mica mines.  We found eight today!

They were deep!

Seamus found a mine cart.

Stumbled upon mossy ruins.

Were captivated by ecological phenomena.

We hiked hand-in-hand.

Alistair snored during his hike nap.

We snapped so many photos.

And we finished it all off with ice cream, of course.  Today was the best way to bid farewell to our year of building strength through solidarity as we all prepare to move forward, still together, but also separately, to continue to grow and develop into the amazing people we are meant to be.

It is finally the most wonderful time of the year!

Seamus the Destroyer

The phrase "that is why we can't have nice things" has never been truer here on Gael Glen Farm than it was today.  In just the past week Seamus has dissembled his bed frame to the point that it cannot be put back together, lost the TV controller and cracked the bottom of the laundry room sink.  Today he accidentally smashed the Roku remote into a dozen pieces.   If that wasn't enough, I stepped in a puddle of pee on our powder room floor deep enough to soak into the leg of my sweatpants and found dog poop on the carpet twice.  Twice!  Only one of these last two misadventures can be attributed to Seamus but they were both equally unpleasant.

Thank goodness tonight was date night so that at least we had one really good thing to happen today.  It was my turn to play chef so I chose a healthy, farm fresh Italian-inspired cuisine for our meal.  

Our very enthusiastic taste tester.

We started off with bite sized bruschetta made with oven-roasted Gael Glen farm garlic, our lemon boy tomatoes diced up really small and the last few leaves that were left after the Japanese beetles demolished our basil plant.

Our main course was kale Caesar salad with Greek yogurt dressing and homemade venison and goose meat lasagne made with eggplant, garlic, onions and sweet peppers from our garden.

I had a dessert planned too but we were so full after supper that we opted to save it for another day.  Instead we watched a date night movie - thank goodness we can control Netflix with our phones since the kids have now destroyed/lost both TV remotes.  What a day.  What a day.  At least our walking hurricane is now asleep so we can hopefully make it through the night without any further destruction.

Mystery Dinner

I cannot believe that it has already been a month but it is date night tonight! My turn to cook. Can you guess what we’re having?

Can-xtravaganza Saturday

After all of yesterday's harvesting, we were kept very busy in the kitchen today.  We started by grating the billion cucumbers taking up all the room in our fridge in preparation for tomorrow's hot dog relish.

We then moved on to chopping tomatoes, onions, sweet peppers, garlic and jalapenos for salsa.  Ian may have sliced off the tip of his finger at this point but don't worry we can guarantee that the severed portion is most definitely not in the salsa.  Whew!  And, yes, ew too.

Third, it was peeling and slicing peaches for fifteen jars of bourbon canned peaches.

Last, it was making a half dozen jars of chunky peach jelly with the leftover juice from the peaches.

Waste not want not, right?  What they don't mention is waste not, want sleep.  Boy, are we tired tonight!

Chair-y Tomatoes

Alistair and I got busy in the garden today picking (and eating!) our cherry tomatoes.  You just can't beat a fresh tomato plucked off the vine and popped in your mouth.

We roasted them in the oven all afternoon and then smeared their sweet deliciousness on Melba toast for supper.

Meanwhile, the big boys helped Uncle Jeff build our new Adirondack chairs for the fire pit.  Jeff has the patience of a saint and reported that Liam and Seamus were exceptional helpers.  I feel like this assessment is debatable with all the bickering I heard going on between the boys but at least all six chairs got built.

We could not wait to try them out so we decided that an after supper campfire was in order with s'mores all around, of course.  Our bums were happy and so were our sweet tooths.