it's even more official!

Well we finally got our court appointment to 're-adopt' Sara here in the US. Yes she was already adopted. But now we can get her social security number here. And this means we are really, finally done with this process. Well except for getting the social security number.



Sara enjoyed the part where she tried to sing into the microphone.

And of course, sitting in the judge's chair was a big hit.

farm dinner

For Mike's birthday I took him to a farm dinner up in Boulder... this little organization pulls up a bus to some local farm & they set up a long table outside and cook a lovely dinner for a bunch of us crazy food people from the stuff they grow on the farm. Unbeknownst to us, the woman who organizes the farm dinners is actually someone he knows from Stanford. Its a small small world indeed.

Anyway, the farm dinner was very lovely. We had fried squash blossoms, a nice summer soup with lots of fresh veggies, rabbit 4 ways, grilled peaches. All the veggies came from the farm we were on. The rabbit & peaches came from other Colorado farms. While it was a very lovely evening (sans two year old!) I do have to say that my husband cooks just as delightfully for me most every night. Though fried squash blossoms and rabbit are not usually on the menu.

PIGS! They really do wag their tails happily, just like dogs. So cute.




The news around our own little wannabe farm is that the bees seem to be multiplying rapidly and getting a bit more aggressive at escorting us away when we get too close to the hive. The escort service is a kind of unnerving to say the least...it involves a very angry sounding bee squirming around in your hair and refusing to be dislodged. Hard to stay calm, especially if you're two. Or if you're me. So hopefully our pleasant up-til-now cohabitation can continue. Maybe they just don't like the lawnmower much.

The veggie, herb & fruit crops are...ehhh...coming along. I'll post some pics soon. We have a LOT of oregano and sage, as usual. Most of the herbs (though not the chervil) are doing well. A few peppers, a few radishes, the tomatoes are coming in fairly well, the salad greens continue to produce, heat be damned, the basil is pretty good, the fava leaves (f not the beans) have provided some very good pesto (who knew?), the strawberries are making lots of greenery but no strawberries, the real berry plants are threatening produce a few berries this year and we should have a couple of grapes. All in all its keeping us amused but we are hardly ready to go off the grid. Mike has been branching out into new homesteading skills...he's canned some veggies (they are very pretty) he's getting ready to launch into cheese & sausage production. Now if we could only find a place for chickens...maybe a goat or a few pigs (roof deck?)...oh and rip out the whole front lawn for a garden instead.

One of Mike's lovely canned items:

back from our whirlwind visit to the lakehouse

Good to see everyone and meet baby Tyler for the first time. I forgot to take very many pictures (that might have something to do with the very gentlemanly way those Greene men frequently offer to make an old fashioned).

I know one of the highlights for Sara was running up and down the hill with all her cousins. And falling asleep on grandpa's boat. She's still talking about that (how does she remember?).







more photos >