Down on the Farm

Merry Christmas

Santa left us perfect snowman making snow!!

Henry

Henry likes to sleep in the stick em up position, or what I like to think of as the Han Solo position. He was a month old yesterday!

Shedding snow

The greenhouse is surviving its first winter, at least so far.

Woohoo!!!

It was a sizzling -11 degrees F (-24C) on the porch this morning. That is below zero, baby! Time to crank the woodstove up to the next level, and to fantasize about the woodburing sauna I am goiing to build one of these days (right after I finish building a lean-to in the woods, a wood-burning bread oven, and a wood-buring clay kiln).

P.S. I was just laughing to myself because as I was reading over this post, I remembered that I wasn't even able to put up all our wood for the woodstove this year, let alone wood for a sauna, bread oven, and kiln. Oh well, a guy has got to dream. . .

Love that off season!

The farm has given me a new affection for winter. I love farm season, but I also love the off season for the time to visit with family and friends, play in the snow, and just goof around. I love that Thanksgiving and Christmas are scheduled during the off season, and Henry timed his arrival perfectly as well!

Not going all out at all times can be deceiving though. Both Peter and I find ourselves coming up with all kinds of ideas for fun new stuff we could do on the farm if we had the time. But I have to remember that soon enough (January!) we'll already be late on our seed orders and freaking out about getting the second greenhouse finished and before we know it we'll be back in the swing of farm season.

Anyway, till then, here are some photos of us enjoying the off season!

Wavy and Nana making Christmas cookies.

Visiting Santa at the library.

Playing boat with Quinn.

Happily, Henry is definitely down with the December is a good time to sleep thing.

Tis getting to be the season

It is hard to believe we were still going to market six weeks ago. December has come, the snow has started, the ground is frozen, and holiday mania begins.

This weekend my father, aka Baba, came up to visit Waverly and little Henry. We decided to go out and get our tree on Sunday, at a neighbor's farm where they sell Christmas trees (the McKays for all you local readers).

Baba had to explain to Waverly that the tree she liked was too small.

Mama Maryellen made the trip with little Henry wrapped inside my big XL down jacket. The little multi-colored fleecy hat thing is Henry.

And Wavy and I inspected our freshly cut tree.

We had a great time! Plus, we had hot chocolate in the warming shed after we got our tree, and we watched birds at the birdfeeder. Turns out the off-season is not so bad!

The yawn

Henry is 11 days old!

Asking for help (or Ode to Grandma)

Well, we have had an awful lot of help and well wishers since Henry arrived. From friends who helped care for Wavy on the day Henry was born, to neighbors who have brought over food. And we have more family help coming on the way. But at this point, we need to take a moment to mention a couple of people who really saved the day for us this week when we were down and out.

We got back from the hospital last Friday with Henry, and over the weekend, all of us managed to get pretty darn sick. We somehow got through Saturday, but on Sunday the wheels that are the Griffin family started to gum up a bit. By Monday morning I was lying on the living room floor with a fever of 102 degrees, Maryellen was still recovering from the birth and her sickness, and we finally said to each other, "Ok, we really need help."

So we made two calls. Our first call was to our friend Deirdre, who must have heard the desperation in Maryellen's voice, because she gathered her son Elliot, plus our other friend Pheobe and her daughter Emmeline, and they all came over to our house for a visit. They occupied Waverly for a few precious hours, which gave me a chance to lie down for a bit. And they cheered Maryellen up with their very presence and companionship.

But our second call Monday morning was to Grandma, Maryellen's Mom. I was out of the room when Maryellen made that call, but whatever she said worked. Grandma dropped everything, rescheduled her week, and drove up from Boston on Monday afternoon. She has since spent the week feeding us, shopping for us, doing dishes, moving furniture, getting the house ready for a baby again, doing laundry, playing with Waverly, holding Henry, driving Wavy around town, and keeping me and Maryellen entertained. She even got so carried away today that she was out helping Kat put the hipboards on the new greenhouse!!!

Next she will be leaping tall buildings in a single bound, and stopping speeding trains, and all that stuff! There does not seem to be anyway to stop her!

But seriously, thank you everyone for all your help and kindness since Henry was born. And thanks in advance to my folks who are coming up next week, and to my Grandma who I plan on asking for help next week as well.