,Henry

I liked Henry's choice of reading material the other night.

In other news, after a week plus of gorgeous, even hot weather, we're back to more seasonal weather. Even a few flurries today but still sunny and nice. The cold got a bunch of our sungolds in the upper hoophouse last night, which was a major bummer, but we will plant more. In happier news, the bumblebees in the first greenhouse seem to be thriving. The kids and I watched them pollinating tomatoes this afternoon.

Eastern Cowboy

Our neighbor Don Davis runs a dairy farm. Sometimes in the evening, Maryellen and Waverly and Henry will go for a walk up to visit the cows. If Don is around, he will often come out from the barn and chat and let Wavy and Henry pet and feed the calves. All of this has made a huge impression on Henry. All he talks about is cows, and his favorite video is a Vermont classic about life on a dairy farm.

I saw Don at the general store one day and mentioned to him that Henry dreams of being a dairy farmer. Don thought this over for a minute and said with a grin, "Well, I am not sure if it is a dream or a nightmare." Dairying, you see, is not the easiest way to get rich.

But now that it is mud season, Henry has these mud boots he loves because they look like the barn boots that Don wears. He calls them his "cow boots".

Which reminds me of a song called "Eastern Cowboy" by Alan Greenleaf, folksinger and Peacham resident. Here is the chorus:

He's an Eastern Cowboy
He herds Holstein cattle
He ain't got a horse
And he ain't got a saddle
His range is kind of woody
But the snakes they don't rattle
and his boots are rubber and warm . . .

By the way, you can get Alan's songs on iTunes.

Henry Griffin . . . two year old zen master?

Or an alternate title might be, "Ask a silly question . . . " A conversion around the kitchen table at snack time today:

Papa: So Henry. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Henry: A dinosaur!

Papa: Uh, . . .

Waverly: (laughing) You can't be a dinosaur!

Henry: No, no! A butterfly! I be a butterfly.

Papa: Well, . . .

Waverly: (Still laughing a little) He likes the sound of a butterfly flying.

Papa: The sound of what?

Waverly: You know . . . (starts silently pantomiming a butterfly in flight around the table).

Henry: Yea, yea. I be the sound of a butterfly.

Picking rocks

Wavy, Henry and I picked three (half) buckets of rocks from greenhouse 2 the other day. Its so nice to be in the greenhouse this time of year -- they're warm, there's real dirt to dig in -- that we all seem to be looking for excuses to go in. They're not on, but they're plenty of cleanup work to get them ready. The strings hanging down are the tomato trellises.

I tomato my farmer

Our sister-in-law Sheri grew up on a citrus farm in Florida. So she knows all about driving a tractor and obsessing about the weather. But then she had the (mis)fortune to marry a Yankee (my brother), and to make matters worse he was a Yankee living in a city (Providence, RI). But this hasn't deterred Sheri from continuing to fight for farms. She is one of the grand poobahs at Farm Fresh Rhode Island and she manages several farmer's markets in Providence. Farm Fresh Rhode Island rocks, by the way, but that will have to be a different post.

Recently she sent us a care package that included several bumper stickers that said "I [tomato/heart] my farmer." Waverly thought it would be funny to put one on her brother's back, and Henry thought it was funny too. So all day long today he ran around as a human billboard for Farm Fresh Rhode Island. We are doing our part to get the word out up here, Sheri!

Happy Halloween from Henry

Henry doing his lion roar for the camera.

Studying up

Waverly and Henry attempting to i.d. a caterpillar they found on the dill. I'm pretty sure it was a black swallowtail.

Pumpkin patch

Henry playing in the dirt at market

Wednesday was perfect market weather. Warm, sunny, dry.

Henry was totally dirty after this, with a little cloud of dust trailing him, a la Pigpen.

Henry sleeping at market on Saturday

He is generally looking so big these days. I like this photo because he still looks like my baby.

Henry

Happy Birthday Henry!

Henry turned one on Thanksgiving day. Happy birthday Henry!! We love you!!

Three things about you to remember this time by: You love the song "There was a farmer, had a dog, and Bingo was his name-o". You are an amazing climber, scaling even dresser drawers. You are full of smiles and hugs and bring happiness to all you meet.

Henry is eleven months old!

Henry is changing so fast.

Three things about him of note these days: (1) He loves to be picked up and carried now, more than ever. He loves being in the backpack so much that I even let him eat back there sometimes (you can see the banana smeared on my shirt in the photo above). (2) He love rice cakes. It seems like an odd thing to love, but I think it must be a treat for him to have something so big and crunchy that he is allowed to eat all by himself. (3) He is no longer easily distractable. The day is long gone where I could just pick him up from whatever he was doing I didn't like (i.e. playing with the nightlight in Wavy's room) and put him somewhere new and he would forget about what he had been doing. Now he just turns around and heads right back to whatever he was doing. Which may be why he likes the backpack so much these days -- less conflict.

Thanks to my sister Jess for the photo above!!

Henry is ten months old!

Henry turned ten months old on Saturday. He is such a great kid -- happy, easygoing, fun loving and a talker! He loves to make all kinds of sounds. He makes great car sounds, and has lots of "words" including bye bye and names for all of us (Wa wa for Wavy). He is definitely good at making himself understood one way or another.

He LOVES peekaboo and that's what he and Cornelia were doing in the photo above .

Pulling in the oars

We are expecting our first frost tonight. This is early for us, but not unheard of. In an average year, we get our first frost around the end of September. But today was autumnal, no doubt about it -- sunny, dry, high of 63.

But frost tonight means that we have to harvest certain veggies now, and then cover certain crops to try to nurse them along for a few more weeks. We ran out this morning and pulled all our onions, and all the winter squash that was ready.

And we finally remembered to bring the camera up into the field when we went up to pick onions this morning.

Wavy doing a little empty onion truck dance when we first got up to the field.

Maryellen and Henry picking while Wavy and I gathered and stacked.

Hmmmm . . I think the CSAers may get a French onion soup recipe this week.

Wavy sitting on top of the FIRST full truck of onions. There was at least one more onion load, plus winter squash loads. Then we had to cover what we could cover with remay for the frost.

But even after that we still had time to go for one last swim at Harvey's Lake (it was cold), and then out to eat at the local greasy spoon. So it was not a bad way to bid adieu to summer.

Happy Birthday Henry!

Henry is nine months old today! He is crawling and very much enjoying it.

Henry at market

Henry is happily playing in the shade at market. You can see right behind him the stack of baskets for CSAers. Then behind that is the stand, with the handles on the side for moving, and on the other side, the legs of customers. On the left side behind Henry is a pink chair of cafe Wavo. Though we might have to come up with a new name for that since Waverly, for a few months now, has been quite persistent in saying she does want to be called Wavo. "I like Wavy or Waverly," she says.

Henry is eight months old!!

Henry turned eight months on Sunday!! He is saying mama. Well its more like maamaamaamaamaamaa, but I love it!!

Rainy market

It was a pretty rainy market this morning. I tried to pretend that it was just showers for a while, but it was really rain, though not continuous. I fully intended to bail with the kids, and leave Cornelia there to do it alone, but one thing led to another and we were having fun so we did the whole market.

Rainy days are certainly not great for business, but they are not as bad as you would think. People like to cook when it rains, so they buy more veggies, assuming they're willing to brave the rain and come out.

Anyway, Henry snoozed in the backpack, with my raincoat mostly protecting him, and he later practiced standing, which he is very into these days. He turned seven months last Friday!!

Waverly and Quinn hung out in the back of the car, where it was dry, and put on puppet shows for passersby. The CSA kids were an awesome audience, staying out in the rain, and later joining in the show. It was fun.

Henry is six months old!

Practicing for market

Our first farmer's market of the season is this Saturday!! Henry is ready though. Here he is practicing napping outside on a blanket, and he's already a pro in the backpack.

Henry is five months old!

Happy birthday Henry! With Uncle Geoff and Lois who were visiting this weekend.

Spring sun

It is awesome out. So sunny and warm that Henry and I had to roll up a side on the greenhouse this morning for the first time this season.

Henry's still getting used to the idea of sun! Definitely appreciated my shade.

Henry

Henry is four months old today! Happy birthday Henry!!!

Waverly and Henry

The sun is getting stronger and stronger every day. The rooms with South facing windows are bright and warm even at 8:30 a.m. when this was taken.

Henry

Henry is three months old today! Happy birthday Henry!!

Henry

Henry is smiling more and more. I wish I could get a photo, but I didn't. His smiles are fleeting, and, happily, most often when he's looking into your eyes - the camera seems to distract him. In any case, like every mom I guess, I think he's perfect.

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!

The yawn

Henry is 11 days old!

Henry is home - Day 2

These pics almost broke the cute-o-meter, but I decided to post them anyway. We will return to farm blogging eventually, but for now, this site is temporarily kid blogging.

Wavy holding Henry.

Wavy explaining how Henry is very tiny.

Wavy attempting to kiss Henry on the top of the head, and actually getting him somewhere between his chin and neck.

I am sensing that many years of shinanegins stretch out before us.

Henry Seamus Griffin

Henry Seamus Griffin born November 23, 2005, 9:38 a.m. We love him!!!