Fall Nature

Just some fall pictures from around our yard. Beautiful fall colors.

We have lots of swaths of Golden Rod in the back, where the wild roses and blackberries were in the spring. Beautiful, birght yellow and full of insect critters.

This is Virginia Creeper, it's a deep burgandy red and just climbs up the trees. We have it on several trees in our yard, it's really pretty.

Just some flowers that grew from some seeds we planted in early spring.

We also have some regular visitors ~ of the animal variety. We have at least 4 bluebird couples who enjoy our front yard and roof.

These deer like to come down from the woods and hang out here in the evenings.

And of course, on of our gophers in the backyard. Always entertaining to watch.

A new visitor, a little garter snake.



The night sky, is just beautiful. We live out in the county ~ no street lights, shopping centers etc so we get a good clear view. We're trying to learn more of them, sometimes there are so many stars it's hard for us to pick out the constellations. We've seen the Milky Way, Ursa Major, with the big dipper, Taurus, Leo, Orion, Cygnet, Gemini, Cassiopeia, Ursa Minor, Draco, Bootes, Pegasus. Here is a sunset picture with two planets appearing. Not a great picture, but an amazing view I wanted to share. We miss our personal astronomer in NC (hi Rebecca!), so we're trying to manage on our own.

Oktoberfest

The local Frontier Museum sponsors an Oktoberfest each year. There is a somewhat large German history in this area with the many Germans settling in this area, farther south into the NC mountains you get Irish and Scottish settlers. So the girls and I went. It was fun and festive.

Barrel Racing. Using a smaller barrel than the traditional one, but Lauren did great and won her race. Tiny but mighty, she is.

Making sauerkraut.

Helping to thrash and then sort the wheat.

Helping to make preserves

We had fun eating some food while watching the traditional dancing and music playing. Fun and lively.

Fall Hike (october)

We tried out a new hike in the Shenandoah Nat'l Park. We had done the upper portion leading to a waterfall last year. So we did the lower portion this time. It was a bit steep in places and rocky but we all did well. It was beautiful, lots of lush green trees and the babbling stream full of many cascades.

A beautiful sunset on the way home. Not a great pictures because it was taken through the window of a moving car. But it was spectacular, with pinks and oranges overlaying the clouds. A perfect ending to the day.

Farm visits (October)

We had a fun visit to a dairy and turkey farm, just a few minutes from our house. A family from our homeschool c0-op owns the farm and were gracious enough to host a field trip. The mom gave some info about the farm and animals and how they take care of them. She had a play area of farm equipment toys and corn feed, Aaron and Caleb really enjoyed this.

We then took a hay ride to their baby turkey house and got to see and hold some baby chicks.


Then back to the farm for a tour of the dairy milking house and getting to see them milking the cows. We also got see the barn for the calves and how they are fed and taken care of.


We then had a snack of lots of dairy products ~ yogurt, icecream, cheese sticks, milk.
Enjoyed by everyone.

Here are some pictures of the boys at the girls horseback riding lessons. They love it there, horses, dogs and cats so much fun.

The farm is located at the base of the mountains and is just a beautiful scene of farms, rolling pastures, creeks and mountains. These are some pictures I tried to take of the leaves as they were changing colors. Doesn't really do the real thing justice, but gives you an idea.