Is there anything more fall than admiring the leaves and having squash for dinner? I’m not sure, but that’s exactly what we did today. We attended a Fall Fest at a neighboring community center, which unfortunately turned out to be more of a vendor show for direct sales consultants (nothing against that – I am one – I was just hoping for crafts and hot cider). Swee had fun painting a pumpkin, and then we had the chance to explore a new-to-us playground just outside. The weather quickly turned, going from brisk and breezy to quite cold in just a few minutes, and sent us scurrying for the car.

It was a quick outing after a run to the dump and picking up another load of our stuff from the other house. In another life, I’d say we took the long way home to see these leaves, but those last two photos were taken at the other end of our own road.

We came home to a backed up toilet in one bathroom and an inch of water on the floor in the other, with more coming. Our landlord came with a plunger, and instead found that our septic pipe had burst in the backyard. We watched them dig a hole with the Bobcat, and heard all of the drains in the house empty out as a huge flood sprayed out of the opening. I am thankful that he was able to patch it and be on his way.

We enjoyed grilled cheese for dinner (mine with avocado, J’s with ham) with butternut squash soup. Well, I enjoyed the soup. J at least ate it, Sweebee and Beans did not. I suppose you can’t please everyone.

We won’t be visiting the pigs, as they’re headed to market tomorrow. We heard thumping last night around bedtime, and with the list of household issues growing by the day, I sent J outside to see what on earth was going on. He came in and said, “I think it’s the pigs!” Not five minutes later, there was a knock on our door. Our new neighbor explained that the pigs were stomping in their travel crates, and apologized for the noise. He and his whole family stopped by this evening to say hello and welcome, which was so nice. They have two little ones, and our girls were thrilled to meet them – and so was I!

That was exhausting.

Last Sunday was Moving Day. However, in this case, every day this week has been moving day. We chose not to rent a truck since we were only going three and a half miles up the road, but that meant many more trips. We borrowed a trailer and a dolly, and took some friends up on their offer to watch both of our monkeys for the better part of the day. We’re still not quite done, but what’s left will go right into storage when we finally get it here.

We’ve been here for five days now, and had our third refrigerator delivered this morning. This one works, thank goodness. Our heating oil was also delivered today, and none too soon: there is snow in the forecast on Sunday. Just a flurry, but it will be chilly.

I have a HUGE kitchen. Truly, I’ve never had so much space before. I’m looking forward to using it to the fullest. For tonight though, we had breakfast for dinner. Pancakes, bacon and apple cider.

This new house is out in the woods. It’s dark at night, very dark. There’s almost no noise unless someone’s diesel pickup goes barreling past. The other night, J was out with the dogs, and heard…something. The next day we realized that the neighbors have pigs in their backyard! I’m hoping we can go over and introduce ourselves this weekend so that we can peek over the fence at their critters without causing alarm.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. I have some fun things to share as I get back into some semblance of a schedule.

It may only be the first week, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this may just be the most beautiful October I’ve ever experienced.

We joined our neighbors for breakfast at the community center this morning. Each Saturday the doors are opened for a potluck style breakfast, welcoming anyone to partake in exchange for a donation. Sometimes there are other children in attendance, but often our family is the youngest group there. Today, Swee went charging up the steps and blew into the room like a hurricane, stopping to grin at a row of grandpa types. Predictably, this had the desired effect, and her smile infected most everyone there. J isn’t much for the social stuff, but we both think it’s important for the girls to interact with their community in a safe space like this – to practice their manners and their conversation skills. I meant to snap a picture and forgot, but I love the way they have their refuse containers set up – compost, recycling, trash. We take our own travel mugs for coffee to help cut down on their trash and expenses.

Our library books were due today, so we walked from the community center up the hill to the library. It’s a tiny place. They’re only open three days a week, for a couple hours at a time, but they have a nicely stocked children’s collection and plenty of toys to keep the girls occupied for a little while. I signed up for a library card back in June when we were brand new to town and had to give the name of another Mount Vernon resident as a reference to do so. As you browse the books, you’ll often see a post-it note stuck to a cover with someone’s handwritten review, and there’s a gardener’s seed exchange next to the circulation desk.

Earlier this summer I was amazed to find that they don’t charge late fees or fines for overdue books. Instead, they’re running a collection for the food bank this month, billed as a “Can Due” fine forgiveness campaign, so we took a bag of groceries with us: Swee’s favorite Annie’s organic mac and cheese, good salad dressing, cake mix.

We’re hoping to move into our new place later this weekend. I’m told that the propane tank and the stove were installed yesterday, so it shouldn’t be long now. I’m glad, because it’s getting chilly, but I will miss the activity of living in town, and the view of the lake. The sunsets are magnificent.

I completely geeked out today. We spent the day in Unity, ME at the 39th annual Common Ground Country Fair, surrounded by like-minded individuals, giving freely of their spirit and their knowledge. There was so very much to absorb and take in that we found ourselves just wandering and looking, but not once did I feel out of place or uncomfortable. Just a little overwhelmed. I’m having trouble putting it all into words, so I’m hoping the few pictures I took will be kind enough to speak for me.

We got up early, and made it to the fairgrounds just after the gates opened at nine, but the parking lots were already busy. It was peaceful and gorgeous along the wooded path, and everyone was friendly. It was like being in hippie heaven. Composting outhouses, recycling and composting stations, water stations for refilling your reusable bottles. Face painting and hula hooping. Impromptu jam sessions, and more babywearing than I’ve ever seen in one place. We met cows, goats and chickens. We slid down the hill on cardboard and watched a scythe sharpening demonstration. We saw a team of horses harvest corn, and ran into a little four-year-old friend from here in Mount Vernon who called out to Swee and came running over (that felt good).

I got myself all worked up, hoping to meet Amanda at the Taproot tent, and in the end it was for naught because she wasn’t there today, but I finally became a subscriber, and had a nice little chat with the woman who was working. She was sweet, and gave each of my littles a sticker. I was too flustered to ask her name, unfortunately.

I came home with a beautiful hand-carved wooden spoon, a Taproot travel jar that is now filled with tea, and so much excitement for next year. And good lord, I cannot wait to get my chickens.

Tomorrow, we’re embarking on an adventure that I have been anticipating for nearly eight years. We’re going to The Fair. I can’t wait to share our day! Lots to pack and coordinate this evening, however. A day-long outing with two strong-willed toddlers requires careful orchestration. Though I can’t really place all the blame on them. These outings require careful planning for mama to enjoy herself, too.

So tonight I leave you with pizza. Fresh, organic, whole wheat dough, homemade pesto from home grown basil, a thick layer of cheese. The two girls and I devoured the entire pie. I anticipate similar appetites tomorrow evening!

I got to spend much of my day in the kitchen, and yes, it really is a privilege. The stars seemed to align, however briefly, and our littles were content to share popcorn and football with Daddy. I was free to putter around and periodically fill Beansie’s requests for “more,” delivered to me over the baby gate, usually punctuated by raised eyebrows and a furiously bobbing head.

The tomatoes are slowing down. The girls and I have been eating most of them straight off the vine but I was able to fill a small bucket with the yellow cherries this morning, and picked five or six larger fruits to bring in. I didn’t have enough to make any sort of sauce, so decided to follow this guide to roasting and freezing, on a smaller scale. I’m sure it will be nice to have them when there is six feet of snow outside our door.

I also added three large containers of vegetable stock to the freezer. I’ve mentioned before my aversion to food waste, and veggie scraps are no exception. When I prepare our meals, any trimmings go into a gallon zipper bag in the freezer. You can see the pods from peas, the ends off of fresh green beans, bell pepper tops, bits of onion and celery, even slices of zucchini. When the bag is full, I toss in a couple of whole peppercorns and set it to boil on the back burner. It simmers down to a rich dark broth. This gets strained and poured into clean yogurt containers (reuse!), and stashed in the back of the freezer for soups and other recipes. I do the same with ham bones and whole chicken carcasses (isn’t that a dreadfully disgusting word?). They get picked clean and popped into the freezer until I have the chance to deal with them.

Making veggie stock this way doubles your food investment. You can take it a step further by composting the scraps when the stock is drained off. I tossed mine out in the weeds rather than into the trashcan. I’m betting that backyard chickens would also enjoy the leftovers, in which case you’ve tripled your money by saving on traditional feed – has anybody tried that? I cannot wait to put that last theory to the test myself!

Swee and I made pesto on Friday, and baked muffins this morning. We added another jar of pickles to the fridge, and there’s a bunch of kale on the counter to be made into chips. I’ve got a good old-fashioned casserole planned for dinner. Can you tell I’m feeling ready for the cooler temperatures?

How do I start to live a simple life? I can’t tell you that, no one can. This way of life doesn’t follow a formula, that’s one of the beauties of it.

I’ve been reading about Rhonda and Hanno’s simple life at her blog Down to Earth for a long time, and when her book of the same name was finally available here in the states, I scooped it up on my Kindle. It reads like a conversation with an old friend, and she shares a lot of great tips for small ways to make big changes in your life. If you’ve been thinking about living more intentionally, this might be a good, easy read to get you started.

It’s difficult for me to identify the turning point in our lifestyle. Our move to Maine was the first large-scale action, but it’s been a slow build over the past six years or so. We have always recycled everything we could, even when we lived in an apartment and the complex didn’t provide the pickup – I’d save it and take it to my parent’s house (though I take huge issue with the common perception that recycling is the most important thing you can do. It’s the third of the R’s, and the least impactful, but I’ll get to that). I believe that a lot of people make this harder than they need to, and I think that there are a lot of little steps you can take immediately that will make an impact. You don’t have to invest a ton of time or money to make a shift in the way you approach your days. Taking smaller steps will make it seem manageable, and it will be more likely that the habits stick. If you try to overhaul everything at once, you’ll get frustrated.

Reduce is the first R, and the most important. Reduce your consumption, meaning do without or find an alternative. This dovetails with the second R, reuse. After we got married, we made a shift to all reusable cloth products – no paper towels (except to clean the toilet – yuck! I just can’t bring myself to use a sponge for that task) and no paper napkins. I am no longer buying single use paper products, which means they are not winding up in the landfill and neither is the packaging.

We’ve found that if we didn’t have toddlers, we could probably use a napkin for at least three meals before needing to wash it, which would not significantly increase our dirty laundry. As it is, they don’t take up much space and just get tossed in with the clothes. A dish towel hangs near the sink for drying hands. These get washed a little more often, simply because they get used hard and little people love to pull them down onto the floor. My dish towels are not pretty. They are stained from mopping up spills, and many have holes, but they are functional.

If the temperature is above freezing, and it’s not raining, our laundry is probably on the line, including all the napkins and dish towels. The only thing I always wash separately and put in the dryer is the dog bedding, to remove the hair. I use regular wooden clothespins, the kind with the springs, because I find that they grip the fabric tightly but can be applied gently so as not to stretch or snag the clothes. There was a pulley system here when we moved in, but I’ve found that I prefer a fixed length of line. Even though you have to walk back and forth, this access gives you the option of shifting individual pieces as they dry, and filling in the gaps. If you start early in the day, and you have enough line, you can get four loads hung out before lunch!

Line drying eliminates the static caused by the dryer (no need for dryer sheets – reduce!) and if you’re careful about how you hang things, often takes care of most of the wrinkles. It saves money across the board. I read a figure once that you can save up to 6% on your electric bill just by air drying your laundry. An added bonus is the wonderful smell, particularly when you hang the sheets out. There’s nothing like crawling into crisp, line-dried bedding!

My mom used the clothesline when I was growing up and I remember hiding among the sheets and watching the sun shine through them. I would hand wash my doll clothes, Laura Ingalls-style, and clip them to the line to dry. When we lived in Baltimore as new homeowners, one of the first additions to our yard was new line on the clothesline posts, but as often as I peeked into other people’s yards, I never saw anyone else in our neighborhood with clothes hanging out. I’m happy to see a lot of clotheslines in use up here!

Do you hang your clothes on the line? Why or why not?

We have a new studio here in town. Actually, it has a Mount Vernon address, but it’s outside the village, up “the Belgrade Road,” and far enough away that when you stand next to your car after class, all you can hear is stillness.

In the last yin session I attended before heading to Indy, I struggled to find that stillness in my practice. I fought myself for half the class before suddenly realizing that my mind was clear and my shoulders had dropped to the floor. Our instructor, Jenna, keeps reminding us that the poses are always the same. Pigeon is always pigeon. We are the ever-changing variable. What we bring to the mat is what alters our practice. It’s such a powerful idea, and one that I hope I carry with me as I approach these new adventures we are facing.

Sometimes a revision to The Plan is supremely exciting, leaving you breathless with anticipation for what’s to come. Sometimes not so much.

And sometimes you’re left somewhere in the middle, which is where I find myself right now. I got a job. I am not pleased that I needed to do so, but it was/is a necessary evil. Luckily, I am thrilled about the position I secured, and it’s an incredible package: it will pay the bills, it provides several types of insurance and a retirement matching plan, it allows me to work from home, and it’s for an organization that I love and believe in 110%. I know how fortunate I am to have all of those variables come together, and I am grateful. Truly.

I spent the last week in Indianapolis, meeting my new colleagues at headquarters and learning so very much. The organization itself is not new to me – I have been an active member for fourteen years – but the inner workings are all new to me.

Goodness, but I missed Maine! I missed my people, of course, but I also missed the land. The lakes and the hills and the trees and the breeze and the stars. It was so good to come home, for it really does feel like home now.

I came back to a glut of produce from our little garden. Daddy and Swee picked more cherry tomatoes than we could eat, so we gave another pint to Miss Barbara, and then set up a table at the end of the driveway this morning with a coffee can honor system. We were sold out before noon.

There were also quite a few cucumbers, several that had gone bad, and the rest in varying states of ripeness. It was really nice to settle back into my kitchen by throwing together some refrigerator pickles.

I am pretty sure that my original recipe came from Erica at Northwest Edible Life, but I can’t be certain. Either way, it’s a quick and simple fix for when you end up with too many cucumbers to eat them plain. In our house, that’s a lot of cucumbers.

I re-use jars for these pickles since I don’t bother canning them – they don’t last that long. My favorite jar right now is a wide-mouth salsa jar. I feel like I keep refilling it as soon as it’s empty, it works so well. My brine is simple – one cup of water, one cup of vinegar, one tablespoon of kosher salt. I stuff the jar with cucumber slices and add five peppercorns, a pinch of pickling spice, a couple good shakes of dried dill weed, and a little scoop of minced garlic. When the brine comes to a boil, pour it over the slices, twist the lid on tight, and stick it in the back of the fridge for a week or so.

That’s all there is to it, and they’re so good. We have two jars going right now, and I’ll probably take one to the picnic we’re attending tomorrow. Tuesday is a big day here – J has class, it’s my first real day of work at home, and Swee starts nursery school. Your good thoughts are appreciated, and if any of you WAHMs have tips, I’m all ears.

Amanda wrote several weeks ago that she always feels the shift in the seasons around August 1st. It took me a little longer, but this week, I know what she means. The lake feels colder, the days are clearly shorter, and we are waking up chilly in the morning. Some of the trees in our yard are already dropping leaves.

It seems however that my tomatoes didn’t get the memo. They’re going bonkers, and the full-sized fruits are finally ripening. I took a cup of the yellow cherries over to Barbara today to share the bounty, there are that many. Do tomato plants make you itch? The cherry tomatoes don’t bother me, but if I touch the other plants without gloves, I get rashy.

Haven’t picked a single bell pepper yet, and I’m hoping this little dude will turn yellow as he’s supposed to, and soon. I’d hate to lose it to frost. And despite my early excitement over my celery experiment, the plant hasn’t done diddly squat since. The cucumbers, however, are a success. Swee and I have made several jars of pickles already, and we’re eating the cucumbers as fast as we can pick them.

My big girl and I planted flower seeds all over the yard, and only these marigolds and cosmos came up. I managed to convince her that we should enjoy them in the garden rather than picking them for the house.

We’re still cutting hydrangeas for the table. They’re big and showy, and just so much fun to arrange. I have no idea what these little pink blossoms are. They grow on a vine in the weeds, and just showed up this week. Any ideas?

I’m heading out of town for several days next week, and leaving J semi-alone with the girls overnight for the first time. His dad is coming up to help since J also starts classes next week. I’m not sure if I’ll post while I’m gone – we’ll have to see. Wishing you all a wonderful start to the school year!