{life with a curious and crazy 10 yr old}
Snow can be hard work – for us (well, for Josh) it includes shoveling the drive, the walk, the car, and to and around the chicken coop. When Josh is feeling good and ambitious he shovels a path up to the top of our little hill, and then begins shoveling and shaping sled runs. He’s been known to build 3 or 4; a couple of racing tracks, one through the grape arbor (which has a significant rock step in it, great for a little ‘air’ when sledding), and sometimes one long touring one on the other side of the apple tree and through ‘la petite jardin’. Then we invite folks up, make a vat of Chili and Hot Toddies and sled our faces off (alright, I generally try once a year and realize that I’m no longer a fan of sledding but I love to watch, visit, take pictures, drink the Hot Toddies). He hasn’t jumped in that far yet this year but there has been a little sledding.
Duende loves the outside in Winter (all Summer long if she’s not in the water, wants it to be Winter) – there are icicles to collect, Igloos to build, Snowmen to create, and snowy places to discover. She likes to go the creek and check out the changes, track bunnies and squirrels and deer in the snow. But it’s likely her favorite thing is just eating snow – you can find her face down in a fresh pile or bringing it in by the bowlful, sometimes dressing it with lemon or apple cider and eating it like ice cream. This week she worked so hard on her Igloo she forgot to eat, so she came in and inhaled an everything-bagel-tuna-fish-salad-sandwich!
Inside lately, she’s decided she wants to enter the recent ‘science fair’ (of our living room) and made a diorama exploring the amazing facets of a cat’s eye – she peeled a grape and inserted a ‘lens’ that she made to talk about their night vision and gave us some ‘rock facts’ (see Over the Garden Wall) that cat’s and Birch bark share similar DNA. She’s hilarious – I will spend some time today making a first place ribbon to put on her science fair projekt, regardless of the rock facts (she does have a few books about cat health and care, so we will reread those, as well). She’s also been making cookie cutters (from her Solstice gift from Daddy) – she made a pair of kitties, and Daddy’s head (those will be some big cookies!). And then tortured our real cat by dressing him in baby onesies – oh, poor Squiggy.
Her imagination is certainly a well that never runs dry (and isn’t her new haircut supercute?!).
Rock Bottom Homestead 