Oh, deer

File this one in the "only in the backwoods" category: now some days when Jay is biking home, he turns on to 810th from S and a FAWN leaps out of the bushes and CHASES HIM UP THE ROAD. A BABY DEER. I guess he was orphaned and hooked himself on to the neighbors' cows and now he's terrorizing the streets.

We had Ilene and Sherri, our new nabes, over for tea yesterday, and Ilene brought tons of tiny black and white photos of our farm - from when she lived there in the 40s! The house was very simple looking and there was very little vegetation at the time - a far cry from the lushness (some may say "overgrowth") we've got going on now. Most of the people around us are related somehow - and have been here since the early 1900s in many cases. They look at us as sort of exotic, or possibly oddities, I think. They can't imagine why we would move to a farm in the middle of nowhere, and the brothers are always asking whether we think they're rednecks. In a worried tone. It's kind of funny, really. Oh, and I found out about the guy who died from pitchfork wounds on our land - his horses kept on getting loose, and the guy who owned our place at the time told him that the next time they got out, he'd lock him up in the barn and keep them, and sure enough it happened again and the owner came to get them in the middle of the night and the owner of our farm came out with a pitchfork and I'm sure you can only imagine the rest. It really is perfect for Halloween I think - the legend of the ghost with four prong-holes in his gut.

Speaking of Halloween, we've carved a mess of pumpkins with the help of our cousins (my carving was of Ellis crying), pumpkins that are nearly too big to pull out of the garden and up to the house! Sherri tells us that Halloween doesn't bring too many kids around, but Bex and I are thinking we need to get a bag of candy just in case. A kind we like. Maybe Almond Joy.

Chris' friend Erick was here last week helping us with getting a little room set up in the garage for Jay's practice area and a workshop. They also got a little woodstove for heat, and Erick set up the electricity. Unfortunately an ailing water heater ate up some of the garage time and the boys had to get and install a new one.

Nights are cooler now and the stars peek through the tree branches hanging over the hot tub. The horses are full of themselves in the crisp air. Bex has her third baby shower in the cities this weekend, and Ellis will be the star of the show. It is really something to watch a baby grow like this - to see him begin to respond to us, to smile a bit and start to become more aware of his chubby, froggy little body. He's a real character, and very intense. Takes after his auntie, I guess. We're eating the fruits of our summer labor and dipping into the canned goods. Don't be surprised if when you visit you get bacon and canned tomatoes. I think we've got about 50 or 60 jars of this and that in our basement.

Corrie Jackson visits us in November, and so do my parents' good friends (and my godparents) Carl and Marcia Blomgren, who built their log cabin in the woods on Vashon Island in Washington and serve as a major inspiration to us. This is very exciting. Then Jay and I go to Portland after Christmas. Good times, good friends.

We continue to think about how we can live more sustainably, with less waste and more efficiency.

Well, the library here in Colfax only gives me an hour on the computer, so I'm signing off for now.

Love and ginormous orange jack-o-lanterns to all...

Charis