Lilacs and Children on the Farm

The lilacs have finished their fragrant bloom, but I enjoyed them while they were in the midst of it!

Now everything in the yard has gone orange--the daylilies are out.  And we're harvesting peas!  Yesterday I kept a friend's four children (ages 5, 4, 2 and 11 months) for about 9 hours.  At one point everyone but the baby was outside playing "The Long Winter" and battling starvation by picking peas that had miraculously grown through the blizzards.  Later I found the starved family picking black raspberries...they were literally covered in red juice.  I went out and told Finn (aka "Pa") to quit the raspberries and go shoot a rabbit. 

They also spent time enjoying one of Finn's favorite pastimes, which is 'making hay.'  You make hay by raking all the grass cuttings and putting them in plastic dishpans, packing them tightly and leaving them out in the sun to dry.  It really does make a tiny bale of..."hay!"

Later they were all revived by popsicles on the front porch. I'm glad to report that all four children were sent back to their mother having survived a day on the farm, and there was only one head injury, and no broken bones.  

Success!