Leaving Keuka Lake

From our morning hike. It was in the 50s and drizzled the whole time. Charlotte Mason would have been proud. "Never be within doors when you could rightly be without."

Mums and Goldenrod. Much more fallish here. 

Hike through the woods. 

The beach. 

Someone else built this. Of course I bumped it. And made a hole. 

My engineer fixed it. 

Yay!

On our way back for daddies pancakes, eggs and coffee. 

After breakfast we packed up and headed to visit with all Marks cousins and his Aunt. 

We met at the barn on the Hurlbutt farm that belonged to his uncles family. Now the cousins on that side of the family have it and are even using the barn for weddings and events. For fun we called it "Cousin's Day" even though we weren't technically all cousins. It was so much fun to catch up and eat good food. 

After we headed to the grocery store and Marks Dads. We had a nice late evening visit with him and Cathi. The boys even behaved! Well, it helped they were worn out. It has rained for three days and they've been trapped in the Coach. As nice as it is, they need to run! So tomorrow's plan is an all outdoor day on Grandpa Strubles property, exploring the woods and orchards. 

Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest

First, a bit about Mr. Kilmer:

Joyce Kilmer (born as Alfred Joyce Kilmer; December 6, 1886 – July 30, 1918) was an American writer and poet mainly remembered for a short poem titled "Trees" (1913), which was published in the collection Trees and Other Poems in 1914. Though a prolific poet whose works celebrated the common beauty of the natural world as well as his Roman Catholicreligious faith, Kilmer was also a journalist, literary critic, lecturer, and editor. ~wiki

And about the forest: 

Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest is an approximately 3,800-acre tract of publicly owned virgin forest in Graham County, North Carolina, named in memory of poet Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918). One of the largest contiguous tracts of old growth forest in the Eastern United States, the area is administered by the U. S. Forest Service. The memorial is a rare example of old growth cove hardwood forest, a diverse type unique to the Appalachian Mountains. Dominant species are yellow-poplar, oak, basswood, beech, and sycamore. Some trees are over 400-years old, and the oldest yellow-poplars are more than 20 feet (6.1 m) in circumference and stand 100 feet (30 m) tall. ~wiki

We visited this lovely place with our natural history club. What didn't fully impact me until the evening was we were in the same area the Cherokee, or Snowbird people, were from exhiled from and sent to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears. Some were able to hide here and some made it back. 

My photos cannot do justice to these amazing trees. The biggest I've seen, saved from logging by a dam, the depression and some people who cared. 

I'm so glad I finally made it here. Worth the 6hr round trip drive and the yellow jacket stings I got. 

•more info about the Cherokee 

http://www.grahamchamber.com/cherokee.html

February Hike

As much as I dearly love our books, some days it's just as educative to ditch them and go outside. Like February days when it's 57 degrees. And it's going to be 12 in the upcoming weekend. 

These snails were making good use of the warm weather, too. ;) The boys said, "Mom!, give them some privacy!" 

These two trees were fused together. I've never seen that. I wonder if they will grow together over the years like an old married couple.  I will watch as long as I can and see. 

We hiked four miles. My repeated ankle injuries have really messed up my hiking. It's been depressing. Before the second sprain? break? I was hiking 8m day hikes twice a week. I hiked once in December. Once in January. This was my first February hike and 4m maxes me out. I'm having weird pain still in my ankle and also my hips. But I'm determined.

 My first sprain was in October and on my driveway. I was hiking 9 days later. But that second one in November did me in. I'm too stubborn to go to the doctor so I'm trying not to complain. And it is getting better. It's just taking SO long. But it is healing. I'll get my groove back. The stubbornness is good for that. 

To Be With You...

Very busy holidays here. Food, laughter, hikes, tears, smiles, flurry, play, fights, makeups, more food, love. 

Our Christmas puppy, Atticus. He is a sweetie!

Piggybacks from biggest sister. 

Hiking with cousins.  

River rock climbers. 

My girl come home to our hills. 

Pinesap Flower

Found on today's hike above the falls at South Mountain. I thought it was a dark Indian Pipe, but it was just different. I looked it up when I got home, sure enough, although in the Indian Pipe family, it's a Pinesap. How have I passed so many autumns here and never noticed it? How is it that no matter how many trails I take or how many times I hike them, I see new things every week? It's infinite, creation is just infinite. I'm so utterly grateful. What a marvelous world the Creator has made.

Among all this hiking and being and coming more and more into my own, I have been doing other things. Like teaching my children, despite in all honesty just feeling tired after seventeen years of teaching. I love my children, I love the philosophy I have chosen to submerse our family in but I have been tired. I guess this week, actually this day, after four weeks of school, is the first day I actually enjoyed. I'm certainly not required to enjoy the things that I have chosen and believe to be right and good. But it sure does help. So, again, I'm grateful that as I've moved through the motions the feelings are returning.

I've also been doing fun things with friends, and this year started a Natural History Club with my dear friend, Sara. You can read about that if you like. It's a lot of fun and we are slowly learning. It's very wonderful to live in community with kindred spirits.

I'll leave you with a two year old cutie.