Matfield Green - Our first years

Cow-boy

Luke's first Halloween. Photo by Jim Worster. Costume courtesy of Cousin Teresa.

Matfield Sunset

Photo by Linda Ayala at our pig roast on October 6th.

Moving day! - October 12 2007

We'd finally had enough of living in 350 square feet. It was not any easy moving day. But two weeks later, as I write, I'm just glad we got it done!

Did someone suggest packing? Oh no, just throw it all in Pat's truck!

Thank heaven for Phil & Kathy Miller, our next door neighbors, who saved the day and got us moved the 400 feet from bunkhouse to new house. The little red wagon also played an important role.

Manny Jim took Luke for a walk while the big move progressed.

Luke seemed perfectly content with his new living room, and is sleeping well (most of the time at least) in his new/own room.

A couple of photos from pigroast 2007

The fifth annual bunkhouse pigroast has come and gone - with lots of guests (somewhere between 150 and 200 is our best guess) from near and far. That's Grandpa & Grandma in the top photo, back again for some time with Luke, along with my brother Jim and his daughter Sarafina from Austin Texas. That's sister Justine and brother Willie, whom Luke met for the first time pigroast weekend, in the bottom photo.

Last days in the bunkhouse

Pat and Bill are making a big push to get us moved into the new house by early October. I've been poking through our possessions, reaquainting myself with things that we've managed to live without for the last year and a half. I have a baby in my arms more often than a camera, so I don't have any good shots of the progress inside the house: Sea Blue concrete countertops poured and stained in place by Pat Moss are the feature that gets the most oohs and ahs.

Enough about Luke - what's Pepper been up to these days?

Why eating and swimming, of course! Not wanting Luke to have all of the attention, three weeks ago Pepper surprised us all by swimming for the first time in her life. The great event took place in our pond.

Luke gets a bottle, Luke get's a bath

Here's one more picture of Luke and his grandma.

Dad gave Luke his first bottle after I received a lesson in pumping from our doula, Bianca. Luke has enjoyed many delicious bottles (most of them served by his Manny, Jim W.) since this fateful day.

This was not Luke's first bath, but it was perhaps his favorite bath so far.

A few photos from the last few weeks

Grandma Donna visited when Luke was 3 weeks old, joining Grandpa Jim, who had been cooking up a delicious storm here at the bunkhouse for 2 weeks.

Laurene and her son Vladimir arrived as the grandparents departed. Luke took an instant liking to them. (I need to find a picture of Vladimir - I know it's in one camera or another.) In this picture Laurene and Luke relax while Pepper examines the flagstones for a trace of food left from last night's grilling.

Valerie arrived from California just last week, just in time to teach Luke the fine art of smiling. (And for Luke to teach Valerie a bit about changing diapers.)

Luke at 5 weeks old

Orb Weaver at Our Window

Bill took this beautiful picture of the Orb Weaver Spider who has been living outside our bunkhouse window since we brought Luke home from the hospital almost 5 weeks ago. She wover this stunning web. Caught grasshoppers and other bugs (some tossed into the web by human hands, I must admit). Laid a sack of eggs in the upper corner of the disintigrating web. And now, like Charlotte, she will leave us. Any morning now we'll walk out and find her dead on the concrete outside our doorway. Such beauty. ... I must admit, I'm a leary of all those baby spiders yet to come.

Tilting our windmill

A couple of weeks ago now (time both flies and stands still when your nursing a new baby) Travis Creswell and his colleagues from Ozark Energy arrived to hoist our wind turbine into the air. That day's work in the 100 degree heat was the culmination of two years of design, planning, and preparation. Then last week the team from Ozark came back to connect turbine to house, and from that moment on our new house has been fully powered by the wind. We run around turning on lights just for the fun of it.

I wish I had time to write in more detail about what we're doing, but baby calls (often). So, if you want details, get in touch with me and I'll connect you to Bill or Pat who can tell you all about it.

You can also check out Travis's website at http://www.ozarkenergyservices.com/.