Halloween night at the farm, or not...

Out here in South Henly, the farms are pretty spread out, and it can be hard to meet the neighbors (or it could be my social-idiot tendencies). It also makes it difficult, if not impossible, to do any trick-or-treating (locked gates, guard dogs, and so on). Most of the "big" churches (the one that burned down a few months ago has only 200 parishoners) have some sort of "Fall" or "Harvest" Festival (gotta take the night back from those pagans *eyeroll*), and a few of the local businesses had parties over the weekend (at least one of them was charging $5/ghoul). The occasional neighbor will throw a party, but out here, it's mostly for the grown-ups.

As with last year, I wanted our son to get a better idea of what the secular aspect of this holiday is about (well that, and the photo-op that the grandparents demand), so DH and I drove up to the north end of Austin to trick-or-treat with some friends of ours (actually, our birth-attenders, they were the first to see Anthony when he was tiny and slimy) who have two little girls (one each slightly older and younger than Anthony--both redheads--whom their own father has dubbed "heartbreakers"). They live on a long cul-de-sac, which turned out to be the perfect number of houses to visit for 3 3-and-unders. At one house near the end of our route, there was a skeleton by the front door, and as I was walking up with Anthony IT MOVED. Gah! Took a few years off me right there. It didn't faze him, though (either he's too young to be creeped out, or we've done a good job of showing him what's natural in the world, so to speak), and he looked at all the decorations that she pointed out, and waved "bye" like the polite little Texan he is (no laughing from those who know better!). Oh, he was a purple-caped bat this year. He wore that cape well, and knew it, too. That's my little Leo ;)

In other, miscellaneous news, we lost one of our ewes (the friendlier one, too) to a predator last week. I guess Sombrea was concentrating on protecting Firefly (not that I am complaining--he's the higher priority), and wasn't available to drive the canines off. Last Sunday, DH and I sheared the remaining sheep, but were not able to get a really good pelt from any of them. DH bagged some of what might still be salvageable for, I don't know exactly what, carding practice, maybe? Our hens are still on laying strike, and I've no idea when the eggs will come back. They seem to have recovered from their molt, and I changed out their nest bedding, but am still seeing nada.

My main focus this month will be on my other blog; I'm participating in NaBloPoMo, but I will make an effort to check in here more often, even if it is a lot of memeage and lists.

This post has nothing to do with the homestead...

except perhaps the audiobook (Stone Work, by John Jerome) I'd finished on the way to and from Castroville for my son's birthday celebration.

My boy turned 2 on Saturday! He isn't getting all that big, but he is definitely growing up. I have to look at old pictures to see my baby again. Just this morning, as I read through my email, I saw that BabyCenter sent my first Pre-schooler Bulletin. He may have a new label, but he's still in toddler mode in many ways: he still has to master language, toilet-training, mealtime manners, and the social dance. It's time for me to get with the program(s) so he can come out of this stage happy, healthy, and acceptable to others.

We spent most of Saturday preparing and packing for our trip, so of course everyone was stressed out and tired before we had to be "on" for the party. Right after we checked in to the Landmark Inn and settled the larger items of aforementioned package into our room, we drove over to Oma's for dinner (burgers and beans), cake (chocolate), and presents for Himself.

Grandparents S gave him two outfits and a signing activity book. Oma gave him a plush ABC caterpillar (with which DH helped Anthony show off a little bit--have I mentioned that he knows his letters, and is getting pretty good with numbers?), a clothing-fastener practice dog (a Dapper Dan knockoff), several board books, and more clothes. G-UncleD and G-AuntL gave him a riding toy (with cupholder and basket) and a Cheerful Chimp (anyone remember Zippy?). DH and I gave him 2 handpuppets (a pirate and a dragon), a Pirate PotatoHead, a pair of sandals (that are very similar to Daddy's, and yes, he noticed), and a box of crayons (of course they're washable, I'm not crazy). We also bought him a Lego baseplate which we'll attach to a free endtable I'd found, so he'll have a Lego table for tres cheap. My sister and BIL sent a pirate backpack, and my parents sent a check for a DYR storage unit.

I'll post pictures later, after I've had them developed and digitized. We don't have any video, as Daddy was too busy wrangling presents, and we don't have any of the candle-blowing, as Anthony still doesn't "get" blowing. Note to self: practice for next year, at least a few months out.

We spent Sunday celebrating St. Louis Day at Koenig Park and at Oma's. Because of sleep issues, all of us were wiped out by the time we got home that evening. I for one am glad that I'd planned on frozen dinners for everyone.

And that, my friends, was our long, very tiring, very full weekend. For the sake of my sanity [go ahead, laugh, you might as well], I am not even going to try to imagine what future birthday events are going to be like when they start involving his peer group.