A note from Grace

Dear Friends,
This is Gracie speaking, and i'm just waking up from a wonderful nights sleep up in my loft.
Its wonderful living here. We are making sure moutains lions don't get us, by staying inside at night or with our parents if we have to go out. Our friends, Shayland and Izadora have a female mountain and cubs hunting on their proptery. My mama got to see a footprint in the mud and she was scared! She found out that mountain lions like to hang out up in trees and look for prey!
We have been having fun up in the mountains. And we got to see real live wolves!! We went up in the mountains to visit some sheep at a friends house, and he had three wolves and a husky that comes from Alaska and doesn't bite. But we weren't allowed to go by the fence of the wolves, because they are wild and might eat our fingers!
I'm starting to read now, and soon i'll be writing these blog posts by myself. I miss you all in Charlottesville, and can't wait to visit someday.

Dear Friends,
We are in our second week of school. Our Mama & Papa are our teachers. When our Mama becomes our teacher, she wears a red apron with pictures of cheese on it! Everyday we get up, get dressed and go for a hike. On bread making day, Tuesdays, we collect blackberries. We made 11 jars of blackberry jam!
Yesterday, we had our first playgroup. We have 14 other kids in our group. We are all reading the book Roxaboxen, where a bunch of kids make a town out of rocks and boxes. We are going to make a town too! We meet once a week for fun games and snacks. We brought our homemade bread and jam this week. I (Grace) am learning to read now, its fun. I can read a lot of words now.
It’s always sunny here, so far we only had one rain. The other day it was cold and our Papa build a fire and it made our little home warm. But last night it was very cold, and every body was snug as a bug in the big family bed, there was no room for Papa (giggles).
Love Grace and Maddie

Our Homeschool friends

Exploring our new land for Roxaboxen

Baby Chicks Growing Fast

Dear Mates,

Today our little baby chickies are going in the big chicken coop. We’re a little afraid that the big chickens will peck on the little ones, so this is our big plan(well, actually Grandpa Jerry's big plan).

We’re going to get a box and make a little hole so that when the big chickens pick on the little ones, they can run in there and hide. We’re really excited and we wish you could be here.

Yesterday, I (Grace) went to my school for a visit with my homeschool teacher. There are two play grounds just like ours, except bigger and not any trees--its weird… maybe they just don’t want trees because they put too much leaves on the ground. Anyhow, I have to go there once a week to check in with Mrs. Needleman and take music lessons. I’m hoping to start with the piano. Maddie wants to learn the ukulele.

Love and happiness to all.

Gracie & Maddie

Princess is a Boy??

Dear Mates,

This weekend we moved our playhouse. Our Papa used the tracker to move it to the new place, and it was scary because one of the chains became lose, and it almost fell. Our Mama found some pretty blue paint and we painted the outside and she put up curtains and a door cover. Its really cool, AND Gracie got batteries for her CD player and now we can listen to music outside without the cord. Pretty cool.

Gracie caught a lizard, and named it Gangko. It was super small. We kept it for a while but thought to let it go, so it could go back to its family. We also caught a beautiful blue dragonfly. We let that go too.

Our chickens are getting big. Maddie named her chickens Snow White, Buttercup, and Beauty. Gracie named her chickens Fluffy, Golden, and Princess. We think Princess is the oldest. She might be a he, because she is getting a big bump thing on her head and darker feathers.

Do you know what that big red thing is called on a chicken’s head?

So, if Princess is a boy, we’ll have to change her name to Prince Tom, but for short we’ll call him Tom.

That is all for now. Bye, Bye. Gracie & Maddie

The Disappearing Plant

Dear Mates,

We saw a baby deer on the trail while riding bikes. It was the size of a dog with little white dots all over it. It was bouncing around and ran away, I think we scared it.

My mom and dad put in new shelves in the kitchen and we got to help out sanding them. It was fun, but only for a little while, then it was hard. My mom took pictures of Maddie and me. She is crazy.

A couple of days ago, one of our plants in the garden disappeared. There were no bunny tracks or deer tracks. Gracie thought that a bird swooped down and pulled it out. It was a mystery of what happen to our little plant. Then, yesterday, Papa saw a tunnel near the garden. He said it was a gopher.

Did you know that gophers can tunnel under gardens and pull down into the ground a whole plant at one time?!

Today there is a Farmers Market that we like to go to. There are two kids there that we play pretend fighting with. Last week we got to ride our bikes all the way to the market. It was fun. Welp, that’s all. Here is a picture of us helping out.

love you Gracie & Maddie

Baby Chicks & Bandits

Dear Mates,

There was a big drama of horses getting out of their corral yesterday. They were stomping and running and Echo, was running and pooping at the same time!! Maddie was scared, and stayed by my parents. Four horses came stomping along to frighten her.

We picked weeds today out of the garden to give to our baby chicks.

Did you know that baby chicks like weeds?

This past weekend we finally got to pick them up and pet them. They are six weeks old now and losing their fuzzy hair. Twice a day we have to make sure they have food and water, it’s a big job. Sometimes we forget, but my mom takes care of them too.

This morning, we saw two raccoons on the front porch of my Grandmama’s house. We got to see their faces.

Do you know why racoons wear black masks?

I think it’s because they are bandits! They steal your trash and steal your food, and sometimes if you have dogs they fight with them.

We want to keep them and name them Rocky & Ricky Racoon, but Grandpa Jerry said, "no way!" :(

Bye thanks for listening, love Grace & Maddie

Ps: write us back!

Hello from California

Dear Mates,

Yesterday, we got to ride on a tractor and we have seen lots of deer. We have been playing in the creek everyday, which is fun. We capture dragonflies and look at their colors and then set them free (except when they die, we float them down the river). We see lovely hummingbirds, and Mountain Jays.

We planted flowers with our mom, and this is the best part--riding on the horses, and riding bikes around the trails. There are three dogs here, and five horses, and we are in charge of six baby chickens. They eat grains and our kitchen compost. We like being farmers, but its a lot of work.

We hope you are doing well and please write us back here on this thing that my mom made.

Love Grace and Maddie

PS: The chicken coop smells bad.