The Shenandoah Mountains: working in partnership

After over two months of coastal lands, the mountains were calling him. We drove inland to the George Washington National Forest and reached the Shenandoah National Park’s scenic roadway, the Skyline Drive. When we arrived at Big Meadows campground, I was pretty excited to find out it was the Wildflower Weekend and that there were wildflower identification hikes, spring birds identification hikes and even garlic mustard picking hikes! But for our girls, guided hikes, in English (a language they don’t master yet) did not rhyme with fun, especially after the few experiences they had in Southern Utah, namely the memorable one with Ranger Jon.
 



I could have gone by myself, but what I was really after was to spend time in nature with my family, so we decided to hike from the campground to Lewis falls. While we hiked a couple of miles alongside the Appalachian Trail, our girls happily climbed every boulder and fallen big tree we came across, build dams on flowing spring rivers and smiled from ear to ear. My little free wildflowers! Mathilde exclaimed: It smells like fall, winter, spring and summer at the same time! And we had to agree. The mix of last fall fallen leaves, the young leaves opening, the crisp cold air and the warm sun made for a delicious smell that carried memories of all the seasons. So very different from the coast air we got accustomed to for the last couple of months!

As I watched my girls run and play in the forest, my heart filled with joy. That was so much better than dragging unwilling children to a interpretation hike in the name of education, making them feel powerless (and bored for 2 hours, and probably grumpy... and totally closed to learning anything anyways...).


Making decisions together as a family makes everybody feel heard and in control of what is going on. This is something that is really important to us. Children so often feel powerless and controlled by adults, and that leads to all sorts of stress and unexpressed tensions. We believe in working in partnership with our girls and we are all the better for it.




The hike back up from the falls was hard and up the whole time. It was longer than we all expected and Mathilde was tired and done with the hiking. She complained quite a bit. It is convenient when kids suck it up and play it strong. The twins are old enough (and strong enough) that they are fine doing harder hikes, so they were fine, but this was hard for Mathilde (and for me!!). JF was so patient with her. He towed her and gently talked to her. We played charades and kept trying to lift her spirit. When we saw the end, Aïsha came and grabbed her hand and they ran to the end of the trail. This is how partners do it!

 

 :: Those two. They are always laughing! ::

A visit to Joel Salatin's Farm: a visit in our past...

Most days, feeling like we are always on holidays is great. On the odd day, like yesterday, it's not so great. We were pretty excited to go visit the farm of a man that was a great mentor for us when we had our little homestead in the Eastern Townships in Quebec. We packed a quick lunch and left, eager to reach the farm before the store closed at noon. We had to leave the trailer behind because of the narrow and bumpy roads that led to the farm. Virginia has a very particular climate, perferct for farming, especially the Shenandoah Valley. There are fruit trees and lilacs in bloom everywhere. We were lucky to have an ongoing fall when we came down (from August in the Yukon to December in Arizona), we might just have a continuous spring as we are coming back up!

Then, in the middle of all that beauty, my phone beeps announcing a rush contract for 2 pm... and another one for 5 pm. It's 11:30 am. And we didn't even think about bringing a computer with us. We have to go back to the campground and pick one up... (why we don't take both computers at this point, I still don't know...). We have our farmers hat on, I guess! So, balancing a laptop on my lap, I try to start the contract while navigating the bumps and curves and realize that I will get sick before I finish the first paragraph... but I don't get that chance, because we lose our Internet signal... JF is now holding our hotspot device in the air in one hand while driving in the hope of seeing a couple of signal bars showing up, while we are looking at all the cute spring calves in the fields... Finally, at the top of a hill, there is a faint signal. I put a sweater in the window so I can see something in my screen, they go out to eat the strawberry spinach salad we had prepared on the truck tailgate (and soon realize we had forgotten the forks... ) and before I could finished my document, my computer battery dies...

I have 45 minutes left to hand it in. We are about 30 min from the campground. We decide to do a beeline for the next town (15 min) and we find a cute little café. Pfew! The girls play games with JF (and pick a smoothie and a bagel with butter: I am more and more amazed at the choices they make. We told them they could pick whatever they wanted. We suggested hot chocolate, chocolate cookies, brownies, etc.). All was good again! Staunton is a beautiful little town. I could have spent the afternoon taking pictures there, but we wanted to visit the farm, so off we went! I finished the two contracts and by 2:45 we were on our way.

Some people heard the name Joel Salatin for the first time when the book The Omnivore's Dilemma was published and grass-fed beef became popular for conscious meat-eatear. Many nights at the farm, I had fallen asleep reading Salad-bar Beef, You Can Farm, Family-Friendly Farming or Pasture Poultry Profit before or after trying to memorize a Waldorf story to tell the girls the day after...

Polyface Farm has been advocating the local movement and non-industrial food system long before it became the buzz. Since they have an open door policy and a transparent farm operation, they allow anybody to do a self-guided tour for free. I was very surprised to see that, mostly for the safety of the animals. We could have fed them whatever we wanted, opened fences, walked into their pens (I don't think people would do mean things intentionally but simply out of ignorance). We felt incredibly welcomed and never felt out of place. The employees talked to us and smiled at us the whole time. There is a very simple vibe there. It was a great experience.
 

It was fascinating to see what the girls remembered from our farm life, especially Mathilde since she was so little. When we approached the pig pen, she exclaimed: I remember that pig smell!! 

The girls fed the pigs fresh green grass for 30 minutes. We could not help but wonder how our dream would have been different if the girls were older at the time...

We found a black snake skin that is great shape! What a find! We can even see the eyes on the head!

In the end, it was great that we were there late in the day, because we got to see the afternoon chores. Daniel (Joel's son and the inventor of the forage-based rabbit system) arrived with his son to move the cows in a different pasture (just like in the book!) He called them and moved forward on the ATV, while his son stayed behind and did a different call to rally the stranders.

Of course, there is a part of us that misses the farm life. We will always partly be farmers, but I would not be farming for meat anymore. I would be farming to be with the animals. I miss them! However, I don't miss all the work and the (very!) sedentary lifestyle that comes with farming. This is not the season of our life right now. I really think we have found joy. And it feels great. We might just try to housesit or help on farms more. Everybody knows that most farmers always welcome a helping hand!

Ocracoke Island/Cape Hatteras

She stayed in her pj on the ferry. We met with a nice couple from Quebec. I tried to play cards with the girls but had to stop and go sit outside and look at the horizon. An older man was snoozing beside me. When he woke up, he told me the most fascintating travel stories. His publishing company in Phuket. A life-threatening virus in Africa and the jungle doctor with his suitcase full of vials like in the movies. Almost summitting Mt. Whitney, but having to turn back because a young guy had a deadly fall beside him. The hut in Tahiti with the hole in the floor with stairs that led directly in the water for snorkeling. The Tico diving equipment that could have killed him Costa Rica. The flight into Lukla from Kathmandu the day after a group of German crashed while landing... Never underestimate the snoring old man on a boat deck. He might have some fascinating stories in store. And that might just be the cure for your sea sickness.

The lighthouse looked like a huge barber pole in the rain, waiting for clients to show up.

The campground on Ocracoke Island was spectacular and wild, just beside the dunes. We shared a meal with our new friends, Francine and Paul. We shared our stories. The upcoming storm chased us inside, but the crashing waves lulled us to sleep.

We went to the Wright Brothers National Monument. They ran the distance of the first controlled flight in Kill Devil Hills, on the actual runway where it happened. Seeing how Orville and Wilbur made their plane with an old sewing machine and wood pieces was an incredible lesson. The fact that they took turn lying on their bellies to fly it also made quite an impression on them. A story they will remember very differently than if they had read it from a book...

 Searching the shores for polished shell pieces. Searching our souls for the next steps, the next stepping stones. They are finding us, just like the treasure on the wild coast of the outer banks...

Oyster Point

A $4 campground in a beautiful national forest. It still fascinates me how much he loves maps. She asked me to sing her to sleep. H left at 6 am to run 23 k. Sunrise through the tall trees. The premises to a great day.

This traveling unschooling life of ours...

While we were cleaning our shells at the picnic table at the end of the day, Mathilde casually said: so if I add an uneven number (she didn't say odd number or the French equivalent impair, she simply said inégal) like 5 to another unever number, I get an even number! But if I add an even number to an even number, I don't get an uneven number, I get an even number! Then, we discussed what happened if you had an even and uneven number together... It's just beautiful to see this happen! Children are curious by nature and will discover these things by themselves if we don't make them into teachable concepts all the time... If we let them come to them in their own terms, at their own time.


My girls might not know their multiplication tables by heart (and might never learn them), but I hope they will remember the smell of the ylang-ylang flower at 5 o'clock when it releases its divine perfume. They might never learn the rules of dodge ball in the school yard, but will know what the meat of a freshly pick young coconut taste like (and that it's especially yummy if it's your papa that picked it and opened it with his very own machete!). They have eaten sun-filled perfectly riped starfruit straight from the trees and picked cacao fruits and eaten the delicious sweet flesh surrounding the seeds. With a friend, they picked green mangoes (a delicacy in Central America), cut them, packaged them and sold them at the local market. They have picked black pepper from the plant and cashews (and ate the astringent fruit that sits on top of the smal hard shell where the "nut" that we eat is located).

 :: Ylang-ylang flower ::

:: Cacao fruit (on top) and Cashew fruit ::

They will know the pleasure of going to the same market every week and see the same smiling faces, offering you a mango, a cookie, saving you her last little bottle of raw goat milk (in recycled Coke bottles)... They probably will not know what it feels like to wait for the summer holidays, for Spring break or for the Christmas vacations, because their life feels like a never-ending holiday... and I wouldn't want it any other way.

They know the smell of the Arizona desert after the rain, they know how wonderful the sun feels on their skin after 8 months of winter in the Yukon and how beautiful it is to see crocuses poke the bare land (and how much when you are 4 you really want to pick them all!). They have seen and smelled active volcanoes, have touched one of the biggest Ceiba tree of Costa Rica and soaked in the same hot springs at -30 Celcius at at + 30 Celcius. We have taken daily walks during which blue morpho butterflies came and flew around us at the same place every single morning. They have heard the particular call of the Toucan, the roar of the howler monkeys and the funny sound gecko makes... Sometimes, we just have to close our eyes and it all comes back... the sounds, the smells... We can travel together in our heads...

  :: Waiting for the bus in Nicoya, Costa Rica ::

They might never go to a graduation ceremony or wear a prom dress, but they will have seen the sunrise on a Tuesday morning into the Grand Canyon. They will have walked into a Kiva (an ancien Indian Pueblo underground ceremonial room). They will have slept in a Mongolian yurt in paradise and wake up to snowy mountain tops in August.

 :: Sunrise from Ooh-Aah Point at the Grand Canyon ::

On top of that, they usually have the pools, the bike parks and play parks to themselves during the week. Actually, they have the world to themselves. They have the time and the possibility to really listen to the music of their own life.