It's a lovely Friday!

First Frost-October 28th. It was definitely frosty over night and we awoke to clear blue skies so you know what that means...cool weather. Time to wear socks with the ol' sandals. It's going to get to about 7 degrees c. today but warmer next week. It hovered right around freezing overnight.

The kids all have a pro-day today so no school. You'd think that was a bad thing but it's ok really because I have a bunch of chores ready and waiting for them. After chores are done the girls and I are going to do some baking. Bread, granola bars and oatmeal coconut cookies. I'm trying to rotate my food in the cupboards to keep it fresh and coconut is one of those things I usually buy and use more at Christmas so before I buy more, I need to use up my current supply. Cookies it is!

I just finished reading The Man Who Talks To Horses - the autobiography of Monty Roberts aka. the horse whisperer. It's a great read if you're into horses. I always wondered why it was necessary to use a bit in a horses mouth because it seems cruel and why some people who supposedly love horses would use harsh treatments and whips. And now I know. It's fascinating to read the beginning of an idea and see how it spreads and starts to change how we humans do something. Proof that man's ideas are still evolving and that we're capable of adapting to new thought processes and trying new things. But I think that it's easy for us to stay in our own comfortable ways of doing things and not take the risk on something new or different. Even if the potential rewards are great I think we get scared of failure. And that's why I admire those who are explorers and pioneers in their fields. Some of them risked their reputations, their livelihoods, friends and family to dedicate themselves to the pursuit of truth and ideas they felt strongly about like religion, science, exploration, human behaviour, medicine. And in the end their life's work could yield great results or none at all. But are there really 'no results'? Even those who failed to prove their ideas left a legacy of research for others who would follow and know what to try differently or how to build on the research as it stood. So really, no effort is wasted in the pursuit of truth and knowledge.

Steve noticed yesterday that he sees people around that look like people he knew on Vancouver Island. I guess he got used to going to the store and knowing people. When he was growing up he likely knew everyone in town, it was a small and friendly community. As the town grew and became a city he knew less people but still a good percentage from working, church and existing friends. But heer of course we moved knowing nobody. Steve says it's like being in the witness protection program where you move to a new home, job, and community. I laughed and told him he needs to move more often but not having grown up and lived in the same community for 55 years I don't have the same sense of belonging and familiarity to any one place. I can see how that's a good thing though to have established roots as opposed to my ability to adjust to a new place. It's good to have both experiences in our family because we can make informed choices. We know that we want to find a farm and move there once and for all so it's a big decision to find the right place. We are at the point in our lives where we want to have a place that's our own and that we can grow old sitting on the front porch together or reading in front of a warm fire on cold winter nights. I'm sure that's the dream for most of us.

What are you studying at the moment? Anything interesting? Steve is working on an idea for a book that he's planning on writing. And I really have to get cracking on mine too so I've borrowed Christopher's laptop for the morning. Thanks Chris, today you're my favourite son :)

Well I'm going to get on with writing. Any suggestions on what you want to learn about? e-mail me at fairesfamily-at-gmail dot com if you can't leave a comment below. I hope you all have a bright and happy day and I'll talk to you later.