How I make our annual family photobooks

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On the shelf under our coffee table, we have a stack of books. These are our annual photo books, and they are one of our most special heirlooms.

Photo books are such a good way to record special moments in your life. Ellie and I both frequently flip through them and reflect on the things we did.

I love our tradition of documenting each year in a book, and I have a lot of fun putting these together. I thought, with the holidays approaching, now might be a good time to share my tips of how I create our family photo books.

I also asked my friend Laurie the share her advice. There are so many different ways to make photo books. I wanted to show just some of the options that are available.

What program do you use?

There are lots of programs available to make photo books. Laurie uses Blacks, a Canadian company. I’ve used Blurb for all of my books.

Some things to think about might include cover options (hard or soft cover), book dimensions, page limits (minimum and maximum), paper quality, cost. It really depends on what is most important to you.

With Blurb, I get a hard cover book that can go up to 440 pages. My books have ranged from 90-156 pages.

Most programs have lots of built in layouts, and I’ve figured out which ones work best for me. I’ve also found it easy to build my own layouts when I need them. One feature I always use in Blurb is automatic image enhancing. It makes my pictures more vibrant, which I like.

I will say I’m definitely faster and better at using the software now than I was on my first book. There is a bit of a learning curve to figure out how to move photos around or manipulate layouts, but it’s really not complicated.

I found out about Blurb from Young House Love who have a very detailed post about using Blurb.

No matter what program you use, Laurie has some important advice. Save often. Photo books are a lot of work. You don’t want to lose all of your progress if your computer crashes or the software has a problem.

How do you choose photos?

I take lots of photos. Every day activities, special occasions, funny moments–they all live on my phone. I’ve learned over eight years of building books that I need to organize my photos as I go. Each day I go through the images I’ve taken and delete any that aren’t keepers. This daily cull means much less sorting when it’s photo book time. My phone is set to automatically back all my pictures up to Google photos. I also save any photos people send me to Google. When I want to begin my book, I know I need to look in just one place to find all the pictures I want.

Laurie is also a prolific photographer, usually taking around 700 pictures a year. She uploads all of her photos to her computer organizes them in folders by date. She then goes through one day at a time and picks her favourites, which go into a new folder titled ‘photo book’ and the year.

“Once I have the entire year’s worth of pictures I want to keep in one folder, I go through and delete the ones that are not as good and that are redundant. Going through the slideshow in order helps me cull more,” she says.

Sometimes I come across an HEIC photo. This is a format some iPhones use, but it’s not compatible with many programs, including Blurb. I tried some online converters, but there were limits on how many photos I could convert, and I wasn’t confident in their security. I found HEIC to JPG Real Converter, a free download that I could install on my computer. It’s easy to use, unlimited (at least I’ve never found a limit) and preserves good image quality.

The biggest thing with my photobooks is everything goes in–the good, the bad, the ugly. Matt when he was sick? In there. Visiting Matt’s Mom in the hospital? In there. Ellie’s x-ray when she broke her arm? In there. Life is made up of good and bad, and our photo books are a record of it all.

How do you start a photo book?

A photo book can feel daunting when you’re first faced with a blank pages and hundreds of photos. I take it a month at a time. I will pull up all the photos I took in January, pick the ones I want for the book (usually this ends up being around 50 photos), download them all and then start to put them into the book. Doing one month at a time makes the process much easier for me.

Laurie uploads the whole year of photos at once. She says, “Then I can open it and work on it whenever I feel like it.”

To start, Laurie looks at her first 6 photos. “I may have 3 tall photos and 3 wide, so I choose a layout to fit them. I like being able to adjust my layout to best fit my pictures.”

How do you lay out a photo book?

I always start with the pre-made layouts available in Blurb. Mostly I choose 4 or 6 picture grids with a white border between the photos. These layouts allow me to fit a lot of photos in not too much space. Occasionally I’ll use different layouts, like a full page for special photographs. A consistent layout makes the book easier to build and also easier to read. Our brains like patterns.

I don’t use backgrounds or graphics. I like a pretty clean look.

Laurie aims to fit 6 to 9 pictures on a page. She uses dark coloured backgrounds on all of her pages alternating between 5 or 6 solid colors. She does the background last to ensure the colour complements the photos on that particular page. Facing pages have matching colors and she avoids using the same color on more than 2 pages in a row. For special holidays she’ll occasionally use a themed backgrounds like candy canes or pumpkins.

I organize the photos in roughly chronological order. Sometimes to make a layout work, I may shuffle photos around a bit. For example, since I wanted everything Halloween–pumpkin, costume, trick or treating, candy sorting–on one spread, Thanksgiving and Ellie’s cross country race ended up together, even though they didn’t happen at the same time.

Laurie likes to keep pictures in a sequential order but may organize a day or two in reverse order to make photos fit. She keeps seasons together. For example, all the Christmas pictures have their own pages.

Laurie also pays close attention to the photos themselves. She arranges pictures so that faces and bodies are pointed in towards the centre of the book to keep the eyes from wandering off the edges of the page. She says, “I like balance on my pages. And symmetry. I’m not sure how to explain this!” Mostly, it comes down to what works best for your eye.

Another way I organize my layouts is to put “projects” in their own sections. For example, the vegetable garden is 12 pages all together in the middle of the book. Those pages include spring planting, summer harvesting and fall clean-up. I would rather have everything garden all together, as opposed to having it broken up across all the seasons. I also use this for renovation projects.

Over eight years of building photobooks, I’ve developed a consistent style that I use year to year, and Laurie has done the same. She puts a family picture on the front and a picture of her two boys on the back. The last page is for a repeat of one or two favorite pictures of the year.

For me, every book starts with a title page that is the same as the cover–usually our best family photo. Then I have a grid of 9 photos of favourite moments from the year (these photos are usually repeated in their appropriate section in the book). The next page is split between another family photo on one half and a list of highlights on the other. Then the book starts.

The very last page of the book is a grid of 16 funny Ellie faces. The back cover is usually another family photo, or something significant that has happened that year. For example when Matt’s Mom died, I put a beautiful photo of her and Ellie on the back cover.

What do you write in a photo book?

I don’t use a lot of text or captions in my books. I write a list of highlights at the start of the book to summarize key things that happened in the year. Occasionally, I’ll put in a write up for something important. For example, I have my Dad’s and Matt’s Mom’s obituaries, a log of what we did on our trip to Ireland, an explanation of Covid-19, and all the tributes we received for Matt in their respective books.

I realize that we may forget some of the people, places or activities over the years. I’m okay with that. I prefer the look of just photos and it’s a lot simpler to build the book without text.

On the other hand, Laurie notes the date on most of her photos. Occasionally she’ll include the setting or the names of people who are not usually in the book. She admits her captions have gotten simpler over the years. Figure out what is most important to you.

How long does it take to make a photo book?

A photo book usually takes me about a month. I like to lay out one month worth of photos a night. I use the rest of the time to add special sections or write-ups, track down missing photos or high resolution versions of photos I saved from texts, tweak the layout, check that there are no mistakes.

Laurie usually spends a few months on a book. “I just go at it while watching TV or just when I’m in the mood. I may sit down one day and only do one page, while the next day I may sit down and spend hours.”

For the past couple of years, I’ve been catching up on a few photo books that I missed. For these books, a dedicated month has worked well. I usually aim to finish the books in time to give them to Ellie for Christmas (it’s one of her favourite gifts).

This year, I’ve been building my 2026 book as we go. I started in the summer when I had half a year of photos. Since then, once we reach the end of each month, I put those photos into the book. I think I like building the book as I go, rather than doing it all at once. It feels like much less work to break it up.

My photo book schedule usually relates to gift giving and sales (more on this below). If I finish a book in November, I can print it during Black Friday sales and give it to Ellie for Christmas. If my book is almost done by New Year’s, I’ll finish it the first week of January, take advantage of another sale and give it to Ellie for her birthday.

How much does a photo book cost?

The price of your book depends on the company you use and the features you choose. Size, cover and page count all affect the price.

My last three photo books have had 120-150 pages and have cost about $95 each. This includes tax and shipping… and a discount code. Laurie’s books end up being about $200 before taxes, shipping or a discount. (She always uses the maximum number of pages.)

Most sites run promotions several times a year. If you’re able to finish your book and wait for a sale, it can make a big difference. Last week, Blurb was offering 30% off. Laurie usually waits for 40% from Blacks.

Blurb recommends printing a sample book as a proof. But they don’t offer proof copies and the sample is the same as a regular book, and the same price too.

I have had mistakes in my books–the cover photos on 2023 wrap onto the spine slightly, which none of the other books do, one photo in 2019 was wrong, the font in 2023 turned out bigger than I expected (2023 was a weird year). None of the mistakes are tragic and I can happily live with our imperfect books. But if perfection is important to you, you might want to budget for a proof copy if needed.

Final thoughts

For me, photo books have been a great way to chronicle our years. So much happens. I don’t want to forget. Pulling a book out of the stack and flipping through it with Ellie is special.

I’ve also used photo books as gifts. Many years ago I made books of our wedding for my two grandmothers. I also gave Matt’s Dad a book of our Ireland trip.

Whether you do a whole year, an occasion, or a person, photo books are a special heirloom.

Have you ever made a photo book? How do you store and share your pictures? Does anyone make traditional photo albums?

Fall to do list

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Fall is always crunch time for jobs at the farm. This fall, weather has been so mild and my schedule so full I’ve not started my fall to-do list yet. Now that November is here I can feel the deadline of winter looming. So here are all the fall tasks that have been knocking around in my brain.

Coop

I learned a few things in our first winter with the chickens. Now we have the ducks and there are a few changes I want to make to make things easier for everyone this winter. The main one is adding a roof to part of the outdoor run. A cover will give the birds a bit more shelter, lessen the snow build up and also provide some shade once summer returns. I have large panels of metal roof from the old coop that I’m planning to wire on top. I also need to clean their indoor pens, drain the new waterline we added to the barn, and get buckets ready for transporting water from the house. While I’m in the barn I have to cover the window that I leave open for the swallows.

Garden

I did a lot of work on the garden this spring, and it paid off in a great season (update to come). I’d like to do more work this fall so that we’re further ahead next spring. I need to clean out the remaining plants. Then I’d like to weed one more time and cover it all with leaves. There is still half the garden that we didn’t use this year, and I had dreams of prepping a few growing beds on that side, but I’m not sure that will happen.

House

Tasks at the house are pretty routine: remove screens, clean eavestroughs, turn off outside water. Nothing takes too long or is too difficult. Manageable.

Fire

November is usually when we start to have fires each night. Matt’s Dad and I have restocked our firewood stash, but it’s not piled. I’d like to stack it in our woodpile, and then I need to sweep the chimney. Perhaps when I’m on the roof for the eavestroughs I can do the chimney at the same time.

Tractor

I gave up on mowing several weeks ago. The bugs and caterpillars can be extra cozy in our shaggy grass for the winter. So I can pop off the mower deck, but the tractor has a few jobs left before it can retire for the winter. First up is chipping our annual brush pile. I used a lot of wood chips in the gardens this year and will need more next year, so replenishing our chip pile will be helpful. As will be cleaning up the mess of branches and sticks that have accumulated all year. The other maybe task is attaching the big mower and cutting the edge of the field and the septic one more time. I usually do it a couple of times a year, and I’ve only done it once so far. I think a final clean up would be good. Then the tractor can move into the garage, in case it’s needed for snow this winter. After a bit of organizing and cleaning in the garage, of course.

Work is never done, and that’s okay with me. Part of living at the farm is taking care of it. Fall–and the approach of winter–adds an extra dimension to the work. I’m hoping I can stay focused and productive and get as much done as possible.

What’s on your fall to do list?

Caring community

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People often talk about community. How important it is. How it’s declining. How to build community.

As I look back over this month, I’m struck by how much “community” there was in October. I often feel that our world is small here at the farm. We have our family. Our close friends. Our routines. We don’t go too far beyond that. But this month showed that’s not exactly true.

From a school open house to a fall fair, our little farm community turned out. I am always so impressed how many people volunteer, attend and just simply support the events that happen around us. The school cross country meet was filled with waves, arm squeezes, dash-by hellos, text messages, voicemails and shared photos.

A neighbour and I have started hiking once a week. I love our conversations and how we push each other to pick up the pace. Sporadic text messages with our patio landscapers resulted in a fun morning shooting photos and videos at their current job site. A walk with Cigo before Thanksgiving dinner with Matt’s family led to a message from a blog reader who recognized us going past her house (hi Suzanne). A social media conversation turned into a guest speaker for my class and a really meaningful connection with a woman who has similar values to me.

All of these little moments of connection add up to feeling valued and cared for.

Today is election day. Elections are obviously a big example of community and the impact we have.

Throughout this campaign, I’ve tried to find candidates that show they care and value our community. In my opinion, government should be here to help. An election cannot be just about property taxes and city budgets. We need to think about who will best care for our rural, urban, suburban and natural spaces and all the people who live there.

Often I feel like I’m in the minority with my views and my candidates don’t stand a chance. It’s frustrating and discouraging and worrying.

“Many people are disillusioned with politics. Some people throw up their hands and say, “Forget it, I’m not even going to vote.” But this will actually make things worse. I’m guessing you want things in your community to be better. For this to happen we all need to get out and vote.”

Jill Wiwcharuk

I will be voting today for the people who share my vision for a better, kinder, more helpful community. I hope you will vote as well.

Beyond our wider communities, I encourage you to think of how you can make your own part of the community a little more caring and connected. Send a text, say hello, wave, pass along a photo. Reach out. It doesn’t have to be big or time consuming. It will make a difference in someone’s day.

What the waddles are up to

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Five months ago, we brought home our four ducklings. Five months means they are no longer ducklings. They are now ducks.

Our two Cayugas have turned a beautiful glossy green. The White Cresteds are buttery white with impressive pom-poms on their heads. Their voices have changed into deep (sometimes loud) quacks. And wow do they waddle. Sometimes I think they’re going to tip over as they wobble across the lawn.

Our ducks are a bit spazzy. Their default setting with people, including us, is freak out. I can usually manage to not spook them too much. I am aware of their comfort zone and do my best to stay out of their personal space. The ducks I had as a child were always very social and calm, so this is unusual for me and a bit disappointing.

I tried to woo them with worms. They were afraid of the worms. I haven’t put in a concerted effort, but I think we could make them a bit more comfortable and social with time.

They do enjoy being around us when we’re eating breakfast or lunch on the patio, though the chickens always beat them to the crumbs Ellie throws. Occasionally the ducks will get frustrated and chase the chickens. We cheer them on when they’re assertive and brave.

Chasing a squirrel. Go waddles!

Their confidence (and tolerance) has grown as they free range with the chickens. They will now wander a bit farther from the barn and have made their way around the house. Working up their courage to cross the drain pipes on the downspouts took a few tries.

They always, always, always travel as a flock. Swimming in the pool, everyone goes. Rooting in the grass, everyone goes. Nibbling on the planter on the patio, everyone goes.

Watching them play in their pool is a lot of fun. They will splash and dive, jump out of the pool, run around, jump back in and do it all again. I’m still on the hunt for a bathtub, as they’re definitely ready for something deeper. (They’re not brave enough to go down to the pond, which is fine with me.)

A big question since we got them has been who is a boy (drake) and who is a girl (duck or hen). Now that they’re full grown, we have an answer. Look for the tail curl (the sign of a drake). Starlight, check. Midnight, check. Wonder, not quite as curly, but still check. Poufy, straight.

So we have three drakes and just one duck. Not the best ratio.

So far the males don’t seem to hassle Poufy too much. There has been some breeding behaviour in the pool (from both her and them). If we need to separate them in springtime we can do that.

Part of my motivation in getting ducks was to have eggs. Especially Cayuga eggs. They lay dark grey eggs, and I love my coloured eggs. But both our Cayugas are drakes, so no grey eggs for me.

Part of Ellie’s motivation in getting ducks is to have ducklings, so she has high hopes for Poufy’s maternal instincts.

Male, female. Calm, spazzy. Social, fearful. None of it matters much to us. We have a lot of fun watching our waddles and are glad they’re part of our family.

Thankful

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I am thankful for…

The most amazing girl who is full of love and joy and who treasures life as much as me.

A family that believes in me and cheers me on now matter what.

When the words flow. And friends that help when they don’t.

Fabulous teachers who see my daughter for who she is and celebrate her.

New friends and 40-year life friends.

Our robot vacuum, dishwasher and washing machine. Heat, light and fresh water.

Work that challenges and energizes and is just one part of my life.

Hilarious animals who bring so much joy.

This beautiful farm that inspires and challenges and calms.

A full life.

Thank you for being here. Happy Thanksgiving.

Odds & sods

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September was a whirlwind. Back to school. Extra activities. Special projects. New schedule. I don’t feel adjusted yet.

At the same time, September sometimes feels like a fresh start. This might be the time to try something new. Or tackle that thing we’ve been putting off for a while (that’s what I’m focusing on).

My word of the year for 2026 is “try.” I chose this word in part to remind myself that it’s okay to not do everything completely or perfectly. Just try. Just start. Just one step can make a difference. When my days feel full and my to-do list is long, it’s helpful to remember that trying is sometimes good enough.

Here are some things I’ve tried this month.

This week is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. I’ve been reading Who We Are: Four Questions For a Life and a Nation by Murray Sinclair, chair of the TRC. His questions, observations and lessons are a good education about the experience of Indigenous peoples and applicable for everyone.

“We encouraged young men and women to take up the fight for their own sense of identity, to focus on becoming strong themselves. And to think about how to put that identify into practice in their lives, to learn how to spread it, so that successive generations can pick it up. This is necessary for our survival… Your sense of self is made stronger when you realize that you are part of an overall plan.”

Who We Are by Murray Sinclair

Thanksgiving is coming up. A thankful turkey (or you could do a tree) is a good way to count down to the holiday and practice gratitude.

My sister went to the World Triathlon Championships in Spain–and placed sixth in her age group! Seeing my sister in her team Canada uniform, among all of these amazing athletes, and everyone’s incredible accomplishments was so special.

Vacuuming is one thing I haven’t had to work into my schedule this month. I’m loving our new robot vacuum.

Cinnamon swirl cookies. A giant peanut butter cup. This cookbook was a hit.

I’m heading into the end of September with another full to-do list. Client work, school work, farm work, I will be trying to find the balance that works for me. I hope you do as well.

How are you recognizing Truth and Reconciliation Day? How do you practice gratitude? Have you tried anything this month?

Robot vacuum 2.0

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Nine years ago we bought a robot vacuum, and I loved it. Neato did his thing bopping around the house, sucking up dog hair and saving me time. Until he didn’t. A few years ago, Neato gave up. Figuring out what was wrong and fixing him was beyond my capacity at the time. Plus, I hadn’t been using him a lot because our house was full of a small person’s toys, which were perfect prey for a robot vacuum.

Then I renovated the playroom. Throughout that project, one of the goals sitting silently deep in my brain was to restart the robot vacuum. All of the Lego and Barbies would be moving out of the living room. I could safely run a vacuum again.

I looked into fixing Neato, but it turned out the company had gone out of business and parts were no longer available. So I decided to buy a new vacuum. Influenced by Young House Love and the many positive reviews for their vacuum, I went with Eufy. Specifically the Eufy Clean 11S MAX.

She arrived a month ago, and she is wonderous.

Every day, she heads out on her journey around the house. She vacuums bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, living room, dining room. She handles tile, wood, rugs, carpet. She goes under beds, the coffee table and the couch (with a few adjustments, which I talk about below). My floors have never been so clean.

I went with a fairly simple model (no wifi, no special powers) and spent $203.39 Canadian. This price is way less than Neato or our canister vac and completely worth it for me.

While she may not be super flashy, the big upgrade with Eufy is she can tell time. Neato had to be manually activated whenever we wanted to clean. Eufy has a schedule. Automatically every morning she leaves her docking station and cleans the floors. When she’s done, she goes back and recharges for the next day.

Vacuuming every day might seem excessive, but the amount of dust and dirt she picks up each cleaning is surprising. It’s definitely worth running her daily.

So far, we’re mostly running Eufy upstairs. It’s where we spend most of our time, and where we generate the most dirt.

However, the basement also needs to be vacuumed. Yesterday, I carried Eufy downstairs and let her do her scheduled cleaning down there. She handled the carpet and laminate just as well as she’s handled the hardwood and tile.

Each night I empty her little dustbin, so she’s ready to go again. Once a week I clean her filters and her brush. She came with a little cleaning tool that is perfect for sweeping dust out of the filter and untangling hair from the brush. It’s very low effort compared to sweeping or dragging our vacuum around and cleaning myself.

As simple as it is now, we have had to make a few adjustments.

Eufy is very persistent and will squeeze herself into areas that turn out to be too tight for her. The first few vacuuming sessions, she got stuck under Ellie’s bed and under the couch.

For Ellie’s bed, I was able to adjust the headboard to give Eufy enough space to get under and back. You can also see from the top picture that Ellie tucks her fringed bedspread out of Eufy’s way.

For the couch, I took two steps. We have an outlet under the couch where a couple of lamps and a powerbar are plugged in. To keep the cords out of Eufy’s way, I screwed some small cup hooks into the underside of the couch and tucked the cords up into the hooks. To ensure the couch is high enough so that Eufy doesn’t wedge herself, I added some risers under each leg.

They were easy adjustments, and I’m happy to no longer have dust bunny farms under the furniture.

The other adjustment we’ve made is closing the playroom door. Lego, Barbies, crafts in progress and other bits and bobs frequently cover the floor. It’s not a good environment for Eufy, so she doesn’t clean in there. Yes, the playroom definitely needs to be cleaned. But we can turn Eufy loose in there after a careful tidy.

For the playroom (or my white tile bathroom after I washed a very muddy dog on Saturday), I use Eufy’s single room setting. The vacuum comes with a remote that allows you to choose different cleaning modes.

I have not used the modes or remote a lot. Once I set the clock and scheduled the daily cleanings, Eufy went into auto mode and my direction is not needed. But for spot cleaning (for example, I used to send Neato under Ellie’s high chair after meals), a single room or other situations, Eufy has them covered.

Dirt and dust are part of life. I have a pretty high tolerance for them, especially thanks to living on a farm and having animals. But Eufy has really increased my enjoyment of my home. Feeling and seeing my clean floors every day feels like a load off my mind. Vacuuming is one thing I don’t have to think about anymore.

If you want a full breakdown of Eufy, all her features, and more tips about using a robot vacuum, Young House Love wrote a very detailed, helpful post.

Monarch magic

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The magic began on Friday morning. One after another, monarch butterflies pushed their way out of their chrysalis and dangled as their crumpled wings slowly unfurled. By the end of the day, we had 11 monarchs in various containers between the kitchen and the mudroom.

Saturday morning, we released them, and the magic began again. Fifteen butterflies hatched.

Our annual monarch tradition has reached a new level this year. We collected more than 80 caterpillars. It’s insane.

Last year we raised a record 32 monarch butterflies, which was phenomenal. This year, after walking through two fields one afternoon, we collected 70 caterpillars. We added to that number every time we went to get more milkweed to feed everyone. Invariably we found more caterpillars.

We added more bowls to the kitchen counter, collected more milkweed, and cleaned habitats every day. Eventually caterpillars crawled up to the screens that cap the bowls, dangled in Js for awhile and then writhed and wriggled out of their skins and into chrysalis. We kept adding more caterpillars and the process kept repeating.

Things have been crowded and chaotic. But also magical. Watching them eat, grow and transform does not get old.

We’ve had to expand our simple bowls and screen (and zucchini) set up to accommodate everyone.

We set up a separate butterfly container, where we could move them after they hatch and once their wings flatten fully. Butterflies are pretty quiet for 24 hours after they hatch, but they still walk about a little bit. We have so many chrysalis it was hard for the butterflies to move around.

We also built a chrysalis frame and moved some of the chrysalis into it. Moving chrysalis is nerve-wracking, but the frame worked really well for hatching. The butterflies had good space to hang, and if they wanted to move around the screens walls and wood rails gave them lots to hang on to.

Raising monarchs is so magical. From caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly, the process is amazing. Watching them flutter away year after year is special every single time.

We lost a chicken

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Most mornings, we start our days with breakfast with the animals. I bring the food out to the patio while Ellie walks across to the coop and lets the chickens and ducks out. They follow her back to the house and spend the meal under the table or circling around us begging for nibbles. They know Ellie will oblige. If she doesn’t, the hens don’t hesitate to jump up and peck a bite from her hand or try to perch on the arm of her chair.

Cigo is always there and often Cedar comes down from the barn too. It’s a hilarious and idyllic way to begin the day.

After breakfast, we all move on to whatever it is we’re doing for the day, and as long as Ellie and I are home, we leave the birds to free range.

Letting the birds run has been working well.

They stay close to the house and the barn, so we’re not worried about them wandering away. When they need to lay an egg, they go back to the coop. They enjoy dust bathing where the grass doesn’t grow around the garage. They scratch and eat on the lawn and into the meadow.

I think free ranging is healthier for them. The dust baths are definitely good for their feathers. They have a more varied diet. They have more stimulation and space.

If we’re going out or at the end of the day, I call, “Here chick, chick, chick!” and they come running from wherever they are and follow me to the coop. (There’s usually some treats involved, hence their enthusiasm to return.)

But there are more dangers when the chickens are out of the run and a couple of weeks ago we lost our first chicken.

I’m not sure exactly what happened, since I had gone in the house after breakfast and didn’t hear anything. When I came out to mow the grass, I found a suspicious amount of white feathers by the treehouse. The location was also suspicious, as the chickens don’t tend to spend much time near the treehouse. I searched around but found no other signs of a chicken or violence. I rounded up the other chickens for a count and found 9, not our usual 10.

I questioned Cedar (our very active hunter) and searched his usual hideouts in the barn. There was no sign of a chicken or feathers, and I determined he was innocent.

My best guess is a hawk may have come through, spotted the hen on her own in the more open area between the barn and the driveshed, and carried her away.

It’s disappointing, but not inevitable. Caring for animals means facing death sometimes. Ellie and I both feel the benefits of free ranging outweigh the risks, so we’re going to continue. (This has very much been a family decision.) The birds certainly want to be out and seem happier when they’re roaming.

So for breakfast time and beyond, the birds will be out.

Odds & sods

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As August comes to an end, I’m looking back at our summer holiday with so much joy. We have had so, so much fun.

We had our annual cottage getaway with my family. Watching Ellie, my siblings and their children in the water, out behind the boat, playing with each other made me so proud. They value family as I do and are patient and kind. They work hard at learning new skills, like waterskiing. They goof off, make up games, have fun and are so joyful. It is such a special experience to share together.

The cottage was a big highlight, but we’ve had simpler fun as well. Weekly lunches with Matt’s Dad, swimming in his pool with Matt’s aunt, his brother and nephew. Harvesting the garden. A beach day with my friend and her kids. Hosting Ellie’s friends at the farm for a day.

We’ve tried new things like a visit to the African Lion Safari (amazing) and kept up with annual traditions, like our end of summer fancy waffles (so much ice cream). We repeated some favourites, like a week of art camp and a performance of Cirque du Soleil.

This summer has been a wonderful blend of big, small, new, old, away, home adventures and special moments.

I don’t have links to share this month. I have one quote from the book I read at the cottage.

“You are right about what you said–we are thirty in our hearts, before all the disappointment, all the ways it turned out to be so much more pitiful than we thought it would be, but then again, it has also been magic.”

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

Life is so much more than we expect. It is magic.