Grand Tour

Yeah, I'm just kickin' it here at my parent's house, enjoying the sunshine and good company... and the fact that I don't really have to do anything. At all. I've been so busy for the last few weeks that now it feels really good to just chill. Read a book. Do nothing.

Okay, well not entirely nothing. I've got places to go. People to see. Really.

So. Nothing much to report, really.

But I have to post something here on this little ol' blog of mine. In racking my brain, I found these pictures sitting on my camera that I thought I would show you. For your enjoyment and enlightenment. While I'm sitting around doing nothing.






This garden has been a lot of hard work. Landscaping takes time and patience. You have to wait for things to grow and fill in. You have to experiment with arrangement of plants and finding just the right site for each one so that it flourishes instead of curling up and dying.





Yeah. It's a wonder I have any time to blog! You see why I needed a vacation?

You know, it really takes a lot of hunting around to find these whimsical sculptures and hardware that add just the right amount of diversion from the growing things.



Take for example, this white metal... thing... that I got... um... somewhere. Really, isn't it just perfect in that spot?

But I had to move it around. A lot. To get it just right.

Exhausting, I'm tellin' ya.





I love to have little nooks and crannies in my garden. I like for it to look just a little bit wild and untamed. Like it could be just out in the woods somewhere. Like it took no effort at all on my part to look that way.

Except, it's really quite tiring.



But it's worth it. There's just nothing quite like being surrounded by plenty of pretty growing things. It makes life so peaceful.




That is, after you get done with all the backbreaking work, like installing stone steps in a small embankment.




Or putting in a patio.

Have you ever tried putting in a patio? It's hard work.

But it's just so worth it when you wander along a leafy path and admire your handiwork.




There's just something... so...

Wait a minute...

I might be getting mixed up a little...

Something's just not quite right here.

Maybe I'm thinking of a different garden...


Like... my Mom's. That she's be working on for 15 years.

Yeah. That's it.

Well, at least I still get to enjoy it.

Good to be Back

The trip is long.


Really long.




AND just brimming with questions:
"Are we at Portland, yet?"
"What is that?"
"What is it for?"
"Is that a fighter jet?"
"Does our plane have guns?"
"Are we at Portland, yet?"
"Is that man going to sleep?"
"Are we riding a fighter jet?"
"What is that called?"
"Can I have a snack?"
"Are we getting on the plane, yet?"
"Are we at Portland, yet?"
"Does this plane have fire coming out?"
"What is that noise?"
"Are we gonna tip over?"
"Are we at Portland, yet?"
"Is this plane taking us to Grandma and Grandpa's house?"
"Can we ride in a fighter jet?"
"Can I have a snack?"

All those, and more. Lather, rinse, repeat for nine hours, frequently perforated with "LOOK! AN AIRPLANE!" and "I gotta go poooootttyyy!"

But there's a good reason for it all and it's all worth it.



For the reunion.


The good times.



The goofy.





The laughs.




The downright frightening.

(Just kidding.)





The cute.





The silly.




The... weird.



It's gonna be fun.

Memorial Weekend-- Making Memories

We live so far from all of our family that we eat up every minute we get to spend with any of them. Nathan's parents faithfully make the loooong drive here from Minnesota twice a year-- for Thanksgiving and Memorial weekend.

We sadly waved goodbye this morning, but we had such a great time with them! We didn't really do anything special --a couple of errands and a little garden planting were the only activities-- but we mainly spent the whole time just hanging out and visiting. When we only see them twice a year there's a lot of catching up to do!

Jonah gratefully absorbs all the extra love and attention he gets from his Oma and Opa.




Oma ever-so-patiently helped him plant some corn in the garden yesterday afternoon.




And believe me, it took a lot of patience. She had to keep redirecting his attention back to the task at hand-- "Put down a seed. Now move the stick. Move the stick! There you go. Now another seed..." On and on through two rows.



That, my friends, is what Grandmas are for. I'm pretty sure.

In general, however, Opa is the man of the hour.



Jonah pretty much spent every waking minute "pestering and tormenting" his Opa.



Opa loves to be pestered and tormented.

July San Tos'? Wie Bother?

We generally don't use credit cards. They are handy to have for certain things, however, like buying plane tickets. We have a certain card that we use for things that will be reimbursed right away, and we pay the balance every month. This month it had some purchases such as the order for the food co-op that I run, and some supplies that Nathan picked up for the people that he works for.

Yesterday, I went to pay this credit card, so I signed on to the website to pay it online. Instead of my account, I got a message saying that our card may or may not have been jeopardized, so just to be safe, they canceled our account and are sending new cards. "Oh, that's just great." I thought. I've had this happen before and it is such a hassle. Not to say I'm not thankful for fraud protection, because it's saved my bacon a few times, praise God. It's just a hassle. I know, first world problem.

So anyway, I had to consider what I was going to do. For one thing, I knew that I had a food co-op order about to bill that card, and it obviously wouldn't go though. I called the company to give them a new card number for billing. Then I realized that the credit card bill was due on Tuesday, and it's a holiday weekend, and the mail had already come, so chances are, if I mailed the payment, it wouldn't arrive on time. Maybe, maybe not. So I called customer service. After being subjected to a computerized recital of my past months transactions --"yeah, yeah, not what I called for, thankyouverymuchpleaseshutup"-- I finally got a real person... with a strong Indian accent.

I really should have followed my first instinct to "please hang up and try your call again." I always know when I get an India-Indian on the phone I'm going to spend the whole call straining to understand what in hey-diddly he's saying anyway.

Cotton-mouth Customer Service Rep: "Good aptahnoon, how may I hewp jou?"

I explained the situation, asked why happened to my card, and got the same explanation as the computer gave.

Me: "Okay... so if I mail the payment at this point, it might not get there in time. Can I pay over the phone and have the charges waived?"

CMCSR: "Oh, jes, ma'amb, since jou are one ob ouwah bedy best customah wit bedy best pehment histady, I would be habby to do dat por jou today, ma'mab, and we wild not charge jou da fowty-nine ninety-fibe today, ma'amb, since jou were not able to pay online today, ma'amb."

Me: "Okay. Great."

So I gave him the payment information and prepared to go about my day.

CMCSR: "Now ip I could just hab a momment ob jour time today, ma'amb, to tell you about da program enrollment..." And just as if I had already agreed, he launched into a (barely intelligible) description of an income-loss protection program.

Now, I already know that we carry no debt on this card, so not being able to pay the card is the very lowest on my list of crashing-economy-worries. It would be a complete waste of money to enroll in this.

Me: "Look, I'm really not interested in this right now. I don't need it and I don't have time for it. I'm getting ready to go out of town and I'm not going to be able to look into this."

CMCSR: "But, ma'amb, dere is no risk, and it is a tirty-day free triald, and I'll gib you da cancelation numbah rdight now, ma'amb. We will send you de infodmation, and jou can look obah it in jour own timbe, ma'amb, and decide ip dis prograhm is ford jou or not, ma'amb. Jou can cancel any timbe. Now I'll oedly need a mombent ob jour prechious timbe, ma'amb, to enroll jou and I'll send out de infodmation today, ma'amb."

Me: "No, look, I understand that, but I really don't want this right now. My husband would have to make the descision anyway, and..."

CMCRS: "Jes! Jour husbad can read it ford hibself! I'll just get the papehs done now and..."

Me: "Look, I really appreciate your offering this to me, but I do. not. want. this."

Here, he actually started yelling at me! He totally couldn't understand why I wouldn't take a free trial for this! He launched into a completely uninteligible re-explanation of the program, yelling and emphasizing that "Jou can cancel ANYTIMBE ip jou don't want dis prograhmb, ma'amb!"

(Of course, it didn't occur to me to get his name or ask for his supervisor or anything, because, really, I just thought the whole thing was so hilarious! I've never been yelled at by an Indian before! All because I won't buy what he's offering! I'll just add that to my list of thigns I didn't know I needed to experience before I die.)

Me: "I know! But I will forget to cancel! And then I'll waste my money because I don't even want this program!"

CMCSR: "Fide! Fide, ma'amb, I wild respect jour desijion, ma'amb, and will not enroll jou today. Hab a nice day."

Eyeballs, Forks-- You Know the Rest

I nearly expired from the shock of boredom I experienced today when I caught some of the song lyrics on one of Jonah's kiddy tapes.

I love my blanket every day,
Every day, every day.
I love my blanket every day,
When I sleep and when I play.

Come. On. Are you seriously kidding me?

(Ha. "Seriously kidding." Oxymoron, much?)

Let's go out and play today,
Play today, play today.
Let's go out and play today,
Let's go out and play!

Great balls of flaming inanity!

Run like I do,
Run like Iiiii do,
Run like IIIII am doing nooooww,
Run like I do,
Run like I do,
Run like IIII am doing noooow.

Jump like I do...

Argh. That tape is teaming with inane, meaningless gibberish all sung to the same three tunes.

What happened to good old Mother Goose?

I am a musician. (Mediocre at best, but still a musician.) I play instruments, and I have since I was a child. I've spent many and hour playing in lessons, orchestra rehearsals, church services, recitals, and just for fun. I want Jonah to grow up with an appreciation of GOOD music. This tape is not furthering those purposes.

To top it off, Jonah memorizes things faster than you could believe, so he's constantly singing these stupid songs. It's a waste. A waste, I tell you. And (as much as I love to hear him sing) it makes my ears bleed. I've been on a hunt for some tapes of Bible verses set to music for him to listen to and memorize. The one I like the best is from a homeschool curriculum that puts out many memorization song tapes. The verses are simple, the references are included in the songs, and the music is quite good. The problem is, the verses are from a variety of translations. Nathan said we should only use songs that have King James Version verses. So when I went looking for those kind of songs, I found none that have GOOD music. They're all irritating and smarmy tunes played on various versions of a synthesizer. I'll end up with diabetes listening to that crap.

I haven't even been able to find good recordings of simple, traditional hymns for him to listen to. I can only find collections of saccharine and repetative and only vaguely "religious" songs. Doesn't anyone put out some good kid music?

So I keep looking. In the meantime, that particular tape is going to mysteriously get lost. Hmm... now that I think about it, somewhere around here I have a box of my old tapes (from back when I listened to tapes). I bet I could replace Stupid Kid Songs, Vol. 947 with the Les Miserables soundtrack and he'd be perfectly happy. So would I.

Laboratory, with Emphasis on "Labor"

I know I've been somewhat absent around these parts lately. It's only because the temperatures are pushing 80 and my garden calls to me and my computer prefers to sit on the desk rather than schlump around the garden with me.

And then there's the fact that I leave for Oregon in less than a week and I have an incredible amount of work to get done before then. I feel like I can easily just work outside from the time I let the chickens out in the morning until I close their coop again at night. There are so many tasks to be completed that I can't even keep track of them all.

Oh, and then there's the fact that I've been playing nurse-maid to a chicken with a prolapsed pooper-shooter. (I'm being glib here, but honestly, I'm worried about her. I'm afraid she may not make it, and then I'll have an orphaned chick on my hands, and this chicken funny-farm is getting out of hand fast.)

But back to the garden.

(Sorry about that.)

(Oh, maybe not that sorry...)

(Just a little.)

I'm being a little experimental in my garden this year. Well, I always have to be a little experimental. Keeps things interesting. Even when I was a kid and I helped Dad in the garden, I liked to experiment. He used to let me have my own little spot and I would pick what I wanted to plant and try them out to see how they did. One year, he let me try some blue potatoes in the potato patch. They turned out to be pretty neat-- well, at first anyway. When you cut them open, they had great color, but when you cook them? Not so appetizing. My brothers didn't want anything to do with the mauvish-gray mashed potatoes for supper. So maybe some experiments are more successful than others, but isn't that the point? Try new things and find out what works.




So my tomatoes desperately needed planting a week or so ago. I had to get them in the ground, since they were getting a little leggy and sad. So I did. And here's the experimental part-- I'm really sick of flimsy tomato cages, so I'm trying something new. Nathan put up a long piece of woven wire fence that has large openings, and I planted the tomatoes along it. As they grown, I'll weave the branches through the fence for support. In theory, this will make easier picking and less disease. I guess we'll find out!


So I got those planted, and then we had some chilly nights. In fact, we had a frost. Ack!

I'm so glad that Nathan reminded me to get the tomatoes covered. They were already look a little droopy, so that frost would have done them in.




I feel like I'm looking at my Grandma's garden. She always used to use milk jugs to protect her tomatoes.




See? They're pretty happy in their own personal greenhouses.

This year I'm also trying leeks. They're a little on the fussy side. They especially dislike getting trampled on by a small child right after planting. Sheesh. So picky.





When we tested our soil this spring, we found that the soil is deficient in nitrogen. So one thing I'm trying is planting beans here and there throughout the garden instead of just in one spot. Ideally, they'll "fix" nitrogen in the soil for the plants nearby.



So instead of a stake to make my cuccumber and melon plants, I'm using a bamboo pole with a few pole beans planted next to it. We'll see how that works.

I was very excited to find sweet potato slips at a nursery in bundles of 25 for 5 bucks! Score! So I got those planted, and I'm praying that we'll have no more frost now or they'll be lost in a hurry.



Another experiement is one of my garden extentions. Instead of having Nathan pull up all the sod and till, I decided to just spread a heavy kill mulch a few months ago. The idea was that when I came time to plant, I'd just put holes in the cardboard where plants needed to go. It was working great, until we locked the chickens in the garden. Then they decided to tear up my mulch. I know they couldn't help themselves... In short, it's a mess, and the grass is coming through.




I went ahead and planted some cabbage, broccoli, and brussels sprouts in there anyway. I just need to add mulch. Well, I think I planted those cool-loving things too late and now they look pathetic. In fact, they're barely alive.




Poor things.

Oh, and I'm now the proud owner of my very own asperagus bed!



What? You can't see it? Well, try not to pay attention to my freakish claw-handed shadow... there are asperagus plants there... I promise...

I'm in the process of putting in a flower bed on the north side of my kitchen. I've been digging out the hard clay subsoil that came up when the foundation was dug, and I've been hauling in some topsoil to replace it. So far I have a few hostas and some weak little ferns in there.


Someday... it's gonna be great. Really.

The clump of Plantation Hostas that I put in is made up of three smaller clumps. Jonah dubbed them a "Mother and a Daddy and a baby! Oooohhh... hooow sweeeet..."


It has just now occurred to me that I should make sure that the chickens are not out there undoing my day's work, and who wants to be inside on a day like this anyway?

Preschooler Time Saving Tecnique #47

Put your clothes on over your pajamas. This allows more time for BOTH screeching about how much you think you should get your way before breakfast, and playing with trucks right before bed.

Call Me Trashy...

...but I found some totally cool stuff at some yard sales this weekend.




I mean, how adorable is this?




It's the classic enameled tin cup, complete with dents and chips, IN RED.






I'm in love.



And then there's this:



OH STOP. Quit looking at me like that.

So it's a little rough.



And rusty.



But it looks like it could have come out of storage in Grandpa's hay loft and it's gonna look GREAT with a coat of Rustoleum (or three).

Also, I actually let Jonah buy toys at one of these yard sales. Yeah. We never buy toys. He had some birthday money, so I let him pick something out. He shied away from the toy swords (for "cutting down trees" he said) and army helmets and after I declined the freakish-looking-(broken)-transformer-thingy, he opted for a fighter jet and a hatchet. The latter of which he uses completely inappropriately like a hammer, blade-side up. Oh, come on. It's plastic.

Ahhh... there's just nothing quite like spending the weekends pawing through other people's old and overpriced junk. Garage sale season is upon is!

Toothpaste Theories

Jonah has discovered toothpaste. That's what "thoothsath" means, I believe. I've always just brushed his teeth with water, as I do my own, but Daddy uses toothpaste. So here, Jonah is giving his theories on why one might need toothpaste at all.






Hey, as far as I'm concerned, it's as good a reason as any. I'm not a big believer in brushing to prevent tooth decay. I have far more faith in some good quality cod liver oil, thankssomuch.

Suppertime Conversation

Nathan, notices flies buzzing around: "Hm. I think it's about time to put up some flystrips."

Me, glancing at kitchen door wide open to let in fresh air and glorious sunshine: "Hm. Yeah. And some screen doors."

N: "Okay. Look, I'll put up one screen door if you will take care of the flystrips for the summer."

M: "Hey! No fair! You put up both screen doors, and I'll take care of the fly strips."

N: "Two screen doors for flystrips? That's not very even!"

M: "Sure! It's like a half-hour of work for you, but I have to do flystrips for the whole summer!"

N: "Yeah, that's like ten seconds of work at a time!"

M: "But I have to remember them all summer. I have to think of it. Not that easy. I have a lot in my head you know."

N, pauses, considers tasteless remark, wisely reconsiders: "Fine. I'll put them up. But you had better keep up on those flystrips!"

M: "Yeah, yeah. Hey, what, are we one of those "modern" marriages now? Where we divvy up all the work so that it's exactly even?"

N: "Oh, yeah, right. That's it."

M: "Okay. I will... do the dishes if you will... let me sweep the floor."

N: "Ha. Sounds great."

M: "And YOU can... mow the lawn and I will... let you till the garden."

N: "Har, har. You think you're SOOO funny..."

Big Muzzy

We got Muzzy for Jonah for his birthday.



I picked it up cheap on Ebay. It's pretty expensive new (though it's now on DVD!), so I just found an old, used set which contains cassette and VHS tapes (yeah, you know-- you have to put them in a VCR and "rewind" them when you're done. You've heard of it?)

I've heard a lot of good things about Muzzy, and now I know why. It's fantastic.




Muzzy is basically an immersion-style language course for children (available in several different languages). It's a clever story that's amazingly complex and enjoyable (and the old-style cartoons make it even more fun, in my opinion) yet is made up entirely of very simple and repetitive dialog. The method is that the child watches the videos in English (or whatever the native language) to learn the story and then watches the videos in another language (in our case, Spanish). Ideally, they make the associations to begin understanding the other language in the same way that they learned their first language. Little kids' minds are ripe for this kind of learning and this ability is lost as they get older.

Now, I certainly am not expecting Jonah to become fluent in Spanish or anything. He doesn't even need to be and obviously doesn't have anywhere to use Spanish. But here's my reasoning for using this program: First of all, this will hopefully just stretch his brain in the direction of language learning, and if we continue with it over the years (Muzzy has a second level that I can get later), maybe it won't be so hard for him as it was for me when it comes to getting down to learning the grammar of the language. Maybe he'll never need it, but maybe he will, who knows? Secondly, we're homeschooling (and I say that in present tense even though he's only 4 because we're gearing up for it. We do all sorts of "unschooling" style school throughout our daily life and I'm making plans for his future schooling.) What are the main things he's working on learning at this point? Language and things pertaining to it: speech, syntax, letters, sounds, reading, writing. These videos cover all of those things, and there's nothing better than a different language to help you understand your own, right? I can see how even just watching the English video would be helpful to a child learning to talk. The story covers numbers, colors, letters, question words, prounouns, manners, "this one and that one", time, location and many other language concepts.

Also-- Muzzy is very systematic and WAY more fun (and less obnoxious) than Dora, which I despise (because Dora is teaching multiculturalism, not Spanish).

Jonah is addicted. He begs to watch one of the videos every day (in fact he's completely forgotten about the new Bob the Builder video he got!) and when he's not watching the videos, he's listening to the audio tapes.

I'm actually amazed at how quickly he's picking it up. He's seen the English video three times, and the Spanish version three or four times, but he knows the story well enough to be able to follow the audio tapes. He plays them over and over in his little tape player. (Aside: did you know that a kiddy tape player like that costs hundreds of dollars? No kidding: look at this one and this one and this one. When I looked a few months ago, there was one for $400. Insane. Seriously. I picked this one up at Salvation Army for 50 cents, only to get it home and find it didn't work. However, Daddy was able to wave his magic wand and get it working, and we've been regretting it ever since. Oh, the saccharine kiddy songs that run through my head daily!)

So we haven't even had Muzzy in the house for a week and already Jonah is repeating phrases. I was surprised, actually. I expected him to be frustrated or confused at not being able to understand, but he didn't miss a beat. He says, "Buenos dias! That means 'good morning!" Yesterday, he came to me while listening to the tape and said, "Mom! Mom, 'Llevenselo!' means 'Take him away!'"



I tell you what, it's fun way to learn.

It's the Hat

Don't ever accuse this kid of being a cowboy, never mind the hat.



Cuz he'll quickly inform you that he's a farmer.

Spring Dreams

I love spring. Everything is green and bursting with floral decadence.

Sometimes, when I'm in my yard admiring what few flowers I am blessed with and thanking the Lord for a reprieve from the cold misery of the last six months, and I look around in just such a way, at just such an angle...


...I can almost imagine that my gardens might look more like a beautiful, manicured court-yard garden...




Just like that, I am strolling through in glorious sunshine, admiring the fresh spring blooms.







Then I catch myself and run back inside to don a lovely, ephemeral and high-waisted number like this:



Thus properly attired, I return to my reverie.





As I stoop to inhale the perfume of some heavily scented lilacs...


...I happen to glance from the corner of my eye and see a person in the distance.

My heart catches in my throat...

Can it be? Is it really him?

Why... yes...

I quickly smooth my dress and pull my shawl a little closer over my shoulders.

I take a few breaths in a futile attempt to calm my pounding heart...



He approaches as I adjust my bonnet.








It is him. My own dear Mr. Darcy Nathan.


He greets me politely, "How do you do..."







No, wait. Scratch that. As this is a revisionist fantasy and I've always preferred Colonel Brandon...





There. That's better.



Now, where were we? Oh, yes...

He greets me with a polite bow and I answer with a modest curtsy. We speak of pleasantries, somewhat tensely as we maintain our sense of propriety, and stroll off to tour the gardens together, dreaming of our future...

Real Food for Mother and Baby

I know, I know-- two posts in a row about giveaways... but this one is WAY to good to pass up! This book has been on my reading list and if I don't win a copy (and I never do...), I might have to splurge for it.



When Jonah was a baby, I knew there were problems with modern dietary assvice for pregnant and nursing mommas and their babies. I just didn't know where to find the right info... I basically followed a Nourishing Traditions diet for myself, but I really had no idea of the best way to start Jonah on solid foods. There was no way I was going to follow the standard "processed cereal and jarred baby food" prescription. But I had to do a lot of searching around to find out what to do. As it was, he had a really hard time eating food until he was about 14 months old. Before that, we battled eczema and constipation and a runny nose while I fooled around trying to figure out what to feed him!

How I wish I had had this book available! Nina Planck is a well-known author and activist on a crusade for real food. I just can't wait to read her latest book, Real Food for Mother and Baby. In honor of Mother's Day, Anne Marie over at Cheeseslave is giving away three copies! I'm going over there to enter right now!

Potting

My Mom makes pots. Beautiful pots and useful, too. She's been doing it as long as I can remember and her work is always improving. I love her pottery. (Though I've never had any desire to make pottery myself. I remember once when I was very little she told me in her studio one day, "You don't have to feel like you should do what I do. You can do what you want to do. You should always pick what you like." I was actually relieved!) Every time I visit my family, I raid Mom's studio for seconds or things that have sat on the shelf too long. I have a pretty decent collection of things that Mom thinks are horrid. I love having dishes that are so unique and earthy and handmade.

All this to say that she's actually giving away a lovely piece of pottery on her blog! Go check it out at this link and enter to win!

ETA: Oh, and I just noticed that the contest is actually ending tomorrow at noon! I should have posted this sooner! If you want to enter-- hurry!

Four

Today, my little boy turned four years old. Four. Whew.

My Mom did a sweet post about him if you would like to see a couple cute baby pictures.

In honor of his birthday, he got to...



Shovel manure with his daddy!



Till the garden!

Hey... no breaks around here. Ya gotta work to eat. (He loved every minute, of course, and cried when Daddy wouldn't let him help mow the lawn.)

We let him play, too, though. He had lots of fun outside with all the kids who came to his party.

And he LOVED having construction trucks on his birthday cake!



In fact, he asked if he could play with it. I told him no, we would cut it and eat it, but he could play with the trucks afterwards. "Is that okay?" I said. No, it was not okay. Then he wouldn't be able to drive the trucks on the road! I explained that the road has too steep a grade for actual driving...

(Hey... Never mind the sloppy frosting. I don't do nearly enough cakes to get good at it, and anyway, it's supposed to be MUD! Mud is sloppy, after all.)






He opened presents and was even excited about new boots from Grandma and Grandpa. The kid lives in rubber boots.




He had lots of friends around to help him try out his new toys, which included a very cool helicopter, airplane, race-car-carrying semi truck, and some fun new games.







Then Daddy brought out the BIG present--



His very own bike! This bike was given to us by someone who had outgrown it (we would never buy a bike like this) and has been out in the barn waiting for summer. It's actually a little too much bike for a little kid-- complete with a heavy frame and three sets of shocks-- but I'm sure he'll make good use of it. It might be a lot of weight to peddle around, but at least it has heavy tires for riding on the dirt roads. Daddy put training wheels on it, but I'm sure he won't need those for long.

While getting ready for bed, Jonah was telling me all about his very fun day. "A fun cake, and a fun bike, and fun playing, and fun toys, and..."

I was so very thankful that a friend of mine came early (with kids to play with Jonah!) and helped me with cake decorating and supper cooking. It's always so much easier to work with a friend. And I only had one minor mishap-- I actually burnt the spaghetti noodles. Can you believe that? I didn't even know that was possible. It was salvageable, though, thankfully, except maybe my pot... I way overestimated the noodles, too, so I think we'll be having spaghetti tomorrow, too. We won't mind that, though.

We might, however, have a serious sugar-crash tomorrow...

Poultry Prison

Earlier this spring, we done got struck with a turrible great idea. We had some nice weather, so Nathan spread some composted manure on the garden and tilled it. Then, knowing that our goal is to avoid tilling as much as possible since that's better for the soil structure, we decided to try not to till again right before planting. That's when the idea came. We said to Ourselves, we said, "I know! Since we always fence the chickens out of the garden in the summer, lets get it set up so that the chickens can be fenced in for the spring! That way, they can keep weeds from taking over before planting, and they can work at "tilling" in the mulch and eating up the bugs. Come planting time, we can just lock them out and plant!" We like to leverage our poultry forces, you see. Buy making a work camp.

It seemed like a fantastic idea at the time.

Nathan put up the fence, pushed the chicken tractor up to the garden, and set it all up to lock them in.

Then he added more fence.

And then... some more fence.

It started to look like an internment camp.

The Garden Gulag.



Wire. Everywhere.


Also, pipes, boards, rocks and more wire. Anything to keep those buzzards in.




We don't have real chickens. We have a whole flock of Houdinis.

I'm kind of afraid that we just trained them how to manage a fence. Now when it comes to keeping them out in the summer when things are growning (which has always worked fine in the past), they'll just let themselves in at will.

Everytime that we think we have them all blocked in, they find a new way. Their flight skills are steadily improving. They haven't quite resorted to digging their way out of Alcatraz, but I wouldn't put it past them. This morning, I caught them in the act of their latest great escape.




Fly to the fence, then to the peak of the chicken tractor.




Then dare each other to go first.




A couple of weeks ago, I caught them eating the greens in my cold frame. It was warm, so I had taken the glass off at put a screen of fencing over it to "keep the chickens out." Or so I told myself.

Ah-ha ha! Funny joke.



They reached their scrawny necks through the fencing and managed to deimate my poor little chinese cabbage that I was letting go to seed.



I needed to get some early things planted in my raised beds. It's not easy to plant seeds when the chickens are coming along and digging as I plant.

I had Jonah distract them with some grain and I planted as fast as I could.




Nathan made me a couple more fence screens to keep them from scratching up the newly planted dirt.


(Never mind the pouting child. I always seem to have a pouting child around here...)

Today, finally, we've reached then end of the chicken prison. Today, is May 4th, which means that tomorrow is May 5th and the Amish say that we mush plant our potatoes on May 5th. So I will.

And I can lock the chickens out and start fighting them to stay that way.

Nail Pulling

Nathan has been pulling nails from some wood that he salvaged from a deck. He's planning to build me a goat fence. As often as he's able and the sun is shining, he goes out to work on the pile of boards. Jonah takes his little hammer and works on the pile of boards, too. To his Daddy, this work is pulling nails. For Jonah, it's "Me and Daddy are buildin' a house! Bye, Mom! Gotta go work on the house!"

Maple Syrup Winners!

Okay, so I know I'm a day late in picking winners for the maple syrup giveaway. I've been busy agonizing over painting my living room. But I'll post about that later. To relive my stress, however, I decided to visit the Random Integer Generator and pick a couple of winners!



Here they are:


Heather in MT
Karen Deborah

Congratulations! Email me at rosie.kate.squirrel@gmail.com with your mailing address to claim your sweet reward!

Puddle of Cute

Just look at this...



...writhing...



...mewing...



...wriggling...



...pile of cuteness.

They're so adorable I could just eat them. But that would be... barbaric.




I can never tell if the mother cats are blissfully content (in which case I envy them somewhat) or longsufferingly (uh... I don't really think that's a word) annoyed. As much as I love new babies, if I had a pile of them crawling all over me begging to nurse, I think I would be a lunatic.

Cranky

I can finally make homemade pasta.



Because I finally have someone to crank the pasta machine for me!