Water Boarding and Other Central Virginia Tortures

Today was the first day that I awoke and thought, “Today is going to be hot.” There was a very light dew on everything, but by 8:30 it was WARM. (Yesterday it had reached 90, but it didn’t really get hot until 2pm, because it was so cloudy earlier.) I cleaned up the campsite a little (took the dirty diapers out of the tree where they had been draped).

Having already faced my phobia of wasps, today I had to face my phobia of maggots. As a young girl, I read a book in which a missing high schooler is finally discovered: “I smelled him before I saw him. Maggots crawled out of his eyes.” Now, with such a disgusting introduction to flies, is it any wonder that maggots just put me over the edge? I had already noticed that there are some in our bag of garbage on the ground. But today I noticed them in the hotdogs. Hmm. Guess we WON’T be having hot dogs for breakfast. But how to empty the hotdog bag? Gotta touch them. Eeewww! I said to myself out loud over and over, “I am not dead. I am not dead.” And they didn’t jump for my eyes or anything.

Another phobia conquered!

(Did I mention the wasps? I had one land on me twice and I just said to it, “I am not your enemy. Thank you for all you do for my land. Please don’t sting me.” And it didn’t! It wasn’t aggressive. Yay! Now when I see them flying low to the ground, I say, “He works his work; I mine”—an allusion to “Ulysses” by Tennyson. It makes me feel so literary.)

By 10:30, the boys had been playing construction trucks in the gravel for an hour and were covered in grey dust. Abraham, who refused the dunk in the pool yesterday, looked like the little grey ghost, covered from head to toe. We headed for the Bessettes: air conditioning, pool, refrigerated water. Ahhh.

I was so pleased, because I had gone over intending to weed Michelle’s garden. She was already out, and we worked together for several hours. She said later that she would have given up, because it was so hot an overwhelming. Instead, though, we chatted and made progress. A weedy hillside again looks like a strawberry patch! It made me think that any garden is not going to be entirely “No work,” although she tried to follow Ruth Stout’s “No work garden method.” I think Bob Cannard has the right idea: let the vegetables grow with the weeds, and don’t worry about it. Probably not as nice aesthetically, but pretty mellow! We pulled several strawberries by mistake, so I am hoping I will get to plant them. And mint—anytime. And I gathered some sunflower seeds to scatter next year. They’ve been volunteering annually at her house, and they are HUGE.

I snapped peas while feeding the baby for his nap. After lunch we weeded until another homeschooling family, the Gritsko’s (who used Sonlight for a few years and then switched to The Well-Trained Mind) came over. Sunny has had digestive issues for a long time, and she just, two days ago, quit eating wheat, and is now feeling better. So she picked my brain for food ideas. I thought that was fun—nutrition conversation in the pool! Yay!

The older boys are putting their heads under water. Alex Bessette taught them how to do so. I passed Jonadab to Dennis; Joe cried, so Dennis dunked him. Joe wised up and enjoyed himself after that.

Abraham had sat up on the deck looking down on the pool party, still grey from head to toe, in a navy shirt and blue jeans, both now grey. I manhandled him into Mater swimtrunks, and carried him, upside down and screaming, out to the pool. And these were true screams: mouth wide open, full volume. I walked outside with him and all the people in the pool started laughing, he was so noisy.

I passed him to Dennis, and Dennis dunked him, midscream. Abraham coughed and choked and resumed, full volume. Arms stiffly stretched out, not holding on, face panicked. Dennis dunked him again. Abraham didn’t cough and choke as much, but resumed, full volume, arms still stiff. Dennis dunked him again.

About this time, Abraham wised up. With a face of misery, he relaxed a bit. Within a few minutes, he rested on a noodle.

And then he played in the water until his lips turned blue. He was one of the last to exit the pool. Water boarding works.

At times in the afternoon, the TV would be on, and my boys would try to plop in front of it. I did not allow it. They would get sucked in, and I would order them to do something else. They came up with some really creative ideas: they put invisible tape somewhere, and the other children would play hotter/colder until they found it. So creative!

I prepared tomatoes for dehydrating. We stripped spearmint off the thickest stems for both dehydrating and tea—by boiling up a lot of it, we made a tea base, which will work well when cut with some water. Michelle made dinner (it was going to be Mexican, but as we assessed what we had, it ended up being a delicious Asian meal, with ground beef, green peppers, tomatoes (all three from the garden), as well as garlic, ginger, onions, and tamari, on my recommendation. Michelle said, “Amy, I would never have come up with this combination, but it really worked!”).

I put in a full day. Putting up vegetables is a lot of work. The boys played happily. As I think about it now, they have never really had anyone other than each other to play with, so having a few other children, even much older, is very fun for them. And the pool is a huge added blessing.

Back at the Lykosh homestead, the Doug Bushes stopped by while I was reading Holes and we showed them our little place. What a good day!