One Decade of Parenting

We have had friends come to the farm at different seasons through the last year. They have admired the cows, the ducks, the sheep, the trampoline, the toy cars, and now the puppies and chicks. They came to visit yesterday before their impending move, and we snapped a few shots of the seven children on the trampoline.

The moment of almost stillness passed quickly, and soon all seven were bouncing with vigor. But only for a minute or two. And then they left, and we were the sadder for the departure of our friends.

Looking back at the biodynamic calendar, there was only a day and a half in all of May that was good for flower planting. Yesterday was a flower day, so I spent most of the day in the moon garden, finishing new beds with cardboard and mulching the top. The hay mulch that I used two months ago has been composting for a month, and I needed a shovel, rather than a hay fork, to scoop it into the wheelbarrow. It has broken down so beautifully!

After making beds, I transplanted what bulbs and flowers I could, and finished transplanting the last three flats of various herbs and flowers. One sweet herb was anise hyssop, I think: deliciously sweet with a strong hint of licorice at the end. Bees are supposed to enjoy it, and I hope they will.

Weeding just the moon garden was a bit overwhelming. I realize now that I should save feed bags to line the walkways between beds: though I don't have many weeds growing in the beds themselves—and the few that are growing are little ones springing from weed seeds in the mulch—I am having significant weed encroachment between beds in the walkways. I remember now that it is better to line a walkway with weed barrier, then sand, then flagstones: a rock path in a moon garden should have a bit more than just rocks on dirt.

While I spent the day in the garden, Phil spent the day running cows through the chute. It still took many hours, but he was doing it on his own, and at least 12 or 13 of the cows went through. I'm not sure if he got the bull through in the end.

The sad part at the end was what happened in the orchard. The cows have never shown much interest in the trees: as long as they have plenty of grass and clover, the trees offer little of interest. (They aren't goats.) He had hoped to leave them in a section of orchard maybe even overnight.

But then he realized that they were rubbing on the trees: too many flies, and a tree makes a convenient back scratcher. One apricot they uprooted entirely, and one peach they rubbed all the fruit off. The apricot he replanted; the peach will hopefully live to produce another year. He felt bad.

I've been watching the comfrey plantings, and today noticed about eight sprouts of the 600 root cuttings, and two vigorous sprouts in the orchard. So exciting!

And Phil and I have been parents for a decade now. Hard to believe. Jadon got what he wanted for his birthday: Ten Days in the Americas, a board game that teaches geography, and lots and lots of books.