So Much Fun

On Monday, I harvested our apples. At a party the night before, one local woman mentioned that she had picked her apples on the 4th of July, since the ants had started to eat, and when the ants come, the apples are ready.

Well, we've had ants since then, I'm sure, and I have been watching the wasps, yellow jackets, and ants gradually devour the fruit. I don't know why I didn't pick it earlier: I think the idea that I'm "supposed" to harvest in the fall, into the late fall even, made July harvest seem too incongruous. I mean, early, mealy apples are supposed to be ready in August.

But I picked what was left. I would guess a bushel and a half. I could carry the entire harvest at once. It was heavy, and I had to set it down at times, but I made it. Little of the fruit is cosmetically reasonable, but we are enjoying the flavor.

As of yesterday, we have no children in carseats. I think it may be one of the happier parenting days of Phil's life, and Joe sat proudly in his booster seat today. There are benefits to being four.

Phil headed up to the post office yesterday afternoon to get a few presents for Joe. They hadn't arrived yet (the post mistress called back a bit later: "I think your package is here now," but who wants to make two trips to the post office in a day); Joe happily played with his new Duplo set, and his brothers played with his nicely.

Before cake, we had a pizza party celebration, complete with party favor art supplies (courtesy of Phil's mom: with the amount of art the boys do, it can be a challenge to keep them in supplies). I took a photo before the meal, and we laughed at the guinea head poking out of Jadon's. What a funny little farm scene!

The hilarity continued as the family began to eat. Socks remained tied up, but Shadow, intent on tasting tasty pizza, soon was thwarted when she joined Socks, tied up. Then Cadbury slunk around: he jumped up behind Isaiah, who would move him elsewhere: on top of the van, for example. But no sooner had Isaiah sat back down than Cadbury would jump up behind him again. We finally shut him in the motor home, at least until dinner was done. Biggles, usually the most cagey of beasts, who, despite our constant vigilance still manages to get into the RV almost daily, contented himself with sitting on the nearby camp stove and giving us the evil eye. It was a funny meal.


Joe helped me make his cake, and although he was very embarrassed during "Happy Birthday," he was pleased to blow out his candles. (Please note the very creative design: five gummi bears lying down (four dark reds and a pink: I'm the pink, because I'm a girl), and one standing up, the last one in the row. That's Joe.)

Phil spent Wednesday working on building minutia, getting the flashing put up around the door, and along various edges of the building. After he had finished about 40% of the flashing, he figured out an easier way to do it, so today the flashing went in much more quickly and easily. (He had to do some on-the-spot design work, as the drawings completely pooped out on him. Good thing he's an engineer by training.)

I helped Phil some of the day today with the front of the building. The door makes installation of wall panels and insulation rather difficult: there's much more cutting and fitting required. We have finished five of the fourteen panels: after we do two more (one of which is cut but not installed), then it will be more-or-less smooth sailing to the end. Which means plenty of cutting and man lift ups and downs, but easy installation, since we know what we're doing.