Looking Ahead

I had a great day. I'd peeled the sepals off one of the buckets of hibiscus fruits, and several of us enjoy the pink tea daily. I realized, though, that I can peel sepals while I read to the boys. We've been studying China, and I've fallen behind a bit in the reading (in part because I want to read aloud the books they are supposed to read to themselves: they're all just too good!). The boys have become obsessed with drawing cartoons the last few days, and so they would either do puzzles or draw. With sepals to help me feel like I'm being doubly productive, and Isaiah eagerly asking me to keep reading, we spent hours today just enjoying the books and being together.

Abraham, though he can read at his age level, takes no delight in it. Today we had a talk, and I realized that there are some challenging tasks that I don't always feel up to doing. Not because I'm not capable, but because it takes too much out of me. So I told Abraham that for a while I would ask him if he felt ready, and if he didn't at that time, to come to me when he did feel ready. I have hope that for earnest Abraham, this will be a good solution.

My greenhouse comfrey has a few recently planted roots coming up every day. The edges of the greenhouse, where the tiller couldn't break the soil, are still by far the most spotty (in retrospect, I should have filled in those places with the most vigorous roots, if not outright transplants). I am amazed, though, that though the front section was almost razed just a few weeks ago, it has almost matched the back in size. The compost layer applied to the front made a big difference.

Really, I spent the day astounded at the difference. I had put some compost on a few of my orchard comfrey plants the week before we went on vacation. It's not a fun task, shoveling compost into buckets, picking through it to get out obvious weed growth, hauling and pouring. And I haven't been that impressed with compost-grown things thus far. There hasn't seemed that much of a difference.

Until today. I looked at my compost-fed plants.

I looked at the plants languishing for lack of compost.

I'll make it a priority to get compost on all those plants. It's nice to know it works!

I was walking around the greenhouse, a bit aimlessly, when I came across a stunning sight. A spider web, about two feet from top to bottom, with the center near my navel. But it wasn't between two obvious supports. In fact, as I examined it, I think the spider suspended it from the top of the greenhouse (really) and also attached it to a part of the greenhouse floor, maybe on a chunk of yet-to-be-used compost. Amazing.

Abraham and I admired it, and then he posed for me, to give some scale to the growth in the greenhouse. From left to right: stinging nettle in the black pots; bushy elderberry off his right shoulder, several mulberries started from seed off his left shoulder, and a little hint of the runaway okra. It's leggy, but at least it is producing a little now.

The four lead cows have been grazing in view the last day. Periodically today they would leave their pen and head down to the lower pasture, where they'd visit with the rest of the herd before coming back up to graze. I suppose they were escaped animals, but it makes me chuckle, to think about those rascally cows breaking out to go socialize, then returning because the food is better up here.

And did your Dad every flip you or fly you? My Dad used to do flips with us. We'd start on his feet and end up over his head. Phil flies the boys. Well, as they keep gaining weight, he mostly just flies Joe at this point. I expect all children love it. In the photo, he's suspended above our heads, bright red from laughing so hard.

***
Phil has been working hard indoors the last few days, finishing up some work-for-pay projects. He finished around lunchtime. After lunch, he headed out to clear the excavation site. It took the rest of the afternoon.

We were a bit disappointed: though the forks arrived last week, the attachment for the tractor turned out to be manufactured on demand, and will not reach us for several more weeks. So rather than easily taking the concrete mixer off the truck, he had to rig the tractor bucket to become a careful lifter. It worked, but it was a challenge. Instead of easily picking up a pallet of T-posts, he had to lift them into the truck, then unload them in the blue building. Cattle panels, random debris, fencing, he had a less than ideal task. But as dusk fell, he finished. Isaiah drove the tractor into the barn, and we headed down the drive.

Phil called the excavator to find out when he was planning to come. He left a message. Not half a minute later, Abraham, jumping on the trampoline, said, "Wow! Look at that huge excavator!"

The time is now. Bring it on.