Cleaning Up

We were heading off to a friend's house on Sunday when Abraham spontaneously stated, "I love our family. It's good to know there's at least one good family."

Our friends are teaching a parenting class currently, and they had just suggested, that day, that parents might want to introduce the concept of a family culture. "That's the Lykosh family culture, apparently: the good family."

In another funny Abraham statement, he and Joe were wandering around with the machete yesterday, hacking down some dried weeds. Phil took the machete away when Abraham held it up and said, "Kneel" to Joe. That was a little too much verisimilitude. We don't need any knighted youths, and the ordinary boys we have, we'd like them to keep their heads.

The older two boys spent many hours yesterday carting cardboard boxes down to the burn pit. We had boxes all over, from moving and shipping and unpacking and gifts.

Phil worked on general site cleanup, like hose that's been unused for three or four years.

Today was more site cleanup. Well, until he drove the tractor over something that popped a tire. The new tire, sadly. The older front tire has had a slow leak, so he took both tires off so they could be repaired in Scottsville. Sadly, the tire fix-it shop had gone out of business, but he bought a plug kit and managed to get both tires fixed once he got home.

Then he did more: the mineral feeder down to the cows, who were fighting over it to get the nutrients they need.

Trash into the dumpster.

The dumpster gets picked up tomorrow. I am going through withdrawal, I'm afraid: what a great couple months it has been, being able to throw a bag of kitchen garbage away and know that the dogs and cat won't get into it! It is filled to the brim, so it is time to go. Phil even put in the mattress we used in the house trailer for more than four years. We are clearing out our life!

When evening fell, the four older boys were all outside playing frisbee. Phil and I walked around the orchard a little. He wanted to show me the general cleanup he had managed. The daffodils have really opened up the last two days, and we are hopeful that by the weekend, spring will really be here. Phil saw the first forsythias in bloom today; the redbuds and dogwoods won't be too much longer, I hope.

We have a Caleb Kilroy.

And we have a Caleb artist.

These last two days with weather around 70: so glorious!