Visiting

Early in the week, Phil decided to be done milking. The two cows were grazing ever farther afield, growing ever more unwilling to reach the grazing shed, and giving ever less milk. At a half gallon for two cows, it was time to be done.

Tuesday saw Phil unchanged in sickness, completely debilitated. My Dad had appointments all day, so Mom and I went up to the Build-a-Bear store to get Abraham's birthday present: a new bear and outfit. Joe came, too, for the experience. And Caleb came.

Caleb is a funny baby. He would see Joe's dog and grab it with both arms and hold on. So I decided to get him one, too. We would hold up two bears and he would reach for one. It was interesting to watch: he showed definite preferences. And when he finally got his stuffed lamb, oh the tears if the lamb dropped to the ground.

While at the mall, I went shopping a bit, too. I got one blouse, one pair of jeans, and one pair of shorts. Feeling good!

And I picked up two pairs of shorts and a pair of jeans for all boys. They get through those more rapidly than I would like, but they're boys. It's okay.

Four stores done, we headed to Whole Foods for chips for lunch, then to World Market for a basket to hold trash, and to a craft store for an inner pillow. (My parents had brought me a lovely blue silk accent pillow case from Thailand, but I had never bought the pillow for it.) My loveseat looks so fancy now!

And we returned home, having spent three hours in seven stores, and purchased something in every place. The post office, on the way, also had some packages, so it felt like we returned laden.

Wednesday and Thursday my Mom and I cleaned out the white barn. I shudder to think how long this project would have taken me on my own. It maybe would have been the impossible dream. Not only was it hours both days, but I could hand things up and she would put them in the pile to be burned, or carry them to the house, or otherwise deal with them, and I would keep making decisions. If I had to do the deciding, and the running, and then deal with the ramifications of all the cleaning, I don't think I could have. (I had jars of fermented vegetables from 2011. Some were okay, and some were not, but, really? Three year old vegetables? The lids were almost impossible to remove!)

Occasionally we would talk through something. I moved a container of carob from Colorado. I don't like carob. It was time to get rid of it, but I needed permission or something. ("Everyone has clothes in their closet that they shouldn't have bought.") The tortilla press I bought with birthday money but used once: give it away!

Phil worked in the office, and also spent time mowing in the orchard. Now that it is all mowed down, it looks lovely.

He also spent almost all of Thursday afternoon and evening moving cows to the lower pasture. He put up T-posts and ran permanent wire, in hopes that that move will not take so long in the future.

He was so incredibly sore the next day! It's been a long time since he's had to do hours of physical labor. And pounding 45 T-posts is hard work.