An Indoor Day

Phil came in from chores this morning with horrendous hiccups, deep painful gulps every couple of seconds. I wondered if there was a homeopathic treatment for hiccups, which is, after all, a muscle spasm, so I dosed him with a remedy for "severe and painful, frequent hiccups." It did nothing. I dosed him with the only other remedy I could think of, for use after eating something toxic.

This time, the reaction was almost immediate. Within about 15 seconds, he vomited violently. The hiccups stopped. Then he went to sleep, and woke intermittently through the day to take more homeopathic Nux Vomica and go back to sleep. All exactly as I would expect from some sort intake. (He had gone out with friends last night and eaten something not farm-prepared that we would have expected to be fine. Apparently, it had some form of MSG.)

The need for recuperative sleep was not bad, though, as outdoor work was impossible today. It rained steadily until about 4pm. We had only half the actual moisture predicted, but the ground is soppy and my transplanted tomatoes are happy.

Jadon and I worked on the Global Puzzle, a challenging puzzle of the world in which the different nations have their own pieces. So South Africa has a South African shaped piece, and Ecuador has an Ecuadorian shaped piece. I remember the first time I did this puzzle, in high school, my Mom said, "I never realized how little of the land mass is below the equator!" It is surprising when you really look at it.

When the rain finally ceased and the sun broke through, I went to check on the bees. Incredibly, they were flying in with their leg pouches full of pollen. How was the pollen not all washed away? How were they ready to do pollen collecting in a world of wet, these little creatures that love the sun and warmth? I was impressed.

And that's the view from the country at the end of this week.