We Pass the Halfway Mark

When Abraham woke me before dawn and asked for a drink, my first waking thought was that my body ached all over.

And when Phil came up to plant daffodils, his hands were rubbed raw and he could hardly bear to touch the planter. After a time, he put the Dr. Scholl's moleskin on his blisters and was able to carry on.

The round circles on the swales show the spots where bulbs lie.

This scene of brown will hopefully spring forth in a few months.

Joe was the surprising helper of the day. Phil gets in a rhythm planting along swales, where he can dig holes almost as fast as a helper can drop bulbs in. Joe had come up to the swales with some construction trucks, but as the middle boys flaked out after helping a while, he stepped up voluntarily, and refused to quit, cheerily dropping bulbs even after being sorely tempted by interesting play happening all around him. What a guy.

But when the planting was done, he and Isaiah put the trucks to good use. Isaiah rode one down the driveway, and Joe ran in front.

With sore bodies and sore hands, even with our best effort we only got about 500 bulbs in the ground, but that passed us just over the halfway point. It's all downhill from here.

Phil also had to move the sheep from their grazing area near the road into the dry lot. Until we free up space in the freezers and find a little available time to process the three larger animals, they'll eat purchased hay, which is a bummer, but will also contribute their manure and hopefully break pathogen cycles for the cows. With these benefits, I can be patient.

The last two nights have been almost in the twenties. Yesterday, after the sun had dropped below our ridge so we were in shadow, a flock of 14 geese flew directly overhead, so low that Phil figured we could have almost shot them out of the sky. We heard the wind through their feathers, and saw the underside of their wings lit with the setting sun. Magnificent.

Since Phil and I have asked the boys to help a bit more, they are taking their free time more seriously. This morning I came in to find that Jadon had made little passes for his brothers, then created a hiding place on Joe's bunk where I overheard some serious storytelling going on.

I love that.