Back Carry

We're trying out the mai tia back carry & I love it.

You are what you read

For a small town, Cairo has a kick-ass (apparently well funded) library.  We are frequent visitors.  Some of our current reading...

Seed to Seed:  seed saving and growing techniques for vegetable gardeners




Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden:  a Hidatsa Indian born about 1839, she was an expert gardener - this book is crazy detailed - very cool



Last Child in the Woods:  saving our children from nature-deficit disorder.  No problems here.

The Winter Harvest Handbook:  year round vegetable production using deep-organic techniques and unheated greenhouse.  My favorite out of this lot.  I must purchase this book.  Have not put it down since getting it.

Planning a kitchen garden.  Levi picked this one out for me.  He usually finds a book for me while we're in the adult section.

Preserve It!  I will be making orange marmalade from homegrown oranges this year!

Flirt Skirts:  learn how to sew, customize, and style your very own skirts.  I'm drafting a 'flare' skirt.  Results to come...

Progress Made

The barn at our new place has 40+ years of accumilations.  We are slowly putting hands on every item & deciding to keep or toss.  Mostly tossing.  But there have been a few cool finds.  Here's some progress being made on the greenhouse attached to the barn.  The next step in here are new shelves & in-ground planting beds.

Mid-way thru the greenhouse clean out

Nearly empty - Levi decides the windows are dirty & scrubs them all himself - pretty awesome thanks Levi

Discovering Gary Snyder

After Work

The shack and a few trees
float in the blowing fog

I pull out your blouse,
warm my cold hands
on your breasts.
you laugh and shudder
peeling garlic by the
hot iron stove.
bring in the axe, the rake,
the wood

we'll lean on the wall
against each other
stew simmering on the fire
as it grows dark
drinking wine.

Connected

The day after we found out

A few hours after her surgery


The day after her surgery - her face was badly swollen, but we could already see the change in her head shape

reading to Indigo, Levi listens in

my resident artist, he is a prolific drawer/painter, maybe a future scientific illustrator - here he is making a sketch of the dead cicadas he found

Waiting in pre-op the hour before her surgery - she could not eat past 4am & so the nurses gave us a pacifier that we could dip in sugar water to keep her calm - I remember being scared but ready to face it so it could be over

Both sets of grandparents in the surgical waiting room at Shands

this is the first time I saw her afterwards - she was screaming, hungry & attached to 3 IVs - she wanted to eat & I was terrified to handle her with all the tubing & monitors attached - over the course of her hospital stay she had 9 IVs placed - most of which blew out when the fluid was started, that was torture for me - I'm so thankful we are at home now & she's well

Mid August from Cairo

These are all pictures off my cell phone - a few are a little dark. Indigo's surgery is next Tuesday. I'm trying to get the last of the boxes/rooms done before we go, so when we come home it will be calm & clean.

back of house - nice big deck & bird feeding station

front - the house faces a dirt road - the original structure was built in 1890 - the 'add-ons' are to the left & right


on our way to Tallahassee for the Wednesday farmer's market at Lake Ella

Levi's first day of school - he started pre-K on August 5th

Loving on his sister

"I can hold her"

"talking"

first visit with Grandma - I went there the weekend before last

One of the three garden spots we've harrowed up - I can't begin to get these all planted right now - maybe this will be our sunflower field next year....

From Cairo

No internet at the new place yet. I'm at Burger King in Cairo - now almost midnight - for an internet fix. The house is taking on shape & I'm down to only maybe 20 boxes left. Papa & Joe are going to harrow a garden spot up on Saturday - think the first seeds to go in the ground will be the old heirloom Wildwood pumpkins. Wondering how to add nutrients & stick to organic. Fish emulsion & I needa find a horse farm quick.

Indigo's surgery will be on August 23rd. We got the best possible news when we went to Shands. She will have the less invasive surgery & be fitted for a helmet within the month. She'll have to wear it for the next year.

We've survived the move & will be going to Shands hospital tomorrow.