kiddos

Eastern box turtle - found all on his own - I had stepped right over it - he has Joe's eyes in the woods = doesn't miss a thing

woods explorer in Wildwood

a little helmet free time outside while Levi & I paint signs for the garden

"Kale" - then a butterfly, dragonfly, & working on a beetle

building a garden

31August = 3 rows completed - making these by pulling up soil to create walks/rows - have done these by myself with a hoe - a great workout to shake pregnancy body

today - a bit of glare,sorry - 4 rows complete - winter greens going in - broccoli, cabbage, & spinach up several inch - peas beginning to climb - carrots up 6 or 8 inches - already picking & eating some earlier planted kale

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