These Two:

Are just my favorites.

The way she simultaneously caresses and smooshes him.

The way he gazes at her wherever she is in the room.

A brother and a sister together.

Building a Bed

First I lay down a nice overlapping layer of cardboard & newspaper.  This allows no light to the sod below it and therefore kills the grass & dandelions and we get to retain the incredibly rich topsoil composition.  I wet the cardboard with the hose as I go so they will breakdown easier this also helps prevent them from blowing away in the breeze.

I put a thin layer of soil down on top of the cardboard to help with decomposition.  There's cardboard under our gravel pathways to help keep down the weeds and red ants.

Here's Rafi building our new bed out of rough cut 2x12.  He's so good at right angles, making things level.  I'm not, so I'm especially grateful for his skills!

We add a nice layer of seaweed down in our garden, this will decompose and add lots of nutrients to the soil over time.

Wheelbarrows of soil are added, and then a nice top layer of composted manure.  Love all that tasty organic matter in our garden!

And there you have it, planted!  A few rows of scallions, a bunch on onion sets and just a few red potatoes for new potatoes.

That's garlic in the bed to our right, the two beds behind it are roma canning tomatoes, cukes under the row cover and a whole bed of kale, chard & lettuces to our left.

Chasing Chickens.

It's Sunday morning, and we 're so tired.  6am wake-up today.  We've just been falling over at night, there's so much to do on these hot weekend days.  Rafi remembers that he left the chicken door open last night.  That means we have not just a yard full of chickens, but potentially a neighborhood.  While I think this means they'll be out all day, Raf hops out of bed, dons his shorts and out he goes to assemble the flock.  Ce of course joins him.  It takes Gabe and I a few more minutes.  A neighbor raps upon the door to ask us if our hens are indeed out.

I watch Raf from the kitchen window for a few moments.  He needs another blocker it would seem.  I get Gabe settled into his bouncy seat, and then in only my nightgown and mudboots, out I go to corral our girls.

We block left, we block right, we catch a girl by her tail feathers.  One gets away.  Three Raf's already captured.  One we don't even try to chase.  Cecilia chanting, "I'm trying the best I can"  We herd another towards the door, open it, she hops in.  We try that again and it works.  Our seven girls captured. 

And there I am, laughing with my family, on a warm summer morning, chasing chickens, in my nightgown.

"orange julius"

In anticipation for colder weather we've been experimenting with a tasty, frothy treat.  Ce eats it with a spoon, I slurp it down.  The blender gets rinsed and put away for next time.  While not exactly entirely locally based it is delicious, and full of vitamin C and a total treat for us.  A mall exclusive easily brought to your kitchen:

 In your blender place:
   2 parts Orange Juice
   1 part Milk*
   2 parts Ice
   a splash of Vanilla

Blend until smooth and frothy.  Enjoy.

*Would a soy, almond or rice milk work? I don't know....

lower central incisors

Mr. Gabe is but 3+ months old, and he has broken a tooth.  Front, bottom, on his left, the little sharp ridges of a first tooth.  It feels tremendously too soon for my little drool factory to be achieving such milestones.  But here we are, baby's first tooth.

This is a reminder, the time goes so fast.  These moments fly past us.  They change rapidly.  The extreme dependence turns to fierce independence in the blink of an eye.  Sometimes you have to be so very quiet so you don't miss their moments.  So you're right there with them as they grab their hands, as they put on their shoes, as they call and cry for you.  These little ones, they're amazing.

So there you have it.  Baby's first tooth.

Around The Yard

 

I've been hard at work here in our little section of the world.  Digging and transferring, adding and removing, enjoying and thinking.  Weeding, and weeding, and weeding.  Learning and planning.  So very much planning and so very much action.  The action feels slow, but effective.

The rhubarb is bigger than I expected, the mint has gone positively native.  That herb garden space which felt so effective last year, feels needed for vegetables.  Somethings are perfect as they are, other things needed to be moved, removed, changed.  Many things need to be added and it's a slow process.

I'm enjoying the thought of canning my own tomatoes, though I'm scared they won't grow.  I'm excited about a freezer full of greens.  I'm encouraged that the hot peppers will be grown where the strawberries once were.  The strawberries are blooming and I'm questioning whether or not to pinch their blossoms after transplanting like the literature suggests.  I can't wait to eat salads from the garden.  Fresh dug carrots will soon be here.

Right now it is a game of preparation.  Everything is going in, getting weeded, being beautified.  And with the month of May being a social one, of birthdays, trips and visits, I'm looking forward to the month of June being quieter, spent in our yard, learning to ride a tricycle.  Passing the baby back and forth, back and forth as we pass our tasks back and forth, back and forth.

Creating Retreat.

Sharpening The Scythe

Yesterday it stopped raining.  My desire to do something took hold of me.  I started by planting the kale; I followed it with the chard.  I hemmed, I hawed, I picked some weeds out of a new garden bed.  I poked around.  Then finally the amazing power of Anne kicked in and I pulled my scythe out of the garage.  My new whet stone was unwrapped and I worked out the dings in my blade left from last season's occasional pebble.  I sharpened and got to work.

Whish, whoosh, whish through the wet grass.  Slash, whisk, cut went the dandelion heads.  And round and round the yard I went as the baby slept.  That gentle quiet rhythm.  Listening to the birds chirping.  Making Hay.  Enjoying the job at hand.  Feeling my muscles.

I fight the battle every year in my mind, the desire of a well groomed lawn compared to the efficiency of my man powered tool.  I imagine my waist becoming more slender with each twist; the lengthening and strengthening of my shoulders and arms as I swing.  My lawn remains uneven.  It invites insects and flowers and diverse plants into it.  I find that  I love admiring my landscape as I cut through the turf.  I love how quiet it is.  It makes an irregular lawn that scythe of mine, but that's me, an irregular person.  And while we're "city living" in our little downtown Eastport location, it's really just the littlest homestead that we sit upon.

Each year we do the little bits that we can to improve out home, our yard, our landscape.  With two little ones and constant repairs and surprises snatching away our funding it is a struggle to put any aside for our yard.  So it is with little windows of time, energy and money that we make the yard, the retreat that we desire.  I see the grand picture coming together.  I watch as our man power is utilized, one nap at a time, just working and working until we are satisfied with a job well done.