I took a lovely hike this week to Hensley's Pond with one of the mamas I'll be supporting through birth in the next week. She helped me notice for the first time the blooming lily pads with their intricate little pink flowers.
Do you have tastes that transport you to a different time and place in your life? Orange soda is that for me. One sip and I'm in the hallway of the Holiday Inn in Jackson, MS getting an orange soda out of the vending machine before going back out and jumping in the hotel pool (where our family was allowed to swim anytime for free because my dad was a medical doctor - somehow I have a feeling that perk no longer exists and I am not even sure why they offered this but I benefitted from it a lot on many a hot summer MS day!).
On the food theme, do you think we'll run out of popcorn? Now that popcorn seed testing is done, we can just make popcorn in large batches to eat. There's normally popcorn to accompany Prehistoric Planet episodes!
And any remains from our popcorn batches can go to the many chickens who would be happy to help us with our "duds!" But not these cuties - they are too little for popcorn just yet! This is our first year using the free range duck coop as a broody hen/chick raising pen. It works so well EXCEPT the mama hens LOVE scratching in the duffy floor and they flip the food and water over and/or fill both with litter multiple times a day.
The girls have started their popcorn seed and it's coming up well in the flats. We have given up on direct seeding so we can live semi-at-peace with the chipmunks. Last year we seeded them hours before Kali left for the Philippines. This year there was no other major life happening on the same day!
We kept Luca an extra day this week and it seemed like a good day to finally agree to give Alida a turn trying to help Luca get a nap. She really, really wanted to. She felt pretty sad when it didn't work and wondered why he didn't want to go to sleep. While wanting to extend compassion for her real and valid feelings, I could not help but think that a) she did not remember herself at this age and b) she was one of the little people that gave me my vast experience at helping little people get much needed naps when the world is such an interesting place!
We had kinda a big week on the medical front for our family. Two notable things of a handful of happenings. Jason landed himself a cornea ulcer and iritis. It's a long story that thankfully ends well - his eye no longer hurts and his eyesight has returned to normal. He is still putting in antibiotic and steroid drops in his eyes, but hopefully this Thursday will be his last follow up eye appt! It was not a pleasant experience, and definitely reminded us of how little wiggle room we have built into our daily rhythms and how difficult it is when one of us is all of a sudden out of commission.
Then Terah had FOUR baby teeth pulled. Her mouth doesn't have enough room for the adult teeth wanting to come in to emerge. I'm not sure who was the most nervous, but I'm pretty sure I was thinking more about it in the days leading up to it. As is often the case, I expended a lot of energy worrying and it went so much more smoothly than even I had hoped or imagined. Terah wanted both me and Jason to come along since I'm her mommy and squishier and she thought her daddy would help me stay calm. It was a good idea! I did in fact need the moral support and even needed to swap places at one point with him so I could get my bearings (yes I did feel the world starting to close in on me and my hearing departing at one point). Terah was laying there doing amazing and the dental assistant was advising me to turn the fan on and handing me a cold cloth. I am happy to report that I stayed upright. And I think that Terah even found various parts of the experience interesting. She had never been numbed before so she kept blubbering, "it feels so weird." It was also good to have Jason along for the ride home when she could not feel that she was drooling all over the place! He was on mop up duty, once we had swung into a Walgreens for tissues!
We are getting near the end of the spring planting/seeding. Yesterday Jason wrapped up the final potato hilling and Kali, Terah, Jason and I planted the black eyed peas and brown peas in the patch last evening.
We also reseeded a bunch of okra and had to replant some sweet potato starts. We might have answered the question for ourselves this year: can we mulch too deeply? We might just have succeeded. Or else there are other issues that are making the root patch rotation with garlic, paprika peppers, sweet potatoes and okra get off to a rough start.
Recently when Jason and I were talking about the gardens, he gently said that if I ever see things going well in the gardens, it would be great if I'd also like to mention those. It was a very, very good reminder for me! He probably would not say I'm improving dramatically, but I am putting some effort into not just noticing the things that are "failing." So here goes: these sugar snap peas are amazing!!! It's a good day when sugar snaps and blueberries are ready at the same time - two of my favorite foods!
Luca is also a big fan of fresh blueberries!
Jason and I got the red flour corn seeded together the other day. My competitive nature was getting activated with us working side by side on parallel rows. If I had lost, I could have blamed it on Jason having a teammate on his team since Marigold REALLY wanted to "help" him!
Just as we finish up planting/seeding, some of the harvesting picks up. Tomorrow, Kali and Jason will be harvesting all the barley. We definitely don't have to worry about it being too wet. The scant 2/10's of an inch of rain didn't even full wet all the chicken dust baths around the place.
Jason worked hard last night at dusk digging a deep hole in the very dry soil for my birthday present (gifted a few years back and finally acquired). I guess this is the post of Mississippi memories. One of my favorite scents in the whole world is Magnolia flowers, which I got to experience from in the tree as a child. We had a lovely big Magnolia tree in our backyard that I loved to climb. I don't know if I'll still be in good enough condition to climb this one when it's big, but I certainly hope we can support its growth and that many others can enjoy being up in its branches!
And a final garden/plant update: a few years have passed and we are about to share another Tangly Woods pineapple!
Alida and Terah are sad that the soccer season is over! They are both already signed up for the fall season! Ivy spent last weekend with us and so she got to attend both Alida and Terah's last soccer games.
Then Terah had FOUR baby teeth pulled. Her mouth doesn't have enough room for the adult teeth wanting to come in to emerge. I'm not sure who was the most nervous, but I'm pretty sure I was thinking more about it in the days leading up to it. As is often the case, I expended a lot of energy worrying and it went so much more smoothly than even I had hoped or imagined. Terah wanted both me and Jason to come along since I'm her mommy and squishier and she thought her daddy would help me stay calm. It was a good idea! I did in fact need the moral support and even needed to swap places at one point with him so I could get my bearings (yes I did feel the world starting to close in on me and my hearing departing at one point). Terah was laying there doing amazing and the dental assistant was advising me to turn the fan on and handing me a cold cloth. I am happy to report that I stayed upright. And I think that Terah even found various parts of the experience interesting. She had never been numbed before so she kept blubbering, "it feels so weird." It was also good to have Jason along for the ride home when she could not feel that she was drooling all over the place! He was on mop up duty, once we had swung into a Walgreens for tissues!
Sometimes our eldest gets side tracked when she is mending her pants.
At other times she never makes her way to her bed and falls asleep on the futon at some early morning hour and this is where I find her in the morning.
While my kiddos slept, I slipped out on Saturday morning to redeem a birthday coupon for a bird walk with my dad. We walked around Lake Shenandoah and saw/heard 26 species of birds. I really wanted to see a Great Blue Heron but had to settle for the cute little Green Herons. It was a beautiful morning!!
Terah and Alida have been busy sewing comforter tops (for MCC). Alida just finished her 4th top today and Terah wrapped up her 2nd top the other day.
And last but not least, there's a Dutch Blitz game happening in the background as I finish up this blog post. That hasn't happened in a long time! That's because "our dash" is back!!!!! So happy to welcome Tala home to Tangly Woods.
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