One of THOSE days...

So last night I had a great time with some Russian youth that attend a church down the street. They invited me over to play volleyball and sit around the campfire. I brought Cylas by myself because David had an emergency call to fix a leaky pipe in one of his dad's rentals. So, while we waited for David to arrive Cylas and I enjoyed the volleyball games and played with the other little children there. As the night wore on, David still hadn't arrived and wasn't answering my phone calls. Come to find out, he was wrist deep in sewage and it wasn't looking too good. It was dusk by the time they started the fire and we were all a little cold. Spring here is completely different than Sacramento. It's an art form. You have a couple of nice sunny days in the 70's and the rest are in the low 60's with rain showers and lightening storms. You find yourself waiting for the sun a lot and when it comes you appreciate the results of all the rain. It's a slow process. The nature here is cultivated into spring -- not flung into spring like back home. At any rate, we sat around the fire, warmed up and sang hymns. Cylas started to get a little antsy and even a bit cranky, so, I went to change his diaper and decided it was about time we headed home. It was 9:30 when we pulled in and David still wasn't home. He had been gone since 4 in the afternoon. David came home around 10 and Cylas and I were sacked out. (I had Cy sleep with me because I didn't want to be by myself). However, around 3 in the morning Cy woke up crying. And that was the beginning of a very long night and day for me. At 5:30 he still hadn't gone to sleep and was crying intermittently. He finally drifted off around 6 and managed to sleep until 8. But, as soon as he woke up he was crying again. He isn't normally a fussy baby so, my mommy instinct kicked in and I began to pay closer attention to him. Sure enough, I noticed him bat at his ear. Within seconds, I knew what the problem was -- an ear infection. So, amid all of his screaming I found a home remedy online. Onion juice. He screamed harder...I found some Tylenol and in ten minutes he was jumping on the bed like a little monkey. Then, he begged for some Pringles and scattered them on the kitchen floor and then insisted on eating up the crumbly mess he'd just made. On top of all this, I'm feeling a bit under the weather myself...whew! Now, he is snoring in the other room and I'm waiting for his Dr. appointment at 2:15......
Did I mention I was tired???

Garden Glory

So from my last post until now, we have plants!! I went to the market on Wednesday and grabbed up broccoli, marigolds, Roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and Romaine lettuce. I searched for squash but, evidently it isn't in season for a couple of weeks. I happily dug my holes and planted each with care and hopefully we will be rewarded in the next few weeks with luscious fruits and veggies. Over the past week David has been faithfully digging out all of the errant plants, aka weeds, giving our worn out garden a makeover! It's tough work!
Today as we were planting and pulling, the neighboring farmers were fertilizing their field with liquefied cow poop. OMgoooodness, talk about a smell that upsets the stomach. I mean, I don't mind a whiff but a truck load spewing it out by the gallons!? That is a whole different ball of...well, you know. But as we settled all of the plants in, I couldn't help but feel satisfied and a little proud that we finally finished our little garden. Actually, it's just the beginning...
However, along with planting this pretty little garden we have some pests. First off, there are the wasps. They flock to this house like it's a homing device! And secondly, we have huge bumblebees. Well, after an experience with a few wasps I begged David to do something about the little hazardous beasts. He did. He got on the internet and found some paper bags. I kid you not. We now have blown up lunch baggies posted around our house in strategic places to ward off the wasps! They say it works. Supposedly, the bags resemble hornets nests, an arch enemy of the wasp. We'll see...

After we were finished in the garden, the neighbor kids, who had been buzzing in and around us the whole time, asked David to play his Djembe. And always ready for a good drum circle David obliged and let each of the kids have a go at it. They were tickled. But, as you watch this video pay close attention to Cylas; he was chucking rocks at the girls and finally attacked one of them!
The photo shows the same girl running away from a barrage of rocks hurled from the small hands of Cy...heh.

Gardening Bonanza!!

One of my hidden passions is plants and gardening. What little I know I learned from my grandmother and mother. As a young girl, we started a garden that held so many yummy things! We learned how to compost and cultivate our vegetables. We weren't great but, we did learn priceless rudimentary knowledge of how a garden is started and cared for. So, yesterday after a couple of weeks of planning and researching David and I broke ground! We're starting small with plans to expand as we learn more. Fortunately, we're working with ground that has been mulched, manured, composted and planted already! So, when we turned over the first shovel full of dirt the earth was a beautiful dark brown with that unmistakable smell of fertility. There were lots of worms and we threw on some old composted manure after we tossed the ground. Our garden, for the time being, has only three rows in which will be planted: chives, garlic, carrots, tomatoes, onions and squash! Each of these vegetables are staples in our house so, we know that these veggies won't be wasted. As we raked, hoed and built up the rows, Cylas joined in with the exuberance only a two year old has. He wielded his little shovel like a battle ax and used the hoe to break down the rows we were building up! By the end of it all, he was covered in dirt and smelled a little manure-y. He and David also dug into some of the plants that were left over from the last garden. They were feeding each other pieces of "schavel" I don't know what it is called in English. But, it's a sour little plant that David just loves and got Cylas to appreciate as well!
In order to keep myself busy, I came up with a list of skills that I wanted to acquire after our move here. Gardening was one of those skills that I wanted to perfect. Amongst the others: learning French, sewing, canning, archery and perfecting my Russian -- gardening is really a passion of mine that I would like to practice in memory of my grandmother whose life was cut short due to a lung disease. Over the past couple of years, I began to realize how much my grandmother taught me before she died! And I think to myself, "what if she had stayed alive longer, how much more would I know?". So, join me on my gardening adventures here in PA!!