Bumma
“Bumma”
Hi there y’all. Hope all is well back in the States, it has been lovely to here from so many of you. It’s strange to think that your weather is almost as warm as our evenings, well… at a stretch. The Superbowl is happening tomorrow in our old hometown in Detroit and we’re missing it, bummer. I’ve been hearing reports from different people that A: Detroit looks cleaner than ever on the outside and that B: it is a huge cover up of the city’s reality and that the economy for the true Detroiters is still in the dumps and that the schools still suffer just as much as they have in the past. As if huge corporations making over a city would really help any poor people, and that’s what Detroit is. Again, bummer.
Speaking of bummer, this is what we have named the new little baby bush turkey that comes to feed on the seed we scatter for the birds. Bummer, what a sad name for a cute little turkey! But seriously, it stinks to be born a baby turkey. Keith was telling us that after all that lead up, the male turkey scratching in the nest, or our compost, trying to make it the perfect temperature, one day a baby turkey will crawl out of its egg. It looks around to see what the heck is going on, and it’s life! There is no momma, no poppa, no one to greet the sweet little bird. It just instinctively begins the search for food water and shelter with no guidance, and eventually joins other turkeys that it runs across. Rough aye? That’s why we call it “Bummer” or Aussie pronounced, “Bumma.” Bummer is also a word Keith is trying to use more often to prevent himself from cussing and saying, “Bugger.” It’s hilarious because it’s a “bad word” that I don’t understand or find offensive. Bummer is also the way Jacinta pronounces the word “grandma.”
Thinking back on the week, I think of good hard work and that today, a lovely Saturday, has been relaxing as I’ve not done much or been very productive. Matt has put up ¾ of the shed’s roof and created a great place to sit and rest. He mowed a couple of overgrown lawns, but not ours. We joke that thanks to the broken mower we will some day soon have to get out the machete. A weed wacker as your only tool to cut grass on 5 acres is a bit of a laugh, though it works well around our new trees (thanks to Matt)! Jess and I “mowed” inside the teepee ( about 4 feet in diameter) with our hands while making mower noises. I somehow got 10 wheelbarrow loads full of compost and 4 full of mulch down the hill to the tubs, filled them in without dropping it all on my toes and eventually planted most of my new herbs. Jess helped with the planting. One of the herbs I was most excited about was anise hyssop which has already died. This is an herb I had been missing in my tea which I had in my Ferndale garden, so I am in mourning. Everything else is flourishing: chocolate mint, apple mint, peppermint, lemon balm, galangal, strawberries, pennyroyal, lemongrass, hot chilies, yarrow, even sugarcane, Peruvian ground apple, something called ice cream bean, and a few others. My friend Michelle and I took turns working on the terracing while the other entertained the kids. We successfully built a small fence enclosing our garden from the cows, loosened the soil in the first terrace, collected cow poo and threw it on, then poured on compost and a few loads of mulch to protect it all from the sun, and began flattening out the second terrace. This effort took 2 days with children, including a lot of water play with the hose and buckets, swimming in the spa, wagon entertainment with Keith and taking numerous cookie, plum and coffee breaks.
This story will remind you or give you an idea of the joys and trials of doing hard labor with little ones. On Friday, after starting off the day with the easy tasks, we decided that we’d try a harder one. We walk down the hill, skirting the edges of the muddy dam, coaching Jacinta and Rory not to go in, even though the dog is swimming in the water. Having arrived at the base of the gully where a huge dead tree lies, we pause to ascertain the load…can we do this with two little kids? We avoid the task and go for a look at the newly spotted native ginger plant with gorgeous peach flowers. We pick a few other flowers and Michelle instructs Jess and Rory that they each need to carry up their own small log and hold hands while we carry the big tree up the hill to the garden. We don’t really think it’s going to work, but pick up the tree and begin the journey upwards. Lo and behold, Jess and Rory successfully follow us halfway up the hill, looking uncertain yet content, holding hands, looking like mountain climbers with each step. We eventually got the tree in place as the second retaining wall, and the kids got up the hill with our help.
Water was another theme to this week. We had no rain so the garden needed a watering. The injured pipe was fixed last week, just in time for me to bust the much pricier water pump by turning on the hose connected to this unplugged water pump. This was Thursday night. Matt and I each tried everything we knew to repair the problem, but in turning on and off different faucets and opening and closing different valves, we could do nothing. Luckily this pump is not the house water source, it is just for me to water plants using dam water. That same evening I noticed the house pump continually running but did not know why. Typically we would just ask Keith and he’d be able to help us solve the problem, but he and Mary were out of town for a while. Luckily Keith came home on Friday and began searching for answers with us. After a lot of confusion and searching on the house pump, (more important because we could have run down the tank and had no water to drink or anything), Keith found a hose which had been left running near the spa. Oooops! That was me. Jacinta had luckily been wearing a swimming diaper in the spa but when I saw a piece of tomato floating I knew she had pooped. I promptly removed her from the water, relieved that the spa was still clean and washed her poopy legs off and yeah, well, perhaps you can see how I could have forgotten about the hose.
So the dam pump, next on the list. Keith, Matt, Jess and I spent about 3 hours down at the pump taking it apart, putting it back together, turning on and off taps and trying to figure out the mystery. You can guess who did the work in this situation. I enjoyed watching them work, learning a little bit about motors, shafts, and ball bearings, not doing anything physical, sitting in the shade of a big tree enjoying the wind and the few drops of rain, and guiding Jacinta in her exploration of the tool box. Jacinta had a blast being so close to all of us, her free access to the tools and attempting to “assist” by inserting screwdrivers and wrenches of all shapes and sizes in the different holes of the pump. It was a lovely day. This is also a good description of how generous and forgiving Keith is with his time. He and Mary are leaving for a 3 week trip, including a 10 day camping trip, which takes a lot of packing and organization. He spent his day today fixing things that I screwed up, with a cup of tea here and there, a little bit of packing in between, no complaints and a lot of laughs. Yesterday immediately upon return he came and helped Michelle and I on the garden and then took the kids on a long wagon ride helping us collect cow poo, barefoot I might mention. Dragging a wagon up hill is not an easy task, I avoid it at all costs. So did the pump ever get fixed? Well, when I want to water, I’ll need a helper to turn a screw on the pump while I turn on the faucet which is at least 70 feet away. That’s how fixed it is. It’s amazing that I feel no guilt for my errors this week. There must be a lot of love in the air.
What are the words that a little farm girl learns that would shock you city folk? Cow poo, Chook poo, mulch, and tool …I guess that’s all. Lots of babies are fascinated by the “hose,” “sticks,” “bugs,” and “rocks.” One really cool new word Jacinta says is, “FLY!” I put this word in capitals because she can not say this word, she must yell it loudly while flapping her wings and running. She sees lots of flying things and attempts to pronounce them all, “butterflies, flies, birdies, airplanes, and mosquitoes.” We sometimes see caterpillars munching plants and trees and like to read, The Hungry Caterpillar, especially because the caterpillar likes to eat as much fruit as Jess does. She calls them, “cahpillars.” She pointed at herself tonight saying, “Dress....pretty.” She loves to dance (spin around), and has even learned to say “dance!” I’m so proud. She’ll tell you when things are yucky or yummy, and luckily she never says yucky to food, she just ignores it. She only gives good food to the dog and to the chickens, she’ll learn. She’s been wearing a lot of band-aids lately and loves the whole process, washing, “cream,” and the “banny.” Matt, on the other hand, has so many cuts on his hands that he no longer bothers with bandages. Tonight en route to the chook pen Jacinta shocked me by holding up her ten fingers and saying, “ten.” Perhaps she doesn’t understand the meaning of 10, but every night when we lock up the chooks, Matt or I will count to see if all 10 chickens are in the pen. She also took her first trip down the veranda steps by herself after dinner, on her bum of course. She then wandered solo, while we all watched closely, quietly and peacefully down to the bird baths where the turkeys were feeding and accidentally scared them away. She just looked around, circled the trees, exploring the hidden places. It was a beautiful sight.
Matt and I went out last night, first time together since we’ve arrived. We went to the local infamous Chinese restaurant with some of his fellow bankers. They were all really funny, nothing like working with a lot of women and hearing them talk about men! There was one other man and he seemed to have learned to enjoy it. I had never heard Matt talk about bank stuff, it was hilarious. Jess had a great night with Mary and Keith, but kept them up past their bedtimes! I don’t think I left the house once this week, until the Chinese restaurant. The funny thing is that I didn’t feel shut in, or a need to go out. Having Matt home most of the time helped, a few phone conversations with friends and family from the US and then the few visits from friends, but there is so much to do on the land that it’s never dull. Matt likes his daily outings, either to get a tool, a bag of screws, a newspaper, veggies for dinner, mail from the post box, or sometimes to the bank to work. We are both finding our groove here, it’s a good thing since we’re really digging our heels in. We’re just hoping for rain, healthy water pipes and pumps, a healthy healing Bear (my sister’s dog who is very ill), less cuts and scrapes on our “fragile” city family gone country, and lots of visits from you all.
Love you guys (:
Hi there y’all. Hope all is well back in the States, it has been lovely to here from so many of you. It’s strange to think that your weather is almost as warm as our evenings, well… at a stretch. The Superbowl is happening tomorrow in our old hometown in Detroit and we’re missing it, bummer. I’ve been hearing reports from different people that A: Detroit looks cleaner than ever on the outside and that B: it is a huge cover up of the city’s reality and that the economy for the true Detroiters is still in the dumps and that the schools still suffer just as much as they have in the past. As if huge corporations making over a city would really help any poor people, and that’s what Detroit is. Again, bummer.
Speaking of bummer, this is what we have named the new little baby bush turkey that comes to feed on the seed we scatter for the birds. Bummer, what a sad name for a cute little turkey! But seriously, it stinks to be born a baby turkey. Keith was telling us that after all that lead up, the male turkey scratching in the nest, or our compost, trying to make it the perfect temperature, one day a baby turkey will crawl out of its egg. It looks around to see what the heck is going on, and it’s life! There is no momma, no poppa, no one to greet the sweet little bird. It just instinctively begins the search for food water and shelter with no guidance, and eventually joins other turkeys that it runs across. Rough aye? That’s why we call it “Bummer” or Aussie pronounced, “Bumma.” Bummer is also a word Keith is trying to use more often to prevent himself from cussing and saying, “Bugger.” It’s hilarious because it’s a “bad word” that I don’t understand or find offensive. Bummer is also the way Jacinta pronounces the word “grandma.”
Thinking back on the week, I think of good hard work and that today, a lovely Saturday, has been relaxing as I’ve not done much or been very productive. Matt has put up ¾ of the shed’s roof and created a great place to sit and rest. He mowed a couple of overgrown lawns, but not ours. We joke that thanks to the broken mower we will some day soon have to get out the machete. A weed wacker as your only tool to cut grass on 5 acres is a bit of a laugh, though it works well around our new trees (thanks to Matt)! Jess and I “mowed” inside the teepee ( about 4 feet in diameter) with our hands while making mower noises. I somehow got 10 wheelbarrow loads full of compost and 4 full of mulch down the hill to the tubs, filled them in without dropping it all on my toes and eventually planted most of my new herbs. Jess helped with the planting. One of the herbs I was most excited about was anise hyssop which has already died. This is an herb I had been missing in my tea which I had in my Ferndale garden, so I am in mourning. Everything else is flourishing: chocolate mint, apple mint, peppermint, lemon balm, galangal, strawberries, pennyroyal, lemongrass, hot chilies, yarrow, even sugarcane, Peruvian ground apple, something called ice cream bean, and a few others. My friend Michelle and I took turns working on the terracing while the other entertained the kids. We successfully built a small fence enclosing our garden from the cows, loosened the soil in the first terrace, collected cow poo and threw it on, then poured on compost and a few loads of mulch to protect it all from the sun, and began flattening out the second terrace. This effort took 2 days with children, including a lot of water play with the hose and buckets, swimming in the spa, wagon entertainment with Keith and taking numerous cookie, plum and coffee breaks.
This story will remind you or give you an idea of the joys and trials of doing hard labor with little ones. On Friday, after starting off the day with the easy tasks, we decided that we’d try a harder one. We walk down the hill, skirting the edges of the muddy dam, coaching Jacinta and Rory not to go in, even though the dog is swimming in the water. Having arrived at the base of the gully where a huge dead tree lies, we pause to ascertain the load…can we do this with two little kids? We avoid the task and go for a look at the newly spotted native ginger plant with gorgeous peach flowers. We pick a few other flowers and Michelle instructs Jess and Rory that they each need to carry up their own small log and hold hands while we carry the big tree up the hill to the garden. We don’t really think it’s going to work, but pick up the tree and begin the journey upwards. Lo and behold, Jess and Rory successfully follow us halfway up the hill, looking uncertain yet content, holding hands, looking like mountain climbers with each step. We eventually got the tree in place as the second retaining wall, and the kids got up the hill with our help.
Water was another theme to this week. We had no rain so the garden needed a watering. The injured pipe was fixed last week, just in time for me to bust the much pricier water pump by turning on the hose connected to this unplugged water pump. This was Thursday night. Matt and I each tried everything we knew to repair the problem, but in turning on and off different faucets and opening and closing different valves, we could do nothing. Luckily this pump is not the house water source, it is just for me to water plants using dam water. That same evening I noticed the house pump continually running but did not know why. Typically we would just ask Keith and he’d be able to help us solve the problem, but he and Mary were out of town for a while. Luckily Keith came home on Friday and began searching for answers with us. After a lot of confusion and searching on the house pump, (more important because we could have run down the tank and had no water to drink or anything), Keith found a hose which had been left running near the spa. Oooops! That was me. Jacinta had luckily been wearing a swimming diaper in the spa but when I saw a piece of tomato floating I knew she had pooped. I promptly removed her from the water, relieved that the spa was still clean and washed her poopy legs off and yeah, well, perhaps you can see how I could have forgotten about the hose.
So the dam pump, next on the list. Keith, Matt, Jess and I spent about 3 hours down at the pump taking it apart, putting it back together, turning on and off taps and trying to figure out the mystery. You can guess who did the work in this situation. I enjoyed watching them work, learning a little bit about motors, shafts, and ball bearings, not doing anything physical, sitting in the shade of a big tree enjoying the wind and the few drops of rain, and guiding Jacinta in her exploration of the tool box. Jacinta had a blast being so close to all of us, her free access to the tools and attempting to “assist” by inserting screwdrivers and wrenches of all shapes and sizes in the different holes of the pump. It was a lovely day. This is also a good description of how generous and forgiving Keith is with his time. He and Mary are leaving for a 3 week trip, including a 10 day camping trip, which takes a lot of packing and organization. He spent his day today fixing things that I screwed up, with a cup of tea here and there, a little bit of packing in between, no complaints and a lot of laughs. Yesterday immediately upon return he came and helped Michelle and I on the garden and then took the kids on a long wagon ride helping us collect cow poo, barefoot I might mention. Dragging a wagon up hill is not an easy task, I avoid it at all costs. So did the pump ever get fixed? Well, when I want to water, I’ll need a helper to turn a screw on the pump while I turn on the faucet which is at least 70 feet away. That’s how fixed it is. It’s amazing that I feel no guilt for my errors this week. There must be a lot of love in the air.
What are the words that a little farm girl learns that would shock you city folk? Cow poo, Chook poo, mulch, and tool …I guess that’s all. Lots of babies are fascinated by the “hose,” “sticks,” “bugs,” and “rocks.” One really cool new word Jacinta says is, “FLY!” I put this word in capitals because she can not say this word, she must yell it loudly while flapping her wings and running. She sees lots of flying things and attempts to pronounce them all, “butterflies, flies, birdies, airplanes, and mosquitoes.” We sometimes see caterpillars munching plants and trees and like to read, The Hungry Caterpillar, especially because the caterpillar likes to eat as much fruit as Jess does. She calls them, “cahpillars.” She pointed at herself tonight saying, “Dress....pretty.” She loves to dance (spin around), and has even learned to say “dance!” I’m so proud. She’ll tell you when things are yucky or yummy, and luckily she never says yucky to food, she just ignores it. She only gives good food to the dog and to the chickens, she’ll learn. She’s been wearing a lot of band-aids lately and loves the whole process, washing, “cream,” and the “banny.” Matt, on the other hand, has so many cuts on his hands that he no longer bothers with bandages. Tonight en route to the chook pen Jacinta shocked me by holding up her ten fingers and saying, “ten.” Perhaps she doesn’t understand the meaning of 10, but every night when we lock up the chooks, Matt or I will count to see if all 10 chickens are in the pen. She also took her first trip down the veranda steps by herself after dinner, on her bum of course. She then wandered solo, while we all watched closely, quietly and peacefully down to the bird baths where the turkeys were feeding and accidentally scared them away. She just looked around, circled the trees, exploring the hidden places. It was a beautiful sight.
Matt and I went out last night, first time together since we’ve arrived. We went to the local infamous Chinese restaurant with some of his fellow bankers. They were all really funny, nothing like working with a lot of women and hearing them talk about men! There was one other man and he seemed to have learned to enjoy it. I had never heard Matt talk about bank stuff, it was hilarious. Jess had a great night with Mary and Keith, but kept them up past their bedtimes! I don’t think I left the house once this week, until the Chinese restaurant. The funny thing is that I didn’t feel shut in, or a need to go out. Having Matt home most of the time helped, a few phone conversations with friends and family from the US and then the few visits from friends, but there is so much to do on the land that it’s never dull. Matt likes his daily outings, either to get a tool, a bag of screws, a newspaper, veggies for dinner, mail from the post box, or sometimes to the bank to work. We are both finding our groove here, it’s a good thing since we’re really digging our heels in. We’re just hoping for rain, healthy water pipes and pumps, a healthy healing Bear (my sister’s dog who is very ill), less cuts and scrapes on our “fragile” city family gone country, and lots of visits from you all.
Love you guys (:
posted by Matt & Shana & Jacinta & Genevieve Henry at
12:05 AM
1 Comments:
omg, I wish you could see Detroit! It looks amazing! I was only in the cobo hall area, which usually is pretty nice, but it was sooo clean, and there were hundreds of people just walking around! IN DETROIT! I'm still having trouble processing the fact that I went into downtown detroit to just hang out yesterday! I'll have to send u some of the pictures! yay detroit!
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