Cows, mice and lullabyes
Good evening loved ones. I suppose you can almost smell fall coming on, as can I smell spring. Perhaps it’s global warming or just a fluke, but spring here is early. It should still be winter. I find myself wondering whether this part of the world is like Michigan in the sense of grand temperature fluctuations. Should I listen to the signs of spring and plant things or just wait? Perhaps I will wait, I’m new here. In the rush for spring I did put in a large seed order on Thursday.
It has been a wonderful week here at home, just Matt, Jacinta, and I all alone, well, with the animals of course. Matt worked a lot on the house and a little bit at the bank and collecting census papers. Out of his 500 houses, there are now only 10 remaining to be collected! Jacinta and I stayed home most of the week, skipping playgroup and one choir to relish the solitude of the house. Matt and I spent most evenings recording lullabies and will finally bring to a close a project begun over six months ago. Jess and I got out of bed earlier than normal to feed the animals since Keith was not here to do it. (I have gotten lazy in the “chilly” winter mornings). It was fun feeding the chickens and the goat their porridge, and mostly watching Jess feed the little birds. She sits down and plays in the seed, watched the birds come, then eventually gets up and chases them, giggling all the while. It was actually lucky that we were home all week, we ended up catching more cows in the orchard. One day was spent adding a second wire to the fence, and the next day, adding a third because the calves broke through the second wire. It is remarkable how little damage they have done given their potential. I never thought I’d spend my days scaring off sweet little calves and devising methods to keep them away. I actually swore at a cow!
I’m losing my softness on animals living out here on the land. For example, mice used to be cute little furry creatures that I couldn’t imagine hurting one year ago. Now, they invade our space, chew up things we love, poop in places we’ve cleaned out, and keep me awake at night gnawing in hidden locations near my bed. They stink, and I sware, they are gnawing through our roof. So I now set traps, willingly, and celebrate when we catch one. We caught three this week, plus one drowned rat in the goat’s water dish, yuck. Heartless, yes, I know. The goat, she is more stubborn than I, very strong, picky and a bit rough to handle. What does she do for us? Not much, she munches a few branches here and there and poops, but in no particular place that we can use it on the garden. Perhaps I’ll have to start milking her to feel like she’s worth the food she consumes. Chickens…we have about 20, and about half of them are living on the dole. They are old hens and are finished laying. Why do we feed them? I don’t know, Keith loves them, but my heart is losing its softness. They do still provide us with good nitrogen (manure) for the soil, but their food isn’t free.
The laying half of the chicken flock is providing us with a good supply of eggs now. Mary found another nest of eight bantam eggs today, unfertilized thankfully. They are constantly relocating to keep us on our toes. They stopped laying eggs under the mulcher because one hen went clucky and monopolized the nest for a few days. You can ask Jess who lays eggs, and she’ll recite a list, “chickens, berhdies, ducks, snakes, lizards…” “What about goats?” I’ll kid her, “Nooooo!” she replies disgustedly.
Jacinta has become quite the conversationalist, or one might say, “chatter box.” After her first painting endeavor this week, she is quite proud of the newly painted green desk which we call a “stove.” “Look at my pretty desk!” she’ll say. She loves naming things in books, each new word is a challenge, she loves pronouncing them and with great ease. This week’s most shocking words were centipede and tortilla. She’ll tell you about choir and how “Amelia sings up high” and “mommy sings down low,” complete with hand gestures. She’ll make up a melody of la la las and say, “that’s my song.” Instead of saying “why?” again and again, she will say, “I wonder why mommy’s cutting broccoli.” Perhaps she understands that I will not answer why questions constantly. She has also started to play tricks knowing that they will be funny and testing whether I will agree. For example, she threw handfuls of seed at me while feeding the chooks, and threw handfuls of wood chips at me while cleaning out the chook pen. The newness of it all makes me laugh, it is pretty funny, but won’t always be funny I suppose. One behavior which we struggle with is the big SELF in her. Her need to be independent is so strong right now that if you help her do something that she has not requested, she will wriggle herself free and rewind. She will run back to the exact spot you picked her up while snottily and sulkily muttering, “self!” and then walk all by herself to where she needs to go. Unfortunately this does not carry over to walking up the hill, then she whines and cries on her knees, “Carry…..carry me….carry me.” After endless encouragement and a while she eventually gets up and walks. It’s so hard to leave her there, but sometimes words don’t help and physically, I just can’t carry her after working in the garden.
Garden-wise, there was not much done this week, just some watering since the heat is returning and harvesting broccoli and peas. Jess and I began revamping the teepee garden, but much work remains. Matt dug trenches with a little help from me for the extension cord to bring electricity to our shed. He will be able to build furniture under cover after the house is built. Matt tore down the exterior wall on Keith’s bedroom and constructed a new interior wall which will become a hallway between the bedrooms and the living room. I ripped out some old nails, and gave him a small hand in pushing the wall up into place, but basically, he worked alone, accomplished quite a lot and enjoyed the solitude this week. And our first wall has gone up! Hooray!
Today was a lovely day. It was my mom’s birthday and although it is not yet her birthday in America, I’ve had fun celebrating in her absence. After a few months of practice for the Jazz Festival, I sang with the Spangled Drongoes today in Bellingen and had a blast. I learned 14 out of 15 songs, and got to sing to a full house including Matt and Jacinta, and telepathically to my mommy. The nature of the choir is quite crazy and disorganized so it was the first time we’d ever sang more than 8 songs in two hours, and we sang 15 in 50 minutes! Matt is an honest critic and he was impressed. He was genuinely joyful to be able to finally hear us all, so that made it even better. Jacinta moseyed on and off the stage, either grabbing on to my hands and swaying when she needed to be “in” the music, playing with young girls in the audience or sitting on Matt’s lap munching. Although I didn’t plan on her presence up front, I was assured by other mothers singing that their children had done the same years ago. She was pleasant, and amidst my struggles to spit out all of the tricky African words, gave me more rhythm and strength than I may have had on my own. The community markets were also happening this weekend, and therefore it was a bustling little town today. It took Matt and Jess 35 minutes to find a parking spot, rough start but it was ok. To add to the fun, Matt test drove our new second hand stroller and fell in love with the three wheel contraption, especially pushing it up and down bumpy grassy slopes. After the concert we had lunch, ran into a few friends, bought some native bushes for Jess’ garden, listened to a Dixie band and felt somehow “held” amidst this big crowd of mostly strangers.
Friday night a friend from playgroup called and invited me out for dinner and drinks to bid farewell to a woman who was moving. Typically I wouldn’t bother, but for some reason I decided it was time to go out alone with some women, and I did. Sparing you the details, I’ll just say that I had a great time, good fish on the playgroup’s account, and laughed more than I have in a long time getting to know these women without their children. One of my best friend’s from Michigan had her second baby, at home and it was magical. I somehow caught the vibe that she had given birth and called within 18 hours of new little Dennis’ arrival. Music is pulsing through my veins and is luckily growing into Jacinta’s little soul. Tomorrow I turn 29 and will probably get to talk with a few family members. I just feel held, loved and as if I am being woven into a new tapestry, surrounded by beautiful colors and supported by strong fibers coming from all different directions. I feel lucky and just give thanks.
So thanks for your love and support. It strengthens me and gives me energy and inspiration. Do check out an important message from Jacinta. www.paintedguitar.com/jessmovie.html Give her a few seconds to load…
Here’s something to make you laugh…while brushing our teeth 5 minutes ago, Matt all of the sudden realized that we had forgotten something that occurs in August. It’s now August 19, and we missed BOTH of our anniversaries completely, August 9 and August 15. It’s been eight years now! He was the one to realize the error, so he has the one up. Oh well (:
Have a great week!
It has been a wonderful week here at home, just Matt, Jacinta, and I all alone, well, with the animals of course. Matt worked a lot on the house and a little bit at the bank and collecting census papers. Out of his 500 houses, there are now only 10 remaining to be collected! Jacinta and I stayed home most of the week, skipping playgroup and one choir to relish the solitude of the house. Matt and I spent most evenings recording lullabies and will finally bring to a close a project begun over six months ago. Jess and I got out of bed earlier than normal to feed the animals since Keith was not here to do it. (I have gotten lazy in the “chilly” winter mornings). It was fun feeding the chickens and the goat their porridge, and mostly watching Jess feed the little birds. She sits down and plays in the seed, watched the birds come, then eventually gets up and chases them, giggling all the while. It was actually lucky that we were home all week, we ended up catching more cows in the orchard. One day was spent adding a second wire to the fence, and the next day, adding a third because the calves broke through the second wire. It is remarkable how little damage they have done given their potential. I never thought I’d spend my days scaring off sweet little calves and devising methods to keep them away. I actually swore at a cow!
I’m losing my softness on animals living out here on the land. For example, mice used to be cute little furry creatures that I couldn’t imagine hurting one year ago. Now, they invade our space, chew up things we love, poop in places we’ve cleaned out, and keep me awake at night gnawing in hidden locations near my bed. They stink, and I sware, they are gnawing through our roof. So I now set traps, willingly, and celebrate when we catch one. We caught three this week, plus one drowned rat in the goat’s water dish, yuck. Heartless, yes, I know. The goat, she is more stubborn than I, very strong, picky and a bit rough to handle. What does she do for us? Not much, she munches a few branches here and there and poops, but in no particular place that we can use it on the garden. Perhaps I’ll have to start milking her to feel like she’s worth the food she consumes. Chickens…we have about 20, and about half of them are living on the dole. They are old hens and are finished laying. Why do we feed them? I don’t know, Keith loves them, but my heart is losing its softness. They do still provide us with good nitrogen (manure) for the soil, but their food isn’t free.
The laying half of the chicken flock is providing us with a good supply of eggs now. Mary found another nest of eight bantam eggs today, unfertilized thankfully. They are constantly relocating to keep us on our toes. They stopped laying eggs under the mulcher because one hen went clucky and monopolized the nest for a few days. You can ask Jess who lays eggs, and she’ll recite a list, “chickens, berhdies, ducks, snakes, lizards…” “What about goats?” I’ll kid her, “Nooooo!” she replies disgustedly.
Jacinta has become quite the conversationalist, or one might say, “chatter box.” After her first painting endeavor this week, she is quite proud of the newly painted green desk which we call a “stove.” “Look at my pretty desk!” she’ll say. She loves naming things in books, each new word is a challenge, she loves pronouncing them and with great ease. This week’s most shocking words were centipede and tortilla. She’ll tell you about choir and how “Amelia sings up high” and “mommy sings down low,” complete with hand gestures. She’ll make up a melody of la la las and say, “that’s my song.” Instead of saying “why?” again and again, she will say, “I wonder why mommy’s cutting broccoli.” Perhaps she understands that I will not answer why questions constantly. She has also started to play tricks knowing that they will be funny and testing whether I will agree. For example, she threw handfuls of seed at me while feeding the chooks, and threw handfuls of wood chips at me while cleaning out the chook pen. The newness of it all makes me laugh, it is pretty funny, but won’t always be funny I suppose. One behavior which we struggle with is the big SELF in her. Her need to be independent is so strong right now that if you help her do something that she has not requested, she will wriggle herself free and rewind. She will run back to the exact spot you picked her up while snottily and sulkily muttering, “self!” and then walk all by herself to where she needs to go. Unfortunately this does not carry over to walking up the hill, then she whines and cries on her knees, “Carry…..carry me….carry me.” After endless encouragement and a while she eventually gets up and walks. It’s so hard to leave her there, but sometimes words don’t help and physically, I just can’t carry her after working in the garden.
Garden-wise, there was not much done this week, just some watering since the heat is returning and harvesting broccoli and peas. Jess and I began revamping the teepee garden, but much work remains. Matt dug trenches with a little help from me for the extension cord to bring electricity to our shed. He will be able to build furniture under cover after the house is built. Matt tore down the exterior wall on Keith’s bedroom and constructed a new interior wall which will become a hallway between the bedrooms and the living room. I ripped out some old nails, and gave him a small hand in pushing the wall up into place, but basically, he worked alone, accomplished quite a lot and enjoyed the solitude this week. And our first wall has gone up! Hooray!
Today was a lovely day. It was my mom’s birthday and although it is not yet her birthday in America, I’ve had fun celebrating in her absence. After a few months of practice for the Jazz Festival, I sang with the Spangled Drongoes today in Bellingen and had a blast. I learned 14 out of 15 songs, and got to sing to a full house including Matt and Jacinta, and telepathically to my mommy. The nature of the choir is quite crazy and disorganized so it was the first time we’d ever sang more than 8 songs in two hours, and we sang 15 in 50 minutes! Matt is an honest critic and he was impressed. He was genuinely joyful to be able to finally hear us all, so that made it even better. Jacinta moseyed on and off the stage, either grabbing on to my hands and swaying when she needed to be “in” the music, playing with young girls in the audience or sitting on Matt’s lap munching. Although I didn’t plan on her presence up front, I was assured by other mothers singing that their children had done the same years ago. She was pleasant, and amidst my struggles to spit out all of the tricky African words, gave me more rhythm and strength than I may have had on my own. The community markets were also happening this weekend, and therefore it was a bustling little town today. It took Matt and Jess 35 minutes to find a parking spot, rough start but it was ok. To add to the fun, Matt test drove our new second hand stroller and fell in love with the three wheel contraption, especially pushing it up and down bumpy grassy slopes. After the concert we had lunch, ran into a few friends, bought some native bushes for Jess’ garden, listened to a Dixie band and felt somehow “held” amidst this big crowd of mostly strangers.
Friday night a friend from playgroup called and invited me out for dinner and drinks to bid farewell to a woman who was moving. Typically I wouldn’t bother, but for some reason I decided it was time to go out alone with some women, and I did. Sparing you the details, I’ll just say that I had a great time, good fish on the playgroup’s account, and laughed more than I have in a long time getting to know these women without their children. One of my best friend’s from Michigan had her second baby, at home and it was magical. I somehow caught the vibe that she had given birth and called within 18 hours of new little Dennis’ arrival. Music is pulsing through my veins and is luckily growing into Jacinta’s little soul. Tomorrow I turn 29 and will probably get to talk with a few family members. I just feel held, loved and as if I am being woven into a new tapestry, surrounded by beautiful colors and supported by strong fibers coming from all different directions. I feel lucky and just give thanks.
So thanks for your love and support. It strengthens me and gives me energy and inspiration. Do check out an important message from Jacinta. www.paintedguitar.com/jessmovie.html Give her a few seconds to load…
Here’s something to make you laugh…while brushing our teeth 5 minutes ago, Matt all of the sudden realized that we had forgotten something that occurs in August. It’s now August 19, and we missed BOTH of our anniversaries completely, August 9 and August 15. It’s been eight years now! He was the one to realize the error, so he has the one up. Oh well (:
Have a great week!
posted by Matt & Shana & Jacinta & Genevieve Henry at
11:40 PM
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