Goat, free to a good home

Good evening y’all. Happy belated Halloween! I didn’t realize it was Halloween until the afternoon of October 31. This is a holiday that I never realized I loved until now, being in a country that doesn’t really celebrate it. Perhaps I appreciate the season and the smells of October 31 in the Midwest more than pillow cases full of junk food and shaving cream on your front lawn. I love picking a pumpkin, carving it and especially looking at a jack-o-lantern lit up by candlelight. I love having a reason to dress up or run through a corn maze. I used to love passing out strange non-edible Halloween gifts like hemp necklaces or baking clay to the neighbors. I hope you all either enjoyed seeing trick-or-treaters at your front door and/or just made it through with no vandalism done to your house.

We just happened to have a few pumpkins from last year’s garden sitting around since I don’t really like eating them as much as they like growing here. So Jess directed while I carved a face into a thick green pumpkin. She pulled out the “gook,” and for some reason decided to eat raw pumpkin as if it were watermelon. She doesn’t like cooked pumpkin, but got a kick out of chomping on the hard stuff. We then made pumpkin raisin oatmeal cookies to take to choir and she got dressed up like a fairy, again. She charmed the choir with her sweet costume and handed out cookies to everyone, it was a multi-cultural experience for them. As most of the world knows more about America than any other country, they all knew what Halloween was but dreaded its importation to Australia. They say it is slowly coming, but don’t think it’s pertinent to Australia and that it will mean they have to buy more junk. Some of my European friends have described the same situation in their countries. In any case, my kind friend Trish brought Jess a treat and a shell necklace. When we returned home, Matt had lit the jack-o-lantern and Jess trick or treated on our door. She scored a tiny piece of chocolate and finished off the night with a big smile. She looks forward to doing the same thing again next year for Halloween. Sadly, I’ve had to explain to her that Halloween won’t often happen on a choir night. One neat thing about Halloween in the US is the chance to visit all of your neighbors, especially those that don’t come out of the house very often. For all I complained about our rowdy neighbors in Ferndale, Michigan, I loved watching the adults gather at one house in the front yard, albeit for drinking beer, while they took turns walking the kids around for trick-or-treating.

Speaking of beer, Matt brewed a good batch of ginger beer, non-alcoholic. His first beer attempt failed, but this one worked out. He enjoys drinking something he made, plus, it’s cheaper than buying bottles. He will soon try another batch of plain old beer. It seems to be a fun hobby, with a potential for good drinks. I wouldn’t want you thinking that Matt just works all the time and has no time for play. He does typically work three days a week at the bank now, which gives his joints a rest from building. We enjoyed having our evenings to ourselves these past few weeks and spent some time painting together. Matt found a Matisse painting called Vegetables that we liked. We painted it onto a huge pane of glass which will serve as part of a wall in our new kitchen while listening to Pat Donahue play guitar and sing the blues. We miss listening to Prairie Home Companion on the radio, and haven’t yet found a way to hear it across the ocean. Any ideas???

Matt finally bought a router table this week. He usually agonizes over large purchases for months and then finally takes the plunge, and this week was the plunge. He now has a great work table with a built in circular saw which will help him build nice furniture. We’re not ready to build furniture yet, we still need interior walls and some more siding on the outside, but Matt hurt his wrist/forearm. What better reason to go shopping? In fact, it has been raining for a few days so we went shopping again today, Saturday. We didn’t buy much, but we bid on a few items at the silent auction warehouse and I bought a maternity bathing suit. I must complain a bit though, about how difficult this was! Other than the fact that I’m losing my tolerance for busy places like malls, the choice was dismal. It’s not that I think I should look good in a bathing suit at this point in the pregnancy. It’s that I am so out of touch with fashion that I am shocked at how hideous bathing suits are right now. Huge flowers or paisley, all in pale blue, brown or orange, adorned with square or circular metal buckles on the straps, but nothing plain! Nothing made for boring, simple me. Finally today, after three days, I found a plain black swimming suit, (there are no maternity suits around), so it’s just a few sizes bigger than my normal size.

While shopping we also looked at refrigerators once again, perhaps for the fifth time. I only mention this because Jacinta LOVES looking at them. As we entered our last big store today, she asked, “What’s this shop for?” I told her that it had refrigerators and she lit up. “Fridges? Oooh, let’s open them all up.” It is always a challenge keeping her calm in stores like this, she heads straight for the fridges and starts opening and closing the doors, and then the drawers within them. Last time Matt took her alone, he said she got busted by a shopkeeper who kindly told her to “please be gentle.” Matt, embarrassed, promptly swept her up and moved on to another section. Today after being corrected by both Matt and I, she moved on to the dryer section and regretfully explained to me that, “I was naughty.” She is amazing though, she lasted quite a while shopping. By the end we all needed a nap.

Progress on the house this week was not as massive as last week, but Matt has started building storage into the new section. Keith and Mary came back from a three week vacation and were shocked at how much had been done since they left. Matt moved his tools out of the bedroom so we can now try and finish up the floors and build the closets. He installed a sky light in the bathroom and a few whirly birds for ventilation since it will have no windows. He also finished the bathroom wall with wood paneling and it looks gorgeous. I can now picture what it will be like to sit in our living room and see where the piano will sit. We are getting ready to move the piano into its new home so I cleared off the garbage bags and all the accumulated junk piled on top of it on the veranda. This inspired me to actually start playing again, Jess enjoys this activity too. It’s easier on my back than walking up and down the hill, but unfortunately does not help the state of the garden.

Garden life this week was again mostly left up to the sun and the rain to do all of the work. Jess and I did a little bit of weeding and made some slug and caterpillar soup, spiced with thyme and comfrey flowers. We harvested the dried rocket seeds after they had hung for a month in the shed, and threw a few in the garden while we were at it. We planted a few rows of lettuce in the teepee, and another small patch of corn. I harvested a good bunch of carrots, celery and spinach, our first white carrot! It was actually good. One evening in the dark, I transplanted some peppers, tomatoes, coriander and basil into the house garden and planted a few more rows of lettuce. It seems silly to work in the dark, but it was raining and I really like planting in the rain.

It rained so much this week that we may be able to fill up the spa now. This will be lovely for everyone, but especially for me and my heavy belly and Jacinta who has been waiting to swim again since last winter. Whenever we passed the river this winter she commented that, “I swim in the water when it gets warmer. Only fishies swim now.” Perhaps we can blame the rain for the reason we STILL have mice in the spring. It has gotten so bad that we have finally resorted to poison because they outsmart the traps. They do such strange things, though. Yesterday we found a stash of dog food that they had stolen and hidden in a cupboard. They have become so bold that they’ll come out midday and run across the cupboards in search of scraps. They make me so angry because I hate cleaning and now I have to do dishes instantly, and constantly sterilize the cupboards. But my, they are still cute to look at, but we can not peacefully coexist. They have the outdoors, and we have this house. I don’t mind seeing them run back and forth in the chicken pen!

Daisy the goat was a constant drama queen all week. We tried letting her free range one day but she went crazy and didn’t know what to do with herself. She ran up and down trying to be near us, coming onto the veranda and being chased away with a broom. At one point she ran into the new house and upon entry peed on the floor. I was irate and yelled out to Matt that “Daisy pissed on the floor!” since he was on the roof and missed it. Jess now uses this word and says that she has “pissed on the potty.” We keep telling her that it’s not really a word and that I made a mistake but she really likes the sound of it. The Daisy drama came to a climax when we tethered her to a small trailer which she then climbed upon and cut her hoof. We cleaned her up and babied her for a few days. Keith and Mary are now home so Keith has taken over the babying. She escapes from her pen now though, and as she likes us so much, does not search for food, but for love. Matt heard her early this evening whining outside, the goat having escaped was stuck in the rain, so he ran to help her. Thanks to all the rain, he slipped on the steps and whacked his head and strained his shoulder on the way down. We just love this “pet goat for Jacinta.”

I shalln’t close on that sarcastic note, instead I’ll share a joyous piece of information. I can say now, with no hesitation that Jacinta is potty trained. She hasn’t worn a nappy at night now for a week, nor during the day for weeks. Yippeee! We get a four month break from diaper care. I can honestly say though that cloth diapers are not that painful, and that I can’t wait to get out those cute little newborn soft diapers that Jacinta wore and wrap our new little baby’s bum in them.

Have a lovely week :) We miss you all and wish you warmth in your cold November.

Love,

Shana