"Out!"

“Out!”

Here’s a funny picture…it’s 6:15am and I am sitting on the side of the road at the top of our driveway in a comfy folding chair drinking a cup of tea, bags packed sitting at my feet. It was lovely this morning, the earliest I’ve woken for a long time, different birds singing at 6am to those I hear at 8am. I was quite pleased when Melina arrived in her truck after 6:30 to take me along to the organic grower’s market. No neighbors had driven by and wondered to other neighbors about Mary Henry’s strange daughter in law (this is a small town). This was Melina and Justin’s last market, after growing and selling for over seven years, they have decided to find another way to earn a living. I was lucky enough to accompany Melina and help sell organic chickens, corn, zucchini, garlic, leeks, beans, arugula, cucumbers, basil, biodynamic preps, compost tea, packets of seed, and seedlings. The market is in the nearest hippy town, Bellingen, (45 minutes away) and happens every 2 weeks.  Not only was there bunches of organic food : veggies, fresh bread, juices, coffee, teas, breakfast, grains, sauces, meats, but also music, a “boot sale” (people fill up the boot/trunk of their car and sell their old stuff at the market) kids and babies everywhere, and great people watching. There were lots of relaxed looking families, some men with long hair, dreadlocks and beards, flowy clothes on many of the women, babies going without diapers, kids running free, moms carrying babies and breastfeeding at the same time. Most of the men looked like your average suburban dads, but yet their demeanors more of the commune dwelling gardener, carefully choosing their zucchinis, lingering and chatting with market sellers and friends along the way. I saw only one Asian family, a few mulatto children, but everyone else was white. That was strange as I have seen that this is one of the most diverse towns around (perhaps that doesn’t say much for the area in diversity). People were very friendly, I heard a few European accents, Italian and German. This is the kind of town that you visit once and go home and dream about how to get back. Luckily I love where I am here in Macksville and have planted many trees.

My week was very eventful. Perhaps the most beautiful moment was spent at a swimming hole after yoga. Michelle took Jess, Rory and I to an amazing creek to have a picnic. After wading waist high in her clothes up the creek looking for the “washed away” path, Michelle, laughing and loving the water, pointed out a perfectly safe path for Jacinta and I to come down to the creek with all of our stuff. I rolled up my pants and lugged Jess and 2 bags across the water and spread out a blanket on the rocks of a little “island” in the middle of the shady creek. Water rushed past all edges of the blanket while we ate our lunch and watched the kids wade in the water and dig through the rocks. After lunch we waded out to the deeper water and swam. Swimming in rushing water is something I hadn’t done much of in the past, and boy, I sure was missing out. Another memorable moment was Michelle drawing on our new shed chalkboard, while the kids drew below us, teaching me about planting with the moon. Right now it is the time to plant root crops, so I have just learned. So we sorted through my seeds and then took a short trip to our terraced garden to plant carrots, beetroot and onions. Later on in the week I moved into the shed with artwork, along with a few other special things, my favorite map of Africa made with all the different colored sands of the desert is now on the wall. I’ve also been knitting up a storm and not sleeping enough. These are signs of normality for me (:

Matt too had another miscellaneous week: a bit of banking, lawn mowing, drawing with Jacinta, changing poopy nappies, weed wacking, trips to the hardware store, job searching, coffee drinking, Olympics watching, guitar playing, song writing, tickling Jacinta and so on and so forth. A few big things (in my mind) stick out, one was building trellises for the kiwi vines and helping me plant the vines on the slope of the dam. Digging a 65cm deep hole takes Matt about 1/ 4 of the time it takes me, sniff sniff. Kiwi vines supposedly grow about 30 feet a year, so letting them set and wait a month was not ideal and demanded a final decision on location, so voila! Done! He also built the dividing wall in our new shed to give me a space just for garden stuff, and also somewhere to hang our treasured art work (the pieces which we think can be weather proof). Perhaps the coolest bit of the wall is a chalkboard from top to bottom in the middle of the wall. The bottom half for Jacinta and any adult she can con into drawing with her, and the upper half is for me to use for garden planning. Lastly, he is creating a detailed plan to divide our huge bedroom into 2, giving both Jess and ourselves our own space. It will have a really “useful” thick wall in the middle filled with built in shelves, cabinets, drawers, desks, a wardrobe and maybe even a secret tunnel! This will be the first major change we make to the house, exciting aye? Tomorrow we will celebrate Matt’s birthday, perhaps his first birthday in Australia since 1997. His cake will be made of real white sugar and white flour, and even made by me!


Today Keith decided that the chicks were big enough to become true free range chickens and that the snake and the hawks were not too terrible of a threat. So while Jess was napping, Matt, Keith, Mary and I went down and opened the door and watched the chicks slowly and hesitantly peck their way out of the pen they have grown up in. Major (mum) stayed behind watching them and making sure they were behaving properly and staying close by. It took them a few minutes to get out. I noted that Ben Jr. was the first to come out, followed by Divozzo. Ironic and beautiful in that Lecia and Ben’s first baby (Ben Jr.) is due to join us here on Earth this week or the following week, and Divozzo Jr. will follow this summer. Iris and Otto are both already here, so they took their time coming out of the pen (: Can you imagine living in a pen, salivating after the grass and crickets in sight right out the door for 2 ½ months, and then one day, the door opens? It was so cool to watch them explore a small little tract of land, always staying together and close to mum. Then imagine Jess waking up to see her “babies” out in the yard! Matt went to fetch her from her nap and brought her straight outside. The look of wonder on her face was beautiful, and the clearest word she said was, “Out!” The chicks are outside, free and in a place I have never seen them! She pointed at the pen and looked at us and said, “out!” This is a word she had perhaps never said before but had heard it so many times. I picture her little brain filing words away for use on the first occasion she actually needs them. I guess today was a good day to pull that one out.

Jacinta had a very social week with yoga and a picnic one day, play group the next, Mary, Keith and Jedda returning from vacation, a visit from her friend Rory, and then the market today. She still enjoys playing alone at playgroup, but loves watching older children play. She is teething once again so she was a little bit of a whiner this week. Frozen bananas and ice cubes from Grandma’s drink help! Her teeth may hurt but it does not prevent her explorations of new words and conversations. New words this week are “help, dig, yogurt, mango (in season finally!), house, home, car, bed, chair, up, down”…and on and on. She asks for help when she is at the end of her bowl of yogurt and wants me to dig out the last few spoonfuls. She asks for mangoes all of the time. When I am cooking and she wants to help, she yells, “help!” and “up” so that I will lift her up onto the counter.

When she knows it is time for bed and I try putting her in her crib, she says, “bed.” This week has been a major milestone in that area, sleeping that is. For the rest of her young life, we have cuddled her to sleep and often spent 45 minutes each nap or night time, and accidentally fall asleep with her, never to wake until she does. Just this week she has learned to fall asleep in her crib after stories, songs, and cuddles. This means a lot to me, in that I can stay awake later at night and know that she has gone to sleep happy and confident on her own. Just tonight after she called me back in to tell me that she had peed and needed a nappy change, I rubbed her belly for a while and said goodnight, and little Jacinta replied forcefully, “See Ya!” She then fell asleep on her own, again, and I smiled the smile of a mom whose little girl is becoming more independent.

Good night y’all. See ya. Smile for us, the smile of a mom, dad, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, cousin or friend watching us find happiness and comfort in a new place.

Pure Joy!

Movie time again!

This one is a much smaller file than last-week's Chicken movie.

http://www.paintedguitar.com/puddles

Black Swans and Black Cockatoos

Have you ever imagined a swan that wasn’t white? A cockatoo that wasn’t white? I had not, but there are black ones and they are gorgeous. We always get excited to see a new bird here at the house, and the black “cockies” have been visiting more lately, perching up high in the tall trees surrounding the dam, squawking and darting at each other. The black swans have never visited our land but are plentiful on the neighbor’s wetlands. They have deep red beaks and white tipped feathers which can be seen when in flight. Otherwise they are pure black, majestic creatures. We’ve been fortunate enough to help the neighbor out and feed her calf over the weekend while she is away. The poor little thing…its mum died a few weeks ago, thanks to a bull that broke her hips. She tried so hard to stay up to feed her calf, but eventually could not get up off of the ground, and days later passed away while the little calf looked on, lost and confused. Now the sweet little light brown calf with a white tipped nose lives alone in a small yard with a peach tree grazing all day and drinking milk formula twice daily. Lucky for Jacinta, we get to visit the “baby” and give her milk. We have taken the wagon a few times for it is a long journey with lots of cows to see en route, and then there are the wetlands, and the birds to watch. Last night we brought a picnic and watched the sun go down on the way home. Today was very exciting because the calf drank her milk while Jess and I stood 3 feet away watching. Following this excitement, Jess told the story all day long and asked to go back, “Baby??? Jibber  jabber jibber jabber….milk???  Then Jacinta herself actually drank a whole glass of milk, this would be the second time in her life, knowingly. What a baby cow drinking milk can do for a little girl!

This week was full of rain, lovely life-giving rain. It rained for at least four days, mostly light rain, but sometimes heavy enough to really help out our water tank. Since there is no easy way to water the orchard or the new terraced garden, save bringing it down the hill in huge buckets in the wagon or bucketing it out of the dam, I was grateful for the rain. We will replace the pump this week, good thing I’m growing out of my obsessive frugality because there are some things you just have to spend money on. This is a small town with one store for pumps. They look at the land and what you want to do and recommend what you need, because they actually know not because they want to sell you the most expensive pump. They tell you the price and you either pay it or don’t pump water. So I’ve decided that bucketing water is not practical and the purchase is necessary.  The dam is incredibly full so we’ll be able to pump huge amounts of water onto our few puny gardens.

Michelle, the kids and I worked all day Tuesday in the rain and created the second terrace in our potato garden. It was good messy work and better without the dangerous sun. I had just bought the kids their own long-handled garden tools: hoe, rake and shovel, this helped. Jess and Rory were amazing in their endurance, digging, filling up the dump truck, staying on the designated path, filling in holes in the retaining walls with sticks, and just playing. Jess napped for the last hour while we worked. Later on in the week I carted numerous wheelbarrow loads of compost soil and mulch down the hill and leveled out the terrace. It’s really looking like a garden now, just needs some plants!

The seedlings I planted so lovingly last week were inundated by rain by the time I got around to checking them. I’m hoping for the best, but not expecting much. I have not planted many vegetables since the first major planting and realize this when I have nothing to harvest except for beans and sunflower seeds, which are almost gone. The tomato plants are big and fruitless, as are all of the vines: pumpkin and melons, even the zucchini and the cucumbers. I keep hoping that one day soon they will all produce something. The herbs are doing well, especially my basil. We have a constant stock of pesto. I long for good lettuce and spinach, but the summer is too hot. Even the stores and fruit stands have nothing but dirt grown iceberg lettuce and hydroponic red leaf lettuce, and no spinach anywhere!!! They sometimes have Swiss chard, which they refer to as spinach, but it is technically called silverbeet. But I’ve been longing to make spinach pie and can’t find spinach. Each year I will learn more about how to grow things here, but for now, we’ve got herbs and high hopes for more.

Matt had another full week of bank work in Macksville. A little bit of cricket, a lot of the winter Olympics and job hunting. He also finished the roof on our new shed. Aussies are amazing sports fans. You’d think Winter Olympics….why would Aussies even care when the only snow they have is in the “Snowy Mountains?” Well, they could not be left out of a sporting event!!! From what I understand, the government funds some athletes to train in ice rinks, sledding on dry roads, using the few mountains they do have, and train abroad so that they too, can be part of this world event. Matt also made a funny movie about the chickens which is posted on our website www.paintedguitar.com/blog . No choir for Matt this week, he decided to stay home and hang out with Jacinta. This was the first time she actually spotted the infamous “mouse,” in the house. He/she has been munching seeds and leaving poop traces everywhere, and dares to come out while we’re around. It’s so tiny and cute, but usually runs away before Jess can spot him. She opens cupboard doors yelling, “Mouse!!! (2 syllables)  Mouse!!!” She has found the clues, but this evening finally, she got to see him, and told me the tale later on. We are actually trying to catch and relocate the mouse.

Jacinta is growing up, as we all do. Her hair is long enough to brush and to warrant shampoo. She runs in the house and no longer holds on to walls as she hurries down the few steps inside. When it’s time for breakfast she opens the cupboard door, gets out her bowl, and mine and tries to open the fridge to get out the milk and the macadamia nuts. Today she finished her own oatmeal and actually moved on to help me finish mine, this was a first. She can open her own drawers and fetch clothes and “powda” for her bum. She insistently calls out, “Bumma! Bumma! Seed!” as she scatters seed for the birds and the turkeys. She carries her own towel to the spa for swimming. At meals she tells stories with one recognizable word at the beginning and/or the end of each loooong phrase. When we spend time in the bedroom/playroom she goes directly to her table, pulls out her crayons, says, “daw!” She arranges her little chairs, sits down and goes to work. After a while she asks me to join her, and I try and stop cleaning for some drawing. Yesterday she drew on her wall and when she saw the look on my face, she cried and wanted so badly to erase it all. She scrubbed as hard as she could to help me erase the crayon off of the wall, excited to help and rid herself of any guilt. At night time she brushes her own teeth, and volunteers to sit on the potty before bed. She doesn’t do anything on the potty but anxiously awaits the chance to tear off toilet paper. We go to the bedroom, dim the lights and she gets a few books from the shelf, climbs up the back of the couch and hops on the bed. Noticing the candle is not yet lit, she says, “candle!” and says, “blow,” when she thinks it’s time to blow it out. If I am not holding her “properly,” while she’s trying to fall asleep, she relocates my hand to the spot where she most needs it.

I enjoyed my days watching Jacinta grow this week. A few times she just had me laughing so hard. Matt and I just watch her move and focus at simple things like the sudden realization that her overalls have a zipper. She about walked into the wall looking at that zipper today. She has learned to rub aloe on my back (sunburn) and calls the plant, “booboo.” She spent over an hour helping me cook both yesterday and today, handing me beans, one by one, putting the ends in the compost, waiting for corn hand outs, and the ends of tomatoes, crumbling bread into bread crumbs, cracking eggs, stirring, eating cheese while I grate it, naming everything she can and repeatedly requesting fruit from the fruit bowl. Michelle and I took turns watching the kids while the other did yoga taught by my other friend Melina at a community hall.
Tonight our friends the Murphys came over for dinner and we had a lovely time. My sister is about to give birth to another amazing human who I will soon meet when I travel to Wisconsin in April, and her dog Bear is on the mend. Friends are starting to plan trips to come and visit. I still hear nasty stories about what big governments and big business are doing to make life harder for the poor majority of the world, and better for a minority of us. I guess what I’m doing here is trying to learn how to avoid leaning on these nasty privileges.  Life is beautiful for us here, we are privileged. I couldn’t ask for anymore, well, except for a good life for everyone else.

Movie Time!!!

I made a little movie for you all. It's a biggish file, so hopefully you have a good connection..

Enjoy!

http://www.paintedguitar.com/chickens

Love,
Matt

Mm hmm. I'm pretty good with small engines, mm hmm.

Anyone remember the movie that I'm getting the title of this entry from? It won an Oscar... Anyway, here is us working on the pump...



"Daddy, Pop, can I help you with that dam pump?"












"OK, here's the 15mm socket and a couple of flat screwdrivers."
















"No, no, no... daddy... listen. Even though you are tanned and muscular, you're getting it wrong.

Here, give me that screwdriver.

See how you're coming straight down? Uh huh, well - hey, are you laughing at me? Well, anyway, oh never mind, just give it to me..."





"See, now, watch me. If you come in on the angle, like this, then, you'll find it works - hey, are you looking away? Look at me when I'm explaining things to you!"














Alas, you know if you read Shana's recent post that the dam pump is thoroughly broken, despite Keith's, mine and Jacinta's surgical precision...

Jess was, sincerely, very helpful when we did this, handing us tools; sometimes it was the right tool!

"Thank you Mrs Red"

“Thank you Mrs. Red”

Good evening loved ones. What a lovely place to be writing, I am out on the veranda in the dark listening to the frogs, the flapping of bats’ wings, watching mosquitoes hover on the hideously bright computer screen and on my hands, and feeling a slight breeze. Typically I write in my bedroom but tonight Matt and I are here alone, with Mary and Keith on vacation and Jacinta gone to sleep. It is very peaceful, actually this whole week has been quite peaceful.

Matt and I decided to do a cleansing fast Monday through Thursday, a fast once done by the Seneca tribe in the Eastern US. It was fruit on Monday, herbal tea on Tuesday, vegetables on Wednesday and vegetable broth on Thursday. Matt was working so it was harder for him to lie low and just expend less energy. Thus he added coffee to his detox 2 days in to ward off headaches. I added a big piece of quiche on herbal tea day and Matt added in toast and Vegemite. We decided that herbal tea day was a bit over the top. I enjoyed the challenge and actually felt rejuvenated by Wednesday. I cooked less, enjoyed the simple taste of plain vegetables and fruit, and it was honestly a very good way to clean out the fridge. Typically fasting brings me to new heights and depths in my mind, but this one involved some nourishment, so that didn’t happen. Jacinta loved fruit day and still wishes it would return, but with a lack of water, I can’t be washing so many poopy nappies. We played a bit more indoors and lingered those extra few minutes with the chickens rather than bustling on to the next chore. We picked flowers and pressed them into books, and squirted the fruit trees with soapy water as our only garden work on Tuesday. I spent most nap times and evenings reading the Constant Gardener, a great big novel recommended to me by Matt and Maggie. On Thursday we decided again to adapt the fast and go out for pizza to celebrate the end (which should have been 12 hours later). We had a lovely night out and found a good restaurant to share with visitors. Thus, a peaceful week.

Matt worked at the bank all five days this week, so perhaps his week wasn’t as peaceful, but perhaps he had peace of mind earning a living. Watching cricket brings Matt great joy and there was a bit to see this week. I am still amazed by the length and depth of possible conversations about this sport. Perhaps it’s like beer or wine, an acquired taste. Hey, one day, I may be able to converse about cricket at length, just wait! Although, I’d rather knit, smile and tune out, so don’t hold your breath. The house water pump was still playing up this week so Matt spent time each day after work researching and fixing the problem. For now, I think the problem has been solved. The dam pump is another story, completely busted now, we spent time looking into the purchase of another and as I said before, it was an expensive mistake I made, bummer. As for the growing grass and broken mower, Matt solved the problem today without a machete. Although we’ve had no rain for 2 weeks, the grass is still long so he mowed the lawn with a tractor and weed wacked the entire orchard. If you have seen a weed-wacker, and can envision how big the “orchard” is, you’ll know that it was some real labor.

Au contraire from last week’s lack of outings, this week I got out quite a bit. Playgroup began again after the summer school holidays. Jess went back to the amazing array of big plastic toys she’ll never own and 25 little kids milling around her, ages 9 months to 5 years old. It seems that play group is just that to her, toys. It was interesting to see that this time she spent a lot of her time giving a baby doll a bath in the pool. She took breaks to chuck someone’s mechanical Care Bear in the pool (giving it a bath too), pursue other little girls’ fruit bowls, carefully delight in her own bowl of fruit, and rock on big plastic rocking horses. She is kind to others, but a bit unaware of them unless they happen to be riding the same horse. Rory, her one friend who visits the house, seems to have the same take on playgroup, toys! They delight in each other’s arrival, “Rory!” and then it’s off to explore on their own.

Matt and I went out alone again this week, for our first choir practice of the season. My friend Michelle brought Rory over to play and take care of Jacinta while we went out to sing. We had fun learning South African freedom songs, one new one in Zulu, and one that we knew in English, and a gypsy song by Zap Mama. Singing in 4 part harmony is just celestial for me, and I don’t often get to sing in a choir with Matt. We lack men, so they were very happy to see Matt, example: all of our tenors are women pushing their voice limits. Out of 12 people, there are 2 Americans, 1 Brit, and 1 German, not including Matt who is now ½ American (hee hee). The choir director is very cool, seems to have lived in Africa for a while. All the while Jacinta was at home loving her time with Michelle and Rory, seemingly not conscious that anything had changed since we snuck away without saying goodbye. When we returned we found her wide awake at her little table drawing with crayons, and just looked up at us to say hello. As Michelle said, she got to know her better that night than all of our time together, Jacinta is a very strong and determined little girl. She knows what she likes, what she wants and will find a way to tell you.

“Thank you Mrs. Red,” Jacinta said to the reddish brown hen as we leave the chook pen with our 3 eggs in hand. I’ve tried to teach her to thank the chickens for the gifts they offer, but I didn’t imagine she’d start saying it yet! She is starting to learn their names, the 4 Mrs. Reds are easy, “Top,” for MopTop, “Laly” for the Painted Lady, and 3 of the 4 baby chicks’ names. “Divozzo” is a bit hard for now (: By the way, the chicks are getting very big, Otto is almost big enough to leave the nest! Everyone but Iris has been given the boot and has to sleep out of the protection of mum’s bum. Jess has a few more names to learn but the “thank you,” was beautiful.  Tonight at dinner, after every bite of egg she said, “Thank you.” At first I thought she was speaking to me, thanking me for cooking her dinner, but nope, it was for the creator of the egg. “Pretty” was an important word this week, she pointed out that the eggs were pretty, that the chicks were pretty, that our dried flowers were pretty, that various clothes were pretty and that, (smile) “mommy…pretty.” “Side” tells us that if we are outside, she wants to go inside, and if we are inside, “side” means, “let’s go outside.” She even says, “Jess” now!

Jess has become a story teller. Tuesday night I was avoiding the kitchen at dinner time because it was herbal tea day. We went down to the new shed to hang out. We blew bubbles, pressed flowers, watered the herbs and sprayed the aphids infesting the citrus trees with soap. On the way back up in our super cool wagon (thanks Mom and George!), Jess was riding proud with the empty watering cans and it was almost dark. I reached for the gate and grabbed a frog by accident and screamed. For the rest of the night Jacinta told the tale, over and over, “Froggy!”  “Mommy!”  “Touch” “Ahhhhh!”
She would change the word order and tell it just as excitedly the first time as the twentieth. It was beautiful. We visited Michelle on Tuesday morning, again to avoid being home on herbal tea day. Her daughter Emma burnt her leg on hot soup and Jess heard her scream and saw the ice being applied. So for the next few days she would say, “Emma”  “ice”   “owwwww!” and I’d fill in the blanks as she got excited and very involved feeling overwhelming compassion for Emma. Her memory is starting to surface. I noticed it this week when Jacinta pulled the photo of my mom and George down and said, “Gramma,”  “birdies,” and pointed to her own shoulder to tell me that at Grandma’s house, you can see birdies that sit on shoulders! This warmed my heart, to think that at 16 months we left my mom in Indiana and that at 20 months, she still remembers these essential details.

This week I took back a bit of myself that I had been missing, a crafty side which leads me to sometimes make mediocre handmade gifts for people. They have a purpose, fulfilling my need for creativity, but not always a real use for the receiver.
I made a few cards out of dried flowers and had so much fun doing it! I often do this, begin a project and think…..”I could earn money doing this!” But, no, I won’t invest just yet, don’t worry. I’ve had this same thought with noodles, candles, herbal teas, jams, applesauce, grain coffee, herbal sachets, granola. Funny enough, I’ve always known I’ll never earn anything from knitting. In my spare thought time this week, while lying down with Jacinta I dreamed up a weekly farmer’s market here in Macksville that will take me years to organize. It kept me up thinking 2 extra hours that night too! Perhaps within 5 years or so, I’ll have something to sell! Today I had 4 hours to myself while Matt took Jacinta on a shopping trip to a bigger town. It was so quiet, being here alone, sitting in the new shed, looking out at the dam, sifting my fingers through compost soil, filling up 84 little pots, planting 20 different types of seeds and having the time to label them, water them and create a make-shift table for them. Another peaceful day, Thank you Mrs. Earth!

Here are a few recipes I’ve just adapted from other’s and enjoyed.

Bug Spray                         

1 part calendula oil               1 part rubbing alcohol
1 part cider vinegar               1 part eucalyptus oil (cheap here)
1 part tea tree/lavender oil

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies (typical Shana concoction)

2 bananas          ¼ cup softened butter
1 cup peanut butter     2/3  cup honey
2 Tbs molasses     2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

1 cup oatmeal          1 ½ cup whole wheat flour     
1 cup wheat germ     ½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder     2 tsp baking soda

Combine wet ingredients
Combine dry ingredients
Mix wet and dry together
Make 4 dozen cookies
Bake at about 375 for about 10 minutes…
(temps are different here and I don’t watch time)

Fast done!

Survived the fast!

Pigged out at on pizza to celebrate. The last day was just vegetable broth.

AT the pizza restaurant, the waitress looked so much like our friend Lindsey that it was spooky – especially since Lindsey is visiting Australia soon. I think she’s coming next weekend, actually. SO we’ll have to take her there…

Anyway, another week of bank work to pay the bills… My boss had her gall bladder removed earlier this week, so I have two full weeks of work while she recovers.

Seeya!

Fast Day 3

Ok so last night I totally cheated and had some toast. I had such a headache and was really kinda weary from being on my feet all day at the bank. Never before has toast with vegemite tasted quite so good.

Superbowl fans: check out this website: http://www.spaceimaging.com/gallery/ioweek/archive/06-01-29/index.htm

Oh, and no midweek pictures this week - the camera needs duct tape and I've lost track of its present location. Worse than losing your mind...

Detox Fast Day Two

Nothing but herbal tea. That’s “herbal,” with an “h” in front of it, not “erbal.” Just wanted to clarify.

Oh, it also is pretty boring, tasteless stuff.

Caffeine headache is significant. May have to cheat….

Buschcronium

A major research institution has just announced the discovery of theheaviest element yet known to science. The new element has been named"Bushcronium".Bushcronium has one neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons and224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 311. These 311particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded byvast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.Since Bushcronium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can bedetected, as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. Aminute amount of Bushcronium causes one reaction to take over 4 days tocomplete when it would normally take less than a second. Bushcronium has anormal half-life of multiples of 4 years, it does not decay, but insteadundergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons anddeputy neutrons exchange places.In fact, Bushcronium's mass will actually increase over time, since eachreorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to believe thatBushcronium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity inconcentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as "CriticalMorass".When catalyzed with money, Bushcronium activates Foxnewsium, an elementwhich radiates orders of magnitude, more energy, albeit as incoherent noise,since it has 1/2 as many peons but twice as many morons.

Fasting Day 1

Ok. So we're about 12 hours into a detox fast. We got thi snifty book from young Sarah McC, and we decided we'd give one of the fasts a go.

Today, only fruit.

I'm doing OK, apart from a bit of a needing-caffeine headache. We all know, of course, that a day of only fruit can only end in one way. Hasn't happened yet, and I'll spare you the details.

If I think of it, I'll write more tomorrow. Unless I die of decaffeination. It could happen.
- Matt

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 (: