Daddy...soon...

This was the first week living in my new home without Matt, who is the reason I am able to be here. It was strange not having anyone to be home for at 5pm after work, and lonelier at night time when we usually play with Jess together, have dinner, chat with Keith, sing lullabies to Jess and put her to bed, and then keep each other up too late. I'd say I probably got more sleep, and definitely used the car a whole lot more, but would much rather Matt's company than sleep and driving. Jacinta and I listened to him sing each night and while traveling, thanks to the three CDs we made last year. She would smile deep down and say "Daddy...singing." One morning she woke up and said "Daddy? soon...." She often says that now, and although she has heard his voice on the phone she still thinks he is flying. I ask her where he is and she points up into the sky and says, "there."
Jacinta and I spent all day Monday out with friends, leaving poor Keith to dine alone. We spent the morning at my friend Sally's house who lives in a small beach town, knitting, playing with clay and then! She spread out lunch on the table and I havefound another soul sister! This woman loves to cook and is much better at it than I am. She is Japanese Americanand has older children who love to eat and leave her a lot of time to create in the kitchen. She made falafel, cornbread, a roasted pumpkin feta salad, a cucumber and dill salad, a bean salad with herbs and then there was even pita andtzatziki on the table! Jess and I could eat everything on the table, lately Jess is picky but she ate everything on Sally'stable. Trish, another choir/knitting friend was there too and having an older son, she too is enchanted to have a little baby around. After lunch, we all trekked out to the river, walked a while, crossed a long bridge, walked through the woods,up a dune, and then voila! After a 30 minute walk passing Jess from arm to arm, we arrived at the ocean.It was choppy, the clouds were building and turning gray. It was as if Jess could feel the air because she would not let me put her down. We took turns taking a quick dip, sat on the sand and played with shells and watched a mutton bird stand bravely in the wind, all alone, not moving, not bothered by us, not looking for food, just standing. Trish explained that often Mutton birds get stuck in storms, they tire while migrating to or from Tasmanialand on the shore, and just wait. Eventually, they die. We sat there wondering what the bird was thinking. Did she knowshe was going to die? Someone said their son had learned at school that some animals don't really contemplate death, they just try and live. Perhaps the bird just thought it would eventually muster the energy to go on, and then while staring into the wind and water, its life ends. It was a beautiful black bird, and a sight I will never forget. I suppose animals don't think much about the future, or the past, just the moment. At that moment, she was standing.
After a wet walk back to Sally's house Jess and I got in the car and drove home. But then I saw the turn off to Melina's house, and being obsessive about combining trips and saving gas, I went to Melina's although Jess was beginning a necessary nap. I parked the car next to the house, and we drank tea outside watching Jacinta sleep. Melina's husband Justin wanted to go fishingfor the night on the ocean, so Jess and I stayed on and kept Melina and the kids company. Jess had been asking to see "Nahwee??"Neri and Bronte "Bonty???" all weekend so that was that. Home by 8pm, in bed by 9pm, a nice day out, leading up to the rest of week lazing at home watching the rain.
On the land this week we were blessed with rain, rain and more rain, and a little sun here and there. The tank is fulland we are pleased. The temperatures are cooler, most people still wear short sleeves, but Jess has a cold so she is wearing sweaters and little scarves around her neck. This is something I really appreciate learning from my French friends. Have you ever wondered why so many French women wear scarves regularly around their necks? Well I can only speakfrom my friends' perspective but it is not all for fashion, but used to keep the neck warm because one can lose so muchheat through your neck and head. So I've been wrapping her up, we've even gotten out winter hats! Today started out like real autumn day, windy, cloudy, drizzling and cool. I just love autumn and can't wait to see what that means here in Macksville.
The moon planting chart advises that this week is one for soil care, tree care, mulching, weeding and fertilizing, but no planting. Although I wanted to put more peas in, I held off and did.....not much of anything! Keith and I picked caterpillars off of the apple tree, and fuzzy cocoons of some sort of of many of the other trees, in the pouring rain. We (mostly Keith) did a lot of yard clean-up, gathering mulching material, and pruning off the lower fruit tree branchesthat had grown in below the graft. What is grafting you may ask? It means that instead of growing a tree from seed,one takes a hardy tree with an established root system, cuts off the top of the tree leaving about 8 inches, slices into it, and places a cutting of the desired tree into the slice. Thus, branches below the graft could be from a completely different tree. For example, my grapefruit tree died (perhaps the wind, or a stray calf munching), but there were 4 little branches growing below the graft. I chopped off the dead grapefruit bit, and I now have a hardy lemon treethat will produce some unknown stange variety of lemon, with thorns on the branches, or maybe it never will.....We hung tools in the garden shed on a ledge Matt built for that purpose, built a work table which has an end at Jess' height,and the other end is at my level. Hmm......how can you have a table both 2 feet and 3 feet high??? Hills! Cool, aye?I am learning to saw, hammer and drill properly, as is Jacinta, although she learns with her eyes and must wait to try outher skills. We cut the lower branches of some bushes near the clothes line, providing Jess with a green playland, completewith shade, flowers, berries (not to eat) and branches to hang on (yes, she's begun hanging). The potato garden is looking good, with beets 4 inches high, carrots popping up nicely, Bok Choi and Pak Choi, lettuces and spinach seedlings springing out of the dark wet soil, but no potatoes. Just today I spotted pea seedlings. I can't wait to eat them, but the plants are also supposed to be great soil enhancers, packed with nitrogen. Lastly, after watching the peanut tree (a really cool native rainforest tree that will give us fruit, not peanuts) sit in its pot for 3 months, we planted it in the rainforest and ignored the moon.
Jess had a lovely week, even with a slight cold. She had lots of time to play in the shed and draw on the chalkboard while Keith and I worked on the table. She is a wonderful assistant and although you may think it's dangerous, she is very goodat bringing us screws "sooo" when they are needed. She tried using the hammer but that didn't work out so well. She was also a good weight on board while the end was being sawed off. We jump roped vines while clearing out invasive species from the natives. She spotted her first freckle, it is above her knee, a strange place to find your first freckle, since the sun does not often see that bit of her leg. She chased chickens, played with clay, swatted mosquitoes, drank a lot of tea, and drank her first nasty cold concoction, well maybe not the first but the worst yest. I learned this one from a school friend:Cold medicine:1-2 whole lemons1/2 inch chunk of ginger1 clove of garlicPut this through the juicer, add some hot water and a bunch of honey (enough to make it bearable) and drink.Would you believe she drank it willingly? Such a proud mum I am! If you want to avoid antibiotics and don't have a lot ofmoney, you have to learn to drink and eat things that don't taste all that good. I did not learn this until I was out of college,and my poor child has to learn young. Her friends will pity her, "I can't beleive you drink that!" But I smile, knowing she'll have a few less chemicals in her system.
So Matt has finished his week in Oakland CA at the University and is now in the air "flying" back to Detroit, ahhh. What a cool thought for me to rest upon, shortly he will be with a few people that we have missed dearly for the last 8 months. On that note, I will close with a cooking story about Jacinta. Friday nights Mary comes home exhausted from a hard week at work so I try and cook something comforting on Fridays. She loves my chili, which Aussies don't know much about except forwatching it eaten on American movies. So Jess and I began to cook up some chili and cornbread. We pull her small tableinto the kitchen, partly because I can't comfortably reach the countertops, and partly because she can really participatewhen we're working down low. I hand her each vegetable out of the fridge and she takes it over to the table. We wash them, then I pull out the cutting board and she chooses a vegetable to place on it. Being a control freak myself I tell her, "No, zucchiniare not first, onions first." So she puts the onion on the block and I chop. She then sweeps them into the pan. We go throughcarrots, peppers, eggplant, and finally zuchinni and with each one, she wants a taste. Typically she turns her nose up at most raw veggies but today her little body must need them because she asks, "Taste?" for each one and bites into it. The little hearts inside green peppers are so crunchy and yummy. We call them "babies" and this makes her want to eat them. We wore the zuchinni tops on our heads as crowns and had a good laugh. I used to breathe a sigh of releif when she left the kitchen, now I miss her, but get a lot done. When she returned to the kitchen, we made cornbread. First we cracked the egg, "stir it up?" she asked. Then I added soft, but not meltted butter as the recipe said. Instead of stirring that up, she dug in every second I looked away and grabbeda bite. Hmmm...raw egg, I know, but anyway, she's still alive. She tips in cup of milk, begins splashing and I tell her to slow down. She does!Then goes the cornmeal, yummm?? She now searches for the butter in the clumps of cornmeal and eats it again."No more! Just stir it Jacinta." "Taste???" "No, stir." So she stirs quickly, as if she'd never asked and asks again every minute. We add the baking powder, the salt, and the sugar and she stirs it up. Quickly I take the bowl out of her hands, pour it in the baking pan and give her the empty bowl, saying, "You can lick the bowl." Oooops! She took it literally, licked the sides, and stuck it on her head to get the rest. "Yummy" she kept saying, licking away while I laughed, gave her a spoon and kicked myself for saying, "lick." She finished every last bit, and as I have taught her, when she gets to the end of a bowl, she says, "Help?" and I scrape the sides for her. With cornbread batter in her hair and all over her face and hands, she smiled proudly and then strangely, ate no dinner because cookinghad been so fulfilling! Mary, Keith and I ate the chili and cornbread and were grateful for all of her hard work!

Have a good week y'all.

A few photos... again

Lud You Moon

Good day dear friends and family! A lazy Sunday afternoon this is, compared to our action packed Saturday. Arriving home last night at 11pm after our first "Bush Dance," with Lindsey at my side and Jacinta in my arms chirpily saying "crib...ducky....blanket," I crashed into bed thinking, I will write my journal tomorrow and this bed looks so lovely..." Lindsey Currin is our dear friend and first visitor from America. She has known Matt since she was about 8 from summer camp and grew up in his youth group and became our good friend. She is now studying abroad in Sydney and has come for a weekend with us country bumpkins. Lindsey met Jess 4 days after her birth and is getting to know her again as a loud toddler. Matt left Saturday morning on an airplane and is now in San Francisco spending one day recuperating after his long flight and preparing to teach on Monday. Jess knows her daddy was flying "like a birdie" and is learning how to blow kisses up into the air. I'm not sure if she understands that he is no longer flying but I keep telling her when she asks, "Daddy? soon?"that he is going to visit her Aunty Lecia, Uncle Ben, baby Kai, Cindy, Jan, Diane, Christine, Lauren, Carrie, Otto and maybe even Iris. She then claps and yells out, "Yay!!" reassuring herself, "Daddy...soon."

Life on the land this week has been unbelievably exciting. I used to think life in the country would be like flatlands, less hills and valleys to get worked up about. Days pass by quickly because there is always something to accomplish, celebrate, or mourn. On Monday I finally bought a calf collar for the "Baby." Jacinta had taken a short nap on the way home from town in her stroller so she didn't need her afternoon nap which usually happens between 2:30 and 4:30. After lunch Keith, Jess and I excitedly and nervously trotted down to the calf's pen. While Jacinta stayed on the outside looking in, Keith "lassoed" the calf and after a short chase in a small pen, I held her close while we put the collar on, noting that, "hmmm...this collar seems a bit big....shall i put another hole in it?"Keith said, "Nah, she'll be ok." We tied her up near the compost and she munched all afternoon on the lovely grass she had been eyeing for a week. Jess made dinner with dirt while Keith and I worked around the fruit trees breaking up grass roots and loosening the soil. It was a lovely shady day blessed by cool breezes. Ahhh...we started to look forward to more days like this. The calf would encourage us to work because she needed looking after on her tether. But this day became much more exciting. By 5pm it was time to lead the calf back to her pen with a bucket of milk. She became flustered and pulled out of her collar, free to graze anywhere she chose. So off she went, finally, she could explore the dam and its surroundings while the humans fluttered around trying to figure out what to do.

How do you catch a calf on a densely vegetated 5 acre lot which is attached to a much bigger property which is her home, where she was born and saw her mother die? You don't. Well, we didn't and gave up trying after Matt and Keith followed her around the dam for a while and decided..."she needs to go home, and we should just guide her."So Matt, Jess, Keith and I followed her back to the herd and watched her rejoice in familiar grass. We waited to see if she would fit in and follow them, but she just grazed in beautiful places and in a small creek. We waved goodbye and went home for dinner. Jacinta remembers the "Baby" often and retells the story sounding very concerned and serious, "Baby! No!" Although we never said "No" to the baby, she perhaps would have liked to, just to keep her close by. She had learned how to feed the calf grass right out of her hand. One day we'll probably buy a calf to use as a milking cow.
It is now autumn, although some days are still very hot, you can feel the wind more often. The sun is not as strong and the vegetables don't wither away without watering every day. It gets dark around 7:30 now and the sun does not rise until after 6am. Mary and Keith who rise very early are looking forward to daylight savings, but Matt and I who "sleep in" until 7:15 or 7:30 enjoy the later sun rise because Jess allows us a few extra minutes of sleep. This week ended the 2nd quarter of the moon, with a full moon on Wednesday. This meant that if I was going to plant by the moon I needed to get my peas in the ground before the full moon. While the moon is still increasing it is advised that you plant fruiting annuals, meaning fruits and vegetables in which you want abundant seed, for example: beans, corn, peas, tomatoes. It is now too cold for three of those vegetables to be planted, so peas are what I wanted to plant. Jess and I got out Tuesday night and put in a few peas in the potato patch but darkness fell after about 12 peas and the mosquitoes were having a good feed on our sweet blood. So on Thursday, too late, I know, after Jess went to bed I put in a whole bunch of peas in the house garden by the light of the moon and the trusty headlamp. More than their bite, the buzzing of the mosquitoes in my ears bothered me. I am learning to put tea tree oil on mine and Jacinta's bites directly after they show up, rather than itching them until they bleed. They disappear within a day now. The other thing "on the land" worth mentioning is that our four chicks, originally thought to be two roosters and two hens have now become three roosters and one hen. Divozzo has also become a rooster, to our chagrin. I not only grieve his manhood because he'll have to be given away, but we now only have one female to give us cute little bantam eggs! Iris is well and truly a female. This is a good thing because in real life, she is a sweet little 2 year old girl in Ferndale. Otto, Jess's little Gemini boyfriend in Ferndale is also a real boy and a real rooster. But of the two chickens who who were named after unborn babies, Ben Jr. has become Kai (now a real boy born on March 5) and a rooster, and Divozzo Jr. (due in June) has also turned out to be a boy. I suppose we'll have to wait and see if the chick's gender determines this baby's!

Matt worked at the bank all week, commuting 45 minutes each way, coming home to prepare for his class, pack, make plans with friends, spend time with Jess and I, watch the Commonwealth Games and also, go cow catching. He gave up class prep by Thursday, enjoyed himself and then Friday night we all spent catching up with Lindsey. It has been so much fun sharing our new life here with Lindsey. Having someone from the past make that bridge to your present life is so wonderful. As Matt puts it (and I embellish it), this is the first person that met Jess in her first days of life and has also seen her talk and chase chickens. Matt was sad to leave when Lindsey arrived but she will return on spring break and help divide our bedroom into a child's room and a room for us! It will be so nice to be able to speak in a normal tone of voice at night and keep the lights on!

The sweet little girl for whom we whisper at night and keep the lights low is becoming a true two year old, although she has over two months to go. She says No very loud and often, has a strong opinion on what she wants and does not want and can walk down stairs unaided. She (and I) tried a fruit called a persimmon this weekend, and she is already saying "simmon." Being a fruit, she was instantly smitten with the "simmon." It is impossible to list all of her new words because it has just become that time in her development that she soaks up about 5 new words a day and I can't keep track. All I can do is be in awe and marvel and wonder, "When did she start saying that?" She has started clicking with her mouth, she picked this up from Keith and it is hilarious. She has also said her first couple of words with a true Aussie accent: tomato, "mahto" she says, and basil, pronounced, "baaaazil" with a short A.

Jacinta came along with me to choir this week and kept herself entertained for two hours while I sang. The rhythm and rich harmonies surely helped, as did the open arms and smiling faces of the other 9 choir members. She sat on her blanket and played with toys and drew pictures, looked at library books on the shelves (and did not draw in them!), and jumped into my arms a few times to listen to our voices and feel some love. She would run across the circle once in a while to visit one of my three friends in choir, but largely she did not demand much attention. I was impressed, but not amazed. One woman gave me perhaps the nicest compliment I have heard in a while. She said, " Your little girl seems like she's from the old school. She actually has an attention span." Being a Waldorf teacher and trying to prohibit the television from diminishing her imagination, her attention span, and her interest in real objects this is something I'm honored to hear. That night Jacinta said I love you for the first time. To me? No. To Matt? No. We stopped at the beach after choir to gaze at the full moon shimmering on the water. As we were leaving I said "goodnight moon" and laughing, told her to say, "I love you Moon" and she did, "Lud you Moon." Now she says it regularly to the moon and will respond when Matt or I say "I love you," saying "Lud You." She also says "cuddle" now and will give good cuddles and tell you what she is doing, "cuddoo."

So I said we had gone to a "Bush Dance." It is like a barn dance and this one was held in a small country town called Valla about 20 minutes from home at the"hall." Keith has since explained that these "halls" were usually far out of town and used for meetings, dances and other things. I wondered why it was so distant from everything. Anyway, Lindsey, Jess, Michelle, Rory and I arrived just when night fell, amazed to see how many people were there. There were lawn chairs and blankets set up outside, coolers set up packed with beverages, mostly alcoholic. The "Sunburnt Celts" were playing Irish Aussie music, complete with fiddle, banjo and Irish whistle and one of them was calling out dances. People of all ages were dancing, perhaps it would be like line dancing, babies in strollers sleeping, children running around outside or dancing with their parents, and many adults sitting outside drinking and chatting. To make a long story short, we had a great time, learned some new dances, loved the music, and the kids had a good frolic. Jacinta wanted to dance constantly, so my arms hurt today. Poor Lindsey danced almost every dance having to swap being either Michelle or my partner while the other hung back with Rory (too heavy to be toted around in arms while do-si-do-ing), but had a good time doing it. This was after a long day out at the airport, the Bellingen markets, swimming in the ocean and the river. After the dance in the car Jess retold the story of her mom stepping in cow poo in the field on the way in, "Cow poo! Mommy! Yuuuck!" probably ten times, retold the story of Matt flying, "Daddy...fly fly fly!" about ten times and then fell asleep. Needless to say, we all slept well. We even had some energy left today to initiate Lindsey land work, mulching and planting trees. Yes, life has been exciting this week and I am so grateful. This week will be slower with Matt and Lindsey gone but we will surely find some new adventures. Hope you are all well and finding peace and joy in life's ups and downs.

ps...I don't have anyone's email addresses while Matt is in America, he has the computer. So if you want an email, please send me your address. Thanks guys!
Love, Shana

Bless You

Bless You!

An eventful week this was, a gross understatement. Lecia, my sister, had her first baby at 4am last Sunday morning. She and Ben named him Kai Roberts Johnson and he is beautiful! She and the and baby are well and now at home after a long stay in the hospital. Matt, Jess and I are now aunty, uncle and cousin to little Kai and are thrilled to bits, but sad to be too far away to cuddle him.  On that note, Matt will be able to give him a cuddle in a few weeks during his visit to the States to teach at his University in San Francisco. This is another reason why the week has been so eventful. Matt got an email urgently requesting him to fly back to SF to fill in for Matt Fox, the founder of the school where Matt received his doctorate, who was supposed to teach a one week course at the end of March. So Matt has been spending most of his time after he gets home from the bank preparing 15 hours of teaching an Intro to Creation Spirituality class. He has one week left now, so you can imagine the work he has ahead of him. Less exciting but making for an interesting week, Jess and I got head lice, yikes! It was yet another opportunity to try out homemade herbal remedies and succeed. Now she has a cold, so here we go again. I had my first knitting group here at the house, on a Monday morning. I took Jacinta to yoga and had her watch and play quietly (it worked for about 20 minutes) followed by the beautiful swimming hole which was very different after our week of rain.

Here on the land we had a great time getting into the new rhythm of feeding the calf morning and night. After disagreements over what we should name her, we still call her, “Baby,” because Jess calls her Baby. We usually get down to her by 8:30 or so, and she is very hungry for her milk by then. After giving her the bucket of milk, Jacinta promptly removes the empty bucket and goes on her way, out the door and over to the “living room” side of the shed. She grabs her tiny shovel, and tells me, with an inflection in her voice as if to invite me to join, “dig??” and sits down to her work saying, “yes, dig,” while she chops dirt on a piece of wood pretending to cook dinner. I wander away to pick grass (oh how silly it seems to be grazing for the calf and bringing her grass but it will end soon) while Jacinta yells out insistently, “Mommy? Mommy!” I answer her appeasingly over and over, “Yes?” and she repeats herself over and over, like a chant until I return with an armload of grass. We then enter the pen and feed the baby. She loves her grass, prefers it to the hay sitting there for her to eat all day and will eat it right out of our hands, even Jess’ hands. Jess says to the calf, “Hand?” thrilled by the closeness of the cow’s thin black tongue to her hand. When Jess has had enough of that, she says, “Done!” as she does with the chickens and walks out the door ready to move on. I have to pull her back up to the house. If she could choose, she’d much rather continue chopping dirt, with me sitting beside her giving her dinner ideas. Unfortunately I see too many things that need doing to sit there so I’ll yell from the potato garden, “Are you making chili?” “No!” “Are you making pizza?” “Yes!” Then she chops up green tomatoes from the teepee garden.

Otto, first Jess’ best buddy from Ferndale, now is also the biggest chick we’ve got. Well,  he’s become a full blown obnoxious rooster. Bummer. Ben/Kai is also a rooster but he’s calmer, perhaps because he has a bigger brother. It has been known that if more than one of the chicks turned out to be a rooster that we’d have to get rid of them because roosters fight each other and also harass the “girls.” So each day we hoped that Otto and Ben were really girls, but they are not. Otto has finally learned to crow, he squawked along for a while, learning how to do it, instinctively, and now he’s finally got it. He still sounds like a baby, but he’s already begun bossing all of the other chicks around and fighting his brother. So I’ve been told that I need to give Otto, or Otto and Ben away, boo hoo. I love listening to him learn to crow, and his name is Otto, how could he be obnoxious? Little Ben/Kai has not yet tried to crow, but I’m sure he will soon. It is amazing to see the difference in growth in the 4 chicks who all came out the same day, though they were laid on different days.

On Monday I neglected to put the baby chook pen back together after cleaning it out.  That evening I went to lock them up and there were only two! The two girls were roosting on an upturned box. Where was mum? She had ditched them and gone back to the big chook palace. Where were the baby roosters? NOWHERE! I looked everywhere with my flashlight. I had killed them with neglect. Just following the good news of my nephew’s arrival, I had killed Otto and Ben/Kai. I couldn’t sleep that night, my poor babies had been devoured by a snake.  I’ve since learned that chickens are creatures of habit and will refuse to inhabit their pen if it is not what they are used to. The two roosters learned that night to sleep in the trees, it’s just instinct. Chickens are rainforest birds and know how to survive in the trees. We just lock them up because we want to keep them, and don’t want to allow nature to truly take its course because it means risking the life of a chicken we use and want to keep. Now we have to go and guide them to their pen each night before they fly up and roost in the trees, silly “roosters.”

Garden work this week was minimal. Michelle and I fenced in the potato garden from turkeys and chickens who dig mulch over all of the plants. I actually had to water this week because the heat returned and took the place of the rain, so the new dam pump came in handy. We moved the big mulcher into a new bay and built it a pedestal to keep it out of the mud. Matt and Keith used the chainsaws and hacked down a lot of big branches which had been overshading the yard and preventing the ground from drying up. Keith and I started a new compost heap which involved a bit of digging in the chook pen, gathering poo from chickens and the cow and wheelbarrowing it all up and down the hill. We love having the calf as a supercomposter, she makes our compost a true luxury. I did no planting this week, but a bit of fruit tree care.  

I got out a lot this week, even with all of the extra laundry, lice, and a cold. Jess and I visited Michelle’s new place on the Nambucca River, and enjoyed a night out watching the moon shimmer on the water. Choir was again a spirited joy-filled singing experience. We took Jedda to the vet because her wound reopened. Tonight we had dinner at the Murphy’s and even saw a kangaroo on the road, yes, still hopping. Jess talked about it “hopping” and Neri Murphy’s mouse “hopping” all the way home. Through all of this driving and about 10 times here at home, Jess and I listened to the best cd, African Rhymes and Lullabies from most of French speaking Africa. I ordered this book on the French Amazon.com website last week, and it arrived! I have been devouring the text and translations from African languages to French and just loving the melodies, beautiful soulful voices and the drumming. Jess laughs and sings along to certain parts. I listen to a lot of African music with her, dancing or drumming along and I can tell that her sense of rhythm is developing more than mine ever did.

Jess will become a little tyrant if we let her. With her new ability to speak she tries to tell us what to do. Often it is helpful and cute, but sometimes she goes too far, unfortunately even then it is still cute. When the chickens come near the back porch, she yells at them authoritatively, “No! Go away!” At bedtime, after the usual lead up, she now points to her crib and says, “There?” She calls for her blanket, her pillow “piddo”, and her ducky. She gets in her crib, points at the rocking chair and tells me to “Sit….Knit.”  I did this one night and she obviously enjoyed it so now it has become routine, but she tells me to do it. As they say, kids like routine, and take so much pride in knowing what’s next. She tells us when she has done a poo, comes to the bedroom and lays down in the spot on the floor where we usually change her. She asks for “powda” or “oil.” When you take a shirt off of her that she really wanted to wear, she cries, “Wear it”  (whimper whimper). In the middle of the night she might wake up and request “mitch” (milk), needless to say, that request isn’t often fulfilled. She says, “Bless You” to herself when she sneezes!  

I’ll close with a night time story. It was 7pm.  Jess and I set out with the wagon down the hill. Goal: walk to the vacationing neighbor’s house, arrive by 7:30, meet Keith there with his truck, swim in their pool, and drive back by 8 for bedtime. Jess refused to board the wagon, “walk.” She walked, stopped for rocks, looked at the moon, walked, went backwards, played in puddles, and ran. I thought she’d get tired and get in the wagon, but never! As I stood far ahead telling her that it was time to go, she ran in her last puddle, slipped, face down into the only puddle that happened to have cow manure it. “Carry,” was her solution, that is how we would get the next half mile to the pool. No way! I’m not carrying you I told her, “You kept jumping and fell in poop when I told you to come, Wagon or walk.”  “No” she cried, “Carry!” Eventually I convinced her to run with me, but then night fell. We came upon cows and I picked her up, thinking, “oh well, we have to get there to get our ride home and it will go faster.” By 8pm Keith came back with the truck and took us to the pool, wet nasty clothes, wagon and all. We swam under the moon and the stars in a fancy in-ground pool and all was washed away. Jacinta was in bed by 9 and it became a funny story, not just a long dark messy journey.

Next week at this time Matt will be on a plane to San Francisco coming home to do work that makes him very happy and see some of you who also make him very happy. How much can happen in a week, it’s amazing. Goodnight y’all.

All Day Rain

If you listen to Greg Brown, a folksinger from Iowa, he sings a song called, “All Day Rain.” (If you don’t know him, you should try him out!) Well, we’ve had all week rain, every day, on and off, and the mosquitoes love it! He sings about all of the great comforts we submit ourselves to on rainy days, and that’s exactly what we have done. Well…Matt had bank work 4 days this week, so he didn’t really get to enjoy the laze of this rainy week, but just my extra cooking energy perhaps. The mosquitoes were more the reason that Jess and I didn’t spend much time playing in the rain and in the mud, these insects are vicious! Just feeding the chickens there would be at least 20 mosquitoes at al times swarming around each human body, although we were wearing coats, pants, hats and bug lotion. Thanks to the mosquitoes we had more time for breadmaking, nutcracking, drumming, drawing, dancing, puzzles, and just playing.

Jess’ friend Rory came over a few times this week and livened things up. One morning Michelle and I spread out all of our seed packets on the bedroom floor and began draw up a plan of which seeds we’d plant and where. Meanwhile Jess and Rory are spreading all of their toys across the floor, papers, crayons, animals, and musical instruments, but mostly trying to draw on our plan. After a while we actually went out (and the rain had stopped!!!) and planted a huge amount of winter veggies. The kids were helpful for a while: “weeding” and pulling out all of the sticks which served as indicators for where seeds had been planted.  Then we took turns entertaining on walks down to the overflowing dam to search for creatures and make “soup.” Eventually I left Michelle to finish up and I took the kids up to make lunch. I had made a spinach pie and they each had a bit on their plate for lunch. It worked out perfect for the two because Jacinta wanted only the crust, and Rory the filling. Jacinta saw Rory picking off the bread and right away swiped it right off of his plate. All the while, Rory is smiling while I frown because I can’t get her to eat green stuff! After lunch and some contemplative play with seashells (Jess working very hard to fill Rory’s sandals with seashells), Jess pulled a new stunt. With Rory and Michelle still there, she brought me two books and said, “Mommy…nap.” What wonders words can work.

“Binchet” was another great word for the week. Matt learned this word after a great night with Jess while I was singing my heart out at choir. They had ridden to town on the bike and gotten ice cream and played a bunch at home afterwards and then it was time for bed. No crying or missing me at all: teeth brushed, potty sitting done, pyjamas on, books read, lullabies sung and in bed, but I need a “binchet!!!!!” She’s trying to tell Matt insistently, “binchet!” over and over. Finally Matt said, “show me what it is Jess,” and she pulled down a blanket. She needed a blanket, not because she was cold, but because that’s the last step before sleep. A certain blanket??? No, she has about 15 handmade blankets lovingly knitted, quilted, and crocheted by many of our friends and family members. Any beautiful love-filled blanket does the trick.  

Whenever Matt sits at the computer and Jacinta is nearby, she reaches up and call out, “pikshas???” Often Matt will pick her up and show her movies of past pictures that he has made, accompanied by fun songs. Now she thinks the computer is really just “pikshas,” and always asks to see, even on Keith and Mary’s computer when they are working or playing cards. So we try to deter her and say “later.” She has started to answer her own questions when she makes a request. We either say “not now” or “no,” and she nods her head confidently saying, “lata,” or “soon.” She also saw her first movie this week, the documentary on bird migration called “Winged Migration.” I know some of you are chuckling that it was not “Chicken Run” or some cartoon, and others are sighing saddened that she saw television too early, but there is a TV here and most people in the house watch it at some point in the evenings. We ignore it most times but she enjoys catching a glance now and then of animals. So anyway, she watched this film for 45 minutes while we narrated a little for her. She spun around, flapped her wings and danced with the birdies, calling out when a new bird, goose, duck or horse came on the screen.  For the next two days she pointed to the TV and asked for “pikshas? Birdies?” and as I said “not now,” she continued to reassure herself, “lata.” Often later never comes, but it makes her feel better at the time.

So…what has been done on the “farm” this week? Well, the mosquitoes took over and had a good feed. Besides that… I planted potatoes in the potato patch, finally! I did it in the pouring rain while Jess was napping and it was so much fun, I honestly love planting in wet dirt. We planted greens, broccoli, leeks, carrots, shallots, cauliflower, celery, and perhaps something else I’ve forgotten. Matt did a little bit of work in the garden shed, hanging shelves and tool racks and installed a towel rack in the bathroom. He is finalizing plans to divide our huge bedroom into two which will give us our own room and Jacinta one of her own. Matt and Keith installed the new water pump down at the dam, while Jess and I sat and gave moral support. Jedda the dog had a growth removed and Keith was also sick this week. But Jedda is running around again and Keith is feeling better too.  No swimming, no sun, but the rain water tank is full so we had many guiltless baths and did lots of laundry.

Perhaps the most exciting day of the week was today. After taking turns driving down to the neighbor’s house to feed the calf in the rain twice a day we decided to bring the calf up to our house and turn a section of our shed into a cow pen. We feared the rains would actually flood the road allowing us passage and the cow was getting too thin. So we all spent an hour or so down at the shed preparing the calf’s pen. Matt and Keith fastened wire around posts while I jumped in and out of helping them and Jess and Jacinta climbed in and out of the pen also drawing on her chalkboard and playing football. Mary came down for a while to join in on the fun and also to bring Jedda down to play. When all was ready and cozy for the calf, Matt took Jess up to nap and Keith and I went down in the truck to “catch” the calf. This was amazing, I’ve never thought of myself as a cowgirl but today I was one. We had to corner her, get a rope around her neck, blindfold her with my extra shirt, push her to the truck and lift her into the trunk. Doors shut and I was in the back and soothe her while she lied down leaning so hard against me and eventually allowing her heart to slow down. Getting her out of the truck was much easier and then into her new pen, after which we removed her blindfold. It’s quite funny, it’s like she is in a little house. She could look at the artwork on the walls if she chose to, or watch us relax on the bench while Jacinta draws on her chalkboard. We will tether her out in the yard during the day, but for now, she has a nice dry cozy bed of straw and is no longer in a soggy pen with dwindling grass to graze upon.

It was a rainy, cozy week. We’re all wearing sweaters again, I’ve already excitedly sorted Jess’ clothes and gotten out her sweaters. Jess was given so many wonderful handmade clothes, and I rejoice when she finally fits a new one. She now fits Sheila, Kristen and Mrs. Goralevski’s sweaters. I spent time reading, knitting, cooking, drumming, playing guitar, planting, singing, playing, dancing with my baby and feeding animals. Jess said her first full sentence, “I did a poo,” how proud we are, if only it was on the toilet! Although we didn’t spend much time outside, Jacinta still found time to run down muddy slopes, yelling, “running!” while I yelled, “Slow down!!!” She only fell a few times and landing on her bum and face didn’t make her cry, although she whines incessantly when I won’t carry her some days. We have 4 huge pumpkins growing now, a few tomato plants have started producing, and more beans have surfaced.

As much as life here is lovely and new, life in the States is something we miss and long for daily, probably Matt more than I, missing meaningful work.  April comes closer and I prepare to visit my family and meet my sister’s new baby (coming this week…..), I ache to be with them. Jess can now associate certain things with different people whom she has not seen for almost five months. While she plays with stickers or a Valentine’s card stamped with love from my mom, I tell her that Grandma sent those, specifying that it’s “my mummy,” and she asks, “Zja Zja?” as if to say, “Yes mom, they’re from Grandma and Zja Zja (George).” This brings tears to my eyes to know that I haven’t destroyed her relationships with my awesome family and friends. I used to deny the benefits of some technology, just focusing on all of the negative effects certain things have had on society. I am now eternally grateful to this technology, email and digital photography. Yes, there are negative impacts, but right now, I’m loving the positive aspects!

So thank you all for humoring us in our attempts to reduce the distance between you and the Henrys. You could just say, “you would have stayed if you really wanted to keep in touch,” but you know we had to go. So sincerely, thank you. Have a peaceful passionate and loving week. Try and send some good thoughts or prayers to my sister in Milwaukee who will most likely be having her baby this week. Goodnight. I’m off to peek at what a baby calf looks like sleeping.  

Learn from Jacinta

Click for the video:

http://www.paintedguitar.com/seed