Shovels and Gardens and Books

With all of the morning hours Mikayla and I have been putting in, we finally got to a point in our yard work Friday morning, where all maintenance had been accomplished and we weren't sure what to do. That never happens! Not with housework--not with yardwork. We stood around looking for so much as a weed to hoe and nothing! We actually got to move past the maintenance step into the creating phase and spent an hour planting flour seeds. I've never done that straight into the ground, but what else were we going to do--laundry? There will be plenty of maintenance by tomorrow morning, but it was fun to feel that tiny taste of progress.

Fred has a co-worker who offered us cherries from her backyard if we wanted to go pick them on Saturday. Of course we were excited! Cherries are so expensive and picking is a fun family activity, but I wasn't prepared for what we found in her back yard. It was an adventure, with trees everywhere, some places making a low canopy that you had to pick your way through and dotted throughout with all kinds of little garden spots and sitting nooks, interwoven with paths and sidewalks that seemed to meander around and through and under all kinds of foliage. I'm sure her whole lot wasn't over an acre, . It wasn't the kind of place that would be conducive to capture the flag or touch football, and F.H.E. Sardines would have been impossible there, but it was inspiring and Fred and I came straight home and started measuring and dreaming about our own little garden nooks -- on graph paper, something that I'm sure this lady never used because there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to her landscaping. Maybe by the time our children are grown we will have learned some of the arts of Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Floyd and created a garden of Eden of our own, for the grandchildren. We are enjoying the cherries and even though last Mondays lesson was on refinement, I am afraid we have had some rousing cherry pit spitting contests. I can't imagine what the neighbors must think as the younger the contestant the louder and messier the competition seems to be. I cringe to think what apricot and plum season will mean ;)

Mikayla's 16th birthday is just one week away. It feels quite different to have a daughter turning 16, than it did a son. Different concerns, different excitements--more protectiveness. We are also letting her get her driver's license, after stalling for a year. I'm afraid she has my direction impairment so I will only be comfortable with her driving in Middleton alone, but she will be happy even for that bit of freedom. I wrote last week that she had checked out "Great Expectations" from the library; I was wrong, she actually checked out "David Copperfield", but it is still Dickens and she has surprised me with her interest. She wakes up before me every morning (around 6:00 or 6:30 and I always find her in her saucer chair with her nose in the book. I wasn't interested in Dickens at her age, in fact I didn't discover him until after I was married, but I think Mikayla is more mature than I was at her age. It's fun to watch her enjoying the charming caricatures that he creates. I haven't ever read Copperfield, but she is determined that we switch books when she is done.

We bought Fred a hammock stand for Father's Day last week, so he could finally get his hammock out of garage storage and put it to good use once again. It is now in constant use--it begs for people to grab a good book and sink in. Even Fred, who rarely has time for such luxuries spent a good hour in it last Thursday, begrudgingly finishing "Song of Years" (Dad will understand his pain:) I am glad to report that he is now in that small family club of people who made the emotional journey and are glad for having done it. He has resorted to using Jeremiah lines, however, so I may have to resort to using Sara lines though I'd feel awfully foolish if he didn't notice anything different:0

Jordan flies in early Friday evening of this coming weekend and flies out early Monday morning so we have him for the entire weekend. We're all feeling a little giddy. He won't get a wink of sleep! He's doing great in Spokane with all of those preparatory life lessons. One of his roomates got his mission call last Thursday and they all got to be a part of that "opening the call" experience. These are just the beginning of "days never to be forgotten". Next week Jordan and Dillon are getting Chinchilla's. Wo is me--you know where they are going to end up don't you. Crazy boys!

"Muscle Man" Abe

buried in the best outdoor investment we ever made.