Last Sunday, late in the afternoon, we had a surprise. We heard the front doorbell ring and when we answered it, there stood Rachel, Hazel, and June! We weren’t expecting them until later in the week, but Rachel decided to come early as a Father’s Day surprise. We were so happy!
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| It's fun waking up in the morning with these cute girls. |
All week we’ve been enjoying each other’s company. I love having my children at home and grandchildren make it even nicer. We've gone for walks to look for salamanders in the hollow. We've gone swimming at Erway's pond. We love to hold and cuddle baby June. She is almost six months old and is adorable, fat, and happy. Hazel is amazing. She is two (three in September) and so smart. She talks a mile a minute. She tells stories and sings and is always the center of attention.
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| Salamander hunting with Hazel. |
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| Swimming at Erway's pond. |
We had another week with lots of rain. It reminds me of tsuyu, the rainy season in Japan, when it rains every day and is warm and humid. I finally had to disconnect my rain barrel from the back porch gutter. I couldn’t use the rain barrel water fast enough and it kept overflowing and filling my planters with water. Now the gutter just empties the rain into the elderberry patch. Things never dry out, which is great for weeding because the weeds pull out easily from the moist soil, but it’s not so great for mowing. The grass grows fast and is always too wet to mow.
It looks like some of our wild animal problems have been taken care of. We caught the woodchuck that had set up residence in the pumpkin patch. It has been relocated. The man that told us about the fox stopped by to say he’d found their den over on the far side of the beaver pond and had taken care of that too. I was a bit sad, but I’m glad it all happened without our participation and not on our property. Something had to be done. I took a count and it looks like the fox took nine of our hens. Now if we can just keep the rabbits and voles out of the vegetable gardens . . .
Out in the garden things are looking good. The tomatoes and potatoes are starting to bloom. That means ripe tomatoes in another month and the first new potatoes in two weeks. There are peas to pick at last. We've started using onions even though they haven't started to bulb yet. The garlic sent up their scapes and I've cut them. We're picking a bowl of strawberries every other day. Despite a drop in the number of hens (due to the fox) we're gathering two dozen eggs every day. Demand for eggs is high right now and we can't keep up with it. The avian flu problem in the Midwest has driven up prices. Our farm fresh fertile eggs at $2.00 a dozen seems like a good deal to people and they keep us cleaned out, for now at least.
On Friday I drove Josiah up to the Hill Cumorah and dropped him off. He was the first to arrive and we sat around for an hour waiting for others to arrive. The main group of boys, who were being picked up at the Rochester Airport, were delayed. Two other boys eventually arrived by car and now that he had company, I left for home again. I have to confess I felt a tug on my heart as I drove away. Josiah will be gone for a whole month – the longest he’s ever been away. It is strange not to have him here. I find myself thinking I should call up the stairs to him several times a day. I’m doing his barn chores for him while he’s gone. I guess this is practice for me. Next year at this time he’ll be leaving for his mission. I can’t think about that right now. The Hill Cumorah Work Crew has a blog. If you want to share in his experience there you can go to http://hcpworkcrew.blogspot.com/. There are lots of pictures and he is in some of them.
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| Dropping Josiah off at the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center. |
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| Josiah and the work crew. |
The party atmosphere accelerated here in our corner of Gold as more family arrived during the week. Kurt and Julie’s two daughters – Kohl and her two boys Wade and Reed, and Kale are here now. Hazel is thrilled to have two cousins near her age here to play with. It’s nice to share meals and sit and talk. Things will get even better this week as Sarah and Tosh and Rachel’s Tabor arrive. We’re going to have a great Independence Day celebration.
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| Hazel and her cousins Reed and Wade. |
It’s cool and rainy today. We’re home from church and we’ve had lunch. I have to go down to the barn and do the chores in a few minutes, but after that I plan to take a nap. This evening our Sabbath Soiree at the Shillig’s house will be especially festive with so many family members in attendance. Rachel is making zucchini muffins to take as our contribution. The week ahead looks to be lively and full of fun and family.
