(Pumpkin bread wrapped and ready to go)
My Dearest little Hankie Pankie,
It’s about 11:30PM and I am sitting in the kitchen still in my coveralls. My eyes are heavy and I’m grimy from working all day. I can hear Irish tearing apart and unstuffing his porch cushion. He’s wound up and bored, because you’re not here. Emmett is watching Irish’s antics from a safe distance on the stairs. Rat-Bat and Vivi have gone to bed while Luther and Deli are snoring nearby. Gosh by the time you get this, you’ll have been gone almost two and a half weeks.
I hope this package arrives safely. I’ve been keeping an eye on all the dogs all night so they wouldn’t get the pumpkin bread I baked for you. Irish kept sniffing the box, but I won’t continue to be outsmarted by a pack of dogs. Learning from the recent Father's Day Landjaeger debacle, I put it up in the cupboard where we keep the crackers.
– I don’t remember if I told you, but you remember the wooden rosary you put around Irish's neck because he’s a sinner? Well, he ate the cross. So much for being named after Notre Dame.
(Irish after he chewed off his cross)
Hmm, what else is happening around these parts? Well, Quinn’s been sick since she got back from California. Lisa said she’s just lying around all day whimpering. Her ffever before Advil™ was a 104.
As you know, Alexis moved out. All seems well with him and I know you will see him often as as he isn’t moving far away. He’s actually going to be very near the Everybody’s Store on a piece of land called “River Run Farm”. It’s a kind of a commune without the religion. It seems there’s a 100-year land trust and a bunch of people share 80 acres, but don’t own it. They have a community garden, which requires a daily commitment from all the community members. If you move there, you can build a house, and you own your own house, but you don’t own the land it sits on. In order to move there Alexis had to talk to all the people and be voted in. I think it’ll be an interesting experience.
(Alexis surveying the bridge progress)
(getting the bridge ready to work on)
Amy went up to see her boyfriend, Andrew and his son, Max, in Vancouver for Canada Day. She took Max a couple of new pets she found in the yard., Spot and Cuddles, seven-inch Banana slugs. Seriously, Amy is a whacked as we are. She feeds Cuddles and Spot the glidies leftovers. Amy wanted to stay a couple of nights at Andrew’s so I’m feeding the bunnies and the glidies. I don’t mind cutting up their pears, apples or sweet potatoes, but I really don’t like feeding live prey. They’re only crickets, but I feel badly for them as I shake them out of the little cricket tube. It’s not quite as bad as feeding the mealworms to your old turtle, Leo, but it’s close.
(Cuddles)
Of course, with you gone, I’ve been working a lot selling cheese, pumping gas, filling propane tanks, making sandwiches and weeding the strawberries at the store. A lot of unique people work there, take Ben for instance. He’s worked picking grapes at the Mount Baker Vineyard; he’s made mohair socks straight from the wool he sheered from his goats. He raises calves and butchers them to sell the meat. And as if that wasn’t enough he makes cheese, has over 300 blueberry bushes and plays the banjo. Ben just played at the Strawberry Social. He’s funny really. He told me he’s “pissed off all the time. Everything pisses me off. So I got one of those goat bells and I put in my barn. It’s just the right height so when I go in and out of the barn in the morning when I milk the goats I hit it with my shoulder. And it reminds me ‘Ben settle down” He makes me laugh.
(Ben - with a weird light on him - sorry)
I’ve been so tired, I’ve barely gotten anything done around here. I had so many lofty goals when you left, and I’m afraid I’m falling short. Today, I worked on cleaning the garage. I found, the marbles Daddy got you at Williamsburg, some books on tape I thought we’d lost forever (we can listen to them when school starts) and a bunch of your naked baby pictures. It was a three ring circus what with the geese curious about what I was doing, Christina and Rachel trying to eat the Christmas garland and having to battle Miracle for my Diet Coke. You know, ever since she had those Doritos she’s been completely out of hand.
(The geese helping with the garage)
(garage a bit tidier)
Oh, the chicks and poults are finally coming tomorrow. The post office guy is supposed to call me when they arrive. We suspect it should be something like 6:00 AM. I’m going to put them in the laundry room for a couple of weeks before moving them out to the coop. I’m a little disappointed. I ordered Narragansett turkeys and Dominique chickens – then the other two breeds were filler to make the minimum 25. Unfortunately, I didn’t get either the Narragansetts or the Dominiques. I’m really disappointed. Is it silly to cry over chickens? I haven’t but I feel like it. I just wanted them for so long and now, I won’t get them. I can’t order another 25 and I can’t afford more if I could. Oh well, I’ll probably love them just like I love Rat-Bat. At least I hope I will.
(finishing stapling the wire on the chicken coop)
(Rachel - such a silly goat)
(Luther sitting pretty- safe from a goose or donkey attack)
I let Abe, Andy and Anna out to run and play today. They seemed hungry and the grass was low in the pasture so I let them out. For a long time I didn’t hear Andy’s bell and I was worried they’d gone way up the mountain, but then for no known reason they suddenly came running across the pasture – in the gate and over to their water. They sat down in the barn and didn’t leave the pasture again even though I left the gate open all day. Weird cows.
Miracle let me actually put my leg over her today and sit on her back. I got a little nervous when she started walking around so I got off, but I think I’ll try again a bit tomorrow and see what she thinks.
I hope you’re having a wonderful time and learning a lot of gymnastics. Make friends my sweetie, bee good and get some email addresses so you can keep in touch.
I miss you more than Grandpa Horn loves butter. But don‘t worry, I’m not pining away, but I do miss your silly laugh, your dumb jokes, your smart-alec ways and your snuggly kisses.
love,
Mama
p.s. I don’t miss your stinky feet.
