Wow, I feel like I've been treading water trying not to drown. Soccer is finally over, as is Isabel's drama class. Last week we had 4 games, 2 rehearsals, 2 plays, and a field trip to the zoo. While last week was probably our busiest, it seems like the past month has just been really intense. I'm looking forward to a summer of less structure and more time to enjoy our yard.
In between all the kids' activities, we've enjoyed watching life unfold around us. The baby birds that nested on our porch all hatched and learned to fly. Our cats didn't manage to eat one despite their earnest efforts. I actually caught our 17-year-old blind cat, Roland, stalking one that had landed in a bush close to the porch. He could hear it and smell it but not see it. I carried him inside so the baby bird had a chance to get away.
The garden started offering up daily meals for us as well as our CSA customers. I started picking and packing orders the first week of May. So far we've had lots of salad greens, kale, chard, spinach, chinese cabbage (plagued by earwigs and slugs), radishes, carrots, turnips, beets, and just enough peas for me to grab a handful and snack while I'm harvesting at 6:00 am. It's been tight trying to harvest while it's still cool out and manage to get the kids ready for school at the same time. Isabel has done a good deal of baby sitting and helping me pack lunches in a rush this month.
Flora witnessed Stella (one of our cats) kill a rabbit in our garden. This was a hard life lesson but valuable none the less. It made me sad to see what Stella had done but I know she's just doing her job and if she weren't patrolling our garden I'd be feeding more rabbits than people.
The Wards got baby chicks, sex-links, a couple weeks ago. We took the girls out this weekend so they could see them before they got past that cute stage. Oh, it really makes me want my own little chicks. That said, it's probably a good thing I can't rush out and get my own. I think the girls (okay, Flora) would accidentally kill them if I weren't super diligent. Or maybe the cats would kill them. I think the girls would probably try to introduce the chicks to the cats. Maybe we need more hard life lessons before I go the chick route. Anyway I don't have time to be super diligent right now.
I'm still planting like crazy. We have 65 tomato plants in the ground, three rows of eggplant, two rows of okra, four rows of squash, one row of beans, and one patch of cucumber in the ground. I have so much more to get in. I plan to really double up on my gardening efforts this week and next since our extracurricular schedule has lightened up.
Now if only Ward won't figure out how to crawl before I get the rest of those plants and seeds set out. He's right on the verge of being one mobile little boy. Heaven help me.
