A Rambling Update

I keep meaning to take a photo of my lawn tractor and wagon get-up. It sure is convenient to have around.

Today, after dropping Finley off at school, I started down our drive, and thought to myself, "The road feels a bit rougher than normal. Perhaps I have a flat." Sure enough. The kids and I walked up to the house, loaded up the wagon with a Chris' portable air tank (with the dim hope I could just re-inflate the tire and get the van to the garage) and car jack (I prefer not to use the little hand jacks that come with cars if possible) and headed back down the drive, Z on my lap, Joe steering.

It ended up that the tire had a pretty good sized hole in the side (from what, I can't figure) so I was forced to put on the spare. I miss the days when I had an actual tire for a spare, and the spare was conveniently located in the trunk. This spare is the kind that you have to crank the doughnut down via some obscure hole in the bumper, then crawl under the vehicle to lift it off its cable hanger thing. Anyway. The van is now parked at the house.

Back to my beloved tractor and wagon: I am finally learning how to back a trailer up. Today I managed to back the wagon into the garage so that I could easily unload the tire and jack. This is not to say that I am good at it. I keep forgetting that I need to turn my wheels in the opposite direction that the back end of the wagon needs to go, and I usually start to jack-knife at least once or twice before I get the wagon somewhere in the neighborhood of where I want it. But I'm learning.

In other news: We had been without a good rain at The Funny Farm for a good three or four weeks. The pond had nearly dried up, the grass was crunchy, but at least the hot, dry weather made for a nice clothes drier. Saturday night we finally got a good bit of rain. The morning found the water level in the pond much higher, but the surface was littered with dead fish. We didn't even realize there had been that many fish in the pond and weren't sure what exactly caused their demise. Were they dead before the rain and just stuck in the mud, or did the sudden influx of fresh water put them in shock? Thankfully, I spotted one little fish still alive near the banks, so we are hoping the population bounces back.

The hens had been on strike the last few weeks, but have started laying again now that the weather is cooler.

Last week, I finally pulled up the plastic where I had planned for the veggie garden and turned over the soil and dead grass. Now I just need to decide what to plant for our fall garden and surround it with some fencing to keep the chickens out. I saw one of the chickens pecking among the tomato plants yesterday. I am hoping they don't ruin all of the fruit. It would be nice to eat at least one tomato from my own garden this year...

Last Sunday, I started dismantling some of the old barn, stacking the old tin, throwing rotten wood into one pile and reusable posts in another.

We also got our builder's permit last week. Now we have to start building...

A Finley Story

ThE HORsE ThET IS FREE
by Finley Knight

Once there were horses, and one horse wanted to live all alone. It wanted to live somewhere under a part of the world.

It went under water when it was raining. She fell on a shark!

Then the horse said, "There is no place for me."

Then it remembered where its old home was. It had to go forward and turn left. Then it should go straight some more, then you would have to start galloping. Then you had to jump over a river.

Then the horse had babies.

THE END

First Day of School

It's hot outside, so I decided to let Joe and Fin veg out in the air conditioning and watch a movie while Z took a nap. Finley wanted Snow White. Joe did not. So I picked out two 'gender-neutral' movies for them to choose from. Finley threw a fit and decided she didn't want to watch either one, and went to sit on the couch and pout. I attempted to explain that she should be thankful that I was going to let them watch a movie, but because of her attitude, she won't get to watch one. She stomped away to pout further, and a few minutes later, I found this note on her door:

School Daze

Tomorrow is Finley's first day of school- public school, and I am in a daze.



For many years, I've been surrounded by many amazing moms that home school, and I really wanted to be one of them. But by the end of last year, I realized a few things: 1. Finley and I don't click in a good teacher/student way. Trying to be fun enough for Finley to want to try to learn what I was trying to teach her was so exhausting that, well, let's just say that I really couldn't handle much of it. 2. Finley needs people other than just me. One day when I dropped Finley off for her enrichment classes, a lady walked up and gave Finley a big hug and told her she was so glad to see one of her favorite kids. Finley lit up. And a light went on for me... I don't have to try to be the sole provider of all of Finley's emotional needs. No one person can give us what we need. That's why God has us in a variety of relationships...


So when we found a property zoned for a school that gets rave reviews from everyone I ran into, I didn't find it hard to make the decision to send her to school here. I felt relief and peace.


I am curious to see what the dynamic will be around here with Finley gone all day...


Next year, Joe will be old enough to go to kindergarten, but I can't say that I'll be ready to sign him up. Joe has such a different personality than Finley, that I don't think home schooling would be quite the same struggle. Joe tends to make things fun for himself. And I don't get the sense that he is hungry for more social interaction than what he gets at home. In fact, thinking of sending him away to school all day puts a queer feeling in my heart. So we'll see.