If there is one thing I am doing correctly as a parent, this is it: having the art table available for Finley. She spends at least 75% of her free time there.

I am ready for this chilly, damp weather to be done. There are too many things I could be doing outside, and being stuck inside makes me think too much. That and I need a good excuse to avoid housework.

Tomatoes are looking good. It's chilly today, so I'll probably stay inside and start some squash and cukes.

Today at recess, Finley asked to go to the principal's office to have her tooth pulled.

Let me just say that it is really great to have kids at a school where the pricipal is loved instead of feared. Mr. Delk is fantastic. (And, yes, he did pull her tooth.)

The chicken coop is finished! Okay, so not really. I still need to put the plants up top... But Chris got home early Friday and finished putting sealer on all the wood, got all the chicken wire up, and put the dirt up top. The chicks are now getting used to wandering outside and have been enjoying pecking at the grass and taking little dirt baths. By the way, having the soil on top has made a huge difference in how warm it got inside the coop. Without soil, I had to be sure to turn the heat lamp off inside the coop on a sunny day, but with the soil, it has stayed cool.

This is a picture of our neighbor, Terry, on his monster-mower. It has a 3 point PTO on the back, and he showed up yesterday morning with his 4' tiller on the back to till up the garden plot.

After struggling with my mother to dig up a small patch just a few days before (okay, so I struggled... my mom totally outworked me), it nearly made my cry with relief to to have Terry show up and make a 10 minute job it.Now I just need to rake it out and get planting!

In other news, this weekend saw gable walls and collar beams put up (pictures to come later) with the help of John King and his friend. Terry also came over with his skid loader and filled up the 'porch pit' with gravel. (Have I mentioned how great it is to have neighbors with equipment?)

I also have not mentioned that we sign Joe up for baseball and Finley up for soccer this spring. What were we thinking? These people are serious about their baseball here, and have been trying to practice at 3 times a week. Sheesh. Soccer is a bit more relaxed, and Finley's coach is fantastic... Even though she can barely kick a ball and is by far the greenest on the team, he is really encouraging and patient.

It's been a beautiful day. Can't say I'm bursting with energy, though, as Finley's coughing keeps waking me up at night.

A peek at the garden showed happy pea shoots and really long grass. I need to get the push mower started to get it under control. But I don't think we've been able to get the mower started in two years. Of course, if we had a manual push mower, I wouldn't be having this problem, but I don't, so I decided to tinker with the gas beast a bit. I figured the fuel line might be gummed up (thanks to ethanol gas... don't get me started), but all I managed to do was spill gas all over my hands. The carburetor needs to be taken apart and cleaned out, or something, so I am going to leave the small engine repair to Chris.

Then, I decided to paint more of the sealer on the frame for the chicken coop cage, since Chris wants to do a little to keep the wood from rotting, but fifteen minutes into painting with a big 4" brush, and my hand kept cramping up. So I decided to leave painting with the big brush to Chris.

Since nothing seemed to be going well for methis afternoon, I just decided to sit on the front steps in the sun and let the kids shoot me.

They got tired of shooting me, and had a duel. Z won.

You'd never think this crazy little gun-slinger would be such a good shot!

Rafters!

We were grateful to get a lot of good help yesterday and today... Most of the ridge beam and rafters are up!

Joe Art

Joe is not the artist like Finley is. He rarely sits down to draw, but when he does, he turns out the best drawings. There is something so simple and happy... I really want to take a few of his drawings and blow them up to a larger size and paint them with a little bit more weight while trying not to lose the wobbliness of the crayon strokes. If I had a room full of pictures like that, it would be my happy room.

By the way, this is NOT a pregnant woman. The small circle with dots you see is a toilet and poop.

Today it is supposed to rain, so I guess all the excuses I have for putting off the laundry are gone. If there is any one out there who has a love for housekeeping, you can live here for free and clean as much as you want... The toilets probably need cleaning twice a week, there is a lot of dust, and dirt gets tracked into the house by the minute. We have plenty of laundry for you to do, and the more time I get to spend outside, the more fresh food you'll have to cook with! Any takers? (I didn't think so. [sigh])

Anyway. Monday, instead of doing laundry, I started four types of tomatoes and one bell pepper. Last night, the first tomato seedlings popped up. I really need to get another bank of lights next year. My broccoli seedlings are rather gangly, although I've tried to keep them as close to the lights as possible. Tuesday, Mom came over and helped plant the fruit trees on the far side of the "pond". I don't think I can call such a leaky hole in the ground a pond. We had enough rain to pretty much fill the pond, but the water level dropped about a foot in five days.

Thursday, I got out in the garden area and dug up about 10 square feet of grass. It wasn't much, but I figure if I can get out there and do little bits at a time, I might have a good sized plot ready for planting when the time comes. No evidence of peas, yet.

Yesterday, I moved the compost pile to the new compost bins Chris built using some 4' x 7' pallets he snagged. The old ones were in the way of the future chicken cage. When Chris got home, he finished wiring up the chicken coop and started working on the cage. We will need to get the chicks into a bigger enclosure soon, so it will be good to move the heat lamps out there and give the chicks a little more room to run around. They seem to be looking for ways to break out... some of the older chicks have started perching on top of the feeder, and I bet if they really tried, they could fly right on out of the box.

And a little story about Elizabeth... I felt sorry for her, being the only chicken left, and started feeding her larges sections from bananas that Z would start to eat, then lose interest in. One day, as I was peeling the rest of one for Elizabeth, she flew up and tried to snatch it from my hands. A few days later, Z wanted to eat her banana outside on the porch. I didn't think much of it, since Elizabeth has never come up on the porch... But not long after I sent Z out, there Z was at the door crying in terror and trying to get inside as Elizabeth loomed behind her, trying to figure out how to get that banana. Poor Z. Needless to say, she's a little scared of Elizabeth now, but we are working through it...