Archive for June, 2003
I tried to post this Sat. night/early Sun. morning (it was around Midnight)…
I was eye to eye with one of the bear cubs. There was a pane of glass seperating us thankfully. But eye to eye nevertheless. He had come up on the deck and wandered down to the far end to sniff at the tomato plants. My face was pressed against the glass of the sliding door trying to get a good look at him. As he came back, he came right up to the sliding door sniffing around the base of it. I bent down to get his picture (I hope it turns out!) and there we were staring each other in the eye for a good long pause. A cute young thing and pretty too! Shiney back with a tan nose. Then, off the deck he went and over to the playhouse a few feet away. He poked his nose in at the windows and stood up with his front paws on the roof. I opened the door, ventured out took and took a few still pictures. Dh was the one who first noticed him. I had called him in from the garage to see something cute the baby was doing (who was slumbering in the recliner). As he walked into the living room, he asked for the video camera…I thought he wanted it for the baby! LOL He said look and pointed to the deck. Boy, did I scramble then! But, wouldn’t you know it. It was dead! While he looked for the power cord, I raced for the 35mm.
I’m feeling exhausted. Q.’s 3mnth bday was yesterday (hurray!) and I think he’s “teething” again. He is by far our youngest to do so and he’s pretty young for it period…but now there are two swollen, red, hard lumps where his top eye teeth will come in and he’s knawing on that fist again. He’s fine while I hold him but not when I don’t. We all suffered through a major crying bout while I tried to fix lunch. My ears were actually ringing and a major headache was building. Finally, I had to stop everything and hold him. He’s okay now and my headache is gone. I would love to do nothing but hold him all day…but we all do have to eat and I’m not about to work around the stove even w/ him in the sling. So…sandwiches for dinner anyone?!?!
I can’t believe it’s been 3mnths since his birth…it sure has flown!!! I remember my father telling me…the older you get, the faster it goes… Hey Dad, why’d you have to be right on this?!?! 
Our backyard is definitely a “bear thoroughfare.” We have seen a bear regularly every other day or so. Seems to be 4. A mother and two 1 yr old cubs and a larger male (we are assuming). The mother and cubs like the backyard which borders a large tract of undeveloped land. The “male” likes to come sauntering down the driveway in the front yard. Anyway, a cub came poking around last night around the children’s bedtime stirring everyone up. (Who knows where mother and sibling were…probably at the neighbors or hanging out just out of sight in the trees…) He (or she) checked out the playhouse then mosied into the shed then left when dh came out to take pics. I was on the deck trying to get some still shots and dh had the video camera. We keep getting shots of the various visitors but they are fast and while the video camera captures great footage the clips are so fast its hard to get a good still image off of it. I’m still using “ancient technology” w/ a 35mm camera and thus have to wait ’til I get my film developed to see if my still images are any good…which is a real bummer. Oh well. One day I will have all updated equipment and then…watch out! LOL!!!
The weather has been dreary. Overcast and threatening to rain. It didn’t rain last night but we got some a day or two ago. It’s also been windy. I haven’t been outside much although the children have ventured out occasionally. Having the bears so bold makes us all nervous though so they don’t venture too far from around the house. They drag all their mudpie supplies up on to the porch! LOL! (Speaking of which, we have a great shot of our eldest ds in “war paint” that I’ll have to post!)
Anyway, I’ve had plenty to do in the house. Housework (of course!) and, since we homeschool year round, I prepare some sort of lesson each day from one subject since we are on a “light” schedule for the summer. Lately it’s been math. And, we read/read-aloud for an hour or two together. Then, I have business stuff which means the computer mostly…paperwork, bills, etc. and so forth and checking email and auctions that we have going or learning/practicing web design stuff (I’ve got the archaic html down…now I’m working on CSS. I don’t know why I’m bothering and not just moving on to whatever is the most advanced right now…guess I like the process of where it’s been through to where it’s going…I’m just starting 10 yrs behind everyone else. LOL!). The learning curve is low considering everything else! LOL Also, as of the last couple of days, I am resuming more sewing (for business as well as pleasure) and some other projects I neglect until I have enough “free time” to be inspired. Mostly because of the weather right now. When it’s nice, we practically live outside and all these types of things are put on hold until winter. When I’m out there, I concentrate on caring for our few gardening “spots.” (I’ve given up temporarily on the rest of the yard and let it go “wild” until we get the new driveway plan/landscaping plan underway.) I give a push or two for someone on the rope swing (usually one of the littler ones) or on their bike.
All the children are now waiting on me so thus ends my “morning musing.”
Gardening
Front yard - raspberries, rhubarb, irises, lilac bush (planted at the edge of the rasp. patch) (soon to have: Forget-me-nots [AK state flower!] and Hollyhocks)
The raspberries are blossoming, rhubarb is ready for its first harvest, the two itty bitty irises seem to have been choked out by the weeds (I think I’ll transplant them…), Forget-me-nots and Hollyhocks have sprouted and some are getting their second leaves. And…(I’m so very pleased about this!!!) the lilac bush by the raspberries has the most blossoms its ever had and…it’s fragrant!!! I can’t wait until it’s a tree rather than a bush and it has hundreds upon hundreds of blossoms filling the air with its lovely perfume! 
Back yard - crabapple tree, strawberries, chives, mint, lilac bush
The crabapple blossoms were wonderful again this year. For a very short time (unfortunately), they filled the air with their sweet fragrance. The strawberries are doing ok. Dh decided to take them out of the rectangular wooden boxes they were in and make a strawberry “hill” on a stump of a tree that we cut down due to spruce beetles. We had burned the stump to remove as much as possible but its big and a lot was left. Well, the strawberries aren’t too happy at the moment about being moved. We had a discussion about it today mostly because my chives were growing with them and now I can’t find any chives growing…and this had been done w/out my being aware of the plan…found out after the fact…so I’m a little bummed to say the least. Strawberries “like” to be confined a bit. If left to sprawl, they concentrate on leaves and runners and not fruit. Ahem. 
We’ll get a few but certainly not as much as I want. And the chives…looks like we won’t be getting any. The mint is growing like crazy though! (Just as dmil said it would. ;-)) The children and I like to snag a leaf or two now and then to chew on and I have a batch drying. The lilac bush is doing better. This one is more of a tree than a bush now because where it was planted before it didn’t get a lot of sun and so it s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d. It’s definitely liking its new home but doesn’t have many blossoms. Also, I can’t tell if it’s fragrant or not yet as it’s too tall for me to give them a whiff. Guess we’ll have to wait longer to find out on this one…
Garden box (in back yard) - squash, peas (soon to have: radishes, turnips, carrots, scallions, lettuce, fennel [never have grown it before but mil sent me some seed so we’ll give it a go], cauliflower and green beans.)
The second round of squash has its second leaves and is going on to its third w/ little buds starting. We’ve picked a couple of pea pods (and eaten them ;-)) and they have probably 5 more pods getting bigger and lots more blossoms. Radishes through scallions I haven’t planted because of the cat and lack of a second box… Same w/ the fennel. The lettuce is still too small to transplant as are the green beans and cauliflower. The green beans will be ready soon though. I also mentioned putting potatoes around the well…I’m not sure if we are scrapping that this year or not…
Deck - tomatoes, geraniums.
5 of the 6 tomatoes are blossoming. The 6th has buds about to open. I’m sooo excited!!! I love to go out there and water them and check on them! The geraniums are beautiful again this year!
Wild berries in the Fall…mainly blueberries and cranberries. (thinking of seeking out currants…)
Of course, it’s not Fall yet so no updates for this. 
Well, things are going a lttle better around here. We still don’t have one of the condos rented (that had the bad tentants)… It needs a thorough cleaning and painting done. Having 5 children, you don’t just find a babysitter at the “drop of a hat” so you can go do it. (Granted, two are old enough to work w/ us now.) Which is pretty much how our “schedule” still runs around here…although we are working on changing that as fast as we can. Tyranny of the Urgent. Ugh. Whenever W. has a break between appts., its always a scramble to try to fit some of our own business in whether it’s ulus, the condos, personal stuff… We’ll be so glad to have W. working for himself again totally. Granted the pressures of being your own boss are greater but so are the freedoms…which are a high priority to us and therefore worth the trade-off.
We are settling into Summer Living nicely. The children all have goregeous tans on their faces, arms and legs. We all practically live outside at this time of year. It’s so wonderful!
The tomatoes have blossoms! The flower seedings are getting stronger. The new squash starts were all planted in the garden box last week and are doing wonderfully. They’ll probably have have blossoms in the next week. The peas have been blooming and we have picked two pea pods so far. Mmmm! I haven’t planted any of the things I was intending to by seed directly in the box because one of the cats has decided to us it as a litter box. Grrrrrr. W. just hasn’t had the time to put a fence around it or make a screen cover for it or whatever. The cat doesn’t dig around the plants in there but uses the space saved for the direct planting. I’m thinking (if it’s not too late…which I think it just about is…) that I can spread some plastic over that space some how until the seedlings come up and are big enough to deter the cat. Still deciding…if I wait too long the decision will be made for me as there won’t be time for anything to mature…
The last Friday we went to my parents on the Peninsula and went clamming. Fun, fun! Best tides of the year and the digging was easy. Those clammies were near the surface and all the little kiddos got to pull some out after Mommy, Grammy or Bumpa dug the hole! They were all very cute…but E. especially! I’m amazed that he got every single one that was dug for him as that ooze and water fills in the holes so fast you can’t see what your hand is feeling around for and trying to grasp. He’s only going to be 3yrs in a couple of weeks!!
We finally have seen the bears in our yard. Several times. A big male came walking down the drive yesterday morning and through the yard as nonchalantly as can be. Just like he owned the place. Before we left last Friday, one of the cubs W. took pictures of at the local Elem. school was sauntering throuh the backyard and was about to check out things on our deck before B.’s screaming scared him off. He came back later in the day, sniffed at the rope swing then meandered over to the neighbors startling the lady working in her yard and moseying into the garage behing the man washing his car in the drive to pull some trash out and proceed to have dinner. Very bold. Potentially very dangerous.
Yesterday we also had a visit from a bi-ped. Strange guy came walking out of the woods and asked the children (my young cousin was visiting too) if their parents were home. Luckily, my dh was home and step out of the garage to take care of it. A few minutes later, we all compared notes and it was a strange encounter indeed. W. needed to run to the auto parts store after that and heard on the radio that a man across town had tried to abduct a girl an hour before. W. thought the description sounded an awful lot like the guy in our yard. How scaaaaary is that!!! He would have had plenty of time to drive to this end of town, etc. to avoid the police, develope an “alibi” and what have you…or try for a different child while the police were busy. Needless to say, I know where the “Piece” is and have easy access to it today. Boy, between the bear, moose and weirdos…
On that “happy note”, I need to run. Q. is awake and hungry. The others have all one by one finally straggled up too. (Catching up after the late late nights from the fun hectic weekend.) Brunch needs to be made and morning chores accomplished. I’m sure I’ll come up w/ the rest of the days plan while I’m doing those.
Ok, a couple of things happened this week that relieved the pressure causing my poor spirits last week. Both were supposed to happen Mon. One did but was slow and we didn’t feel the results until Tues. The other didn’t and it was looking more stressful. Yesterday it finally resolved - Thank you God! It involved some really rotten tenants…I wrote a long tyraid about it that I saved else where…
I really do not want to let circumstances dictate my emotional/mental state and generally I’m good about not letting it (now). But, this had been going on so long, I was wooooorn down! Things are on the mend though…so, ah some relief!
The weather hasn’t been all that great. We’ll have a nice sunny day then it will be overcast and the wind will kick up again. Today was one of those blustery yucky days.
My plants are all doing well. The tomatoes have buds on them! I started these from seed and feel so fortunate w/ my “beginners luck.” (I’ve since heard that this rarely goes this well…) I’ve started other things from seed over the years and everything has always gone well…I never doubted the tomatoes wouldn’t…good thing I didn’t hear these things before hand…although I really don’t think it would have discouraged me. Also, silly me. Forgot a couple of things I need to add to the gardening list: irises (found two at least still alive out front) and potatoes (we’ve planted them around the well the last couple of years and I’m surprised I had to be reminded! :-))
Quentin has been rudely awakened and that, of course, reminds him that he is hungry…I’m being paged!
