A lesson from Pom

Usually when I write about Pom on here I am referring to my great-grandmother, whose house we now live in, Pom Taney. It so happens though that both my maternal great-grandmothers were given the moniker 'Pom' by their grandchildren. Today's lesson comes from Pom Redfield.


This is Pom Redfield. I don't know the year the photo was taken. I doubt it is as old as the letter I am getting ready to quote. There she is though. I see a lot when I look in her eyes.


For lack of a word more accurate than 'luck' I happen to have a great many objects from mother's side of the family. Things no-one else has seen and didn't know existed ... except me!

This is a letter she began on June 27, 1902. She begins it "Dear Papa" and tells him "I am going to write you anyway if you did just go yesterday." A sentence later she mentions how "To-morrow I am thirteen. The boys says I am going to get a lot of whippings and I believe it." She then stops the letter because she has to go for dinner.

She picks the letter back up on June 29, 1902, the day after her thirteenth birthday. In the photo below is what she writes about her birthday.

"Last night we had a very nice time. We had Myrtle and a little friend of hers, Rachel Green, Alice, Harold, Ethel, Frank, Louise, and our family to have the fun.
We were to to have molasses taffy to pull and so while Jeanette was cooking it we played games. There was a dozen of us to pull it and so we had lots of fun. I wish you could have been here.
I got a bicycle and fifty cents from you (*side note - I think she said 'you', there is a hole in the letter there and it makes it hard to know for certain*), a box of bonbons from the boys, (Bones and Jame), a bag of marsh-mallow cookies from Harold; and a plate of elegant fudges that Ethel and Alice gave me. Besides lots of whippings."

So -- why does this strike me so and what is the lesson? Ok, 1) let's all be clear - the whippings were in good fun. I know you remember getting them + one to grow on as y'all grew.
Since that's not it, what is it?

It's the general simplicity of the time. It's the gifts of food and the fun of pulling taffy. It's "we played games" and knowing they were likely outside playing them, making them up as they went. It's how much she honestly seemed to enjoy it. And she was turning 13!! THIRTEEN!! No cellphones. No designer clothes (hey, they had those back then).

These days if you go to a party, any party, you're likely to spend $20 at the very bare minimum on a gift. And that price is more accurate if you're lucky.
Things cost more than they did over a hundred years ago, that's obvious. Things cost more than they did five or ten years ago. But there is a bigger price paid.

You wind up paying a fair chunk of change for a gift. SOMETHING to give the person. Not something terribly special, but something that you might think they'd like or it might make you think of them. Just really a gift because it is __fill in the occasion__ and you have to get them a gift. A lot of times there is the added pressure of making sure that all the other people attending said occasion will be equally as wow-ed by your gift and envious that you found THAT to give to the honored person.

And they usually like it. But eventually it becomes clutter. More stuff. More toys that need batteries, which have to constantly be bought. More things you stub your toe on. More interesting items you set aside somewhere with a plan for it whenever that infamous "one day" comes along.

Sadly, if you asked me what I got for my birthday or Christmas I'd be hard pressed to tell you. And I'm not boasting because I got so much stuff. Comparatively speaking (in the Western/American society I live in) I didn't. But, in the end, most of it was likely stuff.

My Lesson From Pom & her Friends (oooh .. peer pressure!):

*Less is more.
*If you're going to get a gift, think about the person truly. Sometimes there are those truly special things and that's ok.
*Make them something.
*Make them food that, hopefully, you can all enjoy sharing.
*Make them a card, play-dough (shout out to my friend Cat who made Shannon play-dough one year for his birthday. It was AWESOME!)
*Spend time with them on their special day. Have fun. Laugh.
*Laugh!! -- That was worth two lines.
*Create memories ~ they'll enhance your brain & your heart!

This is my new way of looking at occasions & gift giving. If you're attending something in our honor, please follow these lessons. If you have to spend something, try to keep it under $10.

Our economy is in bad shape. Our environment is in worse shape. We all, likely, already have too much stuff.

I hereby give us all permission to, from this moment on, be free of stuff. Follow Pom's lessons (and her friends' & family members'!) and embrace the simplicity and honesty of it all.

What do you think?

Unschooling Life

Unschooling takes you places. Wonderful places. This place happens to be Lane Stadium, located in Blacksburg, VA. We are die-hard Hokie fans and Lane Stadium is the Hokie's home field. This was the boys' first trip there. They didn't get to go inside, but wandering around outside a bit was just fine.



I had always intended to write a lot more about homecshooling and our journey on that path on this blog. After all, it is a big part of our lives, so how could I rightly leave it off? But a couple things happened.

First - when you tell people, or when they find out that you're homeschooling your kids

it's like you've just walked into a giant mine field. Things can quickly turn into a nearly literal war zone. You're bombarded with questions wanting (sometimes demanding) to know every detail of every aspect of their education. Whether it pertains to them in the current measure of time is irrelevant. What are you going to do about trigonometry??? What about this? What about that? HOW are you teaching them? What makes you think you're qualified to teach them?

I realize that often these are asked out of simple curiosity. If you tell someone you just managed to fly from tree-top to tree-top you're likely going to get asked why. But, as too many homeschoolers can & will attest to, too often these questions are asked too snidely. Condescending, judging, like vultures trying to pick you apart.

What makes it a war-zone is the attempt to stand one's ground and not put the other person's choices regarding their child's education down. It is very difficult to say why you think school is a bad idea for your child but perfectly ok for another child. MINE FIELD!! Add that you unschool and you get a double or triple mine field because even homeschoolers have been known to turn on each other.

Now you know why I've been silent. I just haven't wanted to deal with it, with the drama. But this is my blog and damnit, I'm going to talk about the things that are going on in my life, in OUR lives. And unschooling is a big part of that. So, here it goes. (And, fair warning, I usually don't delete comments but if you bring drama that I don't care for here .. I will delete your comment.)

Overall Unschool Lesson #1: It all begins with Sit/Stay

We happened to have gotten a new puppy this Summer (yes this relates, just hang in there) and so he went to puppy obedience class at the end of Summer/beginning of Fall. There is something we learned there that I haven't been able to shake out of my head, and I think this is a good thing. The instructor told us repeatedly "It all begins with the sit/stay command. If you can't get 'em to do the sit/stay you can't move on to anything else." And so, this has become a mantra for now. For schooling, for growing. For moving our lives into the child-centric model to the model where they orbit around us (parent-centric?).

Tristan & Pre-School:

This year Tristan has started pre-school. Unschooled pre-school, only measured with any sort of formal significance (that anyone from the "outside world" -- ha ha, that's a joke people) coming from the fact that he goes to Storytime at the library once a week. We're blessed in Salem to have such a wonderful public library.

One of the biggest goals of pre-school for Tristan though is learning to dress himself. He takes longer than most grown women who are trying to put on their faces and do their hair. He usually leaves his room, where he is supposed to be getting dressed, to come find me and talk to me at every .. single .. possible .. conceivable stage of undressing and dressing. This is usually followed by a scream/whine when Foster is "near him" and then the derailing to where he wants me to dress him. I've told in no uncertain terms that if he wants to go to kindergarten then he simply must learn to dress himself. Those are the rules. The Sit/Stay.

Shannon & 1st Grade:
Shannon is now in 1st grade. He goes to homeschool gym class at the YMCA and loves it, though I don't care for the instructors. I haven't taken him out yet though. I'm there while he's in class, so I'm .. well, there. And he loves it.
His reading is amazing, almost too good. Math hasn't clicked yet. We're still working on it, very gently showing him how things can add up. He can get it a little bit, but it hasn't clicked. We're not worried. I'd like to work with him on learning money, if only I can get myself organized and ahead of the game enough to get there.
What I've really been impressed with him about this year is his empathy and caring for others. When my uncle died in August we took the boys to the burial. Shannon was upset, but I think it was more because he saw everyone else upset and that bothered him. At Halloween he wanted to color pictures to pass out to all the trick-or-treaters (we wound up making special goodie bags for friends). Thanksgiving comes around and there he is with a stack of paper and a tote of crayons, drawing & coloring hand-turkeys for everyone .. writing their names on them and then folding them up just so, so that they had to be opened just the way he wanted them to be, and giving them away.

Then there are the rules and things they learn together. For instance, while Justin was putting in my dreadlocks Saturday evening we put the movie Elf in the dvd player. The boys saw the dinner scene where Buddy puts maple syrup on spaghetti and drinks an entire 2-liter of soda & then they saw the breakfast scene where he eats plain spaghetti noodles topped with marshmallows, m&m's, various syrups, pop-tarts, and likely more sugary stuff. Both boys commented (without our prompting!) that he wasn't eating very healthy!! I was proud.

They know where their food comes from because they go with me/us to pick it up from the farm. They see the baby piglets, then the larger pigs, then the pork. Shannon infamously welcomed Thanksgiving guests into our house a couple years back with the very enthusiastic greeting of "Come in! Would you like to see our dead turkey??" He then proceeded, during dinner no less, to explain how the turkey came to be dinner. How they killed it, how they processed it. Even though he hadn't actually been there he knew the steps.

Not all the things they learn together are related to food though. They've recently been allowed to start riding their bikes/scooters/tricycles down to the playground when we go. We live on a VERY, VERY busy street so this is a bigger deal than it may sound otherwise. They started having to ride near me, stay close to me. When they do that successfully I start to let them ride ahead a bit. Never out of sight, but a bit of freedom none the less.

And there are more things. Shannon has become rather responsible for pooper-scooping the backyard. No small task considering Foster is an English Mastiff. He wanted the responsibility, we have it to him.

We hung a coat rack on the back of one of the closet doors in the room. They're now responsible for hanging up their coats properly. There is also now a shoe rack with a shelf for each of them where their shoes are supposed to go. That one isn't going as smoothly as the coat rack, but they'll get the hang of it. And there are more things, so many more things, things I just can't think of right now.

And I know some of you will read this and think that it has absolutely nothing to do with their education and schooling. This is where I will, politely, disagree with you. Tristan is 4 years old and Shannon is almost 7. We're still in the Sit/Stay commands. From the number of grown "adults" (that word is used very loosely) who still live at home or who can't support themselves properly, I'd say that a lot of kids could've benefited from some more Sit/Stay lessons.

But this is our life. I am proud of it. I am proud of my boys. So far, this unschooling journey is a good one.

Going Barefoot

Tom's Shoes has asked people to go barefoot today, April 8th, so that we can experience the difference shoes can make in a child's life. For more info, check it out here: http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com/

So, we're doing our part. The boys and I took a walk this morning down to the Farmer's Market. We were looking for "the honey man" as we go through honey like crazy, and now that allergies are upon us we need it more than ever! Sadly, he wasn't there today. Fear not, he'll be there this weekend. The walk was not a waste though (is a walk ever a waste?).

This used to be Miss Zini's house. Now her grandson lives there. I love the rocks (sorry for crappy photo quality, I used the cell phone) and the way he's made little cairns, or rock sculptures. The boys thought it was pretty neat too.


Salem's City Hall. Always stately and beautiful, in every season. We had been noticing & identifying all the different flowers that were blooming as our walk progressed, and so, we had to stop and admire all the red tulips in front of City Hall.

What else did we learn on our walk?

~Always watch out for broken glass, it's a bad, bad thing. - We saw broken glass but luckily didn't have trouble avoiding it.

~Pesticides Suck. - We talked about how putting a lot of chemicals on the ground was "yucky." The boys decided that the idea of walking barefoot on a ground doused in chemicals wasn't too appealing, and announced their pleasure in our yard being free of them. We talked about how if we don't want to walk on them, imagine the animals that have to live in the ground or who get their food from the ground (like our chickens). Yuck.

~Asphalt is HOT! - Luckily our walk was early in the morning before the asphalt really got hot. Mama knew well enough to time that one on purpose. But, we were able to notice a very significant change in temperature between grass, concrete sidewalks, old & gray asphalt roads, and freshly paved asphalt parking lots. We talked about the impact it had on the world around us.

~There are people who have it a LOT worse than we do, so we should be grateful for what we've got! - This was the main lesson when we started our walk. To be grateful for the things we have. To help the kids realize why it is good to donate things we don't have use for anymore (or that we've outgrown, etc) to people who could use them or need them. To remember that, despite how we might feel from time to time, we've got a pretty darn cushy life. Not all people are so lucky.

My apologies if any of the above lessons seem overly simplistic and obvious to you who might be reading this. Please remember that Shannon is 6 and Tristan is 3, so lessons learned have to be on a level that they can learn them.

Boys ..

The weather warmed up enough today to let us brew. Yes, I allow (and encourage!) brewing on Valentine's Day, I'm not your typical wife. ;)
The boys got bundled up and headed out with Daddy like they always do on Brew Days. Today they had fun playing in the snow. It had been packed down pretty solidly, but the temperature at least seemed to warm up today, the sun was out, and so they had fun.

Lesson 1: Playing in the snow with your bare hands makes your hands get cold and hurt. ~ This was learned by Tristan (age 3 1/2). Gloves help.

Lesson 2: Cold & wet fingers can stick to cold metal Hot Wheels.
Lesson 2 1/2: If you scream bloody-murder over every little thing anyway, Mommy is busy trying to make you lunch, Daddy is busy trying to brew beer, and you are too busy screaming & crying to let people know what is wrong ... well, they might not notice what is wrong. ~ Again, Tristan. We thought he was crying because he was inside and Shannon was still out. Turns out his finger was stuck to the Hot Wheels van. *I'd like to thank the Academy for this 'Worst Mother Ever' award* Luckily, his finger came off without tearing or bleeding. Just lessons learned .. hopefully.

We managed to survive through lunch with hot cocoa, topped with lots of "smarsh-smallows", and mega-cheesy, bologna scrambled eggs. Nap time arrived much to adult delight.
Tristan still takes long naps, but Shannon (age 6) merely has 'quiet time' that lasts however long I need it to. When he got up it was back outside to add hops to the beer and play a bit before a fun diversion occurred. A walk to the library.

Ok, so the walk to the library isn't anything terribly special. It was a nice walk, and we got to check out new books. It was the walk home where the "boys" title comes into play.

We're walking home, and cross a bridge that spans a small creek. Sometimes it is dry, but it can get to be raging at other times. It is always interesting to see what level it's current state is. Today, it was running beautifully.
We stood there, Shannon & I, gazing down when I promptly said "watch this" and kicked snow into the water below. An outburst of laughter ensued from Shannon and we both began kicking as much snow as we could into the creek a good 8' below us.
I peered over the edge of the railing and noticed the bigger chunks were floating. AHA!! Teaching moment. I told Shannon that we had created icebergs. That icebergs were chunks of ice that floated on water.
We walked home, noticing signs of Spring beginning to peek through the snow and ice, and giggling about the icebergs.

We get home and, of course, I have to tell Justin about our fun. I asked Shannon what did we see on our way home?? His response .. "River Virgins."
LOTS of stifled laughter from Justin and me, along with exchanged glances of "wtf??" and we began again.

Me: Shannon, what did we see & make today?? You know .. with ice ....
Shannon: Ice Virgins!

More stifled laughter. Bergs, Shannon, iceBERGS!!
Side note - when we attempted this again for the in-laws who stopped by a little bit later in the afternoon, his answer was "Snow Virgins"

..... boys ...

The Way Things Are

~The Farmer and the Pig regarded each other~

As a general rule, we try to limit tv watching, but some mornings are lazy mornings and perfect for a movie. This was one of those mornings. We watched "Babe" ~ the boys first time seeing it.
I've seen the movie before, in fact I used to have a copy on VHS. I've loved it since it first came out and if I could, I would love to live on Hoggett Farm. I really loved the character of Arthur Hoggett, and find it no surprise now that I see similar traits between him & Justin. Men of few words, kind souls, hard workers.
Watching it today with the boys, particularly Shannon (as Tristan paid little heed to it) was different though.
We always strive to be honest with them. Honest about the way things are. Which is odd to a point, as we're living lives in a way we didn't grow up with, and are raising our children differently from how we were raised. In other words, neither of us were raised with parents who were urban homesteaders or anything close to that really. My mother baked when I was younger and Justin grew up with the occasional garden out back, but that is about it. Back-to-the-Earth folks our parents were not.
So it was interesting to me to watch this movie again as a parent, with my child. To stop the movie from the beginning to explain about, to point out, factory farming, and the difference between the factory farm and the Hoggett Farm.
To pause it to explain why Farmer & Mrs. Hoggett are trying to fatten Babe up. What the rules of the farm are. How all creatures have their role, and that some of those roles will eventually land them on our plates.
It is strange to find yourself saying how it is better to kill something you raised on your own rather than to support factory farming, because you've allowed that animal to live a natural and happy life.
It shouldn't be strange, but it was a little. Perhaps it is because we didn't grow up on farms, or anything close to that. Perhaps it is because we're still starting out on our paths as urban homesteaders and don't have a farm of our own. Of course, we get our meat from a local farm, the kids go with us and have seen the pigs alive, and know when we pick up pork that we're picking up those pigs. We've processed our own chickens, ones we've raised. So, I am not certain why it feels strange.
Shannon wasn't phased by the talks we had during the movie. We talked more about it afterwards. It impresses me how well children can handle things like that. It reminds me of something Joel Salatin said about people coming out to Polyface Farm. How the children will help slaughter an animal while their parents cower in their hybrids listening to NPR.
James Cromwell, who plays Farmer Hoggett, was a long-time vegetarian when the movie was made. After making it, he became a vegan. With everything I've seen and learned, I am not persuaded to become either (though I don't put down people who are). I am more determined than ever to support local, to not support factory and industrial farming practices. When we went out to meet family for a bite to eat this afternoon, I didn't eat. I know the food from the place where we went isn't local, organic, or pasture-raised. I couldn't eat it knowing what I know. I saw the burger and saw cows crammed together on concrete lots, force fed, dragged. The smell of eggs made me think of caged hens. Even the cheese made me think of cows pumped full of hormones, hooked up to mechanical milkers, udders swollen and raw.
So as strange as it may have been for me, I stand by it. I know the importance of it. I can only hope my children will see it one day as well. That, when they learn the way things are, they will learn the way things ought to be and what they can do to help make sure they are.
That'll do.

First Day Of School -- actually, no

~This photo tickles me because his smile and pose remind me of a yearbook photo~

For many, many children around the country today is the first day of school. Some local schools started earlier, but Salem started today. If Shannon were attending public school, this would've been his very first day of school.
I don't know why I am a little sad today. I was awake when the school bus went by, and even though Shannon's friend, who also starts kindergarten today, wasn't on the bus (she's being driven) kids he knows are.
I didn't grow up being homeschooled and neither did Justin. We hadn't planned on homeschooling when Shannon was first born. It was a decision that formulated over time, with much thought and research being done first.
I remember my first day of school, or at least I remember photos from it. I remember I wore a white shirt and a little green skirt with pink pigs on it. My "backpack" was more like a messenger bag and looked like a Hershey bar (I wish I still had it!!). We had to take little mats to school with us for nap times. Do they even still do that for kids?
So, even though I know that we're on the right path for us, for some reason I am a little sad that I didn't get to see Shannon get on the bus for the first time today. Rationally I know that this is one of those silly, "mom things" that we moms get all choked up and teary-eyed about, but here I am teary-eyed anyway.

Instead of getting on the bus this morning, Shannon was laying on my bed with Tristan and me when it passed by the house. Instead of napping (if they still do that) on a little mat, he's in his room for "nap time". Instead of sitting at a desk today, he's been playing with toys.
Lessons learned so far today: what is bbq and where does it come from?, what happens when you don't obey (they've been grounded this morning), how to tell time (a continual process of learning - the reward usually being when he can get back up), just because someone is smaller than you doesn't mean they can't swing a toy hard enough to hurt you (hey look - I think there is a physics lesson in that one somewhere!!), that Summer doesn't end the day after Labor Day, you can take different paths than your friends and that doesn't need to effect your friendship in anyway.
Instead of homework this evening, we will be preparing for a picnic dinner at a local park, along the river. We will practice reading, as we do every night, with books from the library - a constant, fresh stream of them! Writing lessons come in the form of eagerly anticipated penpal letters to a new friend in Israel. Bedtimes haven't changed due to new schedules. No new clothes were needed.
Of course, there are some things I would feel remiss if I didn't mention: 1)We don't think of school as something that really has a start and end. I suppose that is why we unschool. We know that our children have been learning since the day they were born and believe that they will continue to learn till the day they die, as we all will. 2)We started Shannon out on "kindergarten" lessons well over a year ago. He does like doing workbook things from time to time. If he were truly placed in public school based on the things he knows, I doubt he would be starting in kindergartent today. 3)Murphy's Law NEVER fails. If Shannon had gotten on the bus and gone to school this morning it would've been with very dark bruises underneath his lower lip, starting at the corners and going down. I have no clue how he got these, nor does he. I checked his teeth and gums and all was good. But still, he would've gone to school black & blue. AND, since I REALLY know Murphy's Law NEVER fails .. he probably would've let fly how he got to drink Daddy's beer yesterday ("what did you do yesterday for Labor Day?" "I drank beer!")! Of course, he only got to try a little sip (though I will admit the turkey tried to take more than that) -- we're not bad parents, please unwad your panties. A SIP folks, monitored, glass held by parents. But Shannon is 5 1/2 and that is not how it would've come out.
Ahh .. the reasons why, and the glories of unschooling. I'll try to not cry anymore about any experience he may have missed by not being on the school bus this morning, I promise.

Economic & Food Queries

~Tristan, showing me a still-green Cherokee Chocolate tomato in the garden. These are moments where the dollar savings means little and the moment means everything~

While I was doing my bi-monthly grocery shopping the other day and was taken back a couple of times. Like when I noticed that the size of the box of diapers had dropped by 20 diapers, but the price remained the same. (Ok - we LOVE cloth diapers, but had to change back to disposable because we were having a bad time with rashes). Or, when I was buying the box of organic cotton diaper wipes and noticed that the price had gone up buy almost $2 a box!! Things that I used to be able to find for well under a buck are now $1.25. I used to be able to score canned organic veggies at Walmart for about 88 cents a can, now they're $1.38 or so. Whole-grain pasta, which used to be about $1.18 was on CLOSE-OUT for $1.22!!!!
We try to grow as much as we can, and buy other stuff locally, but we still have to go to the store. With two little, but growing-like-weeds, boys to feed it seems like we constantly need more food too.
Justin and I were talking about the costs. I was telling him how I wasn't sure how much longer we could keep affording the raises in food costs. He said maybe we ought to buy the cheaper stuff. UGH -- knife in my heart!!!! I said that food prices couldn't possibly just keep going up, but he doubts they will go back down.
And that got me to thinking. Thinking about the end of the Depression and after WWII. When boom times were back. When people began to be able to afford "the good life" again.
For a moment, I felt hope. Then I realized something - the baby boomer generation was also the beginning of the "throw-away living" movement. When factory farms, industrial farms, CORPORATE food became the new way. This is what is killing us, quite literally, now. I quit feeling hope. Something more like dispair filled me.

When this blog was originally rolling about in my mind, I was going to go on about this some more. But something else happened today. We went outside. We worked in the garden. I got photos of the boys, nearly hidden in between rows of tomatoes that are taller than they are. We treated our chickens to a dish of old buttermilk that they downed in record-time and the peach pits (with juicy peach bits still on them) that would've otherwise gone into the compost, found out Ann Bancroft definitely knows her name (we think LadyBird does too), and were treated to 5 eggs. That's a lot for 6 hens who are, we think, beginning their first molt.
I saw the garden full of still-green tomatoes, and found out to my delight that there are cherry tomatoes finally coming out on the plants out front. I saw peppers on the pepper plants and beans .. well, on the bean plants.
When Justin's father asked Shannon to show him the garden, Shannon started talking about all the different "gardens" we have on all sides of the house: what they were producing, what was still growing, what seeds we were collecting, and so on.
I did the math, and if we had bought the 583 eggs our biddies have given us (as of the end of June), we would've spent about $145!!! I saw bowls quickly filling up as the boys and I gathered seeds from cosmos, calendula, and marigolds and I knew we wouldn't need to worry about seeds for next year.
I AM still worried about the future, about costs of food, but I am once-again filled with hope. Not hope in the stores, but hope in our own backyard. On our own urban homestead. I think that is the answer. Not cheap food that will only make us sick, damage the environment, and go against what we believe in; but homegrown, local food that will boost our health, enrich the environment, teach our children (and possibly others), and enrich our lives.

May gets underway ..

This is a photo of the guys beginning to clear out the potato garden area. We were really blessed to have friends who shared extra organic seed potatoes with us, enough to fill the area!! WOW!! We put in 5 "long" rows and 3 "short" ones. While we aren't tilling at all this year, this particular area hadn't been touched by anything other than a lawnmower in a couple years, so it did need clearing out. We dug small trenches for the potatoes, put in a layer of compost, set in the cut up seed potatoes and then topped them with a nice layer of straw.
Though I had been beginning to worry about them not coming up, I just looked out and saw one row sprouting up nicely with more sprouts starting to peek through in other rows. Once the sprouts start really coming in we'll add more straw as mulch.

The front gardens are starting to do well, especially the greens. For some reason, our carrot seeds aren't wanting to sprout. Late last week I resowed some as I thought perhaps we set them out to early. Nothing really coming up yet, but we'll give it a little longer before we toss in the towel. The beds really need weeding thanks to all the rain, but I'm surely not going to complain about the rain! I have noticed that we have one strawberry that has turned red, so that is really exciting!!! The cherry tree looks to be full of berries too, so that is another very big excitement.
The onions we planted in the bed under the boys window seem to be doing well. Though since this is our first year growing I have to admit to not really knowing what is proper growth for them. We'll see. The Blue Hubbard squash plant's leaves are turning yellow. That's a head-scratcher. There is only one plant in there, it has gotten plenty of rain, and is in a nice mixture of aged compost and dirt so I have no idea what's up. Gonna go with the theory, for now anyway, about plants just following their own rules and guidelines, not ours!

Yesterday we worked on the back garden, which still doesn't yet have plants actually planted in it! A friend delivered us some old pallets which we used to temporarily patch the holes in the fence. We're planning on putting a picket fence in, but funds are an issue, so we're making due with pallets (which can then be re-used again to build another compost bin!). While Justin messed with that, I worked on emptying out the old compost bin. I have to admit that it hadn't fully composted. I think we need to turn it more often. Anyway, it took 5 or 6 wheelbarrow-fulls, but all the compost is now spread around the garden. I was then able to get one wheelbarrow-full (VERY FULL!) of wet, spoiled hay into the garden before we had to call it an evening.
Things we have learned: 1) When planning compost piles, make sure to take into account how you plan to empty them. Currently ours our too close, making emptying out the old one a true pain. Luckily, it is getting tossed since it didn't keep dogs out. But lesson was still learned!
2) We were lucky to get a big, round bale of spoiled hay delivered to us. Unfortunately, there was no way to drop it off in or near the garden. It went in the driveway. We tried getting it up over the fence (a seperate blog that I promise I will post soon!), which ... well I don't want to ruin the suprise, but it didn't work. ---- LESSON LEARNED: We're planning on putting in a new fence and gate at the end of the driveway anyway, but now we know to plan to make sure that the entry there is at least 6' wide. This way we can at least roll a hay bale through the gates.
While we haven't finished spreading mulch or hay, the garden IS ready for plants to be put in it. We plan to get out there and do that as soon as we have a good evening (or weekend day) where the weather is good and we aren't swamped with other "must-do's".

ALSO ~ APRIL'S EGG TALLY: 119 Eggs -- Year to Date (as of April 31st) 379 Eggs ~ YAY!!

Finally, this morning I wondered down to our Farmer's Market. I've been really excited about it since they've begun allowing meat & dairy to be sold! WOO HOO!!! I picked up some plants for the garden, since we've had bum-luck with some of the seeds. Got some Black Beauty Zucchini, some straight yellow summer squash, and then 8 red bell pepper plants. Let's REALLY keep our fingers crossed that these babies transplant well into the garden and take off. It will be our first year really attempting zucchini and summer squash too, so lots of excitement there.

How's your garden growin'??