If I planted seashells....

Figure 1

Figure 2

I am enjoying bit of peace and quiet as both boys are sleeping and instead of cleaning up my mess (see figure 1) I am writing a much needed update on farm happenings. There has been a little excitement these past weeks. We had a turkey get loose and make her way all the way down to the garden. Luckily, my mother in law saw her and was able to watch the boys while I tried to corral her into a dog kennel. After about 3 laps around each garden I finally got her into the little garden, cornered her by Dad's "nursery" vines, and thought the whole ordeal was over. I grabbed her like I would any chicken by holding her wings down and trying to carry her. Unlike a chicken, turkeys have amazingly strong wings. Needless to say, she got away and Lucy (our lovely dog) chased her into the trees. I thought she was gone for good. However, Dan and I were coming home late that night, equipped with a flashlight for checking his calves, when I asked him to just scan the trees and see if she was roosting. Not only did he spot her, but he climbed the tree pile and effortlessly retrieved her. Despite Holden's requests that the turkey ride in the back seat with him, we put her in the dog kennel and returned her to her flock. Dan is officially my hero, and this story illustrates perfectly why I married him.

Holden is also dabbling in poultry farming. After a trip with his dad to the local farm store, they returned with a peeping box full of ten pullet chicks. He makes sure they are checked on every day and very well fed. All of his earnings from egg sales with go straight into his John Deere piggy bank.

Finally, this morning, we got the artichokes repotted. They are doing so well, they have outgrown their Jiffy-7 pellets and needed some more space to grow. So our activity this morning was repotting the artichokes. We successfully repotted almost all of them. Holden had so much fun digging in the dirt, throwing some on Wyatt-despite my threats of taking away his fruit snack privileges, and even helping fill the pots. My proudest moment as a parent also came about as a result of this activity. We have been reading a book called My Garden, by Kevin Henkes. (Wonderful book if you have not read it.) In this book, the little girl helps in her mother's garden but has her own ideas of what a garden should really be. Her ideas include patterned flowers that grow back right after they are picked, jellybean bushes, chocolate bunnies, hundreds of birds and butterflies, and growing seashells--if you plant seashells. I love this book and want Holden to love it too, for obvious reasons. He does ask me to read it often but I didn't understand his appreciation for the book until today. Rather than tell you what happened, I will use a picture to illustrate. (see figure 2) Keep in mind he did this with no prompting from me. I must say, the mess I have to clean up is totally worth it.