Karen returns home!

Our dear Dutch friend Karen has returned from the Netherlands for at least 6 months! She lives part-time in a little one room cabin with a loft right down our road. She is an amazing batik artist, a doula, and overall a very good influence to have in one's life. Now that she has returned we will be able to hear the sweet sound of her flute playing resounding through the neighborhood.

two sweet profile shots

We had a great and productive weekend.

Alex and David built a little water feature in our yard for Atticus to drink out of, and Ema and I built a raised bed for our vegetable garden. Easter was a beautiful day. We went to a neighbors for a woodsy Easter egg hunt. Lili slept through the whole thing. The night before Ema, Noah, Nim, Gita, and I colored eggs while David and Alex raced down the mountain to buy a basketball hoop. (an impulse buy) Here are the kids brushing their teeth after egg dying. You can't tell from the picture, but all of their fingertips were dyed too.

Tonight we are at auntie Becca's celebrating her 27th B-Day. She made a juicy lasagna, and Alex made a sweet vanilla-lemon cake. We are so blessed to live near some of our family.

my newest painting

It has been close to 9 months since I have melted my wax and done any painting. Last Sunday Alex took Lilikoi for 4 walks so I could make a mess out of our bedroom and paint. Putting down the first strokes was exhilarating, and I re-remembered that passion inside myself. I had a lot of fun.

Mid-March

Lili learned how to roll over (back to front on her left side) five weeks ago. She is now expanding on this useful skill by rolling to right occasionly and doing push-ups (more than I can do). Here is the 10 miniute play-by-play: she rolls onto her belly, does an arm strengthening work-out, grabs the toys we spread in front of her, creates a giant drool and/or spit up pile that these toys inevitably swim through, gets tired and frustrated with her position, at which point we help her out. I am constantly in awe of all these tiny incremental steps that all of us had to learn in order to do things we take for granted like walking (Jenny probably does not take this for granted) or turning to your side. Here is a picture of her in her first week of rolling onto her belly. Yeah Lili!

On the farm front I humbly report that Sparrow did not give birth because she was not pregnant. I guess she was just fat. And that trip to visit Hermes Wings last October I guess was just a booty-call. Obviously, we feel very dissapointed, a little embarrassed, and inexperienced (which we are). Now we are looking forward to Emelia giving birth in a few weeks. She was studded to some other goatly- stud, and this pregnancy looks very promising. We will keep you posted...

After a good rain. (Photo credit: David & Ema)

What Spring is Bringing

Things are still very brown here in NC, but all of the trees are starting to bud. When you look into the forest things have a reddish glow at the tips of the branches. Daffodils and cherry trees are in bloom. Ema and I sat down and finally ordered all of our seeds from Fedco last week. The seed catalog has such amazing descriptions of everything. Everything sounds good and yummy. I think the pumpkin we picked out was described as making a rich and velvety pie. This time of year I feel so gullible for the garden. It is like women with childbirth, you forget the pain and want to do it all over again. You forget about July when the weeds and overwhelming work pummels you, and then come March you are eagerly are drooling over the seed catalog. Barbara Kingsolver said something similar in her new book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” which is a non-fiction tale of her family attempting to eat only local food for one year. I just finished this book, and I highly recommend it.

The other Spring-like event that is on the horizon is that our goat Sparrow is due to give birth tomorrow. This is our first kidding, and we are all very excited and nervous. We are all hoping for baby girl goats. Typically male goats are either drowned at birth or eaten at six months. To keep a male around (unless you castrate him) is an extremely stinky affair and one we are definitely not interested in partaking in. Could we really swallow (no pun intended) to eat our baby male goats? This is the troublesome reality of farm life and life in general for anyone who eats animals. Many of us are of the opinion that we would provide a loving home and an honorable and humane death for the goaties which is more than I can say for even some of the meat I eat. It is very complex and very basic at the same time. Which is why we are hoping for girls the first time around.

Goats have a 155 day gestation. I will include some photos of Sparrow's journey down the road to get studded to a giant La Mancha (they look like they have no ears) named Hermes Wings!

Have I told you about her expressive eyebrows, her dark mullet hairdo? Her chunky thighs that you just want to squeeze, and her big gummy smile? This is just the tip of the iceberg of sweet and amazing things about Lili...

Last days of winter (for me)

Lili reading her new book that her new friend Nancy gave her. Isn't it amazing when you are 4 months old how many new things there are?
My Mom's house amidst all the snow!
Misha, Lili, and me, posing for Mom in front of a snowbank.