Shanghai Saturday

~photo by Rex Wilhelm

One thing I love about Friday nights is looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday morning. Do you remember the days when you didn't even shower and get ready to go out on a Friday night until 10pm? Well, I'm usually in bed no later than 9:30pm on a Friday. And that's usually after falling asleep in the living room floor about 8:30pm. When did I get old?

Anyhow, true to my ritual, I fell asleep early Friday night dreaming about luxuriating over a cup of coffee in my PJs Saturday morning. When I woke early Saturday morning I noticed the light streaming through my bathroom window had an unusual color to it. I squinted out to the North West to see a bank of very dark clouds reflecting the early morning light coming from the East. Well, that was unplanned.

I grabbed my coffee and went for the internet weather forecast. What? Rain? Really? The good news was the rain wasn't supposed to hit until Sunday but it was going to settle in for the week. So I had the entire day Saturday to prepare and hunker down for wind and rain.

Of course the kids look forward to goofing off on Saturday morning and that is their special time where they can watch videos. So, I announced over Myth Busters and Phineas & Ferb that they were being pressed into service.

Oh, and there aren't any photos from the travail as some kids filled up my camera card with crazy pix. Well, some of them were nice. Rex is infatuated with the humming birds around here. Actually,he is really into observing all the birds. He keeps a birding book and pair of binoculars handy and he can identify most of the birds by sight and their calls or special mating dances. So, here are a few pix I pulled off the card. These are photos by Rex (as is the blossom at the top of the blog post):







I spent the entire day picking up tools and fencing and putting them away. I filled in trenches that had been opened to run water lines. I planted part of a hedgerow I'd been planning for some time. Thanks to John and Susan I had two red bud trees and a bunch of forsythia, quince and red salvia. I cleaned out both chicken houses and made cover for the food for the little guys so it wouldn't get wet. I had the kids picking up junk from all over the yard and stowing their toys and wagons. Everyone was also requested to do any laundry that would be needed because this was probably the last nice day to hang it out on the line.

When I wasn't digging holes, filling holes, lifting things, hanging laundry, hoeing the garden or scooping poop, shanghaiing kids into service, I was chopping and hauling wood. I had no idea if was going to be cold rain, but why take chances. Always nice to chop on a nice day.

Since we accomplished so much yesterday I was able to have aspirin for dinner and sleep in today ... luxuriating over the newspapers with my coffee while the kids wrestled like puppies all over the floor and the couch this morning. Now that's a weekend!

Rex is always the practical joker. I heard a shriek come from Valerie's room and saw Rex's telltale cap run across my view of the window to the backyard. Valerie came stalking out, "Where is Rex?" I don't know. Why? "Read this!" Rex had slipped a note under Valerie's back door that read: Valerie, taxes are due today, March 11. They will be collected at 10:40AM. Oh, ha ha. I've seen worse.

Rex is really enjoying being home. His sixth grade class went on a week long field trip to an environmental camp in the Sierra Foothills about a week ago. I thought it would be so much fun for him to get all that time in the mountains with his friends. I guess the trouble was that his class was split up and had to share dormitories with kids from a couple of other really tough schools. Also, I think Rex was expecting more of a "survival training" and less of a lecture on saving the forest. He found it ironic that for a place touting the importance of environmental awareness, they served industrially processed food and gave out paper napkins. Ah, well, another of life's lessons.

Here is a letter we received from Rex from Camp Granada. I've edited the spelling a bit:

Dear Mom and Dad,

This is really a poo hole so far. It rained all day and then started to snow and hail. We have a cement cabin with a really high ceiling. So, it's really cold. Most of the kids are jerks! There was a kid Mason was talking about and how he wanted to beat the crap out of. We got him in our cabin and he is so rude. The food is so crappy that it might be worse than the Neal Dow (his former school) lunch food. I hope everything is good at home. I miss the whole family.

Sincerely,
Rex
xoxoxo


In bee news, I finally got hold of Fred Selby (the guy who is selling me bees). He thinks they will be ready the first week of April. Yay! And this is especially good because I've signed up to take a biodynamic bee keeping class at the Steiner College in Sacramento on March 24th. I'll be that much more prepared for the little critters! As I spoke to Fred on the phone I could tell he was working in the bee yard. I could hear his smoker puffing and the buzz and hum of the bees in the background. So I asked him if I needed anything special to pick up the bees. He said, "No. Probably just a truck." I said, "Well, I have a minivan, will that be okay?" He responded, "A minivan?? Welllllll, you coulllllld ... I guess we can try to clean them up as best we can. But they will be flying around inside with you." I really do use the minivan for everything. Even things I shouldn't. I mean, I've hauled goats in that thing. Can't scare me! But even Michael says I should borrow John's truck. (John, are you reading this? Can I borrow your truck some time during the first week of April?)



Well, I'm off to do some less physically taxing errands today. And my plants will look forward to that rain!