Huey Haiku

Papa Bear just returned from a longer-than-usual business trip to California and Colorado. He was able to slip in some much-needed visit time with relatives, and arranged a video conference with the Bear Cubs on Easter evening. He was also bitten by the Haiku Bug, and put together some ditties to share with all.

Enjoy!

L.A. to Salt Lake

Through cloud saturated skies

Now onto Denver
.

Safely in Denver

Here to enjoy some of this

Rocky Mountain High!
.

Meetings all day long

Necessitated coffee

To keep from dozing…
.

Peered out my window

To examine great vistas

Of awesome grandeur!
.

Outbound tomorrow

Home to see my family

And sleep for a week!
.

Rockies capped with snow

Like a thick blanket of white

Splitting earth from sky
.

Home at last am I

Reception incredible

Return to normal

.

Welcome home, babe! You were missed by all!

Mike's Bike

On Monday Michael decided to take the training wheels off his bike. 'Nuff said.

Can't Even Begin to 'Splain, or Even Sum Up, But I'll Try, In No Particular Order

Okay, a lot has been going on this week. At the forefront has been KitMama's family settling in and all of our mutual adjustment-ing, which, really, hasn't been all that much. For the sake of everyone's sanity, we've decided to trim back our weekly Tuesday Night Homeschool Family Film/Game/Dinner gatherings to twice a month. This past Tuesday was Classic Moms Book Club Discussion/Movie night, and since we were all (supposedly) reading Tom Jones, we decided on British fare. S came up with a nice menu, and I learned how to make pasties. That would be "pasties" as in "nasty", not "pasties" as in "tasty". No twirling was involved. On Wednesday, we got our first sprouts in the greenhouse. And the asparagus and strawberry plants I ordered were delivered.

Bugger!!! My perennial planter wasn't ready, and I realized I need a much bigger planter than I had planned on. So, started clearing space for a Much Bigger Planter.

Meanwhile, the sprouts in the greenhouse kept sprouting.

On Saturday I finished moving the Clay Buster soil amendment to the Perennial planter and mixing it in. David picked up a load of topsoil, which I moved to the planter, and commenced planting the asparagus and strawberries.

The asparagus roots look sort of like space aliens sitting on their mounds waiting to be covered in soil.

Strawberries came in a bundle, which I stuck in the fridge til planting time.

Strawberry Space Aliens waiting for top soil.

After tucking everyone in with lots of good (boughten) top soil in the Perennial Planter, I realized I was going to need a LOT more space for asparagus and strawberries. So, off the to front of the house to find more space.

And, here it is. Next to the existing strawberry patch, we've got a lovely bed full of Mostly Weeds. Off with their heads! Or, more appropriately, Off with their roots!

Oh, and the sprouts kept on sprouting.

And the kids played all day.

And Baghera joined me in the garden.

And the kids planted their OWN garden.

I didn't get the entire bed prepped before pooping out, but we had friends coming for dinner and I needed to get cleaned up and semi-presentable before they were expected. And I discovered the perfect serving glass for Iced White Wine At The End Of A Long Gardening Day...a small Ball jar with a lid to keep the bugs out. Perfect for sitting on the back deck admiring your day's handiwork.

Jeff made a FABULOUS vegitarian pasta thingy that we all ate way too much of, but it was worth every bite! I fell asleep on the couch during darts.

Sooooooo, TODAY. David left for NY and his Rush concert...oh, yeah, and a business meeting tomorrow ;) I managed to finish prepping the second asparagus bed and plant the rest of them before heading off for a birthday party at 2:00. BTW, it was neigh on a miracle that Kitmama and I managed to get all six kids up, dressed, fed and out the door in time to be ONLY 20 min late for the party. And, it was a nice excuse for me NOT to spend the entire day busting by keester in the yard.

In the meantime, last year's strawberries have been growing like gangbusters.

Last year's orgeano and chives are very happy.

And we have volunteer peas.

And the sprouts just keep on sprouting.

But, I have to say, the BEST part of today was coming home from the party and seeing that the aspargaus I busted my behind planting yesterday, has already begun putting out shoots! WOW! Awesome!

And, believe it or not, the asparagus I finished planting at 12:30 today already had new shoots! How awesome is that?!?

Finally, poking around the yard, I found this year's first iris. Lovely!

Up for tomorrow....more sod-busting to get another strawberry bed ready for planting.

So much to do...so little time...

Yesterday

The doings of the day, in no particular order.

We had a few extra kids sleeping here overnight; two of S's kids, and one Bee kid. Having slept most of the night on the floor in the living room with the kids (inducing said kids to go to sleep sans hour of giggling) I was fully prepared to sleep much of the day away. David got up at a decent hour to get all six kids up, dressed, fed, and out the door for another trip to Home Depot for a building project. The kids all made planter boxes and got their pin, then painted their creations here at home. There was much paint involved. Much of it dribbled.

I tried to catch up on blogs. I'm down to 120 unread blog posts.

Me email is also behind. I owe several people messages. And two people letters. Sorry. Will do my best to get to you soon.

Our "new" neighbor across the street dropped by. She was taking her grandson for a walk, trying to keep him awake until his folks came by to pick him up on their way for a long car trip. They hung out with our gaggle for close to an hour, chatting here and there, and Thomas doing much to keep the little guy entertained and diverted.

David went to his mom's place to finish a repair job and bring back a load of mulch from her recently downed and mulched tree.

S came to start sewing her tie dye apron with a little bit of help from me (it's about 1/2 done), and stayed for dinner.

I duct taped my laptop, because it's reached the point where the "separation" of screen parts is threatening to become permanent and render the screen dead.

The younger kids spent a good deal of time playing "fort" in the newly-returned-home pop-up camper. It needed a bit of TLC from it's month-long trek across the country last summer and spent the last few weeks at the repair shop.

I painted a little girl's fingernails blue.

I didn't knit a single friggin stitch, though I've got several projects in my basket.

I didn't read anything, though I have a stack of books on the mantle and several more on my Kindle waiting to be read.

I didn't do any significant work in the garden, though there is PLENTY of work to do.

We made egg rolls, California rolls and peanut broccoli noods for dinner. S learned how to roll egg rolls, though didn't learn to roll California rolls because of a child-related-skinned-knee incident.

I burned my finger frying egg rolls. Again.

The kids helped unload the 2nd load of mulch from the back of our neighbor's truck. Thomas sliced a good deal of the skin off the tip off one of his fingers on the broken leaf blower. Don't ask why a leaf blower was needed for unloading mulch from the back of truck.

S was inspired by Vegitarian magazine and we changed our menu plan for Tuesday. Apparently I'll be learning to make Pasties.

Thomas was given permission, and promptly went to work avenging his finger injury upon the defective leaf blower by smashing it to bits with a very heavy sledge hammer. Michael now has another motor to add to his collection of parts.

Liz and two of her kids came for an evening of Scrabble. We had a very close match (145 , 146, 148, and David). The kids stayed for the night. We were all up til about 2:00 AM.

KitMama and kids are permanently "here". And Gypsy the dog.

I'm looking forward to a quiet day. Right.