Nice (as in no humidity) Day

Good morning! It is a rainy one which is just fine other than the goats being vocal again.

This morning I decided to check email and Facebook before I delved in here and I’m glad I did because I found this gem posted by Liz Stewart (she and my mom worked together for years in the currently politically incorrect Welfare Department):

“Grief never ends .... But it changes. It’s a passage, not a place to stay. Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith .... It is the price of love.”

~Author Unknown~

That perfectly sums up how I feel about Daniel, Papa, my dad, and others I’ve known and loved who have moved on. Without love, there is no grief.

Yesterday was a busy day but it did not include much driving around which was nice. It was a beautiful day and part of the reason it was was due to the lack of humidity although I didn’t realize that until later.

This is the window before the shelf-making fun.

In the afternoon, I built two shelves for two windows in the dining room so we can have more containers full of dirt for seed starting purposes. Currently, there are nineteen milk/orange juice jugs taking up residence. Of those, eight have actual plants growing in them. The others were just planted yesterday after the shelves were constructed and installed.

This is the window. I love that all these little seeds can use the sun.

In the morning, I did this and that, mostly laundry and dishes and moving boards to the basement to cut them and then cutting them in preparation of making shelves. I also thawed out some boneless pork ribs for lunch and while they were in the oven, the boys and I went to Gardner.

I needed to drop of a check for car insurance and then I’d promised Seth and Joseph drinks from the store and I wanted to borrow Julia’s cordless drill because I like working without cords. Those were all accomplished within an hour and there was actually time to spare (almost twenty minutes) when we got home.

Cedric was on his way down here. He would give Daniel some pretty stiff competition in tree climbing. Do you suppose it's genetic?

Joanna showed up. She had gone to work but they told her to go home because it was so dead so she came over. That was nice. She had lunch with us, which included the sister missionaries, and then took Seth and Joseph out in the Jeep. She ended up staying all afternoon other than when she went to get her hair cut and stuff to cook over a fire in the back field. I don’t generally like hotdogs but when cooked over a camp fire, they taste so much better. I even had a couple of s’mores and they were actually good (I don’t like marshmallows).

There was a pack meeting that we should have gone to but I was honestly not feeling like being around a lot of people so we didn’t go. We’re going to miss the last one because it’s on May 9^th and we will be going to Laura’s wedding and reception and such.

Right now I need to get Cedric a lunch together.

Lunch together, dogs fed, strawberry smoothie made for the boys. The really awesome thing about smoothies? You can put all kinds of stuff in them and the boys don’t seem to notice. Love it.

Yesterday late afternoon I decided to take the frosting I’d taken to church Wednesday night and that Julia took home after and alter it. It was pretty runny but I was in a hurry. Because it was runny, it was pretty perfect for adding cocoa to in order to transform it from vanilla buttercream to chocolate so that’s what I did. Then I smeared it on graham crackers and made sandwiches. I hadn’t made them for about ever and all three boys were quick to remind me of this fact.

Yesterday when I called Paul to find out who we are supposed to call about having a fire for cooking, he said that on his way to work, there were signs out indicating that the fire danger was high. I thought that was ridiculous so I looked online to see why it would have been. Reasons cited: lack of rain in the past few weeks (we’ve had some, don’t know where in MA hasn’t but I guess some places haven’t), wind (yeah, that one makes sense), and lack of humidity. Really? Lack of humidity? I had to look that one up too, and according to weather.com, the humidity was at 19%. Are you kidding me!!?? No wonder yesterday was such a nice day! Paul didn’t really want the fire to be in the field where we’ve had them before but Joanna and the boys had improved the pit. When I went out, I felt the grass and ground and yes, the dead grass on top was dry, but the underneath and ground were not. So, yes, the wind could have sent sparks into the dead grass, and yes, we could have had a grass fire and I suppose it might have spread if such a thing happened. But, having grown up around dry conditions all my life, at least compared to MA, I wasn’t too concerned although I do sometimes sort of attempt to be more concerned and feel for these poor people who don’t have a clue how to live in more natural circumstances.

Was that too thick?

This is the stuff memories are made of.

Anyway, while I was out with Joanna and the boys by the fire (Joanna took two four gallon buckets of water to have out by the fire, by the way), the school called to let all parents of QRMS 8^th grade students know that the buses should be arriving at the school by about 9:30. So I got the boys in the house and hopefully to bed and got in the car.

Not perfect, perhaps, but not bad. They didn't get rid of all vegetation around the rocks but did the dry, dead stuff from the top. 

And Paul called and was telling me all about the class he’d taken yesterday morning which seems to have had a lot of good information for selling soap via social networking. I couldn’t sit there and keep talking so I took off and the call was lost on the way to Barre while I was on Elm Street, or whatever it turns into before reaching 62.

I actually got to the school at the same time the buses were arriving so Amena and I were home an hour after I left. Pretty exciting. Amena didn’t really have a terribly good time but such is life.

Now I need to get the goats fed and watered.

Have a splendiferous day!