Planting Seeds

Wren is at that toddler age where gardening is about the best thing. We spend a lot of time in the garden weeding and watering and digging for fun.

This evening we planted summer carrots, summer spinach and some more beans. We also planted some lettuce. I am not sure how these crops will do as we usually have the beds all planted with starts or seeds by now but it was fun to dig and rake and sow. Wren was fully involved just as he was a few weeks ago when I planted beans and peas.

On that occasion, by mistake I left the packet of seed outside and Wren 'planted' or rather threw around some peas in the garden beds. We now have dense little crops of peas sprouting around the tomatoes. I hope they can tangle up together.

Wren's beans are doing very well but are being eaten by snails or slugs. I have put out sluggo but am worried about the chickens if they become big enough to free range. Will they eat sluggo? Will they die? Oh, a moment of googling later and I find its OK. Sluggo is safe for pets including chickens.

I also read this informative piece [from BackYardChickens Forum] which indicates our seedlings would be unsafe from the chickens in a short while.

"All that said, chickens cannot be in the garden - they'll eat all the fruits, veggies, plants, etc. People dream of having chickens that eat weeds and bad bugs but leave the veggie plants and good bugs. But, it's a pipe dream. To a chicken, a bug is a bug (bug=yummy) and a plant is a plant (plant=yummy). They eat it all. I have my garden totally covered with bird netting and I still have to watch my chickens because they try to jump into the netting and eat my plants through it."

I kind of knew this. Just today I fed them 4 arugala / rocket plants which had bolted and they stripped off every leaf and flower within MINUTES. They are hungry chooks.

A raccoon is walking along the fence by the window. If I turn the light off I can spy on her.

Spiderwalk and a little illness

The kids are obsessed with Halloween and it seems to have been going on forever. Wren throws tantrums on car trips when we drive past "'alloweens" too fast for him to gaze upon. This evening Frost went to the Zoo Pumpkin Prowl with Zephyr and came back with his first stash of (mostly healthy) treats.

Wren is so compelled by Halloween that he insisted on taking "big spider" to the park with us. These are the pictures at the park on Monday.

Wren brings the spider to the park. It is hard to carry and one leg keeps falling off.

The spider discovers puddles of water and gets "bit wet".


Spider tries hanging on a bar. Wren can do it too.

Spider goes for a swing. Other children gather to look at spider and I scan them for signs of imminent sneeze and respiratory distress. One little girl is covered in mucus and keeps wanting to take spider. I suggest we take spider for a walk up the hill and Wren chases and throws him down again.


Last night Wren had a very interrupted sleep - waking about 5 times for varying lengths and seeming to settle with Tylenol. This morning he told me he had sore ear, sore throat and sore head. I don't think that was all true but his lymph nodes are swollen and he may have had a sore tummy. Its possible he is a bit allergic to Kiwi fruits which he had for the first time yesterday but since Frost woke with a painful upset stomach (and was off school) it may be a virus. He seems fine at bedtime but is a little stuffy in the nose and snores lightly.

Weekend Wrap-up

This was another busy weekend. I was sick with a cold and low fever from Friday night until Sunday morning. Joshua also has the head cold and Wren has the tail-end of the snuffles but is also cutting two molars and his gums look sore and red.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to lie low because there was lots of early rising and night waking from Wren (he has woken twice each night for the past 3 nights and then risen before 5.30am) because of his own discomfit. There was also Frost's soccer game (which was a lot of fun) and a homemade pizza. Frost has been playing quite a bit of goalie in the matches and his team chants "fearless Frost" at points because he has made some rather brave saves. This match he threw himself at a very hard kick from close up and caught it in his belly on the ground. He also deflected a hard ball coming in the air. He loves playing goalie but I wish he was getting more practice running and actually shooting at goal. When he is not goalie he is very defensive in his play, running back to protect the goal as soon as the ball changes direction, even if it means stranding a single player of his team with a chance at a goal.

Sunday, I felt much better. The kids and I went shopping for a few hours to catch up on days of consumer neglect. We bought filters for the furnace which is now on for the winter, some firestarters to help with burning our woodpile, Bakugon for Alex's gift, a few toys for the kids, pipe insulation, some Mums (a kind of daisy) for the window-box and even some bulbs for spring lilies.

In the late afternoon we went to the Party Supply store which is transformed into a Halloween costume and decoration store and bought many exciting skulls and skeletons to decorate the living room and porch. Frost has decided to be a cowboy for Halloween. As far as I can work out, this is so he can carry a cap-pistol as a prop.

When Wren woke up this morning his first words were "Haween Shop. VERY scary. BIG keletin - 'piders on it!" and "GO-sst!"

Frost woke up and loaded his cap gun before he had clothes on. I told him he had to be dressed to shoot caps in the gloomy dusting of rain.

He dressed with alacrity and shot about 16 shots - not enough to wake the neighbors but enough to get Wren excited to "want TURN!"