Play, births, planting and pruning

Looking back to the time we were in Honduras Mama spent a lot of time with Savanna in play. Cori and Victoria both admitted that they do not have the patience and personality to spend the hours Savanna can devote to living in an imaginary world of play. Mama played store, children’s home, shopping at the mall, etc. Whatever came to Savanna’s mind. For most of the play, Mama just sat on the couch in the bedroom as Savanna worked out her imagined scenarios, reconstructing the play area for each scene. It gave Mama and her granddaughter hours of fun together. Now that playmate is back home in Chico. Sorely missed in El Progresso, Honduras. I interrupted their play one morning by announcing that I was the health inspector and I was shutting down the store until I could make sure everything was clean. Savanna promptly ran me out of the bedroom and shut the door.

Mama has been in close contact with Brittany over the past couple days. Brittany saw the doctor yesterday morning and was pronounced sufficiently dilated and effaced that the baby could come any time now. Certainly, by Friday. When that moment is conclusively known, Mama will head to Wichita to watch Zoe and Sophia while Aubrey makes her debut. Mama was agonizing about the trip last night. Not that she is not excited to go, but she just got home and there is so much happening at the farm and with Grandma and Grandpa that will have to be dealt with in her absence. It will all work out. It always does. Meanwhile, Makaila is dilated but not effaced. Gailyn will probably be coming next week. Here at home, Erin Echeverria had her baby. A little boy. They named him Mateo.

Mama began sending out packages of coffee and hot sauce we brought back from Honduras. All the recipients have been very generous in reimbursing us for the items we hauled back. In a way it has been fun for Mama. She likes sending out packages. Getting money in return is a plus.

Mama is taking my truck to Bowie today to get the inspection done. I have her taking it to Allen’s in Bowie so that the oil can be changed. It is long past due. I have held off getting the service done for no good reason. Only that I did not want to make the trip or spent the money to have it done. Mama is doing it for me. She does not mind making the trip or spending the money. Plus, she has a bit more time than I typically do. All three of our vehicles are due for tags this month and next. Another of the little expenses that are always due in February and March.

After we ate a small dinner and fed the animals yesterday evening, Mama and I planted potatoes in the garden. I took the tiller and made some fresh rows for the potatoes while Mama fixed dinner. That way everything was ready when we went out to the garden. Mama had bought purple, red and white potatoes for us to plant. All were cut up and in a bucket. All we had to do was drop the cut pieces in the row, add fertilizer (we had just enough left), and cover the potatoes over with dirt. What she had bought and cut made one very long row and one shorter row. If they do well, we will have plenty of potatoes. After this week we will plant the other vegetables she bought while she was at the nursery. Tomorrow is supposed to be a hard freeze overnight with a light freeze coming over the weekend. Fortunately, we have the sunroom to stand in as a greenhouse for us this time of year.

I cut out the dead stalks of our canna lilies from one bed last night so we could track the progress of the new growth – which is already starting – and we found some aloe vera plants nestled in the bed. Whether or not they will survive the freeze now that I have uncovered them remains to be seen, but it was a fun discovery. Especially for Mama. I will cut out the stalks from the other bed in our patio Thursday evening. I want to do something different with that bed but have not taken the time to do so yet, so the canna lilies continue to proliferate there. The hummingbirds like them and they seem to be very hearty plants. At least in those two beds our Pyrenees cannot get to them.

They have systematically destroyed all the bulbs we planted in the areas they can access.