It has begun

I'm calling this post "It has begun".  Here is what has begun:

*** Our planting season: I intended to show you beautiful pictures of my kids planting garlic in our exceptionally fertile-looking, dark soil.  But I had deleted my garlic planting pictures on my i-phone to make more space for shooting demonstration movies for my upcoming fermentation course.

I'm bummed out about deleting my garlic pictures.  You can still find some on my instagram feed, if you don't believe me about our Martha Stewart-worthy-looking soil.  Anyway, the important message here is: we planted our garlic!  Spring is coming, it really is!

Instead of the garlic pictures, I'll show you pictures of our big bamboo burning, which happened the same day we planted garlic.  Have you ever heard bamboo popping when its inner chamber explodes?  It's very loud, like gunshots, and our poor small town probably thought some idiot was shooting guns all afternoon.  Sorry, neighbors.

We also found out that our puppy loves chomping on the kale and collards leftover from last year's garden.  Good girl, eating her vegetables...I think.  I do, however, believe that I need to fence her out of the garden when my first little transplants are growing in earnest, otherwise that dog will eat everything in sight.

The same day as planting garlic and target practicing burning bamboo all day, the kids built a fort in the woods.  It was the first sunny day in a week, and little Eva insisted on wearing a bathing suit and going barefoot.  I was too busy planting, burning and chasing the puppy out of the garden to play fashion police, so she got away with it.  She now has a wicked cold.  Bad, bad Mama.

Once the sun comes out, we stagger around like blinded lemmings, and then decide to soak up some vitamin D and head for the creek.  Having a new puppy forces me to take two walks every day, which I love, but I also love having all of us together, kids, puppy and adults, to go exploring.  And after we get good and cold, there's the cordwood sauna to sweat in.

*** New beginnings: Baby goats.  Not from my own goats, not yet, but from our friends'.  The puppy had fun meeting the goats, but I don't think the feeling was mutual.

*** More new beginnings: baby chicks.  Or more accurately, soonish-to-be baby chicks, which are now incubating and will hopefully hatch in 19 days.  

Now.  Let's talk about Mardi Gras.  It's an occasion that is enthusiastically celebrated in our little town called Concrete - to such an extend that dressed up folks from as far away as Seattle come join the party.  Maybe it's because February is such a grey, depressing, boring month in our part of the state, and Mardi Gras adds color, excitement and, well, who needs an excuse to party?

We do it right, is all I can say.  I love the small town feel of community dancing on Main Street, our local band called "Jumbled Pie" making us kick up our heels, the goats and puppies that get to join the parade.  It's all really fun and heart warming and lovely, and it makes me proud of being a part of Concrete.

I will leave you with some of my favorite images from the week.  A sunrise in our yard, a smiling puppy, and fixin's for made-from-scratch whole wheat crackers.