“If you wish to engage in spiritual warfare, let that little animal, the spider, always be your example for stillness of heart; otherwise you will not be as still in your intellect as you should be.”

St. Hesychios the Priest

Technically, his name was Rascal Flatts. He joined our family when Jeremiah was just 14 years old. Jeremiah had been begging our folks for a dog. He wanted something bigger, but since we lived in the middle of Branson at the time, he took our advice to get a Jack Russell. They are small, but these little terriers are not “girly” dogs. The one stipulation our folks gave Jeremiah was that, if he wanted a dog, he would help build a fence around the back yard first. Fencing materials being what they were at the time, our folks funded a partial privacy fence, then used wire across the back. Once the fence was up, I helped look for a dog.

I remember struggling to find a Jack Russell we liked in our price range. We looked for months. Finally, I remember clicking on an online ad in the Kansas City Star. There was a cute picture of a tan and white puppy, and I wrote down the contact info. The puppy was from the Clinton area, part of a little girl’s 4H project. It was further than we had hoped to drive, but since I was traveling though the area to listen to a friend preach, I thought maybe we could pick up a puppy on the way. My friend was a good sport, and that weekend, my brother finally had his dog.

There is so much I could say about Rascal. He was energetic and entertaining from the very beginning. My brother had so much fun with him, and so did the rest of us.

Rascal made good use of the little fenced back yard, as well as the rest of the house. He was mostly good but could get into mischief. One of my favorite memories is turning around to see him standing at our kitchen table where I had a bunch of shaped balls of cookie dough sitting. Rascal was looking at me while reaching his tongue out and licking the cookie dough sideways. As soon as we made eye contact, he was gone. Of course I had to toss that cookie — but it was so funny it was hard to be mad.

When our brother Levi started having kids, we wondered how Rascal would handle it, but he loved them from the very beginning — an unusual trait for Jack Russels. Even when the kids were babies, he was fond of them. I still remember the time we caught him napping next to Chloe on the sofa. He wasn’t usually allowed on the furniture, but the new baby was irresistible. His affection for the kids continued for the rest of his life.

When Jeremiah started college, we sisters purchased a female pup to keep Rascal company. We also thought a couple litters of puppies would be fun. Rascal didn’t like Dolly too much at first, as she enjoyed zooming around the house and puppy-torpedoing him. She grew on him though, and they became good friends. They also made adorable puppies.

Rascal loved car rides and camping trips. We took him to Blanchard Springs Caverns in Arkansas multiple times, as well as to Table Rock Lake. When we decided to relocate, we took several long road trips visiting states around the midwest. Rascal went with us on a couple of these trips, camping with us in Wisconsin and the Appalachian Mountains.

Once we moved to our homestead, it was like Rascal was already in doggy heaven. He loved chasing critters and running around in the fields and woods. He loved walking to the creek, and would go with anyone walking there up until this last week. Rascal became more independent on our land, and he always seemed to be going somewhere or doing something.

During the last year, he seemed to start slowing down — but he made the most of the energy he had until he got tired. Then, he would nap in the most random places. It’s like he would get tired and just lay down to sleep wherever he was.

Over the last months, those naps have seemed more regular, and Rascal’s waking hours a bit more confused. After a sharp decline last weekend, where Rascal stopped wanting to walk, I called the Ash Grove Veterinary Clinic. They got us in on Tuesday to see our vet. For a dog Rascal’s age, there isn’t a lot anyone can do. We had seen the signs this year, and when we loaded up Rascal to go to his appointment, we had a feeling he wouldn’t be coming home with us. We were so thankful for Dr. Mozier’s kind and down-to-earth advice when we got there. He looked Rascal over and confirmed our suspicions. He discussed Canine Cognitive Disfunction (CCD), which is basically dog dementia. We chose the kindest course of action, even though it broke our hearts.

The whole experience took up a lot of emotional space this week. We’ve been as busy as we always are, gardening in the mornings and processing food in the afternoons. One day, Grace and I deep cleaned our little office building, which has gotten quite neglected in the last months. But we’ve all thought a lot about Rascal. We’ve missed him, even while we’ve realized just how much his extra care has been costing us in time for months. Death is a part of life, and letting go of our furry friends is part of animal stewardship. When we said goodbye to Rascal, our vet thanked God for his life. It is such a gift to live in an area where most people acknowledge their Creator and can talk about Him freely. This week was tough, but we went through it with gratitude for the blessing animals are in our lives. God created a truly fun little dog in Rascal, and I’m so thankful we were blessed to have him.

“Sun and moon, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him forever.”

Daniel 3:62 (NCB)

Like many family stories, the origin of the tea set is somewhat fuzzy in my mind, but several facts remain. When she was in highschool (sometime in the late 1950s), my maternal grandmother used to visit an elderly lady once a week to do her hair. I don’t remember how she knew the lady or what her name was, but Memaw would go over to her house to wash and curl her hair. At one point, the lady gave Memaw a tea set as a thank-you gift. This, I explained to my niece, was the original rose tea set.

Years later, Memaw’s friend Marie gave a child’s version of the moss rose tea set to my mom. We assume the set had belonged to Marie’s daughters when they were younger. My mom grew up having tea parties with both the child’s and later the full-sized set.

When my mom grew up, Memaw gave her the rose tea set, and my mom had it displayed in a hutch as a newlywed. When my dad’s grandmother was visiting one day, she saw it — and decided to give my mom the tea dishes she had collected in the same pattern.

By the time I was a girl, the rose tea set had grown to several tea pots, lots of cups, saucers, plates, and miscellaneous items. My sisters and I loved having tea parties with the rose tea set — and of course, we always invited our brothers. My mom generously let us use the dishes fairly often once I was old enough to be responsible with them.

These days, the set is much smaller — no doubt due to chipped items we didn’t bring with us on various family moves. Still, it was nostalgic seeing various pieces and reminiscing with my nieces yesterday as we unpacked a couple pots, the seven remaining good cups, saucers, and some snack plates. We were having a little tea party, in honor of the feast day for the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. My nieces have been wanting to have a tea party since helping us repack the set last fall — and to be honest, we aunties have been wanting an excuse as well. When our mom read in Kendra Tierney’s The Catholic All Year Compendium that some people have tea parties to honor the Queen of Heaven, she suggested we take a break from routine to make it happen.

The cooler rainy Saturday was perfect for extra cooking inside. Grace made some traditional British Queen cakes — which were rather like tiny sweet biscuits or scones. These are traditional for the feast day.

We also whipped up some mini quiches, Scotch eggs, cucumber sandwiches, and egg salad sandwiches. It ended up being a rather long day, as we still had to do a little morning gardening and our pre-Sunday cooking.

It was a fitting celebration to a long week. Every day has been a repeated cycle of gardening, deep cleaning, food preservation, and cooking. Our newest niece came home with her mother on Monday, so the days have been peppered with baby snuggles as we could fit them in. On Thursday, Grace and I made our first ever attempt at some fall crops — planting various varieties of lettuces, mustards, radishes, carrots, kohlrabi, and bush beans. We had empty garden space where our potatoes, onions, and lettuce used to be, and it seemed a shame to let the ground go to waste. We’ve still been harvesting beans, squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes daily. We’ve gotten a few melons, but most have been eaten by voles before we get the chance.

When we all finally sat down to tea last night, we felt all our efforts were worth it. Only our oldest niece could remember using the tea set before, and both girls beamed as they poured cup after cup of Earl Grey. Even our nephew was impressed with the tea party, as he has been reading C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books and the characters frequently “sit down to tea,” he said. As we sipped and snacked, we reminisced about tea parties gone by — both fancy ones with the rose tea set and casual ones with every day dishes. We talked about Memaw and how much she would have loved the whole event. There is something in rituals that draw us back into our memories, bringing the past close with the present. As I wrapped the dishes back up at the end of the evening, I thought about how many tea parties are yet to be enjoyed by this new generation in our family. I showed my nieces the child’s cups we still have, saying how we always let the little kids use those. They smiled, and we said it wouldn’t be too many years until the new baby can join the fun.

We all agreed a Queen’s tea party should be a yearly tradition, and I couldn’t help reflecting on the particularly feminine quality of our enacted ritual. It brought generations of women together, even though some will never know each other. Thinking about Mary as the Queen of Heaven has been a shift for a lifelong Protestant, but I can appreciate what the elevation does for femininity — as Mary models the dignity of womanhood as it was meant to be. There is something about holding a china cup or pouring tea that makes us all sit up a bit straighter in our chairs. Our movements become more gentle, our voices softer, and our words a bit more polite.

In the Narnia series, Lewis often referred to his female characters as “daughters of Eve.” This identity has always resonated with me, as someone who was especially close to my matrilineal ancestors. It is profoundly human to identify with Eve’s story — the earthiness of her temptation and fall. As Christians, though, in a very real way, we are also daughters of Mary (John 19:26-27). As creatures being sanctified, there is something especially elevating in meditating on the ways Mary’s obedience signified the redemption of womankind. I can’t help thinking that sitting down to a tea party might just be the perfect reminder that we are all daughters of a Queen.

“Consider how God dwells in creatures: in the elements, giving them being; in the plants, giving them life; in the animals, giving them sensation; in men, giving them understanding.”

St. Ignatius of Loyola

Erin was scheduled to be induced Saturday, but baby girl decided to come late Friday night. Our plan had been to watch the other kids at the hospital, but since it was so late at night, Levi and Erin opted to have us bring the kids first thing in the morning. Meeting little Bridget Rose was worth the wait.

We aunties came home after our visit and got right back to work. We hope to have all the cleaning done by the time Erin and baby get home from the hospital tomorrow. The flooring and trim will take a bit longer, but we are excited to have gotten the most important spaces finished and the whole area cleaned. New life is one of God’s greatest gifts, and our whole family feels the blessing.

“It is not that we should be flawless, but that we should never stop starting anew.”

St. Teresa of Avila

Our main focus this week was helping our brother Levi work on his bedroom floor. He had given up hope of finishing it before his new baby arrives, but since my new niece is taking her sweet time coming into the world, we’ve been working hard every day toward that end. He cut the plywood into planks and sanded them earlier this summer. On Monday, he cut them to length for his room while I gave things a final sanding to remove the new jagged edges. Grace and I then stained the boards, working together to get an even application in the heat.

On Tuesday, I got a bit of a late start as we went to vote first thing in the morning.

When we got home, I put a coat of polyurethane on all of the boards. We let them dry outside, stacking them at night and storing them in our storm shelter to protect them from dew. Drippy weather slowed us down on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, I just went for it it. It started raining mid-afternoon, but thankfully, the boards were dry enough to put away quickly

.

We finished up the week with a flooring marathon yesterday. We drug everything out of Levi and Erin’s room, piling their belongings out on our trailer so we could work. Then we stapled down a layer of tar paper before putting down the flooring. Lastly, we added a couple pieces of trim — just those that would be difficult to put on once their bed is back in the room. While everything was torn apart, we took the opportunity to do a thorough deep cleaning, making everything extra nice for the new baby. We are tickled we got all of this finished before baby girl arrives. This next week, we hope to finish flooring the rest of Levi and Erin’s suite of rooms.

When we couldn’t work on the floor boards, we worked in the garden. There is so much to do every day — from watering to harvesting, from vacuuming squash bugs on the pumpkins to picking horn worms off the tomatoes, from trellising melon vines to spraying for fungus and blight, from pruning to good old-fashioned weeding.

Finding uses for all the squash and cucumbers has been a bit of a challenge — the solutions for which belong in their own blog post. Suffice to say that when we aren’t working outside, we are processing produce — making pickles, prepping and freezing squash, or whipping up all manner of cucurbit friendly recipes.

While we’ve been so busy, we’ve all been enjoying the cuteness overload that is Bonnie-Jean’s puppy. Caramel seems really mature for her three weeks of age — perhaps because her only dog friend is her mother. Tilde spends so much of her time with her: feeding, grooming, and now playing with her. For her part, Caramel wags her tail, greets visitors, plays with toys, and most recently, fusses to be let out of her whelping box (she wants to walk around the room with her mom). On Friday, Bonnie-Jean introduced her to softened kibble, and she was very much a fan.

It was a long seven days, but I’m satisfied with our progress. We also made time on a couple days to recreate at our creek, soaking our feet and reading aloud for an hour. Times spent at our spring are among my favorite summer moments — and this year in particular, they have been such a gift. With so much chaos in life over the last months, finding time and emotional space to relax has been very difficult. Carving out intentional time to sit in nature, especially when we mix in spiritual reading, has been such a needed solace. It’s always a good time for conversation and connection, which can get rather fragmented during busy times. As each summer day gets a bit shorter, I plan to savor such moments. I’m going to relish making homemade ice cream with my niece, which has become an almost weekly tradition. I’m going to be thankful for our Friday dip nights, where we opt for easier meals and more time together. And in all the in-between busy, I’m going to thank God for his presence felt both in my soul and in the creation splashed with his glory.

“A golden afternoon of August: every breath from the hills so full of life, that it seemed whoever respired it, though dying, might revive.”

Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

We spent our mornings in the garden almost every day. I can’t believe how much our vegetables are flourishing. Despite a rough beginning to our gardening year, everything seems to be catching up and producing beautifully.

Our cucumbers and summer squash have been particularly prolific. The okra has struggled the last few weeks but seems improved since I applied some fish fertilizer last Monday. We have canary melons, watermelons, and kajari melons all green on the vine. All of our winter squash is flourishing — and we even have a few early ornamental pumpkins turning yellow already.

Processing all of our garden produce has been it’s own job. We’ve been blending and freezing basil with olive oil, then thawing it out to make pesto spreads and marinades. We’ve been eating squash dishes daily.

We made our first batches of pickles this week — three containers of cucumbers and one of hot banana peppers. These were refrigerator pickles, which we prefer — they are always more crisp and less salty than canned. Still, we plan to can several batches later in the season.

On Tuesday, we helped our brother Levi build a floating bedside sleeper for his new baby, which is due next week. His wife Erin had some ideas of what she wanted, and we adapted those pictures to use materials we already had on hand. It was a simple project that turned out super cute. It was special getting to be a part of the project. We are all so excited to meet our new niece.

While we’ve been busy, Bonnie-Jean’s puppy has been growing every day. As of this week, Caramel (as we’ve been calling her) has been sitting up, looking around, and walking to people. Both adults and kids have been spending a lot of time playing with her. And of course, her mama Tilde gives her non-stop attention.

Yesterday, we had the nicest weather we’ve had in weeks. It made me yearn for fall, even though I’m really not ready to say goodbye to summer quite yet. I sipped chai tea while harvesting cucumbers and tomatoes, enjoying the breezy cloudy day. In the afternoon, we ran some errands. While we were out, we finally picked up the Quikrete to start pouring our porch roof footings. We had planned to start that project earlier in the summer, but with so much sickness and health issues, we just didn’t get it done.

It was a more productive week than we’ve had in awhile. It feels good to be making visible improvement around our homestead almost daily. It’s satisfying to sit down to meals that are almost entirely home grown. After weeks of feeling very stuck, it is a relief to be moving forward again. I’m hopeful that we can start checking projects off of our to-do list again this next week. While the hard summer has been discouraging at times, I am trusting in the truth that God knows what is good for us. He will give us the time and ability to accomplish what He wants us to. And no matter how crazy life feels, that reality is more than enough reason for hope.

“I sit beside the fire and think
Of all that I have seen
Of meadow flowers and butterflies
In summers that have been.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

He finally had the procedure on Wednesday. I went to Bolivar with my parents to wait and pray. The angiogram went faster than it was supposed to, and by noon, we had the good news we had hardly dared hope for — our dad is fine. The test showed no blockages or serious issues. He got the routine instructions to exercise regularly and eat a heart-healthy diet (both of which he already does), and that was it. While the nurse talked, my mom and I looked at each other, and she smiled. She has been particularly burdened by the unknown that no one was ready for. We know we are mortal, and as Christians, we know what will happen after we die. Still, we would like to have each other here awhile longer. By mid-afternoon, we were home. Our dad had to rest the remainder of the week to recover from the procedure itself (the medical staff had cut into an artery for the test). Still, we were all elated. We celebrated by drinking coffee and watching Homestead Rescue — which has become sort of a tradition in times of sickness and recovery.

Aside from dealing with medical issues, we worked a lot in our garden and our yard this week. Levi has continued mowing and weed trimming in all directions, making our homestead look downright lived in. He has also helped Bonnie-Jean and Grace with lots of weeding in the garden — and they made it look so much better.

We’ve been hauling in produce every day. We sampled our first Muncher cucumber last week, and we are in love. The skins are thin, there is no bitterness, and they are delightfully crisp. We’ve been eating marinated cucumbers, cucumber salads, or cucumbers with dip every day.

Our summer squash has started as well. We’ve been slicing it with dip, sautéing it, and turning it into zucchini bread (which we enjoyed for breakfast this morning).

On Thursday, we harvested our red potatoes. We dug about 25 pounds, filling a five-gallon bucket. It isn’t a huge yield, but for the few red seed potatoes we planted late in the season, we are thrilled. We planted more Russets, which are not ready yet. We are curious to see how they faired.

Along with snacking on copious garden produce, we’ve been enjoying some tasty spreads from a local company — Wind & Willow. Our dad was given some sample packages by a friend, and we have to say — they are delicious!

Bonnie-Jean has been busy taking care of Tilde and her puppy. Because there is only one pup, she has to be more careful that it doesn’t become chilled. Newborn puppies can’t regulate their own body temperatures. Instead, they usually pile on and off their siblings when they feel cold or warm. Since this puppy is a singleton, Bonnie has been working hard to keep the room cool enough for Tilde but warm enough for the pup. She’s been filling hot water bottles for the pup to cuddle if chilled. Thankfully, the pup is doing well and growing fast. One thing is for sure — it is going to be very loved. Whenever Bonnie is busy, our nieces have taken turns watching over it’s every need.

Staying cool has been a challenge for all of us this week, as the heat index soured into the 100s this week. I don’t remember struggling so much to keep the bunkhouse cool last summer, and I wonder if part of it was our canvas tent shading a large part of the south side of our building. On hot days, even with all of our air conditioning units running, the living area has been getting up over 80 degrees. It’s worse if we have to do any indoor cooking — but with it over 100 outside, no one really feels like grilling either. We’ve been getting up early to do any baking early in the morning, when the day is at its coolest. That’s what Grace did for the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene this week. She made a delicious spice bread — a nod to the spiced nard Mary anointed Jesus with.

It was a good week. We had a lot of catching up to do after so many of us were sick. Life with a new puppy is crazy. Still — we got the news we have been waiting for, and it was good. As the week drew to a close, we were thankful to start turning our minds back to regular life things again. After so much chaos, normalcy is such a gift.

“A creature revolting against a creator is revolting against the source of his own powers-including even his power to revolt...It is like the scent of a flower trying to destroy the flower.”

C. S. Lewis

With fewer people feeling well, we’ve been getting less done. We’ve been keeping our garden alive, but it is a weedy mess and definitely needs some fertilizing. Still, we were thankful to start harvesting squash, cucumbers, and plenty of peppers this week.

Earlier this week, we found out that our Uncle Tommy passed away. Our maternal great-uncle Thomas Akins has been a follower of this blog since it’s beginning, often cheering us on over on Facebook. While we’ve never lived near enough to know Uncle Tommy very well in person, getting to build a relationship with him online has been one of social media’s blessings. He was our grandpa’s oldest brother, so he knew a ton of family history. My mom and I often peppered him with questions about our family tree and Ozark history. The Akins family settled less than 10 miles up the road from where we live back in 1857. Uncle Tommy grew up in the Springfield area, and he was always full of stories about what the Ozarks were like back then. Uncle Tommy was a devoted Christian. As a young man, he planned to go into the ministry before getting married and entering the business world instead. Still, he carried his love of God with him throughout his life. It overflowed into a kindness for others that could be felt across miles. We miss him already, and we are looking forward to seeing him again someday.

In the midst of everything, we replaced our Mary statue this week. We had ordered one a couple months ago, but the paint had bubbled in the rain and a crack had appeared on her arm. Thankfully, we were still able to return it. After that experience, we opted to purchase a replacement locally. We visited Sunshine Hill Gifts near Willard, and found exactly what we were looking for.

We had a couple feast days this week as well. Since we weren’t feeling great, we didn’t do anything too fancy. We ate a Mohawk corn soup and boiled cornbread — both Native American recipes in honor of St. Kateri Tekakwitha. On the feast of our Lady of Mount Carmel — who gave the brown scapular to the Carmelite St. Simon Stock — we made caramel brownie sundaes.

As we were dishing up the sundaes, Bonnie-Jean announced that Tilde was finally having her puppies. Around 9 pm, she delivered a pretty little dark sable pup. We were all excited. It got late, and I went to bed — but I told my sister to wake me in the night if she needed an extra pair of hands. She woke me around 1:45 am. Tilde still hadn’t had another puppy, and she was concerned. I sat with her and watched. She was hardly having contractions, which can happen — dogs can take “breaks”, though it was unusual after only one. She started having regular contractions around 2 am, but she didn’t appear to be making any progress. There were no signs of another puppy. The later it got, the more concerned Bonnie and I became. We prayed. We researched. And we prayed. Once it was light, Bonnie-Jean, Jeremiah, and our Dad piled Tilde and her pup into the car and headed to Springfield. We hoped to take her to Bradford Park Veterinary Hospital, but Jeremiah called ahead, and they said they didn’t take dogs in Tilde’s condition. He called several more places before the Strafford Veterinary Clinic said they would see her.

Once they arrived at the clinic, the staff whisked Tilde right back for an emergency C-section. They tried to put the little puppy in a warm box, but it fussed so much that Bonnie-Jean just held it. Tilde handled the surgery well, but the other puppy didn’t make it. Tilde apparently only had a litter of two — which is why the second puppy couldn’t be delivered properly. Dogs her sized are designed for larger litters, and when there aren’t enough puppies, it can make their contractions ineffective. They were home with Tilde by mid-morning. The experience was a bit traumatic, but we all learned a lot through the process. We are thankful Tilde and her little pup are doing well.

As the week ended, more family members were coming down with fevers, and once again we are tired. I battled a bad headache (hence the lateness of this post), and Grace’s fever had returned. I noticed in my five-year journal that we were sick this time last year, too. I suppose that’s just life sometimes. I’m praying we can all feel better before my dad’s procedure next week.

“The whole world is theology for us, because the heavens proclaim the glory of God.”

St. Albert the Great

We spent several mornings in our garden, getting the last of our seedlings planted. As I stated last week, our young cucurbits are struggling under the July sun. The delayed planting strategy was worth the try to reduce our squash bug population. Unfortunately, the squash bugs found us immediately. We’ve already been pulling bugs and removing eggs from the bottom of the leaves. Still, I’m thankful the plants are finally in and we can focus more on keeping the weeds under control. They very much need it.

Our brother Levi has been enjoying using the new mower we ordered last week. For the last few years, we’ve been keeping the grass at bay with an Ryobi electric weed trimmer. We had always planned to mainly use our brush hog, but we’ve struggled to keep the tractor running. Even though it’s finally working, we realize there are still areas we don’t want to take our tractor. We finally invested in a Ryobi electric mower. At first, we were skeptical, as the batteries didn’t last nearly as long as they were supposed to. After a chat with Ryobi, though, they sent us a couple additional batteries. Now, we are loving what our new tool can do.

Midweek, we got some unsettling news. Our dad discovered an unknown cardio health issue which will hopefully be resolved in the next couple weeks. We are trusting God, but it’s difficult not to worry.

To top things off, on Friday, I got sick. The whole family has been dealing with severe allergies, so I’m wondering if my “germ” is just a secondary issue. It’s not so bad, but it slowed me down just when I wanted to be doing more to make life less hectic around here.

I write this post fatigued and tired. I know many family members are feeling similarly, after a rough couple of months. Nothing in life is so terrible right now. There are worries of course, but we know God is good. I’m hoping a restful and restorative weekend will put our minds to rights.

“Each of us is called to cultivate an inner garden in which the Divine Word may grow and flourish.”

St. John of the Cross

Throughout the week, our biggest focus was our garden. Now that it is July, we can finally get all of our cucurbit seedlings in the ground. Grace and I spent every morning setting up trellises, shaping rows, leveling and filling squash boxes, and planting seedlings. Bonnie-Jean helped with plant care, spraying neem, applying coffee grounds, and repotting tiny plants that aren’t quite ready to go to the garden. Our new drip tape arrived in the mail, and we rolled some out to all our new growing areas. We put out the rest of our cucumbers this week, as well as our pumpkins and most of our melons. We direct seeded some rows of corn within our pumpkin patch in hopes the squash will discourage the raccoons this year.

As I’ve written before, we waited until July to put out most of our cucurbits in hopes we won’t be as overrun with squash bugs as we were last year. I’m interested to see if it was worth the wait. It was so dreadfully hot that I worry about the newly transplanted plants being stressed. It’s also significantly less pleasant doing major dirt work by hand in July than it is in May. Granted, we ought to have had the garden done by now, but all the rain this year made that difficult. Still, we have just three trays of plants left, which is exciting. We should be able to complete the task in the coming week.

When we weren’t working in the garden, we were prepping for the next round of homestead insanity. Bonnie-Jean’s dog Tilde is supposed to have puppies this month. We plan for the pups to spend most of their time in the kennel, but when they are first born, they will be too young to regulate their own body temperature. After some discussion, we decided to let Tilde whelp in the bunkhouse like she did last time. We talked about making space for her in the living room, but since mother dogs can get aggressive with other animals, we opted to isolate Tilde in the space we sisters usually share. As we considered how to rearrange the room so that we could make a place for a whelping box, we decided to do something incredibly crazy — convert two of our beds into a “sectional” in the living room.

It was a good opportunity to do some deep cleaning — and to realize how much more cleaning we need to do. We spent one afternoon rearranging all of our furniture. Then the next day, we put together a very simple “back” for the “sectional”. The end result is fun and surprisingly cute. In the few days since moving things, the whole family has been loving the comfortable seating in our living room. When we put things back to normal after the puppies, we are already talking about building a custom sized couch to fit our space.

In the middle of our heat wave, one of our air conditioning units decided to quit working. We tried several fixes, but after a couple days, it quit completely. We ordered a replacement we hope will work better, but in the mean time, it was difficult to keep the bunkhouse below 80 degrees during the day. Thank goodness for fans — we’ve had them going all over the place.

The week ended with the United States of America turning 250 years old. Fan fair flourished throughout the country, as we all celebrated in our own individual ways. I had wanted to go to our local celebration this year, as I always enjoy Dadeville’s parade and picnic. After spending so many days out working in the sun this week, though, I just didn’t feel like it. Instead, I opted for a quiet day celebrating at home. I hoped to just sip a cool drink, sit by a fan, and enjoy time with my family. As so often happens, however, reality turned out differently. Our new air conditioning unit showed up early, which was a huge blessing — but it required some assembly and installation. So, Grace and I grabbed a drill and went to work.

It turned out to be a rather anticlimactic holiday for us. And really, I didn’t feel ready for our America’s big 250th birthday anyway. I had wanted to take some time to reflect on our history as a country and research our ancestors that fought in the revolutionary war — including our supposed distant cousin, Gen. George Washington (Ancestry.com suggests the connection on both sides of the family, which is news to us). Instead, I’ve been busy living in the present. Part of me was a bit disappointed yesterday, but the other part of me felt like it was rather fitting. Our founding fathers were normal people. Many of them were farmers and homesteaders themselves. They didn’t set aside time to make history — they simply lived it in their daily choices. I may not have watched fireworks or attended a barbecue this year, but I was thankful for the freedom I had to just live the life I’ve chosen. And once we fired up the new air conditioning unit and the bunkhouse started cooling down, I felt quite celebratory.

That is, until our other main air conditioning unit started to smell like burning plastic. I have a feeling we’ll be in for another round of attempted repairs after Mass this afternoon. Such is our stressful, blessed, chaotic, beautiful life.

“Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.”

Saint Therese of Lisieux

The loss of electricity was the latest effect of the barrage of yet more thunderstorms we had this week. They culminated on Thursday, dumping between 3-5 inches of rain in our area. Our dry creek rushed with water, but we didn’t have nearly the flooding of more low-lying places. As we read reports of water running over Highway 160 in multiple places, we wondered if our dad would make it home from work Thursday night. But by the time he drove home after 8 p.m., the water had receded enough for the roads to be passible.

In the days that followed, the wet weather creek kept running — and the spring was full. The dogs loved it.

Since our house is on an electric well, an unexpected power outage always gets almost immediately annoying, as we don’t have water. Thankfully, we had already planned for a low-productivity Friday. We had a crazy first part of the week, as we worked as hard as we could between rounds of rain to get more of the garden weeded and planted. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we planted more than 100 cucumber plants (both slicing and pickling varieties), along with about 20 melons. We have more melons along with summer and winter squash we will plant next week -- after the first of July. We had planned to wait to put out all of our cucurbits as a method of squash bug prevention, but our cucumbers just grew faster than we expected them to. Along with the cucumbers, we transplanted some tomato seedlings to replace the swath of ours that were eaten by rabbits earlier this year. We also transplanted some dill, parsley, and marjoram starts.

On Wednesday, after a particularly long day of planting, we celebrated the feast of St. John the Baptist with some low-carb grasshopper pie. The dessert may be a bit on the nose, but it sure tasted great on a hot summer day.

We are hopeful that the worst of the summer storms are behind us for awhile. This weekend, we picked up the first round of supplies for our porch cover — cardboard concrete tubes, rebar, and anchor bolts. We plan to get the concrete locally as needed, since we didn’t want to haul all 16 bags out here with the load of lumber. Jeremiah picked up some decking to fix our nieces’ and nephew’s tree house, as the floor needs replaced. We also got lumber to create a more sheltered area in our kennel for puppies this summer. Bonnie-Jean’s German Shepherd Tilde is due to have puppies next month. While we plan to keep the puppies indoors for the first few weeks, they will be spending the majority of their time in the kennel once they are bigger.

On our drive to and from Springfield, I got to soak in the emerald June landscape — more lush and green than we are used to this time of year. All the rain has made life more difficult, but it has also made it more beautiful. When the power was off, most of the family escaped the humid, sticky house, fleeing to the outdoors even though the ground was mushy and we knew it would rain soon. I took a slow walk to the spring, which was deeper than normal. A few of us sat by the Mary garden, which I’ve hardly stopped to enjoy since planting it. In all directions, wild blackberries, gooseberries, and mulberries are ripening. With all the cloudy days this month, I’ve been especially thankful for these sweet moments of silver linings.