Homestead Update

The lockdown at Chez Shasta’s Isolation Bunker continues, and we are all bored, bored, bored. I forgot to take dinner out of the freezer to thaw yesterday, and it was A Crisis. Trixie amuses herself by patrolling the backyard for squirrels and rabbits, and Winston amuses himself by staring at me all day, but there is no one to entertain ME!

Trixie awaiting a mistake from the squirrel.

The weather has warmed up nicely, so I’ve had a few days with open windows, and I’ve spent some time on the back patio soaking up the sun. My yard needs to be mowed; the lawn guys are coming soon, I’m told.

A robin is building a nest in my patio cover. It’s been toiling for a while: every day the nest gets more elaborate as it finds grass, sticks, lint and other accoutrements in which to decorate its new home. A gust of wind took it down the other day, but Ms. Robin just set to work re-building her home again. Her patience is inspiring, and not in that treacly calendar-picture way. I just admire her determination to get her home built.

A couple of years ago, my dad gave my sister a Missouri maple sapling, and it’s taken off in their yard to the point where it’s a full-blown tree. Last fall I gathered up the little whirligigs, determined to seed my own tree. Success! I ended up with four saplings of my own, and the lawn boys planted one this past winter. I’ve been waiting eagerly to see if it would leaf out, and this week it did. I needed this win.

Finally, there’s the stuff that I planted years ago that continues to come up every year, like the return of old friends. My peonies are like that, and despite the rainy days and lack of sun recently, in a few days I should have enough flowers to bring inside and enjoy.

So that’s what’s going on around the Kalin homestead this week. It’s not much, but things are growing and changing, and God is working out things for my good, even though a lot of that is unclear at the moment.

P.S. Our TP situation is holding steady.