June-uary continued for us, well into mid-month with a stellar oh-degree and frosty morning dawning on June 17th. My first thought was how I would likely face a dead garden in Fernie, frost being the death of things leafy (most of the time), and how could this be. But then I remember, this is living at elevation. The trade off is that the days are warm, but the nights are cool. It definitely helps on the sleeping side of things, which since having kids, has been elusive for me, but I could use a wee break from Mother Earth now and then. Just let a few of the leafy things in my garden live long enough to feed us. As it is, we are harvesting radishes, but they seem at a loss for what to do with this weather. Some are lovely and some have gone to seed. At least there’s time to re-sow and try again!
Frosty June mornings aside, it is a spectacular place to live. We have had breathtaking big skies of blue, speckled with puffy white clouds, and rolling thunder accompanied by waves of torrential rain and hail, and a cacophony of crickets, chirping things, eagles and osprey, and a lone elk who makes the trip across our field in the barely light of each day while its still misty.
The last week of school for the girls was uneventful, with Mary off for a couple of days with a cold (huh?) making it back to school just in time for the last day, and the awards ceremony. Jeff and I had received the email that one of our children was receiving an award. We speculated, though decided not to ask which one and leave it as a surprise for all of us. I did eventually tell the girls that one of them was getting an award (if only to make sure they were all present!) In the end, it was Mary, for overall curricular achievement in Grade 7. Turns out she’s a good student. They’re all good students though and we were thoroughly pleased with the wrap to this year of school.
The girls have half-enjoyed their first week off from school. They were volun-told almost daily, that they would be working (painting) with us each afternoon/evening. This was met with groans, much whining, and eventually joy when they saw their pay-cheque at the end of the week. Just in time for a trip to the coast and the cabin.
The run up to the cabin was, as usual, frantic and full of skirmishes about who wasn’t doing enough to support the effort. We made a last push to paint as much as possible while we still had a work crew, while prepping gear, and Jeff having to field a mining technical emergency in the middle of it all. As always, we manage to pull it off, and after a too-late night, the truck, kids, and Dad were ready to go.
I am staying behind to mind the chickens and the grandma, although grandma would probably be fine without me. Max and Gus though, they might have something to say about it. Fun fact: almost fully grown chickens, with enough gumption, can squeeze themselves through chicken netting. I am learning the art of chicken herding when they escape. They are like raptors…they are testing the fences. Last night, they were under house arrest. The solar panel and ability to electrify should arrive this Wednesday…interesting times ahead.
With the rolling storms over the last week or so, Max is fully losing his mind. As he ages (he’s 11 now) he has less tolerance for scary things. The list is growing – chain-saws (because this usually means large trees falling from the sky that make the ground shake), nail guns (obviously), things that beep (carbon-monoxide detectors that don’t like power outages), anything that buzzes (PTSD from too many bee stings I think) and of course, thunder. There wasn’t a lot of bravery in him to start with and thunder storms in his dotage are next level terrifying. We’ve had another round just this afternoon that had him trying to hide under my desk, and when that didn’t work, he hid in the bathroom and peeked at me from the half-closed door. Yesterday, he tried to squeeze himself behind the water tank in the basement. We think he’s going deaf, so there’s a good chance this phase will be short-lived. Poor old man. And with that, it is time for me to go see if the chickens have escaped again. I have had to wrangle only one today.