Timber

We have a cat. We had been thinking of doing this for years, but hadn't -- first we worried about killing songbirds, then we worried about allergic friends not being able to come over.  Then this spring our mouse problem multiplied -- tons in the barn and some sneaking back into the house.  So Mike found Timber -- an indoor/outdoor car, reputedly a good mouser  We figured we'd keep him indoors a couple days until he got used to us and knew the area.  But in the middle of his first night here, we caved to hours of meowing-to-go-outside pressure.  And the next day he didn't come back.  We searched and asked around... and then we gave up.  And two days later he was back on the porch.  Since then, he seems to have adjusted quite well.  Very friendly, very energetic, pretty tolerant of Eytan, and getting good at staying out of reach of pinching hands.  In turn, we've been doing a lot of showing how to "pet gently."  And we're hoping to see the mouse population drop.

Being reasonable

Our goal for this summer is to be reasonable.  We traded some composted manure for a day's use of a tractor to get some bigger projects done more quickly.

We gave chickens away to friends, bringing our total down to 17 (goal is 12), we are planting a smaller garden this year and putting the rest of the garden space into oats/buckwheat for goats, we put weed cloth around the base of our fruit trees and hooked them up to the irrigation tubing, and with only five goats now, the hope is to have a little less to run around keeping up with and instead to spend a little more time out and about.  Because it's wildflower season around here.

And we're eating our first garden asparagus...

And Falkor is attempting amazing feats of getting-stuck-ed-ness.

Meanwhile, Eytan is getting more and more mobile, wanting to stand and walk all the time (supported by whatever/whoever he can find to do that), and sitting still very little.  Recent feats have included tickling himself, doing backbends (usually as a slightly counter-intuitive sign that he wants help standing), and taking an interest in goats and cat and the hammock swing in the backyard.

Work
We've been doing a bit of juggling lately.  Eytan is in daycare now two days a week, and I cover one day, and Mike takes the other two.  At first we had him in a place that started out okay but where, as it went on, he seemed to spend a lot of time crying and we seemed to spend a lot of time trying to get him back on schedule for napping.  So we've switched to another place, which seems to already be a little bit better in terms of him being more comfortable and napping better.

Daycare came about in the first place because Mike is thinking pretty seriously about going back to school, maybe for teaching or doctoring or nursing... so he's been studying the last couple of months to take the MCAT med school entrance exam later this week.  And we'll see how it goes and what he finds out this summer in terms of possible programs and options in those areas.

My job, meanwhile, has been better than it had been for a while.  I think part of that has been better balance of work and home, and part has been a better balance of projects. The newest project that I'm on (see University of Washington grant) is so far pretty interesting, and balances out the more tiresome projects.  Those other projects aren't bad, but somehow just don't use my strengths or interests that well.  I end up doing a lot of interpreting into Spanish for workshops on insect computer models -- which is useful and kind of fun, but probably not a great use of my skills... And I have become the go-to person for the audience response clicker system (see this old post), which similarly is fine, but again, probably better done by someone more techie.  So it ends up feeling like my workplace isn't using me very well -- that what they are having me do are things that other people could do much better, and that meanwhile I don't have the time, flexibility, or support to do the things I like more (and which theoretically they hired me to do).  Anyway, whenever I end up finding my job less-than-satisfying, I tend to send out applications here and there just to see what else is around, usually with few results... Recently, though, a couple of possible options have started to creep up... I'll keep you posted.

Coincidence corner

I was asked to do a tree climbing demonstration for a class on trees/gardens a couple of weeks ago, and it reminded me how much I like getting to climb trees once in a while.  And it was neat to finally meet a couple of the arborists who work here.  And after the class I went to Chelan (about 45 minutes away) to pick up one of those gates that you put in station wagons so that your dog doesn't jump from the trunk into the back seat (or in this case, so we can pack the trunk full for road trips without worrying that stuff might fall on Eytan if we stop short), and the guy I bought the gate from (who I found on craigslist) happened to have worked a couple of years for one of the arborists I had just met.  Ah, the small world that is the Wenatchee valley (see small town tales).

Oh, and one update -- one of the four potential Yalies I interviewed this winter (see this post) is matriculating this fall -- exciting!

Leaving you with one last cute baby photo, til next update...