we think the second oldest lady bunny is about to kindle as well.
on nate's to do list is learning how to braintan a hide.
native american's used the animal's brain for many many years to tan the hides of animals...if it's do-able task without introducing noxious and costly chemicals it seems wisest to do it that way.

in other news, the 7+ foot tall sunflower has bloomed, there are a bazillion tomatoes everywhere, and cucumbers growing fat and juicy.
kale has found its way into soup, there are more salad goods than we will ever know what to do with, and a pumpkin is turning orange much sooner than i would have expected.
our life and our garden are beautiful and we're pretty happy about how things are panning out.

"it's awful cute to be dinner."

...

we have a baby bunny
in about 6 weeks we'll have a rabbit to eat.

...

it will probably take at least that long for me to mentally prep

that day when you come home with a 3 year old kid's blood on your Korea shirt from a car crash that consisted of a marker-colored cardboard box-car, a passenger that pulled too hard to the right, and another kid that had a non-functioning steering wheel to help offset the pulp-made model from fishtailing into a brick column.

today was that day.

& I'm so excited because I'm helping start a garden at Everyday Blessings - the children's home I now work with during the weekdays.

Go HERE for more information.

some of my jobs, though i worked hard at all them (some of them harder than i thought was possible), were simply stepping stones to getting at what i really wanted and was passionate about. i'd say that's how it is for most people, but i know plenty of people who are stuck doing things they despise and never seem to see a way out.

anyway, i've worked more jobs in the last year than any other single year of my life. not something i'm proud of, but hopefully that won't become a trend.

i'm waiting on a background check for a new position i should start the last week or so of this month at a residential facility out in thonotosassa, fl. i'm not quitting my current position as a student advocate, but since it's contract work and a lot of my students are no longer in the program for various reasons, i needed something else so the contract work would become supplemental. i'll be full time with the "day care-aged" kids who are already breaking my heart and i only spend an hour with them while shadowing. it will be interesting to see how this compares to the other residential facilities i've been a part of (professionally and voluntarily) since here the caregivers are not on shift work, they live there 24/7 with a weekend off a month and a few nights off here and there. i've seen the ins and outs of shift work, so i'm excited to see how much of a difference this might make.

i slept in way longer than should have been allowed today since starting very soon i'll be getting up early for work, but even earlier to make sure the garden is watered and all the animals are fed.

all 18 quail, 6 ducks, 3 rabbits (we acquired another girl, Marjoram, or Marj for short), and 3 chicks (i went to the feed store and they had chicks and that was that).

nate is in the process of digging a pond for the ducks that will just be fenced around, but not have a cover over it. he'd like to not just rig it with water plants and a few big koi fish, but also set it up so that the water pump will take the water up through an aquaponics system to use the necessarily poopy water (ducks drink the grossest water) to fertilize plants and then it will go back in the pond clean[er].