___filled days

pictured: alex (behind a pink mosquito net) and elie playing some music in the barn

there's always so much to do when you have vast amounts, or any amount, of land. you can weed, you can plant, you can pick, you can whack, you can water, you can feed, you can repair...etc, etc. and when there's so many people always around, there's lots of fun to be had. like playing volleyball, weird board games (which i'm sometimes okay at), music (something i leave for the ol'man to do), kite flying (apparently i suck at this as well), or like today's afternoon activity - naming the 50 states in the US (alex was the only one to get them all - i missed 3...maryland, missouri, and iowa). and all these possibilities of things to do make for a full, productive - yet relaxed - day. and i think that's pretty great.

pictued: alex learning to fly a kite // alex flying a kite

and because the days are instantly satisfying, most people don't even take their allotted two days off. and i can't help but wonder, why not? but i guess if you have nothing special to do, then hanging out, or helping out, around the farm isn't something you need to escape from. to be free from. and i think that's pretty great too.

of course, we've taken a free day (just one so far) and it was well spent. lucky for us, the cold weather went away for a day and a lovely day was to be had. wanting to save on some money, we decided to just walk and walk, and see where the road would take us.

horses in meadows (plus one pony...yay! im a girl), old people with dogs on beaches coupled with a picnic, an encounter with a german named herman who rode on an ATV looking for a run over deer and spoke of sandwiched strapped to his belly as he escaped germany pre-wall, and viking ruins replaced by modern homes are what we found.

pictured: me and a tiny house (playground) // alex in land of the vikings

and for the days of work...the other day we planted hundreds of onion bulbs into what looked more like rocks than soil. now, my hands look like they belong to an eighty year old woman. soil really dries you out. which is why all should remember that plants live in such an environment and you must water them, lots. which is also what we did. and then we planted some seedlings. different kinds of cabbage and cauliflower and other things that were in swedish, so i don't really know what we were planting.

pictured: me wheeling over some plants // the crew preping the land

and then it's lunch time. and we eat and eat...until it's time to eat again.

pictured: the most vibrant meal i've ever had - beet salad with some indian thing and cucumber juice