Staying out of their way

A couple years back when I was publishing a lot of stuff, I wrote this article that compared raising children to growing a garden.

While in the garden today, I had another thought about gardening and how it relates to raising children...

These are the very beginning of the acorn squash plants that are currently growing in my garden. Aren't they lovely? Coming up so green and strong? Far more healthy and robust in their quest for growth than most anything else I planted thus far.

Here’s the thing. By all rights, they should NOT have even sprouted. I don’t know how they had the strength to push their lovely greenness up through the dirt. The hills were thrown in at the last minute. Where they ended up was much shadier than I had wanted. And as far as watering, they are just out of reach of the sprinkler’s spray. So if my brain isn't fully attentive to the garden, they go a bit thirsty.

But they grew. They are healthy. Strong. Just going about, doing what seeds do.

I didn't do anything but plant the seeds. I haven't watered them nearly enough, and any expert would say that where I planted them was terrrible planning.

But they grew.

And so it goes with kids. And school. I'm not saying that we shouldn't ever do anything. I've come to find out that is totally NOT what unschooling is. Sandra Dodd says, "When a mom thinks unschooling is doing nothing, she's not doing nearly enough." And this is totally true. So please don't think I'm suggesting don't ever water the garden or care in the least where you put the hill of squash to grow. That would be the equivalent of saying "The kids are unschooled. I'm watching Oprah and eating cheesecake. All day. They will be fine."

What I am saying is I think sometimes (or most times)we try way too hard. We put our nose and cheeks and entire face into places where we aren't necessarily needed. We interrupt things that might otherwise happen naturally if we'd stop interfering all the time. Seeds sprout up sometimes, regardless of what we did or didn't do. They grow because its their purpose.

I'd venture to guess that with kids and learning, its much the same.

Real Life Math (Fenced in, Part 2)

Remember the chicken wire issue from a couple posts ago? Here's a word problem:

MamaTea needs 75 feet of chicken wire for her bottom garden, so as to deter the geese from sneaking in. It needs to be at least 14 inches high so it can be attached to the first rail of the fence. And it needs to not take every last bit of her pocketbook, since groceries are always nice to have before the garden starts earning its keep.

In the absence of free/reuseable chicken wire, MamaTea finds the store that sells it cheapest. 24 inch tall x 25 feet long sections for $14.99. Iggy and Ookster point out the 36 inch tall x 50 foot sections that are $24.99.

Here is the question. How does MamaTea get more than 75 feet of fencing for $25?



Give up?




You buy the 36 inch tall x 50 foot section. You cut it in half at 25 feet, and you cut both 25 feet sections in half the long way (at 18 inches tall)...as we are demonstrating in the picture above. And there you have it: 100 feet of 18 inch high fencing for $25. Thanks to Dad for assisting me (who happened to walk through the yard at the wrong time) with the tangly mess.



And there you have it. Another example of real life math :) Hubster says the fence looks even more redneck now. Aww...ain't that sweet?

One of the few times I like to be fenced in...

...is when we're talking vegetable garden time. We put in a second garden this year (which we fondly refer to as the "bottom garden" because it sits lower in the yard than the other one) and before we could plant it, we needed to fence it.

However, I'm cheap. Frugal. Thrifty. Iggy says we are "good for the earth". Whatever you want to call it, I was not spending (alot of) money on this project.





So, my gem of a Hubster reminds me of all the deadfall in the back 13, meets me in the yard with his chainsaw, and beckons me to the woods. Sweeter words were never spoken.


We decide to locate the right chunks of dead logs, cut them into fence length pieces, and haul them back (over two arch bridges) to the yard. Who needs a gym??






Ooky and Iggy showing off their mad skills:

















Some logs become fence posts, some are rails. A few special pieces are reserved for a fancy gate. Here is the work in progress:











Here is the awesome gate my husband built. (Barn hinges found in the garage, so we didn't even have to buy those!)

Ain't she lovely?









So at first we sort of kind of crossed our fingers and thought it was going to work. I mean, dang...its a lovely fence. And free! But the next night...

One of the several families of geese (babies, mom and dad)that hang out here were frolicking in the garden. I had to laugh. Ok, so somewhere in the back of my mind, we knew we'd have to find some chickenwire and tack it along the bottom of the rail fence, so as not to let the little critters just walk on in. I had just really crossed my fingers that the little critters would behave more and stay out.

Then again, if they would just behave, we wouldn't have needed the fence in the first place :)