Summer

Had you given up hope of any new postings on here?? I almost had,but today I decided to jump in and post, although I've almost forgotten how. No time like the present. So a few pictures of summer to get me back in?? This is Sage's last week of summer vacation, he gets a month. He's not ready to go back yet....all of the kids around here have had so much fun together!


This collage is of a local summer festival. Kenji got the idea of painting Akiko and I's bellies to look like watermelon and his head to match. The purple tape around his head is what we wrap our veggies in:). He shaved his head right before. Lucas and Kai got in on the act too and Kenji and Kai borrowed their watermelon "jinbei"(traditional summer festival wear) from Ray and Akiko's family. We were one of 9 costume entries and we got 5th place, the last place that got a cash prize! We had a good time. Sage danced a traditional "rice-planting" dance with school kids, a group of older Japanese men and women teach and dress them up. He looks so cute and little in the costume. The girl in glasses behind him in one picture is a grade or two ahead of him but adores him and always takes him under her wing, that night she bought him some things at the festival even...:). He enjoyed the dance alot, he enjoys anything done with friends pretty much! Lucas is holding the bush he won in the drawing at the end of the night, the only one of us who won something. They give wooden number tags to everyone who participates in the dance of the festival and then they do drawings of bunches of donated stuff. Lucas was proud! Kai wanted to take pictures all night, I think the one of Toshi he took:).

So what are we busy with right now? Well, I'm in my 34th week of pregnancy now, how time flies! We've had quite a bit of hot and humid weather here lately and I'm feeling it...my second pregnancy without air conditioning...but at least in Hokkaido the nights almost always get cooler and there's a breeze most of the time, if I could just get outside into it! I've felt very good this last half of the pregnancy. My midwife is always telling me to get out in the dirt and work..I try! But I usually end up packing veggies for delivery, other odds and ends, or helping in the kitchen-we are feeding lots of people these days. All the kids are home on vacation plus we are having lots of visitors this year. Our lunch crowd has been running in the high teens every day. The farm work is centered on harvesting, harvesting, harvesting!,packing things for delivery to our CSA members and daily packing and delivering to the three farmer's markets we are selling things through right now-we don't have to be there, but we have to deliver and pick up leftovers. Oh and lots and lots of weeding and right now as it's dry, lots of watering.
We are very busy eating lots of yummy veggies, tomatoes every meal almost, cucumbers, eggplant, okra, peppers, snap peas, japanese turnips, and soon to come-corn.Sage especially is in heaven, he's our biggest veggie lover of the three, but they all eat them well. Sage discovered that he likes roasted eggplant the other day and so I've made that the last two nights for him. Today for afternoon snack we went out and picked handfuls of blueberries and raspberries, very sweet! The neighbor fruit farmer sold us a bunch of plums very cheap so we've all been snacking on them from the cooler during the day. It's not uncommon to see the boys with a cucumber or a tomato or handful of mini-tomatoes in hand outside while they play. They've all enjoyed the steady stream of visitors we've had this summer, someone new to show around, play with, etc. Today we had a camera crew come and spend the day, we have a journalist that will be spending extended time over a year as she writes a book about organic farming. Aki and Ray's boys went to their grandma and grandpa's for several days and our boys were sad, so they hung out with the crew all afternoon, very nice guys. Kai was very fascinated with the cameraman's cameras and convinced him to show him how to use one and he told me he got to take lots of pictures, he was thrilled! I think he was in alot too, with his signature dirty face, well, that would be dirt from head to toe, look! I can't let them even come in the house in the evening, they go straight to the door to our shower/tub room which opens out to our greenhouse, handy, huh! At least the three of them can get themselves clean usually! Well, I'll post more pics afterwards, there are plenty to choose from....:) Hope you're all doing well and you'll find this post eventually:)!