Monday, January 26, 2009

we're planting flowers!

Saturday afternoon, Anna and I were hanging out on our front porch with our neighbor, Joseph, when suddenly Anna remembered that she had some flower seeds she had bought over Christmas and really wanted to plant. So a lazy saturday afternoon was quickly transformed into a workday. Joseph ran home and got some tools, while Anna and I started filling up some buckets with water. First step was to take all of the dead plants and foreign matter out of the planter that is attached to our front wall.



And man, was there a lot of foreign matter: ranging from cat feces to rusty nails to cigarette butts to part of a vertebral column of some unidentified long-dead animal (which I accidentally picked up before realizing what it was, gross!). After we got all of that removed, Joseph started tilling away at the soil (if you can even call that dry dirt "soil"). Once it was all cleaned out and somewhat tilled, we added bucket upon bucket of water until we were playing like kids in a slurpy, soupy mud mixture.



Then at that point, there wasn't much we could do cause it was so wet. We gave the planter a Sabbath day's rest to let the water penetrate through, and then this evening, Anna and I took to the actual sowing of the seeds. Using forks, (the best tools we could come up with for the job) we dug our little holes and carefully placed the seeds approximately 1/4" below the surface.




Now we begin the waiting game. It says it should be 10-15 days before they sprout, and hopefully not too long after that they will begin flowering. We're excited to see what comes of our little proyecto. I'll keep you updated with pictures as our babies begin to grow and flourish.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

can't sleep

Big decision to make this month whether to sign on for another year at IST or to go back to the states. And if I decide to return to the states, what will I do? where will i live? how will i make money? etc. And since I am terrible at decision-making (especially important ones), it's going to be a very back and forth month I feel like. Your prayers (and words of wisdom) are greatly appreciated.