Cluck Cluck Here & A Cluck Cluck There…

An interesting weekend, full of surprises – I kept the boys busy Saturday morning while Mike tackled some more school prep for the return back to school this week.  In the afternoon, we decided to venture over to Meg’s to see if we could catch her at home.  If you’ve been following along, I’ve mentioned her (and her mom, Stella) in previous posts.  Meg owns stables, her husband, Richard, is the ‘bat guy’ and Stella’s bakery is named after her mom who lives up on the hill with those beautiful moss-covered stairs I’ve written about many a time.  We found Meg, her nanny, Anna and Meg’s grandson, Chako at home….and let’s just say, it was all fun from there.  Meg quickly came out to rescue us (I mean, greet us) after her dogs announced us…what a ruckus.  Three dogs, that I know of (hers) and Bodi (one of the many community dogs) following us, darting up their driveway.  Yes, we have arrived!  Chako is four and is the perfect playmate – he attends Kinder in the morning, so this is the first time the boys have gotten some real play time together since M&J are afternoon school ‘goers’.  They quickly started to chase each other, play hide and seek in the bushes and emulate a 70’s rock band with an old, worn out tin lid used as a drum, and some lumber as a make-shift guitar and tambourine.  Meg gave us a quick tour of her mushroom-making room – yes, she makes mushrooms – she starts out by cooking and pasteurizing wood shavings/hay/saw dust and adds an inoculated rice with spores of mushrooms and then bags them and hangs them in a dark cool cellar for about three weeks.  The mushrooms then grow out of the holes in the plastic bags – she then harvests them and sells them (and there you have it).  We then asked if we could tag along with Anna as it was time for her to feed the chickens.  Up to the hen house we went.   Anna carried a big bucket of organic compost with her which would be consumed by the chickens once we reached our destination.  We walked up a path, eating raspberries and guavas at each turn.  We passed many a garden that caught the eye of both me and Mike.  These gardens were covered with plastic which overlaid the arched up-rights to protect the plants against too much rain and sun.  Finally we reached the hen house - Chako needed some real prodding before entering.  I later learned why.  Later that evening, Meg told me that he recently had a run-in with a hen so he treads a little more cautiously now.  Once inside the hen house, my boys were like a deer-in the headlight – WOW – you don’t see this in Clarendon Hills.  It was way cool.  I can’t tell you the last time I was in a hen-house, but it was sheer chaos – chickens everywhere, hens, roosters – what fun!  We then followed Anna through a small door and ducked through the other side to the chicken yard where we proceeded to round-up all the stray ones to get them back inside.  Imagine three little boys and three adults trying to coax every last chicken inside - we all clapped our hands, trudged through bushes, picked up sticks to lead them the right way and finally success.  ‘Hurry, Hurry, everyone inside, close the door’ Anna said in Spanish.  Once inside, Anna got down to business collecting the eggs – At this point, Chako was still clinging onto Anna for dear life as he did not want to be ‘one’ with the chickens.  I held Chako while Anna showed Mike and the boys where the chickens laid their eggs.  The boys were very gentle and collected the eggs and put them in a pail – luckily not a one broke.  They were still warm to the touch and some eggs were even of a greenish tint.   A busy place, a hen-house!  We threw out some corn and toppled over the pail of the compost and made a quick exit.  I would love to strike a deal with Meg so we can take advantage of exposing our boys to helping out on their farm - feeding the chickens, collecting eggs - a great way to showcase responsibility and ownership.  I understand that Meg sells the eggs, so we would love to support her - I understand that they are extra yummy too!  On our way down, we saw horses in a nearby pasture, they were of course, Meg’s horses (hence, Meg’s Stables).  One would not know all this existed behind the stables from the main road.  We ended up at Stella’s house and walked into her back garden.  The garden was quaint in a word - she has a pond with beautiful plantings all around.  Stella was just finishing up a visit with a friend from a local Hotel who had brought over two clients of hers to meet Stella and see some of her artwork as these guests were also artists.  You see, Stella is a very talented  artist (she will be the first to tell you that she is blind as a bat and can hardly see much past her nose anymore), but you’d never know it by admiring her works. Her paintings adorn Stella’s bakery and are all over her home.  I peeked into her front room and she described each one that adorned her back wall– she had about ½ dozen paintings on  what she calls her “good guy” wall, ranging from Desmond Tutu to Ghandi.  Oh so talented.  She shared with me that she did not start painting until she was 52 years old, ‘so my dear, it is never too late, don’t give up hope’ she remarked.  The boys played in the pond and delighted over the fish and tadpoles…”WHAT, fish and tadpoles?” cried Mike…he immediately asked Stella if he could scoop up some water and  aquatic life for his classroom.  She quickly returned with strainers which sufficed as our net.  Michael and John were soaked by the time we left the garden, and the poor tadpoles and fish, I’m sure…shocked and terrorized after having 6 little hands a fluttering on top of their pond.  We invited Chako to play at our house that afternoon and after some swinging, tree climbing, matching card games and coloring, we took a break to gorge ourselves with popcorn.  Meg and Chako ended up staying for dinner which was fun for all.  A full Saturday and the kids were down without a problem shortly after dinner. 

 

Sunday was a chore trying to keep the little hands from mauling/over-handling the poor tadpoles we had collected the day before.  In the afternoon, we all decided to go to school to get the tadpoles settled in their new home (Mike’s classroom…at least for a while).  Oh – the worms! – Did I mention I was on worm duty?  “Boys, go out to the compost pile and dig up some worms would you please?” asked Mike.  Right then and there, I knew I was on shovel duty, so the boys and I headed across the back yard to the compost.  Worms galore, fat ones, thin ones, long ones, short ones, we must have collected close to 50 and I must admit I had a blast.  So Mike now has two new additions to his classroom, a worm bin and a tadpole farm. 

 

Today, I ran into Helena Guindon who is the sister of one of the boy’s teachers (Miss Melody).  She was cutting through our pasture when I stopped her to inquire about art classes for the boys.  I had heard from a friend that Helena offers classes and took the opportunity to inquire.  We start in two weeks and will see how it goes with two preschoolers.  She seems very flexible and adaptable which will be great for the boys.  She has a great attitude about exposing the kids and me for that matter and sure sounds like she has some cool stuff planned.  I am looking for ways to get them involved in a variety of social activities; outside of school and play dates, so why not art.  More on this to come.  $2500 colones per lesson.

Signed: S