{life with a curious and crazy 10 yr old}
She’s a maker, a doer, a shaker, a dancer, a marvelous wood sprite with magickal powers to amuse and amaze! She’s been hard at work playing lately – making all manner of craziness and discovery. She’s been playing badminton and board games, drawing on her outdoor chalkboard, shooting stick arrows from her wooden bow, invoking rituals all over the property (and making corn dolls, I think these things go together even if she doesn’t see the connection yet), riding her bike over hill and dale, and reading Roald Dahl (The Twits), and Dog Man
…and we finally got her a betta – it wasn’t the goal of the big fancy birthday fish tank to get a betta but all the other fish so far have died and they are pretty tough. So we will use the betta to get the bacterial strength of the tank up to speed before we consider other fish (not with the betta – he would then move to his bowl) – Duende is very excited, she named the fish ‘Raya’ (after the last betta Ray, and because of both of their ‘rays of color’).
And Duende has been on chicken-duty a lot lately – we lost one gal to (likely and immature) hawk, so D has been making a good presence up by the coop. Since they don’t have a rooster, they need a little more direction and care until they figure it out. And we are trying to introduce a new girl to the flock (she came with the meatbirds but is so lovely and sweet, and smaller) but that is proving to be a trial. She has til the end of the week to figure it out! D is a big help with that process. She’s been a good help in the garden this Summer, too. She harvests calendula every other day for me, and helped to dig up potatoes. And inside she’s more of an official ‘taste tester’ of new recipes (like Josh’s new Blackberry Hand Pies, and Parmesan bread, and all kinds of pickles).
I think today we’ll make some ice cream and she’s got an Atlas crate on Indonesia and a Tinker Crate on Stereoscopy waiting for her…Happy Duendesday!
Rock Bottom Homestead 