A Popular Harvest

There was a different family running around our backyard with shovels today! Word is getting out that we've got the best bamboo in town.

The family heard about the bamboo through Will and Michaela. The mother brought her kids to play with Henry and Sam while her parents cavorted in the bamboo forest! It was funny how the mother went back and forth between checking on her kids and her parents!

Shane was thrilled to have an extra kid in the circle to play with. I ended up keeping an eye on the toddler while Will chased the older kids around the house.

Anyone who thought our neighborhood isn't kid friendly is crazy.

I Won't Miss This

Bamboo is a mix of cool and annoying. It's easy to snap early on and quite cathartic. I like the noise and Shane agrees.

However, the stuff doesn't know when to quit. After a couple of weeks of growth the charm has fled.

You can't miss more than a couple of days either, because the stuff grows so rapidly and if it starts to dry and harden it's much harder to deal with.

Carrie's the resident pro. Our bamboo farmer who likes to post about it on Chinese social media has made several harvesting appearances, as well.

As long as the new owners know not to give an inch, it won't be more than a minor nuisance. I've mentioned it to Will, Mikaela, and Courteney to make sure someone gives them a heads up.

A Little Early This Year....

The bamboo.......it awakens.

Bamboo Peddling

A fraternity asked permission to harvest our bamboo. How in the world did that happen!?

Carrie was surprised, but said, "Sure!"

I came home to them hacking away. They had a Uhaul they were filling with bamboo for some sort of party. They mainly cleared out areas in the vacant lots and not near the house, but I'm not going to complain about free labor!

Random observation:
For college kids, they didn't know much about helping guide a truck. Carrie helped them the first time they backed in. The second time she sent me out to supervise.

"Turn the wheels to the left. Okay, back up. Turn the wheels to the right. Okay..." the kid said.

I pointed out that if he moved to the driver's side his friend could see him in the mirror so he could give hand signals. Plus, he'd hear him way better.

I guess guiding a truck in backing up isn't natural. It's one of those skills that's easy to pick up, but you have to actually do it once or twice.

Outside Day

First full week of summer continues with an outside day. Shane and I accompanied Carrie to the Nibs' barn.

Shane, in his usual nature-loving, curious way, was fascinated by the ponds.

He ran down to look at the waterfall at the lowest pond.

I noticed a pipe blowing bubbles and a shed with electrical cords humming. I told Shane the water was probably pumped up from the lowest pond to keep it moving.

Shane seemed to tuned me out and then said, "DAD! Did you know I think they pump the water up from the lowest pond and then it falls through the top and the middle pond back to this pond?!?"

Which was basically what I just said.

He ran up to the middle pond to look down the drain and verify.

Then he ran up to check out the waterfall from the top pond to the middle pond.

"You know that's what I said, right?" I replied. Shane loves to talk.

I showed him the pipe in the top pond that was pushing out the water. He liked the bubbles.

Meanwhile, I heard Carrie calling for Nibs. I looked up and Nibs was walking over to her.

She brought Nibs in for some grooming and lead training.

I ended up holding the lead while Shane pooped (There was a bathroom).

Carrie pointed out Nibs' little fetlocks.

Carrie took Nibs out back for training while Shane and I started a project. Carrie bought a "Honey-Do" brand round pen. It was dirt cheap un-assembled.

Shane insisted it was not like Legos.

Carrie finished with Nibs and started to help. Carrie and I started an assembly line, cementing and fitting. We built 14 panels out of the 28 Carrie bought.

Shane handed over poles for a little bit. Then Carrie pacified him with her phone. There was no service for Pokemon, so he played Exploding Kittens.

Which stopped the complaining and kept him busy the rest of the time.

Carrie started to assemble and gather the panels to make a future, portable round pen.

We were out almost three hours with driving. Since I was already sweaty, I figured I'd do some yard work when we got home. The bamboo has continued to spread. Feelers are now showing up IN FRONT of the house.

Shane loves Carrie's blueberry bushes. He can't pass up an opportunity to poke at them.

Shane went inside. I chopped bamboo out back. Carrie collected eggs.

I would have been happy to stay inside the rest of the day, but Raheem knocked. First at 1 PM. Shane was hot and the TV was on, so he didn't want to go outside. Then he knocked again at 3 PM. This time, I'd told Shane to "entertain himself." Shane had just started to read on his own after moping around!

Well, we went outside. Shane's old enough I (mostly) trust him to play on his own, but don't trust him to be outside alone.

I made sure to be boring on the porch. Raheem kept trying to throw a ball to me and get me to play. I want the boys to play with each other. Shane sometimes runs off, but he was game today.

The boys climbed on the hill, passed and kicked the ball, and used the pump rocket.

It was hot enough I was sweating while sitting on the porch (and swatting at mosquitoes). Henry and Sam came out around 4 PM.

We played around until 5 PM and then I called it quits for the night. I had my sun quota for the day. Plus, I was tired. Shane was covered in mud so we went inside to settle down. He took his second shower for the day.

It was a good Wednesday for summer.

Crossing the Threshold

I decided to explore the bamboo behind the house.

Shane eagerly followed.

I haven't explored before because of ticks, Shane, and Carrie worrying about Shane. Shane's older now, and the bamboo guy mentioned how pretty it was.

Plus, Carrie wasn't home to worry.

It's a different world back there. the pictures don't capture the scope of everything tall and enveloping you.

I was surprised that most of the bamboo was dead. Their wasn't any undergrowth. The forest floor was coated in dead bamboo leaves and shoots. I was a little worried that it made a perfect home for a snake to hide under, but we had no problems. 

Mainly, I walked into spider webs while Shane cavorted underneath them.

We're a lot closer to a lot of our neighbor's houses than you would realize. The bamboo effectively creates a barrier. With the dead bamboo and the harvesting, it's easier this year to see through the shoots and spot old frame on the hill behind us.

It was fun, but I was done. Shane didn't want to stop exploring. I trust him not to find the one sharp bamboo stalk and impale himself, but he's got an impulsive habit of trying to reach his arm into holes in the ground.

He wasn't happy when I ordered him out. I offered to let him break bamboo down the street to take the sting out of it.

It's a public service.

A Hole in the Clouds

After days of rain, the sun came out! Shane helped Carrie curtail bamboo growth before church.

It was another, "entertain yourself" morning. Shane dumped out all my cards and played his own version of 5-Minute Dungeon.

We went to the later church service and then hit up Costco for groceries.

Shane got into a discussion with a woman about the tomato plants she was buying. You could tell she had children by how patient she was with him telling her everything she already knew!

We bumped into one of my wrestlers, Jin. He introduced Shane to his grandma as, "the kid who hangs on to my leg!"

Guess what Shane did? He latched on to Jin's leg. Neither Jin or Shane could get enough of it, but I didn't want them bumping anyone. It happened again a couple of times as we bumped into them shopping.

I had to excuse us to shop faster at one point, because Shane really wanted to poop.

Baseball practice was at four.

The coach was solo, but their weren't many kids.

I had an "Oh, duh!" moment. I finally realized that the Jordan from baseball was the same Jordan at TKD. I've recognized him and known his name was Jordan whenever I saw him at TKD, but somehow never put two and two together. I blame the work burnout.

Shane burned out on paying attention himself. Maybe it was the heat. He did a crap job of doing what the coach was asking.

Practice ended early (4 PM), but Ezra stayed to play. Shane and Ezra climbed and talked until 4:30 PM.

Soccer ended with a whimper yesterday, so baseball is our only seasonal activity left. Only three games left. Summer is edging closer and closer.

Bamboo Farming

The bamboo started to really sprout the first weekend in May. Now the bamboo harvesters are back.

The guy said they've already harvested a 100 lbs of the stuff. Don't know how scientific he's being, but there's plenty more to go!

Note: Sometimes it freaks Carrie out a little when she looks out the back window and there are old guys with pick-axes who weren't there before.

Done In By Itself

Some bamboo toppled under it's own weight in our backyard.

You can't even see the rocks. 

I think it was all new growth that fell, too. Maybe it grew too quickly from the excessive spring rain?