Another busy week

The weeks are flying by. I can’t believe its been more than a week since I posted! But a lot has been happening around here:

1. Spring Festival at my inlaw’s neighborhood. They have a much bigger shrine and a much more elaborate festival complete with Oni and Dragons dancing through the neighborhood all day long. Interestingly the same priest that did our little spring festival also does this one. LP1 and LP2 were scared of the Oni (the guy in the red mask).

2. The kids are fitting right in with the neighborhood kids. We had a little gathering this weekend because unfortunately two of the three kids in the neighborhood are moving out. It really sucks because one was the same age as MB and the other was the same age as LP2. LP2 was devastated and still starts crying whenever the little boy is mentioned. The remaining neighborhood boy is 4 years older than MB, but is a really nice kid who hangs out with the younger ones and teaches them how to catch fish, and make bows and arrows out of bamboo. I take the kids with me when ever I can and they spend all day playing outside in the hamlet and surrounding fields and forest. It is really great to see them take to it all so easily.

3. The house is coming along. I have cleaned a total of four rooms so that they are at least comfortable and don’t look like a ghost house. Still, the Kitchen is completely demolished, and we have no usable bath or toilet, so those are going to be serious priorities from now on.

4. Finally work on the roof has begun. That is my friend in the tile business, helping me with the worst leak in the house. He taught me the basics but I am going to have him come back to help me with the more complicated roofing tasks. The roof is one place you want to do right!

 

5. Ahhhh. I do love the view from here. I recently had the owner show me the actual boundaries of the orchard, and discovered that I had a bit more orchard than I initially thought, so today I dropped the last of the fruit and continued with the pruning (which is about two months late now I hear).