After exactly one month of family visits back and forth, we are on our own again. We really enjoyed seeing everyone and goofing off, but now it’s back to every day life. We have one week before Jett starts kindergarten. We have a choice of two schools: 1) a traditional, small neighborhood elementary school (K-5) in Moultrie or 2) a huge K-only school in Thomasville that focuses on individual development. School starts Monday, but we won’t have made a decision as to which one to send him to until the weekend prior because the Moultrie school doesn’t have open house until Thursday.
I’m really torn. If we send him to Moultrie, we’ll both know people there and it reminds me of a school I went to as a kid in Gainesville. If we send him to Thomasville, we know no one, but he’ll probably get more individual and independent learning time, and I’d personally like to spend more time in Thomasville since it’s a bit more alive and progressive than Moultrie. If neither school works out, we are open to homeschooling. There’s a large homeschool support group in Thomasville that I’ve been in contact with. I could do it. Jett and I already spend time daily working on different skills. As a result, he is already reading…woohoo!
I’m also looking for a part-time job. There’s a potential opportunity in each city. In Thomasville, I’m vying for a Development Director position with an organization that helps people restore historic and heritage properties. In Moultrie, I’m considering working at the YMCA as an aerobics instructor. How’s that for two completely different directions?! Both are up in the air and unfortunately I probably won’t have an answer before Jett starts school. A decision in this department would help us weigh the school decision.
In the meantime, I’ve given up procrastinating in regards to the gardens. Being away and busy for one month means gardens are wild with weeds and overgrowth. I no longer have any excuses, especially since we’ll need to start our fall plantings in August and September. So I spent some time today clearing out the weeds in the salad garden. I’m going to chop out the red cabbages. It’s too shady and damp for them and they’ve contracted cabbage rot as a result. The goats will be appreciative of the nice snack. I’m also going to pull about half of the carrots to make room for something else. I think I’m going to focus on herbs, carrots, hot peppers and maybe some special salad mixes in this garden.
I didn’t do any weeding in the pasture garden, but I did spend some time untangling the gourds from the pumpkins from the melons. They were one big mess and I couldn’t tell what was what. I also picked a few gourds which I found hidden under the snarls and a few roma tomatoes. The tomatoes are finally starting to go red. I’ve got about a dozen roma and one beefsteak ripening on the window sill. I haven’t tried the beefsteak yet…this is the first to ripen. The roma are good, but very thick skinned. I guess that’s how these heritage fruits protected themselves since they didn’t and don’t have any genetic alterations or pesticides to aid their growth and protect them from predators.
So for fall, we have to get ready to plant more herbs, potatoes, garlic, onions, spinach, lettuce, beets, broccoli, cabbage, winter squash, carrot, cucumber and maybe a garbanzo. I’m going to place a seed order at Baker’s Heirlooms for a few things. I’ve got to work on seed saving, but it’s definitely an art. I failed miserably at saving spinach seeds. I’ve got lots of sunflower seeds drying. I’ll try to save some melon, squash, jalapeno and tomato while there is still time. The carrots you have to wait 2 seasons to save. And I forgot to save zucchini. I guess the more I do, the more I’ll learn, the more I’ll remember.