Product Reviews

Here's what I like these days:

1) My new pruners. I love them. We had a gardening friend come by and advise us on Saturday, and she explained how the grapes were supposed to be pruned. I pruned them. It took a really, really long time - hours - to prune all three of the beasts, including the one that climbs an arbor.* It was tremendously satisfying.

2) Dutch's bike. She practiced riding up and down the driveway all weekend, with a tenacity unusual for her, and she's now able to ride all the way to the end of the driveway and brake to a stop by herself. I think she'll be a confident rider by the end of the summer.

3) Oats. Our new budget includes very little wiggle room,** but oats are cheap, and both kids miraculously love oatmeal.

4) Books about horses. Even boring ones that aren't very well-written. In this household, they are devoured, delicious oats for the brain.

5) Donner,*** the crusty plastic baby doll that Skipper has co-opted from Dutch. Skipper goes to sleep clutching Donner to her chest, and often talking to it. Tonight I listened to her croon lovingly "Don't be sad, little love! Don't be sad!" to Donner.

6) Our new clothesline. I think this is why we actually bought a house; so we could dry our clothes outside as well as on the trusty (rusty) wooden rack. Cook is so enthusiastic that he hung laundry outside yesterday to hang limply under a cloudy grey sky for about two hours.

* Arbor being a glorified term in this case for "rusting jury-rigged framework of metal and wood scraps that you could warily sit under and enjoy in the summer if you wore a helmet"

** We have to save money so I can buy a truckload of composted horse manure and 32 strawberry plants. Priorities, people!

*** Donner is so named because Dutch used to gnaw on its arms and legs. Cook has a gift for naming dolls.