October2004

Sort of big, that is. We moved about 50 feet across a courtyard to a new, bigger place. With help from Eiche's Aunt Susan, PapaEd and Nonna, and Jeff's friends Charlie, John, and Stacy, plus heavy lifting from TheCove's maintenance man David and two helpers, it wasn't a big strain.

Most of the plants from our front deck garden made it over, though the tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries are looking like it's toward the end of their season. (The strawberries were never very productive anyway). We'll see how they like the much shadier environment in the new place.

Eiche seems to be over his bug bite -- for several days in late September, his hand was swollen up from what looked like an infected bite on his wrist. He carried on through all pretty cheerfully.

October 15: GrandmaJoan has stayed over to visit at the new apartment. She took Eiche to the bay, where he had fun playing with a long-handled child-size shovel he found. He dug up rocks and dropped them in the water! Then he shoveled up fallen leaves. He saw some crows chasing a turkey vulture. When the turkey vulture flew over Eiche's head, he shouted, "Go away!", and it flew away.

Oct 21-24: Back to Sacramento for Melissa's Lifeways training. We said hi to the animals at Rudolf Steiner College, including the ducks, sheep, and the big orange koi in the pond.

On Friday we visited Effie Yeaw Nature Center by the American River, where we saw a kestrel and a turtle in the exhibits, but didn't have a chance to go walking around looking for wild turkeys as we had the last time we visited. We did see several deer, including a one-antlered buck ("50 Cent", according to one docent).

On Saturday morning (gray and drizzly), Dad and Eiche drove out to a pumpkin/gourd market in Folsom, then spent a little while in the state park overlooking Folsom Lake. On the way there, we saw wild turkeys crossing Folsom Boulevard near the Aerojet General factory, and also on the Folsom Prison grounds.

On Saturday afternoon (gray and a bit rainy), Eiche decided to amuse himself by hanging up his magnetic train cars to the metal arm of the desk lamp.

We finished October by carving the pumpkin we got in Folsom. The LittlePicture page has one of Eiche with the jack-o-lantern on top of his head.