Our preschooler just had his fourth birthday, and guess what his sister gave him: the chickenpox! They seem to be a mild case, which is some relief. He must have broken out on his birthday party day; we confirmed it the next morning. He's taking it in stride. His sister had it a few weeks ago, so he already watched her struggle not to scratch and take an oatmeal bath or two. He asked for one, which he still calls "opameal." I'm so happy he has a word or two like that.

A dear friend of mine just left her daughter at college for the first time, freshman year, out of state. Knowing my friend's sadness at the separation makes me want to cling to "opameal" and chickenpox and the few little remnants of babyhood that remain in my preschool boy. It's hard, this continual letting go. Last year I wept the day after I sold a bunch of baby clothes and stuff at a garage sale, knowing it was the end of an era. What will I be like when my oldest (and then eventually the youngest) goes to college? Let's not even go there. Let's just go in the kitchen and make a bowl of opameal.

End of Summer

I'm sitting on the porch watching the kids spin around in circles in the neighbors' yard. It's dusk on a summer evening, the cicadas are humming, an occasional lightning bug flashes, the kids are laughing and squealing, the dog is snoozing. The glow of the computer screen is my only light source as the sun sets slowly, easing down, easing me out of summer, which I never want to end.

We're Going to the Dogs

A husky sits in the doorway a few feet from me, eyes half-shut, weary from another full day with the Kroekers.

This is our new dog, a husky.

Our search for a dog has been going on for a very long time, as we are faced with some limitations. For one thing, two of us are slightly allergic to dogs so we hoped to find a breed that aggravated that the least. Another issue is that we have four kids, and one is still a preschooler so we hoped to find a breed that was pretty laid back and comfortable with people.

We first tried a little mutt, but she was a frightened, nervous dog, and nipped at the preschooler. I just couldn't live with the fear that she might bite more seriously, so we asked if they would take her back, which they did. She came from a local rescue group and they want to find her the ideal home. Ours was not, and they understood.

Then I was surfing Petfinder, looking at dogs where the description included "excellent with kids" or something like that. One thing led to another, and next thing I know I was looking at a five-year-old husky.

In all the reading and research I had done, I'd heard about a few breeds being goodfor people with allergies--labradoodles, poodles, cairn and west highland terriers among others. I'd even considered the really short-haired breeds like whippets. Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought that a husky, with all that fur, would be okay for people with allergies. But the rescue director asked us to give it a try because some people can tolerate their coats well, so we visited the dog. My daughter and I in particular pet the dog, wiped our fingers near our noses, stuck our faces into the dog's coat, and believe it or not--no reaction. We had no allergic reaction to that amazing, thick coat.

That took us down a research road I didn't know much about, which is the personality traits of huskies. I was nervous about a lot of the things I read, but they reassured me that this dog was atypical, that he was a beta dog, not an alpha, etc. We've had him for only two weeks, and we've had a few transitional things to figure out, but for the most part he has proved to be a fine dog. I hope that we can work it all out and feel perfectly confident.

I was surprised at how much emotional energy it took me to transition, too. This is our first family dog, so we're adjusting, too. The biggest change will hit our pocketbook, as this breed needs a big, strong privacy fence.

As we head into our third week with this dog, I hope to settle in and avoid distraction from the other things that we're transitioning into, like school! He's a great schoolwork dog--he just curls up in a corner or under the table and sleeps. He's nice company for people with homework.

Reel Mower

Yesterday I mowed my lawn. Usually Phil does it on a big rider mower, but he has been quite busy so I offered to do it. The catch was that I didn't want to use the rider. Instead, I borrowed my sister-in-law's mower. It's a reel mower.

A reel mower is the old-fashioned-style mower with blades that spin as the wheels turn, powered by a human being. Seemingly inspired by the efficient design of the bicycle, the reel mower utilizes normal walking as the source of power that accomplishes an otherwise formidable task of mowing a lawn.

We have a large lot, maybe around a half-acre. The grass had grown a bit tall, too, when we were on vacation. It was doable, however, with time and motivation. Really I didn't find it much harder to push than any other push mower with an engine. Either way one has to push and walk. These reel mowers may boast old-fashioned "technology," but they've incorporated modern improvements with materials (making them lightweight, for example) while utilizing the efficient design of our forefathers.

I kept at it, pushing through the entire yard for two hours. I was, however, quite tired last night. Not too tired, however, to look online for reel mower options. I found the one I borrowed, a classic Scotts brand. It has the advantage of a good price and generous width--the reel is 20 inches wide which provides a nice broad swath. The other interesting option was a Brill Luxus 38, but it is only about 15 inches wide. That's not a nice swath. That's a very small swath and I wonder if the superior mechanism will counteract it? In fact, I wonder if I order it, will it look like an Oompa-Loompa lawnmower?

Phil was convinced of the reel mower concept when I showed him an article listing all the advantages. One site offered a sobering emissions graph to illustrate what standard lawnmowers (with engines) spew into the air. Did you know that a conventional lawn mower pollutes as much in an hour as 40 late-model cars (or as much as as much air pollution as driving a car for 100 miles)? I found that information and much more on this site:

http://www.peoplepoweredmachines.com/info/faq.htm

This type of mower is great for health nuts, by the way. I was thinking about that yesterday when one of my neighbors hopped on his zero-radius mower while I was finishing up the back yard. Was he trying to flaunt the ease with which he was able to accomplish the same task on his own yard? He doesn't work out, as far as I know, but I kept thinking about all the people in the world who have purchased mowers to make their lives easier, but then join a gym and work out for strength. Mowing with a reel mower once a week wouldn't replace a workout, but it would surely complement it. Plus, as I already mentioned, it would eliminate the blast of air pollution and allow our children's children a slightly less toxic world to inhabit. And there's no gasoline consumption, and we all know that these days every gallon saved can help our pocketbook, which is one more reason, albeit a minor one, to consider a people-powered machine, as the website promotes.

I like trees.

On vacation this past week, I actually told someone (whose job involved creating wetlands) that my mama raised me as a tree-hugging Democrat and that over the years I seem to have taken it literally. I grieve when trees are cut down. Several years ago I considered fighting for one that was going down to make room for a supermarket. I wrote a letter to the editor, but the tree still went down. During that same era, the rented facility that was being used by the church we attended was slated for demolition. The church moved to a new building, and the rented one was cleared away brick by brick. The wooded area to the north was demolished, then the slightly rolling landscape was flattened beyond recognition so that a strip mall could go in. Barnes and Noble moved in, along with an Officemax and Best Buy. The parking lot is flat. No trees remain, of course, unless you count those used to make the books housed in Barnes and Noble. The most significant vegetation includes a few spirea bushes in the oval sections marking the parking sections.

I don't know if my children will sit in a Redwood to keep it upright or fight for a 100-year-old oak, but I know they enjoyed our camping last week among pine trees, cedars and birches. I hope that the smells, the shade, and their mother's occasional sigh of contentment will stick with my kids as they mature. I hope they grow to like trees, too.