My wife is a basket case.

I've not been able to get a new posting up here in a few weeks, as we've been really busy around the home. New spring projects are all around and it seems time escapes.

Baseball is in full swing, we've had testing (yuk) at the homeschool campus with the oldest daughter (that was no fun) and I've been busy with business.

Part of business is the fair, which is primarily a livestock market and show, with competitions, and far less of a carnival than in places I've lived previously. Calaveras is really a ranching community, with a lot of miscellaneous agricultural stuff thrown into the mix. So the old flavor of the county fair here is still quite substantial. The whole county really shuts down for the four days of the fair.

So I'm building a booth. I won't be showing pigs, but pictures.

All this reminds me of course that timing is everything, and while the animals may be fat, the fields are just getting started. So far Elizabeth is winning our own home competition for biggest and most beautiful plants. Her chard is looking fabulous, her sunflowers (the really fun red ones) are coming up wonderfully, and she even got a marigold in the ground.

Meanwhile Robin, our real farmer in the family, is preparing for serious planting. This means more than the nice huge boxes, but the actual crop rows must be planted. And that means gopher-proof wire baskets so they don't eat all my peppers. I love Robin and clearly she knows that I love my peppers.

Ever the frugal farmer, Robin decided to just get some wire and make her own gopher baskets. This reminded me a little of our latest favorite media indulgence, the show "River Cottage" from BBC when Hugh the host had some eel traps made. We won't be catching gophers, but keeping them out. I hope.

Now if we could just find a creek with some nice juicy eels...