Monsoon and Pumpkins

So coming from a small coastal town that is famous for pumpkins, last year I decided to try and make my own patch of the Orangey Goodies for this coming year. I had bought a bunch for the halloween party and had about 10 or so left over. Well what the heck was I going to do with these? Then I remembered that the patches in Half Moon Bay every year would chop them up and hoe them into the ground. Well why not? We have a lot of land that goes to weeds during monsoon. Maybe a seed or two will make it through the many birds, be able to root in clay and still be able to bloom after intense heat. After all...as it is, sunflowers take over our yard every year. If the sunflowers can do it, why not the pumpkins. So the kids and I had a blast throwing the pumpkins over the edge of our yard where I was going to put in the fence in the next coming months. Some of them broke; some of them didn't. Only one did I actually hoe into the ground before my hoe broke and I gave up because the ground was too hard. I really didn't hold out much hope. The soil is really solid clay. Like you pick it up and mold it kind of clay. Not to mention the overly high iron content. Our outdoor magnet dart game gets a solid coating of soil just from the huge amount of iron (which is kinda fun and neat to use to teach the kids about soil content...as a side note).
Welllll, we have had a HUGE monsoon season. We have seen rain nearly every day since it started and minor flooding over our culvert. Occasionally, we wake up to a swamp in the front yard. Luckily, we had improved the drainage this spring or we might have had a issue like our neighbor....flooded mud right into their living room..YIKES!
We looked over our yard the morning after the last hard rain (which caused a flood on our street) to make sure there was no major flood issues. While we expected the plethora of wildflowers (especially sunflowers) we got close enought to realize that we have a huge HUGE amount of pumpkins growing below us. We will have pumpkins in the hundreds and they are just starting to form now. It makes me kinda kid giddy. Like those days of going through pumpkin patch farms as a kid and trying to pick out just the right one. Now....the farm has come to me and my kids will get to see what it is like to live on a pumpkin patch. So three cheers to the Great Pumpkin! This Halloween will truly be magical

Geek News

Only for geek eyes...
I have been deliciously endowed with a new computer. Mainly for gaming. And it is sitting by my door in a box all ready like a sweet present to open. I keep going in circles around the box. I have to wait for my husband to come home and install the nic card and bring home a monitor. But I am getting a temporary place set up so that tonight...when the kids are fast asleep...mommy and papa can geek out in eq2 together *YAYYYYYY!*
Happy happy joy joy dance!!!!
And then Maithius, Paladin of paranoid tendancies (you would need to talk to my guild leader about my tanking and why I yelled "Get on the wall" on vent....well obviously to get the monsters off us...sheesh...), and Supersake 74 fury extrordanaire can finally be together with our faithful friends Priastia, bangity boom boom wizard, Silverpaw Master Monk and Khraaven Guardian and the real tankage to smack some ravasect off-side the head. Or the dragon pictured above.....
Ok...i DID warn you it was geeky.....

Just asking...

My husband has a job offer in Indonesia. Which doesn't sound bad at first until you find out where the mine is located. On the west side of the island of Papua. The east side is New Guinea. As far as I can see it's a big ol rain forest with nothing...NO THING else besides the mine. I think if that's the case I can enjoy such an adventure for about 2 months before it would get old. Cool things...it's about 400 miles from Austrailia, we would have a company house, housekeeper (because the tribes negotiated a work program for their people when they sold the land), a chauffeur and bodyguards. Not so cool things: We'd need a bodyguard?!? Medical care has to be done out of the country because their healthcare is so poor, not sure if there is a school for the kids and if there is no DSL or other high speed internet it is so not a done deal. Could I handle 2 years isolated in the middle of a rainforest? Not sure. I am going nuts in small desert town in USA, that long in the rainforest might challenge my sanity. If it were just a year I would probably jump on it anyway for the experience...I love to travel, but with 2 young kids in tow is it too much?
So my question to all of you...does anyone have any information about that region of the world? What kind of expectations I should have if we were to go?
on another note....take a look at the official website, these happy faces and tell me...do YOU want to live there?
www.ijbprov.go.id/

Going back to Cali...

Got a big weekend party for my mom's 65th birthday/retirement. Looks like events from Fri night all the way through Sun afternoon. Wow. Anyway...be gone for about a week...you all play nice.

I will be enjoying wine, the ocean, the redwoods, and a bunch of family.