Neighbors with Benefits

We continue to have a mutually beneficial exchange of goods, services, and goodwill with our neighbor who lost her son, as she’s sorting through his belongings, and fixing up the house.

Today Erin was scraping the garage door, cleaning up, and hosing down the area in preparation for painting.  Meanwhile I was digging a drainage ditch to direct water away from the garage, helping E, and improving upon the memorial bird sanctuary.  The neighbor had big bales of cedar chips that I used to mulch it.

Our neighbor is funding supplies, but also giving us lots of useful items.  Today she gave us some fresh corn and watermelon, and an old purple bike!  It just needs a little repair, and then I’ll have a bike to ride.

In between working, we all sat under the trees and talked.  She and E are able to relate to each other’s extreme losses and grieving process, so it’s a more meaningful exchange.  They take turns crying and laughing.  It turns out she is fairly knowledgeable about Jewish customs, having studied them for years, so that was a pleasant surprise.  We’re going to have her over for a Shabbat meal soon.

Here are some more scenes from around our expanded estate.  I was excited to see the first flowers on my sugar snow peas today.

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