garden probably?

It's starting to look like a garden, anyway. Two box-greenhouses are repaired now (for photos, see www.veggiegrower.net). I transplanted more seedlings into the second one. Then started a circle for the "companions" - corn, beans and melons - in a spot where we may or may not have chopped the clay and rock into a fine enough consistency for planting. Half an hour before sundown, 3 kids materialized. One was the second-grader from last week. "Do you need help?" he asks. "Sure!" I tell him. He carries the watering can, and a 4-and-6-year-old brother and sister follow him. We bring water to all the new seedlings, and the transplants from last week (most of which have survived their minimal maintenance). Then I ask them, "Do you want to make lasagna compost?" They're up for anything. The friend who helped me work the ground there suggested this as a kid-friendly project. It's layers of organic and non-organic material (cardboard and newspaper, alternating with vegetable peels, leaves, straw), stacked and then watered down. The goal is quicker decomposition, and usability as compost or mulch. We'd probably have a lot better odds of achieving this goal if we'd done a more careful job of it. But the light is fading, the parents are getting ready to go, and the kids are alive and full of energy. So we careen around the place, carrying boxes and bunches of straw and cans of water, until we have something sort of resembling a pan of lasagna without the pan, and we're all splashed with water and dust and have straw in our hair. As the mothers start to call out, "!Ya vamos!", I exclaim (in Spanish, and hopefully loud enough for both the kids and their moms to hear), "I hope the parents aren't mad at us for getting dirty..." The kids all repeat their names for me, and I tell them, "Come back next Wednesday, if you want!". "Tomorrow?" asks the younger boy. Well, sure. I'll be here tomorrow too. And I'll welcome you, neighbor, if I see you, just like you all are welcoming me.