Busy Hands Homestead

While Sylvan napped Ivory cut the butter into pieces and dropped them into the mixer. Yup - she is making the icing for Adam's birthday cake in a velvety unitard.  It is  An Almond Torte .  A ridiculous cake really - 18 eggs, a pound of butter, cocoa, espresso, chocolate covered coffee beans.  We creamed yolks, whipped egg whites and baked the tree layers early, early in the morning.  (I tried to get up early enough to do it alone, but instead I had two enthusiastic helpers for the whole process.) Adam's other gifts: a Stag Horn Fern and an Orchid I miss Adam....  and creating an elaborate cake is one way to make the missing him fun.  I can't get away with making a cake as elaborate as this when he is walking in and out of our kitchen, opening the fridge, and snooping around.  How often do I get to make an entire dinner that states it is better if made a day ahead?  The day before he comes home - that's when - and...

"Hugh.  That Heavy!" Sylvan sighs and steps out of my path. He follows me, barely a step behind, from the stack of cinder blocks to the freshly leveled earth underneath the maple tree. "Hugh.  That Heavy!" I grab a second block. "Hugh.  That Heavy!" With each block I lift, he sighs, and walks directly behind me, following my steps. "One More?" "Hugh.  That Heavy." Our house came with piles of stuff - not junk exactly - just stuff: bricks, cinder blocks, landscaping rock, pine boards, steel rods, 5 gallon buckets..... "Hugh.  That Heavy." Adam's birthday is on Friday. I finally thought of a birthday present. Sure, he has a long list of tools he wants/needs, but I don't dare pick those out for him...  not to mention that the tools remaining on his wish list are pricey.  Those purchases can not be clandestine operations. But, he also keeps mentioning that he wishes he had a place to burn his piec...