Before the Children Come
The sixth day finds the household's rhythm — the garden, the table, the rooms made ready.
Garden in the morning. The raspberry patch cleared of the plants that didn't belong.
By midday the kitchen was mine. I cooked lunch — the whole household at one table, the food going round.
The afternoon went to the camp. Rooms cleaned, bedding checked, what needed mending mended: Zhyva Khata — the living house — is being readied for the children, whose voices will soon join the cowbell echoing down the mountain.
The work set its own pace. I kept to it.
Before sunset, later than usual, all of us back at the table.
Day 6 — Kompostieren — Soil and Peace
Verkhovyna, Carpathian Mountains, Ukraine
© 2026 Michel Garand | Soil and Peace | CC BY-SA 4.0
stewardship@ubec.network
