Gardening Gates Family

As many of you know, we love gardening. I find it perhaps the most therapeutic outlet for me. It is so nice to plant by seed and watch the seedlings grow up to producing crops. A certain pride is always heard in my voice when I speak of the producing garden that I've planted. What a great experience for the kids as well. We all get our hands dirty and each child gets to plant a row or two of seeds. The whole family gets to spend a few hours a night for weeks and weeks after I get home from work, and on the weekends. After the garden was established, it was a nice spot to sit back in chairs, sip on a beer or two, and watch/coach the children watering the crops as the sun dropped lower in the sky.

If you look behind us, you can see the rabbit pen/yard that we put together for the rabbits and kids(click the pictures you see to enlarge them!). This was a nice diversion for the kids and adults alike. We could release the rabbits in the pen and sit and play with them or just watch them run circles around eachother. Unfortunately, as we found out a few weeks ago, the pen does nothing whatsoever in keeping Gustav OUT. Gabriel and Greta had almost witnessed certain death of one of our rabbits when Gustav easily leaped the fence and cornered one of the rabbits. Gabriel braved the barking dog and scratching rabbit and put himself between Gustav and the rabbit.... then lifted it high in the air over Gustav and got out of the pen and away from Gustav until mommy could come to the final rescue.

We miss you all, but we are loving life here in Germany, and the Lord is blessing us every day.