Harvest

We've been eating peas for several weeks now. I say we but I really mean the kids. Tristan just helps himself to any pea on the vine, ripe or not. He loves them so much he puts the whole pod in his mouth. I was getting upset with him at first but then I figured that he would be eating the peas when they were ripe anyway so I might as well let him enjoy it. I will give the ripe ones to Kennedy.

Today after church the kids and I went to check on the garden to see if it needs watering tomorrow. I pulled some carrots out of the ground, picked some beans and a small crown of broccoli. This is what I came up with. . .

Enough for one person. Since the kids have eaten most of the peas I helped myself. They were delicious!

How Did That Dinosaur Get Under My Lip. . . .And Other Random Thoughts

Here are some thoughts I wanted to write down this week but have been "consumed" by life and haven't made my self sit down to write a full blog about each.

• I found out this week that the preschool I took Kennedy out of is closing the end of May and will not open next fall. I know some parents are upset because all the other preschools are full now but all the same, I think it's for the best. I think there is one original teacher who will finish out the school year. Some of the teachers have turned over twice. There is obviously something going on with that place. I know that this is not solely a consequence of our situation but I am sure it was one more thing to add to the list. From what I have learned, the pastor has not been happy with the director this year, neither have I.
• My garden is doing really well. Strawberries have blossoms, peas are over a foot tall, ferns finally poked up and the raspberry bushes are really starting to get some good leaves.
• I took Tristan to his 2-year check up last week and there is only a 5 pound difference between him and Kennedy. Last year she could still wear size 3T and he is now in size 3T. He was 97th percentile for weight and about 95 for height. It is funny to watch him tackle Kennedy and wrestle her down. She won't be bigger than him much longer if he keeps it up.
• Saturday we had a nice little gathering to celebrate Tristan's birthday. He was a little intimidated by being the center of attention (something Kennedy never shies away from).
• Kennedy is turning out to be quite the orator. A few weeks ago we got a book on CD from the library, "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs", my favorite when I was a kid. We had only had it for about a week when Kennedy started reciting it back to me word for word. I was amazed and she has told the whole story several times. It's not a short book either. Her mind amazes me.
• You are probably wondering where my title came from. Chris has been having trouble with his back again and took some pain medicine one night before going to bed. He dozed off while saying his prayers and I had to wake him up and help him into bed before he fainted. In the process he looked up and asked, "How did that dinosaur get under my lip?" I don't know sweetie, maybe the tooth fairy put it there.

Garden Update

My garden is coming along. I thought that since there is actually some green now I would take a few pictures.

Square-Foot Garden. Peas are growing really fast. The carrots, green onions and cilantro are just an experiment. They didn't do well last year. I was hoping it was because I planted too late and it was too hot. The lettuces are from seedlings so I cheated a little bit there but they seem to be doing well.

My strawberries are growing fast too. I was surprised at how quickly they came up from their bare roots.

My landscaping plants are taking a little longer. Although the "Forget Me Nots" have a few flowers, the snowdrops are taking their time and I haven't seen any growth on the ferns. I'm hoping its just to early for them.

Here is what I'm most excited for: Rhubarb. Especially since my mom will be here in June and can make me one of her special straberry rhubarb pies!

Garden

We were busy planting last week. A few weeks ago we placed an online order for some fruit plants and landscaping plants. They came last Thursday just as I was winding down a play date at our house. I spent the next three hours placing some plants in our front landscape area. I would have taken a picture but it would have looked like dirt. The roots come dormant and so there is nothing growing yet. Maybe in a few weeks. Friday we had some much needed rain. It rained all day.Last summer North Carolina experienced the worst drought in history. It seems it could rain all summer and we would not recover. Saturday was still overcast but we worked out in the yard again. This time we planted 7 raspberry bushes, 20 strawberry plants and 1 rhubarb. Again, I would have taken a picture but it doesn't look like much. We do have some peas coming up in our garden though so I know the growing power is there. I sure hope all this stuff works or it will be a lot of time and money misspent.

Saturday Yard Work

We had a beautiful day today. We spend the morning preparing a bed for some raspberry bushes. It's not quite time to plant yet--a few more weeks--but we ordered some plants and bushes through a catalog yesterday and thought that since it was such a nice day today we would work in the yard.
Kennedy and Tristan enjoyed playing outside. Kennedy has her own garden tools and enjoyed digging in the dirt with us. Tristan, on the otherhand, looks at the dirt and thinks, "buffet". When will he stop eating dirt?

Still Here

I'm still here. I haven't forgotten about my blog. However, with a fan base of about four people I have a hard time motivating myself to write sometimes. I know I should just do it for myself. After all, I did start the blog so it would be a fun way to journal. I would like to include some more interesting tidbits like recipes or pictures but I haven't really tried anything new lately and it's very difficult to download pictures onto my computer. I have had a few thoughts lately that I would like to include.
I hate August. It is the January of Summer--you know, when all the fun and excitement is over and there is not much to look forward to in the near future. The weather is at it's peak--we've had 100-degree weather for a week. On Saturday we only reached 93, which felt pleasant. When has 93 ever felt pleasant?
Anyway, the heat has killed my not-so-productive garden. I've decided that it's very difficult to garden here. My zucchini plant is the only thing that has been really productive. We did get one cucumber that was delicious before the heat killed everything. The beans could have been good if the infestation of the Japanese beetles had not occurred. I think next year I might stick to herbs. That was the only other thing that the deer didn't eat. If it's not one thing it's another, I guess.
Saturday we had a minute to go to the farmer's market. Almost every booth looked like they were set up to make salsa. We bought a few pounds of tomatoes, some jalapenos and some peppers. I came home and found a recipe online (which I won't be sharing. . . .keep reading) and bought the rest of the ingredients at the grocery store. It could have, should have been delicious. However, the total yield did not quite add up to what the recipe said. I was supposed to have four pints at the end and only had 3 1/2. I don't know if the recipe was wrong or if I messed up (I think a little of both) but the salsa is horrible. It tastes like vinegar with a little bit of vegetables added. What a waste. I hope there is a way to salvage it.

My Garden

Growing up we always had a garden. I vaguely remember coming home after school and helping siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles plant the seeds into the tilled earth. Next memory is enjoying the scrumptious bounty in late summer. There was always plenty of squash, corn, carrots, cucumbers and many other vegetables. Why don't I remember anything in between? Probably because I didn't do any of the watering, weeding, harvesting, etc. You know, all the hard stuff.
I have lived all these years with a very romantic idea of becoming a gardener. I always said that when I have a house with a yard I want to grow a garden. I mentioned this to a friend and she told me of square-foot gardening. I thought it sounded interesting and looked it up on the Internet. It claims to be a full garden with as much produce but the space and work load are reduced 80%. I told my idea to Chris and the deal was that I could do it but that I had to do it--he was willing to help and but he didn't want to spend his precious Saturdays pulling weeds.
I did all the research and came to Chris with a list of materials I needed. We went to Home Depot on Saturday and bought all the supplies. He helped me (or I helped him rather) make a 4-foot square box to put my garden in. We took it to our "spot" and it was not level. It was my job to make it right. I started digging some trenches just the width of the board--I don't know! I have never done work like this before! When Chris saw what I was doing he chuckled and I handed him the shovel. He pulled out his level tool, turned up the dirt and made my garden square nice and level.
I filled the box with peat moss, compost and top soil. Then I sectioned off my garden into 16 1-foot sections with string. That wasn't too difficult but I still needed a little help from Chris. Kennedy helped me plant some seeds and then we watered.
My 4-foot square garden looks nice and tidy but we will see if it produces anything. I am beginning to wonder if I will be able to manage this. What was I thinking? I guess this is how it starts when you learn something new, right? Maybe it's a good thing I started with a 4-foot square! Stay tuned. . . .