Tree and a Cricket

It was time to plant a tree for The Bug, so we headed out to Chambersville Tree Farm Friday with Craig's dad.


He works out there and helped us pick out a lovely Desert Willow 'Bubba' for the front of the house. (A couple of rose bushes may have also snuck their way into the truck.) Thanks, Clint!


All the sunshine and fresh air must have been too much for Big I.


But when we got home there was a package at the door. I found a super good deal on a little Cricket loom a few weeks ago. I thought it might be fun to let people borrow or for the boys if they wanted to try some time. Oh boy! it had arrived.

I gave it a coat of paint right away and then to my surprise Big I declared he wanted to make a scarf 'All by myself!'. He decided it would be a scarf for Daddy.

So we picked some colors and warped it up. And to my great astonishment, he went to town. (The nap must have helped.)


Daddy even got in on the action.

And not to be outdone...


P.S. The new tree also made it into the ground, but it was late and there was no light. Perhaps photos later.

Swiss Chard

Just look at this 'Bright Lights' Swiss Chard. It's growing like crazy right now.


Did you see those colors?


Saute with some olive oil, onions and garlic...mmmm. It's even toddler approved.

Another Garden Update

Lots coming up here!

Mmmm...swiss chard.


The first tomato! (Sweet 100's again along with some herlooms.)


More squash...I think they're squash. I don't remember planting all of these. I know there are some mini sunflowers at the end.


Glorious, glorious blackberries. Almost here...



A look up from inside the 'corn field'.


Mmm corn...Blue Jade. With a squash and pepper in the foreground.


Since they're mini corn, do you think they'll be "knee-high by the Fourth of July" on this guy? Actually, I guess they're already past that.


Holy Mole pepper.


Look at my heuchera! It's never looked so good.


It's actually going to bloom for the first time since I bought it about 6 years ago.


And I wanted to show off my dwarf pomegranates even though they aren't that impressive yet.


Aren't those orange blooms cool?

Back in business

Our new camera came today. Big I and I tested it out.


First he wanted to give a shout out via his wardrobe to his west coast aunties that he had so much fun with this past weekend. Can you read his new (to him) shirt? You might have to click.


We have a few things blooming:

the salvias (pardon the grass, we haven't had a chance to mow yet),


the bluebonnets,


and even the tomatoes.


The shade garden is looking very green and oh so relaxing when I walk over there. I added some Lenten Roses and a Coralberry this year.


And our new rainbarrel which works extremely well.


And best of all, the little elfish creature that hangs around here can help me water.


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Bonus pics I found on the SD card from a couple of months ago judging by the hair and chapped cheeks:

Lost and Found

I found my camera after I lost it (again) for a few weeks. I forgot about some funny stuff.

1. Christmas. Big I in his jammies always makes me laugh.



2. Good soil is the secret to growing 'em big and healthy.


3. Plenty of sleep helps too.


4. Speaking of growing things big and healthy, I wanted to transplant this Swiss Chard into a pot since it was the only thing left in one of my raised beds. I should have known when I couldn't pull it out on the first try to leave it there, then the second try after digging, and then a third. Finally the tap root just popped. It had grown past the 11 inches of fill soil into the sub-soil. No telling how long it was. Probably went all the way to China...or Switzerland as the case may be.

Big I refused to hold it, it was bigger than him.


5. Then there was the lettuce incident a few weeks ago. A minute after I got done taking this lovely picture,

I turned around to this - Gah! :


Nevermind, they looked like this the next day anyway:

Aaand we're back

Due to multiple requests from adoring fans, I'll try to muster some motivation to blog again.

Let's see, what did we miss? Oh yeah, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, etc. etc. Big I still didn't get the concept of Christmas yet this year, but that doesn't mean he didn't make out like a bandit. We got a new shelf to store his toys in the family room.


We also got some new shelves for books and 'stuff' in the living room.


What else is new?

New raised beds are out in the yard, but it's too gray of a day to take pictures. Have some seeds in already too.

We also got some patio furniture finally. Again, too gray, but it's this set.

We also put an addition on the house.

Okay not really, but the box from the patio futniture made an awesome fort for Big I. (Pardon the blurry picture.)
(He's still working on his social smile for the camera.)

Whoa!

Yesterday, we woke up to this.


Who ever heard of snow on the Second of December?? It was 70 degrees 2 weeks ago. I still had tomatoes on the vine, peppers on the bushes and fresh blooms on the eggplant!



Fortunately, I was able to rescue most of the tomatoes and they are in a paper bag to ripen inside. What will I do with so many? Perhaps I should try frying some up green!

rANDOm sTufF

Random item #1:

HOLY COW! Run for your lives! It's the Godfather of all slugs!

It took me 3 handfulls of salt to get the slime off my fingers. First the giant grasshopper, now this. And this:

Random item #2:

I guess all the rain is pushing things out of their usual hidey-holes. This little guy is most welcome...just not on the baby gate.

Random item #3:

I made a pumpkin pie from scratch-ola today, minus the crust. Doesn't taste any better than from a can I don't think. But maybe that's because I'm just used to the canned stuff.

Roasted up the seeds too.


Random item #4:

Finished a pair of socks for Craig. I still don't know why I made these (yes I do, I cast on too many stitches for my foot but the perfect number for Craig and was too lazy to take it out again) as he doesn't wear any of the other pairs I've made for him.