Completed Projects and Hail Storms

 

Leif takes more naps on the floor than he does in his bed.  I draped the blanket over him to keep him snuggy (as if that would be a problem on a day in the high 80s).

We had a big storm come through yesterday...it rained (well, it was more like being under a giant waterfall) and it hailed a lot of marble-sized hail, which sounded rather amazing as it hit the tin roof.  I took this picture after the hail stopped, but while it was still raining.  The hail melted very quickly, so even by the time I took this picture, most of it was melted.  

 

This was one of the last pictures I took, so most of the hail was melted.  It did a lot of damage to my garden, (the leaves all have gaping holes where the hail passed through) but I'm thinking most of the plants will recover and keep growing. See the lake of water in the right of the picture?  That's the driveway, and all of that water and silt came flooding into the garage. Lovely.

 

This was between the trashcan and the house, underneath the eaves of the house.  Even that protected area managed to get pelted with hail!

 

This is our ghetto rain-harvesting technique.  We left a row of buckets in the drip line from the roof (tin roof water is the cleanest type of water!) to use for the garden.  These buckets were nearly full in less than five minutes.  They would have been completely full in less than a minute, I reckon, except that the rain came so fast and hard that the water streamed off the roof farther out than it usually does, so the buckets were just catching the little drips, not the deluge.  Oh well.  We still have a nice amount of water to water our garden with (not that it needs it today!)

 

Jason and Leif show off the newly hung curtains.  

The house is now completely painted, all the trim is back up, and now, our bedroom curtains are up.  Yes, they don't really fit the windows, and yes, they are too short.  But they really cut down on the amount of light that pours in to the bedroom.  Now that they're up, it should be cooler in the bedroom (the light made it HOT in there, which always made the AC kick on) and we should be able to sleep past sunrise, which is a good thing! :)  They work, and they make me happy!

  

The cheese duo sportin' some poses.

The tough guy look.  Leif has been working on his "mean" face - furrowed brow, narrowed eyes.  When I tell him to stop doing something, he gives me his "mean" look, and I have to turn away so that he doesn't see me laughing.  It's so funny!

 

More silliness...

Huuuuuuggggggggsss!

More silliness/cheesiness.

Oh, aren't they cute?

Anyway, I'm just pleased as punch to have my house back together.  The furniture is back against the walls, and not floating in the middle of the room while we patched and painted.  We no longer have to put the furniture back where it belongs when company comes to visit, only to pull it back out to resume working after they're gone.  The chaos of a house being worked on is now gone, and we can focus instead on other things.  It was 18 months (to the day I think) since we moved here that the painting was completed.  A week later, all the trim was back up, and the windoware went up, too!  A few more electrical plates need to be purchased and put up, but that is nothing. 

BORING GARDENING STUFF FROM HERE TO THE END OF THE POST:

In other news, my tomatoes are doing...not well, and not because of the hailstorm, either.  They just aren't growing very fast.  The Homestead and Floradade tomatoes are long spindly things, which STILL only have one set of true leaves on them - and they've been growing for eons.  They're super long spindly things that can't really stand up straight.  The other ones I planted are doing okay, but they're still not growing fast enough.  After all this time, they're still only a few inches high.  I reckon I'll have to go buy large seedlings now if I want tomatoes in my garden this season - but that's a total bummer.  I might just skip tomatoes this year.

In comparison, the volunteer tomato in my garden is three times as big as the ones that I planted, and it only just came up in the past week or two.  Too bad there is only one volunteer!

The Christmas Lima beans are doing very well.  They're the tallest, healthiest plants on my Bean Trellis.  I thought they were the biggest gamble of the beans that I planted.  The ones I thought would be the best, Thai Long Beans, are actually the smallest plants by far. 

The white scallop squash were growing beautifully until the hail storm yesterday.  Hopefully, they'll keep on growing.  I planted all of the squash, watermelon, cukes, and chard too close to each other (dur!).  The white scallop squash are dwarfing the chard and their giant leaves are starting to prevent the chard from getting any sun.  Luckily, I have lots of space where the tomatoes were going to go that I can now use to plant some more chard.

Yesterday, I finished harvesting the Bok Choy seeds.  I now have double the amount of seeds I started out with.  The arugula has gone to seed, too, so I'll be harvesting those soon.

Enough of that.

Happy Days!

A Day at a Local Farm

Jason, Leif and Oma Ru at a local farm we went to this week. It's an historic farm from the 1800s, but still functions today (thanks to volunteers) - it's a State Park.  Here, they're standing at the front gate, the house is behind them.  Leif was being finnicky in this photo - he's behind Jason and holding on to Jason's hand.

Jason posing with a large Red Cedar, around 100 years old.

A close-up of the same. :)  Isn't he the handsome-est?

Leif kept wandering off by himself for quiet moments - here in a patch of clover.

Jason brooming off the back porch of the home with a corn husk broom. 

Leif smiling through the screen in one of the back bedrooms.  He was outside on the back porch, I was inside in the main hall, taking a picture of the bedroom.  All the furniture in the house was the original furniture, which was kinda cool.

Jason gazing over his back 40.  Well, 640 in this case, and not his (don't we wish!)  It was really a beautiful farm.

Leif having a chat with Mr. Tom, the Turkey.  And one the right, a close-up of Mr. Tom's feathery display.  He kept vibrating and displaying his feathers at us to protect his girls in the pen.  He was one handsome Turkey!

Another quiet moment for Leif.

Leif running the wringer (not sure of the actual name) - I was a bit shocked at how much water the thing squeezed out, but maybe the things they were drying were already dry?  Either way, I now want a wringer (Lawd, I was born in the wrong era!)...and I think Leif does, too.

He'd also like a pump like this one.  No matter where we were on the farm, he kept running back to this pump and pupming pumping pumping.

Working the pump by himself.

Pumping the water with Daddy, which ran down the trough into a little bowl in the pasture for the horses/mules to drink from.  Nice.  The trough is the same as their gutter system, which ran off in to screen covered barrels.  Ver' nice.

Pulling the pump handle with all his might.  Usually, when he doesn't want to do something, he'll say, "It's hard work for me!" but when doing hard work he actually wants to do?  No mention of said hard work. He was actually hanging in this photo - he'd jumped up, grabbed the handle, and pulled on it with all of his weight (literally!)

Reaching high to pull the pump handle (tippy-toe goodness!)

Mid-pump.

Looking at the Bulls.

A horse/mule in the pasture.  There was another horse/mule, too, and I thought he was a horse (15.5 hands high!) but the man handling him said he was a mule - I didn't know even when the mule was a foot from my own eyes.  Don't know if the animal in this pic is a mule or a horse, either.  :)  Isn't it lovely, though?

Walking back to the pump...again.

Driving an old John Deere tractor in the shed.

It was a lovely day, and a lovely day for an adventure.  In the short time we were there, I took 442 pictures, filling up my memory card, and draining my camera battery.  It was great, though, and I can't wait to go back.

Oma Ru left today (Saturday) so now we're entering the "post-visitor blues" phase.  We sure had fun on her visit - Leif was clinging to her side the whole time! :)

Anyway, today we'll just be tending the garden, laying low, and catching up on dishes, laundry, and other house-cleanings that were neglected by me during the visit.

Happy days!

Weekending or Where the Buffalo Roam

 

Leif helped Daddy prime and paint the rest of the bedroom, the family room, AND part of the kitchen this weekend!  He was a really big help and he had a great time being with Jason.

 

Concentrating on the painting. 

An overhead shot of the cuteness.

On Saturday afternoon, Jason came home from class early to take us on an adventure.  We ended up at a local state park, where they have a tall wooden tower overlooking a gorgeous prairie (complete with buffalo and deer).  This picture was taken at the top of the tower (which swayed a little too much for Momma's liking) while we were looking at where the buffalo roam.

This post is actually three posts long....which means, it ain't over yet.  If you want to see the full post, keep scrolling down until you come to...well, a post you haven't seen yet.  ;) 

More pictures below!

This was "behind" the lookout tower, behind the lads in the picutre above this one - it was so green and pretty, I had to take a picture (and shockingly, I only took one!)

This is what we were looking out over from the tower. 

While hiking through the park, Leif found a root sticking out of the ground that was "the right size for me!" to use as a bench.  And so, of course, he did.  I couldn't choose between the pics - this cheesy grin one, or...

...this much sweeter, although slightly out of focus one.  A note on his shorts:  He had them rolled up at the waist, so they ended up looking a bit daisy-dukish, which made me laugh.  His shirt was also on backwards, but by the time this picture was taken, that had been corrected.  Such is life when you have a toddler who insists on dressing himself! (I ain't complainin'!)

More pictures below!

This azalea has the strangest thing: It has a little grouping of fuschia flowers right on the same branch as pink flowers.  The whole bush is pink flowered, except for the little patch above, which is the same color as the bush next to it.  Does that make any sense?

A wider shot of the pinkness!

Leif exhibiting his morning 'do.  He calls the mussed up sections of hair "growlby" (pronounced growl - be) - if his hair is "growlby" he gets all upset and has to go get a brush to make it nice.  Likewise, I cannot towel-dry his hair after his shower, or he gets into an uproar, because the towel will make his hair all "growlby" - but of course, I towel it, anyway, Mean Momma that I am.

In other news, I noticed late today that my poor Christmas Lima, Rattlesnake Beans and others in that grouping had been attacked by something.  Their poor little seedling leaves were chewed up and full of holes.  I promptly went to searching every leaf for bugs, but only found one little green worm, who was promptly squished (this from the girl who once cried after hitting a butterfly with the car...Don't hurt my plants!)  So, I'm hoping it was only one little wormy guy and that problem is now solved. 

Oma Ru is coming to visit tomorrow (yay!), which means I need to get the house back in working order tonight (boo!!)  That's no small feat since we've been painting up a storm (I should say that Leif and Jason have been painting up a storm, because I haven't done a lick of painting.)  All of the furniture is pulled from the walls and in the middle of the room.

 Plus, we had a salamander in the house yesterday, so we tore the place apart trying to get it out. 

We didn't. 

He either went out on his own or is still cowering in a corner somewhere, poor thing. 

So, woe is me, the house is even more chaotic than usual - the laundry room is awash in painting, gardening, and house repair things.  The kitchen will be pulled apart tonight for more painting (and hopefully, put back together), and the family room, master bedrooom, and playroom, dining room, and living room all need to be put back together, swept/vac'd, and the windows given a good cleaning (after wallpaper stripping, scraping, re-washing, priming and painting all around those windows, they need some serious TLC).  I don't think I'll be able to get to the windows by tomorrow, but hopefully the next day!  On that note, I'd best get started. 

Oh yeah, one more thing...

Since the beginning of the year, I have been making an effort to respond to comments you post (in the um, comment section after each post).  It was part of my New Year's Resolution.  And I'm only now remembering to mention it in Mid-April.  I'm not slow or anything.

Anyway, I haven't responded to all of them, but I have responded to most.  (And sometimes I respond, but never get through the rigamarole that Blogger puts me through to respond, and it ends up not getting posted, but that's neither here nor there). 

So, if you've posted a comment, do check back for my reply.  I realize that for the past few years (ahem) I almost never responded to comments, thereby making them a one-way dead end street instead of a conversation like they're supposed to be.

If you are a frequent-ish commenter, you might want to subscribe to the comments so that you won't miss a reply (heaven forbid!).  I don't get too many comments on this here blog (waah), so your inbox/reader won't exactly be overloaded, if ya mean what I know.   You can do that over there ~~~~>

in the sidebar right along with subscribing to this blog.

That being said, I sho do love comments, so bring 'em on, all of you! :)  You don't have to have an account to comment - you can comment "anonymously" and just type in your name at the end of your comment! :)  Voila - easy as the click of a button! 

Click on the little link below the post that says "# Comments" (generally it says "0 Comments" ho-hum) and that will take you to the comment section where you can see what other folks comment and put up a comment yerself!

Okay, enough groveling and begging on my part.  I've got a house to clean.

More Garden & Fleurs

The flower bed between the sidewalk and the house.  The flowers you see are weeds (purple) or were already there (red).

 The other day, I gave it a good weeding and then planted some flower seeds (Red Poppies, Frosted Salmon Poppies, Mother of Pearl Poppies, & Lilac PomPom Poppies - yes, I like Poppies!) although I don't think Poppies will really grow here.  Like I said in the last post, though, this is a very experimental garden!  Later today, I'll be sowing some Aster seeds that someone gave me to see if they grow. :)

Leif and I go out to inspect the garden first thing every morning and we water, weed, and tend as needed.  I check the actual garden against my little black book, where I had drawn out where I had planted everything, to see what is growing and what is not.  It looks like my Gaggle of Gourds aren't growing at all - the areas where they were planted remain blank and empty.  The seeds are getting a little old, though - I had purchased them at our old CSA place in the spring of '07, I think.  In a few days, I'll test a few to see if they'll germinate.

The garden beds are fully lined in rock (as you can see in the above picture).  Leify and Katy helped me put all the rocks in place.  Actually, those are manufactured rocks that Caryn's fireplace is built of - I took the excess and put them to use in the garden so the lawn mower dudes don't mow down my plants!

The main bed (the long one on the right) only went as far as the sidewalk last year.  The little bed on the left is new this year, too.  In between, I left room for a little path so that I could access every inch of the garden without trampling into it.  I'm going to "pave" it with large clam shells that I've found - you can see in the above pictures where I've placed them out - clearly, I still need a lot more to complete my project!  The terracotta herb pots are in the path right now, too. I'm not sure where they are going to end up - but that's why I like them - if they're getting too much sun, I can move them to shade, and vice versa.

The pole bean trellis.
  I still have to create the sisal twine "web" for the beans to grow up, but that will be done this weekend or early next week, I reckon.

  I goofed bigtime when I created this garden bed - I dug up the patch, added manure/mulch to the mix, then drove in the bamboo.  But then I realized, after I planted, that the bed should extend beyond the stakes because the plants are planted and have to grow outside of the trellis, not inside.  So, all of the compost, mulch (and digging) in the middle part is essentially wasted because nothing will be growing in there - it will be shaded 100% and completely inaccessible once the plants start winding up the trellis.  Oh well.  Next year,or even this Fall/Winter, I might plant lettuces in there, so all is not lost :)  And it looks like one small area might not be grown over, so that maybe Leify could use it as a living fort this summer!

I counted the tomato plants this morning - there are 33 little planters that have Maters in them.  But some of those little pots have 4-5 tomatoes in them.  If they have on average, three tomatoes per pot, (let's do some higher math here, shall we? ;)) then that means I have roughly 100 tomato plants growing right now.  That's a lot of tomatoes. 

Of course, many plants will not make it past seedling (or transplanting stage) so I'm going to go with 30.  I think I'll end up with 30 tomato plants.  Here's hopin'! :)  That would be a lot of maters for copious amounts of salsa fresca, insalata caprese, and fresh pasta sauce! Mmm... Oooh, that reminds me...I need to plant more basil! :)

I sho do love to watch my little garden grow (so does Leif)...Are you bored to tears yet? ;)

Happy days.