7th anniversary present Or Hole in the Bucket

We have been married 7 wonderful years.

We celebrated with a bottle of champagne and a borrowed movie from the library. (the day before our anniversary actually, Chris was not home from 8a - 11p on our actual anniversary - work and leading a worship set.)

The traditional gift is Wool/Copper and modern is desk sets.

For Chris, he moved into a new office on our anniversary. New Desk, New Cube, New pic of wife & kids to decorate cube, new atlas for territory, plus he took in a slew of old music posters to decorate the general office area. = new desk set.

I on the other hand received a MUCH more wonderful and not traditional gift... 3 Self Watering Planters... handmade with Love by Hubby (okay, I helped fine tune a bit!)- out of food grade icing buckets. yes, really. The whole thing cost about $4. (for the watering tube, which was almost copper! but now plastic)

Pics:

Start with two 5 gallon buckets... we used 3 gallon buckets
because they were FREE

First, drill a bunch of holes and then use a utility
knife to cut out the actual holes.


Next let cute hubby do the cutting...

Relaxed and reclined cutting the bucket

Being absolutely silly while making this...

acting like he cuts off his thumb

See how nice that looks


That part actually goes faster with hole cutting tool attached
to your cordless drill, but we only had the smaller size tool.

moving on,

Next, using empty and clean
yogurt container or cottage cheese container...

Use the utility knife and cut some vertical slits so the
container can act like a wick for water to pass to the soil


Insert the newly vented container through the hole in the bucket



Hey... there's that song in my head again...

There's a hole in the bucket dear Liza, dear Liza,
there's a hole in the bucket dear Liza a hole.

:)

really, it just sets in the hole in the bucket

Me, looking at the handiwork

Chris deciding he should not be the only one with
his picture in this entry...

Now, put the first bucket into the second bucket
stacking neatly.

me again, deciding the wicking cup would sit better

if only I smoothed out the edge right there...

Chris says it looks like now I am trying to cut my thumb off

Now that the cup fits nicely,
you need to drill a bunch of holes
~ 30 holes will do
they serve as air holes to ventilate the soil

while you have the drill out, drill holes in the bucket you have not yet drilled ANY in

Just two little holes for the overflow,
so you don't drown your plants when it rains.

the inside should look like this...



Get more FREE food grade buckets and

Repeat. :)

I forgot to mention the lid.

Use one to keep the plant weed free.

You cut two holes exactly like you did the bottom of the top bucket.

The smaller hole is for your tubing to stick out to keep the water reservoir full.

Ours was a fun Sunday afternoon rainy day project
AND a great FREE anniversary gift!


I will post a picture as soon as I plant in one!

In the meantime:

Here is a video link for making these...
(My pics are really just for fun!)

Self Irrigating Planter Instructions

This is a very comprehensive how to link!

BLOOMIN

Star Magnolia Bush

Lovely!

:)

Tomato Update

Brandyboys in 4 rear pots
Bi-color cherry in 2 front pots
5 watermelon seeds germinating in the peat pots - for fun.

8 Black Brandywines - Beautiful!

2 rear white pots hold Bloesser Beefsteak
1 White pot has a Brandy Boy

Full Tray of Cherrys
1/2 Aunt Ruby's German
1/2 Bi-color

Mixed tray of Bloesser Beefsteak and Mom's "Helga Brandy Boy"

3 Doux de Espagne - Gorgeous Peppers
3 Listada de Gandia - Excellent Eggplants
6 Purple Beauty Peppers germinating
over in the far upper left corner of this pic.

Every now and then I show my genius

Really.


This plant was growing at my Mom's house and I dug it up and brought it over with several daylilies, hostas, iris and narcissus. I thought it was a beautiful onion plant. We don't eat very many onions around here. I just thought it was pretty. Silly me.

It came up last year, it flowered early and then went to seed. It has a beautiful life cycle. Very pretty greens, gorgeous purple flowers, the flowers turn brown and dry on the stalk. If you break a stalk it smells like a mild onion. I kept seeing flowers in my herb book that reminded me of it, but had not put 2 and 2 together until this morning.

I looked at it's beautiful flower buds coming up...


decided to go to Wiki for a peek

and discovered.....

I have my very own Chive plant.

And it is bursting forth in green and violet beauty so early this spring.

:) Sheer Genius

Surprises in the Mail!

Dwarf Orange Tree
{Happy Early Birthday to Me!}

Two Blueberry bushes
{Happy Early Birthday to Me!}

Rootbound Orange being gently transplanted
{Love you Mom & Dad, Happy Birthday to Me!}

Also rootbound blueberries being transplanted

YAY! My new plants have arrived. Today the yukon gold potatoes, the 24 bareroot strawberries, 2 Blueberries and 1 Absolutely Gorgeous dwarf Orange tree arrived.

I am so very excited about this.

Is it funny that I would already be thinking about a Lemon and a Lime tree! Hee hee!

The very nice UPS man dropped them off ~ BEFORE small's morning nap! Which meant I could spend that time out in the garage, preparing pots with soil and transplanting these beauties. YAY! Did I mention I was happy about all this. :)

The blueberries will grow like wild fires, and the dwarf orange will also. I put the potatoes in the basement to chit for a few days. ~ chitting is letting the potatoes grow green shoots from their eyes, so they grow faster or better once in the ground ~
and the strawberries will wait until tomorrow to go into their baskets ~ they will have to occupy some hooks inside for a few more weeks. We are not warm enough here yet.

I also planted some watermelon seeds into peat pots tonight. Just to see how that works. They will go straight into the ground for the kids to tend, after the ground warms up a bit.

The raised beds are ready. I have two for my Brandywine and Brandy boy tomato plants and a smaller one in between that will either have herbs or carrots. I also put all three types of my Nasturium seeds into trays to get them germinating. I want to put them out by the Brandies when they are big enough to keep the rabbits from demolishing them.

The inside tomatoes, pepper plants and eggplants are looking fabulous. Pics of those soon.

I did have one Doux de Espagne pepper plant suffer from transplant shock. It's leaves wilted down for several days. I moved it to a warmer location (not in front of a window) and under a grow light and babied it a bit. It perked back up today and looks as good as it's two sisters.

I am having fun setting all this up. I have to get my self watering containers ready too.

I have not yet shown you what my hubby made me for our Anniversary ~ 3 self-irrigating planters! They turned out fabulous. Pics of those and the steps to make them, later this week.

:)

Daily dose of HILARIOUS

Video #2

What often happens as you try to "catch" children being too cute.




Video #1
Small boy enjoying a good toy ... and then spitting it out as he walks around with it!



So Saturday was a slow day in the Clausen house. We really just hung out and played. We are still a bit tied down by the medium boy's cast. The two videos are just a moment in our otherwise boring and perfectly perfect Saturday at home. We do all love a good family day. Saturday night we proclaimed Family Movie night and watched "The Rocketeer" ~ what a great film.

:)

Daily Definition

"Bored is another word for Disappointed." ~ Medium boy


~apparently we are not making the couch exciting enough for him! Ha!

Yes, I did.

Small, after drinking from the kitty's bowl

Really, he just poured it all over himself


What a silly boy, grabbed the water dish, tipped it up to his mouth and had his tongue hanging out across the bottom. It poured all over his onesie and baby jeans!

YUK! At least it was not the food bowl!

mmm, fish breath.
;)

BETTER THAN EXPECTED

Medium is feeling pretty great considering the immobility. Mostly confined to this loveseat all day. He does like to wheel around in the wheelchair out in our circle on a sunny day, or just around the living room after dinner (banging into everything on his way, ha!) He is pretty comfortable and quite pleasant about it all.

Tall girl was an incredible help today ... she lifted Medium in and out of the car and wheelchair going to and from the doctor today.

Yes, we saw Dr. Otis for a quick check and got GREAT NEWS!

Medium gets his cast off in 2 weeks! April 6th! That is 2 weeks ahead of schedule. We will still be taking a bit of mid-April to get him walking again, but this is fantastic news today.

:)

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

Happy 7th Anniversary,

My Love!


:)

Young or Old

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach!

My medium boy is laid up on the couch in his cast. He has frequently mentioned his boredom... especially when he wants something immediately, like another movie put in.

So, I walked up and jokingly said to him



"I'm Bored!"



He reflects for a moment with his hand on his chin and simply says:




"COOK"

Okay, it is true that I deeply enjoy it.
(except chopping onions)

Medium does see me cook 3+x a day.

However, it is not, in my humble Mommy opinion, the best cure for boredom.

Now where are those magazines I haven't read....

:)

Black Larry

The official Black Larry Schooner


So, I made a new dessert last night.

I told Matthan what I had prepared and he said : Black Larry Bars, eeewww.

HHHH MMMMM.


Avast ye scoundrels!
Keep yer filthy mitts off me booty!



Who knew the next line in pirate desserts would come out of this house!

Treasure of the High Seas: Black Larry Bars



Then he says to me in the middle of a bite:

"YUK there is something crunchy and sour in here!"


Yeah... The Buried Treasure of dessert:


that would be the fresh

Black Larries

:)


Great, now we are

The Pirates who don't eat anything.

Spring is singing...

and showing it's colors
White Hyacinth

Blue Hyacinth

Small ~thinking about the blue hyacinth

Yellow Daffodils

Small likes yellow!

Small touching yellow!

reminds me of another little guy...

Medium August 2005

Medium in Meme's garden