Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Just an ordinary day in Vinland...



We decided today that sliding INTO the pool would be Waaaay more fun than just sitting and swimming around. This is medium and the two next door neighbors; tall blondie and medium blondie. :) and of course small is right there trying to get in on the fun!




I'm pretty sure they were hamming for the camera at this point!


Check out small, he wants in on this action.
and he is too stinkin cute in them jams baby.

Can you see the Brandywine tomatoes behind medium's hair and the potato trash can with custom add-on height above smalls head. The raised bed gardens are to the right of the picture. We watered the garden tonight with the water from the pool instead of using the sprinkler.

Now, do you think Medium was having fun???



Just had to show you the latest from the garden

Okay... he made that with Play-doh. :)

But we did pull one from the raised bed today that was about a third of that size... it was delish. As was the very first cucumber. Tune in tomorrow night, because I will be grilling up the very first eggplant and a couple of doux de espagne. (which, by the way, I thought would turn red, or yellow or something, but have thus far only come in green!)

Saturday, June 27, 2009

New post... no pics

Really. I know, I know, I depend on the pics to frame my story... but today... I am just too tired.

No good reason. just tired.

Medium had VBS all week... and it was FUN! Boomerang express and small was actually trying to sing, dance and sign with the crowd, every day when we picked medium up. They had a fabulous water evening ... complete with song and dance and hot dogs and a fire hose spraying the parking lot at the church. Lots of inflatables and water fun everywhere. Really, it all comes back to Jesus! Did I mention the firetruck and hose?... 911 - down under hmm... rosie, rick are you hearing this...

The veggies are growing and needing more water every day than I dreamed possible. A few of the self watering icing buckets are simply too small to hold what tomato plants need. I moved "Helga" downstairs under the deck, hoping she will put on more fruit with a bit more shade. She is drinking up two waterings daily. yikes. The Bi-color cherry (my favorite) is taking two daily waterings as well. The eggplant is white with purple stripeys - the most beautiful thing I have seen ever! I have a banana pepper in one of the raised beds and the doux de espagne has peppers, large peppers on all the plants! There are green tomatoes everywhere too!

Tonight I had to clean up the deck, the earthboxes are taking over out there... I went to move one and had an ant colony breeding under it YUK YIK YUK ! I hosed it all off my pretty deck and moved the boxes around. Note to self ; use casters under all of them next year! The ants are trying to take over in our yard anyway... it seems all this rain is flooding them out of their normal homes and they are trying to move up and breed on any dry wood they can... garden benches or earthbox, seems they are not that picky. News to ants: I AM Picky! now, move along!!

If life were not fun enough... on the very day our listing for our house expires, we get a phone call to show it, tomorrow. So keep us in your prayers. Whatever and wherever God wants us. His will not ours!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Happy Happy Birthday Nephew !!

Grif :

Sending you Lots and Lots of

Happy Birthday Wishes Today!

We love you!

Uncle, Aunt & Cousins!

What a beautiful sight ...



Gorgeous flowers on my eggplants!



and an actual Eggplant

the very first Listada de Gandia

what delicate coloring!



My beautiful Doux de Espagne

(see both of them!)

:)
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Monday, June 22, 2009

sweet sweet fruit (and veggies!)



Looky, looky
a turnip!

Tonight I just could not resist any longer.

I pulled out a turnip
I did pick the one that was crowded by a few smaller ones.
In the interest of making a meal of these later, I chose the larger of the crowd.

Here among some of the beans that were ready tonight,
but I ran out of evening daylight to pick anymore.

It has been HOT here, bloody HOT!
Too bloody hot to be outside gardening when the sun is up!
(I have been avoiding too much work in the garden...but I did mow the entire lawn today while small napped and medium was at VBS.) - Thank you Jesus for self-propelled mowers, sunscreen and lots of water!

So, in the cool of this evening I spent my precious time moving around my plants on the deck.
How funny is it that I can move my tomato, bean and pepper plants around?!
That is but one of the beauties of the Earthboxes!
I also have WAY larger plants than what is growing in the raised beds.
The Eggplant in a self watering container is 4 times larger than the one in the raised bed.
The Brandywines have about the same ratio of growth.

Next year, I would like to double my earthbox efforts.
The tomatoes, beans, corn, peppers and eggplants can have the self watering pots.
I am surprised at how often I have to fill them.

I would also like to see my raised beds holding...
Carrots, radishes, turnips and beets
Yes, root crops.
I think they do better in the dirt.

I am not yet sure about lettuce or spinach. I want to test all that out again in the fall... we had so much rain that I really did not get but one good growth spurt of lettuces and that was only the leaf lettuce - the tom thumb heads just didn't produce. The spinach did Nada. sigh. I think it was just too wet and then got hot and humid too quick this year. I would like to try lettuce in a self watering, but only the butter lettuce. The leaf lettuce is a mute point there, since it doesn't need the little plastic cover, I think a rubbermaid container is about the same thing.

Did I mention how stinkin HUGE the cherry tomatoes are? I got a free packet of "Aunt Ruby's German Cherry" and they are almost as big as the brandywines... not cherry at all. sigh. I wanted LOTS of cherry to try and smoke and dehydrate them. That's okay, I still might get a bumper crop of cherry from the lone Bi-Color cherry plant. It is growing up fabulously too, even with the late start... remember, medium knocked the whole tray down and I had to start them over! Now it is just as big as all the others.



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Sunday, June 21, 2009

The blondie and the long hair...


Medium was playing today with the neighbor
(whom shall forever be referred to as the medium beautiful blondie person)
(really, between her mom and her sisters and her... a brunette gets lost in the shiny beauty!)
but, I digress.


Medium looks pretty good since the surgery.



really.
maybe not well behaved, but he looks good.


and then she stayed for dinner
Yes, I said she lived next door

but he asked and she stayed
and with tall gone to camp ~ sigh ~
it was welcomed company
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Happy Father's Day

to all the Dads we know and Love:


HAPPY FATHER'S DAY !!!

:)


Extended Birthday celebrating...

Aunt Dawn and Uncle Friday
could not make it to the celebration that evening
deadlines and all that work type yuk.

So, Uncle Friday... on his day off I might add...
went to TRU and bought the most fabulouso of presentos

see for yourself...

:)


Wow, a present I can play with right away!


Oh man,
see their expressions...
as if the BIG GINORMOUS BAGS were not exciting enough,
seriously I didn't know they made gift bags THAT big.

but really, they could not believe what they were seeing...


a supercalifragilistic
Planet Heroes
SPACE STATION


DUDE!


This has been played with ALL OVER MY LIVING ROOM PEOPLE!

It is still sitting out,
as I type this,
because Medium cannot bear to move it to the basement playroom,
Yet.

He will, once he figures out that the rescue heroes
can play together with the planet heroes.

again I say
DUDE!

Some things are better left to be discovered...

even if it means my living room looks like a million kids
AND a tornado
hit it.

Did I mention that even small has been playing it.
(Tall too, but don't tell her I put that on the blog!)

but seriously, I don't mind a pointed mess
as long as it has a good point.
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totally getting into it now...


SMILING!


small and dad getting in on it all


It's so cool, I have to get above it to open it



a rocket
powered by baking soda and vinegar
yeah!
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Still celebrating pics...




Mom and Dad did pretty good on their gift too!
It works in the water and yes, it is motorized.
Getting rave reviews from "I want to take another bath" boy.



A very cool Dinosaur Excavating version
of the "operation" game.


Rocket cake on fire!


very smiley 6 year old medium boy
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Birthday celebrating ...



Aunt Tammy and Cousin G



New Webkinz Dino!



"totally awesome, I can't wait to build it"


Aunt Tammy, Uncle Josh & little G

My brother Josh and wife and son came over to help us eat cake and ice cream and celebrate Medium's birth day!
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Happy Happy in Red and Black!



Medium is very excited about having
"My very own Chess set!"

Thank you GrandDawn and Dandy!
"I can't wait to play with him"
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Happy Happy!


Medium with his favorite new toy!
~ Safari Rush Hour ~

Thank you Grandma & Grandpa Clausen,
I really, really love it! ~ M


Also pictured:
His favorite new Webkinz - a dino named:
"Firestorm"
Thank you Tall!
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Thursday, June 18, 2009

Happy Happy Birthday


I & K & Tall in back row...

J & Medium in front



Warrior friends with shields!



Small, escaping with the red shield.


A VERY HAPPY
owner of a new Webkinz
meet
"Double Chocolate"

A boy and his dog! And it won't make Tall sneeze either!
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Happy BIrthday!



Medium is 6 years old today!



His "Rocket Cake" !


We celebrated (so far) by having his best friend "J" come by for lunch and brownies.


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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Time for that ago old song...

Beans, Beans the musical fruit...



mmm

Purple pod beans



Blue Lake Green Beans

the more you eat ...



This is the blue lake bush bean plants
still covered, after all we picked this evening!



This is the purple pod bush bean plants

Also, still covered after picking!

I just hope they keep on coming until Fall.

I am surprised to see so many beans so quickly.

- maybe time is getting away from me, it is the middle of June.

We have enough beans to make freshly snapped and steamed green (and purple) beans with dinner for the next 3 nights.

AND I also picked a handful (okay 20) pods of jacobs cattle.
Which, might I add, is surprisingly tasty as a snap. I was surprised that the bean inside is still extremely immature, small and not yet speckled. Henceforth, I will simply leave those on the plants to dry out and use that way.

I intend to replant this week a small spattering of Jacob's cattle.

- you know in my FREE time when I am not baking a birthday cake and cupcakes and brownies for medium, or packing tall for summer camp or shopping for tall for summer camp,
or playing with small and medium ... etc... you know, in my SPARE free time.

Then I want to do succession plantings from now until I don't know when of all the beans (where do I put them??) so that we have beans for days. Especially the Jacob's cattle gasless! I want to make chili with that ALL winter long. And maybe some bean and sage dishes. mmm. and a few other dried bean recipes I keep running across.

For now, I will be happy to eat the sweet, newly picked pods.

and I will toot my own horn

and that of the music man

and laugh when it "toots"
the horn(s) of small, medium and tall!!!

:)

Beans grown at home are FREE protein
no meat purchase required!

:)

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