Raised Beds

Everything cool weather is in, though I do plan on doing a few more rows or peas and lettuce. Once the frost-free date comes, everything else will go in too. I hope this works!

How to Train Your Dragon

Every once in a while, I wake up and my sweet boys have turned into fierce creatures. This week, they have been fire breathing dragons.

They roar, hit people with their tails, and frighten smaller children. So I have been trying to train them. Anyone can do it; it is easy.

Step 1: Provide entertainment


Step 2: Feed them, but don't feed them small children or babies

Step 3: Take them on walks outside

Step 4: Document your attempts so that you can make adjustments in the future

When you are in the service of your fellow beings . . .

The boys and I went to the church community garden today to put in some veggies. I was frustrated because the plot that I thought was ours--the one I worked on last week--had been plowed and planted. Which means that that plot wasn't ours. I thought I had read the very badly written map correctly, but when I called my dear husband this morning and asked him to look up the map on my email and it took us a few minutes to get it figured out, I found out that I had been reading it 90 degrees off.

I headed over to the new plot and started working, but A--didn't nap long in his car seat and didn't like sitting in the pack-n-play. So I had to stop working the ground with two hands and a shovel, put A-- in the Baby Bjorn and start working the plot with just one hand. After about 40 feet, a nice older gentleman that I didn't recognize from the ward showed up to plant beets and carrots. He was nice and introduced himself. Then we all got to work. I let the boys play in the car to try and keep them occupied because by that point we had been there too long, as far as they were concerned. 40 feet later, Mr. Miller had finished his rows and came over and asked me how much longer I was planning on being there. You see, he had a small tiller at his house, and since he had finished what he was planning to do today, he would run home and get his tiller and then come back and till the plot for me. I almost started to cry I was so grateful.

When he got back, he told me to relax for a few minutes while he tilled. I had been working hard and needed a break.

After he had finished, I asked him if there was anything we could do to show our thanks. He said something very profound: Serving others is why were are here on the earth. I thought King Benjamin would whole-heartedly agree with him.

Mr. Miller is 92. He lives in the Mennonite community next to the LDS church building. His wife, who had needed some pretty constant care for the past three years at least, died two months ago. He is grateful to be able to garden in the church's community garden. He is praying for rain for his eight rows of corn. He is my little miracle.

It's Official

A-- is a roller--in both directions. Yesterday he rolled from his back to his tummy. He's been rolling from tummy to back fr a while now. He is growing too fast.

A Bug's Life

Yesterday S-- and I planted our apple trees. The spots we had chosen, however, had some ants, and the ants were not very happy about being disturbed. S-- had just turned to me, telling me about his new ant friend Addy, when he started screaming. I hadn't realized Addy was on his finger and when she bit, she bit hard and fast. S-- started screaming. I knocked the ant (and all others clinging to his fingers) off and hurried him inside for some cool water on his hand to ease the sting. "She wasn't very nice," he said. But he was quick to forgive. Just a little later, he was outside "feeding" the ants grass.

A little later, S-- had disappeared inside the house, when I heard faint screaming. I didn't know where it was coming from because I had left the screen door open and would have heard the screaming if it had been coming from my house. Yet, with a mother's instinct, I ran to the sliding glass door, and S-- was standing on a chair, screaming bloody murder. "A spider!" But since the door was locked and S-- wasn't getting off his chair to open it, I had to run all the way around the house to the garage door. When I got inside I saw the spider, disposed of him, and then comforted the poor boy.

All in all bugs and S-- didn't get along so well today.

On another note, my boys have talent. They can poke at a fire pit with sticks and start a fire. (Of course, it takes some lazy boy scouts who didn't properly put out a fire the night before, for it to work.) Yesterday, we were at the church digging over our dirt to plant peas before it rained today. The boys were running around on the grass and went over to the fire pit. I didn't worry because of course the boys had put it out all the way Wednesday night. The S-- yells "We made a campfire!" I looked over, and sure enough, there were flames coming out of the supposedly 20-hour-dead fire. I took the precious water I had lugged to the garden to water my seeds (which hadn't been planted) and ran to the fire pit. I put out the fire, made sure that it was out, and the coals were cool/wet, and then hurried home to call the YM president and let him know that someone messed up somewhere.

Some light reading

We started getting The Economist and The Wall Street Journal, and we are all in heaven.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

(tomato starts in old yogurt containers)

Well, I don't know about Mary, but mine has taken a lot of work lately. My dear husband built some raised beds for our vegetable and strawberry gardens, and we had some dirt and compost delivered for said beds, so last week was spent moving the dirt. Of course, they delivered the dirt the day before a huge rainstorm, so we had to do our best to keep the dirt dry.




Moving the dirt allowed for a great science lesson about "garden soup": the best combination of ingredients for garden soil. It also made for mud footprints across the carpet. We finished filling the beds on Saturday, and have enough leftover compost for the trees and bushes that should be delivered soon. We also have enough dirt to fill some holes and start reversing the negative grade against the house. (As if we didn't have enough projects started already.)

I want to promise my neighbors that our yard won't always look this pot-marked. I'm planning on redeeming the grass this fall when I can do something major about the weeds. Until then, we'll look a little white trash.

While it was raining, we started some tomato plants inside. We spent so much money on dirt and wood, that I couldn't justify buying real grow lamps, so we're making do with this. We had three under-counter lamps (that plugged into the wall), so I pulled them out (I didn't like them taking plug and other space) and stacked them on top of jars. The bulbs are only 15 watts each, but my little tomatoes seem to be happy so far.

I'm planning on planting peas, lettuce, carrots, radishes, and kohlrabi in the backyard on Monday morning. We've also got a larger plot behind the church, so we'll be planting other veggies there--things that need space like watermelons, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, and more of the regular veggies.

I promise pictures as we go.

For those waiting . . .

PICTURES

(A--in a cute outfit from his aunt in Utah)

(the family at Carthage the night before a youth temple trip)

(A--, happy in stripes)

(dozy)

(brothers)

I always intend to write but . . .

I have a billion wonderful pictures on the camera that I need to upload, shrink, and then talk about here. But, instead of going downstairs to do that, I am munching on leftover birthday cake and playing around on the laptop upstairs. The boys just went down. Dishes are done. My sweet husband went to bed feeling a little ill.

We've been busily painting the upstairs of the house. We finally decided on colors (yellow and blue) and have the gigantic wall done, and parts of the other walls in process. My husband has done most of the work because I am a lousy roller painter. I do a pretty good job with a brush on edges and such and I'm a master taper and prepper. (I've been adding caulking to the floorboards around the whole house. It looks much better, if I do say so myself.) But we've been going until at least midnight every night, and then my husband needs to wind down with a quick tv show or something like that. So I think he is feeling the effects of too many late nights. But the house looks a lot happier, even unfinished.

A-- rolled over on Friday. I'm not sure if it was an accident (though most first roll-overs are accidental) because he repeated it on Saturday, but I felt like he was growing up too quickly. There is still so much little baby I want to enjoy with him.

Well, there is a thunderstorm on the horizon, so I will post this an log off in case of a random tornado (it isn't really that kind of thunderstorm, but it is always better to be safe than sorry.)

I promise I'll upload cute pictures soon.