Garden Time

It's time to garden!  I dug 14 trenches yesterday and planted 2 double rows of peas and potatoes. I had planted a double row of onions last week with some brussels and cabbage.  Today I planted a double row that is part beets, spinich and turnips.  It will take a few months to look like this. 

 I also put in a grow box for my sweet potatoes and carrots.  I have so many rocks that I have never had a good crop of carrots.

My box is 4x8 and 12" tall. I used 2" thick rigid insulation joined with Rhino doublestick tape. Because the foam has to be covered, I used the tape to cover with 4 ml black plastic sheeting. It worked great and was much less expensive than wood.  It was lightweight enough to be carried. I used rebar to keep the side from bowing out when filled and mixed the soil and filled.  We had a good soaking rain today, so all my seeds should get a good start.

Just waiting for my sweet potatoes to come.

I am using the black plastic as a cover to heat the box up. I am hoping to have a bigger crop than last year.  I am thinking about adding another box for my melons.

Save Me Grandpa!

When ever RJ is supposed to go to bed, he runs to Grandpa for safety.  He always gets Scott to say, "Let him stay up a little longer." Then he snuggles up and smiles because he got a respite yet again.
This time he fell asleep and had a good 3 hr. nap while we watched the Masters.  Grandpa didn't mind a bit.

KALAMAZOO

Herschel is in Kalamazoo at a Goalball Tournament with the Utah team. Go Explosion!

Hope they do well and don't freeze. Some of the games are being broadcast live on internet radio. For info go to http://www.ufbvi.org/ for the link.

Hope you found your cane Hersh. Nothing like the blind leading the blind.

It's Nearly SPRING!

In late January, I start some of my garden plants. Onions, peppers, tomatoes and some flowers.

This year I am trying Statice again. I used to grow it alot. It sort of an old fashioned plant, but is great in dry flower arrangements. The flowers are like crepe paper and grow in nice elongated bunches. I am also doing cockscomb, another oldie. The flower heads dry to a beautiful color. They are very light-weight when dry, but very heavy when picked, so need to be hung upside down to dry.

I have started some cabbages and brussel sprouts as well. They can go out in late March. I put my tomatoes out any time after ST Patricks day in "walls-o-water". Then late May when I pull them off, I already have ping pong ball size tomatoes growing.

The only bad part is that I start them in the dining room. My family isn't too keen on it, but I have a nice big south facing window and the wood floor helps to reflect the light and heat up to the plants. I have had great success starting them here. Later, I can move them out to the green house as it gets warmer. Last week it was 60 when the outside temp was 30 and snow flurries.

I will have to put some 2 liter jugs of water around the edges to help keep them from freezing at night. I don't have any heat in it.

It is always great fun and very tiring to get the garden going. The trenches are hard work to do. 14 on the south and 16 on the north. They are 40 feet long. Can't wait for sunnier days!

Onions, peas, beets, lettuce etc. go out mid March, so it needs to dry out a bit for the final tilling.

Hawaii Fun

Na Pali Coast

The highlight of the week for Scott was our touring day. We rented a Harley and did the Island tour on a hog. Way fun! We saw Kauai's Grand Canyon and the Na Pali coast as well as waterfalls etc. The amazing thing is that we saw the coast from the ocean on a zodiak tour a few years ago. Unbelievable. From the water it is hard to tell how tall the cliffs are.

Well, we road the 18 mile road up the canyon to the lookout. 4000 feet.

Even more amazing to look down at the ocean and realize the altitude. Gorgeous!

I did get a pretty good tan. A definate repeat.

We also learned the the canyon ride was ranked #8 in the world for a ride by the Harley dudes.

I can't imagine what the top 7 are. They must be spectacular.

Paradise!

We just spent a week in Hawaii for some R&R. Words can't describe the great climate and scenery. Hard to beleive that in Jan. we had 88 degrees when we left 10 inches of snow on the ground and frigid temps.

Gorgeous!

Last week after picking berries untill about 8:00, I came in through the back and had to run get my camera. I could not beleive how beautiful this sunset was. I wish the picture could do it justice. It looks pretty good, but not nearly as spectacular as the real thing. I wish I could paint as well, but how can you compete with God? He's had 1000's of years of practice. Hope you enjoy.

Raspberry Season

My favorite part of the canning season is when the raspberries are on. There are so many yummy things to make and it is a great pleasure to sit down to a large bowl of berries sprinkled with a little sugar and eat the whole thing.

I have often wondered how much that bowl would have cost. Usually I think about $5. Free to me and nothing is better than fresh picked berries.

I don't actually enjoy the picking part and yesterday found myself humming a real old oldie "they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles and they ran through the bushes where the rabbits couldn't go, they ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em, down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico" www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxRK3DNoa_Q This is the origanal Johnny Horton vidio.

The stickers are really unpleasant, and I continue to pick in capris and a short sleeved T-shirt. Jessica keeps telling me to wear long, but it was 99 yesterday and way too hot for long. I think I sort of like the war wounds anyhow.

After 2 long hot hours, I was done. (My patch is 15x40 feet) My reward was a 5 qt. bucket full and mounding. Now what to do?

Razzleberry Pie is always good. I made this pie a few weeks ago. That was when I had just a few raspberries and lots of blackberries.

Last night I did Raspberrie Peach Jam. This is our favorite. It's great that my peaches are ripe now as well. I picked all of one tree this morning. I got 22 pints of jam last night. That was off the first picking. I get to pick twice a week, so we'll have lots of jam and lots of frozen berries in addition to all the ones we get to eat.

Scott's favorite treat lately has been a bowl of peaches sprinkled with berries, then dusted with sugar. Yummy!

Tomorrow, we are getting to have fresh peach, raspberrie pie for our Sunday dessert. I hate cooked fruit pies except for apple, so we love to have fresh pies in a grahm cracker crust. We will be having a Jim Kelly dinner. Corn on the cob, tomatoes, turkey breast, potatoes and gravy, stuffing cucumbers etc.

I love raspberrie season!

Tending the Kidlettes

I got to tend the kids one day. Katie slept over and had brought her dress-ups. She wanted to have all the boys dress up, but she said that Dace wouldn't do it. She put this dress on RJ and he was gagging a bit. Then she pulled out the cape and carressed his face with it saying how soft and silky it was. He let her tie it on and actually wore it for about 15 minutes before he tried to rip it off. All in all, he was a good sport. Rhett will gag to see his son in girly get up, so the next pictures are to show his real boy personality. He loved this bucket and kept climbing in. He would fill it with toys and then fling them all over the room. He had a great time. Katie even pulled him around for a ride.

Any one for "Baby in a Bucket?"

Garden Update

These tomatoes are about the size of tennis balls. I can't wait till we can slice some up. They are great in a tomatoe, cucumber, red onion salad with dill vinagrette and then sprinkled with freshly grated parmesean and bacon cumbles.

The lettuce is pretty good this year. I read that it is almost impossible to grow head lettuce in a home garden, but I decided to try anyway. I chose "Ithica" for my try and it has been great. It is the left picture. I also grow butter crunch, and simpson elite leaf lettuce. It is great to have fresh greens for dinner. I also have spinich, parsley and white bunching onions to add to the salad. My tomatoes are starting to color up, so I think in a week I'll have salad tomatoes and cucumbers to add to the mix.

The corn patch finally got weeded. The best part about this weeding is that it is pretty much the last one. Once the corn is knee high, most of the weeds are shaded. There are the ocassional singles that have to be pulled, but for the most part it will take care of itself now. I just have to keep it watered and hope the racoons aren't too ambitious this summer. We had one year where they nearly devestaed the crop. I don't mind sharing a few, just not the whole patch.

I have two of these jackmanii clemantis growing in the pergola. I love the deep purple color. They will bloom untill frost as well. Too bad they don't have a real scent. Eye candy.

This is the top of the pergola. This rose bush is in bloom. They are small roses that look like apple blossoms. It is quite a sight to see how far this covers. It goes up the 8 foot post and 15 feet across the top. It is 3 years old now. it will max out at 30 feet. I picked it to cover the roof of the room.

The The peas have been great. This particular day I picked 1 1/2 5 gallon buckets. Katie helped me shell peas for 2 hours. Impressive for a 5 year old. It took from 9 untill almost 1:00 to finish. We had a 5 quart bucket full and we gave a bunch away. The peas are all done now. Even though we get tons, I never freeze them. We love fresh peas too much.

This is another part of the west hedge. I planted so that I would have some flowers from spring through fall. First is the forsythia in April. This is a close-up of the blooms. The hummingbirds love these flowers.

This is a close up of the Honey-suckle. It is gorgeous all in bloom. The blossoms are clear from the bottom to the top. This plant is 3 years old and is now 12 feet tall. It has started to cover some of the roof and I weave it under the cross pieces to hold it down.

The slightest breeze sends the fragrance through the yard and I love smelling it when I'm weeding or other yard work. This is one of my favorite plants.
Bonus: It blooms till frost. This variety is a slower grower, but so worth it. It has way more blooms than more common honey-suckle and it is the only variety with the pink, white, yellow combination. Love it.

USABA 2009 GOALBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Herschel had just scored a goal and went back to his position to wait for the coming ball. His best game he scored 3 goals to help the team win 12-6. He is still lifting and working to improve. It will be fun to see how quickly he can get better. The USA coach gave him some pointers and tips, so hope he can do well enough to become 1st string.

From l-r. Chris, Hersh, Nick, Quinten, Lewis.This is the team as they got their award for the silver. They were undefeated untill the gold medal match. They lost 4-1 to Pennsylvania. It was a tough loss. They were ranked 1st after the pool play and it looked like they would continue on for the win and National Title. Not this year. Too bad.

For the tournament, the Olympic bus came to transport the teams to and from the venue. All of the members of the paralympic team were there playing with their state team. Utah has one member, Chris Dodds. He and Herschel are siamese twins. They are the jokesters of the group. Florida has 3 members, Pennsylvania 1, and Western Michigan 1.

More Flowers

These are close-ups of the Eden rose. I love it. I chose it for my hedge as I would rather look at flowers and since it puts out such beauties all summer I couldn't resist. I planted 10 in a row. Next year should be really nice.

Here is the neighbors view of my hedge. It is over 7 feet tall. This section are the roses called Bonica. They bloom untill frost. They are about 3-4 inches across and have a light fragrance. The leaves are a great shiney green and look great trimmed. Most rose hedges have bare spots when you trim, but Bonica leafs out nearly to the ground.
This section is the Eden section. These bushes are only 2 years old, so they will fill in like Bonica. Each shrub grows 8 feet tall by 5 feet wide, and it also blooms till frost. They open up a cream with pink edges, then turn a soft pink when fully open. They are cabbage roses, so have nearly 100 petals per bloom. These flowers are about 5-6 inches across and just a hint of fragrance.

This is the Paul McCartney Rose. No, I'm not a fan of him, but the rose is spectacular. Here it is on a dinner plate. Unbeatable form and size. Great petal count and heavenly fragrance. I love the pinks, but for red nothing beats Mr. Lincoln for all of the above.

Here is the wisteria nearly in bloom. The other side is just as full. From a ways away, it looks like a bunch of grape clusters. They smell sort of like hyacinths. Yum!

Too bad they only last a few weeks. This variety, Blue Moon, will bloom once more this year. This is the only wisteria that has a strong fragrance. Double bonus.