The End Of Summer

I'm sad to say that the summer is coming to an end. It has gone by so fast, and I don't really feel like we've done anything terribly exciting. I guess a non-eventful summer is a good thing. This week, James rigged up a pretty clever boat out of a small storage bin, a dowel stick, and a sail. He even tied a tether to it, which he attached to a bracelet so it wouldn't sail away.

Of course, we had to take it on a maiden voyage. It sailed quite nicely, despite the Pocket Sized Dictator running around brandishing half a tree. 

There were little minnows and crawdads. I am sad to say that my once ninja-like catching skills are dusty from misuse. I did catch two crawdads though. The little tiny ones that hurt like crazy when they pinch you. Tyler found out for himself what it feels like. 

The boat sailed quite nicely until James tripped and ripped off the sail. 

But the boat was repairable, and of course there was more to do at the creek. They even pretended to like each other so I could take a picture! :) 

P.S. Yesterday we got the 'yellow postcard' in the mail, which has the location of James' bus stop and more importantly....his teacher's name. A few weeks ago, James had told me he met one of the three 1st grade teachers last year and really liked her. He really hoped he got her. Well, guess what?! He did! There was a grin from ear to ear when I told him which made me very happy too. His friend Kayla from church is also in his class. Since I have no experience with the teachers at his school, all I can do is go on is her web page through the school. And if that is any indication of her teaching skills, she is on the ball! James' Kindergarten teacher has only the most basic of information up. His first grade teacher has well over a dozen different pages up, including pictures from all the fun activities she did with her class last year. I am excited to see how it goes!

Miscellaneous Shenanigans

Here are a few of the latest shenanigans around here:

• Jeff recently got a smart phone. We now amuse ourselves by asking her all sorts of random questions. She gets an attitude sometimes and it is really funny. Here is a bit from the Q & A: Are you single? I don't answer questions about marital status. Do you have siblings? I guess that's always a possibility. Are you magic? No comment, Jeff. Can you sing me Happy Birthday? Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I'm half crazy over the love of you. I'm not sure. Let me search the internet for 'I'm half crazy over the love of you.' 
• Jeff recently created an Instagram account. We both thought it was a photo editing program. Jeff accidentally hacked some girl's Instagram account because she was using our email address. We now the proud owners of an account filled with pictures of legs, food, reciepts and other minutia. Oh, and a load of obligatory photos of girl showing off photographing herself in the bathroom mirror. You know the ones: hip to one side. Short shorts. Freshy coifed hair. Camera phone in hand. And a caption referring to how hard said person is going to party 2nite. lol. Despite all attempts to contact her, I think she thinks we are scamming her and instead continues to try and reset the password. When will she figure out that the password reset emails come to us? Who knows!
• Last night while James was getting a haircut, Tyler accidentally knocked one of the clipper attachments in the toilet. Then, thinking he was helping, he flushed. I took one for the team and plunged my arm into hopper but couldn't catch it in time. Now our toilet is flushing slowly. Not good. On the bright side, the conversation with Tyler went like this: Tyler, you can't flush things down the toilet. But we need to get it, Mom! No, we can't get it. It is gone. No, we need to break that open and get it. (referring to the back of the toilet) No, it's not in there. The water goes out of the house and under the ground. (Then Tyler went to bed....and first thing this morning...) We need to go dig it up in the backyard. Let's go get it!

Chicken Woes

This afternoon I went to check on the chickens and noticed that our boss chicken looked quite......dead. I didn't really expect that and stared at her for a few seconds before determining that in fact, yes, she was dead. I am not really sure what happened. She looked fine this morning, but it was clear when I picked her up that she had checked out a few hours ago. There are no markings on her, and no unusual signs, so I assume she died of natural chicken causes, whatever that means. James was out with me, and I told him that Pippy died. He was sad, then said matter of factly 'well, it happens.' That's my boy. I made Katie stay inside because she was the one I thought would have a hard time with it. Instead, it was Tyler. He is upset that Pippy is dead and wants to get 'another Pippy.' He didn't want me to throw her in the trash can. Which, by the way...what is the etiquette regarding that? I don't exactly have room to bury them on ye olde homestead, so I have determined that in the trash they go. I did bag her up so that hopefully the trash men don't get a start when they see a big, fat dead chicken flying into the trash truck. I suppose they see lots of things, but it always makes me wonder...you know, for all the bodies I have to dispose of. Because just a few months ago, I had to shovel a huge possum off the road and throw it away. Nothing like a hairy snout-nosed beast in the clutches of rigor mortis to ruin your outlook on life. (P.S. Did you know rigor mortis is two words? Who knew!) But I digress. The end of the story is when I realized Tyler was MIA and found him outside trying to open the trash bag and retrieve Pippy. Poor guy. Even though Pippy weighed a ton, he loved to carry her around. Now I guess I will have to keep the trash cans under lock down until trash day, not only to keep animals out...but to prevent Tyler from trying to resurrect poor Pippy.

Fun Times! (Finally...I'm Blogging!)

We were quite busy over the end of last week and the weekend. On Thursday, I took the kids to the Grange Fair and we had a lot of fun. They ate their first cotton candy, with mixed results. Katie didn't like it, and the boys ate it but I don't think it will be a favorite. The best moment came when Jeff got home from work, and Tyler excitedly ran up to him and proclaimed "Mommy bought us rotten candy!" While I was still giggling about that, Jeff replied that cotton candy was gross, because it is 'like eating a sweater.' And that pretty much made my day. The fair was lovely, as usual. I showed excellent restraint by only taking about 15 photos of the antique tractors. Katie is turning out to be a chip off the old block. She saw one she liked, and declared it 'go-geous!' Tyler wanted to drive them all. James really wanted to see the pig races, and he got his wish. Our pig never won, but it was entertaining regardless. I fell in love with a pretty milk cow and have now added that to my farm wish list. The farmer was so nice and let us sit in the straw with her and pet her for quite a while. He even held her tail so she wouldn't swat us!

Huge! And beautiful horse...one of a pair of percherons (I think...)

Ain't it purdy?

Katie not so thrilled with the cotton candy...'it has too much sugar in it' Yep. That pretty much sums it up.

Tyler ate cotton candy like it was his job.

Pig Races

My super-d-duper fan I got...I don't know why, but this fan cracks me up every time I see it.

On Friday, we dropped the two younger gremlins off at Grammy and Chappy's and headed off to Virginia with James. Tyler couldn't wait to go to G and C's and in fact, climbed up on the play kitchen and yelled at the clock to 'hurry up and move your hand so we can go to "ginia" because he couldn't wait to have a 'feep over'. The car ride down was...glorious....what can I say? No fighting, nobody said they had to pee, only a smiling gap-toothed boy who occasionally complained not being able to run in the car. In other words, it was the perfect car ride, if there is such a thing. We arrived at Rachel and Phil's abode and hung out playing Connect (probably spelling that totally wrong). I would like to say that I showed off my video game prowess but the truth is, James kicked my butt. And Jeff's. Funny thing is, I think he has played video games a grand total of once in his life. Saturday morning, Jeff and Phil ran together and then Rachel and I went on a run. It was so much fun! Afterward, we went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum which was totally, completely amazing! We got to see and stand under the actual Discovery Space Shuttle, as well as see a ton of other planes. It was so cool. I will post pictures of it as soon as I can get them off Jeff's fancy new smart phone. Until then, here is a picture of James and Uncle Phil chilling with Henry. :)

The State of the Garden

Attack of the Giant Pattypans!

The verdict is in: chicken poop makes fine fertilizer. So, maybe that fact has already been established but I am beginning to fear going into my garden each day. I dropped the ball on a few things this year, not planting some varieties that I normally do. Other things I tried hard to improve on: I planted things farther apart, because I have the bad habit of squeezing in 'one more tomato plant.' I ruthlessly pulled out 99% of the volunteers (sniff, sniff) that I normally have a hard time pulling. Yet despite the additional room, things became a jungle very quickly. The little pumpkins James planted have now taken over the garden and into the front yard. The one volunteer squash near the chicken coop that I left out of curiosity has turned into a massive beast. It is a butternut by the way, and there are quite a few big squash ripening as we speak. Glad I left it there! All the excess foliage does make for a difficult time harvesting stuff, and those darn squash grow to be the size of flying saucers overnight! I shouldn't complain though, we've been eating lots of good food and passing some on to friends and neighbors. I have yet to start leaving squash in people's unattended cars, but it might come to that...

P.S. I think we are around 160 pounds so far. I might crack 300 this year!

Of Course...

Jeff came home and told me that he had taken the time to calculate the probability of his passing the Professional Engineering test. Before he could go any further, I asked him if he had used either MathCAD or Excel to do it. Why, yes, of course he had. Excel is his second language, and he used it to calculate his potential score on the test. He went on to explain how determined the probability of each subject by using the number of answers available on the multiple choice, as well as the degree to which he knows each subject matter. Confused yet? It made my head spin just trying to follow along with all the figures he was throwing around and I am pretty sure the whole thing only took him 5 minutes. Sadly, he didn't go as far as to make a PowerPoint about it. Maybe next time.

Etc.

• Did you ever try googling your name before? Or the names of your relatives? Well, let me tell you. There is an Australian body builder that shares by name. She looks something like a female Aaaarnold. I don't. And when you google your relatives? Well, maybe you shouldn't. You never know what you'll find. Oddly enough, we found out Jeff's brother is part of a lawsuit against his parole officer. Who knew! You can also look up your relatives in who have spent time in the slammer via the department of corrections. Mug shots, height, weight, charges...they have it all! So next time you are looking for the perfect Christmas card picture.....
• There is less than a month til school starts. Waa! What happened to summer?
• I got to hold a 7 day old baby yesterday. She was delicious and I didn't want to give her back. I am now praying fervently that one or both of my siblings will have an 'accident' that results in a baby. ;) C'mon guys! I promise I'll make the baby piles of beautiful clothes and monogrammed burp clothes, and....just think! You might even end up with a kid that has my thumbs, and that alone is reason to have a kid! 
• This summer I have been doing an informal art lessons on Thursdays. Last week, we did tie dye! I will admit I was ridiculously excited to try it again, and I am now the proud owner of my very own tie dyed shirt. (Patchouli not included) Everyone's shirts turned out very nice, leading me to believe that it is hard to mess up tie dying which is a good thing when working with little kids.

Pictures

Random Info About Eggs

Much to my surprise two of our new chickens started laying this past week. They are Golden Sex Links and apparently they are early layers. Did you know that when chickens start laying they sometimes lay weird eggs while their body is 'working out the kinks' in the whole egg laying business? She laid two double-yolkers in a row, something our other chickens never did. Also, we got two rubber eggs today. One is from one of our older hens who seems to have problems with that, and the other one has to be from one of the newbies. A rubber egg has a soft, squishy shell. They are pretty weird to hold. Usually they have a very thin layer of shell and so it looks like a brown egg, only when you pick it up it feels like a water balloon. They are pretty gross. I will admit, I used the rubber egg for baking cookies today and it didn't kill us! I couldn't crack it though. I had to cut it open with scissors. Who wants cookies?!

Our First TV

As I previously mentioned, our first TV was from a hotel that was getting rid of stuff. I feel that I should write about it here to immortalize the story of it, if only so our children can someday look back upon it and laugh. We got this free TV, and since we were newly weds who owned two camp chairs and a hideous couch, we took it. This TV was, shall we say, special. Quirky, if you will. You could get a good twenty minutes out of it before there were any signs of trouble. After the twenty minute time period, the screen would begin to go fuzzy, like static. At this point, we would have to turn it off and let it cool down for 5 minutes. The problem was, after a certain point, it got to be watch 5 minutes, turn it off for 5. Good thing we have never watched a lot of TV. For some reason, we decided to have some friends over to watch the Sixth Sense. Now, I do NOT do creepy movies. Ever. I don't know how I got wrangled into this one, but I did. So we were all sitting around watching the movie and 20 minutes in, sure enough, the TV demanded a break. Around the time the movie got really intense, it was in 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off mode. Awesome! At least it broke up the scary parts for me. I mean, when there is a creepy kid saying 'I see....' **insert 5 minute break** '....dead....' **more static** '....people...' it kind of loses its edge. It's a wonder anyone stayed friends with us after that. Having them over to sit in camp chairs and watch creepy movies in fits and starts...we're classy that way.   :)

Family Tradition, And How We Accidentally Got Our Neighbors Deported

Jeff's mom used to have a police scanner. She would hunch over next to it and listen to the wild and crazy*  happenings in little Fruita, Colorado. *If there was a sarcasm font, I would use it here.* When something 'exciting' would happen, she would get in her car and drive to the scene to get a closer look. We always wondered why she would do this. Aside from the obvious bottle-necking, she had no driver's license or insurance and some illegal habits. Why would you put yourself closer to the very cops who could arrest you? That's one I never figured out. When Jeff and I got married, he got himself his very own police scanner. When we weren't sitting around in our camp chairs watching our hotel-hand-me-down TV which had to be turned off every 10 minutes to cool down, we would listen to the scanner. When we were first married, we found a nice-sized and affordable condo to live in. It happened to be affordable because it was in the bad part of town. Now, I will say that the bad part of town in Grand Junction is probably more like Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood when compared to parts of Philly. But alas, it was the ghetto to us. One night we woke to the sounds of an all-out screaming match a few houses down. It was a domestic dispute and sounded quite ugly. Jeff called the cops and then turned on the scanner. We listened both out the window and on the scanner as the cops showed up. (This makes us sound like total rednecks, doesn't it?) The police knocked, and no one answered. Um, duh. You are the only one with lights on at 3am. They know it's you! The police knocked and knocked and finally someone answered. In the meantime, they ran the plates on the truck parked outside. Next thing you know, we head 'Call in the INS van.' Oops. Turns out they were illegal and they got taken away in the van. Can't say I've ever witnessed that  before or since. When we moved here, the police scanner no longer worked. Something about going digital. Fast forward to last week. Jeff got an iphone from work, and guess what it has on it?! That's right, a police scanner. Now we can listen to various police departments along the east coast. Something tells me that 12 years and 3 kids later, we won't be spending much time listening, but its kind of funny that we have it. Maybe we'll have to bust out the camp chairs and reminisce about old times while listening to the scanner, and pass on the tradition to the kids.

I'm Having A Bake Sale

The farm house across the street went up for sale. It has TWO acres, which is quite a bit of land for around here. The house is huge and the kitchen is awesome. And it's only $425,000. I figure if I just charge $100,000 per cupcake, I will only have to sell 4 cupcakes. Any takers? Any rich uncles reading this? Anyone?

Put That On Yer Resume!

I must say that having chickens in full of adventures. I mean...skunk attack, wayward chicken wrangling and an accidental meat chicken. Exciting times, I tell ya! This week I had another experience to add to my chicken resume. I am currently trying to break my poor broody hen of her broodiness. After 6 weeks or so, she still hasn't figured out that she's not going to hatch anything. I have to keep taking her off the nest, and she is skittish and kind of crazy. I think it is a combination of her broodiness, her previous flightiness left over from when she was attacked, and the fact that she has pretty much isolated herself from the other chickens for the last month and a half. Anyway....it has been interesting, but I'm rambling. I had gone to check on her and found one of the other hens tethered to the chicken door. She had something around her foot, which was also wrapped around a stick, which was jammed in the door. I extracted her and took her out into the sunshine to see what the deal was. Turns out she got tangled up in some of the stupid garden netting we have (seriously...its terrible stuff...never buying it again!) It wrapped twice around her claw (toe?) and was really, really tight. I don't think she could feel it anymore. I had to perform some serious chicken procedure to remove the netting. I pretty much felt like a brain surgeon when I was finished and mentally patted myself on the back when I had some horse medicine to spray on her.** Now she's as good as new, and I am ready to perform surgery on anyone who needs it. Any takers????

**I have this around on the recommendation of my blog friend and Chicken Expert Linda and if she says it works for chickens...then I believe it!

P.S. Guess what we spent Saturday doing?! Sit down before you read this...we visited actual CAR DEALERSHIPS to look for a new ride for me and the kids. We even visited my old place of employment which was...strange. Have I ever mentioned how I am SO GLAD I don't work there anymore?! Regardless, we are (finally) looking for a vehicle with a) air conditioning, b) more space, and c) air conditioning. And did I mention more space? Oh, yes, that will be nice. Now, for those of you who know Jeff, I will answer your burning questions:

1. No, we are NOT looking for minivans. Have you seen pigs flying lately? Didn't think so.
2. No, we are NOT going to buy anything new or pick up a fancy-schmancy car payment.
3. And no, we are probably not going to buy from a dealership. He is looking on Ebay actually. And good ol' Craigslist. We just wanted to get a feel for what we wanted.

So the vehicle in our sights, as I am sure you are all dying to know...2005 Ford Expedition with the Eddie Bauer package.

Bacon Roses, Etc.

I think we've all settled back in nicely after the craziness that was VBS and having company. However it seems I keep forgetting I have a blog, thus the lack of updates. Here are a few random bits from the last few weeks:

Shelly had seen bacon roses somewhere and wanted to try them. Why not, I say! So we hit the grocery store for bacon and the dollar store for fake roses. They were remarkably simple to make, and pretty hilarious. Shelly wants to make her prom date a bacon corsage, so we decided that her qualifications for finding a prom date now include the willingness to find prom attire at the thrift store to avoid ruining a suit with bacon grease.

So...these pictures...it all started when we finished the wolf shirt (post here). I was taking a few pictures of Shelly in her flashy new shirt, and it all went south from there. He, he! Johnathan took the pictures and we just goofed off for the camera. Shelly scored the sombrero at Amish Walmart for only $3. Everyone needs a sombrero, right? The funny thing about these pictures is that the whole time, Shelly kept saying 'you have to post these on facebook! They're so awesome!' and I kept saying 'I'm too old for this! I can't post ridiculous pictures of myself on the internet like this!' In the end, I did post a few (she has the photo shoot in its entirety on her page...) and it totally made her day. :)

While the kids were here we took them to Five Mile Woods, which is a pretty nature preserve near us. I decided not to tell Johnathan that salamanders lived there, because I knew he would stop and turn over every.single.log in the place. That kid is a critter magnet. Although I do aspire to actually see a salamander in this area someday. I have only heard they exist...

Other than that, we've been keeping busy sitting in front of the air conditioner, visiting the library about every other day, or more, picking stuff out of the garden, and finishing TWO chapter books! (By The Banks of Plum Creek and Old Yeller...if you must know)

**P.S. I think I am up to almost 70 pounds from the garden so far. I am nearing the point where I will be hauling stuff in by the bucket every day. And I've said it before, but eating fresh garden tomatoes every day, all day, is one of my favorite luxuries!

Really Old Squirrels

On the day that I set up for VBS, Jeff bravely took Johnathan, James, Shelly and Tyler to the Franklin Institute in Philly. I kept Katie with me. While at the museum our nephew Johnathan wandered over to a lady who was giving a lecture. He listened intently for more than 15 minutes. When he came home, he told me all about it. He said there was this lady, and that she was talking about some really old squirrels. He listened and listened as she talked about the really old squirrels. Then she started talking about how they had writing on them, and he began to get confused. Writing? On a squirrel? She asked what they thought the squirrels were made of, and he answered that they were made of hide. She told him that while there were a few made of hide, most of them were made of parchment. It was at this point in the conversation that I realized he wasn't listening to a speech about really old squirrels, but really old.....scrolls. Dead Sea Scrolls! Needless to say we all had a good laugh about that one. Dead Sea Squirrels! :)

The Beach

The Saga of the Cheese Steak

Note: We spotted one of the few remaining pay phones in the US. An overly helpful homeless chap informed us rather loudly, not once, but three times! that that pay phone didn't work.

Yesterday we put our niece and nephew back on the plane for Colorado. I have mixed feelings about all that. Shelly and I had a blast together, and I miss her already. When the other kids were in VBS, we went off on a few adventures. One day, we dropped the kids off at 9am and drove straight to South Street in Philly. South Street is this eclectic, funky, edgy place...not really sure how else to describe it. It is home to the famous Jim's Steaks. If you are in Philly, the first thing you think of when you hear 'steak' is not a steak in the traditional sense...as in T-Bone, rather it is thinly sliced steak fried on a ginormous griddle and thrown in a hoagie roll along side some 'whiz, as in cheese whiz. The thing you must know is that you can't just meander into the place, spend an hour gazing at the menu, and then mosey up to the counter to order a 'cheese steak with cheese whiz, and...oh, mushrooms sound good. And peppers! Yes, that would make a mighty fine sandwich.' Jim's is usually incredibly busy and manned by some pretty intimidating grill sergeants. Ha, ha! I just made that up. Anyway, the first time we were there Jeff took too long to order and got yelled at. I was so afraid of the wrath of the steak man that I ordered exactly what I heard the person in front of me order. Usually the line at Jim's is out the door and it takes a while to get to the counter. Guess what?! There are precious few people brave enough to eat a steak at 10:30 in the morning. With only one group in front of us, I was feeling pretty fine. Then, one of the GINORMOUS grill sergeants looked at me and said 'Ma'am, with summer school in session we aren't allowed to accommodate school age children until noon.' Now I was taken aback and thought for sure he must be kidding. I asked him as much and he looked at me and said 'Do I look like I'm smiling? I'm serious.' Well, he sure wasn't smiling and he sure looked intimidating, but still! I asked him one more time if he was serious and he said yes. I asked him if I could buy the sandwich and leave the store with it. He gave me this 'I'll let you just this once look' and said yes. I was mentally shaking my head, but also didn't want to tick off GINORMOUS grill sergeant so I just stood there. After a minute or so, he looked at me and told me he was just messing with me. Oh, funny, funny! So I ordered our steak 'wit wiz' because that's the way a Philly steak is meant to be I'm told. My GINORMOUS grill sergeant buddy then harassed me about not ordering a beverage. He kept heckling me about it, but all I could think about was that I was approximately an hour and a half away from a bathroom that wasn't infested with herpes, and didn't want to push my luck.  But how does one explain that to your new-found but intimidating buddy? You don't. After a little back and forth, he went to the fridge to get Shelly's water, and grabbed another one for me. It's 'on me' he said, just in case you get thirsty. Thanks, GINORMOUS grill sergeant buddy, thanks!

P.S. All our adventures were part of our YOLOcoaster campaign. I am not really up on ye old young people's vernacular, but apparently YOLO is the new slang for 'You Only Live Once,' which can surely be used as an excuse to indulge in all manner of sketchy and destructive behavior. We, however, used it as the motto for all our fun adventures, and bonus points for actually being able to remember it all later and with no time spent in the slammer. Woo!

VBS Decorations

Here are a few photos of the VBS decorations. The theme was 'Incrediworld Amazement Park'. I couldn't have done it all without the help of my (lovingly called) minions. Incidentally, while the prep took hours upon hours upon hours, the tear down was completed in about an hour. 

Cousins

Being the super Uncle that he is, Jeff decided to dress in his Sunday best to pick up our niece and nephew from the airport.

I don't think they were too surprised, coming from Jeff. Apparently he ended up getting chatty with a Chinese guy, convincing him that this was the trendy thing to wear. The Chinese guy told him that he didn't look right. Somewhere in the conversation Jeff also got to get the guy to neigh like a horse. I really wish I could have witnessed that whole conversation. Poor guy probably went back to China wondering at the state of Americans these days. We have been having a lot of fun with the kids and I am happy to report that the VBS decorations are set up with only minor mishaps. I'll post pictures another day.

Fireworks

Three blog posts in one day...that's a record. I forgot about posting this and want to write it down for posterity. Jeff took the kids to the fireworks stand over the weekend. He came back with a sheepish grin and said that he had 'spent more than he planned on spending.' He rather quickly followed that up with the statement that 'the kids need to have fun.' Yeah. I am sure it was for the kids. Ha! We had a good laugh out of that one. The kids have had fun lighting off a few things each night. Tyler covers his ears, even when we light the 'nakes' as he calls them. (We always called them snakes...the box says glow worms?) Also, as the kids were watching the first snake coil outward, Katie remarked that it looked like the ground was pooping. And I must admit, she wasn't too far off.

It's About To Get Crazy

We found out on Saturday that my niece and nephew are coming...tonight. Craziness! I am really excited they are coming even though things are going to be nuts. I have VBS decorations to set up on Saturday, and I think that might be a bit monumental. Next week is VBS and Tyler's birthday, and then the kids go home on the 14th. Our kids have NO IDEA that their cousins are coming. I decided that with such short notice I could manage to keep it a secret. Tomorrow morning they will wake up to find that two of their Colorado cousins have magically appeared in the house. :) We haven't seen them in 4 years, and they have never met Tyler...I'm excited!

Nitty Gritty Garden Post (Here's To You, MJ!)

The tomato jungle (that's our shed in the background)

Despite the fact that we live right smack dab in the middle of suburbia, I am trying to squeeze in a little piece of 'farm' into my yard. My sister keeps shaking her head at me and telling me to just go and get a farm. And believe me, I wouldn't complain. Although I do know enough about farming to know it is very hard work. I think what would suit me is to have a rambling farm house, with a rambling garden and enough space  for the kids to run free. I would have more chickens, a few fruit trees and maybe convince Jeff to spring for a goat or a cow. Until that happens...I'll make the most of the space we have on our spacious .19 acre Franch. :) 

My main garden

My main garden is about 11' by 50'. It is along the south(ish) side of the house. We actually moved the side fence up to accommodate it. The soil was pretty decent and mainly rock free when I started. However, I have noticed a huge difference over the last 4 years by adding compost and tons of grass clippings. My neighbor doesn't treat his lawn, and he dumps his grass clippings over the fence for me. He also brings me magnolia petals in the spring and leaves in the fall. I use them as mulch to keep weeds down and add nitrogen to the soil. He also brings me scraps for the chickens and the compost pile. Nice neighbors bring you their rotting food, didn't you know? This year I have been able to include compost that includes chicken manure and I think it has made a big difference.

I have three rhubarb plants in a raised bed. They are very productive.

The last two years I have been researching companion planting which has been helpful. Basically, it is about what crops grow well together, even benefit each other. Some plants can repel each other and stunt their growth. Last year, I planted lettuce under a trellis in early spring. Right around last frost, I planted cucumbers. By the time it got a little hot for the lettuce, the cukes were tall enough to provide some shade. I got a ton of lettuce and the cukes did well too. There is a book called Carrots Love Tomatoes that is really good for this. 

The garden (looking out toward the street and my neighbor's giant motor home)

I also recently planted 3 blueberry bushes along the side of the chicken run. I don't think they'll produce this year, but I was able to find nice tall bushes from our CSA for $10 a piece! Along the other side of the yard I dug a bed this spring but it doesn't get a lot of sun so I think I'll stick with greens and flowers over there. 

Oh, look! Chickens! They make sure to trim anything that grows near the fence except of course the poisonous pokeweed that grows everywhere around here (on right). 

This is my lame-o side 'garden'. You can't really tell but there are flowers on the left near the compost bin, and unplanted on the other side. Next year...

There you go...probably way more than you wanted to know. ;) 

Well, That Was Interesting

Yesterday Jeff planned on replacing his radiator. I took the younger two and left James with Jeff. I was browsing in Tar-jay when the cell phone rang. It was James. Now James never uses the phone, so I knew something was up. He was very calm, and said 'Dad cut his finger. You need to come home.' I told him I would come right home and hung up. I felt surprisingly calm, despite the fact that I knew he must have severed a major appendage in order to justify a phone call. I didn't even think to ask how bad it was or anything. On the short way home, James called again to see how long it would be before I got there. Then I started to really wonder what had happened. He told me it was really bad and we needed to take Dad to the hospital. Turns out while the cut wasn't particularly large, it was very deep. He cut through a vein and it wouldn't stop bleeding. His hand had slipped when he was working under the car and he cut it on something. Fortunately the ER got him in right away and stitched him up. He was pretty nauseous and had to get a tetanus shot, but all is well now. And yes, he did come home and somehow manage to install the new radiator with very limited use of his hand. I am pretty sure the doctor would not approve of that one.

Chappy, Garlic, Etc.

A few pictures of Katie and her Chappy

The kids love their Chappy

And I must say, he IS pretty awesome!

James' Class Picnic

My little farmer helping me harvest the garlic

I've never grown garlic and didn't know what to expect, but boy, was I ever surprised when I dug it up! 27 huge heads of garlic weighing in at about 12 pounds total, all from 1 pound of seed. 

The garlic weighed an average of 7 ounces per head, with a few weighing in at a half a pound! I am going to give the credit for this phenomena to the lovely composted chicken manure I added when I planted them. 

VBS, Etc.

So somehow I got wrangled into doing the decorations for our church's VBS this year. I did actually say yes, and there was no gun to my head. I decided to do it because it was a way to use my artistic skillz, which have been sorely neglected since I had babies. That is the really nice thing about being at a large(ish) church. There are a lot of opportunities to use creativity. The thing to know about our church is that I think their motto for VBS is 'Go big, or go home.' I have been told that one year they transformed the platform into a Pirate Ship. No pressure or anything. This year's theme is 'Incrediworld' and it is a creation-themed amusement park. All I can say is that I am having a lot of fun working on it, and it's going to be cool. I'll post pictures when it's done. That is, if I have any remaining brain cells after the spray paint fumes wear off.

P.S. They gave me minions! All sorts of lovely people showed up over the last several weeks to do whatever I needed them to do. It was awesome, and I felt like jumping into the air and clicking my heels. Until I remembered that I'd probably break a hip or something. And don't worry, I refrained from calling any of them minions, although one girl asked permission to go to the bathroom. Um, yes! You can! No hall pass required. :)

In other news, James finished school today! Finally. He came out sad, and I asked him why. He found out his best buddy is going to be going to another school next year. :( I am sure he'll get over it but it was sad to see him so disappointed.

I Hit The (Trashy) Jackpot

A few days ago on my run I spotted something on the curb. It was a street I never run on, and wouldn't really have paid attention to. I just saw the corner of it behind a truck, but went over to see if it was really a) a doll house, and b) not totally trashed. I ran home as quick as I could and got the truck and came back and got it. That sucker is heavy! Every single missing piece was in the attic of the house, even down to the missing shingles. I am so excited to fix it up for Katie, and it further enforces my belief that sometimes God puts awesome things in the trash for us to find! :)