Our Backyard

Here are some pictures of the backyard that I promised not long ago. I am sorry to make you all wait so long.

Here is the new and extended veggie garden. The original plot is around the corner of the porch. I planted peas along the back that will climb the lattice work and bush beans in the front. You can see the little sprouts of squash. The begonias are right next to the steps to the porch.

This next picture is the new flower bed in the front corner of the backyard. It gets only a little sun in the very late afternoon only in the summer. The rest of the day and year it is shaded. We plan to put an azalea in the back corner and use more ferns and shade loving hastas in here. Right now the bench is for visual interest.

The next picture is of the new sod and the new flower bed under a big Pin Oak Tree. It still has some work left and we plan on extending it all the way to the fence on the left of the picture where the trashcan is, doubling it in size. In here we will plant more azaleas, hastas, and some other shade/sun plants. Like the rocks? The close up is of the corner right by the entrance to the backyard.

This next photo is a great look at how the grass is with and without the sod. We will be bringing in some topsoil in the late summer and spread it to raise the backyard up to where the sod is and then reseed the sections that are not sodded. Actually where the sod is there wasn't much more than dirt there.

This is such a great improvement in our backyard. I am so proud of it and excited to finish it. We still plan to bring in some rocks to put where the oil tank, trashcans and AC unit is. Oh there is so much to do but this is such a pleasant place already!!

Happy Birthday My Dear Baby!!

My youngest turns 5 today. It is official. She is no longer a baby anymore. This morning she woke up and announced that she had grown bigger over night. She was very excited to be 5 today, however, she was a bit upset that she didn't have a loose tooth!

She has a party this afternoon with her friends in our beautiful backyard! Tomorrow she and her brother(whose birthday is June3) will celebrate together their birthdays with the family.

An Expanded Garden

Okay, I know you will be dieing for some pictures but you will just have to wait. It is now dark outside and I will take some pictures tomorrow when it is sunny again. Plus I will have finished some more stuff by then and it will be really great. Now on with the story!!

Our mission today was to get our porch cleaned off from the winter items which got thrown out on the porch for storage. The porch was in sad condition. First the screened door just literally fell apart last fall. it was a cheap wood door and the pressure of all the slamming over the years had loosened all the joints and it fell apart one day. So we have been subject to all the elements plus varmints who want to come on the porch and check out the recycling bin, or the bag of trash tossed out for the time being because someone was too lazy to walk it all the way out to the trash cans (approximately 20 more steps). So we took every thing off the porch, checked out the wood decking floor under the carpet we put down a couple of years ago. All looked great and dry so we vacuumed, vacuumed again, and then shampooed the rug. We then tossed everything we don't want anymore (mainly trash stuffs), scrubbed all the furniture, the ledge going all around the porch and then the posts, trash cans (5 of them), coolers (we found 4 out there!!), and other things that had the green haze of pine pollen on it. Then we started putting things back. Needless to say, it looks great!! Still no door but that will come this week.

Then my husband said, "I have been watching the sun track in the back yard and the space right in front of the porch gets a bunch of sun all day long. Do you want to move the grill and the cushion storage container and make another little vegetable garden right along the front of the porch?"

I didn't have to think for long, as I have been wanting a little more room right here at the house for some more veggies. "yes, yes, yes!" I say.

So we moved the grill and the cinder blocks that it was sitting on. We put the cushion storage box on the porch to also double as more sitting space and we moved some left over wood blocks to make the border. K had brought in some compost from a job he had done and dumped it in our backyard, so we moved the beautiful dark brown compost soil to the new garden bed. I can't wait to start planting in it tomorrow.

Allie and I planted some begonias in another flower bed and I spread mulch around the pine tree which now sits in the middle of the sod we laid last week. We have about 10 more begonia plants and we have a flat of impatiens to plant also. They too will go in tomorrow.

Yesterday we put up our gazebo in the middle of the backyard (pictures to come), and we ate dinner under it last night. It has been sitting under our porch for the past two years and hadn't done anything with it. Now that it is up we wonder why we didn't do this sooner. We put rope lights all around the top and it glows in the darkness. It is really pretty.

We Survived the First Day of the Pool!

We arrived this afternoon about 2:50 expecting a bunch of people at the pool. We were pleasantly surprised that there weren't that many people there. We chose a table close to the entrance to the pool and near the 3 feet. Yes, there still were tables available. And yes, there still were plenty of lounge chairs too! It was adult swim so the kids had to wait a few minutes before getting in. Once the whistle blew the kids were in the water. This year Caroline can touch the bottom in the 3 feet. She still wanted her swimmies though. The water was chilly but as my husband said "refreshing" not cold. I don't know because I didn't get in today. I stuck my feet in the baby pool when Caroline wanted to play there but other than that I didn't get in. We stayed until 4:30 and then it was time to get home. But all in all it was a fun first day at the pool!

The Pool's OPEN!!!

Today is opening day at our neighborhood pool. This is the day when we all dust off the bathing suit, squeeze into it and then head out to the pool with all the others who have squeezed into theirs also. We all have funny tan lines this time of the year from hanging one arm out the window of the car or playing in the backyard with a t-shirt. Or like my husband, a tan neck from working outside all day long all spring.

The plan is to jump into a frigid pool and get sunburned!! No matter how much sunscreen you put on you never get it everywhere plus the lilly white skin next to a reflective pool will burn you in places you don't have.

So, here we go!!!! Off to the pool!

Welcome my Sister!!!

A big fat welcome to my sister in Colorado!! She started her blog today and I am so excited for her. I can't wait to read her blog and I hope it is updated frequently. I email her daily and we have great talks. She has a garden in her backyard and grows great veggies. She has two dogs who are basically her children, and she loves photography!! I do hope that she posts stories of hiking and camping in Colorado as well as great pictures that she takes. She has lived out there for 6 or 7 years now and I have yet to go visit her. She comes home once or twice a year and we get to see her then.

Check out her blog!! Remember folks; she is new to this so bear with her as she gets it all set up and gets into a groove. So, without further adeiu Heeeeerrrrre'ssss Jennifer!

Virginia Cooperative Extension Office

With a name like that you never know what kind of extension you are going to get. However, this is a good one and I am assuming that all states have something like this if they don't have one called by the same name. (no not "Virginia" it would be the name of your state my sillies)

I have been doing a bunch of research on how to plant effectively a specific sized space, how and when to harvest specific plants and what plants are good for our area. The Virginia Cooperative Extension Office is an "extension" of our state horticulture and agriculture programs attached to the universities. Specifically here in Virginia they are Virginia Tech and Virginia State University. They have a website and within it there is tons of information on all kinds of things that you would want to know about having a garden (vegatable or flower) in the state and sometimes specifically in the area in which I live. So I am out there on Friday afternoon (don't tell I was at work doing this) and I start printing off articles on broccoli, cabbage, corn, greenhouses, hot beds, and pests. Saturday evening I am reading and I am amazed with the amount of great info that I got. Not only does it give me the details on how to plant and when to harvest, it gives me info on how to store it as well as how much to grow or harvest per person for a year's worth of vegetable. For example, you should harvest 15 lbs per person of cabbage. Now I like my cabbage but 15 lbs? that is a lot of cabbage. The say to make it in sauerkraut to can or to store it in a root cellar or dark place at 32 degrees for up to 5 months. Can you see my refridgerator piled high with cabbage. For our family that would be 60 lbs!! I am counting a 15 lb share per adult and then two 15 lb share for all three kids. That is a ton of cabbage. Then when you start adding up broccoli (8 lbs/person), cauliflower(8 lbs/person), and green beans(you get the idea), peas, corn, tomatoes. Man our whole utility room would be full of freezers, refridgerators, and shelves. But then again I suppose that is how our forefather pioneers did it. Wonder what the neighbors would think if my husband started digging a root cellar???

Anyway, if you are at all interested in gardening google your state name and "extension office" and see if you have one. You could check out Virginia's website too.

Oh, by the way, the info that I read and advice from my smart sister said to pluck off the top of the broccoli that has flowered and it should sprout more shoots from the sides. Hopefully, I will get some broccoli, otherwise I am replanting for a fall harvest!! Broccoli saved!!

Oh Sod beautiful Sod...

We are so lucky. My husband's brother decided to build a playyard for his son and he tore up about 1100 sq feet of sod out of his backyard with a sod cutter. He called us and asked us if we wanted it and without hesitation we said yes. Now this was on Sunday around noon just after we had decided that I would be doing laundry and my hubby would be going to work in the big garden down the street. So we scrapped our plans for some beautiful grass. Luckily, his brother and father offered to help lay it.

Let me say, it is BEAUTIFUL!! Dark green, thick grass just in the middle of our back yard where we couldn't get grass to grow to save our lives. Now we don't have brown dirt we have lovely, green grass!! I will take a picture of it soon and show.

It makes me want to finish the flower beds out there that we have planned and get some shrubs and flowers planted. Maybe tomorrow I can run out and grab a few impatiens and bigonias to plant. Maybe even a hosta or two. Oh the plans, oh the plans...

Broccoli

I found out today that broccoli doesn't do well once it gets hot. Our broccoli plants were started in a hot greenhouse and then planted in the big garden. Caroline and I were so excited that we saw the first florettes beginning to form on some of the plants. Yesterday when I was out there spraying for the cabbage Looper,(the picture here. Click on it and it will get bigger. It is not as cute as you think) I noticed that the first florettes that we had seen were now flowering with little yellow flowers. I found out today that they are going to seed and no more broccoli will form. So this weekend out they will come.

A shout out to everyone to read a new blog that I have discovered. The link is on the side where blogs of note are. It is the Crossroads of Nowhere. Click on it and have a read and a giggle. We have all had strange summer jobs but some of the jobs that this person has had cracks me up. Scan down and read them all. Too too funny!!!

The Video part 2

I previewed the National Geographic video last night and in the first two minutes I realized this was not going to fly with my bad boys. I should have looked at the copyright date on the back. It was 1982. It was probably a video I watched in school. In 1982 I was 12 years old and in the 8th grade!!! So I pop in the Pole to Pole video and start watching that. Unfortunately it plays more like a travel guide than anything else and I figure this isn't going to work either. I go to Tivo and see what I have recorded. There is a video of the making of some of Disney World's rides and attractions. I decide that is what we will watch. So today had absolutely nothing to do with Africa like I had planned.

Oh well.

Friday Videos

Today I have been in a bit of a panic. It is Thursday and in my class on Fridays I try to bring in a video usually having something to do with what we have been studying in class. It isn't a "movie" as the kids would like but a documentary or some sort of TV show corresponding to our subject. For the past two weeks we have been doing Africa. Last week we watched the Biography of the Wright Brothers (nothing to do with Africa). So this week I wanted to find something on Africa. The kids have been asking about the Egyptian pyramids and I was hoping to find something interesting on TV but to no avail. So this evening I went to the local library to see what videos they had that I could show.

They had a series called "Pole to Pole" it is an A and E series that showed in the early 1990's on PBS. One man (and his camera crew) take off at the North Pole and travel to the South Pole. They go through all kinds of countries and the cover much of the continent of Africa. At one point at the equator he shows the spin of the Earth affecting water draining out of a bucket. On one side of the equator it goes clockwise and on the other side it goes counter clockwise. Pretty cool.

I also got a video (National Geographic) on Egyptian pyramids. Now the panic has changed from can I find a video to which one do I show. Oh, the dilemmas.

The Fever

My oldest came down with a fever on Wednesday of last week. He continued to have a fever until Sunday morning. Sunday morning my middle one started with a fever. She is still sick today and currently curled up on the couch sleeping. If her's lasts as long as the older one's fever did we should expect her to be out of school through Wednesday.

The last time we all got sick it was the Norovirus. We all caught it and it was one rough weekend with kids throwing up this way and that and the parents running to the bathroom every few minutes. (sorry for the visual) It ran through the whole family.

So far My youngest hasn't shown any fever yet nor have me and my husband. I don't know if that is a good thing or if we are still waiting for our time. Agh. I hate the waiting game.

My Kitchen Garden

This is my little garden by the house.

Strawberries

Our strawberries.

Strawberry Jam!!!! Mmm Good!!

My New Passion

Today I woke up and decided that the cabbage plants in my little garden by the house had to go. It was just getting big and there were no heads coming up. It was only producing leaves. Lovely leaves but no good stuff so out it came. I planted in its stead two zucchini plants and two squash plants. I did some weeding and I took some pictures for you. I have a space for some carrots that have yet to be planted.

I then took the girls strawberry picking. It is a bit of a ride to get to the berry farm but well worth it. We arrived and everyone else apparently had the same thoughts as me because they were ALL there. We got closer to the ticket window and I realized that this is the Strawberry Festival at the berry farm today. The girls were good and didn't bug me about riding rides and such. We went to pick strawberries and that is what we were going to do. We picked some good berries, about 15 lbs. When we got home I made some strawberry jam, masserated some for shortcake tonight and we have a bunch left. I will make some more jam tomorrow and freeze some for later too.

I love this time of year. It is warm but not too hot and the veggies are growing, the flowers are blooming and the strawberries are ripe! Plus it is Mother's Day tomorrow!!

Thursday

I can't quite put my finger on my 'funk'. I have recently been thinking that it is because it is getting warmer and I am not wanting to be at work anymore. I am totally unmotivated to teach right now. All I want to do is be outside and digging in the dirt. I take my daily walk around the house (outside of course) in the afternoons when I get home from work and as my youngest says, "check the plants". She usually walks with me and she tells me about her day and we pick the weeds that have grown up in the flowerbeds and check on the daily growth of our lettuce, cabbage, and newly planted tomato plants. It makes me happy but I have realized that I am being a bit OCD about the weeds.

I ventured over to the larger garden this evening with my youngest in tow. She and I had just spent $30 for a bunch of marigolds "for the deer". She thinks that they will like the flowers and will want to eat them instead of our vegetables. I tried to explain to her that the deer don't like marigolds and they will not only stay away from both the flowers and our vegetables. Or at least that is the theory. We will see if they work. So we walked around the garden there and checked on how much the deer had eaten. The lettuce that they ate down to the stem is coming back nicely, the potatoes are HUGE (the plants that is), the onions are coming along. The cabbage has the worm in it and we need to spray. The purple cabbage is coming along too. Some though were nibbled on by the deer. Two of the broccoli plants have little heads on them and we both got very excited when we saw that. My little one LOVES broccoli! The tomatoes are coming back but we definitely lost a few to the deer. We couldn't find the peas and only saw two bush beans. The peppers are not much bigger than when we planted them. We have some squash seedlings coming up and the second plot is ready to be planted with squash, cucumbers, corn and others stuff. I will try to take a few pictures so you all can see my newfound joy.

My Successes

I have realized that I need to count my little successes to feel even a bit better about the huge list of things to do compared to what actually gets accomplished.

So this weekend I:
1. actually got to my friend's house and completed 13 pages scrapbooking. That was Friday evening and today I realized that I had already made Caroline's 2nd birthday book. So now we have two of the same event, damn.
2. planted 3 tomato plants in my little garden next to the house. We found out that we lost a bunch of broccoli and tomato plants as well as all our lettuce in our larger garden down the street. Deer came and ate them all.
3. have done approximately 7 loads of laundry in the past two days. I still have a bunch to do AND I haven't done my clothes in two weeks!
4. watched two soccer games, one for each of the girls. I sat in the rain...
5. cleaned out the front closet and part of the living room. I still have the kitchen, rest of the living room, dining room and family room oh and the bathroom to do before Tuesday evening for Bunko. (it is at my house this month)

So with that list I hope everyone knows why, just why most of the time I feel like I am moving ever so slightly backwards.

The Longest Week

This has felt like the longest week. It is finally Friday. Whew! I made it. This morning I was commenting to a fellow teacher as we both dragged in late that even with an inservice day on Monday it has felt like a terribly long week. She too agreed and also added that she was glad that the bus came to pick up 4 kids to take them to prison yesterday. When that happens it makes the next day a bit nicer because those who are usually picked up are the ones that cause trouble during the days just before the pick up day. Are you following me? So today did feel a bit better but looking back it feels like last weekend was forever ago.

Another teacher also commented on it and our principal agreed as well.

Let's think for a minute, yes, 6 1/2 weeks to go before we are off for "summer break", if you can call it that. We work an extended year so our summer is only the month of July. Then the 1st of August we are back with our little jailbirds again. This year we get exactly 5 weeks to the day for summer break. I guard those weeks with all I have. This summer two of my three are going to summer school in the mornings and the afternoons are filled with time at the pool. I don't think we will get to the beach but I do plan on taking some long weekends camping. We have this trailer that we don't use enough. Anyone know any good fun places to camp in the VA, MD, NC, WV area? Tell me about them...

Five things weird things about me!

1. My third toe is longer than my second toe only on my left foot.

2. I can't stand the word "fester". It just grosses me out!

3. I don't like to start things that I know I won't be able to finish. I think it is because I am a perfectionist at the core and so if I can't or won't be able to finish something then means that I can't start it. That includes housework...that never ending cycle.

4. I don't like bumps and pick at them until they are gone or bleeding. Not only on me but I have been found to pick at other people too.

5. When I cook I secretly pretend I am the host of a cooking show.

So, all who read this I challenge you to list five weird things about you. Zebra, that should be easy. Barefoot, I KNOW you have five weird things. Anyone else who has been reading and not commenting, this is your time. Like a "getting to know you" thing.