Thursday, May 23, 2013

Oh Happy Days

Ethan is done with Third Grade Math



And English! Thank God, I thought English was going to be the death of us.


Star and Ellie's brother was born this week. Cole requested a monkey, picked out the fabric and everything. So unhappy with these monkeys. With monkey three, I re-did the arms and legs and those look better. It's the face I need to work on, I know it's hard to see. But sewing wise it's a nightmare. Star gave me more fits then a two year old! I have two more girls in the pipeline, so I will see if I can master the face? Tucker has not named his boy yet.


And fourth-ly, it's my b-day and what a better day then to get your Mother's Day gift today. Welcome my newest babies. This company is in Canada and it took many weeks to ship. The herbs look amazing, I can't believe how big some of them are. The only real issue I have is they could only ship 11 of the 12, a quick email asking if I would like to sub something would have been nice? I don't plan on ordering anymore herbs this year, so I need to go and email and request the money back verses a credit.


Lime Balm
Lemon Eucalyptus
Honey Eucalyptus
Silver Dollar Eucalyptus
Berries & Cream Mint
Citrus Mint
Italian Spice Mint
Roseroot
Lime Thyme
Nutmeg Thyme
Mongolian Yarrow


Next up is sewing pj's. Ethan and Tucker have out-grown Costco pj's and I'm not about to go shopping to go looking to see who might have something? Plus at ten dollars plus a pop. I dug out my knits and I have some really cool colors so I will be working on those. I have family coming into town. Next week shall be another crazy week.

Friday, May 17, 2013

A Baby and Catching Up

There is nothing like a baby. I finally dug in and cleared out the second garlic bed as the weeds were over two feet tall. OOPS. And I found a cherry tree baby. Today it was dug up and will be sitting with the four apple tree babies that are growing by leaps and bounds.


This is what 102 Tomato plants look like. Yep, 102 and room for 9 more. I have one flat left in the green house. As I have to dodge rain to get things planted.


I've had three very sick kids. Luckily one right after the other and not all at the same time. Just a weird fever. This was Ethan all curled up on an 80 degree day.


So this is the momma that had babies everywhere, I'm still moving the babies!


I will be doing a garden tour coming up. This is my front yard. Up front are my two herb beds, I'm working on filling them out this year.


This is in the backyard, one of my herb sections.

This was one morning of planting. 5 flats.


Cucumbers and pumpkins. Come on babies Grow!


And this project is FINALLY finished. It has taken nearly a year as we couldn't afford it. So buying so many bricks a week, and so many base rock a week. Finally got everything bought and hubby worked to finish this up.


To house this. A swing that came from my Grandmother. With my parents loosing their house we went and got this last year, and then it sat in our front yard. The swing is not 100% done, but it's finally in it's place.


Keep gardening!



I still have to finish cleaning out the green house, I need to get a lot into the ground and a lot of moving and working. So I'm not gone, I'm just in the garden. I'm hoping to do a garden tour soon so you can see my 150 plus tomatoes. OH speaking of tomatoes. I have a new tomato page at the top of the blog. I will be collecting and saving heirloom/organic tomato seeds. And that is where I will be listing the types I have. I will be adding a Sunflower page soon.

Currently all kids are well. But I'm dealing with a lot of rain. 

Friday, May 3, 2013

Friday

And What a Friday it has been. We have something here we call a Chicks Sale. Basically a lady opens up her property to about 40 vendors, they sell craft, antique and other items. It's a must go to if you live in the area. Just Thank Goodness we got there early today. As there was no parking as we left and a line of cars waiting to get in. Basically we walk around once, anything on our list that is a great deal we pick up asap. We then take a second trip around for the maybe's and to see if anything was missed.

Well I saved up for this, but only bought a few things. So we left and headed to Costco and Home Depot. To get more lavender trees, and 3 lovely new blue berry bushes. I won't admit I have 19 blue berry bushes at the moment! Just waiting for them to all go crazy now?

Well since I didn't find a tub today, I needed to build a bed. This is my new bed. No how to's it's just fence boards and 2 x 4's. Cut the fence boards to size and the 2 x 4's for support.


How lovely is this tray? They will go into my hens and chicks bed.


Oh how I LOVE this mushroom. I have been wanting something unique for the garden. Something you can't just get at a store. And today at the sale I found it. From the lady that did my garden markers. Sadly she only had one left. She told me to email her she may have more later. What I LOVE is you can't get this in a store, no one else will have this and it will last a good long time.


I adore this mushroom.


Did I mention Adore?


Look at this Apple Tree. There is a story here. See long ago I sold houses. I went into a house and lost the listing. Which is fine, it was going to be a hard sell for not much. So the house sells and the new owners hate the apple trees and want them gone. They came up on Craigslist, I answered, hubby came home going You are not going to believe where these came from.

Well we transplanted 3 apple trees. And they did nothing. Well neighbor decided it was time to pull them. Two were pulled, she didn't get to this one yet. And it bloomed. Last year we got 5 apples. This year look. It''s such a pretty site. It's like the tree know, you better bloom or you are GONE!


This spring it has grown and bloomed and looks ever so lovely. I can't stop going up and just staring at it.


And finally the best art work I have in my house I picked up today. Isn't this just the most amazing piece of art work ever?

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Holy Gosh Darn It!

One of those days, I tell ya. See hubby hides his tools, well I found them the other day but didn't say anything. Then today came and it's warm out and we have heat coming and things need to be watered. For the past two years we drag the hose from the back yard, over the fence and water the front yard. But right now that hose is needed in the green house and my strawberries really need water.

So Ethan and I today bucket after bucket, we filled, as it took forever as the front faucet drips, not runs, but drips. So it takes awhile to fill a bucket and took over 30 minutes to water the front yard.

Well when your back is hurting and now you are lifting water buckets, it isn't ideal.

So I'm going to do it. I'm going to fix the front faucet, after two years, I will either tear it off or fix it! I went out to the garage and shut off the water, well except I either grabbed the wrong knob or something is broken out there? As I turn it off and got soaking wet. So I left it and figured I will go as far as I can on faucet.

Screw by screw it all came off, after the fourth piece came off I found something broken? So I dug it out and took it out, then I kept working on the rest of the broken piece, and got it about half out. Then it was really getting late, so I put it all back together. And look what happened!

WATER!

Gosh Blooming I have water in the front yard!

Tomorrow I hook up a hose and try out a hose.

Hot Diggy Dog.

I know many of you are going, well why didn't you call a plumber? Bottom line money. They costs money. We did call one last year, when the back faucet was ripped off the back of the house and we had a full blown leak under the sink and under the house. That repair costs us nearly 400 dollars. We cant' just call people and have things fixed. The front faucet at one point yes, will have to be replaced, but if I can buy us a year.



Today we went to Costco and found these. OH so pretty.


I adore Lavender.


We thought they would look good on the corners as we are redoing this area this year.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Well Happy May Day!

First my UPS watcher outer is Fired! Tuck spent two hours in front of the window just waiting and waiting, and somehow totally missed a big brown truck and someone walking up to our door.

So these herbs arrived today, these were my Anniversary present. But I had to wait until budget allowed. Well I finally saw my window and ordered. Welcome to the herb family: White Yarrow, Vanilla Grass, Epazote, Conehead Thyme, St. John's Wort, Yellow Lavender, Lavender Mint, Syrian Oregano, Variegated Spanish Thyme, Fo Ti, White Rosemary, and Pink Rosemary.

Wait until you see Mother's Day, I found a new nursery to order from.



Then for my birthday some friends signed me up for seeds of the month club. SOOOOOOOOO excited. The gift that keeps on giving. This is going to force me out of my comfort zone and grow things I normally would not grow. Cress is first up. I went out to the green house and got the zucchini, tomatoes and peppers started today. I know late in the season, but I"m playing. The Melon will wait. Peas will go in the ground within a few days. If you want to sign up or check out Seeds of the Month go here


The other day we checked out a nursery. Welcome Grapefruit Mint. Plain Rosemary in the back, can ya believe I didn't have a plain old Rosemary?


And Fennel Copper



Now before I get any questions about HERBS and so many herbs and why so many herbs and what all you do with them? It's not just about herbs, it's about collecting them and having a nice collection, beyond what you can get at your everyday nursery. I want a dazzling garden. I want to make tonics and salves, and just have fun.