Garden Disclaimer

Daddy and I have been married for 19 years. We lived in an apartment for the first couple of years, then in a rental house for a couple, then another rental, then we've owned four homes. I am not good with plants. Animals and children I grow well, plants I kill. Not on purpose, mind you, but dead none the less. I had some pots of various things on the porch of the apartment. We tried gardens in both rentals and in our first two homes that we owned. By the time we had moved into the third home we had given up on gardening. I had the requisite shrubs and some flowers, most of which came from my father and father in law. Out of all those gardens, the only one that ever grew anything that could have been harvested was at our first home. Turns out we planted that garden on what had been the previous owners' dog kennel. But, before we harvested anything the squash bugs invaded and ate up everything. So, when we moved to this home on 10 acres and started to get seed catalogs we had mixed feelings. Crops were grown on this land, the dirt is beautiful, black, and rich but, our track record is dismal. Come spring we went to the farm store and we were like kids in a candy store. We bought every type of seed they had. Now, it was late because of the weather and waiting for the septic system to be put in and we only had a little time so without much thought we plunked all those seeds in the ground. We didn't mark the rows as well as we thought we had and we didn't know what many of the baby plants were supposed to look like. We had lots of weeds(understatement of the year), rabbits ate all of our onions? and my father in law rescued many of the plants and replanted some things. So when we bought tomato plants for instance, we bought twice as many as we thought we might need figuring half of them would die. Our garden has been a huge learning process. We've taken pictures and made notes. We have bought basic gardening books. We are making plans for next year. And we have enjoyed all of the bountiful, yummy things we have picked. Although we have gardened before we had never been successful. It has been a lot of hard work but very rewarding.

Look Mom we built a

fort! It has windows, a door with a drawstring latch like in _Little House on the Prarie_and bunks. The roof does not leak.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Daddy got to celebrate his birthday three times! He took lemon blueberry pie to the office, chocolate cupcakes on the Boy Scout Campout and we had cupcakes at home. Chocolate cupcakes are his favorite. Oh, chocolate cupcakes WITH chocolate frosting.

New Glasses

Little Brother had his annual eye exam, got new glasses and contacts. We liked his new doctor and the optometry office. Doesn't he look handsome?

Early Goose

Every morning, I hear a flock of Canada Geese flying from a small pond in the CRP grass behind our grove, over the chicken coop and across the road to a big pond. On the first day of early goose season Daddy and Little Brother decided to see if they could land one. However, the geese must have checked their calendar too, because not one goose flew over.

Walking Salads

Someone gave us a HUGE head of cabbage. I was trying to think of ways to serve it and I remembered eating "walking salads" at camp. You spread peanut butter on a cabbage leaf, roll it up and eat it, YUM! The children like to eat them, but they LOVE to make them.

Speaking of Butterflies. . .

Little Sister thought it might have come to sit on her arm because she had a butterfly on her shirt.

Diapers drying on the clothesline.

I didn't sew much this summer, in fact besides mending and Boy Scout patches these diapers for Baby are the only things I did sew. When I am hanging out laundry I get to enjoy the flowers in my garden, the birds singing , the apples growing on the trees, and the butterflies visiting the milkweed.

Another Use for Duct Tape

Daddy was driving early one evening and saw a deer by the side of the road, so he looked for the other one since we know they never travel alone. Unfortunately, the other one found him. Thankfully, Daddy was fine.

Harvest Moon

is the name given to the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox. It was a beautiful night.

A Double Yolk!

The chicken book says that a double yolk sometimes occurs when the hen is interrupted while laying an egg, starts again and her body makes two yolks inside one egg. As much as our hens get interrupted in the nesting boxes you might think we'd get more of these!

Homeschool Park Day

While the weather holds, we plan to meet at the park every Friday afternoon, unless we have another gathering planned for the week.

September means a new school year,

and a new kindergarten student!

We stayed for supper,

even though our friends had to leave. The girls in the boat remind me of the story _One Morning in Maine_. Baby loved it when Big Brother tossed him in the air, Mommy not so much.

Splash!

The children spent alot of time running and jumping off the end of the dock. It reminded me of time spent at Lake Sunapee when I was young. . .

Last trip to the lake

for the season. Labor Day was a beautiful, warm and sunny day. We met family friends for a picnic. The lake was a bit rough, but the children still enjoyed the boat and various watersports.

Friends!

Daddy and his friend from high school have been in email contact for a while. His friend had a business trip to Minnesota. They met halfway between our home and his out of town work. They enjoyed seeing each other and catching up. I think they mostly talked about hunting and fishing.

Pesto

made from basil from my afterthought of a herb garden. When we bought veggie seeds I bought herb seeds for a herb garden. The veggie garden took so much time to put in and then maintain that I just set aside the herbs. Then one day I put the herb seeds into the ground figuring that if any of them came up it was still better than the packages sitting on my gardening desk. Again, I got distracted and was just going to mow the weeds in the herb garden when I realized some of them were herbs! I had a beautiful crop of basil, cilantro and dill. The cherry tomatoes are from my garden as well.

Sweet corn from OUR garden.

Baby figured out sweet corn in a hurry. He doesn't even wait for me to cook it.

Take time to smell the flowers.

This house came with a beautiful perennial garden. Earlier this spring I finished a brick path that the previous owner had started. Then the plants and weeds started to grow. I didn't know what was a plant and what was a weed so I had to let everything grow long enough to figure it out. Then I started weeding in earnest only to be distracted by the urgent needs of the vegetable garden. This garden has given me great joy though and I have a plan for next spring!

Ready for a hike.

First a picnic,

then enjoying the fountain and lastly the playground.

German Park

The New Play Structure at Riverside Park

Earlier this summer we visited this park but the new play structure was still under construction. The children thought it was a Viking ship complete with the "Loch Ness Monster".

More from the playground.

With us at the playground was Big Sister's friend who was staying with us for a couple of days.

School Playground

This new play structure went up sometime this summer and we went by it often on our way home from the feed store. The children wanted to climb it before school started and the playground was full.

Guests!

My mom's cousin and her husband were traveling through much of the United States. They live in Massachusetts and were headed to South Dakota, then south and back east. When they realized they would be traveling through Minnesota they altered their route enough to come see us! We had a delightful visit as they told hunting and growing up with "your gramma" stories.