Canning and Some News

My parents plant a garden every spring.  I can't remember a summer that didn't involve sweet corn, green beans, beats, potatoes, asparagus and a host of other fresh veggies.  How sad is it that at 32, this is the first year I can actually remember really participating in putting the green beans up for the winter.  (shame, shame, shame!)
So very glad we where in visiting at the right time!  I now have 28 quarts of green beans in my pantry ready for those pesky winter days.  I feel confident enough now to can solo.

Prep work

Enlisted help

Seasoned and ready for cooking

Also, if you look on the right side of the blog, you will notice that I was featured on One Pretty Thing!  Thanks to Crystal over at Fussy Monkey Business for the heads up on that one.  Very exciting news!

Time To Brag

On my husband.

We have been doing some gardening this spring and have really enjoyed it.  When it was raining like crazy earlier in the year, Kevin and I were both talking about how we were going to miss all the rain when summer really set in.  We wanted to get rain barrels, but couldn't get past the price tags.  Very few people (one family) would be seeing them so we didn't need to worry so much about the aesthetic value - just storage.

Gotta love an engineer with a practical side.

We now have three 55 gallon barrels full of rain water.  This sits at the back of our garage, so it's not visible from the front of the house.  (The reason aesthetics are not factored into our equation.)  It all sits a top a level platform built with leftover pressure treated wood from the deck construction.

 The barrels are connected with PVC.

He fitted each barrel with its own valve at the bottom - complete with shut off and quick release hose attachment.

I'm just so proud!  Didn't he do a good job?  And all for less than one of the fancy store bought ones.  Although, I do have this uncontrollable urge to paint them all.

Total Randomness

On wish list:

wool felt

Latest project:

For the kids:

Most recent predicament:

Family pictures:

Mother's Day:

 From oven to freezer:

Hubby project:

Something red (almost):

Greens in the garden and on the table:

Lettuce

Spinach

Growing!!

It's funny how excited Kevin and I are about our little garden plots.  (Actually, it's a bit ridiculous!)  The seeds that were planted two weeks ago are sprouting very nicely.  And, now we've added tomato plants, pepper plants, a few herbs and more seed.  See?

The kids got to help plant the green beans, corn and cucumbers.  I think the most fun they had was getting permission to walk in the dirt.  :)

We even have some flowers on the strawberry plants one of our wonderful neighbors gave us.

I may regret having all of this in about three months, but for now I really love looking out each morning to see what new sprout is coming up.

Spring Planting

We've been getting excited this year about all the possibilities a small garden plot can give us.  Kevin has been hard at work building and positioning frames.

Moving LOTS of dirt.

Building a second raised bed and moving more dirt.

We got a surprise one day full of this toward the end of March.

And now we finally have some plants planted.

The kids played in the sunshine.

 Little Man got in on the action from a distance (yes, he is in a pink seat).

 We plotted out a grid.

 And finally planted some early season items.

We're looking forward to enjoying some fresh lettuce, snow peas, kale, and carrots before too long.  As the season moves on and gets warmer, we hope to get some tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, beans and asparagus planted.  Can't wait to share it all with you as the sprouts start to come up (and you can see them without me having to point them out in the picture).

Latest UPS Arrival

Preserving Food and The Urban Homestead

One I previously borrowed from the library and the other I was able to scan my brother's copy.  I see lots of work in my future.  Should be an interesting spring and summer around here.  ;)

Recovery

Amazingly, it is now 8:07 in the morning and only 2 of my kids have gotten out of bed.  Such a rare thing around here!  I didn't think the kids could sleep in like this!  I'm enjoying the quiet of everyone recovering from our long (but good) week of Vacation Bible School and my husband being on yet another business trip.

We spent the weekend catching up on all the things that had been left undone and just plain neglected while I was trying to man the fort by myself.  (SOOOOO glad there aren't any more trips for Kevin in the near future!)

In other news, my day lilies are in bloom!  Here are some pics of the ones that have opened up.  I have a few more that are just about to show their colors.  I'll get those as soon as I can.

Aren't they beautiful!  I brought all these from my parents' place, so it's a nice reminder of watching my mom working in her flower beds when I was growing up.  I was really excited I didn't kill them off after transplanting them.  (Seriously, people.  I have killed ferns!)

Here is a bud from our knock-out rose bush, too.

Hope today is a good start to everyone's week!

Flower Bed Redo: Part 3

Okay.  Here it is as a finished project!

Yeah!  I was actually done with this on Wednesday (go me!), but life has been flying since the last little bit of mulch was put down.  So glad it's done.  My body couldn't have taken much more of the lifting and bending.  I even had my dad move the debris bags out to the end of the short driveway for the trash guys to pick up.

I took the time to put a few petunias in a pot in front of the garage, as well.

So, for a quick recap.....

Before.

After.

Nice to have a little color around the front of our home.  Can't wait for the lilies to bloom.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend, everyone!

Flower Bed Redo: Part 2

Okay.  Here is what I was able to accomplish this morning.  If you want to see what was done yesterday, click here or just scroll down.  :)  Not too shabby.  Especially since today I had our 1 yr old in the mix.  Thankfully, she missed all the flowers when she was following me around in the dirt.

Tomorrow I'll be spreading the mulch.  (Have to pick that up this evening.)  I also need to find a home for that Iris in the back corner.  I just don't think there is enough room for it there.

Until tomorrow......

Flower Bed Redo: Part 1

This post should be entitled 'Shouldna', Oughta, but Shor'nuf.....'. As in, "I shouldna' done it.  I oughta been inside out of the heat cleaning. But, shor'nuf, I did it anyway!"

I've been antsy to get outside and enjoy the weather lately.  It's been absolutely BEAUTIFUL!  So, true to my nature, I went at it full force on a very hot/humid day.  (Gotta work around the nap and nursing schedule here, people!)

Here is a quick before shot.  I really haven't figured out why the person before us wanted that little bit of sod laid between the sidewalk and flower bed, but it's there.

My very willing, um, helpers.  I think that shovel is as big as they are!

And, (drum roll, please) here is the after.

All the sod pulled up and an huge amount of earthworms saved in the process.

It really didn't take me that long to get the sod pulled up.  A couple of hours in that heat, though, and I was DONE.  There is only so much my poor little, 10 week post-pregnancy body can take.  (I am SO our of shape!)  And it may have been my imagination, but I think all the construction workers in the subdivision were coming by and slowing down for a look.  I don't recall that much truck traffic in front of our home any other day.  All well, at least I can give them a good laugh while they are working.

I'm quite proud of what I accomplished in such a short time today.  I'll keep working on it this week. Hopefully, I'll get it done before my husband returns from his business trip on Friday, but we'll see.  I think I'll also try to work on it in the mornings when it's fully shaded in this area.
Boy, am I going to sleep well tonight!!