Gardening

Pickled

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For real!
I honestly and truly thought that when the kids went back to school I would have more time…well you know productive time..less time spent trailing kids around wiping counters, throwing away half eaten fruit and flushing toilets…you know typical Maid mom chores.

Well it turns out that is not the case.  I have to admit I volunteered  was assigned to be in charge of the PTA fall school fundraiser….WTH? I had not idea what behind the PTA scenes meant. Parents coming together for the greater good of kids and school right?  Mostly but add in some high school BS,  me in my running gear, hat, and no shower with the mom who is in heels, the cutest tunic and leggings and looking fabulous…I am not sure this is my bag.  Proof of this being that some huge pile of laundry ATE my laundry room…whatevs, I am slinging cookie dough and cookbooks. For the kids.

Truth is right now I wish I was as thin as I have spread myself.

Jon I gone doing clinical hours in WI 2 days and one night a week and has taken on a schedule of 36 hour weekends at the hospital to get his hours in at work = paychecks! So we are buying cookies, magazines and counting the days to his FNP graduation in December 2014!!

I am working really hard on ebay and have a steady 5 clients that I consign for along with my own thrifted/bargain price new kids clothing and goodies and am on target for my biggest month….you can check out my store here Saronjah 😉

Meanwhile the garden is sputtering out its last offerings and we are heading into fall and Halloween…our family’s favorite holiday.

I did have time to make some refrigerator pickles, a friend gave me a recipe last year that I saved, took shopping and lost somewhere in my purse after buying all the ingredients…I can’t be alone here can I ?
So these are sitting in our fridge, all calm, cool, and pickling while our life runs past like videos on fast forward.

Patchworkreality Pickles

I will share the recipe, that we punted with in a few weeks if we deem them edible.

County Fair Submissions

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We do not belong to 4H, nor or we farmers in the sense that we rely on our bounty for profit.  However, we are a creative bunch that likes to get our hands dirty in the earth and create projects, and what better way to celebrate these than to participate in the county fair.

I know we all have memories from childhood, the midway rides the animals, and cotton candy on a stick.  I just love the fair, I am a cowgirl at  heart.  Every year we take the kids to look at the animals and get a milkshake from the diary trailer.

Now that the kids are a little older we have started a new tradition of entering projects garden grown goodies.

The 3 older kids entered their Lego projects and were given participation ribbons.

Santanna’s Project and her ribbon.

Raiven’s project and her ribbon.

The little girls also entered onions and kohlrabis:

Santanna’s first place kohlrabis.

Avalon’s 3rd place red onions.

Solomon entered red mulberry jam and won first place.  I am so proud of him, he spend at lest 4 hours harvesting the berries from a tree in my mom’s back yard, then he rinsed them, took the stems, off and followed a no cook freezer jam recipe.

I entered the growth chart into an adult woodworking hobby category, I was very pleased to receive a second place ribbon.

The kids take from this experience a pride in participation.  They were very gracious about each others winnings and were already buzzing about what to make next year, taking inspiration from so many wonderful other projects on display.

We did also earn $4.50 in prize money, just enough for one more milkshake…or Tom Thumb donuts….mmmmmm, fair food!

It is such fun participating in the fair and it always seem to come and go so quickly.  Can’t wait until next year!!

There’s a new Godfrogger in our yard…

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Found this little frog chilling on the shelf at Saver’s and picked him up for $2.99 is he not the most chill frog you have ever seen? Plus there are daisies around him, I suppose you could argue they are water lilies but daisies are my favorite, so I am sticking with daisies.

Anyway I envisioned him as a metallic green color, lurking somewhere around our yard. Here is his new coat, I love the color, I think I want him to blend a bit more.  So now I am not sure this color is a keeper. Should he get a new coat?
What color would you paint him?

 

 

L Shape Garden Complete

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It took longer than I hoped to post about our completed L-Shape garden, that I originally posted about here , we completed the garden and have it planted, it was actually a fairly quick project.  Here is the before picture again:

We decided to move all of the garden but not the little square strawberry patch that you see on the right side of the picture.  I did not want to risk losing a strawberry crop this year, so we will move them in the fall.

Here is what is in the space that WAS the garden:

I just love this new space, I can see the kids in the backyard, on the trampoline, and in the sand box. The limestone rocks we retrieved from an empty excavated area in our development.  The tree was the largest investment..about $147, we transplanted some purple coneflowers from another flower bed, I had no idea how much these flowers multiplied.  The lilacs on each end we purchased for $19.99 a piece they will be
white.  I can’t wait until next spring to cut some blooms and bring them in the house….mmmm lilacs smell the best!

Here is the new L-Shpae garden that we originally posted about here:

We have romaine lettuce, onions (red and white), cucumbers, peas, and sweet potatoes in a bucket. WE also moved the compost bin to the corner of the garden, we had it on the side of the house but it was not getting enough sun to “cook” properly.  Plus now we can just spread the ready compost into the garden.

So glad we decided not to move the strawberries, I can’t wait untill all these ripen!!

Signed up for a local garden plot

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We have always has in our backyard a garden, clearly laid out, with a nice border or fence of some sort, which has produced numerous healthy and great tasting fruits and veggies for our family.  I really enjoy going out at lunch time and picking fresh tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and sometimes peas in June for my salad.  I love watching the kids run out and pick fresh strawberries out of the patch staining their lips and fingers red.

We have a lot that is 1/2 an acre, on this sits our house so the amount on actual space to play is much less, with 4 kids and a small horse of a dog, we are trying a new gardening tactic this year.  This will open up some of the precious green play space for the kids, but still allow us to grow a garden.

I am keeping the strawberry patch and will have some tomatoes in containers on the deck these are the items I can’t have farther than this 1/2 an acre away.

Our city has 2 large spots that they till up and section off into 30 X 30 garden plots.  Each gets a number and is $30.  on May 1st we are allowed to some and plant in our spot.  We will have to carry in all the water that our plants will need.  I think the kids are going to love this, Solomon really likes to garden, he told me once, “gardening is more fun than playing”.   The plot is located just down the hill from our house it will take about 5 minutes to get  there and it is right off the bike path that connects to the kids school and fields where they practice soccer. 

We now have to decide what plants we are going to grow, and how we want to organize our 30 X 30 plot.  I  plan to post a weekly picture of the plot so everyone can see how quickly (hopefully;)) our plants grow! Stay tuned!!!