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Gardening thoughts/progress:
Today I dug more on my "leveling-out" project and had to re-think my plan. I ended up having to move my "junk" rock pile (the rocks that I don't like to use in the rock walls etc. due to the fact that they are too sharp, are gravel rocks, or are poky and are more dangerous then the average rock if Hannah was to fall on them). I decided to make the area bigger. Oh-boy, it's addicting! Anyway, I was able to dig 3-4 good size boulders out of the way (one was dead center in the way and Hannah plus myself tripped over it regularly, so thank goodness it's out!). I will take some more pictures when I get better visual progress since it doesn't look like much has changed since the last time I was out there.
On to my other garden endeavors, I planted the garlic I had in my cupboard and the rest of the chives (or at least I think I did, there may be a few still in the bucket though, so I will have to make sure). I dug out two rocks from an existing flower bed (why I didn't do it in the first place I don't know...hum...) and also dug out a really big rock from where I planted my cucumbers, zucchini and tomatoes last year (I was amending the soil when I came across the beast and couldn't just leave it in there even though it was quite deep.) I have quite a few rocks now to place in a rock wall area holding up the terraced areas I am building, but it's getting hard to find ones that are "nice" or kid friendly. I want to use as round as possible rocks so that they can't trip Hannah, or hurt her more than normal if they were jagged. I am hoping that my new plan will work out nicely.
We had an absolute beautiful day today. The "weather man" had said it was supposed to be "rain/snow mix" yesterday/today, but it was really nice. I am so worried it will all end up coming down tomorrow on our heads while we're out there doing our 1st actual easter egg hunt with Hannah.
I am extremely excited it is Easter tomorrow, just as excited as a little kid! I can't wait to see Hannah's face in the morning when she wakes up to the special surprise that the Easter Bunny brought her! I can't wait to see her searching and finding the eggs outside in the garden. Oh, I am so excited! She's so wonderfully special and I love her so much!
Hannah coloring on her eggs before we dyed them.
Today we spent time with some of the extended family (My Mother-In-Law's Brother, his girlfriend and daughter(4 years old I think), and Hannah's Great-Grandma (My Mother-In-Law's mother - Mrs. P as she is called). We spent most of the time outdoors having a "camp-fire" out in the back of the property, walking the paths we have through the woods and just really enjoying the spring weather.
She sure loves playing in the dirt!
We never have a boring week around here:
Today: We live across the canyon from a very popular area for dirt biking and this time of the year is especially popular for dirt biking. There is a dirt bike race track down the canyon from us and we only hear a little of the "noise" from it, but when dirt bikers are not using the race track (basically when there is no special event planned, so quite often), they tend to do their biking all over the mountain on the other side of the canyon. We had noticed quite an increase in dirt bike "noise" this week and had begun our yearly "tune-out". It just gets to the point we really don't notice it much, so while we were out there doing our "camp-fire" we started to notice it was much louder than normal. Hannah and I were taking a walk towards where you could see the other side of the canyon. Something caught my eye, and sure enough it was 3 dirt bikers trying to traverse the side of the VERY steep mountain with their dirt bikes. It was one of the scariest sights I have seen! They were trying to ride on animal trails, not meant for dirt bikes; the deer and coyotes use these trails. The dirt bikes are really heavy machines now days (not like I knew what they were like back-in-the-day, but I just know they're huge now!!), and it must have been exhausting trying to keep hold of them. They had to drive them instead of just push them due to the weight of the machine and the type of terrain they were on. One of the guys was extra scary to watch because he would just gun it and practically go straight up the mountain side, then slip and tip off the bike, each time we'd all hold our breaths. One guy followed the same trail as the "crazy" rider, but the other one was "smarter" (and I use the term VERY loosly, he still got himself into that dangerous predicament so he couldn't be much "smarter"!). He stayed behind observing to see how they did before he went and got himself even worse off.
The canyon....it's a long way down there!
We decided it would be best if we called some sort of authority to warn them of the possible emergency in progress. The police decided that they would come to our house to see what the situation was exactly and to possibly pin-point where on the mountain these dirt bikers were. There is a road on the other side of the mountain, but it's not close to the canyon so it would have been difficult to find them from that side of the mountain. Two police cars showed up and we showed them where the dirt bikers were and by that time we think that two of the riders were able to get their bikes up to an easier area and then came down to help the third rider with his bike. The two police officers stood out there and watched the riders until they felt that they would get out alright, but jeeze I would have thought they would have tried something more. What if they had just been watching and one of them took a dive down the canyon??? We could have done that much, watch and call if we watched someone plumit to highly likely death (not something I wanted to do though and was hoping for the best outcome). I don't know exactly what they could have done either, so really atleast they responded quickly. Once the police officers felt it was "okay", Mitchel decided to ask if he could get a ride down the property in the police car. The officer said sure, but that she only lets people in handcuffs into her car. The three kids were very happy to get a chance to see the inside of a police car. They were allowed to press the various siren and light buttons. Then Mitchel was handcuffed and Luke and Jessica (Mother-In-Laws niece) were all allowed to get in the back of the car for the drive down the road to the house. Once they got down there the lady officer let all three of them get handcuffed and pose for a picture with her. She also gave them temporary tatoos that have a mounted policeman/woman on them. The kids were so THRILLED! Hannah thought that the sirens were so neat and enjoyed seeing the police cars too.
Needless to say, we never have a boring uneventful week around here! I love living here!
Anyway, I should get going to bed, it's late and I have to get up early in the morning to hide the eggs for my sweetie-po-teetie!
I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Easter weekend and that they are getting lovely spring weather! Happy Gardening!
~M~
Well, yesterday I was able to spend a super long time digging in my garden! I ended up shoveling so much that blisters formed, then popped. Yikes! They're pretty sore today and full of liquid again. I hope they will heal soon and turn to a callus so they I won't keep getting sore spots. The blisters are where my ring were, so today I took them off. I don' t know if it made any difference since I think it's the way that I shovel that caused them. Who knows, all I know is my hands are tender.
"Maybe I should be wearing gloves too." - DUH, silly me!
My dad pointed that one thought out for me last night when we were talking on the phone. I just hate wearing gloves so much! I have a decent pair, but my hands are small and I always get irritated when the dirt inside the gloves gets stuck under my nails. It bothers me so much more than when I just get dirt under them from digging bare handed in the dirt. It tends to be dry crumbles of dirt and it's just so uncomfortable for me. Oh-well, it's strange, I'm strange...lol!
Anyway, back to what I was writing about in the beginning of this entry - I was so thrilled to make so much progress and very proud of my hard work!!
Below are the pictures of a before shot, and an after pictures:
Above: The "Before" picture! What a mess with uneven dirt, rocks sticking out everywhere, grass and branches too.
Above: This is the "step" I made. It took me a bit to figure out exactly what I wanted to do design wise, but once I figured it out this quickly fell into place! I was able to start it and finish it in one day! Yipee! I love progress!
Above: A side view of the same area of the picture above this one. It shows my rock step almost finished, and all the dirt I've dug out. My camera seems to distort depth, or maybe it's when I upload them. It seems to smash the depth, weird. The area is deeper than this picture seems to show. Also there is a pile of dirt in the center there that is hard to see and that doesn't help to show how big of an area actually is.
Above: Another view of the step and the area I've been digging in. You can see how much I have dug down by the level of the dirt on the right side of the picture. It's been a struggle and now the "Boulder Brothers and Sisters" have joined forces with the "Root Brothers and Sisters" and have one the battle in one area, but I am not giving up elsewhere!
I was able to do more after I took these pictures so these pictures aren't totally current. I will try and post some more when I get a bit more done. So, tomorrow "a digging I will go!"
I took some really nice pictures of Hannah today with some crocus' (Now, how on earth do you spell crocus plurally, anyone know that one?). She just loves flowers and was just drawn to them. They are the first things to bloom on our property (Unfortunatly they are not mine, they're the Mother-In-Law's, but they are still so nice to see!). No wild flowers yet, and my crocus' are not all the way up either. They should be blooming in the next 2-3 days I'm guessing. We are supposed to get rain and snow mix on Friday so that may slow them down - YUCK!
Hannah loves flowers! I just love these spring pictures! They're some of my very favorites of her so far this year!
Well, I hope everyone enjoys my pictures of spring! Have a great rest of the week and I sure hope that the "rain and snow mix" were going to have on Friday will not be as bad as I am picturing in my head.
"Happy Gardening, Happy Spring!"
~M~
Above: My bean sprouts FINALLY sprouting. It seemed to take forever in comparison to my Mother-In-Laws. Her's sprouted in 5-6 days I think and mine have been closer to 10-14 days! I do know that she used a special (I think Miracle Grow brand) seed starting soil and I used plain jane potting soil. I wonder if it made that difference, thoughts?!
Above: My beautiful super tall Zucchini plants! They're almost 6-7 inches tall, which I am not sure if that's too good since they're probably "reaching" for the sunlight. Any thoughts, good or bad?
Abov
e: Another view of my super tall Zucchini. Any thoughts, is this good or bad, or just okay?
Above:
My good little cucumbers growing in their milk jug home. They are doing pretty darn good, and I am pretty proud of 'em! Hope it stays that way! (Fingers crossed!)
Above: Now there's some big rocks! This is a sample of some found on my husbands parents property (we rent on this property too, so basically it surrounds were Hannah and I go walking a lot.)
Above: One view of the canyon we live by. My husbands parents own the property that follows along the canyon (and we rent on this property). Pretty dangerous for kiddos, but the actual canyon is far enough away that we don't deal with it on a daily basis. We have to walk a bit to get to it and my young Brother-In-Laws (ages 12 and 8 years old) know better and have been raised to know its very dangerous!
Above: One of those dang "Gravel" Brothers and Sisters!! If you happen to hit this too hard with the shovel, they break into many pieces gravel size and are a PAIN to try and get out!!
Well, that's the lot of them. I love taking pictures and especially like being able to share them. I was so excited that I was able to get out and do some digging in the dirt today! Hannah is feeling better a little bit at a time and she came out and joined me for a bit, and then I was also able to get out when she took a nap (thank goodness for baby monitors!!). It was another gorgeous day outside! I got quite a bit done today in that area that I am making for Hannah. She will love it once I am done! I won a battle with the "Boulder" brother, but may need the hubby to move it from where I ended up rolling it since it flipped to a side that doesn't easily roll from. I hope it's not stuck since I would like to use it in the landscape of the new area I am making for Hannah. I may use it as a rock step, or even as a retaining rock. I have conquered the "Boulder" beast! Hahaha!
I also transferred two wheel barrow loads of composted horse manure over to a pile near my rock garden. I still have to make up my mind as to what is going to go where and what I want to expand before I put the manure into the soil. I think that I want to expand an area and potentially get rid the area that I attempted to plant my veggies in last year (Zucchini, Cucumber and Tomatoes). I will have to take a good long look at things tomorrow. At least I was able to get the manure closer to where it will eventually end up. I can't move the manure when Hannah is around because she walks so slow (basically I couldn't fill up the the wheel barrow and have her walk next to me, it would take upwards of half an hour!). So, I was very pleased to have been able to get the two wheel barrow loads today. I will be sure to do more when I get the chance since I need TONS!
Well, more tomorrow. I hope that everyone is well! Happy Gardening!
~M~
Above Left: My African Violet start rooting! I am so thrilled!! I have two successfully rooting!
Above Right: My Grapefruit seeds that have sprouted. There are two seeds but multiple sprouts. I will try getting a better picture later! I am also very excited about these!
Above: The beautiful African Violet that I was able to get my starts from. It's just a wonderful plant and it likes me so I decided to try and get some starts from it so I would have more that like me!
Above: One of the "Boulder" Brothers I encountered today while trying to make an area toddler friendly (see below picture.)
Above: The area that I am going to try and flatten out for my daughter Hannah (2 years old) to play on while I am playing in my garden. It is really hard to see how uneven the ground is and how many rocks are actually sticking out of the ground (So hard for a toddler to navigate!!)
Above: 5 days ago this is what I saw when I went "strollin" with Hannah. I was bummed out that the snow level was heading our way! But it came and then quickly melted away, thank goodness!
Above: Same as the photo above this one. 5 days ago (April 1st, 2009)
Above: My Zucchini and Cucumber that had already out grown their starter cells. So, I transplanted them a few days ago into larger peat pots. I will post another picture in the next blog post.
This thing is acting up so I have to make another post to include the other pictures I want to show you all! Be sure to check the rest out too!
~M~
Well, Hannah has a throat infection
as well as an ear infection. It's terrible. The worst part comes at
night when she's trying to sleep. She wakes up and tosses and flings
her body around coughing and crying. She's so frustrated that she
can't stop coughing and so tired from not sleeping soundly. It's
rough. We went to the walk-in clinic today and ended up getting
antibiotics which means we should start seeing some improvement
tomorrow or the next day. I just hope that tomorrow night is much
better. This is the second night that I've had a flinging little
cough-er on my hands.
With Kyle (the hubby) being out of town it's hard to take care of a
little one alone, but I am getting through it! I've been taking care
of Hannah most of the time alone, literally since the day she was
born. Kyle travels a ton for work. This trip he's been gone for 3
weeks already and it looks like he'll be gone for another 3 or more
still. He works so hard too, 7 days a week X 12 hours a day! I love
him so much and miss him incredibly!
On top of it all, we missed two of the most gorgeous days so far this
year. They were so beautiful and warm. I hope that this weather
sticks around for the rest of the week so that we can get out there and
work in the garden. I wanted to do so much this last week and into
this weekend, but with Hannah getting sick and then actually being
sick, it's just not happened. I hope to get out there and do some
mixing of horse manure and clay soil, and general cleaning up of the
yard. I also want to start working on smoothing out that area that
Hannah finds hard and scary to walk over. There are a few rocks that
stick out of the ground and uneven ground. That is part of my
expansion plan, smooth it out and put some bark mulch down for Hannah
to walk on and play around. I want her to have an area that she can
play in when I am playing in my garden too. I will post some pictures
of the "before" soon.
I have to go for now, she's coughing again and I have to get her to
take some of the antibiotics and drink some water. More possibly
tomorrow, but how much more, I do not know....poor little Hannah. I
can't wait for her to get better, oh how I can't wait!!
Hope you all have a great week and weather! Happy Gardening!
~M~
I am so tired right now. It's 1:02 and my daughter is still awake. Hannah ended up falling asleep in my arms really late and slept for over 2 hours. We're now so out of wack, plus I couldn't sleep last night and didn't fall asleep until sometime after 4:45 a.m. (that was the last time I looked up at the clock). Yuck! I hate when this happens!!
In gardening news, I did a bunch of digging out in the flower garden today to continue my battle with the evil "ClaySoil" and encountered it's evil siblings "Rock", "Boulder" and "Gravel". I have some picture of the progression of my fight and removal of the evil "Boulder".
The above picture is my first encounter with "Boulder". Shovel in place and ready for action......
Ta-Dah! I was successful in the "Battle of the Tomato Bed". He was a brute, but I persevered!
My seeds inside. They are Zucchini, Cucumbers, and Broccoli (top to bottom). I have to transplant the Zucchini already due to the fact that the roots have already grown through the bottom. I hope to do that soon since I don't want them to die off due to cramped quarters.
Ah, the above picture is my "dead" Alyssum. It just fell over. This picture really doesn't show what it looked like the first day it happened. This was a day or two after they all "fell down". I have NO idea why they did that. It didn't seem to be "dampening off" . Anyway, I will just plant them outside from now on too.
Well, I gotta head to bed. Hope all is well with everyone!
~M~
Hannah and I had a wonderful time outdoors today. I dug rock, after rock, after rock out of one spot in my garden and now I know why nothing would grow in that particular spot last year!! There were 3 really large rocks that I pulled out of there and countless softball-baseball-gravel sized rocks as well. I took the shovel to that area (shown below on the "Progress 2009" photo below, circled in green) and couldn't dig an inch into the soil in spots with out hitting a rock! Oh-My, how on earth did I ever think that something would grow there (not to mention the dense clay soil). It's an area approximately 3' X 4'.
My back is sore, but I am hooked! I can't wait to get back there and dig tomorrow! More rocks in store for me, oh-yipee! I think that I will be almost ready to add the horse manure to that spot I worked today (composted, but not stirred for about 3 years). I will have to make sure that most (hopefully all) the rocks are out and that the soil is loose. I also need to find out what other "coarse" things I can add to the clay soil to help it out this year. I was thinking that pine needles may help break up the clay soil, but I am not sure. I want to make sure it will help and not hinder my efforts.
My seeds I started indoors are doing okay. I did have a slight problem with the Allysum seeds I started (don't ask me why I decided to start them inside, I think my mommy brain was the culprit). They seemed to sprout just fine, but the day after they came out and were looking good, most of them fell down. They didn't seem to have dampening (I don't remember if this is even the right word, but it's when they rot at the base of the sprout and die due to too much moisture in the soil. I learned all about that last year, it's one of my trial and errors). They just look like they fell down. Nothing bumped them and the other "tiny" seeds are doing halfway okay. I will take a picture tomorrow to show and explain more then.
Well, got to go to bed now.
Hope everyone has a great week! Happy Gardening!
~M~
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