Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Plague you didn't hear about

This one didn't make it into the book of Exodus.

Holly Grace has to do a project on Egypt at school. She chose to make a "model" of Egypt. Into a large, shallow tub, we poured a bag of play sand. Then, we made a small "Nile River" down the middle, lined it with aluminum foil, and formed a delta at the low end. Then, we put a bit of potting soil down either side of the river and sprinkled rye grass seed down the riverbanks. Every couple of days, we "flood" the river and the grass has grown to be several inches tall. Later Holly Grace will add some small models of pyramids, etc.

So, after we put "Egypt" together, we left it on the bar in the kitchen. Soon we discovered that the potting soil and seeds had been disturbed and there were new topographic details emerging in the desert.

Charlotte.

She had to have been the culprit. I quickly let John know that we were going to have to move Egypt to a safer place, as it had been hit by the 11th plague - the plague of Charlotte. We had a good laugh over it, and then moved it into our bath tub. Our tub surround is so wide that she can't reach in and mess with it. (This is also where the baby chick lived, safely, for 2 1/2 weeks before she moved to the farm where she now resides.)

Later that day, John was sitting with Charlotte, having a conversation. He asked her, "What kind of plague are you?" She promptly replied, "A PINK one!" and giggled proudly. So we began referring to her as "the Pink Plague."

Anxious to see if she would "perform" for me, I asked her a couple of days later, "What kind of plague are you?"

She thought for a moment, then looked from me to John and said, "CHICKENS!"

Who knew?

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

In the Garden

Lots of people have been asking what's in our garden. Well, in our actual "garden", until yesterday, NOTHING! John and I cleaned it out (it was so overgrown after some neglect last year, ahem) and got it ready, but ran out of time to put anything IN. Besides, I raked and shoveled so much I developed a blister that's taken two weeks to heal! I was so traumatized, I had to take some time off from gardening.

We actually have two other "dedicated beds" for the things we love so much that we need MORE than we have room for in the garden. One is an approximately 50 square foot asparagus bed. Start your asparagus now and in three years you'll thank me! This is the first year we've harvested our asparagus and it's gone gangbusters! We eat asparagus every couple of nights with dinner. It grows SO FAST.

Our other bed is a dedicated strawberry bed. We started out with three little strawberry plants in our garden three years ago. Those multiplied and became 21 that year, then more than 50 after that! They are now in a 25 square foot bed on the south side of the house and, after a little trauma from transplanting them, recovering nicely. I walked by the other day and there were two little strawberries getting nice and ripe. I didn't share them. They were SWEET!

So, back to the actual "garden". Yesterday we put in 16 tomato plants - some Better Boys, some Early Girls, some cherry tomatoes, and something else (can't remember just now) and some "unknown" variety that my aunt dropped off (extras they couldn't plant in their HUGE garden). We also planted four bell pepper plants and two jalapeno plants. Those (the jalapenos) are solely for others, as I don't care for them. Leave a comment if you want some and I will save them for you when they start producing.

My "jack-of-all-trades" husband put a drip system in our garden last year, and it's sooooo very nice. Now if we could just keep the critters out. And I don't mean the kids. I mean, I do, but also the kind of critters that live down in the creek and come up to munch when we're not around.

Also, my uncle gave us some blackberry shoots when we were out at his farm last spring. We planted them on the fence behind our garden. One is doing GREAT and is blooming right now. The other, well, it kinda got mowed over sometime last summer because it wasn't well-marked. But, it seems to have recovered and is thriving! We probably won't get any fruit from it this summer, but next year we should! Also, plant #1 has sent up a shoot nearby, so we'll dig it up and put it on the fence as well.

There are lots of little seedlings in our garden right now. They look like they are either watermelons, cucumbers, yellow squash, or zucchini. That's what we had out there last year that may have re-seeded itself (which in itself seems miraculous to me). I tried to leave as many of them as I could and we'll see what we end up with!

I love gardening this time of year. It's so pleasant outside. Ask me again in July ... maybe not so much at that point. I hate going out there so much that our okra ends up 6-8 inches long and much too tough to eat by the time I go out to check on it.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

And now, breaking the almost six-month silence ...

It was the Baby Jogger City Mini, or BJCM in stroller circles. There I've said it. It's overwith. And I am so glad because this post has had me stumped for this long. Here's the rub: She's ridden in it, like, twice. She's now "too big" for the stroller. She doesn't even call it her "Slow-der" anymore. And yet I can't get rid of it because what if?

What if we go to the State Fair and need a stroller because we stay all day and she's exhausted and almost thirty pounds and my arms can't take it anymore?

What if we go on vacation? Through an airport? And I don't want to lose her?

What if we go shopping? Oh, wait. *laughs maniacally* Like that's going to happen. That's what preschool days are for. And grocery carts. Wait a second. This might explain why just about everything in my house recently has been purchased at "The Wal-Marts".

Now, back to our regularly scheduled (or randomly posted) programming. Whew. It feels good to get that off my chest.