First Night

Gabe is 2.8 years old and still sleeping in his crib. He loves it (and so do I for many reasons). Well, last night he got his leg caught in the crib rail and was not so happy about it! So, tonight is his first night in a twin bed. **sniff sniff** I'm a little sad about it. My baby doesn't need a crib anymore. Guess it will have to go in the attic now...along with a lot of other baby stuff. Let's hope he stays put tonight and tomorrow morning until I get up!

Happy Independence Day!

We've been going down to camp the past couple of days. Here's some pics from our adventures. Hope everyone has a wonderful, safe, FUN 4th!

Lady Mantle & Rosemary

Fun at the Playground

Yesterday I took the boys to the school playground to let out some energy. They had a lot of fun.

Snaaaaaaaaaaake!

I went to check out my garden this morning and was quite shocked to find a little friend settled in between my lettuce and carrot beds. Freaked me right out! I think it's an Eastern Ribbon Snake (to the best of my knowledge). Although it could be a Garter Snake too. I know there are no poisonous snakes in Maine but still...get the heck out of my garden! I watched him (or her) for about a 1/2 hour but it hasn't moved. I'd like to see where it is going so I can steer clear!

Breakfast...for dinner.

My husband is up North fishing in T8 R18 this weekend. For a treat, the boys and I decided to have breakfast for dinner. I made pancakes from a favorite recipe from King Arthur's Baking Companion. I'm lucky enough to have a grandmother in-law that lives about a mile down the road. She stops by occasionally with treats. This past week were flats of handpicked strawberries. YUM! I made a delicious strawberry sauce (brown sugar, corn starch, strawberries and orange juice) to top the pancakes-and Maine maple syrup. Gabe and I had blueberry pancakes and Eli had plain.

Pictures

My sil put this basket together for me for Mother's Day. The picture doesn't do it justice for how beautiful it is.

Front of the house...Juniper's Beard, Yarrow (a favorite of mine), Ladies Mantle, Bee Balm, Salvia, pineapple mint, creeping thyme, lemon balm, assorted hostas, a few pansy's and geraniums.

Lettuce.



Peas.



Peas.

Today

Lot's of weeding today. And planting more carrots. I want to make sure I have plenty to freeze for this winter. I picked and froze pea pods today. I have a ton and figured I'd freeze some for stir fries this winter. Eli loves to pick and eat the peas right from the garden. Love that!

What else. The cucumber beetles are back. I guess they never really left. I've been covering my squashes and pumpkins with an old sheet. The cucumbers and zuch's I've covered with pails. I'm so sick of those bugs! I would have thought (from reading online) that they'd be gone by now.

Apparently I have some very tasty plants.

I've been in Birthday party planning mode. My oldest, Elijah, turns the BIG 5 in July. The invitations went out today. Hopefully his friends can make it. It will be a construction theme with lots of bull dozers, excavators, dump trucks, etc. He's a real "man's man" as my friend likes to say! I would have to agree.



I hope everyone is enjoying this nice summer weather we've been having. I know me and the boys have.

Happy Father's Day!

The garden is finally planted. My peas are blooming and I hope to have peas relatively soon. They do look beautiful! Everything else is slowly coming up. Spinach, pole beans, carrots, swiss chard, beets, lettuce, tomato plants, bush beans...I had to rip up my zuchinni, cucumbers, squash and pumpkins. The striped cucumber beetle completely ate everything before I even realized they were there. I had to buy new transplants from the greenhouse which I wasn't too happy about. I planted and had to cover everything with a sheet because those little beetles were flocking to my plants! I took the sheets off yesterday and haven't seen another bug yet, so I think I'm going to be okay. Let's hope anyway.

I planted sunflowers on Wed 6-11. My sil is getting married in September so I grew more than I normally would. Hopefully she can use them when the time comes.

Also, my oldest son graduated from pre-school last Thursday. What a great celebration! Hard to believe he's going to be five in less than a month.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!

Fawn

How adorable! My FIL, the Game Warden, brought over a baby deer that was found abandoned in the woods, to show the boys today. They're in love...and so am I.

We did have to let the deer go, though. It was fun to get so close to wildlife.

Busy Spring

Well, it's been a busy spring...for everyone, I'm sure. I work for the Town and our fiscal year ends June 30th. Between helping write the Warrant for Town Meeting June 7th, putting together the Annual Town Report, not to mention the monthly Newsletter...let's just say I'm glad it's pretty much wrapped up!

So, my garden is still not planted. I'm planning on doing it on Monday. We finally got much needed rain today (we're 3" below normal for the month of May). I've been waiting because of the lack of rain, the cold temps and lack of time. My peas are doing well though. They're about 6" and thriving. My seedlings are out of control. I'm not even quite sure how they're going to do. They're monsters because I'm sure I waited too long. What can I do though?

I put 400lbs of moo doo in my garden yesterday. I still need to rake it out. Not sure where it came from but I found what I believe is a bagworm. Nasty! I'm probably nieve in thinking it's the only one in there. I've never seen them before. It took me awhile to find it on the net.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Brought the kids to my husband's rugby match yesterday. It would have been nice had it not been rainy and cold. It was a good match though with our team winning. My MIL picked the kids up at the pitch and we went to the after party. Got home at a reasonable time.

Today, raining again. They got the rest of the field harrowed yesterday while we were gone. I'm transplanting the plants yet again! I tried to do it this morning but decided to wait until the kids go to bed tonight to make it more enjoyable! **Kids went to Great-grandma's for an hour of play time, got everything transplanted this afternoon**

So, I'll be reading plant books today trying to get some ideas for my gardens. And get some much needed cleaning in. May as well get it all done today (or most of it) so I'll have all day tomorrow and the next to work in the dirt. Rain forcasted for Wednesday.

Hen Manure

We live on acreage that my husbands family owns. Beautiful large fields, wildlife galore, just a great place to raise kiddos and LIVE. The fields used to be hayed every year but this year, the family has decided to grow corn. A local farmer is going to till the land and grow crops of feed corn. This sounded like an okay idea to me, other than the fact that I won't be able to take walks with the kids in the field or see the deer coming out to graze on the newly mowed hay. One thing that I didn't really count on was the stink. Anyone that is driving by my house with their windows open, knows just what I'm talking about. They dumped loads and loads of hen manure (at last count, 20 truck loads) on Monday and started spreading today. I'm hoping this process of harrowing and spreading of manure goes quickly! I'm miserable not being able to open my windows on a nice spring day.

*******UPDATED 1/13/09 The farmers STILL haven't come to take all the corn away in my backyard...still surrounded by a sea of corn and not too happy about it.*******

I started planting my seeds on Patriot's Day this year. My first year of starting everything myself. Normally I go to the local (and incredibly expensive) greenhouse. I'm hoping someday to have my own greenhouse. I have the perfect place.

Back to seeds, I sowed zucchini (Raven), squash (Cashflow), cukes (Diva), tomatoes (Brandywine & Roma) and yarrow (can this be transplanted out? I figured I'd try). So, I'm starting small. I transplanted them into larger containers on Monday evening (4/28).

I think they like my bay window. Lots of sun. I got my peas in on 4/22. I checked them today and they've just started to pop up. YAY! I've never really been successful with peas. I established this garden in 2000 and I probably haven't planted peas since 2002. Wish me luck!