weekend planting update

Just a reminder from my primary lesson last week. The kids choose all the apples so I was left with these way better tasting minalows.

I wasn't going to put any pictures in cause there isn't really anything new, but then I went out and took some just so I could put them on here. It was snowing earlier today but not cold enough to stick! I mulched the little round bed and it looks pretty good. The plants didn't seem to mind their being dug up and put back too much last week.

Been busy in the garden as thats the place that makes me happy. With Kate's help I got some more of the walkways/trenches dug on Monday. Now its all done! It sure went a lot faster with two shovels!

That made it so I could get lots more done through the week a little at a time. I got the potatoes planted (i think that was Tuesday). I planted the onions, laid out more soaker hose, planted cabbage, planted my last three bushes, turned over all the beds, sowed some more lettuce and spinach, poked more pea seeds into the ground as they didn't come up real well, got the stump garden edging back in and weeded it, weeded the tree garden, finished the weed barrier on the herb garden and mulched it. weeded the little corner garden and mulched it, borrowed our landlord's ladder when he couldn't quite finish fixing the garage door to cut down more tree limbs (came close to killing myself only once instead of the 4-5 times last try). Cleaned and bleached all the bird feeders. It was a fun and busy week.

Whats on the agenda for this week? Get peat moss and other fertilizers into the unplanted beds and wait until its warm enough to plant those, put some edging between the lawn and old raised wooden parts, weed and edge the window gardens, decide what to do with the walkway half way finished, weedbarrier and mulch all the bushes, buy a 25' soaker hose and a 50' soaker hose, decide what to do with the extra 75' soaker hose, figure out how to do the drip system, and probably move 2-4 of the bushes in the side yard cause they aren't really going to work well there. I could move them to the other side but I really want to save that for two more grapes.... decisions, decisions, decisions.

Oh and today it looks like 2-3 of my cabbages are already bolting. HUH? its snowing outside how can they be bolting? Maybe I should see about a refund? they weren't that expensive so maybe I should just try again they did get a little dried out that first day and did go from the greenhouse to full sun exposure quickly, but still, its snowed today!

I cleaned up the garage a bit so our landlord could fix the garage door. It really needs to be straightned up but its hard when most of it isn't mine. I think I'm going to move most of the gardening mess to the shed even though I'm scared of it.

I have big plans for the back porch. I bought stuff for a drip irrigation system and part of it is little fogger/misters that I'll put up around the porch. It can make it up to 20* cooler in the space where you put those. I'm throwing out the gross carpet stuff thats there and going to paint the floor so it looks nice. My roommates said they would help. We can also re-stain or paint the wood, the roof thingy, etc to make it look nicer. I will need to start going yard selling so I can find us a cute table and chairs as that will be the coolest part of the house and it will be nice to be able to eat dinner in comfort and be able to enjoy the yard.

Caught a mouse last night, but I think I better get some more traps cause I think I heard another one. I don't think this one had been hanging around all that much because I learned that its better to put out traps at the first sign rather then wait to confirm sighting. Although that did happen this time. ewwwww (didn't take a picture)

I found out that we've got a sallmonella outbreak in the birds around here, specifically the pine siskens (hence the cleaning and bleaching this weekend of the feeders). I was thinking that it was just an early set of babies that didn't know better to fly away, but it turns out they are sick. I feel bad for them, but with the ferral cat hanging around at least they get put out of their misery fast. I still need to clean up the seed mess under the feeders and keep them cleaner then I've been doing. This picture is from last sunday, the birds were singing so cute and pretty, I couldn't catch them with my camera but it was great to sit on my front porch and listen to them. Hopefully I will have more times to do that through this year.

I'm very tired from staying up late last night from gabbing and laughing with Kate and Mama. Now that school is out hopefully we'll get to see more of Mama around, at least for the summer.

I didn't get all my inside chores done, but did clean the bathroom thoroughly. Kate straightened the front room, but I need to mop the floor in there and the kitchen. hopefully i'll fit it in this week.

Mom and Angela came through two weeks ago and I forgot to say how fun it was to have them even for a short time. I feel bad I didn't cook dinner for them but ended up doing a later home visit. Hey guys next time you come through I will try to think ahead and have something in the crockpot!

I made a creamy sausage and cheesy brocoli potato soup with homemade bread. It turned out pretty good. Won't be too many days left for warm meals like that so I need to get it in while I can.

I need to blog about the "tea party" I went to on tax day, so I'll hopefully get that done this week. I'll close with some pretty mountain pictures I've taken with my silly phone camera the last month or so. I love the mountains with snow on them, especially fresh stuff. I wish I could better capture the colors and dramatic contrasts in the mountains and sky. Today the sun and lake and clouds and snow on the close mountains and misty mountains behind the lake was took my breath away. I'm lucky to live in a beautiful place!

Do you see the double rainbow? didn't work so good for the camera but it was beautiful!

Many more to come

Here is the update on my garden, one of many to come I'm sure. Spring is here, then winter, the spring again, then winter, then.... you get the idea. Actually I think the last winter was a fluke and spring is really on its way. It has rained a lot and snowed too. Wednesday night after raining all day I saw this: I didn't think it would last but the next morning there was tons of snow.

Lots of trees around town split or lost big branches from the wieght of the snow on the blosoms.

half our neighbors tree split and came down.

My neck is sore today. Either I've got meningitis or just from cutting down tree limbs of our neighbors tree. This is the toy I got (and broke already but its still usuable). ps you can tell teh snow melted quickly.

This is the pile I of limbs that are no longer shading the old garden.

(its a pretty big pile but doesn't look that way)

See? No Shade!

Here is the old garden partly planted, haven't really decided how to lay out the newer sections yet. Mostly brocoli in the far one next to some strawberries, then carrots and radishes in the next section over. After that is lettuce and peas (cucumbers to go in when its warmer and they'll take over the bed once the lettuce and peas are done).

I dug up the good soil for my walkways and heaped it up for the "beds." I put down newspaper and then composting hay for the walkways to hold the dirt where it should be and make it so that my feet don't get so dirty working out in the garden.

I got the strawberries planted conference weekend and then every morning dug some holes and the evenings filled them up with bushes. Kate dug some holes for me for the blackberries and Cathy helped with the strawberries, and cutting up the red things and sunflowers along the back wall. I put weed barier over the top of strawberry bed, planted the strawberries, and then covered them with straw. I put down weed barrier over the herb garden and I'm really hoping that cuts down on the maintanence needed for that area so I can focus on some of the other.

Here is the "before" back wall so you can kind of see what Cathy cleaned up for me. I' also got some of the berry bushes planted there now.

I only have 2 bushes left to plant a Hanson Cherry (Sand) and a Sugar Sweet Cherry (Nanking). . Ok 3 because I bought a black currant to go with the red one. The problem is I miscalculated and only have one more space planed for the cherry bush so I'm not yet sure where I will put the other one. I think I might move 2 more bushes and make a hedge along part of the sidewalk to the front door or something. hmmm. Other garden stuff left to do is get more hay (using it for the walkways between the beds that I'm raising), soe some more lettuce/spinach, plan out the big garden, get the potatoes and cabbage in, lay out the rest of the soaker hoses, put down some lawn fertilizer/weeder, weed the flower beds, put weed barier around all the new plantings, buy and plant an apple tree and a necterine/peach, etc, etc, etc

Remember when the catalog companies all shipped at the same time and I was going to sister's weekend and home for the weekend after that? I had to "hill" in my little bushes because even though I got a couple planted every day, I had too many to get them all in, especially when it was snowing.

Here is the list of plants boughten (so far) and mostly planted. From Henry Fields: 2 saskatooons (like blueberries), 6 Blackberries, 6 raspberries (3 boysenberries are on back order)

From Gurneys (actually the same company as HF): 50 strawberries, 2 native plums, 3 Hanson bush cherry, 10 chokecherries (i planted 2 gave 2 to the jenks and the other 6 to mom), 1 red currant.

From Four Seasons: 2 manchurian bush apricot, 6 dwarf Flowering cherry (same as Hanson or Sand), 5 dewberry, 4 sugar sweet chery (Nanking), 2 elderberries.

From local stores: 1 Gooseberry, 2 everbearing raspberries, 1 grape, 1 black currant, icelandic poppy, 8 cabages, 12 brocoli ( i hope, one was labeled funny), 2lb potatoes.

A few of the planted bushes along the firepit.

Looking over the list I wish I had gotten more Nanking Cherries then the other kid cause i think its fruit is better. Oh well. I also want another grape, and I think I found a location for it :)

Its a good thing the snow came so I could get my inside chores done on Friday . While waiting for snow to melt and the soil to dry out a bit I got the kitchen cleaned up and moped, got the bathroom clean, straightened my room and got the living room lookin better. Need to sweep the living room again as it got messy from all my yard work Saturday.

Mandy is in town for a Warner wedding and I watched Fay and Kimball while she went to the bridal shower Friday night. We had a good time. Here is a video on my cheap web cam of Kimball playing with some bubbles. It didn't pick it up very well as its slow. And there is no sound.

I took a break for some lunch Saturday at "Cafe Fresh" in the Good Earth store after planting things all morning. It was way tasty. Fresh real lemonaid, fruit salad that was bigger then 3 pieces and the sandwhich (turkey avocado on wheat focatia) was soooo tasty. I love good earth. Got more food there that I didn't really need but its fun to try new things. Then stopped at the nurshery for some sulphur for the potatoes and my new tool (also impulse bought the cabbage, brocoli, grape-sortof i was planning on buying it-, black currant, and marigold seeds- also planning on that one).

Then was in the yard until it was too dark and worked on my primary lesson. that took longer then expected and I went to the store to get some food for dinner and some fruit for the lesson.

I am beat. I think I might have a cold coming on, but also i think i got dehydrated yesterday.

The lesson went well, but I need to take a nap. Instead I will go to choir and then get dinner ready. Good luck to me. Here is Kate enjoying the beautiful day today. Hope she doesn't get sunburned!

My tulips are still going on but the daffadills are just about done.

I know they're weeds but this picture doesn't do justice to the bright yellow and blue "flowers" growing in my yard.

My Seedlings are growing under the grow light. I've taken outside a few times so they'll get used to real sun and cause the wind causes them to grow stronger stems.

quick trip home

Grandma's 90th Birthday party!







I decided to wait on posting about all the gardening stuff I'm doing because there are going to be plenty of posts on that later. In fact that might be all I end up posting since thats what I think about and do most days. The house hasn't been cleaned for weeks! But here are a few bulb pictures that make me happy.












Anyways it was fun to be home. I was very tired afterwards, especially my feet. I mostly sit all day long (although now that I'm gardening I'm getting some movement in) and so going home and walking through santa fe and making frosting and running around trying to get things ready and running around cleaning up did make me tired. Also although the bed I sleep on is better then it was, (anyone else remember Grandma Rick's day bed in her basement?) I always sleep better at home.


Friday my flight got in 20 minutes early which was nice. Mom and Dad came to pick me up in Ed so I it was funny because I was looking for them in the red car or little van so didn't see them even when they stopped right in front of me. It was a beautiful sunny NM day. We went to Sam's club and got supplies for the party before heading to Uncle Lynn and Aunt Joann's to pick up Aunt Elaine and Uncle Dick. It was fun to see them as its been awhile for me. Thats whats great about family get togethers like this.


Anyways Uncle Dick had never been to LA or Santa Fe and Aunt Elaine only briefly so it was fun to see the old sights through new eyes. We got lunch at Tomasitas which took awhile but was tasty. Not as tasty as Rancho De Chimiyo which is my favorite NM food place EVER!!!!


That took awhile and then we went to the plaza and showed them around. It was funny because thats the last place my father would ever choose to be. Nonetheless he was a fairly good sport and I got a little reistra for my home for $5. Mom and Aunt Elaine both got some cool baskets for fairly cheap (Cheap for santa fe that is). We went into the St. Francis cathedral. The intricate work was beautiful, but they were having an easter youth talk thingy so we didn't really go into the sanctuary.



I love the history and feel of those old places. Here comes some NM pride. Oldest homes in the US (still inhabited by the way)? Taos NM (built between 10-1450). Oldest seat of gov? Santa Fe (palace of the govenors 1610) Oldest Church building? Santa Fe (St. Michales 1610). If those pilgrams who were starving in New England just came south they would've been able to buy tacos on the streets of santa fe. Also in verifying these facts I found out that Jamestown was definately not the first European settlements (as native puebloans in NM are still settled today including Taos and Acoma), let alone the plymoth rock stuff. Silly new englanders! Anways back to my weekend.



We did go into the La Fanda (popular really old hotel, was also famous in the days of the santa fe trail) the latillas and vigas were dark with age. I also finally got to see the Loretta chaple with the miracle stairs. We paid to see it and its very small, but it is really neat. Because its such a small chapel I got to see their stations of the cross which I love seeing. Picture taking is encouraged because I think they feel bad charging to see the sanctuary otherwise it would seem more sacrilegious.











Sure wish my camera phone would take better less blurry pictures. The stained glass was amazing, so I found some better pictures on the internet, but the really nice ones I wasn't able to comandeer. For more info on the miracle staircase see here: http://www.lorettochapel.com/staircase.html















Anyways we also got pictures outside of the San Miguel church with is the oldest church in the US as previously stated. At both this one and Loretta I got a squished penny sovenier. Those are my favorite sovineers. Glad mom had an extra quarter so I could get one in both places!

We got home later then Mom and Dad had planned on since Mom wanted to get more things set up for the party on Saturday. But it all worked out and I had a fun time spending time with my unopinionated family.




Saturday morning we got up and the Easter Bunny had been there. Like Melanie said our tradition is to do the spring celebration on Saturday so that it doesn't get confused with the easter stuff on Sunday. i always liked this growing up because I got my candy and little gifts a day earlier then my friends. My parents probably liked it because we were able to get out the sugar rush while running around playing with our kites or other little presents Saturday. I also like the fact that it spreads the holliday out (just like christmas eve does). We were late heading to the choir practice so we didn't actually get our baskets and candy until later after the party (too busy beforehand and now that we are all grown up we have more patience). I love turning the pages for my dad! I wish I lived near home so I could keep doing that. Anyways after that we put some table cloths on and set a few things up.

Then we went home and I made some frosting for the cakes. I'm still sad that mom wouldn't let me put sprinkles on all the cakes. Its a party people! Their should be lots and lots of sprinkles!!!!

We got most things set up and ready for the family dinner and reception and only forgot a few things (including the must have cream puffs). Mom was way overprepared with the amount of cakes and fruit and punch and nuts and dinner mints and icecream (hmmm now I know where I get it from). Mom made a pumpkin chocolate cake, a layered strawberry cake (with her strawberry jam), an applesauce raisin cake, a coconut cream cake, and a bannana cream cake. Cousin Carol made a beautiful 90th bday cake for Grandma so there was plenty of cake to go around.

We gave lots away but still had a ton when we cleaned up. That took awhile since mom signed up to clean the church too. Then I needed to clean up the huge mess I made of the kitchen and get some dinner together Saturday night. It was rainy that day and snowed that night.



I forgot that there was a number of extended family members there. I enjoyed seeing them and talking a bit. I wasn't feeling that social and the event seemed a little long at times but thats probably because I was a bit tired and onry, but not too bad :)


We did our easter baskets and I tried taking pictures with my web cam which wasn't that great as you can see. I don't know why all the lights showed up turqoise.

We then sang and practiced somemore before going to bed. Sunday morning came too early but we made it to choir practice and church on time! We did an Easter contada that has a few good songs but is also kind of silly. The little flowers song is still stuck in my head! it was copy writed in 1939 so if you can imagine a laurance welk erra easter program thats what we did. Dad did a great job on the piano as always and I would've rather turned his music but Aaron did instead.

Mom made an awesome dinner and I made some blueberry scones that tasted ok but didn't raise quite as I would wish. The Boyacks came over as they know Elaine and Dick when they were all missionaries on temple square. Boyacks are getting ready for their 3rd mission and I think the Holloways are looking into that too. It was a tasty, somewhat rowdy, fun dinner, the kind I like.

We had warn out grandma by that time. and me too so we got back into the car to make the 2 hr drive to the airport for Melanie and I to catch our planes. I got home about 10pm and went to bed to try and recover. I felt like I was getting a cold but by Tuesday felt much better after getting lots planted and done in the gardens on Monday.

Mom did a lot of prep work and it paid off. I loved all the pretty flowers and fun springy colors. Grandma seemed to have a good time. Thanks mom for putting this together!