Summer Garden is DONE!

The summer garden is planted! 

Today I planted all the vines. We're talking watermelons, cantaloupes, summer squashes, winter squash, cucumbers, pole beans... Sadly, when I was hardening off the vines, a few didn't make it into the house overnight, so my eggplants and a few melon varieties didn't survive. Oh well, there's always next year! Also, I was pulling a few weeds here and there, and GUYS! I HAVE POTATOES! I guess I didn't get all of them out of the ground last year, because there are little potato leaves poking up out of the dirt. Meanwhile, I had already seeded potatoes for container gardening, mostly because it's easier to harvest that way, so we're going to have LOTS of yummy roots. 

I did realize that I haven't planted any lettuce. But lettuce is easy and grows just about anywhere, in any condition. And I am officially a crazy plant lady. 

Know what else? School gets out in two weeks. I am real ready to be done for the year. It's just been a hard year for all of us, and we are going to take some time to regroup, and we are going to have lots of mini adventures all summer long. They have to be mini adventures because big kids have big kid things to do. We are going to be so crazy busy, and THAT'S OKAY. It will be a good busy, because I have lots of OUTDOOR IDEAS, because sunshine is delicious for our souls. 

In other news, the fridge is finally fixed! It's cold again! Not having a refrigerator FOR OVER A MONTH was not the funnest for us. We have a second fridge, but it is SMALL, and it basically held the condiments. And even though my canning season is supposed to just be starting, I had to adjust because the freezer stuff thawed out and there is NO WAY IN HELL that I was going to be tossing all that defrosted meat. So I made a LOT of chili, and a LOT of taco soup, and a LOT of bone broth, and ALL THAT JAZZ. But tomorrow, I do want to get some rhubarb something going. I'm going to make a cranberry/rhubarb chutney thing that is amazing with pork and chicken. And obviously I have to make some sort of pastry thing. We shall see. I always have grand plans, but they don't always come to fruition. Ah well, that is life, and life is good. And I need to remember to take a picture of everything before it starts getting big! 

Have a Great May

The weather here is being NUTS. Today was chilly and breezy and rainy and COLD  for outside work, and what a lot of outside work there is.

We got a ChipDrop yesterday afternoon, so we mulched all the garden beds around our house. We worked hard and fast, and today I am paying for that endeavor. My back is KILLING me, and none of the usual tricks are working. We'll just chalk it up to the fact that I haven't done garden work since November, and my muscles forgot their primary functions. Also, because I took some pain pills, I fell asleep and totally missed my infusion! But it kind of works out, because I am on some antibiotics and such due to a killer kidney infection. I even got a shot of Rocephin, so that was fun.

 Meanwhile, it's almost May... which means it's almost summer, and I am NOT ready. I really need to sit down and calendar everything out, because holy heck-ness, these kids got a lot of stuff to do.  I don't remember being so busy as a kid. We all did have swimming sports every morning though. But we would ride our bikes to the pool, then we would swim and swim and swim, and then we would head over to the cafeteria to get our free breakfast. After swim everything, we would just go home and not do much. We did the summer reading program at the library, and we would do chores, and we would entertain ourselves.

Speaking of chores, I seriously need to hire a maid. I just can't keep up with stuff anymore. I try, but it's pretty dicey with the results. AND I get mad at my family because they don't clean things all the way, and it drives me nuts! And then they act they are doing me a FAVOR by cleaning up after themselves.... No. No. No. I'm just going to start throwing stuff away, and nobody can stop me, because I do what I want.

Also, gardening news. My rhubarb is growing like crazy! I'm going to make some of  cherry rhubarb chutney that pairs beautifully with chicken and pork. And I still like to crunch on raw rhubarb, because it's so sour and I love sour everything. I also have a random brussels sprout sprouting; looks like one of last years seeds overwintered all on it's own.  Ooh, and my strawberries are filling in so nicely. I can't wait for all the berries I have coming. OH! AND! I planted 2 blueberry bushes last year, and they did not do so well. In fact, I thought they had given up altogether and died. But there is NEW GROWTH on BOTH bushes! And a hydrangea that I thought was dead? ISN'T! I am so excited for the yard. And the bulbs that were planted in the fall have bloomed so gorgeously. I need to get MORE bulbs for the front yard in the fall.

My baby magnolia tree is getting taller, and the apple trees I grafted are healing just fine. I have a few tomatoes and tomatillos that can go in the ground soon, and I have been growing ground cover for some of the heavily trafficked areas in the yard. It just gets a bit too muddy by the gate and the shed. So moss it is! I am also fighting with some dandelions that think my grass is a good place to grow. It's not, so I am yanking those bad boys out before they turn into puff balls and invite their friends to the party. I'm even thinking about getting a few chickens, because I hear that they love to eat dandelions. Except I don't know how well chickens and dogs get along. It'll be okay, right? Anyways. Those are our updates. Have a great May! (see what I did there?)

Weekend Update

I think our house is cursed buy a refrigerator demon. I mean, that's the only possible explanation, right? Also, I don't understand why it takes so long to get a technician to come and fix it. We are basically doing a pantry challenge, because the fridge in the basement is small, and is barely big enough to hold all the condiments and salad dressings, let alone fresh foods that need to be cool. AND because the fridge and freezer broke, this whole week has consisted of me cooking all the perishable items. I ended up making 8 quarts of beef stew, 8 quarts of taco soup, 20 pints of chili, and I can't even remember the rest. It's just been real exciting in the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Thaddeus got to go back to work finally. He was so mad at the doctor when they took his stitches out. He was on the schedule to work THAT DAY, but after the doctor realized he was a LIFEGUARD, which is a job where you get wet, he shut that down. Just because stitches are out doesn't mean the would is healed. So that was exciting.

We also had an Eagle project pow-wow thing with the boys in our troop and their parents. My boys are going to have quite a busy summer, because they will definitely be Eagle scouts come autumn. The best little tidbit I learned was that there is not an hourly requirement! I remember helping my friends get their Eagle, because they had to meticulously count everybody's hours, and it was a HUGE time suck. Not anymore! Hooray!

Also, we had our first lawn mow of the season. And I've been busy prepping the garden spaces. Our asparagus looks so cute. And the grapes that I propagated look amazing. They totally rooted and are ready to go in the ground. I also discovered cherry BUSHES. I guess technically, they're dwarf trees, but the point is, Troy has wanted cherry trees, but I don't have room for two more big trees, unless he's willing to let me turn some of the grassy area into an orchard. SO. I got two cherry bushes, a Romeo variety, and a Juliet.  And I planted two boysenberry bushes, and pruned the blackberry vines. AND I thought that my blueberry bushes from last year were a total bust, BUT! There seems to be little baby branches popping out of the ground, so I'm going to cross my fingers, and hope that we get a fun blueberry surprise later this summer.

Tomorrow, we're going to be planting the lettuce and spinach beds, along with some flowers, and onions, and herbs. I just love being in the garden, and it is so incredible to be able to grow our own food. Even with the fridge mishap, when I started making the chili and soup and all that, every ingredient came from my garden. I used so many jars of tomatoes and tomato paste, and peppers, and tomatillos... I was annoyed and happy at the same time.

Another fun thing happening tomorrow is my apple tree grafting class! In my yard right now, I have three apple trees, and I have a spot for a fourth. The three trees I have now ripen early, mid, and late. This is amazing, because I cannot have big ole apple trees ripening at once. I just don't have enough time to do all those apples at once! I'll be very interested in what varieties are available at the class. I would LIKE to get a green or golden apple, but I want to learn about what varieties work best for what, and I need to be able to gauge the size. One of my apple trees, the Gravenstein, is going to be a BEAST of a tree, at 20-30' high and wide. The other trees, which are twisted around each other and oh so cute, are Gala and Braeburn, and they only grow to be 12-15' high. So I'm definitely in the market for another fifteen footer.

GAH! Can you tell how much I love working in the dirt? It really is my happy place.

I'm also thinking that we will get our summer day camps going here in Utah. It'll give the kids something to do, and honestly, we have a pretty good set-up for hosting hordes of grade-schoolers. Of course, I have to discuss with the kids first, because while I am happy to supervise and such, it really is a team effort. And I have to look at all the schedules, because teenagers are stinking busy! Work, scout camp, girls camp, zion camp, band camp.... it's enough to drive a person crazy!

We're also sort of car shopping. After Troy's mom passed away, we bought her car, because the transmission went out on our Yukon. And while it's been nice to have a car, it's a little bit cramped for 6 full grown people. And now that Troy's dad has remarried, he would like to buy it back for his wife to use. Which is fine by me! Anywho, I would prefer a VAN because they are a little more MS friendly than a SUV, not to mention the very big price difference. I just can't jump up in to a car like I used to. Actually, I think we might go looking at cars this weekend, after all the yard work stuff is done. JUST LOOKING though. 

Dreaming of Warmer Weather

I've been updating the coding on some of my old websites, and MAN ALIVE, you stop computering for a year or two and suddenly you're illiterate. I also forgot how much hurry up and wait is involved in the back-end of things. It's like the internet has other things to do besides immediately index my changes. RUDE.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to get our summer plans coordinated, but it's not going too well because I don't have all the necessary calendars. I need people to be on the ball with calendars and schedules! So far, the only person registered for school next year is Taylor, because we weren't waiting on a boundary variance for her. And we applied for a boundary variance for Thaddeus (you know, because we LIVE CLOSER to that high school) and it was denied. And we were going to appeal the decision, but the other day, we got a letter saying that he actually WOULD be able to attend the requested school. I guess they had extra openings for sophomores. HOWEVER, this now means that Thaddeus will go to one high school, and the other kids, well.... maybe not. Whatever happened to just going to the school you live by? WHEN DID THIS BECOME A PROBLEM FOLKS? 

Meanwhile #2: it's snowing again. Has been for the last 2 days. Not a lot, and it's not sticking, but I would really like my yard to start greening up and flowering again. I LOVE my backyard. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Have I ever shown you pictures? Hang on a sec....

Okay, these are some of the flowers in my front yard. I have just now realized that I need to take photos when everything is in bloom all at once. I have a lot of perennials, which I LOVE because no maintenance.

For the most part, I grow pretty things in the front yard, and I grow FOOD in the back garden,  with some flowers here and there to discourage certain naughty bugs, and encourage bees and butterflies.

I have three huge dogwood bushes that I like to cut them into shapes.

I actually want to take those big old shrubs OUT, and replace them with blueberry bushes for two reasons: 1. Blueberries are delicious and pretty, and  2. I'm allergic to dogwood. I had to get rid of a few other perennials due to allergies, and the 3 big dogwood bushes are pretty much my last allergy problem to eliminate.

I have two big rhubarb plants. If you are looking for a gorgeous plant, I vote rhubarb. It's just a bonus that you can eat the stems. Rhubarb is a perennial, so it comes back on it's own, year after year. It's hardy, and both heat and cold tolerant. It's HUGE, so it is definitely a statement plant, and you can eat it too! I also really love that it's SOUR when eaten raw... like, SUPER sour, and that's my favorite! But when cooked or combined with other fruits, it can bulk up the recipe without altering the intended flavor profile. AND it's a cut and come again type of plant. It's one of the earliest producers, and on the first harvest, I got eighteen pounds of stalks. And I easily get at least three harvests like that. RHUBARB FOR LIFE.

Here are some of my strawberries: 

And here's two more pictures of my early harvest. 

Oh friends, I just love playing in the dirt! But I guess while I'm waiting for the ground to thaw I can be productive in the house. 

too many tomotoes

Before the first frost set in I picked a bunch of super really green tomatoes from my garden.  I know that you can finish ripening a tomato on your window sill, but I wasn't super if that would work with these because they were just so very green.  But there was like 10 of them, and I wasn't going to just let the frost get them.

Well, good news, really green tomatoes will, in fact, ripen on your window sill.  It just takes FOREVER.  At least mine did.  But eventually I had juicy red tomatoes, and I had TEN of them at one time.

Some people might be able to use 10 tomatoes quickly enough without them going bad, but no matter how much I try my family just aren't big tomato lovers.  (Sometimes my boys claim to love them, but that's when Venus is in retrograde and the north star points west, or in other words, it's RARE.)

So I had to do a little tomato saving trick that I learned from a friend a few years ago and I wanted to pass it on to anyone else who ever finds themselves with too many ripe tomatoes at one time:

And there you have it.  You can easily save your extra tomatoes before they go bad. 

Plus it makes cooking super duper easy later because you don't even have to remember to thaw the tomatoes out before using them - just open a frozen baggy toss them in the pan while you're cooking sauce or whatever.  They thaw and cook quickly.