Happy Camper

I think this first picture pretty much speaks for itself.
Mr Happy.
Running through the forest.
We camped in Kettle Moraine State Park in southern Wisconsin with Orrin's sister Sonja and her family, and his brother Nathan.
The big boys went mountain biking a couple times. No major injuries, and the trails were "decent."
Ian is a daredevil on a bike. At least compared to Silas. Who spent most of every ride saying things like, "Not too fast. If I go too fast I will go out of control and crash and really hurt myself. Don't go out of control."
He's getting pretty good at balancing on his pedal-less bike, but down hills still freak him out.
Other causes of worry; " The mosquitoes will drink up all my blood! I can't live without my blood! Don't let the mosquitoes drink my blood."
Now whenever anyone mentions mosquitoes he informs them that they only drink "a little sip, so don't worry."
I read that vinegar on a bug bite was supposed to make it less itchy so I tried it on Silas, but he is not a believer in home remedies. And now he smells like a salad.



Emmet on the other hand smells like ketchup.
Maybe being outside all improved his appetite.
Maybe everything just tastes better cooked over an open fire.
He seemed to be shoveling food in his mouth the entire trip. Although Silas ate well too.
Actually we all ate well- hobo stew, fajitas, calzones, pizza pudgie pies, watermelon, pancakes, s'mores.
Emmet's favorite activity of the weekend was hanging out in the bike trailer ripping the foam pads out of every ones bike helmet. Seems harmless, until no ones helmet fits right and your forehead is getting scratched by the Velcro left inside your helmet.
Emmet's also getting a few more teeth on the bottom, bringing his total up to eight. Not the easiest time to try to wean him some might say. But if it's not one thing it's another, and no time like the present. He's not too happy about it, but slowly accepting milk from a cup.
Unfortunately, it means I can't sit down when he can see me. Because sitting down is an invitation to nurse.

Silas and Ian spent a majority of their time racing around on their bikes and dragging sticks and small logs out of the forest. They were the logging trucks bringing the wood to the "Daddy Sawmills." Though there were lots of disagreements about whose bike was faster and whose stick was longer throughout the weekend, for the most part they got along pretty well. Even, occasionally cooperating. And not just to thwart their younger siblings.

No camping trips planned for us for the rest of the summer but I'm sure we'll take a couple up north and maybe if you're very lucky we'll set up camp on your front lawn.

More Gardening

Not a great lot to say. Orrin was away for work in Europe all last week. So the weekend was kind of a recovery weekend. We did some gardening, in fact I'd saw the garden is close to being "finished." At least there is no more tilling to do. Still a few cucumbers, and melons to get in the ground, some replacement tomatoes, and basil. Subsequent sowings of lettuce, radishes, etc. But mostly we're switching over to watching sprouts grow and weeding mode. So here's so photos.

A full view of the garden. I'm hoping it will look more decorative and impressive once there are actually plants growing. I am a bit fearful this home and garden tour we committed to doing is going to result in a lot of puzzled people asking, "What happened to your backyard?

This is Silas's potato plant. It's definitely the biggest since Emmet pinched the sprouts off of his. But...

The blue potatoes are sprouting now too! And they have blue leaves! They are in the top and bottom corners. But look out because the honey bees like the water that pools in the trashbags in which they are planted.

These are the tee-pees for the pole beans. I think they are beautiful all on their own and will be even more so when the bean tendrils are clinging to them and flowering. You can make your own with these. Not sure if they will hold up over several seasons, but I think they'll last the year at least. I realize it is not necessary to have cages for the tomatoes, and trellises for the beans at this stage, but it keeps the dog and kids from stepping on them

Here's the sugar snap peas, fence, and marigolds. Silas helped sprinkle the inoculant on the peas, which meant I had none left for the green beans but at least the peas will be good little nitrogen fixers. He also helped pick out and plant the marigolds, and today we had to get more marigold because the poor onions and brocoli don't have any. Silas didn't think that was fair.

A row of beets, radishes, and carrots. I thinned them yesterday. I hate that job.

A successful birthday party is...

A scavenger hunt with silly pictures that ends at the playground.

Play dough!

Pinatas!

A bounce house!

Pie and ice cream!

Happy 30th Birthday Orrin and 28th Birthday Nathan!
Thanks for being such fun big kids.

Garden Party

Well, maybe not so much a party...
But that garden is well on its way and we're enjoying it so far. Of course the spring planting fever time is always fun. The July weeding time is the not so fun part!
I started by tilling up a couple of rows last week and planting beets, carrots, and radishes. I only worked two rows because every inch was a struggle with the tiller. I finally gave up and did most of it with a shovel. Orrin bought it from Craigslist and I figured it was just difficult to use, or I wasn't strong enough. Orrin returned home from Ireland and tried to till the next row for me and decided that the tiller wasn't working the way it was supposed to, took apart the gear box, if that is the appropriate terminology, and found one of the gears totally mangled and missing about half its teeth. So he ordered a new one, which came yesterday, and the tiller was back in working order today.
We had this idea to just till up the backyard, and leave the grass already there in place for paths, and to make it a little decorative we're laying it out in a pattern like an English formal garden. Except instead of boxwood and roses it's beets and broccoli. That's Silas and Orrin hard at work measuring and staking out the plots. There will be four triangles in the center there with an X shaped path in the middle. The row to the right is the potato patch- consisting of ten trash bags set 1 foot down into the ground. The row on the left will be peas. I'm hoping to find some nice decorative fencing to let them climb up, maybe some old iron bed headboards or something?
Then there are two more rows running hidden by the roof, and there will be two more rows behind Silas, running east west. I'm hoping that will be enough space. The vining plants, melons and squash, will be in a patch behind the playground, and the sweetcorn will be on the other side of the garage.
I'm excited to try growing the potatoes in the bags. I've never grown potatoes before, but Mom found this method so we're giving it a try. I think it will make for easy harvesting, no losing potatoes or chopping them up with your shovel, just slit the bag and out they tumble. We dug a trench in which to set the bags, both to give us some soil to fill the bags, and to make it look a little less like someone just dropped trash bags on out lawn. I have to admit it felt a little sinister with a shovel, dirt and all the black plastic. We put 4 or 5 seed potatoes in each 42 gallon contractor bag. The contractor bags are supposed to be thicker and sturdier, so we thought they might be a better choice. Once the sprouts appear we'll unroll the bag and keep piling the dirt on top, instead of the traditional hilling. This year we're growing Yukon Gold and All Blue varieties. So we'll be able to have University of Michigan potato salad this fall. Silas and Emmet also planted s University of Minnesota variety at the Landscape Arboretum last month that are already growing well.
Silas helped me put in some Walla Walla onion sets, spinach seeds, and the cabbage seedlings on Sunday. We planted sunflowers along the fence this evening.
Things seem to be moving right along on our micro-farm. Except, the ducks are moulting, which means we haven't gotten a single egg in about 4 days. I'm down to my last two! I hope they start laying again soon because I don't want to have to resort to buying eggs!