Growth Explosion in the Garden

This garden has been a battle on many fronts. I have insect invaders messing with my tomato plants, I have a lack of the right fertilizer for the plants, and a massive heat wave came along and killed off a lot of good progress. On the other hand, things have been growing like crazy, almost despite my battles.

Here is the 10 year old's garden. You can see that the Lemon Cucumber is going crazy in there, and taking over.

This is the 6 year old's pond form garden. Her tomato plants are thriving, and the strawberries are producing fruit again.

This is the 14 year old's garden. You can see the corn is growing like crazy, and the pumpkin is starting to climb the trellis.

Tomatoes

Rainbow carrot seedlings, Bean plants, and 4 year old's carrots

Green onions

My tomato tree.

Ok, so for a while, I had no clue what these plants were. I had mixed up the containers before I managed to label them. Well, lesson learned, but patience pays off too. I can now tell you what they are, left to right: Cantelope, Watermelon, and Cucumber. The Mini Pumpkin went out to the front yard.

See? Here is a little cantelope on the vine!

Today's harvest. This got chopped up and added to the lettuce on hand to make an excellent salad to go with tonight's supper.

Manure and Roses

Marigold aka Calendula

I sparked on a great idea earlier today. I have an acquaintance that has a horse, and lives only a few blocks away. I called her up, and asked if we could come over and clean a couple buckets of manure out of the horse pasture. She was a bit baffled, but was glad to have some free help. We filled 2 30 gallon rubber maid containers! 75% of the gleanings was already dried out and already breaking apart.



I brought home the buckets, and got out one of my square 5 gallon buckets. I filled it 2/3 full of warm water from the wading pool, and then topped it the rest of the way off with the manure. I labeled the bucket well, and covered it. In 48 hours, I will have 3-4 gallons of concentrated liquid gold for fertilizing my garden. I am VERY excited.



I still need more dirt though.

May Morning Musings

This morning has been quiet and fun. I woke up at 6 am to the 2 youngest crawling in bed with me, and took care of their morning requests, while they drifted back to sleep. Since my mind was already spinning with ideas and thoughts for the day, I went out and filled my coffee mug. I had thought ahead last night, and set it to turn on at 6:00 am, By the time I "found" it, it was warm and ready for me. I am always a little happier when I can bypass the microwave.

I poked my morning things, checked on my stats, and approved a comment. Ahh! I had no idea how much a kind comment on one of my posts can warm my heart! <3 I poked my morning games as I listened to the stirrings of the house. The dogs were patrolling the yard for invading birds and squirrels and coming in to report to the sleeping master. The bathroom was a cacophony of destruction from the playful antics of the 3 kittens. Giggles, mumbles and half-hearted cries of protest would escape the small slumbering forms around me. At 8 am, it was time to feed the kittens, and we had them fed in the kitchen before allowing them their play and roam time. Somehow, that turns into hiding kitten sleeping time, and none can be found for hours. Patience, focus, and remembering the rules is exceptionally hard when there is a fluffy kitten playing peek-a-boo when you are only 4 and 2. I had to coax the stripey one out, I am working on human desensitization with him, and I had to scoop and remove the other 2 kittens from stealing his food.... They were all surprised, him the most, because of once the big fast hands weren't after him. *grin* It's all about making friends.

After the house was up, and my hunny was off on his way to work, I put together the plan I had been working towards. I pulled out the bin of middle sized interlocking blocks for the kids to play with. I pulled out the specialty pieces and put together a few of the trees and things. By the time I had discovered all of the vehicle bottoms, I had 3 kids all around the table, building and exchanging parts and one wandering around with her favorite Puppy piece.

I went out and Ladybug came and inspected the garden with me. She exclaimed over the one cherry tomato turning yellow, and thought about what that might mean. We noted the differences in the leaves of the plants that we were having trouble with, how the old growth looked pale or crumpled, and how the new growth was dark green and healthy. We estimated how much good growth there was, and counted flowers on various plants. I added Epsom salt, coffee grounds and crushed egg shells to the soil (in addition to yesterday's crushed antacid tablets).

Now I have the hose watering the yard for me. Yup, I locked into the on position, and set it on a stand as an instant mister and yard watering devise. The leaky spots water other areas, and one is filling the paddling pool. By Wednesday, the ground should be perfect for setting up the campground. The kids are getting excited; they cannot focus on anything else because of it. That reminds me, I need to go turn off the water in the front yard. I am sure the baby tree and full front section is good and watered by now.

We have more projects to do, more plans to think up, more lists to write, and tasks to mark off. I expect that this week will be hard work, and yet worth every moment. I think the best part is that camping has no reception, so even if they did smuggle electronics, I have the WiFi password, and all the chargers. HEHEHEHEHE (Yea, I know it's in our backyard. We are going to have fun. Consider it a dry run for later.)

I need more dirt for my garden....

So proud!!

WOOOHOOOOO!!!

All 4 kids passed their belt testing!!!

AND

Miss Kbug (age 6) advanced 2 belts, and was invited to the Family Basic Level!!!

I am so proud of my children. They have all worked so hard, and come so far since November when we started. My Wild boy used to flop into a puddle on the mat any time the teacher wandered to another child, and his reaction time to spoken commands is slow. Focus was out the window in 2 seconds if you didn't have his eyes. Now he is able to sit still for a few moments, follow some commands, and he even managed to learn and complete his Dragon Form (even if it was in slow motion and with another very helpful child telling him moves, to all of our shushes and giggles).

My older girls are 1 belt away from being invited to the Black Belt Club, and already have their sparring gear. I may have to have them wear the boots and gloves during the kicks and punches in class, as we are starting to see more wounds. Taekwondo and EB can be a very delicate balance.

Oh! And my oldest got invited to SWAT, which is an instructors class!! I am so proud and excited for my children.

Flutters has 6 months before she can think about trying it, and yet she already answers up with "Yes Ma'am!" and can chant through 1/2 of the Dragon form. LOL

"Here comes the rain again...

Falling on my head like a memory..."

Lots of music flitters through my head while I go about my day. Some songs are uplifting, and others are fun or silly. Today, we had the first rain of Spring... which is good, since we had no rain all winter. :) The garden got water, the roads and houses got washed off, and the kids had plenty of puddles to play in during the lulls inbetween.

Tomorrow is very busy, as I have some things to tend to that had been forgotten earlier in the month. I'm also ready to build more binders for the kids, and finish off the lesson plans for this official part of the school year. Summer session will be an intense one, since we didn't get as much done this year as we had planned.

I thank you, my readers and followers, for sticking with me, and reading my meager posts. I hope to get better at this, but this blog is the most faithful I have even been about writing a journal, diary or anything else.

God bless you. I pray that He watch over you and keep you safe in your sleep, and in your adventures tomorrow. I am also prayng for Steph and Chris, as they grieve the loss of both of their sons, for baby Easton, whose health has taken a scary turn, and praising the Lord for the safe and uneventful oral surgery on Joey today, and asking for a clean and good healing for Joey as well.