Look Ma, i'm Mobile

We needed a new cell in a bad way....
It had been 4 years since we purchased our old beast.

Moose reluctantly purchased a bare knuckles bucket of does for me....I'm uncertain if he did it because he thinks it could come in as handy as I do or if he just enjoys hearing me giggle like a schoolgirl when I think about what a literal bare knuckled bucket of does might look like.

Either way I thought I would be doing more blogging and research while C.monster is in dance, but I am thinking I might find my knitting needles too much of a distraction. That, and I don't really like looking likely tweeting teenager in public. :o)

Over and out.

Isn't That Just Like March

Well, i never!

Approximately 57 minutes after i planted the lovely things in the garden yesterday, a massive hailstorm came barging through our area and TKO'd my fennel and pansies to a pulp. Their poor little leaves and stalks are drooping to the soil, covered in mud. It hailed so hard and so long that it was enough to make it look like a coveted Christmas morning on my front lawn. Grrrrr.....

Did anyone remember to tell the fickle month of March that it is supposed to come in like a lion and receed like a lamb......

NOT the other way around??

Today i planted......

40 onion sets

6 fennel starts

8 pansy starts.


It's beginning to feel a lot like Springtime!

Today we planted...

9 Cherokee Tomatos from seed (some of A&P)

9 Saucy Paste Tomatos from seed (some for A&P)

18 Di Cicco Broccoli (all for C. monster who will be appropriately renamed Broccoli Monster because she is quite crazy for broccoli!!)

Cookie Monster was all about the helping today (and yesterday when she helped Moose dig and form one of our other veggie beds!) Thankfully the sun is shining today and she's wanted to play outside. She clobbered me at Tic Tac Toe, she swung on the swings while i counted to 100 in German but i didn't get very far before we had to play Shoo the Bald Eagle Away From His Chicken Nuggets that were taking care of "chicken business" out in the yard, and we played seed store (which is where one of us is the seed store owner and the other is the customer.) Her playset has a little shop front looking cubbie on it, and the seed packets were arranged so neatly in little piles on the ladder to the clubhouse. The best part about C. monster's store is, if you happen to have any seeds left over, you just bring them back and she'll see that they get delivered to a needy family. The other best part about her playset is it can be anything she wants it to be. One time Moose and C. monster pretended it was a sailboat and that they were sailors on the seas and other times, the chickens use it to play "Hey! This is M-I-N-E!"

We also harvested 6 eggs from the nests today. Whew!

P.S. Cookie Monster would like to add that if you are thinking to yourself, "What in the monkey fleas is 'chicken business'?", here is the answer to your question: "Chicken business is where chickens roam around and peck at the grass and eat it. When we were outside, Mum said, 'I think that's duck business too.' And i talked for Mama Chicken and said, 'Ah, i think you're wrong because i don't think ducks eat grass.'"

Aawh, idn't she cute!??!

Soon, Very Soon

Thanks to all the time i've taken off from the Internets, i'll be learning how to finish this puppy up soon. This will be the the first quilt i've ever made: Cookie Monster's chicken quilt. It's going to be the dash of colour in her otherwise beach themed room.

I'm trying to make it as functional on a twin bed as possible. Just one more row on the sides and then i think i'll leave the rest of the width to a red polka dot border. Hoping i have enough material to make it as long as the bed. We're a family of tall people (with Cookie Monster following suit as she gained another inch over the past month), so over the years we've grown disenchanted with those little "lap throws" that can't even reach from our lap to our feet when we scrunch ourselves into the fetal position on the couch. :o)

Thanks, Mom, for the help so far!!! It's coming out even better than i imagined and the ladies at church who quilt said i've done an awesome job lining up the points. I told them, "All thanks to the world's best teacher: my mom!"

I'm not the only one getting sewing lessons this month either. While Mom and Pop visited this past month, Cookie Monster designed, and with the help of Grandma, helped sew her new bedskirt to match these curtains while Pop was teaching me to install light fixtures. :o) We're a more productive household, i tell ya, thanks to A&P!

Achoo & Poppa also did Moose and i a favour by taking Cookie Monster to the wilds of Idaho for a week so we could get some packing, cleaning and house projects done. While trying to find a simple solution to our kitchen flooring problem that didn't require us to by 12'w x 20'l lengths of vinyl and upon installing them into our kitchen's 3 ft. wide floor, we grew so disgusted that Moose decided to come home and rip out our old carpet. And we thought that was fun?!?

Just look at the fun Cookie Monster was having in ID....she helped Grandma make all 16 tabs for her curtains for the other window in her new room (she took over the nursery, since she needs more room for sleepovers with friends.)

I'm glad i am not the only one that makes that silly facial expression when i sew. :o)

Well, time for schoolin' so there's time for sewing and more sowing later.

Have a great day AND Happy Spring!

Preserving on the Internets

I've been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barabra Kingsolver (a fellow former Tucsonan.) Her book is inspiring! So, while i am rendered useless with backache these last few days, not only have i been finishing her book and rereading parts i enjoyed, but i havve been making occassional trips to the computer to search for info on preservation of harvest--be it in your yard or at your local farmer's market. ;o)

General info

Food Preservation Resources and Nat'l Center for Home Food Preservation

Links to preserving that i have found on the internet that i wish to try this year:

Grapes

Rhubarb

Don't worry....the list will grow

And because she has some good recipes, here's the link to the official Barbara Kingsolver's site. She and her family have some wonderful advice in the book and delicious looking seasonal menu plans. Now, if i could just get my kid to eat more veggies from our garden than just popping open the occassional snap pea and eating a few of the seeds inside. ;o)

And in other news that has made our weekend a delight, my kid won first prize in a homeschoolers photography contest for her age group! Hot dog! The best part about it is listening to her talk about it with our cat, who was the subject of the winning photo. This morning she was telling the cat, "You know, Sadie, i am going to give you my medal because after all, you did all the work by being cute to help me win. Just be careful with it though, okay!? I wouldn't want anything to happen to it!" Kids rock!!! Even when it's a devil of a time to get them to eat their carrots. :o)

Today i planted: a bushel of sweet peas that hopefully will start greeting the guests to our front in a couple of months--April in Paris, Old Spice, Princess Elizabeth, and Moroccan Spice.

I also started 12 plants each of: cocozelles, zucchini, calendulas, chives and 24 Lemon Queen sunflowers. They will hopefully grace our garden and friend's and family's gardens come the end of May. The chickens have laid 5 eggs/day over the last 3 days too.

I just love this time of year....it's full of hope.

Now, to just get the floors all finished scrubbing. Ugh!!

Along My Trip To Spudsville...

My parent's visited a few weeks ago.

They took Cookie Monster back home with them so she could have Spring Break in ID.

So Moose and i decided to do something craaaaaaa-zzeee, man!

Oy!!
And after Moose rips 'em out, it's my turn to scrub every sq. inch of floor free of this. UGH!
I'm considering it my Lenten penance.

It's looking pretty darn good though, if i do say so myself.
Even if where the wood paneled walls meet the floor makes you feel like you are living inside a tree. :o)

But eventually the grandparents needed to be rescued from the Energizer Bunny and her crazy, frenetic energy. So, i had a road trip this weekend....and these are some of the wonderful, beautiful things that i found along the way.

Vantage, WA on the Columbia River

Hwy 28, Soap Lake

Spring Grass on Basalt Formations

Dry Falls, Coulee City, WA Bureau of Land Reclaimation Project

Old Schoolhouse, Govan, WA

and what looked like a wall o' water in Reardan, WA
turned out to be a hailstorm.

Funnies

I normally don't read the sports page, but i found this funny i had to share. Especially as Moose was wondering why we didn't try to attend any of the Olympic events with their proximity to us.

From Chat Room, Seattle Time's 2/28/10



Triple-eh Service
"Vancouver residents got rave reviews for their Olympic hospitality. They love to give directions. They say if you see the mountains you're facing north, if you see the ocean you're facing west, if your car just got stolen you're in Surrey (B.C.) to the east, and if you see people without health care waving handguns, you're in the States."

attributed to comedian Argus Hamilton