What we did last weekend ...

Here is what my amazing husband did last weekend:

That's a trench.  A 1000 foot long trench to be exact.  He added FIVE hydrants to our property in just 3 days ... amazing.   Above is the trench heading west ...

... and heading east (filled in, of course) ...

 ... Running the trencher well into the evening ...

Gosh, I'm tired just watching him.  What did I do, you ask???

I made spaghetti.

The BIG Garden

As promised, here are pictures of the BIG garden.  I decided to tempt fate and plant tomatoes last weekend.  Yes, I know we haven't hit our frost free date yet.  And yes, I know that it is forcasted to get down to 32 on Friday night.  But, I figured since I have 70 some plants it wouldn't hurt to gamble with 19 plants, right?  ESPECIALLY since we invested in hot caps this year (the tiny little domes over each plant), which should protect them from the cold.  If these guys look okay on Sunday, I will plant 19 more, which will be a whole row.

We have the big garden set up differently this year.  Instead of one BIG tilled garden, we have rows, separated by grassy walkways.  This will greatly help cut down on weeding and tilling.  In theory.  :)  Plus we plan to mulch, mulch, mulch this year.  We are TIRED of weeds taking over our garden.  This year we fight back!  (In theory ...)

This year we devoted two rows to strawberries, one to blackberries, and one to asparagus.  The rest of the rows will be annual crops - the tomatoes, of course, cucumbers, okra, and who know what else.

Now for the good stuff ... you didn't think I would post without pictures of Bruce did you?

Little man spent his first nights at Grandma's house!  Grandma "Didi" kept Bruce last Thursday and Friday while Gage and I chaperoned the Cedar Vale seniors' class trip to OKC.  Of course we brought Bruce goodies from Bass Pro Shop ... his very own camp chair and paddle!  After we sang Row, Row, Row Your Boat for him, all he would say is "row, row, row ..."  :)



Where to start ...

It has been so long since my last post, it's hard to know where to begin.  I know!  It's always good to start with something like this ...

or this ...

or this ...

or maybe this ..

Okay, I guess you get the idea.  :)  We have all been having a lot of fun outdoors since the weather has been getting warmer.  And as you can see, Bruce and his cat Lucy are still good buds. 

Of course, don't forget Koda!

We have also been hard at work, getting the gardens ready for warmer weather!  With mom's helping watching Bruce on a number of weekends in February and March, Gage and I got an awesome start on our outdoor projects!

Hanging out with grandma while mommy and daddy transplant strawberries

"Daddy, what IS that all over your hands???  Kinds looks like fun ..."

Okay, so here is what my kitchen table looked like the first weekend of March.  Yep, that's right ... FIVE flats of seeds.  One of tomatoes (specialty varieties I ordered from Totally Tomatoes ... the largest selection of tomato seeds you will EVER find), one of herbs and peppers, one of annual flowers, one of perennial flowers, one of lisianthus seeds (looks like a rose, but no thorns ... I have NEVER found seeds until this year ... wahoo!).

Thanks to my handy dandy husband, I had this germination box for my flats this year.  This was totally the key to success ... perfect light and warmth in the box made for better germination and stronger seedlings than I have EVER had in the past.  Nearly every tomato germinated and most of my herbs and peppers.  I had hit or miss luck with the annuals and perennials, as usual.  The lisianthus seeds took forEVer to germinate (almost 4 weeks!), but they finally did.  They are still super tiny, so we will see if they survive and amount to anything. 

Since I had such good luck this year with my tomato seedlings, I found that I needed to pot them up this past weekend.  Above is my flat of tomato seedlings - about 70 plants total.  Yeah, they were pretty squished in that one little flat.

This guy's poor little roots need more room!!

Ahhhh ... that's better.  :)

Great.  Now I have FOUR flats of tomatoes.  And no more room in the germination box.  These have been living on my kitchen table by night and on the porch by day as I harden them off.  Would someone please loan me a greenhouse?  Thank you.

Here is the beginning of my kitchen garden.  I am very excited about this!  As you can see, we have divided it into four sections, and then dug out pathways between and covered them with woodchips.  I have used the trellises from our wedding :) and Gage has built me 6 more, so that I can grow crops UP this year, instead of OUT, making it easier to weed and nagivate.  The key to my kitchen garden is planting SMALL crops of lots of different things, just for our family to eat.  I can't WAIT! 



But, don't start thinking that means this is ALL we are doing this year.  :)  More pictures soon (I promise) of the "west garden".

And finally, I can't resist ... here's one more.  :)