Sign of Storms to Come?

Yesterday evening, I was out back, taking pictures of the deck in progress. After I realized that the first few pictures weren't turning out, I changed the setting on my camera and tried again. Nothing. Different setting ... still nothing. I finally gave up, perplexed by the whole thing. It looked by the pictures as if it were super foggy last night. But it wasn't.

Here is a picture of the garden shed Gage is building, taken a few mornings ago. If definitely WAS foggy then. The picture looks similar to the one I took last night.

Now, I'm no photographer, and I certainly don't have a high-quality camera, but I still felt like I should be able to figure out what was going on with those stinking pictures!

Later that night when the storms rolled in, I realized that perhaps the high, high humidity was what had ruined my pictures? Still not sure, but it seems logical.

The little storm seemed to park itself right over Winfield last night, dumping between 4-8 inches around the area. Multiple tornado warnings were issued throughout the night. After assuring friends and family who had called to check on us (thanks guys!) that we were indeed okay, I headed to bed.

However, after the first tornado warning passed, another one popped up, even closer than the first. I've learned that one of the most terrifying things in the world is to be woken up by my husband saying, "Sarah, you had better come downstairs."

As I got downstairs, we looked at each other as we heard a constant, dull roar, that was quickly becoming louder. Without hesitating, we ran to get the dogs and as I opened the front door a crack, the wind blew it open. I grabbed the puppy and yelled for Koda, barely able to push the door closed behind us. We ran to the safe room and sat there for a few minutes until the roar passed. As we waited out the storm, Ellie sat on my lap, and continually licked my hand ... not sure if she was trying to comfort herself or me! It worked for me. :)

After that, the storm passed quickly. The roar was almost certainly from straight-line winds ... dangerous, but it could certainly be worse. It was sickening to hear a noise you have only heard described by people who have experienced a tornado. This morning, I could see little damage to our home. Other than small items that had blown about, I don't think anything was damaged. Thank God we made it through that one.

Morning Happiness

As I have begun to get back some of my energy (thank goodness for the second trimester!), I have started a new morning ritul. Each morning before I get ready for work, I spend at least 30 minutes strolling around the gardens with my dogs. I'm usually out just as the sun is starting to peak over the treetops ... what a great way to start the day!

Some mornings I just walk, other mornings I stop to pull weeds in the cool morning air. Some mornings, like today, I take pictures. But no matter what I do, it has become one of my favorite parts of the day!

This morning, the squash plants were covered with blossoms ... yummy zuchinni on the way!

I am quite proud of our gardens this year, thanks in LARGE part to Gage. Every other year, the garden has really been MY project. However, this year Gage seems to be enjoying it as much as I do (or he's just doing it to keep me from working so hard, and acting like he is enjoying it. Hmmmm ....)

In any case, together we have devised a clever system for the tomatoes that we believe will effectively keep the weeds down with minimal work. After rotatilling the garden really well, Gage and Roger put up cattle panels for me to tie the plants to. I mulched each plant well and then Gage created an irrigation system that he attached to the panels. With the irrigation system, ONLY the plants get watered, and not the surrounding ground. We will see how it goes ... I'm sure we will have to weed some, but hopefully not like other years!

Tiny green cherry tomatoes ... just a few more weeks!

We also trellised the cucumbers ... three different varieties, good for eating and pickling! For the cucs and sunflowers, we will run soaker hoses along the ground, once again to discourage weeds in the walkways

Last week, Gage finished our last raised bed. This one has our strawberries, rhubarb and asparagus. We are so lucky that Winfield has a wonderful compost center, where we can go to get free mulch! Yesterday, Gage loaded two trailers full of mulch

Before he mulched these raised beds, you could hardly see the plants, the weeds were so huge! That's the biggest drawback to having raised beds ... it's hard to keep the weeds down because I can't rototill (I mean, what am I going to do ... pull all of these weeds by hand?!) Thank goodness for a wonderful husband. Now just look how lovely this garden is!

This garden was actually Gage's idea, as he wanted a permanent structure around our water well, so that someone wouldn't accidentally run into it. Not a bad idea, plus now I have a perfect sunny spot for my peppers, squash and lavendar plants.

Ellie says, "How do I get up there?"

"Oh well, I'll just go play with Koda instead!"

Thank goodness for patient, old dogs.

Morning sun on my flower garden ...

This flower garden has mostly blues, purples and whites (by chance, not by design). I've decided that for this particular garden, I really prefer the muted tones. There is a place for the bright flowers, but not here. This one is just so calming ...

This picture is from last night. Gage, Roger and I were eating dinner on the porch and were blessed with this beautiful rainbow! Life is good!

(Speaking of dinner, Roger fixed us fresh kohlrabi from his garden. Have you ever had kohlrabi? Neither had I. It was delicious! ... weirdlooking, but delicious! I'm definitly growing some next year!)

Picture of Kolhrabi from wikipedia

Buffalo River

Last weekend I had a wonderful time when my friend Sara Shaffer came to visit. Gage was away on a kayak trip, so it was just us girls! Right before the weekend, I found out that Sara is ALSO pregnant, which made the weekend even better! We both decided that we wanted a lazy weekend, so we rented movies, ate good food and took lots of naps - perfect!!

I hadn't given a second thought to missing the kayak trip until Gage came back with these ...

Dang! I do hate missing a great outdoor experience. We will be planning a trip down the buffalo river next spring. :) Anyone wanna come?

Memorial Day Weekend and Big News

We had such a fun, full weekend for Memorial Day! Andy, Libby, Kalo and Maggie flew in on Friday to spend the weekend. What fun we had kayaking, eating smores, fishing, and playing to our hearts' content! Leevi also brought his boys down to camp for a few nights - what fun! Our house just seems so empty now ... our house wasn't made to be neat and clean, as it is most of the time right now. It is made to have toys strewn about, sandy, muddy shoes on the porch and happy kids running all around ... ... which leads to my big news. :) We're going to be adding another Werner to the family later this year! Our baby is due December 2nd, and we couldn't be more excited! Everything seems to be going smoothly so far. I am just into my second trimester, and we heard the baby's heartbeat a few weeks ago, which was amazing. I haven't been sick at all, just tired. I took two loooong naps yesterday afternoon. :) Emily is very excited about having a new baby brother or sister, and we are all anxious for our little peanut to be here! Now for a few pics of our weekend fun! (I'm pretty sure I used Libby's camera more than my own, so I didn't have many to choose from here ... yes I do have camera envy!) Kayaking down Timber Creek ... Emily did so great! Peanut's first kayak trip! ... boy that lifejacket won't fit much longer! Being silly! Maggie ... too cute! S'mores - YUM! Playing with the new puppy. Things have been sooo crazy these past few weeks that I didn't even get to post pictures of Ellie when she joined our family. She is half lab, half golden retriever and so cute! She already brings much joy to our lives! We had promised Emily we would get a puppy once the house was built. I'm not sure which she is more excited about right now - the new puppy, or a new brother or sister. :)

Garden Therapy

It's the strangest thing ... gardening seems to be one of the only things in the world that can completely get my mind off of everything else. It doesn't make much sense. It would seem that since only my hands are occupied that my mind would wander. But it just doesn't. It's a wonderful thing ... something I'm just going to accept as a blessing.

I've been indulging in plenty of "garden therapy" lately - recently rotatilling the garden and planting zucchini, yellow squash, green beans (two kinds), lima beans (Emily's favorite!), cucumbers (four kinds!), sunflowers and zinnias (not to eat, but because they make me smile), and tomatoes. You can see here that my potatoes, onions, lettuce, spinich, carrots and peas (regular, sugar snap and snow) are all coming along nicely.

I still have about 50 pepper plants that will go in the ground in a few weeks along with the okra. Andy asked me awhile back if I was planning to feed the entire town of Winfield with the produce from my gardens. :) In fact, I am hoping to participate in our local farmers market this summer ... certainly not every Saturday, but a least a few time. I also have a new raised bed that Gage and I finished last weekend (yep, that makes THREE gardens!) where I plan to plant herbs and more cutting flowers.

The fruits and berries we have planted this year are coming along just swimmingly. Roger recently planted for us four peach trees, four apricot and four cherry. It has become a tradition for Gage and me to plant trees for our anniversary. This year we have a handful of pear trees and apple trees on their way! The six blueberry bushes and six raspberry bushes we planted are also sprouting right up! Last summer I planted strawberries, which are thriving! One thing about planting soooo many different varieties of plants I am not familiar with is that I have LOTS to learn. I'm devouring anything I can get my hands on that tells me more about fruits and berries. For instance, I was recently reading about the care of strawberries and discovered that it is recommended that one pinch off the blossoms until July 1. When we went out to pinch blossoms, Gage and I discovered that the plants were already LOADED with berries! Here is just a tiny little bit that we picked off. Now, the book that I read didn't say anything about pinching off the berries, but we decided to try it and see what happens. Hopefully if won't decrease the yield later in the summer. In any case, we are looking forward to plenty of yummy fruits and veggies this summer and in years to come!