The White House

The White House

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

On the Go!

I really wish I remembered to take more photos of my day. So much more goes on than I am able to show you!

Emily and I started out the day weeding in and around the veggie beds. She wanted to take a long 4-wheeler ride so my condition was that we finish this chore first.

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We found all kinds of containers and dug the Johnny Jump-Ups out of the strawberry beds. Then I cut the runners from the greenhouse to plant in the outside bed. We’ll see if they take.

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Our ride was 18 miles long and she drove the entire time. Sure wish we had two machines, but it’s actually probably more fun that we can talk the whole time.

All of a sudden she stops and screams “what is that”. Got my heart racing and I was thinking bear.

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Nope. It was a grouse. In fact, there were three others in the ditch and when they all flew she screamed again. I told her if we were stranded in the woods we would scare ourselves to death. (You should have seen us jump every time the fan kicked on the 4-wheeler. We are a couple of babies…. but many did we laugh).

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We saw some sand hill cranes doing a mating dance.

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It was beautiful even if we did get poured on for about 15 minutes.

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We stopped at the end of a drive to see some horses. The woman came out and invited us up to pet them. She gave me the big scoop on owning a horse in Alaska, what they need, the costs, what to do…. it’s definitely a doable adventure. Emily’s only got another six years. I really want her to have this experience.

Doesn’t this smile say it all? We had a lot of fun.

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We still need to add a board under the edge and pull back the carpet, but it looks so much better now.

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Emily wanted the hammock in the front yard. Can’t say as I did, but making kids happy is more important. When I got back from soccer practice with Lucas (where we got thunder and poured on, but it went around my house!!) Emily and Homer were laughing and having a good time working together. Those two really get each other.

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Olivia grabbed my camera and these shots are from her…carrots…

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cabbage, bok choy, tomato and peas…

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corn…

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garlic…

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strawberries…

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lettuce, radishes and kohlrabi…

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many pots to be put somewhere….

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snapdragons….

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wave petunias….

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Geraniums…

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besides being backwards what else is wrong with this photo?

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That’s how the hammock looks in the front. I.hate.it. It is really nice to stand at the veggie gardens and not have it blocking my view, but now it is an eyesore (only to me…everyone else loves it). The one plus… I could lay in it, watch the kids in the pool and see my pretty flowers all at the same time. (And how often do you think I’ll do that?).

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Thanks Olivia for all the photos!! Tonight I picked some cucumbers. I showed them to the family and they were kind of ho-hum. My gardening no long impresses them. Great. Now what do I do to get their attention??

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I see more pickles in my future. We were also gifted 4 cases of apples that are for the “chickens”. While we watched a movie I peeled. OMG this will not be a quick project. (I have to peel to see the bad spots so I can cut them out). Blended the hunks in the food processor (the chickens do get the rest) and put  it into the ice cube trays to freeze. I’ll bag them up and we’ll use them in smoothies all winter. How awesome is that? We were also gifted a whole bunch of eggs so I pulled carrots out of the freezer and we’ll be making a lot of bread to then freeze and eat as we want. Landscaping +building + kids + sports +harvesting +???? = very full days!! :)

I hope that you are as blessed as I am.

2 comments:

Not a Granny said...

Your 4 wheeler ride brings back memories of our rides in Kodiak years ago...the bear frights are the worse!!

Kim@Snug Harbor said...

Great post! Loved the 4 wheeler ride in that open country. How cool would it be to own a horse? I've always wanted one. And I love the hammock there. You need to lay in it for half an hour each day and relax. I want to come walk around your yard and gardens!!