A lovely rain happening.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Our first nice rain of the year started last evening. Very convenient timing...almost all my planting was complete and Mother Nature kindly took over the job of watering everything for me*grin*.
It's been a nice gently rain for most of the night. Still gloomy and overcast this morning, so perhaps it's not done.
It does mean that it's a forced day off for Garry and I...no yard work if it's raining*grin* Such a nice reward after a weekend filled with hard work. Today is still a holiday Monday, so we will enjoy it as such.

I passed off some extra tomato and cucumber plants to my neighbor last evening. Kaeli is also taking a couple tomato plants and the few that I still have left over, I'll take to work with me tomorrow and find them some new homes. I figure all the tomato plants that I have planted for ourselves will be more than enough! Marla...to bad you weren't closer*grin*

My Positives:
My garden beds are looking great and they are now filled with little plants and new seeds. Mother Nature provided the watering.
My greenhouse kitchen has now reverted back to being just my kitchen! Much to my family pleasure.
My new flooring in the LR/DR is one step closer to being put in. The major priority yards is complete, so it's back to indoor stuff!
It's a holiday Monday and a day for relaxing.

Have a wonderful day.

Monday's challenge...what motivates me...my three children


my hubby


and our granddaughter

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

YOYONOMORE1 5/23/2011 10:35AM

Enjoy your holiday, you deserve a day of rest and relaxtion after all the hard work you all did. I like those pictures. Hugs, Shirl Report Inappropriate Comment

NJMATTICE 5/23/2011 10:26AM

It seems the rain is a lovely reward for all your hard work. Cosmic affirmation! I hope that you have a lovely day off and find lots of relaxing things to do. Now I have to go look for a picture to put in my blog. Have a great Monday. Love, Nancy Report Inappropriate Comment

It's a good thing we are having a long weekend.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

We need Monday just to be able to recover from all the work we have on the agenda this weekend.

Yesterday saw hauling of more dirt than I want to ever see again! We filled one of the raised garden beds and today we will continue to fill the third one.
I did get almost all of the rest of my tomato seedlings planted into their permanent locations as well as all of my pepper plants. Once the third bed is complete, I will be planting my peas, eggplants, zucchini and also creating a location to plant my watermelon plants. I have about 6/8 celery plants to find a location for also.
I think I'm going to go to the greenhouse and buy some garlic plants rather than buying a package of seeds as that is too many for us. I'm going to plant the garlic plants around the base of my apple trees as apparently they are good companions! Go figure...both reputed to be very healthy for you *grin*

I must say, I'm learning so much about outdoor gardening and I'm really enjoying it. Here's hoping that I will still say the same thing as harvesting time comes and I need to can/freeze or otherwise create ways of storing all that I'm growing for the winter!
Marla....how's your garden coming alone? Bre...thank you so much for getting me excited about growing my own veggies. I've been able to pass along the excitement to two of my co-workers now and they are making an attempt at growing some things this year. Potatoes are so easy...pop a couple into a decent sized container and then keep adding dirt as the plant grows until you fill the pot and voila, you have yummy potatoes. Which reminds me, I still have some more seedlings to plant.

My positives:
Bless the hearts of my family for their willingness to work hard at giving me my dream of raised garden beds. It's hard work and I really appreciate all their effort.
The incredible weather that we are having. I've been able to get a two week jump start on my garden this year.
Although the cost of getting started is large, the benefits for years to come far out way the initial output. Thank you Lord for providing the funds.
The world as we know it, didn't end as predicted yesterday! My heart goes out to those that believed so strongly in a man's prediction. My prayers are that they find they relationship with God and strength it according to God's word.
Another beautiful day to work outdoors.
Epsom salts to pour into a warm bath at night to ease the soar muscles*grin*

Have a wonderful day. If you can dream it, you can create it.

Hugs,
Wanda

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

LEXIE63 5/22/2011 2:36PM

As I understand it, all you have to do for garlic is buy a bulb of garlic, break it into individual cloves, and plant each one a finger's depth (about 3 inches) below the surface of the soil, pointy side up, and wait. :-) What a lot of hard work you are doing, but think of the rewards down the line... and the queue of Sparkfriends at your door in a few months, plates and cutlery in hand. LOL Hugs, Lex xxx Report Inappropriate Comment

NJMATTICE 5/22/2011 10:53AM

God Bless the Epsom Salts. A nice natural relief option. Healthy. I like it. I can hardly wait for you to realize the fruits of your labors come harvest time. I like a nice success story. Enjoy your Sunday and how wonderful that you have Monday as well! Enjoy every minute! I get to pick up Tim at 1:30 today. I'll be glad to have him back in the picture. His absence this past week has given me a greater appreciation for the man. (that's the POSITIVE) Keep up the healthy good "farming". I'm glad that you are getting such good help and it has turned into a healthy family activity. Very nice. Love, Nancy Report Inappropriate Comment

Long weekend and what a great start!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Yesterday was indeed a most "fabulous" Friday!

1. It was Friday, that alone stands for being Fabulous
2. Phone call from Kaeli at work to let me know a) she got a $2.00/hr raise at work b) she and Shy were wondering if we could get together for dinner Friday night.
3. We had a great family night at our place, all the kids and their boy/girl friends as well as another of Q's friends came for a BBQ and a great evening of sitting around outdoors on the deck and having fun.
4. I am now the proud recipient of not only one new raised garden bed, but two! (Pictures of the construction to follow)
5. My raised garden bed from last years construction is now all planted with carrots, beets, onions and celery.
6.It's great to have Shyra back home from her holiday. She had a wonderful time in Cuba.

Today's agenda calls for hauling dirt to fill the new garden beds and over the weekend getting them planted. My seedling are living in anticipation of having a new home!*grin*

Construction Pictures:
Quin and Afton built the first one for me and then Garry and Quin constructed the second one. I'll post more pictures later of them as things start to grow.



My bed is 8 feet by 4 feet, and I will be able to walk all the way around it so weeding and planting (and eventually harvesting) will be easy.


The bed is built out of cedar 4x4's, which I will have to seal on the outside as yet. It's a lot of dirt needed to fill it, but we are using some of the more weed'grass free dirt as back fill, laying down a layer of garden ground cover to prevent weeds from coming through and then adding clean top soil.


Afton the official "supervisor/nail handerouter"


The finished bed.


Last years raised bed, now with celery, pickling onions, beets and carrots all planted in it. I'm trying the companion planting ideas this year and will see how that works.



Construction underway on the third raised garden bed.


Garry and Quin working together so nicely *grin*

I realized that I didn't have a picture yet of the finished "third" bed, but will add that one when I get it planted.

So much to be grateful for. So blessed with my family and their friends.

Have a wonderful Saturday, I will, I'll be planting.

Hugs,
Wanda

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

NJMATTICE 5/21/2011 10:22PM

Where's the snow? It looks like it's nice and warm up there finally! The cedar bed is really cool. I want one. I'll have to fly Quinn down to Texas and have him make me one. Enjoy the outdoors. What a nice treat! Love, Nancy Report Inappropriate Comment

LEXIE63 5/21/2011 6:07PM

Wow! That is great! I'm jealous, in a nice way of course. :-) Enjoy yourself with your lovely new beds. Hugs, Lex xxx Report Inappropriate Comment

KSNICKER 5/21/2011 12:18PM

Those beds look wonderful. Nice job Quin and Garry! Oh and Afton too! hee hee Good luck on your garden this year. Hope you get some nice veggies from them. Enjoy your weekend of Planting and thanks for sharing the pictures. (((hugs))) Report Inappropriate Comment

YOYONOMORE1 5/21/2011 11:12AM

Get those green thumbs a working. All the beds look wonderful and just think of all the good things that'll be growing in them, minus the weeds, lol. Sounds like you have a busy day in store for you. Enjoy your long weekend. Hugs, Shirl Report Inappropriate Comment

Fabulous Friday and a long weekend to boot!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Yay, a three day weekend this weekend. It's also time to officially begin planting out of doors in most parts of Canada.

Yesterday I arrived home from work to find both my son and his girlfriend working away at building my raised garden bed. (I'll post some pictures this weekend) I'm so thrilled to have the extra space.
Garry and Q are going to work together today to build the third bed. It was originally planned as a tiered planting area, but Q came up with a much better use of the space and a great "L" shaped raised bed. Bless his heart. It will also be much easier to build.
So far I've planted some celery, lots of pickling onions, some beets, transplanted five tomato plants (many more to go) and some potatoes. I've got some flowers started too. Even had a friend come over and gave her some potatoes to start and some tomato plants. I'm having so much fun with all of this.

Shyra arrived home last night from Cuba. Garry picked her up at the airport, I needed to head to bed due to the late hour of her arrival. I'm anxious to get home from work today and be able to chat with her and get all the details on her trip.

My Positives:
Quin and Afton....bless their hearts and all their hard work.
I'm getting a third raised garden bed this year, thought I might only get the second one.
My "ocean" trees are in full leaf and I can once again enjoy meditation time out on my back deck.
Garry is going to attempt to hook up a rain barrel for me. It will be a bit of a challenge, but he thinks he can make it work.
I have a request in at work for my entire work station to be moved to where I'm presently sitting. I have noticed some difference already in being in a different location. I'm no longer sitting directly under a lighting system and my eyes are not ready to fall out of my head by the end of the work day anymore. Hopefully it can all be moved in the next few days. Blessed to have such a flexible work situation.
It's Friday and a long weekend ahead. Hope to take at least one of those days and just relax and recharge.

Have a wonderful Friday,
Hugs,
Wanda

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

LEXIE63 5/20/2011 9:38AM

Sounds like the work move will be very productive for your health, which it great, and I do like the sound of your raised beds. :-) Have a lovely weekend! :-) Hugs, Lex xxx Comment edited on: 5/20/2011 9:39:51 AM Report Inappropriate Comment

Yay, we had a small bit of rain last night.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

A teasing of rain last night. Just enough to leave things wet, but not enough to be miserable. I love the smell of the air after a nice rain....everything smells so fresh.

I had a short work day yesterday as I had to head for a medical appointment. The results of yesterdays visit are leaning very much towards "environmental" factors. I have noticed over the past couple of days since moving my desk location at work that my eyes are not bothering me near as much by the end of the day. Could be due to two things: 1. I am no longer sitting directly under a lighting system. 2. I'm sitting in more natural light and by an open window. It will be interesting to see how things are over the next few days. If the swelling goes down in my lymph glands and my headaches become less or non existent then I have my answer! The time line of these occurrences fits pretty well with the timeline of when I stopped wearing my respirator mask at work.

I managed to get two rows of celery planted as three rows of onions as the companions to the celery yesterday. I have never grown celery before, so we will see how this experiment goes. The onions that I'm trying this year are the little white onions that you can pickle....my favorites.
I transplanted four pots of my tomatoes also. Lots more to go, but they will all get done this weekend.

My Positives:

Some partial answers from the doctor. Time is what will give confirmation or not.
Some of my garden is planted now.
A lovely little light rain last night.
Shyra arrives home this evening. Yay...I'll get to see her this weekend.
My apple trees are doing wonderful...in other words...I haven't killed them!
I've been staying on track much more easily these past couple of weeks. It's not been such a struggle.
Being able to get outdoors each day.
Just being alive!

Have a wonderful day,
Hugs,
Wanad