Guess Who Else Came for Sunday Dinner?

Boys at Sunday Dinne

Sunday's at our house are family dinner days.  A chance for all to catch up on happenings, visiting about what happened during the past week and talk about what is coming up. The cousins get to play, play and play some more.  They have so much fun together.  They always play baseball and 'bad guys'.  Here they are playing both.  This is always after they have had their fill of carrots.


This last Sunday we were having a visit on the deck, waiting for the BBQ grill to get going when right there walking along side the deck was a mother raccoon.  Not surprising as we have raccoon visits frequently.  (Just last week they ate all 7 of my fish that had survived last years slaughter.

Momma with 4 babies

What was surprising was that following along in a perfect line were 5 (five!) babies.  She led them along to the side yard, up the fence, up the sycamore tree and there they played for 30 minutes.  As if putting on a show just for us, those cute babies played 'King of the Branch' trying to push each other to their death 20 feet below. They climbed over and under each other, dragged each other the length of the branch, ran back to mom and bit, tugged and pulled. The boys could hardly believe their eyes! Raccoons wrestle just like kittens.

This baby trailed behind and makes 5

We watched in delight and just as they came, with some hidden signal from mom, down they went, onto the fence and followed it over to a neighboring yard. 

We were left with smiles on our faces.  

I hope your Sundays are as delightful.

Why I love to garden!

It just struck me that as a grandparent, there is a lot of knowledge to pass down.  Memories are important too. So why not combine the two.  I'm sure my grandsons will carry a lot of memories with them and have a great joy of gardening in their lives.  Not to mention it is good for you. Just look at these photos if you are not convinced of your influence.

Bumpa gives a lesson in gardening

 Bumpa's other name is Rick.  The boys absolutely adore their grandpa!

The boys do their garden chores

Ian eats his just rewards

Smiles all around.

4th of July Blueberry Muffins

This morning I promised Mr. Rick blueberry muffins for our Independence Day breakfast. I found a great sounding muffin recipe on Pinterest. The muffin recipe can be found at Kitchenlane.com

The muffins

These muffins were sooooo good! The only thing I did differently was to toss a bit of flour on the blueberries before placing them in the batter.

We have three blueberry bushes that are three years old. This year they are beginning to produce enough blueberries to keep us happy.

The blueberries

We LOVE blueberries!


Usually we place netting over the bushes to keep the birds out, but this year we tried Scare Tape. It seems to work pretty well.  I also keep the bird feeder full to distract them. Actually it's a promise I made to the birds. "I'll fill your feeder if you stay out of my garden."  I'm not sure we are in total agreement, but for the most part it seems to help.


This Independence Day we are celebrating our independence by reaffirming our goal of becoming more self-reliant. I try to grow seed that is not hybrid and use organic gardening methods. I am learning to save my seed for next years crops. Mr. Rick's composting efforts turn out rich loamy soil that nourishes our plants and reduces water consumption.

Though small steps, each step taken is better for the planet and our health. Our daughters are growing their own gardens now and feeding their children fresh organic produce. That is the best reward of all!

One garden section July 2012

The Salad Garden

The Salad Garden

 Last night we had our first complete salad from the garden, with the exception of a yellow and red sweet pepper!  Hurray...this means the season of healthy eating is underway. Now the hard work begins to pay off.

After harvesting yesterday morning, I realized I had a little work to do in this garden, so spent a few hours weeding and caring for these hard working vegetables.

The salad garden is having it's ups and downs this year. Usually I follow pretty closely a four-year rotation schedule in my vegetable garden.  But this year I decided to make one area a simple salad garden.  It contains snow peas, two kinds of lettuce, spinach, radishes, pac choi, and celery. I also put my basil, parsley, cilantro and dill in this bed.

Snow peas

The snow peas are doing so well this year.  Probably due to the cooler and wetter spring.  My grandsons love them dipped in ranch dressing.  This year we have had several meals with sauteed snow peas with just a tiny sprinkle of sugar to help them carmelize. So very good!

Pac Choi

However, my radishes are woody and inedible. One of my favorite things in a salad.  I planted some more today. 

My big disappointment is the Pac Choi.  We have never grown this vegetable before, but love it in stir fry. We planted the seeds indoors in March and were late getting them in the ground. Even though the weather has been cool and wet, they are beginning to go to seed.  I know I didn't thin them as quickly as I should have.

I read on a garden forum that many people find the plant edible even though it is bolting as long as you eat it before the flowers have actually bloomed, so maybe we will have it tomorrow.

Lettuces

And lastly in the salad garden are the pretty lettuces and spinach. They are doing so well in this bed! There is nothing better than a home grown salad or fresh from the garden lettuce on your sandwich. Yum, Yum.

I think it might work out okay to grow the salad garden as a fifth rotation bed. There may be two years of the same crop, but three years before any crop gets repeated.  More about my rotation at a later date.

Happy salad making!