Summer Projects

Our youngest son really wanted his room updated to an older style. Since we moved in and decorated it when he was 4, the decor didn't really reflect an almost 13 year old boy's look. So, in the middle of June, which wasn't probably very smart, considering the hot temperatures, we began to take his room apart. This consisted of removing the old sports border (FUN), and repainting. We liked the look of old boards, so we purchased some pickets at our local hardware store, and began the long process of sanding and staining them. I calculated out that we would need about 40 boards for the one wall, and so we began with 10 to make it seem doable for Rylan (& for me, in the heat). I didn't realize how a 12 year old probably doesn't even know how to turn the sander on, so after we did some basic shop instruction, the boy did a great job sanding all the boards and then staining them. (His older brother also got some instruction and ended up helping as well, but he is not pictured here.)

We chose about 5 colors of stain, and below is how it started to look after the first day. The smell of stain was strong, but we loved it!!

Rylan wanted a more modern looking bed, and as he had a queen size, it did take up a lot of the room. We listed his bed on Craig's list to see what would happen. Sure enough, it sold. We kept his nightstand and I took one day to refinish that, although I don't have a picture of it on hand. We also refinished the desk, and that was done in a hurry, so I can't say it looks fabulous, but I can say it's done. Sometimes that is all that matters!! 

We purchased a new bed that was a full in a platform style, and then I had the boys help me put it together. 

From beginning to end, from removing the border and purchasing a new bed, the entire project took us about 3 weeks. I have to say, it was definitely worth it! Rylan loves it, and so do I. 

In a few days we will be visiting my sister, who has a little munchkin boy & a busy girlie. We are taking a little something for each of them, and so today my helpful hubby assisted me in making this little stacker. I love how it turned out! It is made from (bottom to top), ash, cherry, walnut, & teak woods, all hand finished with organic jojoba oil. It was a very easy project, taking about an hour from start to finish, & I know my sister will love it, too.

The garden is growing away, without much attention from me, since it is hot as you know what out there. However, this is a picture of the biggest tomato we have gotten off, yet! A whopper of a tomato, if you ask me, at 1 pound, 23 ounces! These yellow tomatoes are very tasty, and I find them a little less acidic that some of the other varieties. 

Happy gardening, & keep cool!

An Expensive RV Trip to the Lake, New Potatoes, and a Painting of My Dog!

This past week was a busy one, mostly because we planned a trip to Canyon Lake, which is just 45 minutes away from our house, with 2 other families. When we planned it, I just didn't really think that it could be Mother's Day weekend! Although, it didn't end up mattering much, as we did have a really fun time. The other 2 families both own RV's that they use basically every month. 

Once upon a time, about 8 years ago, we did own a very ghetto RV. I'm not sure if I can find the pic of it, but it was a 1987, over the cab type, and not in terrific shape. Every time we took it out, we ended up dumping about $1000 into it. The very last time we used it, the brakes seized up and we had to have it towed. Derek was so frustrated with it, he offered the tow truck driver it for $100. Even the tow truck driver turned him down. We ended up donating it. It was a piece of junk! If you've watched Duck Dynasty at all, there's an episode where they put a junk trailer up in the air to turn it into a duck blind. This was just that junky, but it was an RV, not a trailer! 

So, Derek rented an RV, since we will probably never own one again. I am not sad about it, as we would really struggle to find the time to use it enough to make it worth the expense and trouble. The RV he rented was very nice. The kids were super excited. We packed it up and took off a couple hours before everyone else, looking forward to arriving before everyone and getting out on the lake.

That's not what happened....  A few miles away from our house, an inner tire lost it's tread, and we ended up having to wait for a truck to come change the tire. Derek had declined to buy the tire insurance at an extra $45/day, so it cost us a piddly $800 to get the tire replaced. What a fabulous start to the weekend. I have to say, the mood was definitely not as excited as we finally arrived at our destination.

Be that as it may, we had an amazing time. I did manage to wakeboard for a few yards, but I was pretty tired and decided I just didn't feel like it. We plan to go back tonite, to buff out a scratch, so maybe I can go again. My soreness has about worn off by now. 

Mother's day was great. My Haylee finally finished my painting of Cooper!!! I have to say, she even captured his very bad haircut! I love the way it really looks so much like him. I just need to make it a frame! 

And last but not least, the garden is moving along. Below is a pic of the first baby red potatoes to be harvested. They were probably dug up a little early, but as I haven't really every harvested any before, I just needed to see if there was anything happening under there! And there was! I plan to use these up this week. They won't last long! 

I have them in a grow bag, purchased at Gardeners.com. They actually grow quite well in it. The site has wonderful instructions as to how to grow any kind of potatoes in it. It's great. I would recommend using a grow bag for sure. 

A Long Week

Yesterday morning was a sad day. I went out to feed the chickens and was in the chicken coop trying to get a bird out that had gotten in, and somehow my favorite speckled hen went running out, with the dogs right there. The youngest dog just grabbed that chicken and killed it. No amount of yelling at him to release or drop the chicken helped. I was so sad about it. It's never good when you have to wake up to a chicken funeral!

This morning, my husband and I were out in the neighborhood running with one of the dogs. We were on our way back, and we hear my husband's name being yelled. We turn around and see that it was someone he knows, that had just purchased a gun, wanting him to find him some ammo for it. This is seriously 6:30 am! I just had to laugh, because that's the deal right now. There is simply not much ammo to be had, and we can't really go anywhere, without someone wanting to talk to him about getting a gun or ammo. Really?!? 

 Wow! Can you believe that it was only a couple of days from 2 strawberries to a small bowl full of berries! Really, strawberries are very easy to grow. Once you have a good location for them to thrive, that is. Here in Arizona, too much sun and heat is often a cause for strawberries not doing well. I have found that they just cannot tolerate that much sun. I have had them located in various parts of the yard, and in the spring, when the temps are cooler, they do very well. Once those temperatures get up in the mid 90's and above, they just don't seem to like it. After much trial and error, I finally relocated about 12 small plants to the north side of my home. This little area does not get a lot of sun. It probably gets about 4 hours of morning sun, at best. However, they have multiplied and spread all over the place. I don't even know how many plants are there now. Probably nearing 50 or so. I should count them. I did give them some organic fertilizer early spring this year, and they do need good watering. The soil they are in hasn't been enriched with any compost in about a year or so, and even so, it was clay to begin with. Give them a try!

These are "Little Finger" carrots, and they are about the size of a little finger. Although, much tastier. I picked these yesterday morning and ate them as a snack a little later. If you notice, most of them aren't super straight. That's because when I planted them, I planted them too densely and they are now overcrowded and growing every which way to get some space. Those darn little carrot seeds are just so small, I find myself impatient to just get them in already! And crooked carrots are the results. It doesn't change the taste, though. Delish.

Here in Arizona, we are heading into dangerous territory (the upper 90's and flirting with 100 degrees)! Remember that after 100 degrees, it's time to give those tomatoes some shade. They will not set any fruit above 100, even though they have flowers on them. Also, I usually check the soil every day, to make sure the plants are getting enough moisture. It doesn't take long at all for a plant to be depleted in our wonderful sunny hot weather! 

And that's about it for today! Happy gardening!

Sunny Days

The long awaited strawberries are just beginning to bear fruit! These are the first berries of the season, & due to the fact that I don't add fertilizers to them, they always are much smaller than store bought berries, but they are soooooo much tastier! I need to get out and weed the strawberry bed, but just haven't managed to get to it yet.

It is superb weather and the roses are just loving it! Every other day or so, I am cutting roses to bring indoors to enjoy, but these are so beautiful. 

These little seedlings are enjoying life in the mini greenhouse awaiting space for them in the garden. I have some spring veggies that are almost at the end of their season, and so I decided to start the melons in the pots 'til I have some space in the garden to plant them out. 

These little beauties, Calendula - Pink Surprise, purchased from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co., were planted from seed way back in November. This is the first bloom! I love the way it looks, although I haven't seen any of the pink that is pictured on the packet. I wonder if that was a graphic add on? Below is the second bloom so far. It does look different from the first...not so multi petaled. I like to sneak flowers in on the edges of the garden beds. It looks so pretty to see a splash of color but these calendula's will be good for keeping aphids away, etc.

The last garden task for today, is to get these beans in the ground. As you can see, I have them soaking to aid in the germination. We have done the Thai White Seeded Long Bean for several years now, and they are quite tasty. Hopefully, I can get that done this evening. Happy Gardening!

My Mini Greenhouse

So, for my birthday this past December, I asked my amazing hubby if  we could build this little greenhouse that I saw on Pinterest. Shown above is the pic. I just love it & have been wanting it for about a year! Unfortunately, this particular one is made out of the country, and although it is made of metal, Derek assured me we could build something like it. YAY!

Literally, he built on a couple of Saturdays, and here is the building progression of it documented in a couple of pictures. He drew up his own measurements, and although along the way we encountered a few problems, it did turn out rather wonderful!

Here it is finished and ready for paint. 

You might notice that the doors seem to be a different color, and they are. I was trying a distressing technique but decided I didn't like it, so repainted the doors. The galvanized metal trays are awesome, and it took me quite a while to find something affordable that would work, but eventually I came upon a website that sells animal kennel trays or trays that go in the bottom of kennels. These were something like $30 each which was totally doable when compared to $200 ea that was what I could find on the hazmat websites I was originally looking at. I think these trays look rather marvelous. 

The glass was put in using clear epoxy. As we were putting in the last piece of glass, one of the long pointed side panels broke. It has taken a couple of weeks to get it back in as we kept forgetting to order it, but now that the glass is in, the interior is nice and warm. I intend to get an automatic vent opener for the top. This will automatically keep the top open when it gets too hot inside so the starts will not cook. Genius!

And here is the final product. I am going to have to move it to get a better location for sun, but otherwise, I really LOVE it! I like the drawer because I can keep extra soil in it and extra pots as well. I really am lucky that my hubby is handy. His dad taught him well. This was the best birthday present ever!

Spring Garden Happenings

The days have been so incredibly full, that there simply hasn't been time enough to blog about how full the day is! 

I love this time of year...everything about it is my favorite! The citrus blossoms are just beginning to fade, but walking outside is amazing (as long as you don't have allergies, which I thankfully don't). The asparagus seems to grow 6 in. a day, and the bunch you see just above were picked in 2 days. Sometimes, I go out in the am and pick some, and then in the evening end up picking more. Asparagus never gets tiresome for anyone in my family. We always enjoy the weeks filled with asparagus for dinner. 

The other day, I was working in the herb bed and I looked over and went to pull a weed, but then thought, "That looks like asparagus!" And sure enough, it must have been a seedling, flown over on the wind from the asparagus bed. I called my boys over and asked them what they thought it looked like, and both of them said, "Asparagus." And those are my boys! They know their veggies! 

We have peas galore coming off the vines. I do really like them, steamed fresh with butter, but I am getting a tad tired of them, I have to admit. Derek tells me he likes them just fine, and then I catch him texting the neighbor that they are not his favorite and does the neighbor need any. Nice, Derek.

Can you see it! I just cannot believe what I found today on the banana tree. SLUGS! Not good! And I have to admit, I find them incredibly disgusting. I am going to have to get on this problem!

This is a pic of the snapdragons. I love them so much. They remind me of my grandma. Today I picked some to bring in the house, and my nephew disappeared. I went back out to find him and caught him picking all the flowers off the stalks and throwing them at the chickens. Lovely. And then, in his grubby little hands, he carried some of the blossoms around and sniffed them and sniffed them. Silly boy! He knows what he likes!

So, I am trying this new type of trellis to stake the tomatoes. Not sure it will work for them, but it's worth a shot! Number one son, Casey, put these together for me in a couple of minutes, and then they simply were pushed into the garden bed in between a couple rows of tomatoes. The tomatoes are just beginning to set blossoms on and I can hardly wait for those little babies to be ready.

This picture right here exhibits why you should never ever buy a single zucchini plant from the store. I planted this little guy from seed 2 1/2 weeks ago. They really are the size of a plant I would buy at the garden center. And so much cheaper. 

Happy Gardening!

Icicles & Cold Weather in Arizona

I'm not sure if you can see it well or not, but there are actually icicles on our fountain in the back yard. It was 25 degrees fahrenheit for the last couple of nights. That is unheard of here in Gilbert, AZ. However, even though I was a little worried about the chickens, of course, they were totally fine.

However, this was what the ficus tree across the street, in the neighbor's yard looked like Sunday morning (yesterday am). Apparently, someone at a nearby nursery told him that if he ran an oscillating sprinkler all night on his plants, the water would freeze and then the frozen water would not allow the tree to drop below 32 degrees fahrenheit. Not sure if that is correct info or not, but it sure made a memorable tree. As I was talking to the neighbor about his tree, some of the giant icicles you can see, on the bottom right of the tree, fell and crashed on the ground in a loud noise. I laughed all the way to church! So funny!

They (the weather people on TV) say it hasn't been this cold since 1988, & I believe it! Tonite it is supposed to reach freezing temperatures by 10:00pm. We actually had to break down and buy a blanket for my daughter's horse. It is just too cold. Tonite all the baby chicks and the silkie are locked in the enclosed section of the coop with a lamp on them in there. The rest are roosting up at the top of the coop, next to a heat lamp. They will all be fine. I think I might just not go anywhere tomorrow. Good thing we don't live in the midwest! (chuckle).

Tomato Starts

Well, it's that time of year again...time to start little seedlings for the spring garden! If you haven't begun doing so, better get on it! I have, over the years, tried various potting methods, and this year, I decided to invest in some small pots for my soon to be finished (hopefully this weekend YAY) little greenhouse. For markers, I read somewhere about cutting up used and cleaned yogurt containers, and that is what I have been doing. These seedlings are a few days old and don't have their 2nd set of little leaves yet.

I've been hearing a lot about "smash book" lately. As soon as I checked it out, I realized I have been doing this kind of thing as a garden book for the last few years. I purchased this eco journal from Barnes & Noble and have customized it for the garden. (It is still available there for $12.95.) Every year, I just add a new tab on the side of a clean page with the new year on it and keep on going. This particular one above is several years old, & I love it! 

For a while, I thought I would just keep my blog and print everything out, but it does lose the coolness, if you know what I mean. I'm talking about all the little doodad's that make a smash book awesome. So, celebrate your gardening awesomeness and begin your own little smash book for your garden! It's so fun to look back at how the garden changes through the years. Happy gardening!

November Garden Happenings

Well, here in Arizona, it is still pretty warm. The days are still in the high 70's, low 80's. The nights are dropping down into the 40's some of the time. However, the garden is still loving the temps! As you can see, below, the broccoli is getting pretty big, although not big enough to produce anything yet. The radishes out front, I have been harvesting every week or so. This morning I took a bunch in for a salad, and gave the tops to the chickens. 

These pictures were taken in early morning, when some of the garden is still in some shade. I really need to replant some lettuce seeds, because I did do that...I'm sure I did, but I just can't see where they are sprouting. So, I need to get to that this week. I also have about a million sweet pea seeds to put in. That is on the list for this week as well. 

The peppers continue to produce an enormous amount of jalepenos and I continue to pick them. This morning I took a couple fresh eggs from the chickens and julienned some spinach onto them as they were cooking. I thought it would give it some wonderfully spice to put some jalepeno slices on there as well. That was a big fat no, as the one I sliced was hotter than ever! I ended up picking them all off, as they were just too hot to eat. (smiley face)

The 4 tomato plants I have growing are doing well. I am going to need to get them covered soon. They are definately heat lovers and not fond of the cold. Can't wait for the tomatoes on them to ripen!

The birds have been feasting on the pea shoots! I am not super happy and plan to cover these ASAP or I will have no peas left!

Below are pics of the new addition on the chicken coop that my hubby and lovely sons so kindly (without very much grumbling), helped me build. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a couple hour project turned into a 6 hour project simply because the dirt was not level, and we ended up moving the shed that is to the right of the now attached addition. It was a nightmare! 

During the move of the shed, we discovered there was a cute little mouse living under it. Our dog, Gracie, the 8 yr old Weimaraner, is a hunter for sure, and she would not let that mouse go. However, it crawled into one of the holes in the Rubbermaid shed, that are on the bottom and we could not get to it!

The next night, my hubby looked outside and there it was, staring at him on the back porch! Gracie went crazy, and sniffed it out, right out of my herb bed, and killed it! Finally, Gracie earned her keep!

As you can see, I need to get the addition painted to match the original coop, and I need to make a trip to my father-in-law's house to pick up some chickens. He says the secret is to reach up into the trees where they roost, just when it is dark, and grab them by the feet. I think that sounds a little creepy, but I did try to catch some the other day in the afternoon, to no avail. Those little things are just too fast. So, I think maybe I might enlist my hubby although he doesn't know it yet!! (tee hee hee!!)

Our New Etsy Shop, Beyond Words Boutique, Is Open!

This morning out walking with my husband, we looked over and saw the most beautiful sunrise reflected off the pond. In only minutes all the pink had gone. So BEAUTIFUL! Loved it!

My daughters and I spent yesterday afternoon getting our etsy shop, Beyond Words Boutique, ready to open. Haylee has been working on earrings and we got those photographed and listed. You can see them here <http://www.etsy.com/shop/BeyondWordsBoutique?ref=ss_profile>. Check it out when you have time! 

These are a couple of stockings that should be listed in the shop pretty soon.

On a side note, the garden is just starting to look good. The broccoli is growing and I noticed this am that there are a few little tomatoes growing. Yay!! I do have some lettuce almost ready to harvest and tomorrow I will post a pic of the addition on the chicken coop. I have yet to get new chickens but hopefully soon!

Happy Gardening & Crafting!!