Laundry Station
My laundry station.
My daily load. And what my couch looks like just about every day.
Just thought I’d share.
Building a computer
Because he is a “bigger boy” now, and can do anything. Apparently. Even build a computer.
As I was putting Giant’s brothers down for naps (Ettin and Galoot actually went down at the SAME time! WaaaHoooo!!!), Giant declared he was going to build a computer and needed some cut wood please.
I offered some cardboard.
He told me it wouldn’t work, and that he needed some real wood and nails to build his computer (his hammer was in hand the entire time).
Not wanting him to be disappointed when his efforts didn’t actually bring forth a computer, I asked him if he was building a really cool pretend computer, or if he was trying to build a real computer.
He told me he was building a real cool computer, that he could play games on. He even generously offered to build one for Ettin, too.
I explained that to build a real computer he’d need electrical wires and plastic and buttons (that’s about it, right?), and that not even Daddy could build a computer at home.
He told me not to worry. He would build a real computer with ‘lectric and p’astic and all that stuff. He just needed some cut wood and nails.
I gave him the wood and nails.
He got busy:
Rolling his eyes at mommy:
Happy as a kid with a hammer, wood and nails:
He did eventually come looking for a real hammer, like the one daddy uses. I gave it to him.
Honestly, this post brings back many fond memories of my own childhood. I loved hammering together boards/firewood/scrap lumber as a kid. In fact, my parents even gave me a bag of scrap lumber as a present once….I was in heaven. Even today, I love building my own things, when I can. And even better, I have a very precise hubby who helps me keep my projects a lot more…precise, and not so thrown together—like a kid with a hammer might have done.
Garden Plants, Close-Up
I should have taken these pictures yesterday, before the frost. So today I captured less than perfect pictures of these long-suffering plants.
Pumpkins
I planted 20 or so seedlings:
I thought they had all died in the wind and rain, but a couple hung on to produce this (really, it was happier looking yesterday):
Artichokes
I tried growing these Jurassic looking artichokes this year:
Supposedly this variety is supposed to produce in its first year. I had my doubts (due to our weather and not their ability). However, when I was taking pictures I found this:
Awww! A baby artichoke!
Ground Cherries
Another experiment. They were very slow to start in my cold basement. After starting them in early April, this is what they looked like by June (and most of their growth happened after things started to warm up):
They grew slowly but happily in the garden. Until the frost:
Plant size, they are about half the height of my sprawling tomatoes (1.5 feet?). I’m hoping to get some viable seeds and try again next year.
Tomatoes
I wasn’t as stressed about my leggy tomatoes this year. Last year their leaves started to get quite yellow, so this year I gave them (and the other seedlings) some fertilizer. They were much happier:
…until the snow last week. And frost this week. Have I mentioned that Alberta seems to have a VERY short growing season?! Seriously, I’m trying. And thankfully I got most of the (green) tomatoes off before this happened:
Strawberries
My strawberries did great this year. So great, in fact, that I cleared out my carrots early so that I could plant a whole new bed of strawberries (I just cut some rooty looking runners and transplanted them to the next patch. Some died. I planted more. Life went on):
Lettuce
Although there is nothing really noteworthy about lettuce, I just wanted to write a reminder to myself that NOBODY, not even the cabin crazy mommy who just wants to plant some seeds and see some green, NOBODY needs a 4ft x 20ft bed of lettuce. Because 4ft x 18ft of the bed ends up looking like this:
And, please note, that lettuce planted in this quantity does not make a good shady ground covering for your brassicas. In fact, the lettuce ends up shading the poor things so that only the brassicas by the lettuce you actually use (and thus cut back) end up doing anything:
Like the broccoli:
And brussel sprouts:
Flowers
I tried growing a little food for the soul this year.
Baby Calendula (Foreground. A little slow, but very pretty) and Baby marigolds (Background. Which grow like crazy. You do NOT have to baby these guys):
Made for a pretty bed (after I raked out my tough spinach and un-noteworthy peas):
I also grew lots of herbs (which I smelled every time I went through the garden, but have yet to really put them to any use), potatoes (beside the artichokes…not a good showing in the wet weather), watermelon (I actually got watermelons that flowered this year! Usually they die when I transplant them, so I am making progress!), carrots, beets, peas, spinach, sunflowers, raspberries (one stalk actually made it, and I ate 3 raspberries from my garden this year).
I’m already dreaming of next year 🙂
Garden in September
Everybody around here says that this has been a very weird summer- cold, rainy, and short (those are, indeed, rivers between my raised beds in the middle of June):
In addition, my garden is on the north side of my house, which seems to be about 2 weeks behind (weather-wise) the south side. For example, there will be snow thick in the backyard while the bushes are starting to flower in the frontyard. So my babies waited a long time to be planted out in the garden (possibly the 2nd week of June):
Finally, this is what my garden looks like at the end of this September 2010.
The East side:
And the West side:
Close-ups to follow…
Today is…Friday, September 24 2010
Yesterday at Stay and Play the kids made Apple Prints. I couldn’t have planned it better!
So this morning I read them the story of the Star in the Apple (this was my favourite version):
The Little Red House with No Doors and No windows and a Star Inside
There was once upon a time a little boy who was tired of all his toys and, tired of all his play. “What shall I do ?” He asked his mother. And his mother, who always knew beautiful things for little boys to do, said, ” You shall go on a journey and find a little red house with no doors and no windows and a star inside.”
This really made the little boy wonder. Usually his mother had good ideas, but his thought that this one was very strange. “Which way shall I go?” He asked his mother. “I don’t know where to find a little red house with no doors and no window .” “Go down the lane past the farmer’s house and over the hill,” said his mother, “and then hurry back as soon as you can and tell me all about your journey.”
So the little boy put on his cap and his jacket and started out. He had not gone very far down the lane when he came to a merry little girl dancing in the sunshine. Her cheeks were like pink blooms petals and she was singing like a robin. “Do you know where I shall find a little red house with no doors and no windows and a star in inside?” asked the little boy. The little girl laughed, “Ask my father, the farmer,” she said. “Perhaps he knows.”
So the little boy went on until he came to the great brown barn were the farmer kept barrel of fat potatoes and baskets of yellow squashes and golden pumpkins. The farmer himself stood in the doorway looking out over the green pastures and yellow grain fields. “Do you know where I shall find a little red house with no doors and no windows and a star inside?” asked the little boy of the farmer. The farmer laughed too. “I lived a great many years and I never saw one.” He chuckled, “But ask Granny who lives at the foot of the hill. She knows how to make molasses, taffy and popcorn balls, and red mitten! Perhaps she can direct you.”
So the little boy went on farther still, until he came to the Granny, sitting in her pretty garden of herbs and marigolds. She was wrinkled as a walnut and as smiling as the sunshine. “Please, Dear Granny,” said the little boy. “Where shall I find a little red house with no doors and no windows and a star inside?”
Granny was knitting a red mitten, and when she heard the little boy’s question, she laughed so cheerily that the wool ball rolled of her lap and down the little pebbly path. “I should like to find that little house myself,” she chuckled. ” I would be warm when the frosty night comes and the starlight would be prettier than a candle. But ask the wind who blows about so much and listens at all the chimneys. Perhaps the wind can direct you.”
So the little boy took off his cap and tipped it politely to the Granny and went on up the hill rather sorrowfully. He wondered if his mother, who usually knew almost everything had perhaps made a mistake. The wind was coming down the hill as the little boy climbed up. As they met, the wind turned about and went along, singing beside the little boy. It whistled in his ear, and pushed him and dropped a pretty leaf into his hand. “I wonder,” thought the little boy, after they had gone along together for awhile, “if the wind could help me find a little red house with no doors and no windows a star inside.”
The wind cannot speak in our words, but it went singing ahead of the little boy until it came to an orchard. There it climbed up in the apple tree and shook the branches. When the little boy climbed up, there at his feet lay a great rosy apple. The little boy picked the apple. It was as much as his two hands could hold. It was red as the sun had been able to paint it, and the thick brown stem stood up as straight as a chimney, and it had no doors and no windows. Was there a star inside?
The little boy called to the wind, “Thank you,” and the wind whistled back, “You’re welcome.” Then the little boy gave the apple to his mother. His mother took a knife (AT THIS POINT , START CUTTING AN APPLE CROSSWISE) and cut the apple through the center. Oh, how wonderful! There inside the apple, lay a star holding brown seeds.
“It is too wonderful to eat without looking at the star, isn’t it?” the little boy said to his mother. “Yes indeed,” answered his mother.
Later (after “gym” — a mommy’s exercise class), we cut out our apple prints (now nice and dry):
Ettin wanted to cut too, of course:
I love these scissors—Ettin gets to make the chomping action of the scissors, and I can hold things steady:
Then we stuck up our apples on our tree:
And admired our work:
Now, off to my garden 🙂