garden phase II

The second part of our garden plan was for Dan to make a fence around the perimeter of the garden with a 3 foot walkway all the way around for ease of reach while planting/weeding/harvesting etc. We didn't want anything too complicated, costly or permanent. Dan picked out some wood posts, cut one end to a sharp point using his circular saw and then hammered them into the ground. We bought chicken wire (apparently we now love Agri Supply in Garner) and stapled it to the posts. The last step was making a swinging gate and now all we have left to do is buy a latch. It actually went up really quickly.

I have to say that my husband is a genius. He is so good at coming up with design plans in his head and then making it happen. Not just with this gate, but with almost everything. (I say almost solely because of a TV stand incident) Dan is so smart in ways that I am not.....he also happens to be incredibly strong which I am not as well.....and I'm sure that he will be embarrassed when he reads this, but it's all true; and must be said.

It has been a lot of fun being outdoors as a family and I have a feeling that Maddie and maybe Charlotte will really like helping me work the garden once it is up and growing. I'm getting excited about getting the first seeds planted in the next couple of weeks although I was planning on starting this weekend and found out its supposed to snow on Monday, so that isn't gonna happen anymore. Maybe the next weekend will be better for planting.....and I hope the weather starts to mellow out cause snow isn't so great for seedings.

This is how Charlotte helps with the garden!!

fingers and toes

I adore baby hands and baby feet. Oh, and baby cheeks, and chubby baby legs.....I pretty much love everything about babies and their chub. It works out for me that I have my very own chubby baby at home. I know that at some point I am going to forget what it feels like to kiss Charlotte's baby toes, or how her fingers taste when she shoves them into my mouth, but I will have pictures to help me remember at the very least what those fingers and toes look like. It's amazing how quickly they grow and change. Maddie is only two and a half and her cheeks aren't chubby against my lips, she never has her fingers in my mouth, and I very very rarely kiss her feet.....mostly I just tickle them. Sometimes I wish I could freeze time, or go back in time so that the memories will be stronger for the future when I can't remember as well.

This is a classic Charlotte face.

tickle monster

The tickle monster came over to our house to visit Maddie. The girl loves her some tickling. When you stop, she asks for more. And more and more and more. Such a silly girl! I love to watch her laugh and writhe all about trying to get away from the tickling but not wanting it to stop. The girl is adorable. That is all.

Bonfire

We have been saving "trash" out in the field behind our house for over a year now....we had 2 Christmas trees, the stairs that used to lead out our back door before we built the deck, cardboard boxes from large items that we have bought and other misc. items. Dan kept saying that he wanted to burn it all and I kept telling him that he was crazy and that we were not going to burn all that junk. Well, I lost that argument and thank goodness for that. This weekend we invited some friends over and had a HUGE bonfire. And when I say huge I mean it.....at one point the flames were over 7 feet tall. Dan was very safe and raked the wheat and weeds away so there was a break, and he had the hose out there and was doing fire control and everything worked out really well....safety wise. It was SO much fun! We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores although the fire was so hot that you could hardly get close enough to roast the marshmallows without feeling like your face was going to melt off. The kids sat on a towel and watched the fire and we sang songs and just had a really great time. I think we are going to try and make it an annual event and maybe next time we'll cook hot dogs as well as the s'mores. I saw our neighbors peeking at us through their windows and I swear they thought we were going to burn our neighborhood down. But we didn't. Dan put the fire out before coming inside and it rained very early the next morning so everything was for sure out. I would rank the bonfire as one of my top 10 favorite things we've done as a family!!

Daddy and Maddie

The girls watching the fire

This is my favorite shot!

Schultz family farm

We decided that we might as well go big or go home. Instead of my 12 x 25 foot garden we decided to make 2 garden beds both measuring 13 x 42 with a 3 foot space in between. Dan worked so hard this weekend....I don't know what I would have done without his willingness to support my hobby with his manual labor! I would be tilling till April!! I'll pay him back in vegetables.....in June. He brought the compost out in the wheel barrow and then raked it all out and then tilled the garden beds with the compost in it twice to make sure it was all mixed. Compost is too rich to plant right into....it needs to be mixed with dirt. Anyway.....we still have to put a fence up around the garden and Dan is about halfway done with the compost barrels, so we're chuggin' along. I still have my vegetable and fruit seeds to pick out and buy. I think I'll have a mixture of seeds and already started plants just to kinda kick start the garden and see how each grows for future reference. We also need to take soil samples and send them in to get analyzed before I plant to see what the balance is like in our soil and if we need to add anything. Fun stuff I tell ya! In not as fun news, in addition to tilling the garden, Dan tilled our entire yard front and back so now we have a LOT of loose dirt which means a lot of dirt making its way into my house on dog and toddler feet. We aren't going to be able to plant grass seed until April/May so it's gonna be like this for a while!!! I'm glad the work got done.....not so happy about the dirty floors!

Dan making piles of compost

Our 7 yards of compost dwindling

Tilling

A view of just how BIG the garden is

Dan turning the tiller around

It was really heavy and quite a bit of work to turn!!

Modern farmer.....cell phone and heavy machinery lol

Tyson and the garden

seeding

I decided to start some herb seedlings indoors this weekend. Dan worked on the garden outdoors and I worked on the one indoors. His was much harder work!! I planted basil, cilantro, sage, oregano, tarragon, dill and rosemary. I was really shocked to see how tiny the oregano and tarragon seeds were.....smaller than grains of sand. I've grown herbs before but always indoors, it will be interesting to see how well they do outdoors in my garden. I got this little green house thing last year and was mad because it didn't come with flower seeds so I just stored it away and now it is coming in really handy. Here's hoping these little dudes grow!!

Do you see what I see

Why yes, I'm posting again. And yes, this is my third post in the past hour or so. Apparently I have some photos that I have been stock piling and they are in need of posting. Who knew? I love this shot of Maddie from when she was 36 weeks old.....I was lucky enough to catch a similar one of Charlotte the other day during bath time.....she is 39 weeks. Are all babies so interested in the tub overflow drain? Or maybe its just that they are so interested in seeing themselves. I love babies and bath time.....probably more than babies and food.....and thats a LOT!

lunch specials

Sometimes lunch needs to be a little special.

Cold

It has been really cold this weekend. Which isn't such a good deal for me when Dan is outside tilling and I have kiddo duty. I tried taking them outside before I realized how freezing it was.....then I tried bundling them up a lot but we still were only able to stay outside for a little bit. Today was a little warmer and while Maddie was napping and Charlotte was not (urgh!) I bundled the baby up and we stayed outside for over an hour swinging and watching Daddy workin'. Maddie has been busy working on her garden which basically consists of her touching the tall grass in our backyard and saying the word garden lol. She is a funny girl. The garden is HUGE and looks so fantastic! I have a bunch of pictures, but I probably won't post until tomorrow or Monday. Here's some pics of Charlotte and our time outside. Less bundled and then more bundled!

Notice her upper teeth? She has 4 up there now!!

She'll be eatin' steak in no time. Haha.

Come on get crafty (like come on get happy....only with crafty....get it?)

I am trying to harness my creativity and turn it into productivity. I learned how to sew when I was a young girl (thanks mom!) but I am way rusty at it, and there is a LOT for me to learn still. But, I am finding that there are lots of fun things that I can do even with my limited sewing knowledge. I have most recently been working on these shirts......the one pictured has been through the ringer. Quite literally. While I was sewing the flower on I accidentally attached the front of the shirt to the back of the shirt. I then had to go and pull out the stitches and realized that I also inadvertently sewed the stem with a little curve to the left which encroaches on the armpit a wee bit! Oops. Oh, and pulling the stitches out caused there to be several tiny holes on the back of the shirt.....so I covered them with a hand stitched heart which looks a little peculiar on the back of the shirt. Oh well. The shirts are a little time consuming, but thats mostly because the flowers are hand stitched.....the sewing machine part goes really fast. Once I get a system going it may take less time, but we'll see. The most recent one I did is a lot better.....with no mess ups. Check back, I'll have more posted as they are completed.....maybe I'll even get the courage to try and sell something I've made on etsy some day. Again....we'll see. lol

object permanence

Charlotte is currently learning about object permanence which I must say is one of my favorite and least favorite stages. At first it is really cute to watch a baby reach their hand over the edge of the high chair and drop a handful of black beans onto the floor and then peer over the edge to see where they landed. However, it sure does get old quickly!! lol It's also flippin' cute when she doesn't want to go down for a nap, how she grabs her paci out of her mouth and throws it. Not just a casual droppping of the paci, but a full on chucking of the paci across the room. I had to work really hard at keeping a straight face the first couple of times because it was so funny......now about 15 paci throws in......not so funny. But as with Maddie, every new phase I make the proclomation that this is my favorite phase......and they always are my favorite.....until the next phase!