So here is my discovery....for me it is very exciting and I think has solved a problem. When I did my last blog post it was after Craig and Liam had gone to bed and the tv was off. That post was the easiest one that I had ever done! There were no glitches, no freezes, no nothing! Just smooth transitions from photos to text to photos and it was fabulous! I know that when the tv is going the computer will act up sometimes. It seems when Roku is on especially. Like they both draw from the same source. So, right now Liam is building with legos and I am recording Tom and Jerry because he was generous enough to let me turn the tv off to blog. He is such a great kid!!
I wanted to share a picture of one of my Christmas cactuses. The one above sits in the south facing window of my laundry room all year. And this year it was covered with more blooms in December than I had ever seen! Too many to count for the first time! I moved it out to the living room to enjoy. I think though that this picture of it was taken by Liam. I would have gotten the whole plant:) I don't have a picture of it to share but I have one other Christmas cactus. It is roughly 40 years old. It belonged to Craig's grandma. I have had it for about 20 years. It never blooms. But this year I realized that it was not the plants fault! I have had it always in the living room or entry way where it gets light all day then artificial light in the evenings. What a difference that darkness makes. A couple weeks before Christmas I moved it from the entry way to the classroom. The classroom gets light during the day but rarely do we go in there at night. Within a week it had buds! And now it is in full bloom! There are roughly 40 blooms and it is gorgeous! If I was not technologically challenged and could take pictures off the camera and put them on the computer I would run up there and take a picture right now. But just picture a large plant with beautiful pink blooms:) There...who needs a camera?
I wanted to share a picture of one of my Christmas cactuses. The one above sits in the south facing window of my laundry room all year. And this year it was covered with more blooms in December than I had ever seen! Too many to count for the first time! I moved it out to the living room to enjoy. I think though that this picture of it was taken by Liam. I would have gotten the whole plant:) I don't have a picture of it to share but I have one other Christmas cactus. It is roughly 40 years old. It belonged to Craig's grandma. I have had it for about 20 years. It never blooms. But this year I realized that it was not the plants fault! I have had it always in the living room or entry way where it gets light all day then artificial light in the evenings. What a difference that darkness makes. A couple weeks before Christmas I moved it from the entry way to the classroom. The classroom gets light during the day but rarely do we go in there at night. Within a week it had buds! And now it is in full bloom! There are roughly 40 blooms and it is gorgeous! If I was not technologically challenged and could take pictures off the camera and put them on the computer I would run up there and take a picture right now. But just picture a large plant with beautiful pink blooms:) There...who needs a camera?
This picture is for everyone who has ever been trapped in a game of 'hide the trashies' with Liam. Auntie Pam and Uncle Marvin come to mind. He thought this was hilarious. Fortunately, with his new legos from Pam he has spent more time building than playing with trashies. We have gone about three days without having to hide them. What a blessing!!!
Liam has a few chores that are his alone. He is such a good helper! One of his chores is to empty the silverware from the dishwasher. This is an every other day job and he does it so well. It takes him a while as he finds many things to do with the silverware while putting it away. Though I have stopped him from exhaling on the spoons and sticking them to his nose. I had to draw the line somewhere! He also helps gather and take out the garbage every Sunday evening. He carries his own laundry basket to his room and puts his clothes away and he will move clothes from the washer to the dryer and from the dryer to the basket. When he was about two he would push the full basket of clean clothes to the place in the family room where I sat and folded them. It was so precious. And even now I just love watching his little hands work. What a precious little man I have.
On New Years Day we had some friends over with their four kids. The daughter was so sweet with Liam. Here they are snuggling during a movie. The eight year old boy had already given up on playing legos with him. He would build a fabulous something or other and Liam would come along and tear it up. That is what Liam does. So Morgan had moved on to other things. The two older boys were doing their own thing and that left Megan. I will also add...she hid trashies with him for a very long time. He was smitten!
Okay....I managed to get this turned in Picasa but not from there to the blog. Proof, if you didn't already believe me, that I am technologically challenged. So, tilt your head to the left and you will see Liam's people on his 'Fire'. The kindle is a pretty amazing thing. I just love his people!
I realized that I have not yet done a post about my garden last summer. The 'harvest' post. So I got on and searched for pictures of it. Could I find any pictures of it? Noooooooo. Did I take pictures of it? Yeeeeeeeesssssss. But all you need to do is go back to last summers posts to get an idea of what it looked like this past summer. I did have one bed out of commission all summer. Well, almost all of it. A volunteer squash plant or several came up. I let one live to see what it would become. It was a Zucchini looking plant with acorn squash. Very interesting. The rest of the bed was covered with compost and allowed to rest all year. So, my numbers were quite impressive when you consider I was down one bed! I will give you an overview of what I have harvested in the past.
In 2011 my total was 406 pounds. Strawberries were 80 pounds of that. Beets 30 pounds and Cantaloupe 25 pounds.
In 2012 it was 501 pounds. Strawberries were down to 41 pounds. Beets were down to 6 pounds. Cantaloupe was up to 29 1/2 pounds. Green Beans were 70 pounds, Zucchini was 26 pounds. That year I was also given 403 pounds of corn and green beans. I did a lot of canning!
In 2013 the total was 546. That year the tomatoes exploded! 165 pounds! Cantaloupe was 37 pounds, Strawberries were only 26 pounds, Cabbage was 40 pounds, cucumbers were better than ever with a total of 52 pounds between lemon and Japanese Long. Potatoes were 18 pounds. Patti Pan's were 38 pounds and Apples were 27 pounds. I also got 200 pounds of corn and roughly 100 pounds of green beans given to me.
And 2014 was quite a year considering I had one bed out of commission! My grand total was 740 pounds!! 205 of that being lemon and regular cucumbers! Zucchini was 75 pounds, Apples were 67 pounds of fabulous Honeycrisp!! Strawberries were down even further to only 17 pounds. Tomatoes were 89 pounds, Grapes were 36, Cantaloupe was 27 pounds. Butternut squash was 39 pounds. Potatoes were 25 pounds and Cabbage was 41 between purple and green. This year I also got 6 pounds of heirloom dry beans. And green beans were way down at 18 pounds. This year I also got a few for free but they were not good. It was a very hot summer and I discovered that green beans do not do as well in the heat that we had. Mine were mostly hollow and so were the ones from the farmers field. I did not get any corn as I have plenty still from previous years.
I did not keep records before 2011 but there was 2007 - 2010 here as well. One of those years I grew over 100 pounds of green beans! That was a very good year for them.
It has been interesting keeping records and looking back over what worked and what didn't....I will just move what didn't work the year before to a new spot and give it another try. The one major thing we changed was in 2013 when we tucked the garden in bed for the winter we covered all the beds with black plastic. The spring of 2014 was so wonderful as far as preparing the beds for planting. The dirt was free from weeds and though Craig did run the rototiller through all the beds, the hand claw would have worked just fine. Loose dark soil, no weeds. That is my kind of gardening! We did the same last fall so this spring should be just as easy. I should also add I am doing all that in a plot that is 60 x 100 with a house and garage taking up space.
I think I have covered everything I wanted to. And Liam is asking to watch Tom and Jerry again.
I will leave you with a Liamism: There is a song from an old musical that goes 'I love you, a bushel and a peck......' that I have sung to him since he was an infant. Last week as I tucked Liam into bed I told him 'I love you'. He started whispering 'a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck". There is no cuter bushel or peck on the planet!
I realized that I have not yet done a post about my garden last summer. The 'harvest' post. So I got on and searched for pictures of it. Could I find any pictures of it? Noooooooo. Did I take pictures of it? Yeeeeeeeesssssss. But all you need to do is go back to last summers posts to get an idea of what it looked like this past summer. I did have one bed out of commission all summer. Well, almost all of it. A volunteer squash plant or several came up. I let one live to see what it would become. It was a Zucchini looking plant with acorn squash. Very interesting. The rest of the bed was covered with compost and allowed to rest all year. So, my numbers were quite impressive when you consider I was down one bed! I will give you an overview of what I have harvested in the past.
In 2011 my total was 406 pounds. Strawberries were 80 pounds of that. Beets 30 pounds and Cantaloupe 25 pounds.
In 2012 it was 501 pounds. Strawberries were down to 41 pounds. Beets were down to 6 pounds. Cantaloupe was up to 29 1/2 pounds. Green Beans were 70 pounds, Zucchini was 26 pounds. That year I was also given 403 pounds of corn and green beans. I did a lot of canning!
In 2013 the total was 546. That year the tomatoes exploded! 165 pounds! Cantaloupe was 37 pounds, Strawberries were only 26 pounds, Cabbage was 40 pounds, cucumbers were better than ever with a total of 52 pounds between lemon and Japanese Long. Potatoes were 18 pounds. Patti Pan's were 38 pounds and Apples were 27 pounds. I also got 200 pounds of corn and roughly 100 pounds of green beans given to me.
And 2014 was quite a year considering I had one bed out of commission! My grand total was 740 pounds!! 205 of that being lemon and regular cucumbers! Zucchini was 75 pounds, Apples were 67 pounds of fabulous Honeycrisp!! Strawberries were down even further to only 17 pounds. Tomatoes were 89 pounds, Grapes were 36, Cantaloupe was 27 pounds. Butternut squash was 39 pounds. Potatoes were 25 pounds and Cabbage was 41 between purple and green. This year I also got 6 pounds of heirloom dry beans. And green beans were way down at 18 pounds. This year I also got a few for free but they were not good. It was a very hot summer and I discovered that green beans do not do as well in the heat that we had. Mine were mostly hollow and so were the ones from the farmers field. I did not get any corn as I have plenty still from previous years.
I did not keep records before 2011 but there was 2007 - 2010 here as well. One of those years I grew over 100 pounds of green beans! That was a very good year for them.
It has been interesting keeping records and looking back over what worked and what didn't....I will just move what didn't work the year before to a new spot and give it another try. The one major thing we changed was in 2013 when we tucked the garden in bed for the winter we covered all the beds with black plastic. The spring of 2014 was so wonderful as far as preparing the beds for planting. The dirt was free from weeds and though Craig did run the rototiller through all the beds, the hand claw would have worked just fine. Loose dark soil, no weeds. That is my kind of gardening! We did the same last fall so this spring should be just as easy. I should also add I am doing all that in a plot that is 60 x 100 with a house and garage taking up space.
I think I have covered everything I wanted to. And Liam is asking to watch Tom and Jerry again.
I will leave you with a Liamism: There is a song from an old musical that goes 'I love you, a bushel and a peck......' that I have sung to him since he was an infant. Last week as I tucked Liam into bed I told him 'I love you'. He started whispering 'a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck". There is no cuter bushel or peck on the planet!