Back Porch Container Garden

Greg is the one with the green thumb in our family but I'm going to try and grow a few things this summer too.

Owen ate dirt for the first time.
I'm sure it wont be the last :P

We potted some tomatoes (Greg started these from seeds) and strawberries that we picked up from Lowe's.

Tomato Plant

Strawberry Plant

I planted some herb seeds and herb starts just in case I fail with seeds again like I did last year. 

We have oregano, cilantro, parsley, thyme and basil. I was able to transplant some chives that survived from last year too.

We are in the middle of a huge master bathroom remodel which I'm sure Greg will write about soon. 

Luckily, the kids don't mind our numerous trips to Lowe's, they love the race car shopping carts. I think Greg is on his 6th trip now this Memorial Day weekend.

Finally Finished Something!

We have been working on a lot of projects around here but we never have time to completely finish anything.

So, this isn't a big project but its something that has been on my to do list for too long.

I painted our very weathered looking trellis.

I finally finished something I started!! And it only took a few hours in between feeding, changing and wrangling little kids :)

Today from our Garden

I made Cream of Zucchini soup with zucchini and carrots from our garden.

We didn't grow as much zucchini as we did last year but that is fine because we couldn't keep up with that amount. We were, however, able to give a lot away.

Summer 2016 - Baby Hannah with her zucchini sword.

We harvested lots of ripe tomatoes so I can make fresh tomato sauce. I made some last week and it was delicious!

We grabbed all the ornamental pumpkins we could find in the garden which I hope to use for some fall decorating.

Kitchen Organization Begins

When we moved into the homestead, I just kinda threw everything into whatever cupboard or drawer I could squeeze my kitchen gear or food into. Being pregnant when we moved in and taking care of a baby and now a 20 month toddler since, I never really prioritized organizing. I have always dreamed of being organized because I know it makes life so much easier. Now that we have another little one due in May, I decided I need to get organized big time.

My awesome older sister came over last night to help kick start my kitchen organization and I'm so grateful. My wonderful niece came along to help watch Hannah while we worked which was a giant help.

We made a lot of progress in a few hours and it gave me lots of ideas and motivation to keep going.

Here is an example of what we did:

Embarrassing Before Picture

Much Better After Picture

I still have lots more work to do but it's nice to see some progress.  Greg and I have lots of plans for remodeling our kitchen in the near future that I'm very excited about.

Barn Cats

Since moving in, we've had a huge problem with mice in the garage (and a couple times, inside the cars).  I've trapped dozens of them, but they keep coming back and always do some damage and leave a bunch of poop behind before I clear them out again.

Garden progress

I haven't done any updates on the garden at all, so I will put all the progress so far in this post.

We decided on a location for the garden last year.  Our yard is a bit difficult being so sloped, but the flat area at the bottom was just too far from the house and would make tending to it and watering it difficult, and other flat areas to the side of the house didn't get enough sun or would be better put to use for other things.

We decided to till up a 20' x 40' area near the bottom of the big slope.  Last year I got some implements for the garden tractor, including a moldboard plow for turning over the soil in the garden. I really wanted to try it out and used it way too early in the year during the hot summer, when the soil was very dry.

It left the ground very chunky and unworkable with anything else we had, so something else would have to be done.

Initial plowed up plot for the garden

Oh Deer!

Greg has been pretty busy working on the house and yard, we'll get back to posting ASAP.  In the meantime, here are some cute pictures Greg took yesterday of a momma deer and her babies.