It's a Harden-Off Life...

..for us!

Finally!!!

The tooth that came out today has been loose for about a week. The weird part is, it's the other tooth on the left that's been wiggling and driving her nuts for the past 4 months. Guess it still will.

Wood for Raised Beds!! Woo-hoo!!!

The thing that has been trapped inside my imagination since last January is going to become a reality! The design and layout has changed a dozen times over as many months, not to mention the countless sheets of paper sacrificed, done over with version after version....but today was the day that those countless arguments about money and feasibility appear to have come to fruition...Pakman took all the seats out of the mini-van and brought back a load of 2x6's from the lumberyard...the first entry on the material take-off list I had prepared just for this venerable occasion...pics to follow.

Homegrown Tomatoes

Y'know, my mom loved to garden. Even when she wasn't feeling all that great she still had to have something growing in the yard. Maybe that's where I caught the bug from. This morning I saw the date on the calendar and noticed that today is April 10, mom's birthday. Then I went to check the plants and noticed that today is also the day that my one prodigioius Stupice seedling decided to open it's little bloom. Coincidence? probably. But kinda cool too.

Now, time for a song...

(this video was originally downloaded from here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxwjMtI4aoM) but for some unknown reason I couldn't copy the embed code so it was easier to just download it and re-upload it.)

Sweet Sixteen and Fabulous Four

They are alike enough in their personality to be twins in my book. Except that they were born only 12 years apart.

By the way they both say thank you to their Grampa for the lovely cards and contents therein.

Friends and family on Saturday night with the ice cream cake....

And just the immediate family today with homemade cupcakes....yes the little one helped me make them....she left her own personalization on most of them.

Well, that's it for (immediate family) birthdays until July. Good because now just the sight of any kind of cake makes me want to hurl.

Stupice Rhymes with "My Pizza"

So why is it spelled like that?

I potted up a Stupice seedling 10 days ago and man it must have grown a cm per day. Apparently they're not lying when they say 60 days to harvest, because look what I just found~ a teeny tiny flower bud! People talk about getting a ripe tomato by June 1, I may just beat that. This little guy and his tree brothers and sisters are now too tall or my grow light shelf. I hadn't bargained for this. I just repotted them 2 weeks ago and they took off like gangbusters. I need a taller shelf and more grow lights. Should I repot again or wait another week? I don't know! I wish I had a hoop house. No, I wish I had a greenhouse. I wish I lived in Arizona. Wait, no I dont, too hot and dusty, I don't care if its a dry heat, I like it right here. I wonder if it will bloom before May 1. I think I'll pick up some liquid kelp and worm castings next week. Couldn't hurt. In other news, I have revised my garden layout for the umpteenth time. That does it. I'm buying the wood for the raised beds next week.

Well-Groomed Onions

Gave the onion sprouts their first haircut the other day....don't they look just all spiffy with their new do? It's been a week of scrapbook milestones hasn't it. They were growing all crazy falling over each other and up into the growlight, so I must have read once upon a time that you're supposed to snip them down to get them to grow straight and bulk up. So I did. And if I were really frugal and resourceful I would have made a lovely pesto with the trimmings...but I just composted them instead. I know, how original. Oh, and by the way, my Baker Creek order came today, and guess what? They sent me an Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge, just exactly like I ordered! Except that instead of the 10 seeds per pack listed on the site, there must be about 30 in there! The seed envelope was just plain white, instead of sporting the typical Baker Creek artwork, so they must have scrambled and found an outside source. Two thumbs up Baker Creek! Plus, my free bonus seeds are yellow marconi peppers-something I don't already have and will definitely enjoy growing.

Graduation Day

These occasions are so bittersweet, aren't they... I mean, you spend your whole life preparing for this day, so you'd think when it finally happens you'd be ready for it, but no...The emotion is so....raw......The first of my seedling six-packs graduated to empty frosting tubs, foam can cozee's, and old slurpee cups today and I'm beside myself! One six pack of mixed sweet bell peppers planted way back in January, and one six pack of "tree-type" tomatoes, from Val and Dan. Actually got seven tomato plants, because one was sharing. I never grew tree-type tomatoes before. They are not really "tree-like", but they're supposed to have a compact growth habit like a determinate variety, but instead of bearing all fruit at once like the determinates, they bear fruit continuously throughout the season like the indeterminates. Sounds perfect for patio containers, perhaps to give to friends and/or relatives. That's why I started them so early. By the way, I sowed the rest of my garden tomatoes yesterday, 40 cells worth. That's 20 different varieties, NOT including the 4 trial varieties I have promised for Dave, or the elusive Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge that I ordered from Baker Creek last week but when I checked the website the next day a "out of stock" message appeared. OUT OF STOCK! crap. Maybe I'll have to shell out $9 for 5 seeds on ebay after all. Because 20 varieties is not nearly enough tomatoes is it?

Been Busy...

It's been awhile since my last post....sometimes life is like that, you know, taking up ALL your time and everything....The kids had the whole week (23 thru 27) off, something called "midwinter break"--how inconvenient. Having them all home, all day, every day... was draining physically, mentally and emotionally. Anyways, I had a birthday on the 26th . The same day Pakman got me (2) brand new trash cans (not for my birthday, just on my birthday, mind you) which I made short work of thanks to these instructions for a home made compost tumbler, complete with a Youtube video demo. I just couldn't bear the thought of spending hundreds of $$'s for basically a plastic holding bin for organic waste, so this fit the bill nicely. I knew it was time to do something about my previous compost pile situation when a trail of eggshells and old bread suddenly appeared from the torn out corner of the badly weathered cardboard box I had been using since November. Here is the new compost bin collecting rainwater for the past 3 days. I just hope the chipmunks that left that trail o'refuse across the yard don't figure how to gnaw through the fiberglass screens covering the holes. Well, I'm pretty sure it's chipmunks because one of the kids told me they saw one running out of the box with a chunk of something the other day, and plus if it were something like a raccoon or possum or skunk the mess would have been a whole lot bigger and the box would have been more destroyed, that is my scientific opinion.

Since the kids were off school, we invited ourselves to my Dad's and then to my brother's Friday and Saturday. Grampa volunteers at the Michigan Historical Museum so I thought it was a good opportunity to indoctrinate the young'uns with some culture (plus they'd have something of substance to write about the following Monday in the requisite "What I did during my Vacation" essay, besides the usual "slept alot and watched TV"). There was pizza and another cake at my brother's house, after which we all totally embarrased ourselves playing the Wii American Idol Rewind. But the best was yet to come because Saturday they showed us Lansing's premier pet supply emporium where the kids got to touch a real live tortise and I saw an exact replica of my future backyard koi-pond.

But the fun just keeps comin' because March 2 was another important birthday at our house (No NOT Dr. Seuss), but the one I call Junior Gardener turned eleven. And I had to go to 3 different stores to find the DS game she wanted. Whew. But wait--Two more birthdays are coming at the end of March...hope I won't be too sick of cake....I sure didn't plan this right.

More stuff...that single shelf in the laundry room, of which I am immensely proud, is not nearly enough seedling space, so I dragged in the plastic shelf from the garage which was storing mainly empty pop cans and ancient half-empty jugs of (automotive?) mystery liquids, to it's new temporary home in the dining room, and purchased 4 more shoplites. I just got done yesterday sowing another flat of brassicas and herbs, and a few flowers. Main crop tomatoes will be sown next week...can hardly wait!! In case anyone is wondering, this is what damping-off looks like in a flat of celery (notice the bare patches; they were covered with green just days ago)

and this is what an extremely low germination rate looks like in a flat of long red Florence Onions: (there were 60+ seeds in each of those containers!!! bummer.)