So, on to my thankfuls for the week...
1. The dirt/mud pile in my front yard is almost gone. It was 8 cubic yards of dirt when it was dumped, but with all the rain, despite our covering it with plastic each night, parts of it turned to mud. Each day, we have been hauling it around the yard, filling in holes and building up around the foundation of the house. I am mostly thankful that I have teens who can help with such a massive chore. But I'm thankful for the wheelbarrow to move it, too. It would really stink if we had to use wheel-less buckets. :)
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| I took this after 2 days of dirt-hauling. Anyone else think "ET phone home" when they see it? |
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| Unfortunately, I'm not the brightest candle in the wax works. I put a tarp under that pile. The grass is going to be dead anyway, so I could have just raked out the last of the dirt and planted some seed. BUT, I now have to get that blasted tarp out of there. Makes things a whole lot more time-consuming. |
2. After the dirt came the mulch. I cannot tell you how happy I am to finally have some real landscaping around the house. Weed-free mulched flower beds makes me so very happy. Even if the flowers and plants in those flower beds are sad, little things and the bulbs are buried underground. Come spring, my yard will be awesome.
3. My friend who moved to Japan is back for good! I am so excited to have her home. We managed to sneak away for breakfast together on Tuesday, and it was wonderful to actually sit down face-to-face to catch up.
4. My blog friend, Rita, recently wrote about her boys catching fireflies, and it made me stop and realize that Turken and Cuckoo have never done such a thing. By the time lightning bugs come out here in Indiana, my boys have been in bed for quite a while. Well, on Tuesday, for a bunch of boring, long reasons, I let them go outside to play after our late dinner. The lightning bugs were out early thanks to another storm rolling in making it darker than usual. As the thunder boomed in the distance, we were outside enjoying the beauty of bugs.
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| The first time Cuckoo's light-up sandals were actually in a situation where one could really see the light-up capabilities. |
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| While I was messing around with my camera settings, I got lots of blurry photos. Almost all of them had a streak from a lightning bug. |
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| That would be a mosquito bite under his eye. |
6. Thanks to a couple of days with not one drop of precipitation, my street no longer looks like this,
and my garden doesn't smell like a sewer. (Funny not funny story: We tore out the 4 and a half rows of beans, so there is plenty of empty space in the garden. We have been cleaning out the chicken coop bedding (a little later than usual) and dumping it in the compost pile and the bare areas of the garden. With all the rain on Tuesday, that wet bedding let off the most offensive stench, and it could be detected the moment we walked out the back door. Now, that things are starting to dry, it's less sewer and more nasty gas station bathroom.)
7. Speaking of our garden, a bit of an update. As I said, green bean season is over, so we finish up with 42 quarts on the shelf. Cucumbers are still coming fast and furious. I have 21 quarts on the shelf and another 7 waiting to be done. Zucchini is out of control. I've sauteed some for dinner most nights this week, and I've managed to shred and freeze a little bit, the chickens have enjoyed some, but Buttercup is the one who has taken charge of using it. She's made bread, chocolate zucchini bread, and some zucchini patties that taste a heck of a lot like hash browns. Still, we have about 20 large zucchini sitting on my counter waiting to be frozen or eaten. Tomatoes are starting to ripen, but I'm afraid most of our plants will be lost to the flooding. The garden got hit hard, and the tomatoes aren't liking it. But it's the garlic and potatoes and onions that I'm really worried about.
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| Poor, dying tomato plant. |
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| That's our barn roof. |
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| That's our house. |
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| Aaaand our driveway. |
Since we are smack dab in the middle of 200 acres of corn, this thing buzzed our house at least 50 times. Unfortunately, it wasn't until later that it occurred to me that I should have made a video. Sorry about that.
The kids were waving to the guy in the helicopter. And they could see his wave back. It was all very exciting until we caught a whiff of whatever they were spraying. We moved inside after that.
9. I may say this every single week. Phoenix's driving is going well, and it makes my life so much easier! Besides practices, he drove himself to his orthodontist appointment.
10. On Thursday, we finally, FINALLY, had a day sunny enough and almost warm enough to head to the pool. The water was a bit chilly, and the breeze gave us goosebumps, but the sun was warm.
So, are you going to join us this week? We'd love to have you!
(If not, I'd still like to hear about whatever got you smiling this week.)
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Have a lovely day!
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A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, Amycake and the Dude, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Getting Literal, I Want Backsies, The Meaning of Me, Thankful Me, Uncharted, The Wakefield Doctrine
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i want dessert at your house! we are absolutely under the the tow of veggies here!
ReplyDeleteThe ET dirt pile made me smile - and I hope you manage to get the tarp out without too much trouble.
ReplyDeleteLove the new banner, it's very pretty :)
We only tried a veggie garden briefly last year. We planted it in an available spot without the benefit of complete sun. It was mostly shade. I got one or two eggplant, a few cucumbers and some cherry tomatoes. The regular tomatoes and peppers didn't do well at all. It must be so exciting to go pick your dinner and food for the winter. I did can some plums from our tree last summer. I'm glad it stopped raining, the kids are enjoying summer and you take great pictures.
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean about the sewer smell. I don't have a chicken coop to add to it, but all the rain we've had this year made shoveling any dirt a very aromatic event. I picked my first tomato this week, it was exciting even if the tomato itself wasn't. Too much rain does not make tasty tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteWell, this was a mostly fun week. I love reading about your family. I pretty much smile through every post.
ReplyDeleteWe are currently in Pittsburg and are enjoying a boating weekend with other like minded folks. Tonight it's dinner on the docks and that's always fun.
Have a fabulous day. ☺
Took the kids to the pool again today as well. As we arrived, the sky became overcast and we had a little bit of rain every now and then, but the kids did not care (except of Violet, who, due to a lack of any body fat, had to be pulled out and warmed up under a pile of towels a couple of times). And as if the weather knew, as soon as we've arrived home at night, we had a blue sky again. Thanks a bunch :-)
ReplyDeleteYour posts about your produce always makes me excited! I have a tomato plant just hanging full of (still green) tomatoes and we can't wait eating them. I have lettuce growing and definitely plan on planting some zucchini next year. I'Ve also bought 4 bags of mulch (pitiful, I know), to finally finish the front yard.
Thanks for sharing all the pictures :-)
Have a great week, Christine!
What a cool shot of the helicopter! (That first one where you can see that the blade curves as it twirls around)… much better than a video!
ReplyDeleteCatching lightening bugs surely is one of the preeminent summer childhood experiences.
1. I see ET!
ReplyDelete4. Love the picture of Cuckoo with the lightning bug on his finger.
5. Poor kid. That's some skeeter bite! He deserved ice cream sandwiches.
6. We have to drive past a turkey farm to get to the lake house, and the stench is unbelievable. I don't know what they're doing wrong, because we have quite a few turkey farms around and none of them reek like this one does.
8. They sprayed malathion from helicopters in LA to get rid of fruit flies. They did it in the night, shining spotlights from the helicopters as they went.
10. We finally got to enjoy Whitewater last night. Ahhh!
I didn't notice ET until you pointed him out, but you are right--you did have ET in your yard!
ReplyDeleteThe rain finally arrived in California! Thanks for sending it our way!
Did you attend the open house? How was it?
I immediately thought ET! :D Love, love all of your photos. We've got the crop dusters and mosquito abatement going on here so I know about those fly bys. :) No garden for us this year, time just got away. The nice thing about living in an agricultural community is that the neighbors love to share the fruits of their labors and I, for one am "thankful." :)
ReplyDeleteI love your introduction to this post. Your thankfuls are great too, but the intro really resonated with me. Since beginning TToT I look for thankfuls, even when the week is not so great. Without TToT, I don't think I would notice them some weeks.
ReplyDeleteI really, REALLY wish you didn't post that close up of that bug! *shivers* I quickly scrolled on by. :)
ReplyDeleteThat is one nasty looking mosquito bite and one tasty looking cookie sandwich! :D
I am quite happy smell does not come through via computer.
The pool time looked like a ton of fun!!!
What wonderful and delightful photos indeed. Greetings!
ReplyDelete