Garden Update

See Kai's little carrots poking up down in front?

Carrots, corn and radishes... OH MY!

...With snap peas, pumpkins, zucchini and

wax beans peaking up from the other bed.

Looking green and lush!

Has it really been less than 20 days since I last put up pictures of my veggie garden? Amazing, given how much it's grown! I'm excited to see what it does once we actually start getting some decent weather! As you can tell, things are coming right along. My two sad broccoli plants are still hanging in there and I am very curious to see how these strange, leggy things turn into edible broccoli (assuming they will). I think my radishes should be ready for harvest in a few weeks, and I'm very excited to get a taste of my home grown veggies. We picked our first strawberries this week, and it's becoming clear to me that with the rate we go through produce (OK... mostly me), my meager garden will be nothing more than outdoor nibbles, and most of it probably won't even make it in the house. That's OK, I love the growing process and this year is definitely a "test" to see how different crops come out and what works best in our climate. And I'm not gonna complain if my 4 year old wants to eat stuff straight from the garden!

May & June Hikes

May- Smith Rock State Park

This was done on our recent vacation. Smith Rock is so amazingly beautiful! Truly breathtaking. The hike started off rocky, but after a picnic lunch, ongoing Army stories from Mommy and just a little trail mix bribery from Daddy, we managed almost 2.5 miles! Our longest to date!

June- Heceta Head Lighthouse

This was on our beautiful coast, just last weekend on a spontaneous trip west. Joe was desperate to escape the high levels of valley pollens so we packed up and headed out for the night. This hike wasn't very long, but Kai did so much better on it than when we first tried it a year ago. I'm hoping we'll get another, longer hike in this month, but just in case... we've already got this one done! There were lots of interesting places to stop and explore, and Kai really enjoyed climbing on all the big roots!

perking up

After a weekend of nice weather and some help in my garden today, things are starting to look pretty good out there. Last weekend I pulled out a bunch of the broccoli that looked downright horrible (leaving two salvageable plants), got more carrot seeds planted and added a few starts. It left me feeling satisfied with how things are going, and feeling good to have a bit of green in the mix (I know, using starts... it's kinda cheating, but hey, it's keeping me motivated). Today Kai and I got seeds in for wax beans and zucchini (what decent garden doesn't have zucchini?). Now, the beds are full and nothing to do but water, watch and wait. Here's a few shots from Sunday, and amazingly, things have grown just since then!

Tomato, squash and eggplant starts

Pumpkins and snap peas,

with corn and carrots peeking out from the higher bed.

My container fruit garden.

Yum! Strawberries and blueberries!

Vacation Time!!

So, I had to get my starts in the garden because we went on vacation! I wouldn't be home to water them for a whole week, so I had to put them outside and trust that mother nature would do the watering for me. And, she did. Unfortunately, they haven't done as well as I had hoped, but some are coming along and salvageable. Oh well, it didn't take long to start the seeds... better get another batch going. I'll post some pathetic pics soon, but first, about that vacation...

We got to spend the whole week in a resort mountain town about 3 hours from our home. It is typically a beautiful area; nice and sunny this time of year. But since we were visiting, it decided to rain, and rain, and even snow... just a little (it appeared we brought the "valley weather" with us). The wet and cold weather forced us inside for some much needed R&R, and our little guy was fairly easy going all week which made it all that more relaxing. Let's not get crazy, we did have a melt down or two, but definitely the most laid back we've been able to get on a family vacation. Joe and I both had a few extra days of on either end of the week, so we got to spend about 10 fun filled family days together. I could have taken a few more vacation days, but Kai was definitely ready to go back to school last week! He missed his buddies terribly.

I can't get the video to upload, so here's a still photo few highlights!

Starting things off right with a snowball fight!

Kai is becoming quite the photographer.

Beauty abounds!

Pony riding is serious business.

Floating down the river...very, very slowly!

Biking around the resort.

We ended up with one beautiful day, in which we packed in those last 3 activities. We had some other nice weather, and had a nice hike on different day (first picture), more on that one later.