Miscellaneous Garden Stuff

Vivid Zinnia
Sedum

Raccoon Damage :(

More Raccoon Damage :(

Why I don't wear goggles

Misc.

Yesterday, men came and started clearing an area at the back of our property. We're hoping to use this area for planting more veggies/fruits. Our dream is to grow enough to feed us and have extra to sell.

The boys were excited to see the Bobcat tearing through the woods, knocking down trees & smoothing the soil. But even more exciting than that was the size of one of the workers' feet! See the print of his shoe in the picture below? It is twice as long as Monkey Man's foot.
One another note... the following picture represents the daytime habits of Paul, Daisy and Cooter. Their nights are spent galloping through the house, crashing, knocking things over, terrorizing small children in their sleep, shredding whole toilet paper rolls, and generally wreaking havoc.

Reaping

We've done a lot of sowing, and now, we are happily reaping. Today we picked our first lima beans. I think there will be enough for one meal. Hopefully picking them will encourage the plants to produce more. The limas were surprisingly slow-growing. These were the fattest ones.

Bootsie and Monkey Man picked so many tomatoes and cantaloupes yesterday that they had to work together to carry the basket.

Sugar Baby asked me to take a picture of her holding the watermelon to put on my blog. We picked the melon a little too soon, but it was still pretty good. (It all got eaten, anyway.)


This is my work of art. Looking at this shelf gives me such satisfaction.

And lastly, I couldn't resist taking a picture of such sweet pigtails.

Family Photos

Do you know how hard it is to get six kids looking in the same general direction at the same time and not have any of them upset or pouting?

It's almost as hard as getting them to brush their teeth without being asked. Or find the socks they were wearing earlier that day. Or use the same cup they used five minutes earlier and left on the counter. Or...

I tried to snap a few pics of all of them together this past weekend.They really like making silly faces. I could take a hundred pictures in a row of them doing this, and they'd still want to keep going.Bootsie's looking a little squished in this one.

This was actually the first one I took. Queenie was saying "cheese" with all her might in this picture. Who cares which side is actually facing the camera? Details, details... [pun intended]

From field to freezer

We picked over a hundred ears of corn today. We gave a bunch away to friends & neighbors, the kids ate at least a dozen ears straight from the stalks, some went in the fridge, and the rest went in the freezer.

"And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle [chickens?], and in the fruit of thy ground..." Deuteronomy 28:11 :-)

Monkey Man's Birthday Cake

Sugar Baby asked to decorate Monkey Man's birthday cake. He had requested a catfish cake & this is what she came up with:Her resources were very limited, but she didn't let that stop her. She made a few marshmallows, chocolate chips and leftover Valentine sprinkles go a long way. Monkey Man really liked it. Good job, Sugar Baby.

Meanwhile, Queenie has been busy working in the garden. She's didn't have time to turn around and pose for a picture. I'm not sure what she was telling me here, but her hand was gesturing and waving around almost as fast as her mouth was.

It is Time

Time for Corn Picking! Being the first year ever that we have successfully grown corn, this was a long-awaited, much anticipated event.

We picked about a dozen ears, and if the raccoons & squirrels will stay away, we should have a LOT more.

(It was so humid yesterday that my camera kept fogging up.)

The ear on the right could have used a little more time growing & plumping up.
Queenie carefully picked the silk from her silver queen. She loves corn.

And... on another note...

Monkey Man turned NINE today! Nine years ago today, he came into the world and gave us a big surprise. We had thought we were having another girl. Little did we know that we'd have a 10+lb baby boy instead!

A New Face

Daddy Duck and Monkey Man went fishing early this morning. They came home with this guy:

Mr. C was having a great time, swishing him back and forth, pretending to go after people.

It was all fine and dandy until he fell off the cooler and brushed against Queenie's leg. She was not amused.

Time for biology. Gather around, class. Look, I see his stomach!

Mmmmm.... Sugar Baby helps fry him up for dinner.

Live in Concert!

This morning I received this hand-delivered, special invitation to a concert.

The stage and chairs were all set up. The crowd was a little sparse, but the performers were undaunted.

Queenie, as the "Super Star" was the first (second, third & fourth) act. She takes her vocal performances very seriously and makes up all of her songs on the spot. Most of them seem to be in a foreign language. Accompanying on the guitar was Bootsie.

One of the later acts featured Superhero on the trumpet. Afterwards, he sang a song that went something like this:

"I love chocolate

chocolate is fun, fun, fun

and if you get in the pool with no floaties on

you will sink to the belly of a whale

it is fun, fun, fun..."

It was a great concert & one I will remember for a long time. :)

Music under the stars and parachutes

Last Thursday, the ducklings and I attended an outdoor concert at Fort Monroe. The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Band is giving free concerts there all summer. To celebrate the 4th of July, they played all patriotic songs.


The music was great and the location was awesome - right on the bay. Daddy Duck was unable to make it, so a friend rode with us and we caravaned with another family. Because it is a military fort, you have to show a photo ID for everyone 18 and over in your vehicle. We were waiting in line, with our ID's all ready, when a soldier came up to the van and announced that we were one of the lucky ones. They were doing random searches of vehicles. So, my friend and I got all six ducklings out, opened all the doors (back ones included - thus revealing the wide assortment of junk, coolers, chairs, strollers, books, clothing, crumbs etc... to all the people waiting in line behind us) and stepped to the side while they searched the van. The soldiers were very polite and chit-chatted with the ducklings, so it was actually kind of fun. We were on our way in no time. One soldier even told me that I have a nice looking Brady Bunch family & that he came from a big family, too. :)



For the ducklings, the highlight of the night was a surprise visit from the Golden Knights (I think that is what they are called). Right before the concert began, a plane flew way over head and people with parachutes (parachutists? jumpers? SKY DIVERS - yes that's it!) started falling from the sky. Red smoke came from their feet as they swooped and swirled.

It was so cool! And it looked like so much fun! They all landed one by one in the exact same spot by the gazebo where the band was. It was amazing!




I hope to go to at least one more concert before summer's over.

Mystery Veggie

A mysterious plant is growing in my front flower bed. It planted itself. At first, I thought it was a pumpkin. It has large leaves and big yellow flowers like a pumpkin.

But all the pumpkins I've ever grown started out green and gradually turned orange as they matured.

This one is like a bumpy yellow ball, the size of a large grapefruit. It is still growing. For a while I thought it was a squash, but the but the flowers and leaves are way bigger than any squash I've grown, too. Then I thought it was a gourd, but the gourds we grew had white flowers and smaller leaves.

............................................................................................

On a different note... this is how Superhero was dressed when he came downstairs this morning. Today, he is a pilot.

Bootsie spotted this guy (below) while we were looking at the Mystery Veggie, and she managed to get a pretty good shot of him. It is hard to get close up shots of moving things - he was wiggly, and it was a little breezy.