To Garden or Not to Garden

That was the question.

When my landlord showed me a place about 75 yards from our home where I could garden, I was ecstatic.  But then I doubted.  I figured that drought, fungus, bugs, and deer would rob me of any rewards.  Plus walnut toxicity, as the area is surrounded, and I pulled out about a dozen small walnut trees in prepping the soil.  And any financial investment we'd made and physical efforts we'd labored at would be wasted.  (Then again, is exercise ever wasted?)  But let's be honest, can I not garden when I have any square inch of open dirt?  

So thank you to some friends for introducing me to a deer fence (and sharing some supplies with me).  The deer only wreaked havoc once--before I put it up the 6 ft. mesh wall.  After that I only saw their hooves on the outside!

I eventually couldn't keep up with watering by hand (carrying milk jugs of water out there), and I didn't even begin to fight the pests, so it definitely didn't last as long as it could have, and the walnut toxicity did affect the tomatoes, but not completely, and it was still an abundant harvest!  Green onions, zucchini, yellow squash (waaayyyy too much--even after I took out a full grown plant), cucumber, tomatoes, peppers (red and green), and green beans.  It's always nice to have enough to share. . . I just don't like anyone to feel obligated to take it.  :)  I'd usually just bring a box to church and let whoever wanted to take it, and it always ended up empty.   We also had some sugar snap peas and beets on our deck in containers, and plenty of tomatoes and some little strawberries in the front.

Try again:  The cilantro needed more water, the onions and garlic seem to have disappeared, and the pumpkins didn't make it too far.  (Sad about the pumpkins.) Next year.  Plus, other friends have inspired to me to try lettuces!

Back in the spring, Ked loved to eat "vegetables from the porch"--sugar snap peas.

Tyn (~9 months) had Roseola, but you can't see his spots in the picture.  

Snuggler

If it's sucking the thumb that makes a baby more of a snuggler, please give me thumb-suckers for all of the rest!

Ked In Charge

When Ked dresses himself.

Remind me why we paid around $100 for a bed and mattress?  And why do we still have to leave a night light on and put a blanket over the window blinds (to keep car lights from shining through and bugging him) when he now demands to sleep with the lights on?

Ked was very excited about "ice cream on my fire!" for his birthday.  

We have a three-year-old!

Update

A week after his first rock incident, Ked threw another big rock on his toe.  Big black toe, eventually losing the toenail, which he was pretty upset about.  I'm afraid, however, that he's only learned that Injury = Video.

Ked started preschool with his friends.  A bunch of us put it together and are the teachers/supervisors.  A lot of the other mothers were early childhood education majors, so the two hours are fully formatted (and age-appropriately relaxed).  We started out last week at our house.  It was fun, but exhausting too!

Tyn:  After he was mostly weaned, he became Daddy's boy, which Sam loved.  Now he's back to Mama's boy as teething and sickness has encouraged a little more nursing again.  At least he is FINALLY mostly sleeping through the night!  To 5:15am at least, usually.  (That took some work!)

Tyn still doesn't like to eat much, and it's often only with great effort and patience that I can get him to.  (He does like munching on whole vegetables from our garden, however.)  Whoever says that a child won't let himself starve hasn't been around Tyn enough.  Nevertheless, his empty-belly body seems to have abundant energy (especially when he's really grumpy from hunger--that's when he throws his most elaborate temper tantrums).  Just like his big brother, he loves to climb up anything he can.  He has his own little "stomp dance" that he does on tables and desks.  When Ked was in this stage, I got rid of the chairs.  I don't think I can do that again.  Sometimes I just really need to sit down!

Having Tyn weaned makes it soooo much easier for us to get out.  We've enjoyed going to the river and to Dismal Falls.  The boys loved both!  The last time we were at Dismal, we'd been here a month, and I was exactly a month shy of delivering Ked.  We've grown!

I forgot Ked's swimming trunks, but he didn't seem to mind.  Both boys loved the little pools to play in.