Kitchen day 6 and garden

Ren came over for remodel day 6. They put up the rest of corners for the fridge cave and continued the mud work. They also moved the last outlet that needed moved. Thanks Ren for the help today.

My garden is doing ok. The squash are starting to go crazy. The tomatoes have stayed green for a while now but one plant is getting a ton of little ones on it. My pepper plants only have 1 green pepper. My sugar snap peas grew really well and I got a lot from them. My cantaloupe and cucumbers are struggling because the squash plants are overpowering them. And my jalapeno plant is doing well. The little jalapeno peppers are so cute. For my first garden, I am just happy some plants are producing fruit/veggies. It's my first year of a garden and it can only get better from here.

My sugar snap peas... they are on the end of their life


Look at those squash plants. They just took over the box.

The little jalapenos are so cute

Flowers, dress, sink hole

My weekend was a good one. All day yesterday was spent at the America's Global Village Festival in Ontario, Oregon. We had an awesome booth with food and trinkets to sell. We do a half hour show. I brought my camera, turned it on, and took.... no pictures. My battery died and I got NO pictures. Kristi and Heidi did though. It was fun!

Rillz and I went on a silly date today when he got off work. We went to Costco for lunch at the food court. Then went up and down every aisle. IT was great! I bought flowers and underwear. Thats all. I planted my flowers when I got home while Rillz was looking for running shoes in the shop. My other flowers I bought for my window box are only spring flowers that are now going dead on me and looking a little sad. New flowers... new pretty color!

Rillz couldn't find his running shoes so off to Fred Meyer we went for shoes. We found some great ones for him! Then we went looking for dinner. Rillz had plans to go to Sizzlers for the salad buffet until we passed an Applebees with a sign that read "Feed 2 for $20". Rillz turned into the parking lot so fast and the detour had officially been taken to Applebees instead of Sizzlers. The food and service was great!

I finally finished my frock by friday. I like how it turned out and it fits! There are plenty of mess ups but oh-well. A good learning experience.

Here is a CRAZY mystery. In my garden by where I planted my peas I have a freaky sink hole. It eats dirt and seeds and spits back up sand/rocks. I don't get it. It is SO weird. I have filled this stinkin hole 3 times with dirt. Packed dirt. You know, like how you pack in a ton of brown sugar in the little measuring cup and dump it out only to still hold a very tight cup form. Well, thats how tight I have packed in this flippin dirt only to have rocks and sand spit back at me the next day after the dirt had been watered. I don't get it. Anybody know my mystery? It's driving me crazy.

You can't see the stupid little rock pebbles very well in the picture. Where is the dirt going? And where are the rocks coming from? Grrrr.....

I hope your weekend went well! Happy Monday tomorrow.

I feel so behind

Is it just me or have I not blogged lately. I think about things to blog about often but then just don't find the time. Last Saturday Rillz and I went garage saleing. Yeah, I know, no surprise there but we bought a bread maker for $10 from a church sale. It didn't come with a manual which I was a bit worried about but I figured I could get it off the internet. Lucky for me it was very easy to find and print. So I made bread the other day. I started making the bread late at like 10:00 pm and it takes 3 hours. The bread shouldn't sit in the bread maker longer than an hour so therefore I had to wake up at 1 a.m. just to take the bread out of the bread maker. And to make things worse Rillz has bad allergies right now which is making him snore BAD. So I couldn't fall back to sleep easily. Oh-well. My bread machine worked though and the bread was edible!

Next thing, Kristi gave me a topsy turvy and I planted a jalapeno pepper plant. Rillz picked it out and I hope it grows or does something besides die on me. I want to can salsa this year so the more things I can grow the better. But, has anyone had success with the topsy turvy planter or even tried it (besides Kristi, she killed her tomato plant when she tried because she didn't water it) Grow little plant, grow!

Rillz made me a garden box. It is 6' x 3'. I wanted it 8' but the lumber price went WAY up just for 2 more feet. So I stuck with 6' instead. Nothing is planted in it yet because I am waiting to get (I never thought I would have to wait around for this) horse manure compost. That seems so weird that I am waiting for horse crap to plant my vegetable seeds. But it looks good. I just hope I remember to water these things.

Doesn't that look so nice.

Rillz and I went to Zamzoes (a local garden/animal place) to get chemical that makes pee stains go away in the yard. Thanks to Malu and her contribution to lawn maintenance, we have yellow patches. The guy told us to use Thrive. Thrive is good for everything! It helps with flowers, gardens, pee spots, shrubs, trees. It is some sort of fertilizer. I took pictures right after I applied some to the lawn to see if it will really work. Here is what the lawn looks like now...

the dogs pee in the first half and poop in the second half. It's kinda silly. Lets hope Thrive helps my lawn look a little less like a leopard.
Random... look at this pretty flower that is growing by the tree I hate most in our yard. Look how ugly that tree is in the back. It makes the flower look uglier.

One last thing, I follow this website that has a frock by friday thingy. This week I joined in. I am sad to say that I am lagging behind. I have Monday, Tuesday, and most of Wednesday done. The Wednesday instructions I messed up one part and cut somewhere I shouldn't have and so I had to bandage it up. I am planning on pretty much finishing it tonight but I have plenty obsticles in my way. I have NEVER sewed a button whole in my life. I guess its easy but I will be the judge of that. I mean, I already messed some of it up and the hardest is yet to come. Oh man, wish me luck that this turns out to be wearable. I was going to post a picture of what it is supposed to look like but I can't figure it out right now so no picture for you folks. Well, off I go to continue working and then home to finish that stinkin dress.

Strawberry jam and composter

After blogging this morning I was just SO tired. Why? I don't know. But, I woke up at 4 and was ready to continue my day. I decided to start tackling the strawberry jam. I had NO idea what I was doing. But in the pectin packages are instructions for jam. I followed them and got them into jars. I decided to go with shelf jam instead of freezer jam this first time around (although the freezer jam is easier). I had to put it in my pressure cooker/canner. I have never used one before. But guess what... I have shelf strawberry jam now made by me! The lids are even sealed and everything! I am so proud of myself. And, it wasn't that hard.

Next thing on my list, Rillz bought me a composter bin from Costco. Some girls are giddy about nice shoes and purses and all I wanted was this composter bin! I have to wipe the drool from my mouth over this big black rotating piece of plastic! haha. Anyways, Rillz put it together for me tonight.

Isn't she a beauty. Won't be clean for long though

Here is my little sugar snap pea plants so far. They are so cute. Yesterday I planted my herbs. I planted Rosemary, chives, cilantro, and parsley. This gardening thing takes patience. I am like a little kid and want results the next day. I am excited to have the time this summer to do all these outdoor things for my house.

Look what I did in school today

Today was my last school day of the semester. People were asking me what I was going to school for. Well, let me tell you. I am going to get my associates in Early Education. Unfortunetely because of my full time job I can only do 1 or 2 classes a semester. I took the whole last year off because of family issues. Anyways, my class this semester is Inclusion in the Childcare Center. So we made name tags that even the visually impaired can read.

This is my school building. If you look closer in one of the windows today you may see...

This. Another art project. This was pieces of stuff on contact paper. Easy and fun for little ones.

Before school I went yard saleing. It was a good time! So excited and a thrill when you find something. The Abercrombie pants were $2, The tank top $1, the super cute dress $1, the book $.25, the fabric was the most expensive. $1 a yard so $4.25 for those fabrics. I didn't bargain the price because it was for a church fundraiser and I figured I can definitely pay $1 a yard.
In this picture... The metal "square" was $.75 and I needed one for the bed frame and dresser I am going to make. There were also air nail and staple guns that I really wanted but I held off. Haha sounds so manly. And then the leather and buckle clasp things were for Ren. I bought a whole box of leather making thingys and offered the lady $5 for the whole box. She said yes and then started looking in the box a little more and regretted it A LOT! I handed her $5 bucks and took off before she really changes her mind because I new I got a GREAT deal on this useless things to me (but not to Ren).

After school I went to go visit my Great Uncle at Elks (a rehab hospital) by my house. But I got a little distracted and went to some more garage sales and then to the Boise Co-Op. I really wanted cheese curds. I got the cheddar cheese kind. I was thrown off because it was white. I thought the cows automatically spirted out yellow milk for cheddar cheese. Hmmmm... oh-well. haha
I also ate half the bag by the time I got to Elks, which is a whole 9 blocks from the Co-Op.

This is my flower box by my front door. I love the flowers I chose this year. Last year I went a little extreme and bought a ton. This year I stuck with only planting four and it looks so good. Now the trick is watering them to keep them alive.

I planted snap dragons on the bottom but I don't think they like the cold as well. They seem a little sad already.

Yesterday Rillz and his friend Joe removed some trees for me. I am so excited! It is where my garden is needing to go so those trees just had to go first. Rillz is amazing and does what he can for me!

The type of trees that were there before
The cut tree pile. Looks like a lot of work to me. Unfortunetely I was working when they did this so I didn't help.

All clear! We just need to burn the stumps away. I can see clearly now the trees are gone... (did you sing that line?)

This is a small section that I have already planted peas, radishes, and carrots in. It looks like a whole lot of.... well, dirt.

This is my beautiful front lawn right now. See all those white spots? Yeah, well those are weeds. And that is pretty much my whole front lawn... weeds. The picture actually makes it look nicer than it REALLY looks.

Well, I am off to Caldwell now to hang out with Heidi and my parents. Then maybe spent more of my Saturday sewing, gardening, weeding, who knows. Have a nice Saturday my peeps! Peace and Love to you all!