Some garden progress, some regress

Even though all but one of the tomato plants has died from frost in the early morning we have been having lately, and the peppers have also suffered, there are baby carrots or onions poking up and the pumpkins are just starting to show.

Hopefully the remaining tomato plant, broccoli, peppers, green beans, carrots and onions will be able to hold out until the cold mornings are not so severe.

Aimee even found out from one of her coworkers, who's husband does farming, that it is still a little early to plant due to the cold and wet, so covering the beds at night might be necessary to save them for the time being.

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Take nap

We were getting finished with dinner tonight when Aimee checked Sam's sun flower in the window sill. It was a little dry so she showed Sam how it was wilted. I tried to help by pointing out how the leaves were drooping and the stalk wasn't straight. I said, "It's tired and thirsty."
Sam helped Aimee water the pot and while they watched the water soak into the dirt, Sam said "Take nap."

We laughed and laughed and congratulated Sam on his witty comment.

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somewhat neat blogger feature

I was just reading random stuff about blogger and came across an article about blogger views. Evidently it is something that is available on all blogs, you just add /view after the url. For instance, you can view my blog with the sidebar view at: http://whatasillyandstupid.blogspot.com/view/sidebar#!/ There are other views on the top dropdown, like mosaic and flipcard. They just take your blog posts and pictures and display them in creative and different ways; some more visually pleasing and some more useful that others.

Second garden bed finished

Screws, straps, pocket holes, more screws, black plastic sheeting, gravel, landscape fabric, shovel, dirt, garden mulch, mix, organic bagged soil, mix. Done.

Enough said.

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Yard work begins

We started the spring cleaning work in the yard this past week. It has been nice a couple days in between the rain, and since yard debris was this week, I just had to get the cans full before it was picked up on Friday. There are a lot of weeds and unfortunately I didn't think to take before pictures.

I weeded the front yard Wednesday night after I got home from picking Sam up from Sarah's; it was such a nice night. I got the raised bed with the day lilies we planted last fall and the strip next to the driveway weeded by the time Aimee got home. Sam was having such a fun time initially helping me with putting weeds in the bucket and then digging in the raised bed; putting the dirt in his dump truck and dumping it out again. There is a lot of open space in that bed so I just had to tell him to not cover the green plants and he was careful to not hurt the lilies.I probably got more than half of the first yard debris can filled with all those weeds; they had gotten kinda thick, but not as thick as in the backyard, in garden area.

The garden area was a virtual jungle, of weed proportions. Aimee help me weed the area around the gravel pad I had started last fall for the the second raised garden bed. We weeded until it got dark and the flood lights came on back there. We must have filled the rest of the first and most of the second yard debris can with all the weeds. That corner of the yard looks pretty good now.

This weekend I even started building the second raised bed. I put together the first of the three 2x6 boxes that get stacked up to create the bed and had the wood for the other two cut before we went in to get Sam to bed last night. I put the second level together this morning and figured out that I could use my pocket hole jig to drill holes so I could attach the two levels together. I had used a scrap of 2x6 at 3 places on each side of the first raised bed and it was kinda clompy to put the plastic liner in. So this will work much better.

It started raining today, right on queue with the weather predictions that the rain would start around 12 noon (I think it was actually like 11:45am). I got the first screws in the 3rd level when it started raining. I was trying to find my ratchet straps to tame the boards that were cupping the wrong way so I could get a tight joint when it started, so I grabbed all the tools and quickly got them under the eves of the house, cleaned up and got everything in the garage. I will have to finish it this weekend when it is supposed to be nice again; unless I can find a good hour of no rain to get that last level screwed together, the pocket holes drilled and then secure that last level.

Once I can get that last level screwed in, I can put the plastic liner around the inside of the box to keep the dirt from touching the wood. Then there is just filling it with dirt and planting the remaining tomatoes, pumpkin, and zucchini to finish out what we have planned for this year's garden. Aimee has already planted lettuce, broccoli, one heirloom tomato, carrots, peas, beans, and onions in the first box. I put two bags of fresh organic dirt in that bed and mixed it into the garden compost and soil that didn't do so well last year. Hopefully this amendment will allow the garden to do better this year. I have more of that dirt to add to the second box so hopefully they will both have good harvests.

Oh, and I figured out that the ratchet straps were in the car Aimee drives, so I will have to get those out in case the weather clears this week.

The great grape escape

I bought some grapes at the store last weekend and we have been eating on them all week for dinner. Sam loves them and has even learned how to pull them off the stem himself and recognize if the stem breaks off and needs to be further separated. I know it sounds trivial, but for a 28 month old, not so easy to do. Anywho... I asked him for one last night, since it was the last small bunch left. I only asked for a couple but each time I did, I would say "Thank You" really enthusiastically and make a gesture like it was some great prize Sam was rewarding me with. Then pop the grape in my mouth and chew as if it was the best grape that I had ever had. Well I guess the flattery worked, cuz I think he gave me all the rest of the bunch, except about 3 or 4 that he ate, waiting for me to say thank you and gobble it up. The giggle he was getting out of it was well worth all the overplay. I was feeling kinda silly that night so it was great fun for me too. He especially cracked up when I got a slightly sour one and couldn't make the normal excited act and made a sour face. Then he got the biggest laugh out loud belly laugh when he was trying to give me one of the last grapes and I said it was ok that he have it but that he better hurry up or it was going to get away. By coincidence he dropped it and it rolled across the table toward me so I batted it around a little bit as he was also trying to grab it, like it was trying to evade our capture. I eventually let him catch it and he popped it in his mouth to secure it but wasn't chewing it. Again I said he better hurry up and chew it so it didn't get away. He put both hands over his mouth like he was gaurding the exit of the grape prison but played around with it in his mouth for a little bit. Soon enough, "pop" out it came, landing on the table where he quickly grabbed it and bit it in half; gotta make sure it doesn't do that again. Aimee and I burst out laughing and we chuckled about it all night. I think Sam thought that grape WAS actually trying to get away from him by the time he got it the second time, so he wasn't going to let it get away again. I think Aimee might have gotten a video of it on her phone, but I am not sure. If she did, I will ask her to post it or post it myself later.

First woodworking project

We were at HD today looking at some plants that I saw tasse the other day when I got some new dirt for the raised garden beds. Well I got the basic approval of my finds but got the obvious question of where said finds would be planted... Uh... I was hoping that was aimee's department, so it would have to wait.

So Aimee went in search for some flower seeds she did know she wanted and Sam and I went in search for waterproofing membrane and shower pan forms for options for the master bath. We got directed to the wrong isle by an obviously misinformed employee, who evidently thought I was talking about shower forms, not just the waterproof membrane that would go under tile work. I digress.

We were on our way back to the tile department and in the main isle they had a line of 1x8s stacked on HD buckets and there were a bunch of kids and their parents making a small wood project. I was at first concerned that Sam wouldn't be interested or able to keep his attention on it, but figured if it didn't work we could take the stuff home and try it later.

Sam got his own apron and a pin that said he had completed the flower basket project. We got the kit, Sam grabbed a hammer and glue from the bucket by the sign-up table and we went and found a place at the plank to sit down to work on it.

Sam did great. He was very interested in the wood pieces and for some reason, especially the bag of nails. Anywho I figured out pretty quick, with a glance at the instructions and the kids around us, how it went together... Bottom, two sides, and 6 slates for the two sides.

We got started off kinda slow and I helped Sam hammer the first couple nails to attach the sides to the bottom... I was a little worried about getting a finger smashed by a two year-old left to hammer on his own. Sam was doing pretty good with less and less help, so I gave him more and more freedom with the hammer. I am happy to say, although there was one close call, we both came out with a finished project and no hammered fingers. He did have a little bit of an aiming problem but evidently practicing with the play workbench has paid off because he eventually got every one of the nails hammered in.

We even let him pick out two flowers to put in his planter on or way out of the store; what we are doing when I took the above picture. I'll have to post a picture once we get the flowers planted in his planter, hopefully tomorrow.

All-in-all, this was just one more example of what I was talking about in the last post...he is such a capable little man. I guess this is what parents talk about time going by so fast; it sneaks up on you.

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My little big boy

Sam helped me bring the yard waste cans back in from the street this afternoon. I was curious if he could manage one of the cans by himself, not really expecting that he could, and he pulled it the 10 or so feet from the street all by himself and then tipped it up to standing too.

Sam has been amazing me the past few days that he has been home with me. The daycare provider had family in town and asked if we could make other arrangements for Thurs and Fri so they could have some family time. We didn't come up with any other arrangements so I just decided to make it work for the two days.

We went to the park on Thurs that has a 3 story play structure and Sam was climbing the vertical ladders between the levels with little difficulty and pretty confidently. He even was going down the slide from the top level by himself, after I got comfortable with his ability to do it. He is quite the competent climber. He wore me out climbing all over the place.

Today we went to a local open gymnastics place during the 0-5 yr old time and, after warming up to the new place, Sam really amazed me again with his physical ability.

I guess it really has been since last fall when he went into full time daycare that I had really been out doing stuff with him like this. We have stayed mostly inside during the winter even though he has had time playing outside with the older kids at Sarah's when there have been the occasional nice afternoon.

Just trying to get stuff done around the house on the weekends makes it hard to go do fun stuff like this normally. It is kinda sad that it took being "forced" by circumstances into spending extra time with Sam to realize that I really like my son and love spending time with him. And I need to take more of an effort to make time to "be" with Sam and not just be around him.

Well lesson learned.

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