Garden in June

 

 

May and June have been  beautiful months here on the coast in the Pacific Northwest.  I am actually in awe of this amazing weather we've had.  I was able to plant our garden a whole month early, which is why it looks the way it does as of today when I took these pictures.  Normally, I would have just put the seeds in the ground and you would have been looking at a bunch of empty boxes.

 

May brought us to the end of our school year.  I feel like we accomplished much; Anne completed her first year of high school, Hannah made it through multiplication tables, Lindsay's reading is improving, Abby made it through her Kindergarten workbooks and George mastered his computer game, Jumpstart, that Grandpa got him for Christmas.

 

Once I finish working up their "report cards". . . which is really nothing more than a recap of what we learned throughout the year. . .  I can start perusing the curriculum catalogs for next year's adventure.  I am working out a modified, "homestead" agrarian schedule for us for next year, based on Quinn's suggestion.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it works for our family.

 

June brought us year-end picnics, sunshine, a fun vacation to see friends from Florida, and a dance recital. 

 

 



 

 - So, let's walk through the pretty things blooming all over the homestead.  I just love this sage that I planted last summer. 

 

 

 - Anise Hyssop planted this year.  It has it's first blossom.

 

 

- The lemon balm has gone wild.

 

- Garlic

- The greenhouse addition to our garden is proving to be very productive.  Look at the tomato plants!  The peppers are in front and they seem to be doing well also!  I can see some salsa in the near future.

 

- Everyday, this is the scene I watch outside our side door.  Notice the chicken wire around some of the plants?  If I didn't put this wire up their dirt baths would destroy what little remaining plants I have left.  I am getting tired of sweeping up the dirt on the sidewalk, but I haven't come up with another solution for them.

 

And last but not least, Barn #8 for our Quilty Barn-Along with Lori Holt.    I am not sure I'm in love with this barn.  I have never, need I repeat, NEVER done a "Water Turn" block so many of my points have disappeared.  I met with my trusty seam ripper many a times during the assembly of this block.

 

Michelle

 

 

A Little Behind the Times

Barn # 7 is finally finished and up on the wall.  Being quite the critic, I noticed one of my pin wheels did not line up. . .  you can probably even see it in the picture.  After piecing together these tiny 2 1/2 inch pin wheel squares, I decided that it wasn't worth tearing out and re-doing it.  Here's hoping when I have it quilted the stitching will hide my error.

We are packing for a trip out to Yosemite National Park this week.  We are meeting up with friends from Florida who are on a month long cross country journey this summer.  Hannah is about bouncing out of her skin with excitement to see her best friend Carolyn.  If I had a nickel for everytime one of the kids has asked if we are leaving, I'd be a millionaire!  I love having happy children anxious for family time.

Our first stop tomorrow will be Pier 39 in San Francisco so that the General Manager can get a bowl of clam chowder and fish and chips for lunch.  We will not forget to get our National Park Passport stamped on our journey.

I almost have barn #8 complete, but I had to stop sewing to prepare for the trip.  If I could take my sewing machine along, I probably would. .  . alas, I must wait until we return.

Have a blessed weekend.
Michelle

My favorite barn . . so far. . and a little teen social

 

This has to be my favorite barn fabric combination yet!  I just love how my sunflower block turned out.  Really, my photo does not do the colors justice, so you might have to wait until the quilt is done to get a better peek at this design.  As we move into summer gardening, finding time to sew is becoming challenging, but I'm very thankful that Lori gives us two weeks to complete the barns.

 

Last weekend another home school mom and I planned a Teen Social for the Jr./Sr. High students in our home school group.  The teens went to dinner at a local restaurant, onto bowling, and then to a very fun and yummy place called Ultimate Yogurt.  It was fun to watch them all get acquainted and interact.  Next year, we'll do this again, only the kids will be wearing more formal attire.  We just didn't have the time this year for everyone to go shopping.  Anne picked out and assembled her whole outfit with online shopping.  In my mind, that takes a lot talent to match colors.  She looked beautiful!

 

 

 

 

Our greenhouse

FINALLY!  The greenhouse is up and loaded full of plants.   Here in Northern California it is almost next to impossible to grow tomatoes, peppers, and basil because it just never gets warm enough.  The fog constantly keeps the temperatures in the 60's through the entire summer.   I am truly hoping that this greenhouse will give us the heat to grow these.  It is a lot smaller than I expected, but it will be a great edition to our gardening endeavors.  I think I may have gone overboard on the number of pepper and tomato plants.  I am thinking that 16 plants will look like a jungle in a few months.

 

Some of my tomato varieties are Sweet Baby Girl, Koralik, Brandywine, and  Juliet.  I ordered several of these from Territorial Seed Company as starters, rather than from seeds.  I have four Bell pepper plants, and one Anaheim and Jalapeño pepper plant.

 

 

 

Don't you just love the water jug on the protruding bar that we couldn't figure out how to disguise so that no one would hit their head on it!  Now, I just need to get the kids to shut the door to keep the ladies out of there - they would just love to scratch and eat all of my plants.

Happy Gardening!

What a great start to spring. . . .

I love this time of year.  When we drive anywhere the first thing my kids say is, "Look Momma, it's marshmallow season again."  I love to see the fields lined with all of the marshmallow bales of hay.  I almost want to gather them all up and jump from bale to bale.

 

 

We have officially been here in Northern California for three years now and I have never seen weather in May like we had last week. NEVER!  It was in the upper 60's for over a week and several days reached the 70's during the hottest parts of the day.  All I can say is it was amazing! 

So, if you are a kid and it's hot outside, what kind of experiment do you automatically want to attempt to try - yep, you guessed it - fry an egg on the sidewalk, but in our case it's more like fry and egg on the gravel driveway.  And, no, it did not fry, but the chickens and ducks really enjoyed the meal after the kids got bored waiting for the egg to cook.

 

Our Anne, turned 15 this last week with a wonderfully hand decorated (by her sister) cookie cake.  She was showered with many presents.  Thank heavens the clothes I picked out for her passed the can-I-say-incredibly- picky- teenager standard.  She looked rather cute in her new mint green polka-dotted baby doll shirt and leggings.

We spent the entire weekend putting in the garden.  The General Manager helped out by roto-tilling the entire right side of the garden which does not have any raised beds.  He finally was so exhausted with the hand-push roto-tiller that he just asked where the rows were going to be and only tilled those areas.  We have all of the same favorites from last year, in addition to some new varieties we are trying.  A friend of mine bought me the most beautiful tomato and pepper plants so just as soon as the greenhouse gets assembled I will have to post some more garden pictures. 

No, that is not the General Manager standing out in the middle there, but rather our scarecrow.  He actually worked last year to keep the birds out of the garden - I didn't think it could be done, but he was worth his weight in gold.

We have three new additions to our flock - meet Sarah (the red one on the left), Grant and Xavier.   They are a Red Production, Black Sex Link and Araucauna breed.   These three just happen to share the names of our second oldest daughter, her new husband and their little one which is due to be born next month.  I'm not sure how our family feels having our flock of chickens named after them, but sometimes I think it rather strange?

 

And for my fifth barn in the Quilty Barn Along - here it is.  The next set of barns will have brown roofs and windows.  Since Lori just put up the instructions for barn #6, I guess I better start pulling fabric.

 

Have a wonderful week!

No Quilting. . . just kid cuteness

Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine having 68 degree weather in Northern California EVER, let alone in April. . . . but it happened.  Better yet, it happened on a day that I had not planned to do much school because we were headed to a field trip in the morning. 

Waste - water - treatment - plant is not words that excite my crew. . . . how does one get excited to learn about "sludge?"  Our plant in Ferndale happens to be a newly constructed state of the art, waste water treatment facility with only one other like it on the North Coast.  After they do their field trip write up sheets tomorrow I'll see if the field trip was a "big hit" or a "flop."  Probably the most interesting fact I learned was that we can now use the end product (all the bad bugs) as compost in our gardens after it has been thoroughly heated through and turned over to the worms.

 

 

The remainder of the day was spent having lunch, spending some time in the front yard weeding, riding bikes and sunning themselves on the back porch.  I just love these precious peas of mine - they are just too cute!

 

 

 

I love seeing all the plants that are blooming in my front yard.  Keeping up with the weeding is a sometimes overwhelming task, but it is very relaxing for me so I don't mind too much.  Plus the kids were running through the sprinklers having fun, so I really didn't notice how fast the time had flown by.

 

How are your spring days going?



#4 - Quilty Barn Along

Four barns into the quilt along and here they are!   Now, they are just awaiting their sashing to make them complete.  I think my favorite one so far is the postage stamp barn in the lower right hand corner.   I'm really enjoying putting this quilt together.  Lori Holt does a great job with her tutorials and she really makes piecing everything together rather simple. 

 

 

Have you ever spent hours trying to acquire some inspiration for a new quilt.  My little tractor boy needs a quilt for his new "big boy" bed.  This inspiration seeking has been consuming my brain power lately.  I've consulted friends, quilt books and patterns.  When finally I had an "AWWWH" moment this week.    I realized that instead of trying to do something complicated, I should just stick to the simple - a patchwork quilt.  My fabric of choice - Moda's Ten Little Things.  Ssshhh - don't tell him I'm starting on it - I want it to be a surprise!

 

What happened to our spring - one minute it was warm and then we seemed to have had had a cold snap come through here in Northern California.  The General Manager and I are anxious to get this over grown jungle - oh wait - that's our garden plot - plowed under so that we can get the compost mixed in with the soil.  I ordered our seeds again this year from Territorial Seed Company.   I'm very excited this year because we purchased a green house in which I'm going to get to grow tomatoes, peppers and basil.  This year we'll try growing Delicata squash since zucchini has been banned by my children.  We have tried every zucchini recipe EVER created and alas my children still do not like it at all.  I am extremely anxious for my garden to go from this. . . . .



 

 

to this. . . . .

 

 

 

 

Happy Spring!

 

Blessings,

Michelle

 

Barns and more barns. . take 2

Second barn completed.  Now, I am awaiting instructions from Lori at Bee In My Bonnet for our third barn.

While I'm sharing barns, just take a quick look at my friend, Heather's barns.  When we are done with this project I believe a photo together with our quilts is in order.  Be sure to stop by her blog, Mountain Home Quilts and check out all of her amazing quilts.

Have  a wonderful weekend!

Barns and More Barns

Here's the start of my next quilt - doesn't it just make you want to fall in love with barns?

A friend of mine and I are joining along with Bee in My Bonnet for her "The Quilty Barn Along."  This is the first barn of several that I'll be joining together to make a final "Barn Quilt."

My daughter told me that instead of buying new fabric I should also challenge myself to use up a good majority of my scraps, so that has become my goal for this quilt.

Stay tuned for more barns. . . . .

Quilting days

 

I have thoroughly enjoyed quilting these past few weeks, as 

it has given me such joy to watch these projects come together.  Six years ago, 

I began a quilt square block-a-month project in order to make 

a new quilt for our bedroom.

 

 

 

Each month instructions for a new square was put up on a blog I followed.  I wish I still had the link

to the blog, but remember I said this project has been in the making for six years.

 

Last year I set a goal to finally finish the project which I completed shortly before Christmas.

I had it quilted professionally because I didn't want to wait another six years for me to hand quilt it.

 

 

These are just a couple of the quilt blocks

 

 

Now, I just have to decide whether to put it on my bed or to store it in the closet for a few more months so that it can be entered into our local fair in August.  What would you do?  Decisions.. . . decisions?

 

 

While my king size quilt was at the quilters, I decided to whip up a small crib size quilt for a special little boy we will get to meet later this year.  I think I'm going to hand quilt this one. . . I enjoy spending time praying for the momma while I'm quilting each square.

 

 

this quilt has a unique story behind it.  One year ago, we got to meet a fellow blogger that I had been following her blog for about a year.  I won this quilt in a giveaway on her blog and last year in January we found out that we were only two hours away from each other.  Well, that was just too close, so we had to meet.  Who would have known we had so much in common.. . . . thanks Heather for a wonderful year - I cherish our friendship and am so thankful that your blog brought us together.  So, I thought it only appropriate to finish this quilt on our one year anniversary of meeting.

2013 Book List

I have never managed to make out a list of the books that I read in a year, but I have begun to record them in my journal as I read them.  I also keep track of the ones to read by adding them to my "to be read" list.  As a home schooling mom of five children, making time to read and educate myself  is not always an easy task to accomplish.  Reading usually comes late in the evening after everyone else is asleep.  It's one of the ways that I love to relax (even though the General Manager would say that I never slow down).  I wish I could say that I finished all the books I began or put on my list, but life often times has different plans.  So, I thought I would share last years list as well as this years.. . .

 

Here is a quick list of the books I read last year:
1.     Plenty

2.     Pursing God by Bill Mills

3.     Amish Peace  (I really enjoyed this book and the simplistic way she approaches each facet of life)

4.     Rhythm of the Family  (I love reading Amanda's blog - her posts are very inspirational in simplifying life and enjoying each moment)

5.     Emilie's Creative Home Organizer  (I can always use help organizing.  I love searching pinterest for ideas too)

6.     Gardening When it Counts

7.     Out of the Saltbox - The Savour of Old Vermont

8.     Taste and See

These are the books on my night stand for this year.  Some of them may be a continuation from last year's list.

1.     The Family Table

2.     Almost Amish

3.     Lessons for Living

4.     An Everlasting Meal

5.     Pursing God

6.     Passages: How Reading the Bible in a Year Will Change Everything For You

7.      Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

8.     She Did What She Could

9.    Practical Paleo: ACustomized Approach to Health

What is on your night stand this year?