Memorial Day With Friends

We spent Memorial Day Monday with our friends, Dave and Deb and their boys. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm.

We enjoyed grilled chicken, macaroni salad, potato salad, green salad and watermelon. Brian and Dave took some of the kids fishing down at the river. Bessie and Gabe fished for a while, but ended up playing in the water. My kids just love the water.

We hooked up the sprinkler later for the kids to enjoy. It would have been nice to have the pool ready, but we are still waiting for the new liner to come in. The kids didn't seem to mind.

A very enjoyable day, thanks, Deb and Dave.

Another Garden Project

This wheelbarrow holds the material for a new garden feature. Can you guess what it might be?

I got the idea from Robin at Robin's Nesting Place. This is one of the many reasons I love reading gardening blogs, you get so many great new ideas.

Gabe helps out, any ideas yet?

Here is the finished project, a new birdbath. We used bricks from our old fireplace that we tore down, bought the paver at Lowe's and used a saucer from a large planting pot.

It was a quick, easy project and I love how it came out. I hope the birds do too. Thanks, Robin for the terrific idea.

Baby Bunny-Part 2

We are pleased to be able to report that the baby bunny did indeed survive and thrive. We kept him in a cage for two weeks, feeding him greens from outside and handling him very little. We did not want to try and tame him, just keep him safe while he recovered from his pool adventure and grew a bit.

We released him today into a large brush pile at the back of our property. He should have a pretty good chance of survival, well at least as good as any other wild bunny.

This picture was taken right before we set him free. Doesn't he look bright eyed and bushy-tailed?

Fried Dough

Bessie wanted to try making fried dough at home. She had seen a friend make it and thought it was very easy. She was right. It was very easy and so yummy. I'm sure this will be added to our family treat list.

New Vegetable Garden

Brian decided to move the vegetable garden this year. We have tried different methods over the years and we keep coming back to raised beds.

The first order of business was a fence. He wanted to enclose the garden in a nice fence that would have critter proofing fencing tacked to the inside. This is for all the many wild bunnies we have, plus the chickens and guinea fowl when they are out and about. The wooden fence is also enough of a deterrent that the deer stay out, even though they could easily get over it. And of course, it will help with kids on bikes, stray balls and Gracie.

I told him it looked like we were getting some type of animal, not planting a garden, but I do love a nice looking fence and this will be a dandy fence once we get it stained.

He started making the gardens but de-sodding each area, then rototilling the soil. He got two of the bigger boxes made and several ready to go. He is hoping to have it all done and planted this week.

We have a local farm that processes all types of mulches and soil mixes. Brian got two loads of their really nice garden mix. He will add this to the top of the soil that is already there.

Jack-in-the-pulpit

One of my all time favorite wildflower.

Cool Dog

Gabe took this photo and thought it should make the blog! So, here is Gracie the wonder dog doing her "Joe Cool" imitation.

Our Week

The kids continue to do their schoolwork most days. We have gotten into a very good routine and I am continuing with it until Bessie finishes her work. I use her as a gauge of when we are "done" for the year. We will do some work through the summer as we find the Littles especially lose a lot of ground if we take too much time off from math and language arts, but we will scale back from our full school year schedule.


The MOPS group at our church holds an old fashioned photo shoot fund raiser every few years. This is the only "formal" photo my guys have ever done. The little girls love dressing in the lacy dresses. As you can see, Gabe is so thrilled. He did cooperate during the shoot and I hope the pictures come out good. The photographer was not terrific with the kids, but I think we got some good shots.

Greenhouse Visit

Sunday, the 18th, we left right from church to visit another one of our favorite greenhouses. This particular garden center, Northland Gardens specializes in water gardens and Bonsai. That is a somewhat strange combination, but we love this place.

The day was quite cool and rainy, but we try never to let the weather stop us from having fun. We keep a couple of umbrellas in the van and when we arrived, the nice young lady that was working there proceeded to bring out enough umbrellas for everyone. Umbrellas and little kids is enough in itself to keep my younger crew happy.

Bessie was given this very pretty umbrella. Isn't it lovely? Just perfect for Bess.

I of course enjoyed walking around the perennial areas. We bought some annuals for the hanging baskets, several perennials, two water plants and a fish. Our gold fish survived quite nicely in the pond over the winter and we thought he needed a new friend.

There is a woodland trail that is planted with ferns, hostas and other shade loving plants. There are also several ponds with fish. This is a regular treat for the kids. I made them wait until we were almost done before we walked the trail.


I'll have my work set before me figuring out where to plant my new gems.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - May

The month of May is a teaser in my garden. Most of the spring flowering bulbs are past, but the perennials aren't quite ready to make their appearance yet. By late May into early June things really start showing their colors.

Here are a few things blooming in my garden for the monthly garden bloggers bloom day at May Dreams Gardens.

The lilacs are looking and smelling so wonderful.

A few tulips are still putting on a pretty show.
Solomon's Seal
There are a lot of these little common blue violets all around the garden and pond