2013 Garden, Part 4- A New Use For Pantyhose

Garden- June 21

Our garden is really doing well!  We are still only harvesting yellow squash and zucchini, but other things are getting really close.
Our latest change is fertilizer.  We've had problems in the past with getting the right amount of fertilizer on the plants.  This year we are trying a new approach.  See, to water our garden, we are turning on the well pump and letting it fill the rain barrels.  Then the water slowly seeps out into the garden throughout the day.  We decided to fill pantyhose with fertilizer granules and put them in the rain barrels.  The fertilizer dissolves in the water and gets to all the plants through the hoses.  So much easier than worrying about getting too much or too little on each individual plant!  It only takes a couple of minutes every other day to fertilize the entire garden.

Here is a picture of our garden from this morning.  Compare it to the picture below from 2 weeks ago.  You can tell the potatoes (on the left) are done growing, but everything else has taken off!

Garden- June 21

Garden- June 5

We've had 2 really good rains in the last week.  The wind from these storms whipped our squash plants around quite a bit, but they seem ok.  We actually have some water in our pond too, so the frogs and toads have been pretty active.  I nearly stepped on this Woodhouse toad this morning.  We have to get used to watching our steps more closely!

Woodhouse Toad- do you see him?  He's about the size of my palm.

Our only problem right now is the grasshoppers.  They are getting pretty bad and snacking on a lot of our garden.  Luckily, most of our plants are big enough that they aren't struggling too much, but we'll have to wait and see if productivity is affected.  For now we're enjoying how well things are growing.

Hair Dilemma- Curly or Straight?

Ok, time for me to get all vulnerable and ask for some honest opinions.  Here's the deal: my hair is changing.  Yes, it's getting grayer, but it's also getting wavy/curly.  It's been a slow process over the last few years.  I have been straightening it because it wasn't quite pretty and I didn't know what else to do with it.  So over the last few weeks, I have decided to try embracing my curls and see if I like it.  This is totally different for me.  My hair usually has no style and I try not to pay more than $10 for a haircut.  I really don't care that much about my hair.  So here are some pictures (the last 3 are iPad pics, so they're not great).  I don't wash my hair everyday, so it looks a bit different from day to day.

Day 1

Day 1

Day 1

Day 2

Day 2

Day 3

So here's why I like it curly:
1.  I don't have to straighten my hair- less heat = good!  
2.  Takes less time to get ready because of #1.  I just spritz on some water and scrunch it a little.
3.  Humid days don't matter anymore :)
4.   Maybe my hair has a little interest now?

What I don't like:
1.  I have to use a little product in my hair to keep it from being fluffy.  I'm not quite used to that yet.

So what do you think?  Can I get away with letting my hair do it's own thing?  I am totally open to any tips from those of you with similar hair as well! 
My hair is also longer than it has been in quite some time.  I think I need to get my it trimmed and add in some more layers too.  Maybe next week...

2013 Garden, Part 3- First Harvest!

I hate to brag, but our garden is looking great so far!  We've had to spray for squash bugs and the grasshoppers really like our potatoes, but everything is still in good shape.  It's amazing how fast everything is growing right now.  These first 2 pictures were taken just 4 days apart.

Garden-  June 1

Garden-  June 5

Here's some closer pictures of a few "zones" of our garden.

Squash family rows- (near to far) zucchini, yellow squash, watermelon, spaghetti squash, honeydew, cucumbers, cantaloupe, pumpkin

Corn rows

Tomatoes before support

Tomatoes with support- we're trying a new system this year with t-posts and fencing material.  Last year all of our tomato cages ended up on the ground because our plants got too big.

First harvest!!  Yellow squash, zucchini, yellow potatoes, red potatoes, purple potatoes.  We chopped these up, put them on skewers, and grilled them with some chicken.  So yummy!

I don't show this view of the garden very often.  You can see our rain collection system and our shop in the back.  The garden is about 60'x30' for those of you who have asked.

Photo Dump

Sometimes we just have a bunch of random pictures to share.  Here's some highlights from our last month or so.

We had 3 baby foxes living in a rock pile in our empty pond for a few weeks.  They were so much fun to watch!

So stinkin' cute!

This hummingbird nest hangs right over our driveway.  If you look close, you can see 2 babies (one sticking out each side).

My snake catcher!  This snake was in our garage.

Our end of year chemistry department cookout.  Of course it rained, but we never complain about rain around here :)

We had a strong wind storm that took out a couple of our trees.

At least we get some firewood from the storm!

My first attempt at sewing with oilcloth.

Tie onesies for some friends' babies.

We only have a few yuccas on our property, so I always enjoy when they are in bloom.

We had some fun ripping out this old fence.

This tree was the main problem.

You know this was fun for Josh!

Ahh, much better!

We had a power outage for 11 hours, so we got to use our oil lanterns!

And finally, this boy turned 9 years old on June 2.  His foot is in a boot because he cut his paw while swimming at the lake.  Poor pup!