Michele and Andrew's Adventures

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Dad's memorial weekend

I am going to be uploading pictures from the memorial weekend over the next couple of days. Thank you so much to everyone who came. Those who travelled far especially! Well, that was everyone except my family and my mother! Thank you for braving traffic and being there. It meant so much

Mom, Chy and Marley as we get ready to go set up

Putting out pins and pictures

Annie and Josh came over with Madeline. The kids all had a blast together!

Two of my favorite people relaxing on my porch!

And, I even have a gardening update! I harvested a pound of green beans and three pounds of garlic. I also put 5 trays of spices in the dehydrator. Yummy tarragon for scrambled eggs this winter! The tomatoes are going like gangbusters and I am just hoping for a week of sunshine to ripen the first lot. The eggplant is growing well, but not really showing any signs of eggplants. And we have two wee peppers! And weeds, I have a ton of weeds!

July picture upload 1

Walking and drinking his bottle!

Fun in the sandbox at a local park

Grandmere's hat is very stylish!

Zach is VERY helpful with the dishes!

Going down the slide with dad!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Goodbye Medchen

Well, the world's most perfect German Shepherd is in heaven with dad. She got too sick today, and I had to give her the one last gift I could, the gift of a peaceful death. Medchen came to me on St. Patty's Day in 2010. We had ten wonderful years together. She was with me through so much change in my life. She went and crossed over the Rainbow Bridge with Dad today. I will miss her so much.

These are our last pictures of my wonderful girl.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

A busy weekend

Mom came over for pizza

You mean I am supposed to eat that and not throw it on the floor for the dog?

Oh yeah, that's right, I LIKE pizza!

The guys making mead with Farmer Leo

Homesteading, suburban style

This is our first flower on our watermelon! We are growing "Stars and Moons" watermelon. It is mostly an academic exercise, because I am not the biggest watermelon fan, but Andrew and the kids like it. I'll be pleasantly surprised if we get any!

We are also attempting raspberries this year. We transplanted 2 dozen from Farmer Leo earlier this spring (a little late, should have done it in the fall). The biggest plant there though is a wild black raspberry bush that I am keeping my eye on! Should make wonderful fruit.

And speaking of fruit, we've discovered a mulberry tree on the property. Alas, mulberry season is almost over, but we are still going to be able to get enough to freeze for the winter. I pulled my first garlic of the season and it is beautiful. Great big fat bulbs that you can smell a mile away. And homemade garlic is so much spicer than even the good Gilroy, CA stuff we can get at Costco. And the bland Chinese imports that are in most grocery stores doesn't even compare.

And the preservation season has begun! We made, I kid you not, lettuce soup today. It involves lettuce and peas and onions and a cuisinart. It was fabulous and mostly tasted of spinach dip. We froze half and will have the rest some October evening when we are longing for some greenery. I've also frozen a batch of raspberries, and we are going to make our first batch of pesto tomorrow. We'll eat some and freeze some. It's going to be collard and olive pesto, should be interesting.

I also bought my first set of quart jars for canning. Farmer Leo lent us his canning equipment and we are going to go to town. This is the year! We are going to start with peaches, and then come August, we are going to be up to our armpits in tomatoes. My goal is to not buy any canned tomates. We'll see how that works out!