Juneberries

We planted juneberry/serviceberry bushes in our windbreak line maybe, 5? years ago, and this is the 1st year we've had berries. Hopefully, I can sample the 2 berries when they ripen before the birds get them!

Planting time!

Northblue blueberry

Northsky blueberry

We've been busy planting various things: Latham and Heritage raspberries, Jersey Knight and Purple Passion asparagus, and Northblue and Northsky blueberries. The Jersey Knight asparagus roots were pretty puny and dried out, so I'm not sure if they will survive or not. It will be 2-3 years before I can try the asparagus if both varieties live. Supposedly, the raspberries will be ready to try later this summer. It will be 2 years before the blueberries are ready to try.

Siouxland cottonwood

We also got my first tree for the year planted: a Siouxland cottonwood. Yes, some of my family members have called me crazy. :) It was planted by the burn pile, so it won't be too far to haul the sticks and branches that break off.

Its a cotton-less variety, which should make Chris and the neighbors happy. I wouldn't have minded an old fashioned one like from when I grew up on the farm, but those are messier and bigger trees; the Siouxland one isn't quite as big or messy.

I have 3 more trees I want to plant this year: a northern catalpa (my mom planted one from a seed when she was little and it's still alive and growing today), scarlet oak and a cardinal royal mountain ash (my grandma had a mountain ash too, so that makes me think of her). The mountain ash is expensive, so if it dies, I won't be happy, so I'm still thinking on that one. I can get a bare root variety of a different type of mountain ash that would be ok and a lot cheaper, but I'd really like the cardinal royal variety since the berries are red, rather than orange.

I have more things I'd like to plant around here and there, but I do only have so much time to water, I (and family members) keep trying to remind myself. So, replanting windbreak shrubs that died during the winter will wait another year, along with some of the other shrubs I want to plant in our corner fence/property border areas. I also have a different corner garden area I'm also slowly working on... I have too many ideas and get too many plant catalogs in the mail!! I admit, I don't have a lot of patience and just want everything done right away and forget about the initial watering commitments that take a bit of time.

D has had fun helping plant everything so far. The blueberries are in pots so that I can keep the soil acidic enough for them, so that wasn't quite as fun for him since I didn't let him use his little shovel for those.

Purple Passion asparagus

Latham raspberry

Jersey Knight asparagus

Heritage raspberry

D has been enjoying the warmer weather we've been having and has been crazy exploring. We don't really have trees for him to climb, but he has decided to try an evergreen. Some of the lower branches had been cut off, so he's got toe holds and has been making use of them. He did fall down and scrape his tummy, but that hasn't deterred him from trying to climb it again and again!

He has also been wearing his bike helmet every where when he's outside, and not just when he's riding his bike, so I guess if he does fall more out of the tree his head will be ok! ;-)

The county scraped a bunch of gravel from the shoulder into our mowed ditch this winter, so it has not been fun getting that raked and picked out of the grass. We should have been working on it earlier, but were trying to get the basement done before the nice weather came. The basement isn't done, but we needed to get outdoor stuff started. A big thanks to my mom for all the help she's given us!!!

We mowed the lawn for the first time this week--argh! Not quite ready for that weekly chore to start, but am definitely liking the warm weather and all the plants coming alive again. Hopefully we can escape all of the crazy severe weather this spring and my little plants that I've just planted will get a chance to grow!

D climbing the tree.

Cucumbers

The Pibb can is for scale. This cucumber has missed getting picked a number of times! We couldn't believe that 3 of us have looked for cukes and missed it. Canning of sweet, lime and cinnamon pickles is in full swing.

Sweet pickles

D with his "apron" on helping make the first batch of sweet pickles. We were down to one jar. He really likes homemade sweet pickles!!

Digging

Helping Grandpa dig post holes for the new fence.

Strawberries

First strawberries of the season from our patch - yum!

Long update

It's been crazy this past month and I've not done much updating on the blog. Here are a few pictures and updates from our past month or so.

In mid-December, we borrowed an ExerSaucer from some friends and D has really loved playing in that -- he really gets it moving and moves it quite a bit from where it originally started. He's pretty close to needing the seat to be moved up one click.

On January 11th, when I picked up D from daycare, he'd learned how to blow raspberries...which, was really fun at feeding time when he decided to show us his new skill while being fed squash or some other pureed food! Thankfully  he quickly grew out of this. It was really hard to keep a straight face and not laugh at him, which of course just encouraged him to spit more! He was having such fun blowing raspberries and feeling the food in his mouth. :)

We had our 3rd and final Christmas celebration this weekend.

D turned 23 weeks old on January 14th. He is such a character and definitely keeps us laughing at his antics. 

After much drooling and chewing on everything in site, at 5 1/2 months, both of D's bottom teeth poked through on January 16th. He's pretty laid back, and was just eating a little less than normal when these teeth finally came through. He's back to eating normal, and not drooling as much, so no more teeth in sight yet... I've tried to get a picture, but he's a little maniac, so no such luck yet.

I'd been seeing what D did with a sippy cup for a few days, and on January 18th, he did actually drink 1 1/2 ounces out of one... however, he's not done much with one since, and pushes it away. 

D also got a new outfit for Christmas that went with his 'costume' from daycare, so we retook his picture with his costume on for the full effect. :)

We had our last post-placement visit with our social worker on the 24th. So now, it's for her to get her report in and up to us to finish our monthly reporting and then get a court date to finalize D's adoption. Hopefully that will happen soon!

Chris and D had their first overnight without me this past weekend. Chris said that D learned how to play peek-a-boo with him this weekend. He's also discovered his toes and has fun hanging onto his feet.

Every year, we have a girls shopping weekend, and so I left Friday night for the trip. The girls found out that I'd never had a bachelorette party, and surprised me by throwing me one 10 1/2 years after the fact. Thank you girls for the surprise and the weekend. It was a lot of fun! :)

We did have quite the time on Sunday though coming back from our weekend. Three of us rode together and came back in the ice storm that hit the Midwest  We drove very slowly and arrived 'home' after about 6 hours, for a normal 4 hour trip. We made three stops and averaged about 40 miles per hour. However, when we got to the driver's house, our other two cars were iced in, so Chris nicely came and picked us up and brought us back home. Chris and I were back home around 7:30 that night, so it was a very long day. 

Both D and I were sick before I left for the weekend, but I got worse Sunday night/Monday. I took D to the doctor on Tuesday. He has asthmatic bronchitis and the possible start of an ear infection, so we were sent home with steroids and antibiotics. Chris was gone Monday morning through Thursday night.

We've both stayed at home for 5 days now, and it's driving me a little stir crazy. However, it's been super cold, along with more snow storms, and neither D nor I really needed or wanted to be out in the cold. D's still struggling with breathing/coughing, but not as bad, so we'll see if we need to go back to the doctor tomorrow. He's not supposed to be around people with colds while on the one medication (which, I'm sick, but there's nothing to do about that!), so we skipped church this morning and won't be going to the Super Bowl party tonight either.

I must say that being house-bound for the past 5 days hasn't helped me from going a little crazy. When I was in Walmart a few weeks ago, I'd seen that they have the spring stuff out -- vegetable and flower seeds, pots, potting soil, etc... That doesn't help when it's still so far away from when we can plant! I can't wait for spring to get here so that things start to green up again. Winter is definitely not my favorite season. I tried starting seeds indoors for a few years, but whenever I tried to harden them for going outside they died, so I don't do that any more! I can't help but think about our visit to Keukenhof gardens outside of Amsterdam in 2009 while waiting for spring to come... 

We're also thinking about buying an acreage, so while I've been sick and not up to doing anything truly constructive, I've had plenty of time to think -- Chris would say too much time to think! ;) Living on an acreage has always been our goal, but now we're starting to seriously think about it and look at some places to get an idea on prices and what you get for your money.

There are so many things to consider when changing our home situation that I'd never really thought about, and the pros and cons associated, even between things like being located on a hard surface or gravel road.  Moving to an acreage is a big step, especially since we've both been used to living in the city for the past number of years. I've not lived in the country for about 27 years and Chris about 18 years. I don't think we can get a pizza delivered to the country.. hmmmm......

We have found an acreage that we both like the layout of the land, outbuildings and house. It's a little further away from the town we've been living in than I'd prefer, but it's the only house and land that we've liked. I've not seen a lot of homes for sale out there that have what we're looking for, that can easily be remodeled and are in our price range. This old one we like is lacking a few things that we want, but it has possibilities, and I definitely like to dream!

The house does need a bit of updating... OK, well, more than a bit (new windows, furnace, A/C, kitchen, probably a bathroom addition, add attached garage... oh, did I mention the old knob and tube wiring??). Yes, I'm sure some of you are laughing hysterically right now, but if we can get it for the right price, we'd like to get it... It's not like we'd redo all of that list at once anyway, cause it's not like we play the lottery or anything. :) 

It's been for sale since June, so hopefully by the time we make up our minds and get our finances in order, and see if we'd really like to go for it, it will still be for sale. Of course, that's saying the seller would accept our low offer...hmmmm.... now I'm laughing at myself cause we probably are a little bit crazy! :) Oh well, it's fun to dream and if this house gets sold to someone else, than I'll find another one to dream about!

Well, enough about houses... probably should work at picking up/cleaning ours so that if we do find something and buy it, our current one won't be too disorganized!

Hope everyone has a good day and week to come!

Beets!

My mom was in town this week and we made beet pickles! We got 24 pints out of my tiny little garden... Probably 2 pints or so out of the big beet pictured alone.

Not sure what I'm going to plant next year -- I still have plenty of sweet pickles, tomato juice, pizza/spaghetti sauce and green beans. I don't actually have any more jars left and have had to borrow from my mom and MIL. I'll have to think over the winter on what I want to put in next year's garden. Thanks Mom for all the help, and to my MIL for the green beans! Thanks you both for the sweet corn too! :)