The sacrifices we make for our children

You see this boat, do you see it?  Um, yeah...so I don't like boating, sailing, the ocean or anything that has to do with water.  Showers are about it for me but my little one went to the Orange Rotary rummage sale and negotiated on her own to buy this boat with her own money, so of course I let her bring it home. It's huge, almost 4 feet tall and very wide.  I barely got it into the car to bring it home.

Turns out her $10 investment was sound, this boat has a resale value of $250-$500 after we researched more about it.  It came from an estate in Villa Park and it is in great shape.  She loves to play with the rigging and adjust the sails, etc.

The only surface large enough to put it on is in my entry-way, oh..the sacrifices we make for our children :) 

Have you gone to Pink's?

We finally did it.  Growing up in Orange County I rarely venture outside the 'orange curtain'...don't feel like I need to go very far living in this paradise, but this summer we visited the original Pink's up in Hollywood.

Pink's hot dogs has been around since 1939 and is pretty famous for its hot dogs.  We all got chili dogs as you can see below.

Here we are standing in line, there is ALWAYS a line no matter what time of day or night it is.  Usually there are some celebrities in line too.  (I saw folks that I'd seen in shows but didn't know there names, not that I know many celebrities names, but unless you're on the front page of something while I'm in line at the grocery store I dont' know ya, sorry!)

The food at Pink's was okay, definitely more of a 'go because it's famous' type of place.  Ican't see eating here on a regular basis...first because it is gosh darn unhealthy and second, I prefer Hebrew National hot dogs :)

But THEN, we went to SPRINKLES!  We went to the cupcake ATM in Beverly Hills and there are no pics to prove how good the cupcakes are, but they were tasty!  They really tasted homemade.  I ate a strawberry cupcake and my husband and girls all got a chocolate cupcake.

With my oldest waiting outside the cupcake ATM.

With my little one waiting outside the cupcake ATM.

All in all, a very good day!  We don't get out much so this took a ton of planning,..Making sure my stepdaughter was with us that day, getting a babysitter for my mother in law, timing her feedings and meds, blah blah blah, but we did get out and it was VERY nice!  I love spending time with my family all together.

Summer's over and I'm back

Hey Hey!

How the heck are ya?! Well, I've spent a fabulous summer with my family, started a new job (which I LOVE) and had a fabulous time doing projects as time permitted.

Hope you all had a great summer! I'll be posting over the next few weeks a few of the summer highlights...

It's Summertime!

It's officially summer here in my household with school out next week and for me that means a hiatus from my blog to spend time with the family doing fun fun fun summer stuff and relaxing and enjoying our time! The garden is producing and my family is eating produce daily from the bounty!  Some of our plans for summer include

Weekly library trips
Beach Days
Swimming at friends pools
Playing in the sprinklers
Making wacky science experiments (like frying an egg on the sidewalk)
Attempting some of the items in the Guiness Book of World Records. This year we're going for a straw challenge and jump rope challenge.
Vacation Bible School
Play Dates
Going to Ikea and walking around (yes, it's that fun!)
Bowling
Movies when it's just too hot
Crafting-Papercrafting, Painting Pictures, etc.
Roller Skating
+ Lots of downtime for snuggles and creativity!


See ya in the fall!

Join the weirdness!

I love meeting fellow gardeners, DIY-ers...People who understand my need to pull over to the side of the road to pick up empty dresser drawers or the need to save empty tin cans or eggshells or any of the other myriad of things some people find weird, but make me who I am. XOXO! 

Garden Plans for Mothers Day Weekend

What are you up to in the garden this weekend?

For me, I am concentrating on increasing my long-term food production sources by planting 3 blueberry bushes.  The blueberry bushes will need acidic soil so I am amending with peat moss, pine chips and coffee grounds.

Blueberry bushes will last in the landscape producing heavily if all goes well for 25-30 years.  Each of the bushes is expected to yield 12 pints each so that is 36 pints of blueberries after they grow a year or two.  One of the bushes I purchased looks like it has 10 pints hanging off of it now because it is a bigger size.  I would say that is enough to make blueberry jam, dry some, freeze some and eat some straight off the bush.

When you plant blueberries, you need at minimum two varieties to ensure good cross-pollination (which increases the yield.)

I leave you with the following poster from 1918.  If you think about it, it's as true now as it was then.  Food security and knowing where your food comes from is still important but for different reasons.

Gardening and Cross Fit

I was thinking this morning about all of the bigger projects I would like to do in my garden.  Some of them are so labor intensive that it will take me weeks on my own-short bursts of energy, sweat dripping down until my muscles are fatigued and I give up.

So here's my thought: if I start calling my garden a Cross Fit gym would people show up to rip out grass, hand cut boards, etc.  It's kind of the same thing isn't it?  Functional fitness....

I'm the last person who should be judging others for actually going to a gym, Lord knows I need to go, but something about gyms give me the heebie-geebies.  Walk on a treadmill going nowhere, lift weights for no purpose...ugh, I just can't even stand the thought of it. With a to-do list a mile long, I like things to be accomplishing something. So how about calling the work we do in our yards and gardens functional fitness?

Cross-Fit Orange is now open :)  You're welcome anytime, membership is free and I guarantee a good workout!  Plus, if you work-out here, you'll go home with organic eggs and produce!

P.S.: I'm not joking! If you're a gardener / urban farmer in Orange, hit me up and let's trade labor! Sorry to anyone who lives outside Orange, I hate to drive so the closer the better!

My Garden in April (Tons of Pics)

I haven't been posting too often to my blog over the last couple of weeks because I've been working my tail off in the garden. Well, not really, my tail is the same size as it has been...and we're moving right along....We've had absolutely PERFECT weather here in Orange.  I've gotten a nice tan and feel very 'springy' with all of this time outside....it's been so, so, so nice!  So here's a photo tour of my garden at this time of year.  It's sure no Martha Stewart farm tour (which are some of my favorite blog entries of hers-just a tad jealous of her gorgeous farm), but hey...I've got a 6,000 square foot lot to work with and not hundreds of acres, so I'm having a good time!

Here's a list of what I've finished!
My side yard veggie garden is done and planted.  It should take me on average 5 minutes a week to care for it and should yield 1,000 pounds of veggies.  This is all raised beds with weed blocker fabric so it's just water and harvest from now until September.

I built a new garden in my backyard-ripped out grass, created a fence out of things I had around, put in a wood chip path from my mulch pile saga and planted it.  I'm hoping for another 500 pounds of produce out of this garden.  This is a little more labor intensive since it is in-ground and has no weed blocking mechanisms.

I overseeded my little grass area in the backyard and picked up another million white rocks (gah I hate those things...the old owners of this house must have owned stock in white rocks).  Now I can mow it without the rocks flinging out at me.

Moved my chicken coop to a more shaded area for winter, sanded and painted the coop using leftover paint, added additional bracing, fixed the broken perch, repainted the nesting box and made a new hanging feeder for spring out my oxi-clean container and string.

Here's the photo tour!

I started another 60 basil plants: lemon, lime, purple ruffle, boxwood, genovese and crimson basil...

My official seed starting station for spring!  Not the plastic cover to go over it at night.

My plum tree is starting to bloom

My tiny fig tree gave me tons of figs last year so I'm hoping for even more this year!

This elephant plum tree is 3 years old and 18 feet tall.  It's gorgeous!

My orange tree is doing well-I got a great harvest off it a few days ago, but it is buried in 2 feet of leftover wood chips which is not good....I've got to find a home for more of these wood chips.

As you can see the wood chips are choking my lemon grass.  That plus the horrid winds have made it look sad.  A good haircut and it should be good to go for spring.

This is another plum tree-it gets blasted with hot air from the window air conditioner that is only 8 feet away but it is hanging on!

Plumeria cuttings from my 80 year old neighbor! I have nowhere to put a plumeria tree but I'll root these and give them away.

This white petunia forgot it was an annual and has bloomed continuously since last summer.

My new veggie bed!  My fence worked out great with the steel stakes, grey yarn and some green plastic stuff I had on hand.  So far, not one chicken has figured out how to get in.

I've planted onions, garlic here and all around the permiter

More seedlings making their way through life.



Cherimoya trees I started from seeds.

Grapes-first time I've had grapes!!!!! This was just a stick when I planted it 3 years ago!

Baby grapes look so intricate and delicate.

This is my sunflower seedlings poking their heads up.  I've marked the row with crushed eggshells and a mini blind slat so I don't think they are weeds and pull them out :)

Another mini blind marker.  This marks more garlic and onions

My hydrangea bushes are recovering from the stomping my hubby gave them when he was painting the house.

My 'Anna' apple tree is still small but loaded with apples! This year I will eat them before the possums, it is my mission.

And it's blooming too, I don't get why it is doing that when it is already setting fruit, but maybe I just don't know what I'm talkin' about.

My other hydrangea that was not 'smooshed' actually looks smaller than the one that is.  Just shows that a little bit of stress on plants is healthy for them.

Small container garden used for Easter



My water garden has a few plants and 1 tadpole.  The neighborhood cats have eaten ALL of my goldfish.  It is funny to watch the cats practically get in the washtub and swirl their paws around looking for more fish to eat.

Celery planted in the front flower beds is doing beautifully.  It's about 2 feet tall for the older and about 1 foot tall for the younger.  I should be harvesting soon.

Strawberries in grow bags.  I'm trying the grow bags this year for the first time and so far I am loving them for the strawberries.

One of my tiered planters out of old washtubs.  This one has elephant garlic and nasturtiums planted and should be very full and overflowering with nasturtiums soon.

Elephant garlic in containers.  I like to move this around to deter insects.

Parsley around the bottom with an invisible squash plant I'm waiting to germinate on the top

This is one of my wattle fences, that I never finished showing you on the blog.  I painted an old two by four and snapped it with these plastic connecters on the rebar supports and voila!

Tomatoes, Tomatoes and Basil!

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes

Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans ( a gift from my neighbor's garden )

Cucumber trellis has baby cucumber plants just starting to grow up it and there is garlic and onions planted underneath to deter insects.

My pepper bed looks sad but it is really happy in person, I promise! Lots of bellpeppers: Purple, Yellow, Green / Red and Orange Sweet Peppers

Rhubarb!

A small succulent planter in a ceramic teapot I found at the thrift store.  My friend Anne drilled the hole and planted it for my daughter.

Another of my succulent planters-absolutely stunning isn't it! Anne did this one last year and it has filled to overflowing and gives me succulent cuttings.

And this my friends is my next project!  My neighbors had a deck in their front yard they tore out and guess who snagged all of the beautiful redwood and some pressure treated lumber. Yours truly!

Cleaning up and Cleaning Out

Are you a hoarder or do you keep just what you can use right now?

I fall somewhere in between these two categories.  I build up and accumulate 'stuff' then I get rid of ALL of it.  Since most of my stuff is secondhand to begin with, I don't mind parting with it or trading up to something better (usually because my DIY improvements go wrong-you know....those projects I don't blog about)  Drives my husband crazy when the dining room table gets bartered out for a new one or the living room furniture is suddenly all sold on Craigs List...

I wait for my family to leave the house then secretly get rid of their stuff as well.  My husband is quite a softie when it comes to rescuing things for our daughters that I've gotten rid of.  In fact, things have returned secretly back to the house that I've gotten rid of on so many occasions, it is now a joke.  Until my mother-in-law moved in with us a couple of years ago, I thought my husband was taking all of the bags to be donated but he was stashing them in his moms garage-even taking the furniture there.  When I was packing up her things to move in with us, I found soooo many things I had thought were donated in her garage.

I love free finds on the side of the road or items for projects but if I can't find a use for it after a few months, out it goes.

Same with clothing.  I don't buy expensive clothing these days and tend to wear a more uniform type of look.  5 pairs of the same pants and I rotate the tops out.  Being a complete slob when it comes to not dripping food on myself my shirts end up stained and / or torn from working outside in the yard very quickly and get thrown out every 6 months and replaced.  I also don't change to work in the garden, I just go out in my work clothes....changing clothes wastes time! I'm also considering wearing a bib by the way when I eat... it's that bad...

I love to have closets where there is empty space.  It makes me happy.  I also love to have closets where I see tons of project ideas just waiting to be done.  It also makes me happy.  Generally though it doesn't make me happy at the same time.

My garage always has extra space so if I find something good I have somewhere to put it.

Currently, I'm in clean out mode.  I need to finish up some projects or get rid of the junk!

The only exception is emergency supplies. You can never be too prepared so extra food and water is always on hand.

So how about you?  I think for me, the feeling of having some extra things around makes me feel secure, but then it starts to feel overwhelming and getting things really pared down makes life so much easier to manage.

I was speaking with a friend the other day who was telling me she has a bit of a hoarding problem, hence why I'm posting on this topic :)

Seed Organizing

After each seed class, I re-inventory my seeds to see what I need to get more of before the next class. In my last class, I had my first 'seed thief'...and it wasn't until the end of class that I realized this gentlemen had been taking each of my packets and dumping them into envelopes...so not cool!

I'm pretty gracious at my classes and let the students make as many seed starts as they want which is great for $20.00 but stealing my seeds...breaks my heart! Some of them are heirlooms I've been accumulating for years and re-growing and he wiped me out to my last seed of many varieties.  Granted, he didn't take everything thank goodness-just the stuff he was interested in.

Needless to say when I re-organized I found several gaping holes in my seed collection.  I saw a new idea on Pinterest that looked interesting to me that I am going to try with my smaller seed packets.  You take a small photo album that opens on the top and slide your seed packet down into it, so you have a book of seeds.  It won't work with my larger seeds like pumpkins, etc. but I think it would be a great way to organize my heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers and such.

How do you organize your seeds?  I have them in tins, jars, canning jars, old medicine bottles, ziploc baggies, etc. and I save those little dessicant (sp?) packets that come in shoe boxes, vitamin bottles and use those to absorb and keep away excess moisture.