CHILLIN' at SCHOOL

by Robin


(Picture by Andrew)

My boys work hard and they play hard. They blessed me so when they participated in a church work day on Saturday. They didn't play around when Mama worked. No sir!! They trimmed hedges and mulched around their entire church gymnasium, which is no small building. Oh.... by themselves for much of it.

When they do that and then follow it up with a hard day's fishing on Monday.... I love to see them relax while they get taken away into another world with a good reader. Simon Peter & Captain, reading Watersky.



I think the puppies like it too. They can snuggle up with a boy that is still.

Here is a picture that Andrew took of Tiki in my arms as I was giving him a spelling test. He was sacked out!



As I mentioned earlier, my boys work hard and they play hard. Last week, I asked them to help me with cleaning the leaves out of the bottom of the pool. I didn't know if the water would be too cold for them or not.



Stay tuned to find out what happened......

FISHERMEN love to cook!!

by Robin

Simon Peter had asked that I show the world that he can cook hotdogs on the grill. He's also my #1 man for starting the grill. Andrew is my man for PBJ sandwiches. If I'm ever sick, I know he'll survive on them.



Last week, we made homemade personal pan pizzas. It was a lot of fun. (Shhh, I had a little help from Chef Boyardee)



Happy Monday!

FISHERMEN'S BACKYARD

by Robin

All fishermen need a pool for whenever they're not fishing. This provides them with shark-free swimming. Ignore that green. We're working on it. It's almost perfect by now (pic taken last week).

Oh, I loved the decking when we looked at this house. While it needs some serious staining & varnish, I still love it.


Back in February, I posted up this picture of our Butterfly turned Catastrophy Garden. Freezes had been rough on it.


I'm here to tell you that 7 wks later, it looks so much better. I even have a row of zinnias coming up in the front. I can't wait for more color & more butterflies and bees to show up. (I need bees for pollinating the cucumbers.)


In February, the left side of my main garden went from this to.....


This......


My bush beans are full of beans. They've already doubled in size since this picture was taken.


It won't be long before I start harvesting some.




Here's the right side of the same garden. Ignore all the oak leaves that have recently fallen with the winds. They will decompose and make natural mulch in there.


In the bottom of the above picture, you'll see the bunching onions. Here is a close-up of one of the blooms.


In February, you could hardly see my Sw Bell Peppers.


Now, you can see them clearly from an even greater distance. The onions are really taking off too.


On one of my orange trees, I found this lady bug having a picnic of aphids that were attacking the new leaves. They love the new leaves. Ladybugs love aphids.


Stay tuned. I have a series of blogs that I'm making for the week.

SNAKES VS CHIHUAHUAS - Part 2

by Robin

Well, we've had another encounter with the Black Racer who lives in our yard. I'm pretty certain it is the same one - same size, same spot.

Can you spot him by the decking?


Here's a close up.


I'm whispering "Snake, Snake" to the dogs (not that snakes have ears). Anyhow, Tiki went the other way to chase a skink and Captain was.... just off. Walked past the snake first, then came back up the walkway. THEN, it hits him. Something moved!!


Little does the snake know that if he had just stayed still the entire time, nobody would have noticed (except me, who usually screams wildly at snakes).

Thanks for visiting!

COOKERS BLOCK

by Robin

Wow... daily posts.... it's a miracle.

Anyhow, I don't normally share tips of organization here, but I thought if I'm having this problem, maybe others are too.

I love cooking. I love trying new recipes. My family doesn't always enjoy my enthusiasm for "exotic" foods, Giada or Paula Deen. I've noticed lately that I have had to toss several, what I call great dishes, and then one total bomb that nobody liked (including me).



So, between this economy and my family's lack of love for Food Network delicacies, I've decided to go back to my original shopping straight from certain pre-planned recipes. Now... this is where my problem comes. I get cooker's block. I can't come up with ideas. I know that sounds stupid to you because it sounds stupid to me too. However, I don't know if it is because there are so many choices or that I'm used to finding recipes online and making due with what's in the panty. I've lost my ability to plan simple, easy meals just prior to going shopping.

For now, I'm calling it cooker's block. However, I decided to make up these smaller index cards with 30 of my family's favorite meals. (I know... it's so easy a caveman could do it.) There is nothing high-tech about it. No computer involved. No googling. But, I promise you, you too can do it. If you're a homeschool mom, you probably already have a drawer full of index cards laying around.

Anyhow, at the beginning of each shopping trip (pay day), I pull out 7 or 14 of these. Yep, it's that simple. Make the grocery list around them and then attack the crowds. For me, it really solves the dilemma of what should we eat... what haven't we eaten already?


When you're done with these cards, you put them at the back of the stack.

I know... genius.

If I come to that point in the day where I'm not sure what to cook, I pull out my stack of 7 and voila.... pick one or let the family vote. No more staring at the pantry. No more wasting electricity as I hold the refrigerator doors open. No more thawing meat and then throwing it away 3-4 days later.

I think that in a month's time, I'll find that I'm throwing away less food and sticking better to my budget shopping.

I dunno. What do you guys think?

A WORD from my Sponsor....

by Robin

MORE GARDEN pics

by Robin

I went out yesterday to capture a few more pics. I don't know why. I just love veggie pictures.


Not quite as cute as baby pictures; but since I'm fresh out of babies, you'll have to go with veggies.

We're going to try this ONE MORE TIME! We shall see how it goes this year.




Tangelo blossoms


More




I tried this last year in a full-sun spot and it did not make it through the heat. I'm hoping this batch will. I love fresh dill with grilled fish. I may even have to get ambitious and do dill pickles if my cukes make it.


For canning & making paste.


Just because. Heavy producers - multi-purpose.


I have two great rows of this and 2 rows that are much slower in growth. I'm wondering if those were my chocolate or yellow varieties. I think these are my greens/reds.


Something we all need more of.... thyme. I lost my big plant in late fall. I will have more than enough replacements before I know it. I may have to dig some up and give them to friends.


Well, I hope I haven't bored you. My gardens can't grow fast enough for me. The recent rain has really helped shoot some of these babies up toward the sky.

GARDEN REPORT - March

by Robin

I've been getting some cherry tomatoes all month, but they're coming slowly at this point. The blooms have just picked up with all this heat and increased sunlight. Yeah!!

But, I wanted to show of some new things in the garden.


My lettuce needed picking because it is bolting. In one week, I got three Big Boy tomatoes. I've only eaten one of them, but yummy.... they're great.



My bush beans looked like this a week ago. Cute little white buds.



They burst out with purple blooms. When those fell off, they had teeny tiny beans. I do not know how much longer it will be before I can pick fully-grown beans. I'm much happier with the bush variety vs the vine type.


A couple/few weeks ago, I began seeing this on the ends of my older (18 mo+) bunching onions. I have never in my life seen an onion seed. I thought they grew new bulbs but I guess not for bunching.


And then two days ago, they started putting out their little stamens. How cute! I can't wait to harvest my own onion seeds for the very first time.

Here's another bud.


These are lettuce flowers which will turn into seeds for my next planting. My lesson learned last year is to make sure that you allow the seeds to full dry before closing the ziplock or else they will mold.


Well, these were just the new things in the garden that I could try my new zoom feature on. I am hoping to have more harvest pictures soon.

*The hot pepper plants have blooms on them (last year's plants).
*The baby sweet bell peppers are about 3-5" tall. No where ready to start producing.
*The okra is weird. I must have some bad soil type for it to produce. Nothing has ever grown well in that spot.
*The citrus trees are in bloom. The fragrance is great.
* All varieties of tomatos are around the 4" mark.
* We just had rain 3 days in a row!! What a huge blessing. We had a good soaking through last night, so I'm praying that will help boost growths. The sprinkler will never replace natural watering.
*Dill, basil and thyme seedlings are coming along. I'm so glad I planted basil since my 2 bigger plants died in the hard freeze.
* Zinnias are making a nice row and should make a beautiful border if the slugs don't eat all their leaves first.
Happy Gardening.

FISHERMEN PAINTING!

by Robin

Our county fair has a special division for Marine life to encourage conservation education and it is something we look forward to participating in all year long.

Thur morning, I broke out all the art supplies and laid down the cardboard. I placed out plenty of offshore books & magazines for them to become inspired. Sometimes we spend days doing this but with our schedule, we were blessed to devote a full day to art. It has been such beautiful weather, we decided the lighting was better outside.



Here is Andrew beginning with his color choices. We used primarily acrylics on styrofoam plates.



Next, he put in the background water. Then, he is putting in the details of his sailfish. He submitted a few pieces and then had another couple he didn't like.



Simon Peter also had his share of artwork. Below is the beginning of a flounder picture which he later labelled the body parts, common name and scientific name.



Today, we submitted our pieces & posters. Next weekend is the casting competition where all three of us are entered. And the following weekend, we get to see how our Marine art did after judging. It will be a fun couple of weekends as we travel south to the Fairgrounds.

They do have some gardening categories but we all the hard freezes, I'm barely getting enough veggies to eat, much less submit for entry. I am getting big tomatoes but that will have to wait for another blog entry. I feel a garden report coming on soon.

4H Photog Kids

by Robin

We settled on these photos to be our single, digital, photo entries. These will be in county competition early April and we'll find out if we go onto District and State later on.

Here's Andrew's pick (in honor or St. Patrick's Day):


Here is Simon Peter's pic, semi-against his will. I absolutely loved it and insisted it was more artsy than the dead lizard pic, which was also cool but NOT competition-worthy. We also had an honorable mention of the pups hot on the scent of a skink.