Square Foot Garden 2009

Just wanted to share some pictures of my garden this year. Last year we made some plans to do raised beds, but never got a round to doing it. One date night Troy and I were at Barnes and Noble and I found a book about square foot gardening and we decided to give it a try.

It was a lot of initial work, but I think it will be worth it in the long run. Troy made six 4X4 boxes, six 2X4 boxes and we bought lattice for making the grids for the top.

Troy and Jameson putting weed cloth and cardboard in the bottom of the boxes.

The soil mix is a made up on compost, peat moss and vermiculite.

Connor and I making the mix. Later I decided it was easier to mix it all in the boxes.

My first watering system- drip hoses. I wasn't happy with how it didn't get the whole square wet.


Here's the garden this week- click on the pictures to see them larger

Not sure if something is eating my seeds I am trying to plant in the lower quadrant, I have another butternut squash plant I will probably put in that spot


Herb Garden- Lots of dill for pickles this year, hopefully the marigolds will help keep the pests away


Beans, Peppers, Onions, & Cucumbers. We put up a grid for the cucumbers to grow on.


More beans, zuchinni, celery, another pepper, kohlrabi and pole beans


This was supposed to be the strawberry bed, but I had trouble finding strawberries, so next year I'll finish planting the rest of it


Lettuces & broccoli


The tomato boxes- you can probably tell these are deeper than the 4X4 boxes. You can also see my watering system, which I think covers much better. I have it set up on a timer for 15 minutes a day. Much better than the hour or more I had to do with the soaker hoses.

One of the benefits of using this system is less wedding. I did have about an hour of weeding to do after being gone for 10 days, but I think some of my compost might have had some weed seeds in it. Since then, I can spend less than 5 minutes a day and get it completely weedless.

Made in 2008...and then onto 2009

Just wanted to document some of my projects that I accomplished in 2008

Crafting/Sewing


Gardening/Baking



Now onto 2009- I think my goals for 2008 are pretty much all applicable to this year as well. I do need to get serious and write them out in a form that is more measurable. I have pounds I want to lose, 2 quilts I want to make, a blurb book from vacation last year to finish up, letters I want to write consistently, Sunday School lessons to be studied each week, debts to be paid off, more homemade gifts and a myriad of other specific goals swirling around in my head.

I've thought a lot about a word to define my 2009 and I keep coming back to respect. It's been a toss up between that and discipline. Respect seems more positive to me. It is applicable in so many areas- I want to be better at respecting my family, my Heavenly Father, my body, my time, my home, our environment, other people, etc.

What are your plans for 2009?

At my house this week...

we had a puppy playdate(with Mo's 3 siblings who live down the street)

I'm getting ready to put my heavier comforter back on my bed

I've been packing for Time Out For Women

I brought in all my herbs from the garden

drying lavendar(if I'm doing this wrong- can someone let me know!)

freezing parsley

I'm loving the view from front yard these days

my neighbor's tree

I'm in charge of Genna's Halloween party at school- so I've been getting that organized. This is for a pin the wart(hershey kiss) on the witch game.

I'm scrabooking for a sorority project. Scott Nisely was killed in Iraq in 2006 and we are putting an album together for his mother. We're just doing a uniform basic layout for now and will add titles and possibly embellishments later.

What's going on at your place?

Good Stuff

We finished up our popcorn sales on Friday. Woohoo- no more popcorn in our trunk, ever- it was our last year of selling. Thanks to all our family who bought from our kids over the past several years.

We got to go out to dinner two times this past weekend-

once to Famous Dave's with my parents and my brother Dave and his wife Melinda, who came up from St. Louis. It was so good to see them and get some pictures of their cute kids!



Then Saturday night, Troy and I went out to the yummiest buffet up at the Horseshoe Casino up in Council Bluff's with Troy's parents, brother Shane and his girlfriend JJ. We had a great time eating and laughing!


Connor had a soccer game on Saturday. He was able to score a goal and had some great assists.

Jameson is having to just practice with the soccer team this year, since he is a month too old to meet the age requirements. He has been a good sport- even though it's been hard to watch all your friends play when he would love to be out there with them.


I went Lincoln this morning with my SIL Michelle and since it was raining, Troy was home for a while and he did 3 loads while I was gone. I had a mountain of laundry and he was so sweet to get it down to bunny slope status for me.

And I won a fun prize on Melissa's blog- 320 Sycamore. You'll have to check out the amazing transformation they have made with their house.

All my mums are blooming and they look so pretty. Last year I had a bunch die out on me and so I am excited they are filling in again.



And last but not least I was excited to figure out how to have large sized pictures on my blog without all the work of sizing them and uploading them to photobucket. All you do is find the HTML code where it says s200 or s400 and change it to s800 for a large photo. Note you might see two sizes one that says s1600 and s200 or s400. Only change the small number. You might have to do some rearranging with your layout- because it doesn't work on inbetween sizes like s600. Don't ask me why.

Example code:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwQbWzm9ihY4npMoe0_78AcpJGhFbav7fZe_pIb-GuJEVTlXEKDsaCIQx88Q-fqvgR7eU4amNhG4r0M6kpnJ3FQYRr-oJSIIHmuDGL1KVDLQtO58YSFtqIYYl-CZl0aNG5Q8d5WQ/
s800/100_9766-1.JPG

Applejack Weekend

We live about 20 minutes away from Nebraska City- home of J. Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day. And while Arbor Day helped make Nebraska City famous, the bigger event is Applejack, which is held every September.

Around 20,000 people flock to this town that normally has a population of 7,000. Driving around is a little crazy, to say the least. Saturday afternoon, we decided to brave the crowds. We first stopped at Kimmel Orchard, they had some hands on displays of craftmanship from the olden days. The kids got to help dry scrape fur from a hide.

We walked around for a bit and thought about buying some cider, but the lines were too long. So then we headed out to Pumpkin Ridge. The view was worth the drive out.

So was the kettle corn.


We also had fun at their little petting zoo. These little goats were only 5 days old.

Genna was thrilled to ride a pony, even if it was just around in a circle.

Sunday, Grandma & Grandpa Koski came down and went to church with us- we love to have them come! It is only a few short weeks before they fly south for the winter. They had a fun surprise in their van for the kids. Aren't those pumpkins huge?

Check out this tomato my Mom grew. She definitely has a green thumb.

We then went over to the park for a quick picnic. It was a gorgeous day and we were so happy to be able to spend a little more time with them.

Father's Day Weekend

Connor had 2 ball games. They won the first one and lost the second.


Genna and I picked strawberries.


We gave Troy his gifts Saturday night since he leaves so early for his Bishopbric meeting.


I had to set my alarm clock for 3:30 am to put the brisket in the crockpot. It was totally worth it. Here is the recipe from the Gooseberry Patch Slow Cooker Recipe Book:

Brisket
2-4 Pounds Brisket or Roast
Kosher Salt
Coarse Ground Pepper
Garlic Cloves
2 T. liquid smoke

Place meat in the center of a large piece of aluminum foil. Rub the brisket with salt, pepper, and garlic. Drizzle smoke sauce over meat and seal foil up tightly. Place foil packet in crockpot and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Remove from foil. We used a fork to shred the meat, which just fell apart. We then poured the juices from the crockpot on the meat. You could also serve with BBQ sauce. So easy and yummy!

My Mom and Dad came down to Nebraska City for church. It was so nice to be able to sit by my Dad during Sunday School. We had a very hurried lunch together. It was definitely too short!

We were so rushed because we took Jameson down to Scout Camp. It's his first time spending more than a night away from home. I am a little nervous considering last week's Scout camp tragedy that hit so close to home.


We had supper with Troy's Dad. He got to test out his Father's Day gift right away.


We picked mulberries off of our bush that I was going to cut down.


We have one tomato that is very close to being ripe. BLT's and fried green tomatoes aren't too far away.


We have a new little bluebird couple using the house. There are 2 eggs so far...we'll keep you posted.


Hope your weekend was as good as ours!

Summer Busy

Being busy in the summer is different than being busy during the school year. It still involves being on the go a lot, but the destinations are usually more fun.

Here are some of the things we've been busy with the past few weeks:

1.Baby gift I made for Troy's cousin. I got the pattern and idea from here. Mine didn't turn out quite as frayed looking as I'd have liked, maybe after a few washings.
2.We've had tons and tons of rain. The flowers are loving it!
3.Troy's sister was in town and we went to the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo with them. It was so much fun!
4.Genna is playing t-ball this year for the first time and Troy is helping coach.
5.Genna lost her first tooth.
6.Connor had to get stitches after his foot slid under the treadmill. It must have gotten cut on a bolt under there. So he has missed out on swim team for the past 2 weeks.
7.Amber helped me find this cute shelf when we hung out last week. It makes my entry way much more cheery!
8.My garden has also liked all this rain, we've been picking and eating fresh peas all week long. Unfortunately, the weeds have thrived with the rain as well.
9. Along with the rain came lots of thunder and lightning, plus tornado watches and warnings. Thankfully we got our basement cleaned out and so the other night when we had to go down in the storage room, there was a place for everyone to lay down. The kids slept there all night because the warnings lasted past 11pm.
10.Jameson finished up his Faith in God requirements and is getting ready to go to scout camp next week. We are so proud of what an awesome young man he is turning out to be.
11. Genna lost her other front bottom tooth and so we had to document that as well.
12.We didn't really venture out in any of the storms to get any pictures of the storm clouds, although we saw some pretty incredible ones while we were waiting for ball games to get called off because of bad weather.
13.It was so nice to be able to spend time with Shantelle and her family. Troy's sister lives in Utah and so we get to see them about once a year. Their kids change so much in between times. Caleb just turned 3 years old and he is such a smart and funny kid!
14.We have been playing A LOT of ball lately. Connor has normal games Mondays and Saturdays. Jameson plays Tuesdays and Thursdays. The past 2 weeks Connor has had to suit up for Jameson's games as well because of missing players or injuries.
15.Jameson has been working on taking pictures for the fair.
16.Anna is 10 months old and a sweetie. We watched her and Caleb for the afternoon and evening. Boy did I forgot how much work it is to have a baby in the house.

Happy 1st Day of Spring!

I was so happy to find these pretty little flowers yesterday.


I also set my little seedlings out in the sun to soak up some rays.



It was such a gorgeous day, we(my nephew Creighton was over) all took a walk out to the big tree in the field. Genna saw her 1st cowpie, but you probably don't want to see the picture of that.





I planted some onions and peas while the kids rode bikes, played basketball, did sidewalk chalk and even went frog hunting. I didn't take a picture of Connor's muddy pants. "Mom, you have to get in the water to make the frogs jump out."


This winter has been long and so even though I have a house to clean(we're having the Bennett's over for Easter on Saturday) and talks to write since our whole family is speaking in church on Sunday, we had to go out and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Happy Spring to you all!