I love having a yard. We can now
And the snow is all melted. I love that it is warm enough to go outside and play! Spring rocks.
Here’s the birthday boy enjoying his cake. Love this kid!
I bought a bunch of seeds two years ago, and have a few more that I have gathered up from the past five years. I have not stored them carefully. They were thrown in a cardboard box and placed in my grandma’s bomb shelter basement while I was in Georgia. Lately, they have been in a plastic bin outside.
I decided to test the viability of the seeds. It’s pretty easy. It turns out I have quite a batch of seeds and it took a while. Here is what I did.
I placed 10 seeds in a wet paper towel, placed that in a fold-top sandwich bag and put it on my water heater.
A week and half later I checked it all. I shouldn’t have waited that long, I just forgot. Ideally, I should have been checking them every 2-3 days.
Vegetable seeds germinate quickly and have a high viability rate. And most last 2-5 years just fine. My germination tests resulted in 90-100% for the majority of the seeds. Only a few varieties didn’t have a high rate of germination, some of which were moldy and hence need a re-test.
I’m getting excited for spring…the snow is almost melted, the weather is warming up. I’ve been pruning shrubs and found a bluemist shrub that had self-propagated a beautiful layered cutting. I re-planted it in my own garden. The seed shelf has been constructed, and I’m planning on starting some vegetable starts soon.
Mr. C is starting to walk. He’ll take a few steps unsupported. I’m amazed that he is already almost a year old! He is also into everything. His favorite activities now include eating pencils and crayons, losing his binky, pounding the keyboard, trying to get into whatever Peter is playing with (much to Peter’s dismay), emptying the fridge and chewing on anything in there even if it is wrapped in plastic. One day he managed to get a loaf of homemade bread out of the bag and was eating the whole loaf like it was a heavenly giant piece of bread. There was also a morning where he dumped a half gallon of apple cider vinegar all over the floor. It reeked and took forever to clean up. Luckily it could have been a lot worse, because it was vinegar which makes a good cleaning solution. I guess Mr. C just decided the floors needed to be cleaned that day.
PB is fun. We have been doing lots of fun activities including the following.
Hill Aerospace Museum.
Blowing bubbles. Except Peter sucked instead of blowed. We need to return to this craft sometime.
Sweetheart Sorting. I loved this activity for Valentine’s Day. We found the worksheets here. And the great thing about this was the conservation hearts we bought were disgusting, so there wasn’t candy binging along with the activity.
Puffy paint. This is made by simply mixing glue, shaving cream and food coloring. I enjoyed painting probably more than PB.
Play rock garden
PB’s favorite activity is still listening to songs. He will listen and rock for hours. My mind wonders if this is a good or bad thing: is it good down time for him, or a waste of time he gains nothing from? I simply try to limit it. I do think it is better than TV, but he needs to get up and play too.
Lately I have found strange things relaxing including baking chocolate cake, making laundry soap, germination testings, and shoveling snow. I shoveled the whole walkway in the middle of the last snowstorm. Joe and I were supposed to take turns…but I just got working and it felt good to get my mind off things and I enjoyed being outside.
Joe has starting working (finally). It was nice having him around, but so much better to have him working. He’s enjoyed his job so far, and I am looking forward to having paychecks.
I’m still alive. After a long hiatus, I am gardening again. My family has moved back to Utah and my husband has a job. We are renting this year, but actually found a rental with a garden plot.
A couple of nice warm days (it actually hit 38 degrees), and now I am thinking it is almost spring. I even have proof:
In reality, snow is still coming and temperatures are not getting over 40. Spring might be a while away, but it is a good time to start gardening. Yesterday I spent the day pruning in my parents’ orchard, and today I sorted through my garden supplies that made it through far too many moves. Tasks on my list include:
Are you itching for spring as much as I am?
Is the cold winter weather and snow getting you down?
Tired of being inside with nothing to do?
Go outside anyway.
Here are five things to do in the snow.
One: Take pictures. There is nothing like a beautiful fresh covering of snow to get a good batch of photos.
Two: Go sledding.
Three: Build a snow cave. (My husband built this beauty)
Four: Throw snowballs
Five: Go snowshoeing or hiking
And if that doesn’t inspire you (or if the snow is crusty and old), stay inside, gobble down chocolate chip cookies, and enjoy a good book. That’s what I”m doing today.
We moved. I like our apartment, and I only have a few boxes left.
Joe passed his test. He should start working just as soon as his license goes through.
So we are pretty good here, but pretty busy too. I’m going to go unpack a bit.
*Update: All done unpacking. 🙂 Still some organizing and decorating left. And a massive pile of boxes to get rid of.
Mostly just waiting here…waiting for Joe’s exam to be done, waiting to move, waiting for work to start. We have visited my sister, refinished a table, went snowshoeing, and played a whole lot. My computer also crashed. (Let this be a reminder to you: go back up your files NOW, not at some distant point. Luckily most of my files are recovered.)
The gang that went snowshoeing.
One day after nap Peter decided he wanted to watch a show we got from the library and nothing else. I said no. Admist all his tears I turned into a hug monster. He loved running away or just enjoying my hugs. We went outside and played some more. It completly changed the atmosphere, and I got mychild happy without turning on a show.
C enjoys walking. Can’t do it yet without assitance, but he get around with chairs, his wagon, the vacuum, parents, couches and whatever he can find.
I like going outside, whatever the weather. Snow, rain, cold, wind can just make things more interesting. Just make sure you are wearing the right jacket. But in Utah when it is below freezing, and it fills like you are breathing in car exhaust due to the inversions, staying inside is just fine.
In the middle of freezing temperatures we had a clear, warm(ish) day. These pictures are from that day.
This is how we started the day. Color mixing is fun, but even better when you take it out in the snow.
Walking over to the sledding hill. If you are from here, notice you can see all the mountains perfectly clear…no smog!
The next two are from an earlier day…they seem to still belong with the set.
Liz Braithwaite 