Category: Life

What Goes on in Late Winter

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It snowed. I’m actually glad, it was feeling a little too much like spring for still being winter. Although yesterday we spent quite some time outside. Peter adores it. He’ll pull at the front doorknob (I’m glad he can’t open it) or bring me his shoes and socks. Then he cries super lots when we come in. We walked to the library yesterday. I couldn’t keep track of him while I was getting books, but he seemed not to get into any trouble.

Other cool things I did lately:

  • Went to my little brother’s basketball game. Almost my whole family was there, which was a lot of fun, but Peter was ready for bed. I spent a lot of the game out in the hall with him. Kinda felt like church.
  • Visited my grandparents. My husband was able to share some things he was learning at school about balance with my grandpa. It was cool to see him kind of work as a physical therapist. I think he’s going to do a great job.
  • Played at the mall playground. I don’t like the mall, but the playground was lots of fun for Peter. There was a lot of other kids around. He was trying to play peek-a-boo with them and they just stared at him. Very cute.
  • Sewed a bunch. I’m actually starting to like it. Except I really need to get my machine fixed.
  • Made my own seed starter for $30. These can cost hundreds of dollars. Don’t ever buy one–make your own. And guess what? The seeds came today. I bought them in bulk, so if you want some of the following, I have them:
  • Scarlet runner beans: Gorgeous climber with red flowers, also produces beans
  • Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly weed/Pleurisy root): Orange flowers, home to monarch butterflies
  • Striped Armenian cucumber: I’m really excited for this. I love Armenians, and this is just a little more exciting.
  • Yellow pear tomato: My favorite small tomato. Best eaten warm and right off the vine.
  • Leek: I need to get these planted. This is my new crop this year, I’ve never grown or eaten them.
  • Great White and Cherokee Purple tomato: An heriloom, organic tomato. I wanted to try some different colored tomatoes out.
  • French/Charentais Melon: Another crop to try out.

Spring

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The crocus are coming up. (Along with the weeds–see picture.) Pruning is very much underway. We go outside and don’t need large coats. It feels a lot like spring. But it is February and still very much winter. At least it’s a warm winter.

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Yesterday we went hiking up Rock Canyon in Provo. It is not spring up the canyon. With the cover of mountain walls, there was plenty of snow and cold. The hike was good. It was a compacted snow trail, pretty uneventful. The views were nice, but not particularly inspiring. It was a great workout. I’m not exactly sure how far we went, (I forgot the map) but we were booking it the two hours we were out. We could have made four miles total, but probably more like three. And if you noticed in the picture, it completely disrupted Peter’s nap schedule. Same thing happened today (this time because of church not hiking). Naps are needed so small child does not get ornery. But he is still such a fun kid.

Big Springs in Winter

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I found this site and decided to try one of the trails mentioned, Big Springs up Provo Canyon. It was a well used trail, with no snowshoes required. (We did pack them with us for no reason.) I had printed off map/trail guide but lost it on the trail. This was after we broke from the main trail, onto a lesser-used route. It was a little annoying not knowing where we were, because we were trying to get somewhere just on a slightly more exciting trail. It worked out and we got to the springs (I think) and did a loop like we planned to. Most of all we did have a great time. It was our longest hike this winter and a good one.

The most exciting part for me (besides having a squabble with my husband halfway up, the result of me not eating enough: I must be fed to be happy) was seeing a bald eagle on the Provo River on the way up. No pictures (at almost 60 mph), but exciting.

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*I was going to include a map, but I’m still a little lost. Winter changes things a bit, and USGS maps are often outdated. So no map.

 

Average Life

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This is what I’ve been up to:

Isn’t wordle fun? It was a pretty normal week. I did go to my parents’ house to provide company for my little brother while they were away. We even got outside and pruned a little. I spent some great time with my neighbors, including a girls night out I brought Peter too. He didn’t mind he was the only guy there. I got a haircut from my neighbor/friend that was relaxing and I love my hair. Good to get away and do something girly. But my neighbor is leaving in a few weeks. No fun: now I have to find someone else. L

I also realized this winter seems so warm to me because I was up in Cache Valley the last few years. (Although I still think it is a warm winter.) I still go outside frequently and both me and Peter love it. We also explored at the BYU Bean museum. I grew up going to that place and love it. This time around I actually called into the audio tour and learned a few things. Not that I remember them now.

Just for fun here are a couple more wordles:

This Blog

Garden Blog

Just is an interesting word to use so often. But I do. Is that good or bad?

Homemaker

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I am primarily a mommy/homemaker. Here are some reflections about being a housewife:

  • I clean up after myself and do one extra chore a day (such as mopping, cleaning the bathroom). I love this because I never have to clean the entire house at once, but it all gets clean. It helps to have a small place too. I never want a big house.
  • I try to bake my own bread. The last batch didn’t turn out. I wrecked my mixer while on the pursuit of good bread. But I have also made fluffy, delicious bread. The verdict is still out if I will succeed long term with this quest. Right now it is hindered by the lack of mixer, but I am finding I quite enjoy kneading.
  • Don’t get tan carpet. Horrible stuff, it shows all the dirt. I bought resolve high traffic foam to try and clean it up without actually cleaning the carpet. It was not a miracle solution. But it was completely worth the $3. The cleaner lessened the dirt and other stuff visible in the carpet, but didn’t get rid of it. I also realized, upon following the direction for how to maximize the process, that my vacuum bag should have been replaced months ago. It was overly full and affecting my suction.
  • I attempt to sew. I more think about it than do it and this is problematic to actually completing projects. But I’m getting better too, however slowly.
  • Sometimes I get overwhelmed with how much cleaning there seems to be or I want my house to be a cute as a friends I just visited. I have to remind myself that it really doesn’t matter what my house looks like as long as the people inside are happy.

Sand County Almanac–Book Review

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A Sand County Almanac (Outdoor Essays & Reflections)

This is not a gardening book. It is a classic book on conservation. I at least somewhat consider myself a conservationist and thoroughly loved this book. One of the fun things I did while I was reading it was compare what the author thought should need to happen and what actually is happening now, 62 years after the book was written. There definitely is more progress being made, but we aren’t there yet. So go read the book.

One thing I though of when reading this book was related back to gardening. As gardeners we are stewards over a certain patch of land and I believe we can do of conservation and improvement on the land we use and own. I wrote a senior paper in college about it, which I put up over here. A lot of it is planting a variety of good plants: as gardeners we can preserve native plant species, along with a hoard of cultivated species that are useful to the overall ecosystem. We can create healthy ecosystems in out own backyards by cultivating a healthy soil, not killing off everything “bad” with pesticides, and planting a diversity of plants.

I’ve seen great examples of this in a few gardens I’ve visited or heard of. Botanical centers do lovely jobs. There is an occasional neighborhood garden I stumble across that is growing a lovely assortment of native plants. I love the certified wildlife habitat program. I have yet to do much myself–it is one thing I aspire to do as a gardener, especially when I have a little more to garden with. I want to garden with the natural ecosystem and environment, not ignore it or even worse, try to get rid of or change it.

Toddler Peter

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Peter is so much fun. He’s actually old enough to take places just for his enjoyment. This week we went to Cabella’s, the park, the library and lots of just going outside. He has a lot of my personality in him, and with that is the love of wandering. Whether we are at church, a store, outside or the park, he just loves to be able to walk wherever he wants to and find new things. I love that in him, even if it means I’m constantly running after him.

He’s talking lots more. Sometimes I understand what he is saying. Mostly I do not. But he does speak in real words: my mom took him to the toy store while Joe and I were at the temple and realized he said “dump truck.” It’s more like “ump tu” but he says it. I think there are many word I don’t understand but some he says include up, down, mama, dada, bye-bye, ball, oo-da (not a read word, but still communication), and occasionally some random thing like duckie, or Elmo. He’s do really good for a 15 month old. I love that he can understand me more too: he gets all excited when its time to go bye-bye or outside and will go get his shoes and jacket. He’ll go get whatever object I ask him for, which is great to delay him a bit when he wants attention from me.

Peter also has learned how to hit and thinks its fun to hit and wrestle his parents. He’s learning. He doesn’t get that much interaction with other kids. We did have some friends over the other day and Peter even learned some new dance moves from one. He’s added waving arms to his rocking. He seems to do alright with other kids though, just doesn’t quite understand what to make of all their actions. They start playing with all the toys, make lots of noise and even try to hug him. He didn’t hug back.

Random Holiday

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IT WAS VERY VERY WARM!! The temperatures were in the high 40’s. I thought is was January, the long horrid month of never ending coldness. But today was warm, and we are over half-way through the longest month of the year (although some years that’s actually February).

We made it hiking today. Not snowshoeing, since the trail did not require it. There was tons of snow melt. Some parts of the trail were a little dangerous because of the rapid melting of snow. There was even a scary moment when snowballs came crashing down the mountain on top of us. Joe was the only one hit, and not badly. But it was gorgeous and worth the small amount of danger. We hiked my most frequented hike (I’ve been doing this since I could hike) and one of my favorites–Battle Creek Falls. Not long, gorgeous waterfall, and lots of fun memories.

Of course hiking there meant visiting my grandparents down the street. We had a great lunch together, and Joe scared Peter with a remote control race car. While we were there Peter blew out his diaper, and I did not have a change of pants. This was before the hiking, so I thought our opportunity to hike was lost. Luckily I layered today. My purple shirt turned into purple leggings for Peter. I am not so proud of my mommy-preparedness skills but very proud of my creative mommy-skills.

Here are the pictures:

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*P.S. What do you do when your kid goes to sleep at 5:30 because he still needs two naps, but not all the time, and he was extremely tired and you were just not fighting any more with him to stay awake? He’s still asleep at 7:15, I guess I should go wake him up and at least get some dinner in him.

Two Trips in Wet Snow

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If you haven’t noticed, I love to go hiking and snowshoeing. I was able to go Friday and Saturday this week, and I even have plans for tomorrow. It’s a lot of fun to be able to still get out and do things in the winter.

Now, the last two hikes were short, just about and hour and half each, and probably under two miles as well. That was okay by me. On Friday I went with my mom, who had never been snowshoeing, up the Alpine trail (Dry Creek Canyon, maybe, with a turn-off to another canyon that I don’t remember the name). I discovered that my mom, who goes running, is in excellent shape. I had Peter with me and was attempting to carry him. After much wheezing, my mom took over. She wasn’t having a hard time with him at all. The trail we went on was a lot less snowy that it has been in previous years. The snow was rather wet too, but at least it was iced over. Even without ideal snow, I had a great time and enjoyed introducing something to my mom that she enjoyed.

Saturday, it was the normal group of Joe, Peter and I. We went up Hobble Creek Canyon to the Jolley’s Ranch park. If I go there again I will go ahead and rent some cross-country skis. Way too tame for snowshoeing. We didn’t have a lot of time to go, and fought our way up a side canyon for a while and then went on the boring, marked trail. I didn’t have to carry Peter (which is getting to be quite a task). I love my strong husband!

And Peter went to nursery for the first time today! (He technically isn’t old enough, but I was teaching Sunday School, and Joe was subbing in Primary so it was needed.) He did quite well. I kept peeking on him (peepholes in all the primary room doors is a brilliant idea) and actually really wanted to be in there with him, but he just didn’t need me. He is growing up and getting so big! (Seriously–too big. He dwarfs all the other kids his age, and is already starting 3T clothes. I guess I’m just getting stronger from lugging him around everywhere.)

Good Information

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I want a search engine that can do two things:

  1. Be able to search through my Internet history for a page I remember viewing but I just can’t find.
  2. Search through a selected group of pages, not the entire web: i.e. garden blogs, Extension sites, print-published items, etc.

If anyone finds anything like this, let me know. Or you might even get creative and start something yourself.

At garden rant, I read a post about the web being overrun by articles  not written by experts. There is a ton out there. However, I’m not completely opposed because I’m my mind there is no way to find absolutely correct information anyway. There’s a lot of garbage written by people who have no clue what they are doing. At the same time, I’ve found very valuable information on so-called junk sites.

You can try to find articles written by experts like professional gardeners, extension service agents, people with big degrees and lots of experience. But even the supposed experts aren’t always right. There’s an old Extension bulletin in the USU system that advocates fertilizing lawn every two weeks. It is written by an expert, but the information is bad and outdated. I’ve even worked for the Extension office and (I’m sorry to admit) have offered supposedly ‘expert’ advice that was completely wrong.

Scientific literature and printed information can also be good sources. But scientific literature is far from fact, as discussed on this post at greensparrow gardens. Printed stuff often come from writers that may or may not be actual gardening experts.

The way to get good information:

  • Cross-reference a bit
  • Try and find the most current info
  • Dig up the experience/qualifications of the writer
  • The library, associated resources, and real people beats Google
  • Nothing can replace your own experience and trial and error

If you really want to know something go out and experiment. Often there isn’t a wrong or a right way, just the way that works for you.

And someone should really start a new type of search engine.