Harvesting cold weather veggies

The harvesting of cooler weather veggies has been keeping us busy. So far, we've gone over the broccoli 3 times yeilding 9 quart bags and 4 gallon bags in the freezer and we ate 2 servings before freezing. We finally got peas!!! They are looking so good this year. We did our first picking a few days ago that gave us 3 quart size bags for the freezer. The kids love to shell them. We've had a few heads of lettuce, we use the onions as needed(but most are staying in the ground to grow bigger). The tomatoes are getting flowers on them. The carrots are growing. I think we will soon have cabbage. The corn is even looking good this year, the first planting will definitely be knee high by the 4th of July.

The kids are having a blast with the warmer weather. They are finding all kinds of insects, spiders, and moths. They ask us all kinds of questions about what is growing around them. Corb has continued to work on his driveway river system. He now collects water to use on the river system after it rains. They climb the fences, swing, ride bikes, play in the sandbox and play with water.

Tomatoes

The Tomatoes are in! We had frost warnings over the weekend so we waited on them. We had our Amish Paste and the one heritage plus neighbour Bill gave us 9 plants last night. They are some crazy ones. Bill does this every year, he plants a bunch of seeds and gives the plants away to friends, neighbours and family. We got a cherry tomato, yellow ones, orange ones, bi-color ones..all kinds of fun. I like putting the different tomatoes in our sauce to give it interesting flavours. We gave him a dozen eggs and told him to come back for more if he needs any.

We currently have over a dozen dozen eggs in our fridge. The chickens are giving us almost 20 eggs a day plus a duck egg. It is just insane! We eat breakfast for dinner once a week(and for breakfast and lunch). We clearly have a million chickens, but some of them are on hold for Ada. As soon as Dave builds her a chicken coop she is getting a few of the chickens and a rooster. She has been taking about 6 dozen eggs every other week from us.

We are really happy with the garden so far this year. The peas look spectacular-let's just hope they actually produce something. The broccoli plants have the little broccoli's starting to grow already. YIP! Outside of the garden on the other hand...

The blueberries look like shit-we should've just waited and gotten the bigger plants. The little twigs we got suck. One out of six is looking pretty good. The grape was affected by the frost-it had little bundles of grapes on it, too. We hope it makes it. Then, the freakin Oak trees are looking really piss poor. We think they are in transportation shock combined with the damn gypsy moth catepillars eating their leaves as fast as they try and get them. We have 2 other trees looking poorly. Hadley's favorite-which wasn't doing so good in the first place and the tree in my herb garden. Not sure what is going to happen with them-I am hoping the one in the herb garden makes a comback, I need it's shade in there. Hadley's favorite might just get the axe and be replaced with the crimson king maple that I want.

Blah, blah and then a yay

Yesterday did not go as planned. The kids were just..well, acting like kids that had a mild cold and were stuck inside all day due to the rain. Corb was in one of his moods. That tent didn't do shit. It worked for about 20 minutes, then they decided "Tornado" would be a good game to play. They had to be removed before the tent literally looked like it went through a tornado. They didn't even settle well for a movie. I got nothing done, so now I have the whole house to clean today.

Luckily, Matty and Emmy agreed make the drive to town with me. Granny met us, too. We went to the mall. I wanted to go into build-a-bear to make a friend for Hadley to take with her into surgery. I had seen this Unicorn online and knew it would be perfect. When we got there they had one on display with wings. Well damn, even more perfect. After we stuffed the floppy pre-body, I picked up the wings and a complete scrubs outfit. We dressed her and headed to the naming station. H has been talking about the name "Lily" for a few weeks now. She loves it. So, Uni's name is Dr. Lily M.D. I am going to wait to give it to her until next week when we leave for her surgery.

Fun for a rainy day

Our plans were spoiled by the rain today. We were going to go to Law Enforcement day at Poppi's work. After their schoolwork was done, I decided to mix up fun with picking up for the Hen Party Amish Shop Hop this coming Saturday we decided to have some fun instead. I told the kids if they picked up their playroom I would set up the tent for them to play in. It took a little while but it worked. They cleaned, I made good on my end. They are happily playing in there now. I am hoping it provides a long enough entertainment for me to get some of my cleaning done. If not, there is always a movie and popcorn to by me 90 minutes. I told them we can have a "picnic" lunch, too.

Hadley's horse flu

Saturday we(Hadley, Mom and I) went to the annual Herb Festival at Landis Valley. As usual we visited the turkey, then we visited the 2 beautiful work horses they have. One is white and one is dapple grey. The dapple one was standing with her head over the fence, the white was standing a few feet back under a tree. They both appeared to be sleeping. We where petting the grey one's head. Then, H climbed on the fence, right next to the grey horses head, startling the horse. The horse just reached over and bit H on the shoulder. It was so fast! Hadley flipped out to say the least. We made a visit with First Aid to get it washed and a bit of ice. Then we had to fill out a report with the Special Events director. She actually said she didn't like horses for a little bit, but by the evening she was back to loving them. Just not that particular one. It is healing very well. It is just bruised now and not even as much as I thought it would be.

In other corners of the house...all my herbs have been planted! 4 Basil, the number I plant each year keeps going up. We use so much of it. 1 Winter Thyme, 1 Curly Parsley, 1 Chive, 1 Eucalyptus, 1 Marjoram, and 1 Mullen. I also got 1 heritage tomato(German Strawberry), 3 Amish Paste and 2 pepper plants. Everything is planted but the tomatoes. Tiller Guy is coming tonight to till the half of the garden that still has hairy vetch growing in it. Then, we will plant the tomatoes and a few other things.

We have 3 peeps that hatched on Sunday/Monday. Hadley asked if we could hatch some peepies. Of course I said yes. They are all black with a little bit of white. Speaking of fowl...we have 7 Guinea Keets coming in about 2 weeks along with a male Turkey Poult. I can't wait.

Surgery date, things I don't want to forget.

May 21st. Hadley's surgery date. We won't know the time until the day before. They are going to repair the hernia on her left side. They are going to use a camera to check the right side while they are in there. If they find a hole on the right side they will repair that one also. They did a really great job talking to her about what was going to happen. They gave her a mask, bracelet and surgeons hat to play with at home. They also gave her a coloring book that takes her through the steps of what will be happening and what everything is. She is ok with it all for now. Morning of the surgery might be a different story....and I know I'll cry when they take her. But, lets not think about that for another 2 weeks.

Yesterday I was thinking to myself, I was thinking of the funny things the kids say or call things almost every day that I just don't want to forget. I decided to write them down.

1. Woofie Pies/Buns
2. A hundred thousand million infigaty
3. Dude head

There was another, but I forgot it. Typical. I'll add it on later.

When will it be?

Today we find out when Hadley's surgery will be. I hate that I want to cry just thinking about it. I put it to the back of my mind while waiting for today's appointment. I think I'll feel better after hearing exactly what is going to be happening. Knowledge is power, or at least it is more comforting knowing what is coming.