Freezes and a Proud Mommy

Last night we were 27 degrees.

In May.

In Southern New Mexico.

 

 

Everything was covered and hopefully I didn't loose very many plants. We should be in the upper 40's or the 50's  at night, so every perennial I own has already come up. It just needs to warm up and stay warm. According to the three weather sites I check, we should be finished with freezes. I hope they are right.

 

 

 

Now a little proud Mommy moment. Dallas made Abbit again (A's and B's Because I Tried). He has made Abbit in both English and Spanish all year. Every class he has taken since Kindergarten has been taught in English and Spanish. Twice the homework but he has thrived in the program.

 

He has decided that he wants to be a 'Normal' kid next year. No dual language program. Less homework and more fun time. I am worried that it will be too easy for him, but the school says it will work with him. I just want him to be happy.

Now I am off to work in the garden. Everything has to be uncovered and I have a lot of plants to get into the ground. I hope everyone has a great weekend!



Harvest Monday - February 18, 2013

I am so excited to get to participate in Harvest Monday. Be sure to go to  Daphne's Dandelions to see what others are harvesting!

 

Alex helped me pull a few carrots for our Pot Roast this week. Some of our carrots are still pretty small but it is great to have anything from the garden in February. 

 



4.78 oz.

Tackle Football

and Dallas do not belong in the same sentence. I know I am just being a Mom but he is so small. Well, he is small until he puts on all the pads and his helmet. He ages five years in the time it takes him to get dressed. How can a game that requires so much safety gear be fun?

Time to stop being a scared Mom - He loves it. David and our friend Evan are coaching Dallas' team this year - The RedSkins. We have mostly third graders while the other teams have mostly fourth graders. It does not seem fair to me but I guess that is the way city sports are done.

Huddle time- Alex (in red) thinks he is as big as the players. He really wants to play football with them and they are wonderful with him. He gets to tackle and push them through out the practices.

It's not the best picture - David and Dallas practicing 'pushing'.

Dallas in White.

Tomato Worm

I have only had one tomato worm this year. I guess you need to have healthy tomatoes to have tomato worms! When I saw the damage to my plants, I asked Dallas to help me find the 'little monster'. It only took him a few minutes to find it and then came the question I hear every year.

"Can I keep it?"

Photo retrieved on Aug. 24, 2012 from Wikipedia.

 I now know how my Mom felt so many times. I should have him kill the thing but how can I say no to him. Out came our 'bug jar' and in went the worm and a few branches from my tomato plant. Dallas took care of it and tried to feed it fresh leaves every day. My poor plants started to look a little thin. Then the day before our Anniversary trip, Dallas' worm went into its chrysalis. He took it with him to Granny's just in case it came out.

Last night, while cleaning up the kitchen, I heard something strange. The moth had finally emerged. It would do this at 10 pm on a school night. I woke Dallas up and we went outside to see what his little pet had turned into.

Dallas carefully opening the top.

Our 'little' moth.

Dallas playing with it. I think he was as surprised as I was with the size of this moth.



 

The silly little thing stayed around. It was on our fence today. Dallas just had to play with it one more time. I know I will probably see its offspring in my garden in a week or two but it is totally worth it.

First Day Of School - 2012

Where did the summer go?

Dallas started school on Tuesday (August 14). He is in the Third Grade. I still can not believe it. I love his new teacher...No really. I LOVE her. She teaches dual language in a self contained classroom so, for the first time, she is his only teacher. He is very concerned with this idea. How can one teacher teach him everything? Mrs. Duran has so much energy and she really seems to like her job (and I think that helps a lot). This is her first year teaching 3rd grade - she has always taught 5th grade - and I think she will be a good match for Dallas.

But I have gone of track a little bit! Dallas' first day of school was like all the other (when Dad is home) with a few minor changes. He wanted to ride the motorcycle to school. Yup. Right. My thought exactly. It isn't really scary when David takes him around the block but traffic is a totally different thing. They ganged up on me and they won. "Why did we buy him a helmet if I wasn't going to let him ride the bike?" Nope. I didn't have an answer either!

Alex helping Daddy get the bike ready.

David and Dallas ready to go to breakfast.

Breakfast at McDonald's. It is their first day of school tradition. I would rather stay home and fix a real breakfast!



Cheers!

Finally at school. Yes - I followed them in the car and held my breath for every turn and stop. Dallas did great and loved every minute.

When did he grow up?

Attitude. I guess he was tired of me taking pictures!



I  convinced him to let me take just one more.

He actually let us walk him in and even gave me a hug before I left. I know it won't last much longer but maybe I will get one more year.

Schools Out!

I can not believe how crazy the last week has been. I usually have my summer figured out and know how we will spend the next three months. But not this year. The Military is taking their time on our hardship orders. It may be the end of next month before we have an answer. It is torture. So we will do the normal summer things - swim lessons, park lunches, and messy crafts. I love the summer!

I took very few pictures this week of my garden. I do have lots of pictures of my boys - so I think I will share a few. 

On Monday, Alex and I were in Texas with my parents. PawPaw had to work so Alex got to be a "Crew Leader" for a little bit. 

Alex and PawPaw driving one of the Rollers. He was taking his job very seriously!

Dallas had a wonderful school year. He tested really high on his final exams in both English and Spanish. He even tested higher than many of the Spanish speaking kids. I am always so excited to see how smart he is. I don't really know where his intelligence came from but I thank God he is so smart.

Dallas with his group at school. He was the only English speaking child in his group.

Dallas and Mrs. Encinia - His Spanish teacher.

Alex at school - Look at those blue eyes!

It seems like everyone is growing up too fast. Roxie is now 10 months old. She is over 100 pounds and just keeps getting bigger. Almost every night I take her to the empty field behind the house and let her run. She sounds like a horse as she runs by me. Every now and then she gets her feet tangled up and rolls across the ground.

Sick Kid and Planting

Alex started running a fever last night so I am running on no sleep. The fever keeps coming back and he is a very cranky little guy. He says (As good as a two year old can) that it is his throat. If he isn't better in the morning, I will make an appointment and see his pediatrician.

I have gotten some things planted in the garden this weekend but I don't have any pictures. I planted the corn, spaghetti squash, white acorn squash, yellow squash, zucchinis, two kinds of okra, two kinds of eggplants, and Armenian cucumbers. I also prepared the rest of the planting beds by mixing in more rabbit manure/compost and alfalfa compost. Maybe tonight I can finish all the planting and move on to the grass tomorrow.

17 April 2012

It seems like every time I finish one project, I start two more. I decided today that it was time to plant our grass in the backyard. I chose to plant Buffalo Grass since it is native, drought tolerant, and stays about 6 inches tall without mowing it every week. All of that is great, but the main reason I planted Buffalo Grass is for Tank. Tank is my 75 pound tortoise who mows my back yard and keeps me company when I garden. I have had him for about 8 years and can not picture my yard without him. 

This is an older picture. He was about 55 lbs at this time.

So I started to till and level the east side of the back yard. I only finished a spot 12' x 20'. It took a while to remove all the rocks, roots, and trash from the soil. I could not believe all the trash that was buried in our yard. After broadcasting the seeds, raking them in, and spreading a thin layer of compost over the area - I built a little fence. I did not want to hear Dallas saying "I forgot" when I caught him on the new grass. He is the King of "I forgot." 

East side of the yard.

 The front flower bed is now covered in two inches of cotton burr compost. I ran out of compost with only 4 square feet to go. At least it is behind the bird bath and my garlic! Next I need to finish the path. Maybe next week.

 I went home for Easter and brought back a huge, over crowded pot of Aloe. I dumped the Aloe out on the porch and started potting it. It was all plant and very little dirt. It took a couple of hours to finish but I ended up with more Aloe than I planned. Two large pots will be put into the cactus/rock garden for the summer and I guess all the others will find new homes.

I am really wondering if I will be able to sit back and enjoy my garden anytime soon.

Flowers and Sunshine

I can not believe how fast the last two weeks have gone by. My Mother In Law has started radiation treatments for her bone cancer. We are still waiting on some test results to find out where the other cancer is located. I am taking over their bills until she is better - so the stress is about to drive me nuts. I am so afraid I will mess up their finances but there isn't anyone else to do it. With everything stacking up on me, I decided I needed a little garden therapy. I bought a bunch of flowers and spent a couple of hours outside soaking in the sun. I am still stressed but I now feel like I can handle everything for a little longer.

I started out the morning putting the veggies out in the sun. They have spent everyday this week in the front flower bed. My little patio gets sun for about 4 hours in the morning and turns to shade before noon. They seem happy and strong. I really need to get the veggie beds finished - Maybe this weekend when dear hubby gets home.  

Veggies soaking up some sun.

When we first starting building our house, I changed the layout of the garage, yard, and sidewalk to give me a huge front flower bed. I am now starting to question my great idea. This bed is 12' x 20' and was just sand when we moved in last fall. I added a bunch of compost and tried to get all the rocks out of it. Then I planted my garlic, transplanted several perennials, set up the bird bath, and waited for spring. I have put in a small patio, set out the soaker hoses, and removed more rocks. The garlic is growing like crazy. My garlic usually stays small and I don't even worry about harvesting it. This is my third year and it actually looks great. I am so excited.   


My garlic was bought from the farmer's market last fall but I do not know what they are. The largest plants in the back are elephant garlic.

My Muscari Blue.

I have moved my little blue flowers three times. The flower beds in Florida had lots of little blue flowers when we moved in. The flowers look similar to Texas Blue Bonnets and really reminded me of home. They quickly faded and I forgot about them until the next spring. They flowered again the next year as we were packing to move to New Mexico and I did what every gardener would do. I took them with me. Every spring they show up before any other flowers. I was walking through Lowe's last week and they had my little blue flowers. So I now know their name : Muscari Blue. I wonder if it comes in any other colors? 

The North end of my flower bed. I planted my strawberries around the edge and they are just starting to show.

Today while therapy shopping I spent way too much on flowers. I like to have my flower beds over flowing with plants and right now they look a little empty. I purchased Petunias, Marigolds, Cineraria, Salvia, Verbena, Geranuims, Red Star Cordyline, Gerbera Daisies, Daffodils, and Garden Gnome Iceland Poppies. Plus I already had Day Lillies, Iris, Dahlias, and Lillies. It took me two hours to get everything planted. I guess I will be heading back to the stores to buy some more flowers - O' darn!

By the front door - This area gets more shade than the rest of the flower bed.

By the front door is the Cineraria, Hyacinth, and Daffodils. The plant behind the Hyacinth puts on huge clusters of blue flowers. Once again, I do not know what it is. Maybe when it flowers someone will be able to ID it for me. I still need to get a few more shade plants to fill in but I am waiting for my rhubarb plant to put out some leaves. Last year it was in a pot and was huge. I can not wait to see it this year.
Last year I had my sons each paint a pot for me. I didn't tell them how to paint it. It just had to be bright and have their name and the year on it. This pot was painted by Dallas and he will fill it with flowers himself. Probably Marigolds. He always chooses Marigolds and Dusty Miller.

The small pot is Alex's and I planted a Petunia for him. I am hoping it can flower as fast as he can pick them. He loves to smell flowers but tends to get a little too excited. The larger pot was a gift from my Mom. It had Strawberries in it last year. The berries were moved to the large flower bed and I filled the pot with one Pink and one White Geranium, Pink Verbena, and Red Star Cordyline. I really like the pop of color the flowers bring to the front porch.



What to do?

The storm is here. That is dirt in the sky - not clouds

Our wonderful warm weather is a thing of the past. A winter storm arrived this morning. We have 40 - 50 mph winds and we hit our high at 7:30 this morning. We should have rain, snow, and wind until Saturday. So much fun! With all outdoor activities canceled, Alex and I have to find new fun things to do. We have been working on his colors so today I found a way to make orange. We started out with Red Ketchup and Yellow Mustard. Then he was able to mix them together to get orange.


Yellow and Red

Starting to Mix

All Done!

It only kept him busy for 15 mins but it allowed me to sit at the table and drink my diet Mountain Dew. It is the little things, right?

Bath Tub Paints

OK. I have to admit it...I am a Pinterest Junky. I love looking at the pins. A little while ago I found a pin for bath tub paints from Having Fun At Home.  I love doing crafts with my boys but usually one is too old or the other is too young - the six year age gap really gets us in the craft department. I knew my boys would love to do this together. I mixed the shaving cream with the food coloring before I told the boys to put on their swim suits. I did not need extra hands with food coloring. They had so much fun painting the bath tub and each other. Plus Daddy even stayed to paint!

Just starting...Alex is a little concerned.

Painting together.

Alex painting himself.

I guess Dallas thought Alex had a good idea, so he painted himself to match.

And one more picture. The Superman symbol was Daddy's contribution.

I was really surprised that the clean up went so easy. The shaving cream washed off everything and no one turned out blue or red. I don't think we will do this every bath time, but I am sure we will have to try it again as Alex gets older.