Spring Garden

I'm on spring break and it's cold.  It's been in the 30s the past few days.  Feels more like winter break.  

Over the weekend I started to clean out the garden and amend the soil.  I even got a bunch of spring seeds planted like peas, lettuce, radishes and kale.  It felt good to get out and get the garden going.

Look!

This weekend it was warm enough that the bees were out and about!  We are keeping our fingers crossed that they can make it another month.  I am so ready for spring!

Dead Bees

All of these dead bees appeared on top of the melting snow in the past day.

We figured our bees wouldn't make it through this crazy winter.  But all these dead bees are actually a good sign.  On a warmer day like today the bees will start to clean out the hive including removing the dead.  If the hive hadn't survived there would be no bees outside we would find them all in the hive.  This means there are at least a few kicking around inside and they might make it through the winter.

Organizing and Routines

I have finally gotten back to being in a routine at work after a super long winter break that ended up being 18 days.  We got 2 extra days due to the polar vortex and during those days I decided to attempt a project that I've been putting off, organizing the attic.  

We've been throwing things in there for the past 5 years and it was time to condense, purge and get it in order.  Everything came out and I went through every box.  We got rid of very little but I condensed and properly organized it all.  

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

2014

It's been a long time since my last post.  Life has been busy and blogging took a back seat.  Mostly I had nothing to say and was uninspired.  I'm feeling like trying to get back into it so here we go...

It's been beautiful today with the snow falling down.  A perfect way to start 2014 and wrap up my winter break.

I'm not big on resolutions.  And I'm definitely not resolving to blog more often.  But today I came up with my 2014 resolution.  

I've been doing my yearly recipe book organizing when you toss all those recipes you saved to try and you finally realize your never going to make them.  

I have a big binder with pocketed dividers.  Recipes I want to try go in the pocket of the correct category and recipes I've tried and like make it into a page protector behind the divider.  

Even with tossing dozens of recipes I still have enough to make a different one each night for months.  So I'm going to try to make at least 2 new recipes a week.  We will see how it goes.  Happy New Year!

Harvest

Here are the few pictures I did manage to take over the past few weeks from what I have gotten from the garden.

Busy

I've been around lately but just super busy, too busy to blog.  Once August kicked in I hurried up to finish the projects that I had had been putting off all summer: patching/repainting the porch and fixing cracks in the bathroom.  Then I started to feverishly cook food from the garden and prep meals to stock the freezer for the school year.

I've been picking things from the garden but not taking many pictures.  The past few weeks have been solely focused on getting ready for the new school year.  Ready or not the tomorrow is the first day of school with my new batch of first graders.  I met most of them at preview night last week and I am excited to get started!  Once the school year is underway I should be around a bit more.

Flowers

Lately I have been enjoying lots of flowers from the garden.

Tomato Jam and Green Beans

 

A Day At The Fair

We went up to Bowling Green to spend the weekend with my Dad and Connie.  Of course we had to hit up the county fair to see the animals and the usual sights.

 

 I couldn't pass up the opportunity to pose next to a massive (pregnant) milking cow and pretend that this is everyday stuff for us.

  Those pigs looked precious as if they were snuggling, even though I know better.

 

 Sweet corn at a beef auction and my city boy pretending he knows how to drive the tractor.

 

I loved this artwork!  I would buy it if I could.

All in all it was a fun day spent at the fair!

Harvest

Harvest

Salvaged Wood

Earlier this year a strong storm sent my Grandmother's barn leaning.  It was a very old barn, according to her 200 years old, but I'm not sure if that's accurate.  We can safely say it's been around for generations.  It's been structurally unsafe for years and was already planned to come down this summer.  Nature just helped to get the process moving.

They tore the barn down earlier this month and I asked that some of the wood be saved for me.  I don't know what I am going to do with it but I have seen lots of ideas out there some are here, here and here.

This past week I went up to sort through what was saved with my Dad.  Much to my dismay we had to cut down some of the pieces that were 18 feet long for storage and transportation reasons.  But I think I got a good haul.

I was able to get some in my car, the rest we got off the ground for storage.  This is one of those many moments I wish we had a truck.  I'm not quite sure how I will get the rest to Cincinnati or what I will do with it.  But I'm looking forward to having it for future possibilities.

Good or Bad?

This looks like it might be a ladybug larvae but I'm not quite sure.  I let it be, but I  hope I won't regret that decision later.

Grrr, Squirrels!

It had been a few weeks since we lost tomatoes to the squirrels so I thought they might have moved onto greener pastures and were done terrorizing our garden.  But I was wrong.  This past week they have resumed their attack on the tomatoes.  Below are just a few of the victims, unfortunately there were more.