Look How Tall She's Grown!!!

So, I finally had Scott take a couple of pics of Tay and I last night to show how tall she's gotten. I know my mom & dad & sisters would want to see, and I thought I'd share here as well. Pardon my sweaty, red-faced look.... I'd gotten home from work at 6 pm and set right into gardening tasks. Scott and I spent from about 6:15 to 9 working outside, him cleaning the grill and helping me with one or two harder bits of the gardening, me.... Just gardening. *grin* More on that later. Anyway, Tay is all but standing on her tip-toes in this pic, trying to appear taller than I am. She's ALMOST there. But NOT quite. *wink*



Here, Tay and I had been trying to make "bunny ears" on each other, but Scott told us to settle down and just smile. As you can tell, we were still a little giggly. I wish Scott had been standing up when he took these pics, I feel like this one has y'all looking up my nose. *wry smile*







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I haven't posted gardening news in a couple of weeks (meant to last week, but just didn't accomplish it), so I'll go ahead now and clue y'all in on what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks.

Mind you, I'm still fighting/recovering-from the bronchitis, so I haven't been doing as much as I'd really like to be.

IDC Update: Weeks 2 and 3 (and 4?)

Plant: dill seeds in my "tomato barrel" (to which the tomatoes will be added IF and when they ever come up!); zucchini seeds in the other barrel; thyme, sage, rosemary, tomatoes, and corn all in little pots here in the house to get them started before transplanting to larger pots to be kept outside. So far, the thyme is the only to have emerged. Sunset Runner beans in my bean-patch. When the corn comes up, I'm going to plant it out on the edges of the bean-patch and hopefully allow the beans to provide the nitrogen that the corn so badly needs to grow properly. One of my big chores last night was turning over the soil in my planter bed to prepare it for planting into. There were a lot of weeds and weed-roots to be pulled out. In my planter bed last night I planted 2 types of lettuce (Pirat and Oakleaf); spinach; radishes and swiss chard. Scott's planning on getting my other planter bed built & dug in within the next week, so I'll wait till that's in place to put in my turnips and beets.... Maybe a couple rows of beans as well. My first planter bed actually has half the bed-space still available for further plantings of radishes, spinach and the like. These things do better if you plant smaller portions, but plant successively for successive harvesting.

Tended: I suppose this is where I'll tell you that I killed off the basil my friend & coworker gave me. *wry smile* For some reason the pot got infested by these miniscule black midges and these things were all over the house. (They didn't get into ANY of my other plant pots, despite the fact that the basil pot was sitting side by side with all the other pots.) Scott HATES those little black flies, so he dictated that the basil pot must go outside and may not come back INSIDE until we were sure to have killed all the little flies. Unfortunately, it's still too cold at night for basil. The 3 seedlings died. *sigh* I've been able to keep my little pepper plant alive, though!!! And my hyacinths, while alive still, have not yet bloomed. *sigh* I've started watering my strawberry plants a couple times a day, in hopes that they survived the winter. We've yet to see, though.

Harvested: Nada. (Though, ideally I SHOULD have kept all the little dandilion seedlings I was pulling out of my planter bed last night and eaten the greens. I'm the only one who'll do that, though, and I was too busy trying to get them GONE to want to seperate them from the rest of the weeds for eating.)

Preserved Something: Nothing.

Make Preparations: nothing.

Cook Something from scratch: Nothing. (Yep, that's right.... This past week I cooked ABSOLUTELY NOTHING completely from scratch. I'm not talking "down to making my own noodles" but as in, not using canned soups as sauces. Not a thing, this past week, was really from scratch. And, other than the taco salad I made early in the week, I didn't really make any new recipes either. (And, Taco Salad is really so simple as to not really be necessary to share the recipe for. Just add taco seasoning mix to browned & drained ground/minced beef, then top a bed of lettuce & tortilla chips with the meat and other taco toppings as desired.)

Manage Reserves: we're eating the last of last year's potatoes, and what won't be eaten in time is being used for seed stock for this coming year's crop.

Work on/Toward local food systems: nope.

Compost/reduce/reuse/recycle: Nope. I've been very poor about actually composting our compostables. Scott's rather upset over how badly my compost bin stunk the first couple of days this year, so I haven't yet started setting aside the compostables. Besides, my home-made compost bin may well be replaced soon with a store-bought plastic bin, and I don't really want to add new fresh stuff until I know for sure I'm getting a new bin. (The plastic bin will allow the compost to heat up more and retain more moisture, thereby actually COMPOSTING. If I get the new bin, newly added things will actually COMPOST before the end of the season. If I DON'T get the new bin, newly added compostables will only sit in my home-made bin, not composting, till fall, when I'll have a wierd (inseperable) mix of compost from last year's garbage & leaves AND this year's "greens". Not really the best of options.) Of course, if possible, I may try to persuade Scott to let me keep the OLD bin AND a new plastic bin, and be adding new stuff to the new bin, while the old bin keeps the "already working" compost for hopeful addition to my planter beds this fall.

Learn a New Skill: Nope. BUT, I AM working on a baby afghan for a woman at work who's due in about 7 weeks now. Don't want to try to pick up a new skill when my old one is in use. *wry smile*

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Oh..... So Scott got me a "spading fork" for Mother's Day. (Yes, I asked for it, and NO it didn't tick me off to get something so utilitarian as I HAD asked for it specifically. He also got me a new pair of crocs and that new dishware set. Did I mention all this before?? I may have, but I've forgotten. I know I told y'all about my dishware set.) So, that spading fork makes turning over my planter beds TOTALLY easy. Well.... Totally easy if I wasn't still getting winded so easily. But seriously, I put the fork in and levered the soil like I was shoveling it, then I stuck the fork back in and turned like I was winding an old fashioned clock. That broke up the soil SO beautifully!!! And for other clumps that weren't so easily turned apart, just stabbing them a couple times with the spading fork really broke them up well. Had I not had to stop several times to catch my breath, I would probably have had my planter bed turned over in a matter of 10 or 15 minutes. As it was, it took me the better part of an hour. But, oh well.... It got done.

I'm hoping that within the next few days I can get out and spend some time turning over my flower bed here in the front yard. I had originally hoped to get the flower seeds thrown out by this time, BUT with being sick.... I haven't had the energy. And when push comes to shove, the veggie beds took priority. But I am feeling better enough that I can hopefully get the flower bed turned over and broken up (and weeded) over the course of a couple of days after work.

Once I've got the flower bed all prepped and planted, the only other thing that will need doing is planting my other veggie bed. But that requires Scott's hard work. AND planting my seedlings as they sprout and it becomes warm enough outside. And this week I hope to get my potatoes in. Gotta get those going before Scott hauls home another truck-bed of soil.

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Beyond that.... I'm still recovering (as mentioned). I'm very highly tempted to call the dr's office tomorrow and see about a follow up appointment. I just feel like I really should be more recovered by now than I am. AND, a coworker of mine who was previously a respiratory therapist suggested that I get an allergy test done, so I can start getting allergy shots to prevent future allergy attacks like the one that resulted in this go-round with bronchitis. She said that as I've now had bronchitis 2 years in a row in May, it's a pretty certain thing that I'll continue to have attacks in May, unless I pre-empt them with allergy shots to prevent the trigger in the first place. *sigh* Really don't know that I LIKE the thought of allergy shots, though. Then again.... The thought of getting knocked on my @$$ by bronchitis every year is also considerably unappealing.

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Tay had an appointment this past Friday at the Alaska Center for Natural Medicine, in Fairbanks. The point of the appointment is to see about getting an ADD diagnosis. The Dr. though is a Naturopathic Dr. so she addresses all "illnesses" as a whole body issue. So we spent over an hour in her office talking over Tay's likes, dislikes, activities, eatting, sleeping, bathroom habits, etc. Then the Dr. did a finger-stick blood-test and sent us home with a urine-sample kit to gather a first-of-the-morning urine sample. These samples will be sent off to a lab for assessement as to Tay's hormone levels. The theory that awkward hormone levels may trigger symptoms that seem like ADD. (BTW, even though it wasn't using a needle, and it wasn't even MY finger getting poked..... I had a panic attack. The Dr thought she was going to have to take care of me next. *wry smile*)

We go back on June 5th to get the results of the lab tests and follow up with the Dr. Of course, depending on what the results are, the Dr. is more likely to prescribe suppliments or dietary changes, than typical prescriptive meds that an allopathic Dr. would prescribe for treatment/management of ADD.

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We're back to having BEAUTIFUL weather. Blue skies, faint whispy clouds if there are any at all.... Temps in the 70's to 80's, no rain. (Ok, wish it would rain a BIT, but not too much. Esp. as I can't use my water barrel till Scott has had a chance to dig up the fuel lines on the house. The water barrel sits right over the fuel tank, when it's in place. And once full, it'd be impossible to move.) That beautiful weather sure does make gardening tasks a joy!

Ok. I've gotta get ready for work and head out early to take that sample in to the Dr's office before work. I AM working a long week, this week. Worked Saturday to cover for a former coworker who's no longer there (Ie: they needed somebody to pick up her hours since she quit). Worked Sunday as usual, then I'll work today through Thursday as usual. AND I'll work Friday to begin my summer hours. So, when all's said & done, I'll have worked 7 straight days. I can tell you NOW that I'm SERIOUSLY looking forward to Saturday of this coming week! Then to have a 3 day weekend...... Ah..... I hope to get to sleep in, along with all the planting that we'll be doing over at FIL's house to get the garden there set up for the summer.

Have a Blessed Week!!