The Garden Really Grows!!!

Our good friend Sonja asked me in an email today if the weather girl on this blog every started to sweat. I think not, because she certainly would be if she had the ability. Spring is definitely in full swing, with above 80 weather each day for the past few weeks. Honestly, though, it has not been that bad. We get great air circulation throughout the house when we open the windows, and that plus our ceiling fans have kept us cool enough so far. We make a lot of iced tea and iced coffee - it's a wonderful-good excuse for yummy drinks!

The biggest news (at least for me) is that things are actually coming up in our garden! Being such a novice, I got a bit discouraged about halfway through planting (all this work, probably nothing will come up!). As days and weeks went by, I would gaze forlornly over the dark brown patch and sigh. Backbreaking labor...time...tears...nothing!


Well, on my trip back to Washington for one week, little sprouts finally peeked through. Phil told me over the phone, and when I let our a squeal, my sister looked at me puzzled, and then just laughed "I never thought I would hear you actually excited about a garden!". I had to explain to her that was before we spent three weeks off and on, and hours and hours planting! Ha!

My previous scare with the Asparagus hunters and Peter Rabbits have somewhat subsided. However, much to my dismay, there is another predator on the loose. Shortly after the small shoots came up, I got another call. It seemed that where we had a nice row of corn, now we had only half of a row. Now this was discouraging! He searched and found no paw prints.

Well, our friendly neighbor farmer stopped by a few days later. He explained how these cute little ground squirrels were probably the cause of our problem. It would explain the lack of prints, since they are so small and light. Some back here call them "Squinty's". We had watched them all winter- exclaiming over how many of them we saw, and how cute they were. Oh, how we enjoyed watching them, seeing how close we could get before they ducked into a hole.

And now they have become "Garden arch enemy number one". Why is it that all of the cute little animals need to eat? And, why do they need to eat my garden?Couldn't they be in love with dandelions? Or how about errant grass that has come up in my garden? Oh no, tender shoots are much tastier! Oh yes, the worst part is that they don't even eat the whole thing. They just wait for ths shoot to come up, run over, pull up the shoot, and eat the corn kernel at the bottom. Did their mother never tell them to eat their greens!?

So now, we are exploring ways to protect our new garden from them. The good news is that they leave alone pretty much anything unless it is sweet and yummy (corn and peas). The beans, zucchini, squash, watermelon, onions, garlic, cucumbers, potatoes, asparagus, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, cauliflower, and broccoli seem to be untouched.

So, beyond that excitement, we have been dabbling in a few "extra curricular" activities. I have started knitting once again. Still a complete novice, I finished a baby sock while I was in Washington (picture to come). My sister in law Tara is an amazing knitter. She is my inspiration, because her first "project" was a baby sweater she knit for her son Tate- and it looked store bought. Here is a comparison picture of "a few days" of knitting. Hers is on the left.

We "re-milled" the castille soap we had made about a month ago and added lavender essential oils and leaves. We tried putting them in molds (ha, or candle holders!) and they actually turned out really cute. We have had a lot of fun trying out new soaps, and being creative. It is definitely a team effort, and I am thankful to have a husband who is unashamed to have creative fun making soap with his wife!

Speaking of my trip to Washington- I had a really great time. It was too short (maybe I will have to stay over a weekend next time!) but still, we got to see the family, and it was a nice break from the weather. It's amazing how loud the city can be- while at home I actually heard the trains, and the cars, which I had always seemed to block out before. Coming home, I again realized how very quiet it is out here in the fields! I also was amazed at how tall the trees seemed - we have trees in Iowa, but they are shorter, broadleaf trees...bushier, if you will. There are trees three times as tall as any I have seen in Iowa in the neighborhoods around my parent's house. And, who could forget the beautiful water? How different it is to fly over the checkerboard of farms through the midwest and then to see the mountains and water throughout the Northwest. Both places are so beautiful in their own right. The bad thing about visiting home? Only when I returned to Iowa did I recognize the injustice I had done by not taking more pictures! It is a place so familiar to both Phil and I, I thought, why do I need to take pictures? But when I got back, I would have loved to show him (and post) pictures of the northwest, and family and friends.

While we were there, Ryan started walking really well. Now, the critter is running around the house. He started carrying my broom with him yesterday (yes, the big person broom) and is just enthralled with it. He will walk around the entire kitchen, stop, squish it on the floor a few times, and is then off running again. This picture is of he and Tate (his cousin) and Grandpa Grossmann with the wagon. Ryan got pushed around a few times in the backyard before Tate realized that he was missing out on the easy life and hopped in, too!