Okay, it has been brought to my attention that I put the wrong date on the headlamp giveaway, so for those who were looking at the number instead of the day of the week and because I was looking at my calendar when I wrote that post but hadn’t changed it over to June yet at the time . . . duh . . . I’m extending the deadline for the giveaway until this Thursday which actually is June 23rd. Just so you know, the calendar we actually use for family activity postings did get changed to June at the beginning of the month, but the one by my desk did not. Funny. So now you have until Thursday night to enter the headlamp giveaway because my brain is only half functioning.
In other news, things are progressing pretty slowly around here. Sweet husband got most of the drip water system out for the garden but let me know we’re missing a couple of pieces so we’ll need to order them, then went out of town for 4 days before he specified which pieces, so the order will have to wait until he gets back unless I feel creative and confident enough to go figure out what’s missing by looking at what is there. We’ll see. In the meantime, no, the garden is still not planted. Yes, we’re a good 3 weeks behind now, but we have plenty of short season items we can plant and still get harvested even if we plant late, so it’s not a total write-off yet this year. It’s tough when it’s usually my job and I’ve been a bit pre-occupied this spring and sweet husband has so many hours he’s working and taking over some of the other mom duties when he is here like getting our daughter to 4H and grilling the chicken so I can keep the baby fed and away from the mosquitoes! What a crazy month it’s been. And hey, the pioneers planted after they arrived on July 24th 1847 and were able to harvest some food, so I’m not as late as I could be!
The herb garden is doing pretty well. The little baby parsley didn’t make it and the stevia I planted got trampled by the dog, so I got some from the greenhouse and re-planted and that one mysteriously dried up and died when everything around it is growing fine. I still have the one I planted in the house, so I might get another from the greenhouse to plant outside and see if I can keep it alive this time. I also added lavender and marjoram from the greenhouse to the herb garden. Fun stuff.
In our ward (congregation) at church, the teenagers go to the LDS cannery a few times a year to can food for people. Usually if you want to purchase from the LDS cannery, you need to go do the canning yourself, so our youth take orders and checks from anyone who wants them to can it for them and go do the canning and deliver the filled cans at the end of the night. This works great for busy people, elderly folks, and mothers of young children who have a difficult time getting to the cannery and doing the canning themselves. I have 7 cases of #10 cans of basics like wheat, oatmeal, and rice ordered for their cannery trip tonight, so I’ll have to figure out where I’m going to put it when it gets here. But, as sweet husband said, he’d rather have food stacked in a corner of a room taking up space and looking tacky than not have food when we need it. I’ll try to figure out some way to stash it that doesn’t look tacky anyway. I’m not quite to that point yet.
I also got the Beekeeping For Dummies book and my son has been reading it and giving me the cliffnotes version. I’ll post a review when I get some more of my own reading done in it, but from what I have read it looks like it will be pretty helpful for our bee hive adventure.
Sweet husband and I both applied for cow elk tags so we can get some more meat in the freezer and bottled this winter. Hopefully at least one of us can get one. We’ll see how hunting goes with my little papoose, but the odds are better to get one if both of us apply than if just one of us does, so we’ll see how that turns out. That’s the update around here. Hopefully you DO have your garden in by now. What else have you been doing to get prepared?
Keep preparing! Angela
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Nice job of typing around the baby :) lol! We’ve all been there! Enjoy this special time!
About the stacked cans…. do exactly that. Stack them in some kind of form where it works, round maybe, throw a piece of wood cut to size over them, throw a table cloth over it, throw a potted plant or a lamp on it, and voila, no one will know! Of course, that will only work til the baby starts crawling and pulling up on things.
What pioneers arrived where in 1847? My son hated to read and was lagging behind others because he refused to pick up a book and read. I was preganant. I asked him to read to me while I cooked dinner because I was so tired and did not have time. You got to get them to read somehow! Finally, after much pleading, he did get the book and read–Jaws. The first page was all about a couple running on the beach, shedding clothing as they ran. I tried to get my son to quit, but he dodged and weaved his way around table and chairs in the kitchen as my 8-month pregnant stomach tried to keep up. Finally, with much laughing by him and threatening by me, I got the book. Everywhere I hid it, he found it. So, I had to give it away. I should have decided to take up beekeeping and had him read that! He is an English teacher now!
Sorry, the Mormon Pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake valley on July 24, 1847 and planted that same year. I’m south of the Salt Lake valley a ways, but still in Utah, so I just like to think it applies here as well. So funny about Jaws! And my son will read anything he can get his hands on, so I try to “feed” him things that will be useful in addition to the fun books. Really, whatever looks like a book or magazine he’ll pick up and read.
I’ve been keeping bees for three years. Beekeeping for Dummies was the book I bought and used for the first year…it has everything you need to know. Also you should go to YouTube for videos of beekeeping. Just my two cents. Have fun…I love our bees.
Amen! (On the tough typing with a baby in your arms! Amazing how good you can get with one hand, though…). :)
I totally relate to you guys! The garden is usually my domain after my husband tills it, but he sweetly took over this year and while we totally lost the map we made of what we planted (great tip, thank you! We just need to scan it before I “put it away” next time), things are looking pretty good. Though we do have slugs feasting on the lettuce already and I’m trying to find a child-friendly deterrent/killer. If anyone has any tips, I’d love them!
Good luck with your drip system and beehive! We had a beehive growing up and the honey was amazing. Extracting the honey was quite a messy business, though, so I’ll be interested to see how methods for that have changed in the last 15 years. Keep us posted! If I wasn’t allergic now, I’d look more into that…
And don’t worry about the calendar mistake! I was seated and ready in a just-cleaned-house for my Visiting Teacher to come meet my new baby last Thursday… Until she called back and reminded me it’s actually THIS Thursday that she’s coming. Oh well! At least I got the house cleaned. :)
Okay (my last comment– I swear! All three boys are napping and I really need to go and take a nap, too…), I love the idea of the YW helping at the cannery and delivering!! If our cannery hadn’t just shut down the canning-on-site part, I would be pitching that idea to our YW Pres. right now. But, sadly, because of the new guidelines from the government required for canning sites, ours will only be selling from the off the shelf now. Good luck finding storage space (do you have a good size crawl space??) and I love your husband’s quote. :)
I hope you’re doing well, getting some rest and enjoying your tiny new one! There’s nothing in the world like a new baby. :)
We were going to do a garden this year but it didn’t happen. Maybe we still will….. It was funny, when I first read that I thought it said bookkeeping for dummies. I was surprised G was reading that. lol Anyway, miss you girl!
Angela, thanks. I was thinking to our shores and was baffled…lol. \
Heidi, about the slugs–foil, diatomaceous earth, egg shells, sand paper collars for plants