The First Day of Summer

I LOVE the first day of summer. Even if it's been warm for several weeks before, theres just something neat about realizing that THIS is the longest day of the year; the sun rises its earliest and sets its latest. Which is perfect for me because it gives me at least two good hours of daylight to play in my garden after the girls have gone down for bed. Speaking of gardening, I have a confession.....

I like big beets and I cannot lie.

Its true. Well actually, I don't especially care about the beet roots themselves, but the beet GREENS are my faaavorite. Steamed and topped with a bit of red wine vinegar and salt. OH my my.



And even though I don't love them, I save the beet roots in a container in the fridge and use them to shred or slice on top of my salads cause they're healthy and its a shame to waste them. I planted a big row of beets in April or May, and I'm just starting to harvest the first bunches now. The first batch is always the best since it spent most of its growing time in cooler weather. And now a bit of beet-nerdiness: If you want big roots, fertilize with more potassium (a bigger MIDDLE number like 10-24-16). If you don't care about the size of the beet root and just enjoy the greens like me, fertilize with more nitrogen (a bigger FIRST number like 16-10-10).  

As far as the rest of the garden grows, its doing very well on the sunny half. The tomatoes are as tall as me and heavy laden, the sunflowers taller, the corn about 5', and the beans, cucumbers and summer squash are all blossoming and setting. The zucchini is already ridiculous (who wants zucchini?) Here's the sunny half.

The shady half of the garden (onions, spinach, beets, asparagus, radishes, lettuce, watermelon, eggplant, peppers, butternut and acorn) is.......alive. The watermelon and peppers are still 3 inches high and haven't grown any more in several weeks. The beets, spinach, and lettuce are pretty much the only happy ones there.We're still trying to decide what to do with the shady half next year and we're leaning toward making it the bunny/chicken area. The trees that shade it are in the neighbors yard so I can't really cut them down (*gasp* Would I anyway?!) Here's the shady half:







Beautiful asparagus fronds

 



The eggplant that just won't grow because:

A: small amount of sunlight

B: my stupid rabbit Brody keeps eating the tops off




Theres the meat-head himself trying to hide. He's forever squeezing inbetween the 2 1/2 inch spaces between pickets to get at the fresh veggies. I chase him around and around the garden until I get so flippin' mad I turn the hose on and blast him until he squeezes back out. One of these days I'm going to turn Mr. McGregor on him and get the shovel out.

  

Of all the things there are to grow, though, I think that herbs have to be my favorite. Definately not the easiest, but my favorite. There is nothing like fresh parsley and oregano in the spaghetti sauce, lemongrass in the stir fry, chives in the potatoes, peppermint leaves in our smoothies and water bottles, and basil on everything else. I love love basil. If I could grow only one herb it'd be basil. My favorite way to eat it is in pesto or broiled with cheese and tomatoes on a bagel. I need to get a better setup for my herb garden though because right now its on the balcony and I'm gathering too many pots for the space.



Yummy dill-io

 





My other beauties are growing well too. Especially this one:

She's getting so smart so fast. In the past she's been a pretty non-expressive girl but has really started to come out of her shell the last couple of months. She dances (I mean SHAKES her booty) to music, looks at books during most of her free time, laughs manically and flops around when you put her on a soft surface such as a couch or bed, and loves to be kissed and tickled (as long as you don't restrain her). I really don't want them to get any older than this. They're full of smiles and personality, everything is new and amazing to them, they dance to music, and they love playing in the water. Jocelyn says "dee go?" for "Where'd he go?", "ah-ah" for dog (barking sound), and "beeeebe" for baby. Ivy says "gokey" for cookie, and "uh oh" for everything else. They have learned to sign very well from THESE DVD's. A few of the things they sign are more, diaper, fish, flower, hat, go, cat, butterfly, airplane, book. But they recognize oodles more. Some things they've been doing lately are:



Playing duets on the piano (beautiful let me tell you)



Figuring the dials on the radio out



Helping Dad fresh-squeeze some orange juice from the box of oranges we brought back from Cali.




Watching their signing DVD




Playing horses together. Anyone that says infants under 18 months don't play together but rather "parallel-ly" never had twins. These two play together.




Drawing on the magna doodle and walking.



Enjoy your summer!

Sometimes We Play

We finally got the garden fence DONE! (This is a still-in-progress-shot but it is really done). And guess what. After we finished the fence, we decided we are moving the garden. This spot just gets too much shade from the neighbors trees. But the fence is staying where its at. And the area it encloses will actually become the "chicken and bunny yard." We thought we built  the fence to keep the animals out of the garden. But it'll be keeping the animals in and away from the garden. Even better! Kyle is amaaazing when it comes to measuring and designing stuff like this. Oh and building. And painting. Yeah, he pretty much did it all. ^_-


Good job!



This is a pretty true to life depiction from my point of view. A little someone (or someones) is always under me begging for whatever it is I am eating or just to be picked up and held. Let me tell you, my arms are getting pretty muscly. But my left one is bigger than my right. See. Cause I hold the baby with my left and keep my right hand free for tasks. Anyway.



Bubbles are one of our favorite things! In the bath they're even better because they don't pop under our wet hands.



You got it, sis.




Jocy's room is coming along. I changed a gold mirror to white and made some paper fans to color the place.



Then painted a bunch of frames from the DI and collage-d them together on her wall with some fun papers, childrens book pages, and a few pictures of DANDELIONS (Jocy's fAAAvorite right now.)



We're one of those families that has a healthy, organic dinner  with lots of veggies, only so we can have an Oreo for dessert.



Me love cookie. Nomnomnomnom.



Let me tell you, decorating for holidays is pretty tough right about now. Everything gets found and inspected  broken.



Telling her no only works until I'm out of eyesight.



And then sometimes we play with pots in the driveway. You might think thats weird BUT they don't roll away like balls do (our driveway is on a slope). Pots roll in circles so they don't get far before they turn around and come back to us :)



This one speaks for itself.



As does this one.



After we get bored in the driveway, we climb the steps up to the front porch where mom's flowerpots are....



....watch the mailman go by....



...and then kiss the flowers. When Jocy leans over something and places her open-mouth on it, its her kiss.



I love this one too.



Ivy is fascinated by the dirt.



Loves taking little pinches of it and then watching it drop to the ground.



Swatting the flowers can be fun too. They're boingy.



And once we're back inside the house, the PANTRY is one of the places we like to hang out. Mom keeps the non-breakables down low for us to pull down and inspect. Cans are fun to roll. To heck with the toys.



Today we played at the splash pad



Splashing can be some serious business



Jocy kept tripping and scuffing her little knees. THANKfully Aunt Shelly was there to help Mom out. Kinda sad I'm snapping a picture as my injured baby is helped up by her Aunt. Oh well.



Shelly and Jocy peering into the grate



We'll be coming back here a lot this summer. But with hats and sunscreen. Because tonight our noses, toes, and foreheads are sunburned. Awww our first sunburn! Good fun!

To Plant an Orchard

Step 1. Choose the trees and, after measuring correct distances from each other, place them in the spot they'll be planted. I chose one DesertGold Peach and one Early Elberta Peach, one Gala Apple and one Granny Smith Apple, a Kieffer Pear, an All-in-One Almond, and a Tilton Apricot. I decided against and ended up taking back the Stella Cherry after reading that they survive but don't thrive in our climate.

Step 2: Dig the holes 3 times as wide as the rootball and as deep. This part sucked. I ran into a sewer line at one point, and pulled out more rock and pieces of cement slab than I did dirt, I think.

Step 3: Add 1/3 compost back into the hole with 2/3 soil, and a starter fertilizer. Make sure the base of the trunk / start of the rootball is slightly above ground. Mulch the top and build a reservoir wall around each tree.

Step 4: Water them deep the first time and keep the soil moist for a few weeks while they adjust. Oh and try and get a tan on those white legs cause swimsuit season and the beach is coming up fast!