For A Season…..

This week is a planning week.

I am getting the kids’ notebooks and schedules in order for the next school year. Even though we school year round, the big sales are going on, so we stock up on most of our supplies, now. I also have to order many of our math books and science things, since the kids go at their own pace and are going to finish earlier than expected.

I’ve got to decide what I’m doing with the Sarge for science this year. (Probably Biology I…. but maybe Chemistry) He’s also going to be in a speech/writing class (Yay, someone else gets to force encourage him to write something!)

The Gremlin is flying through his math books and will be moving beyond his grade soon. The kid blows my mind with his math skills! He definitely got his math genes from his daddy.

The Imp is doing much better this year. Reading for fun all summer has helped her confidence and sight word skills. She isn’t sure what subjects she likes best yet, but seems to be doing well over all. Yay, we have made it past the reading hurdle!

Lesson plans for my co-op history class are in the works too. I try to make history fun, since I HATED it as a kid. This week we will be trying some medieval recipes and looking for more props and activities with fire and weapons to use throughout the year.

Yesterday the kids went biking with Hubby. While they were whipping up and down the neighborhood streets, they came across a 5 ft. diamond backed rattle snake that was sunning on the pavement next to the long grass. With all of them on bikes, it must not have heard them and was startled. It rattled at the Sarge, but thankfully did not strike. Hubby said it was really big around too. Big enough to eat rabbits and smaller cats and dogs. Hubby brought the kids home and went back to see if it was still there…..it had slithered back into the grasses. Mommy is not loving the wild life, anymore!

First, spiders that are the size of your palm, now big scary snakes……Eeww!

Our garden is about through. The corn is yellowing and most of the creeping plants have dominated the yard but are not producing much these days. The grass has grown up around them and the few things that are growing, are not getting enough air circulation to stay healthy. We’ve been cutting things back and I’ve found that borers have tunneled channels through the main stem of most of my creepers (this is why the leaves have all been dying and turning yellow.) Right now, I have about 5 watermelons, a basket of cucumbers, 1 zucchini, 2 squashes, and a bowl of cherry tomatoes on the counter. It has been awesome not to have to buy all this produce and we’ve been able to bless others with it too. Very cool!

I’ve been slowly clearing out the rows to try a 2nd planting of our summer crop. It is taking forever because it is so hot here, but progress is being made. Yesterday we tore out the corn and cleaned out the fire pit. We’re going to burn all the plant materials and throw the ash back into the dirt for nutrients. Today we pulled out the creepers that were compromised by the borers and I made a pile of them at the back of the property to start a compost pile of sorts. I haven’t decided if we should burn those too, or not. The borers have long since left them, so it’s not an issue of bringing back the worms.

We had an awesome run with the corn, watermelon, cucumbers, zucchini, and squash. We are going to flip planting ends and try adding a few new things to experiment with. I still have beans that are producing and the cherry tomatoes are staying put. I should have another complete growing season if I can get them in soon. There is something very satisfying about growing our own food. I also like the daily checking and tending, as we watch for new things to harvest.

Now I want to start our chickens and bunnies!

Last night we ate mostly from our garden. We had fresh sugar baby watermelons, sweet corn, and a zucchini and squash dish….all from the garden. We’ve had problems with something munching the leaves and caterpillars attacked the tomatoes, but everything else is coming along and we’ve learned what to do differently, next year. My tomatoes are making a comeback. The little bunny we are pet-sitting is enjoying the garden too, his favorite treat is a slice of cucumber or zucchini.

When we got Xerxes from animal control, his paperwork said he was going to be a little 25 lb dog and that his mom was a Schnauzer. He was the only smooth coated dog in the litter and we loved his personality so we brought him home.

The first vet commented that he had big feet for a puppy, but never said more to hint that the animal control paperwork was off.

The next visit, I mentioned that he eats everything in sight. Even though I am feeding him for a 25-35 pound dog size, the dog eats bark, mushrooms, grass, leaves, etc……he doesn’t just chew them, he EATS them. The vet grinned and told me that I should be feeding him the amount targeted for a dog that will be about 60 pounds. (He had already doubled his weight in 2 weeks.)

Oh my! Hubby is not thrilled that our little dog is going to be big. The vet thinks he might have either Rottweiler, Doberman, or German Shepherd mixed with whatever his mom was. They do not think he has any Schnauzer. I saw her and she looked like a coarse coated terrier and was about 25 pounds. But all the handlers at the vet think he has a really laid back personality.

Everyone who sees him takes a guess at what might be in him. So far, we’ve ruled out dachshund and beagle. He is already the same size as the neighbor’s puppy that he plays with. Pictures coming soon

This is Xerxes (Zerk-seez), we adopted him from animal control.

1st day home

He is about 6 weeks old and very small and wobbly.

Exploring yard

The neighbor puppy came over to play

My Husband affectionately calls me the “destroyer of all living things,” when it comes to any living plant that requires tending. The only thing I have successfully grown is grass. I know nothing about gardening. It was my job to weed my mom’s garden with my sisters, and I decided that I didn’t like gardening then. I DO NOT GARDEN……until this year.

I was supposed to plant a garden about 2 years ago. God has been working on my heart and told me that I needed to learn to garden. I argued in my head with Him, gave every example of my failures as a gardener, and promptly put it off.

Last summer, I KNEW I was supposed to start my garden, but I was stubborn. Instead, I checked out a few books at the library and read about gardening. Still feeling compelled, I talked to a few friends about gardening. (”I’m learning God, I need a foundation before I jump in, right. You don’t expect me just to trash the yard for a project that I don’t even want to do…..do you?!)

To look like I was obeying, I even planted a little container garden in pots that I had to drag inside every night for several months. The result was less than reassuring, everything but the garlic died in a disaster of too much water, bad soil, not enough sun, and tamping off, plus we had a plague of fruit flies that came in every time the pots came inside. (”See Lord, I tried. I failed. I am not a gardener. I don’t want to can’t do this. And WHAT is up with these fruit flies!?! Lord, please smite them, dead!”)

This spring, I was told to garden again. I had my doubts that it mattered in the grand scheme of things. Why does God want me to garden. Doesn’t He tell people to be missionaries, not once, have I ever heard that God told someone to, “Arise and go garden!” God was persistent. I was finally convicted strongly enough to realize I just needed to obey. This is what happened next.

The boys and I dug up strips of sod with our bare hands and 1 shovel for 3 days. Hubby wasn’t entirely thrilled that I was trashing the yard because I had not proved my gardening prowess with the whole container-garden, thing. Hubby and Grandpa came home with some garden tools. This made everything a LOT easier.

Once we got the sod pulled, we treated the entire yard for bugs, because we had found all manner of nasties as we pulled up the sod and I feared for my children after seeing the ticks and other evil vermin that were under my grass.

Now we had 270 square feet in 3 dirt strips and not a clue what to do next. I remembered a friend had given me a book on gardening and a few packets of seeds. I pulled those out and drew up a plan. My mother in law was a little bit baffled as to why I was doing this, but she was very a great source of help at the gardening center when I started to get overwhelmed.

I prayed about the dirt. It was very sandy and I knew that Hubby wasn’t wanting to spend a bunch of money on my doomed project. God worked that out and Hubby had the compost dirt delivered to my driveway. The boys and I started carting wheelbarrows of compost dirt to my strips of sand. As a surprise, hubby carted close to 4 tons of compost to my garden in 1 day. (He’s awesome!)

The garden was ready to go in. The kids and I planted the garden according to the plan we had drawn up. It wasn’t perfect and some things got changed a bit, but it was in. We prayed over the little seedlings as we watered the dirt dirt strips each day, for several weeks. If this was going to work, God had to make it happen, because I knew I didn’t know what I was doing.

The plants began to come up. God’s garden is doing well. We’ve survived a couple bouts of leaf eaters (using dish soap sprayed on the leaves), and some other nasties that are trying to eat the stalks. We prayed about them, and most of them left and I only lost a few stalks of beans. We’ve eaten 2 tomatoes and 2 potatoes, so far.

I’m still not sure why it was important to God that I garden. I’m not sure if it was about learning to garden or learning to obey, either way, the kids and I have learned a lot already, this summer.

Below are pictures of God’s garden today: We have planted 42 stalks of corn, 6 cucumber plants, 6 pumpkin, 9 yellow squash, 36 peas, 4 regular watermelon, 4 sugar baby watermelon, 4 zucchini, 8 cantaloupe, 3 fancy gourds, 2 cherry tomatoes, 4 large tomatoes, 2 red sweet peppers, and a bunch of potatoes.
God’s Garden

Cherry Tomatoes

Corn is already getting tall