And he's gone again...

The past weekend involved more running away from my garden! Sailor/Farmer/Husband had to leave yesterday for another month of training in preparation for the big deployment this fall, so we decided to go camping prior to his leaving. This is the first time I have attempted a no-plan trip with kids in tow, so it was challenging, but the kids were that much more excited. I decided Thursday morning we would go to Cape Hatteras, NC which is about a 3 hour drive from us. By noon I had the grocery shopping done and was packing the car. When Charlie woke up that afternoon (he works night shift at the squadron) I told him "just get in the car", we're leaving! It was fun, but much different than our trips before kids! I know eventually they will become more self-sufficient and I won't have to micro manage them around the water, etc and will be able to actually relax! Here are some pics of the weekend:

A rare photo of the two of us! I gave my 6 year old the camera and he actually did it! No pictures of a foot, the ground, etc :)

Charlie fishing the Pamlico Sound at sunset

Clouds rolling in...we got 70 mph winds and sideways rain, no pics of the rain since we were in the tent busy bracing the poles! Some people who were absent actually returned to find their tents were completely gone!

Gotta love our Subarus! Gets us out onto the 4-wheel drive beach.

Kids fishing

Finn preparing a mess o'shrimp

Yum, fresh local shrimp!

Cape Hatteras Light

Lunch on Ocracoke Island

Marley & Sprocket love the dog-friendly Jolly Roger Pub in Ocracoke

Finnegan & Daddy

Of course when we returned, there was a harvest. We actually had a few heirlooms ready, although they look terrible! (You should see the ones that didn't make it into the picture, lol!) Finally a few french beans, and ugh...another 100 jalapenos. I really need to find a happy medium between not growing enough of something and holy crap, why do I need 1000 jalapenos?!!! Actually, I knew better when I planted them, but since I started them from seed and wasn't able to give all of them away, I planted them like a moron...it seems like I look at the seedlings as if they were pets...why couldn't I have just thrown a few seedlings into the compost pile? Anyone else have this problem? I didn't have a problem throwing the tobacco hornworms in the trash, that's for sure!

Back from our "Staycation"...

We actually started our staycation 2 days before Daddy was set to return from sea. It was a bit like the movie 'Office Space' where he announces that he doesn't really like working and "I don't think I'm going to go anymore"... Truthfully, I was over the single mom thing and couldn't wait for the reinforcement troops to sail in (literally) and give me a break! We have a state parks pass so I figured we would use it at our local state park and go to the beach. This was pretty cool since it's on the Chesapeake Bay and the kids can see Daddy's aircraft carrier, the USS Truman, go by bigger than life about 3 hours before he gets to the piers and we go to pick him up. In past years, this has become pretty routine, non-exciting stuff for me but now that the kids are a little older it is so fun to see them get excited and see things through their eyes. Of course, in their eyes the pirates Daddy is out hunting down are of the Blackbeard "aargh!" variety and the Carrier is just like "Top Gun", lol... I envy them and their un-jaded view of the world...oh, to be 5 again!

Anyway, me-the mom who hates to sit on the beach- actually bought a bunch of sand toys, umbrella, and a beach chair and headed out. Here's Finn at the State Park excited upon seeing the first of the small boats going by belonging to Daddy's battle group.

This is a pretty bad picture, but if you look in the left center of the horizon, you can see a Navy Destroyer, this was just one of the several smaller ships that precede the carrier coming in. (Lame, I didn't get a picture of the carrier - bad mom!)

Not sure what's going on here.

So it turns out the beach isn't so bad after all...I forgot how much cooler it is at the shore, and an umbrella helped! Now if the kids could just be older so I can trust them around the water I could actually read a book! I took one with me and laid it in the sand next to my chair to give myself "the illusion" of relaxing, but in reality was watching my kids in the surf like a hawk.

After Daddy got home, we had a great outdoor lunch at a restaurant on the water and gorged on crabcakes and grilled tuna sandwiches, Daddy also got his homecoming/late Father's Day gifts of a new Leatherman Skeletool and some tactical looking flashlight. My husband is a "geardo" so he was overjoyed, showing the kids "Look, this light is for night vision, etc, etc". You would think he would get tired of it all, but he loves his job and gets downright giddy when faced with a new tactical "toy"! After lunch, it was back to the beach where we remained off and on for the next 5 days, lol! Sailor/Husband also got some new surf fishing gear, so even after a day at the beach, we would head back out after dinner to fish. All this jived pretty well with the garden, since due to the "Minnesota Summer" we have been having my first tomatoes aren't even ripe yet, so my garden is kind of on autopilot right now until the fruits start to ripen, giving me some extra time. Even if we could afford a big vacation this year, we have no time since Sailor/Husband is leaving again in 2 weeks!

This pic shows what it's been like this summer so far: the Ziploc bag of my husband's toiletries never gets unpacked since he's always on his way out! It's like he's a visitor to his own home...I am waiting for him to start knocking on the door instead of opening it with his key, lol!

Finn with Daddy

Finn and Loch digging for crabs

We headed to the beach on base to await fireworks for the 4th of July. Finn is digging to China, of couse.

Not sure what waves Finnegan plans on surfing here, but he's got "the board carry" down pat!

Here's Marley obsessing over her frisbee. She has become quite the disc dog since she came to live with us, but has never played in the wind on the beach in the sand...it was all a bit much for her and I thought she might have a nervous breakdown out there!

We are actually headed out crabbing today - then it's back to the garden! I find that I usually avoid the beach like the plague during tourist season, but am slowly rediscovering the good things about living here that I often take for granted. Plus, it tires the kids out! I am, however, getting really tired of sweeping sand up from everywhere, and the inside of the car looks like a sand dune! Oh, and before I go...here's a mental smell for you...my husband left a plastic bucket in the Outback with some rotting squid bait in it...I got in the car the next day, and....ugh! Yep, Daddy's back, alright!

Men, Fish and Beer...

We were able to bottle the homebrew on Friday evening!  The kids find this whole project fascinating, and I realized that my boys are going to show up freshman year at college already knowing how to brew their own micro's....ooops!  I must admit it is alot of fun and actually is quite fascinating!  Now the freshly capped bottles have to age for about 4-6 weeks, which means I will get the first taste since Charlie will be out on the ship again next week for awhile!

The Chief Bottle Washer

Capping the bottles

This weekend we sort of played hooky from the garden duties.  I was looking at the calendar last week and noticed that even though Sailor/Husband/Father/Farmer doesn't go on deployment until this fall, he only has a total of 6 weeks home with us this summer since they are gone on "workups" (training) so often.  So, I figured the chores like building fence gates will still be there next week and we needed to just make a priority out of spending some time together doing things the kids enjoy.  We decided to take the kids fishing out in Back Bay and ended up eating at one of our favorite restaurants out there, the Blue Pete.  Next weekend I think we will go back out and take the canoe this time a little earlier in the day so the kids can have some better luck with the fish.

Fishing with Dad

Feeding the fish at Blue Pete's

Strawberry Shortcake with local berries, yum!

Other notable weekend happenings around the homestead:  

Pumpkin sprouting...this was neat since the seed case was still attached and the kids can better visualize what's happening!

One of our juvenile doves waiting patiently for mom to come back and feed her!

I am really hoping to get plenty of chores done during the weekdays this week so we can have a little fun again this weekend!  Now I am off to order more beans - this was the first time I planted them outside the raised beds and critters helped themselves to about half of the sprouts!

Don't forget the pumpkins, Mom!

It's a good thing I have kids, or nothing would get planted around here!  Yesterday, my son was perusing (ok, destroying) my new "Garden Manual" and he came across seed packets for pumpkins and wanted to know when they go into the ground.  "Well, I guess if we want pumpkins for Halloween we better get started!"  So it was off to start more seedlings even though truth be told, after the tomatoes and peppers, I don't want to see another seed flat for a good long while!  We planted a few of the classic orange jack-o-lanterns, a few white "Casper" pumpkins, birdhouse gourds, cucumbers and some flower seed.  If you ask Finn he will tell you "We planted pickles and birdhouses!"  Still no idea where the pumpkins will go.  I will probably plant them along the fence bed and just keep kicking the vines out of the yard each time I mow!

Aren't these seeds cute?  

And what the hay is this???  Where do I get to sit???  Apparently the term "Garden Dogs" was lost on them on the way to the living room.

We will be bottling our first batch of homebrew this weekend, and I spent 2 hours last night in front of the TV scraping labels off recycled beer bottles, scrubbing and sanitizing.  Hope Sailor/Farmer appreciates it.  No doubt he will actually notice my efforts this time, since it involves beer :)

Catching Up

Yippee!  Sailor/Farmer is back home again (for about a month) !  Even though he wasn't here to orchestrate a stress-free Mother's Day for me, we managed to have a good time anyways.  I took the kids and packed a picnic lunch and we headed to the beach for a couple of hours.  Without the husband to tell them how to act on Mother's Day, I had to improvise a bit.  When they started acting up and getting whiny I explained to them that they HAVE to act good on Mother's Day and when I was asked "why, Mommy?" I pulled out the big guns and told them that Santa watches them very carefully on this particular day!

While Charlie missed alot while he was gone, he managed to get here in time for the first peas being harvested from the garden.  Not a ton, but enough for dinner that night.

No time for rest, though...I am going through my first traumatic gardening event, and it's with my tomatoes!  Yes, the heirloom tomatoes I nurtured from seed for the last half of winter, and then GAVE AWAY the surplus that I didn't use...(note to self!).  I will give you the horrid details and then let you see for yourself.  There are 3 new raised beds this year, filled with delivered compost that hold ALL of my tomatoes.  They were planted about a month ago, and seem to be frozen in time.  They have not grown, but are not wilted, either.  The leaves started becoming a dark green, then yellow mottling that looked alot like sunburn.  I thought this was the case for awhile since the day after I planted them was the start of a week of mid 90's temps that lasted about 6 days that caught everyone around here by surprise.  They never seemed to recover.  The past few days shows mottling, the undersides of the leaves has deep accentuated veining.  I am about ready to pull them and take one to the extension office, but am not hopeful, since I have read a ton of tech manuals and disease id's and know about as much as they do at this point!  I freaked out over tomato mosaic virus, the worst, but know that it is rare and they were not exposed to tobacco contamination unless the virus was in the compost that was delivered (this virus lives in the soil for 10 years, yikes!)  I have also seen some pics that sort of resemble mine that describe a phosphorous or manganese deficiency, but I believe this is unlikely since I have been using seaweed/fish emulsion and top dressing with my own compost and all my other beds are really healthy.  Anyways, any ideas???  I know I should probably just rip them out and start over before whatever it is spreads, but it's so hard to do!  Here's the evidence...

One of the Brandywines:

Close-Up of Brandywine leaf:

The Black Krims and Black Truffles in the next bed are starting to show signs as well:

Pic showing tomato size after being in ground for over a month:
I should mention that the 2 extras I had that I planted in my old beds are doing well and are getting huge, and the ones I gave away to friends are doing great.  Is it possible there was something contaminating the fill for the beds I had delivered???  I hate to think of having to remove all the fill and dispose of it.  I guess if you garden long enough, something is bound to happen.  I may laugh about it one day, BUT NOT TODAY!