Sand in my teeth...

The weekend was a blur!  We stayed busy every day, but it was all fun!

Friday night we had our Cub Scout den over with their families for dinner (cooked by the scouts) and a marshmallow roast.

They grilled the hot dogs :)

After dinner they practiced erecting a tent and some fun with slingshots

Saturday morning we drove up to our capitol city of Richmond, about 2 hours away to bid farewell to a friend who is "stationed" there as a Mormon missionary (can you tell I'm a military wife?)  Two years on his own dime and only 4 phone calls home, that takes a lot of dedication for someone his age.

We loaded up at Whole Foods (we don't have that either down here!) and had a picnic lunch at a park overlooking the city, what a great view!  The next day he would be off on a flight back home to Washington state to get back to family, friends, college, dirt bikes and whatever fun the summer will bring.  I wonder if he will miss the past 2 years of Virginia heat and humidity?  Yeah, probably not :)

Of course we had to make a pit stop at "Disneyland"...er, R.E.I.!

The closest R.E.I. is this one at 2 hours away, but we were a little disappointed, it was more like the "convenience store" of REI's... next time we will just wait to go to the bigger one back home in Minnesota near my parents' house.  

We were home in time that evening for hubby to get out on the water for a few minutes and then tacos at a local taco shop on the beach.

We dropped off Loch at a friend's house for a sleepover and then it was just Finn with us for the night.  Here's Finn learning the in's and out's of rooftop paddle board hauling-

and enjoying a root beer and taco night with us, dinner out was cheaper minus Loch that night :)

Fish tacos

yummy Carne Asada tacos

Next day was more beach (the Chesapeake Bay) and paddle boarding...

Loch is growing up so fast...

Monday was yet more beach, the ocean this time...

Finn's wipeout:

He was doing pretty well for awhile but the surf was getting really strong with the tropical storm moving up the coast, I pulled him out right after this.  He's a decent swimmer after all these years of lessons, but rip tides don't discriminate.

We ended the weekend with a cookout at a friend's house, a car that looked like a sand dune, showers at home that looked like those at a campground and two really tired little boys!

Finn's tip for the next big weekend:

"Remember, SAFETY FIRST"!

Did I mention it was 90º and 82% humidity all weekend?  Yuck.  Now it just started pouring a few minutes ago and we are supposed to start seeing the rain bands of Tropical Storm Beryl start arriving tonight, we are expected to get from 6-8 inches of rain over the next 2 days.  I can't believe how early this hurricane season started.  The official start date is June but we never really see storms until August, this is going to be a wild year.

I have a feeling that we will be doing more fun things this summer and possibly leaving the garden to look a bit more unruly than usual summers.  It looks like hubby will be deploying to the Middle East again in February, so instead of fighting the insects and weather of 2012, we may just try to enjoy family & friends as much as we can this summer.  

Mother Nature... Putting the "Early" in Early Blight

Do you see what I see?

How 'bout now?

Another bed looks okay, right?

Here's the backside:

On the other side of the yard we have wind damage

Please hurry, you might be the only tomatoes this year for me...

This is shaping up to be an awful year weather wise, and I guess I knew the effects would show in the garden, but I still had high hopes.  Don't we always?  Gardening in the south is not for the faint of heart.  We have had thunderstorms for close to 14 straight days now, and then comes the heat just to make double sure the insects and diseases are kept warm, wet and happy. UGH!!!!  There will be no treatment this year, I've tried them all and have the empty bank account to prove it.  Nothing truly works for blight and I could have spent all that money I spent on ridiculous treatments and put it towards finding the nearest farmer selling tomatoes by the bushel.  Hang on, I need a scream moment...  At least last year the blight came at a normal blight-ish time of year and I was actually able to put away quite a bit before the bitter end.

At least some things do spectacularly well here...the honeybees, bumbles and hummingbirds are going wild for the Butterfly Weed, Sage and Verbena that are in full bloom.

Maybe I'll take next year off to solarize the beds and just do beekeeping...

Yes, you heard right... beekeeping, yay!  Lochlann is the newest member of the 4-H Jr. Beekeepers Club!  His bee suit is on the way and he will be working in the 4-H Bee Yard progressing towards earning his own hive.  Of course we will all be joining the Beekeeper's Association and getting in on the fun.  I tried to end on a good note, did it work or are you scrolling back up to the top and getting sick to your stomach?  :)  Chin up, gardeners... it can't be this bad everywhere, right?

Oh surprise, surprise... it's thundering again.

Father/Son Campout

It has been raining, thunder storming and high winds for over a week now, so nothing much to report on the garden. Too squishy out there to do much, and I'm sure the tomatoes are now freely spreading on the ground since there has been so much wind I'm sure they are no longer secured to their trellis system.

I know we need the rain, but it's putting a damper on a lot of my plans.  I've had a "Mother's Day Marshmallow Roast" planned for my Cub Scouts for over 2 weeks now and we have to keep canceling due to the weather.  

The weather didn't stop our church's Father/Son Campout, however!  Although there were high winds, the rain stayed away for them.  They went up to the Eastern Shore of Virginia.  For those unfamiliar, it's a trip across the 13 mile engineering wonder of the world Chesapeake Bay-Bridge Tunnel  :)  It's actually only a 30 minute or so trip to the other side but it's like another world over there, very rural, seaside agriculture and fishing and not too much else.  Some may only know of the area as the spit of land where the Chincoteague Ponies swim, but that's the general geographical area.

I had to entrust the photography to hubby and sent him off with my camera with instructions to "make sure you don't just take pictures of crap, make sure there are people's faces in them!!"  Well, he gave the camera to Loch for the weekend, so we get what we get and we don't throw a fit, right?

Dads setting up tents 

One of the boys' friends, (and one of my Cub Scouts) hamming it up...

Whittling... this is why I made sure I threw a first aid kit in the car LOL

My child sent into what was probably a Water Moccasin infested field... this wouldn't happen if moms were there, ha!

Oh great, a snake hunt?  One of the dads said after returning from the trip that they were sent to look for the elusive Wheat Cobra, LOL!  But hey, I'm still stuck on the whole real, native snakes we have...yikes!

Finn surveying 

Love the bullhorn... this is on my wish list!

Lots of dads, lots of sons...

Campfire shot, I think Loch took this one

Finnegan

Breakfast time!

I love these tired morning faces! (also my Cub Scouts!)

How did this one get in here?  LOL, was too cute not to post, this is the latest instrument to take up residence in my house.  Finn is dreaming of South Pacific seas...

What was I doing all this time?  I had dreams of reading a book, gardening, etc but after getting all their stuff packed for them and sending them off, I found myself stricken by creativity and made this little cake-pop garden for one of the gals at church that needed sweets for a teen dance.  It was so fun making them but it takes so long!  After that I was so tired I just watched a chick flick LOL.

More thunderstorms today... my poor garden, I haven't been out there in a week!

Progress

So much going on the past few days, but most of it good!

Friday was set-up day for the Spring Master Gardener Plant Sale so that meant...

Yay!  I finally got to evict the dozens of basil plants that we've been tripping over!

I could harvest 1 lb of lettuces a day and not deplete the garden now which is awesome, because I still had a few more teacher gifts to put together.  I didn't have enough turnips this go-round so with the bags of mixed lettuces I tied herb bouquets each with chives, parsley, oregano and sage.  I also had plenty of scallions ready to go.  I love doing gifts from the garden since they are always different depending on the time of year and harvest.

Just enough turnips now that we can just have a few for a salad or mixed in with roasted carrots & potatoes.  I won't replant these again until late summer for a fall harvest.

Below is the pepper bed in the foreground with one of the tomato beds in the back, this one has the Brandywines.

Below are the Heirloom Virginia Romas

There are other tomato beds, but I haven't gotten photos of them yet.

Below is a close up of one of the Brandywines

The onions are bolting before "onioning" as usual so I'm picking them as green onions as fast as I can, onions never work out well here, but I can't resist their orderly appearance and keep planting them :)

New things are arriving daily!

Summer Squash is up, now where are those Squash Bugs?!

and below, Zukes...

 I have never grown them believe it or not, since they still seem to show up in my kitchen from random people LOL...  suddenly this year I have the urge so local folks beware and lock your car doors.

Finally, heirloom Lazy Wife Greasy Beans

I'm growing a few types of greasy beans to see which does best for me.  All 3 are local mountain historical varieties.  By the way, they are not "greasy" at all, rather they are so named because the pole beans have a shiny appearance. The Lazy Wife variety is named thus because it grows bunches of pods in clusters which supposedly makes for easier picking.  Hopefully I can minimize the time spent in long sleeves that way since I get horrible rashes from picking beans!

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all!  Can you believe I had to share my day this year since hubby's birthday fell on the same day, ha!

It always comes back to the kids :)

All of a sudden it seems, the garden is spewing produce!  

This came in really handy since it is Teacher Appreciation Week and I had no idea what I was going to give as gifts.  I'm terrible at remembering such things, my own anniversary and birthday included, so when the kids asked what they were giving their teachers, I had to act fast.

Worked out perfectly, walked out into the garden and was accosted with all this stuff and an hour later after weighing, washing and bagging it I was left with some pretty nice gifts.  Nice if you happen to like cheap gifts LOL!  I did include a little jar of homemade strawberry jam as well :)

You are going to love this one - a family down the street is stealthily keeping 3 goats, 2 pigs, ducks AND a peacock in their backyard.  Yeah, looks like the time is ripe for me to get started doesn't it?  Anything I do will probably pale in comparison in the eyes of city code LOL.  Anyway... I went to have lunch with Finnegan at school and the little girl in that family is in his class and she saw the turnips I had with me for the teacher and said "my pigs like your turnips" and asked if I had any extra for her pigs.  Yes, she was about the cutest thing ever haha!  I told her to come over after school.  She showed up at the door promptly at 3 pm and Finn and his buddy from next door helped her carry all those insect chewed turnip greens with some rogue misshapen ones down the street.  

How cute is this?

I sent Finnegan with my camera down the street with instructions to take pics for the blog, here's what came back, a little close-up I'd say...

Apparently they feed the pigs by dumping stuff on their backs LOL

Loch had his own project going on at his after-school Garden Club, after doing some maintenance and weeding they had time to whip up some homemade insect repellent.  I think he said it has witch hazel, citronella oil, and "some other stuff".

This sort of relates to the kids as well, since I am so busy running around lately for them that we have no time to eat decently, so I spent a solid 3 hours or so making up some freezer meals.  Seems a pain to be inside cooking when it's so nice outside, but it will be worth it for a no stress dinners.

Lasagna

Chicken Enchiladas, one of the kids' favorites!

We had to have one pan right away last night :)

P.S.:  Finn said the other day "I petted goats and played with pigs, am I in trouble?" Bahahaha, my only requirement is that he washes his hands when he comes home - jeez, what kind of mama does he think he has?  Did he really think I'd get mad for "playing with pigs"?!!

Are you kidding me?????

Surprised by Jimmy Nardello in the garden this morning!

Peppers before beans this year?  I'll be shaking my head for awhile on this one!

Honeysuckle Fix