Tiny Tomatoes

Joseph doesn't like tomatoes. I had some sitting on the table, fresh from the garden this morning. (Our garden is slow to ripen this summer...we've not gotten many little tomatoes so far.)

When I woke up from my nap, this is what I found.


I think it shows maturity that he tried every single one to be certain that he didn't like them. The older kids won't even touch something they assume they won't like. Or maybe it's just childlike faith. Too bad he didn't leave me any to try.

No Indian Summer

No Native American Summer, either.

We've barely even had a summer at all (and I am NOT complaining). It rained all of June, got hot for about 5-7 scattered days of July and now we're wearing jackets in the garden... 8 August 2009.

Here are some of us picking (purple)green beans from the garden this morning. At 10 AM it was 52 degrees.

Here is Joseph trying to get through the carrots, peas (already picked), and weeds.
And now it's raining. The lawn mower won't be started today.

I came inside and made hot chocolate for everyone. It was very yummy and really hit the spot on such a cold morning. One of the girls asked if it was almost winter. I'm not sure we can really say. Maybe we're in for a hard one this time. Brrr!

The FREEZE is coming!

So I went out and picked all the tomatoes, peppers (wasn't sure if the freeze would hurt the peppers, but since I was out there...)and one last cantaloupe. This is what I got off of 3 tomato plants. It's mostly from 2 plants since one never really thrived. I still have to go out there and clean off 2 BIG cherry tomato plants. I think this will be the year I learn how to can salsa.

It's kind of ironic that 2 1/2 plants gave us so many tomatoes when 2 years ago, Chad planted 25 plants (not a typo) and we didn't get nearly this many tomatoes. The country must have a magical effect on us. I still have to pick the pumpkins and butternut squash, but they aren't a big rush. We have a lot of corn stalks to decorate with, too!

I just wish there was a way to keep these tomatoes fresh all winter so that I could keep on enjoying my tomato sandwiches for lunch. Speak of lunch...not sure where we're going to eat today since the table is full of the garden.

23,000+ words

You know how a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, you'd better put on your reading glasses! I haven't posted any pictures for a while because my computer was having trouble and I got tired of reinstalling the camera. I've now been trouble free for a long enough time that I was willing to reinstall yesterday. Now we play a little "catch up".

Joseph is growing up! He has recently discovered that he is tall enough to reach the piano keys and make his own music. This is really good, because we can always use a little more noise around here!

Look who's almost the same size as his walker! He is actually using it, too. He's about a week shy of 10 months in this picture. NO. He is not allowed walk yet.

Joseph learned a new trick this past weekend. Isn't he cute? You can't see it, but he's smiling (proudly) under there.

Nathan got upset by something I said while he was doing his homework a few weeks ago, (I never did figure out what it was.) so he started pouting. For those of you who don't know Nathan very well, he is a master pouter. He has stamina that would make Olympians jealous.

He pouted so long that he fell asleep! Please giggle along with me.

Feeding time on the farm. Look at all those cats! Why aren't they out catching mice? Let me introduce (top to bottom, left to right) Nightmare (up for adoption for anyone looking to add free animals to their new farm), Shadow, Trouble (our best mouser and the sweetest cat ever), Tabby, Patches and Fair (she only has 3 legs, but eats like she has all 4).

We've been enjoying the fruits of our labors. Unfortunately, our labor tapered off and so did the quality of our fruit. The peppers and tomatoes are doing fine on their own. Apparently, the watermelon and cantaloupe wanted to be watered. They grew, but not very big.

We also enjoyed the fruits of others' labor, too. Chad parents gave us some produce a couple/few times. Once we had some blue potatoes. They were fun. They reminded us a lot of the geodes we bought on our honeymoon. The kids thought we were feeding them a plate full of mushrooms. But they tasted just like chicken, I mean potatoes.

Rebekah turned 3 on the 30th. She was so proud to be honored on her own special day. She'd requested a kitty cake. I found a picture in a coloring book and did the best I could motivate myself to do. As a 3 year old, she loved it.

Joseph enjoyed the cake at least as much as everyone else!

Rebekah had plenty of help opening her presents. Daniel would have helped if he hadn't been in his room at the time.

We went to the Eastern Idaho State Fair on Rebekah's birthday (purely coincidental...they didn't have it then just for her). Daniel stopped by a local new station's weather booth and got to stand in front of a blue screen.

We let each kid choose one ride. The girls both chose the elephant ride. When I was putting them on, the ride operator informed me that Rebekah was too little to ride without an adult (couldn't he tell she was a whole year older that day?), so he made me get on the ride, too. He said he wouldn't charge me. As I was squeezing my ample behind into that elephant, I was thinking, "Believe me, I'm already paying."

Surprisingly, Chad caught a picture of Nathan as he zoomed by on the roller coaster. That's him in the blue car. I barely got a shot of Daniel on the slide. This was a practice shot because I thought I had some time before they came down. Daniel is at the top of the green section.

Here we are at the end of a long 4 hours. All the kids had a sticker on saying to take them to the lost children booth if they were lost. I thought that was a dumb sticker. Where else would you take them? I wrote my cell phone number on each sticker...much smarter IMHO. (In My Humble Opinion)

We had the Price family stop by for a visit a couple of weeks ago. We showed them around the farm and let the sheep out to play with them.

We tried to get a nice, happy shot of all 9 kids before they left. This is what we got instead.

Sometimes it's a blessing to have a brother. Sometimes it's a trial. Guess which experience Nathan is having. He was wound up in some drapery fabric and got a "friendly" push from Daniel. Darn that coffee table. The bump is gone now, but there is still a bruise and I'm sure it's still tender. In his prayers, Nathan says, "Help my bump to get better."

Daniel has been struggling with some timed math facts in school. To "encourage" (trick) him into practicing, we turned it into an obstacle course/game. He and Nathan raced to complete a strip of 5 subtraction facts, then had to jump a hurdle and circle a cone before coming back to the next strip of problems. There were 5 strips and Nathan was only behind about a strip and half when they finished! (We helped slow Daniel down out in the field.) The next time Daniel did the timed practice in school, he got 100%. He was VERY pleased. And his parents are a little pleased with their creativity.

And there you go. You're caught up with us now (and behind in your chores because you spent so much time reading).

Chad is still working away on a fence that refuses to be finished. He has almost gotten the chicken coop done, too. We're expecting the hens to start laying any time. He's also getting a new calling. Things don't slow down for Chad...they just evolve.

We did some canning yesterday. We've got a batch of pears and a batch of peaches ready to go down to the store room. Therefore, I mopped this morning. It's now a dare for the kids to spill something today. I still have a batch of peach jam to do. I wonder how I can explain this to Joseph?

Skunk Bait

That's what I had for lunch today. Did you know that skunks really like corn? They really like carrots, too, it seems. When we were feeding the animals last night I made a quick check of the garden and collected some ripening tomatoes. I pulled two ears of corn from the stalks.

Our corn isn't doing very well. We had some strong wind knock a bunch of it over a day after a heavy watering. Now half of it is being supported by the other half, and neither half is thriving with those conditions. So one of the ears was pretty light on the kernels. The other one was pretty good so I shucked it and brought it inside (and had it for lunch today). Daniel had picked an ear of his own, but after throwing it around the yard for several minutes it was badly battered. With the two bad ears of corn, I reset the skunk trap.

Now, there is currently a skunk sitting in our trap awaiting his sentence. I'm beginning to lose track. I think this is the 4th or 5th skunk we've caught in the trap. That makes the 5th or 6th skunk to be buried in the pasture this year. I can only imagine the surprise a skunk is bound to make when it (or another burrowing animal) runs into one of these burial sites. We also have a cat out there somewhere!

Except for the skunk we drowned last week, all other skunks have been shot. The trap was beginning to suffer from the shooting, and the skunk would always end up stinking, so we tried drowning. That skunk still managed to stink a bit. Oh well. Winter is coming = less skunks. Gotta love that fresh country air!

New Rules & Good and Evil

Joseph is now 8 months old (plus 11 days) and is beginning to lay down some new rules for his house. They mostly involve me as far as I can tell. Of course, I'm so busy trying to adjust to his new rules that I probably wouldn't notice if he had new ones for anyone else.

Here are the adjusted guidelines:

1. Do not put me down. This includes for diaper changes, wardrobe changes or sanity changes. I must be held.

2. Do not hold me if I'm tired. I must be put down...in my bed, with a thin blanket over my face. Then I will roll over and settle in to sleep...maybe.

3. Come running when I am crying in my crib. Otherwise I will ram my head into the sides of the crib, which will hurt and make me cry even harder. (Yes, people, he has bumpers in there. He's very skillful at lifting them and crawling under.)

4. Do not expect me to sleep very long. I will wake up early if you're planning on getting really involved in something. If you're flitting about the house, wondering what to get really involved in, I will sleep for hours. Be flexible. But don't try to nap yourself.

5. Do not try to do anything while holding me. I don't like that horrid computer and it's no coincidence that I scream within 4 feet of it. Don't attempt to sew. I promise to yank on your project and you will feel guilty forever if you sew my fingers! Don't even think about cleaning. You know you don't like to do that even when your arms are free.

6. Feed me on demand. But don't let go of me with any hands to do it. You figure it out!

7. Stay within my sight at all times. 'Nough said.

8. Don't take me to the garden while you weed. It's not fun, no matter how many things you say in silly ways. What I'm trying to say is only visit the garden, briefly, while carrying me.

9. NEVER strap me into my car seat. I hate that thing and the 4 hour trip we just had did nothing to ease my pain. I guess we'll just have to stay home...forever.

10. This spot reserved for additional changes.

Yes, it's become quite fun for the mommy around here. Joseph's sleeping now, so I actually have a chance to type this...two handed!

He was pretty upset this morning while I was weeding. He finally gave up trying to slide out of his stroller and started moaning/humming. I figured he was either composing a new blues song or a sad country song (something about his ma caring more for dirt than him).

But the weeding did need some action. We hadn't really spent much time out there the last couple of weeks because of swimming lessons and other appointments. So now the weeds are about as large as the vegetable plants. Luckily, they aren't choking out the plants because we have kept the weeds back from those pretty well.

I didn't ask the kids to help today. I thought I'd try to enjoy my morning. I wasn't surprised that eventually I had all the kids with me out there anyway. Nor was I surprised that I was the only one actually pulling weeds. I did get a little humor out of a comment Nathan made as he surveyed the size of the plants. "This garden is growing for good!" I knew he was referring to the corn plants that were nearly as tall as he is and the cantaloupe plant with huge "elephant" leaves (per Rebekah's observation) as well as the robust tomato plants quickly filling up with small, green tomatoes. But the sarcastic/negative/cynical monster in me couldn't help quietly matching his thought: "And for evil." Then I shoved a 9" tall weed into my 3rd full grocery bag.

I've been working on some scrapbook pages. Here they are.

Credits

Credits

Credits

Credits

Lessons in the Garden

Does that sound like the title of a weekly column? Maybe I could get syndication. I'm sure I would have to have more than one story...which I don't have yet. Anyway...

I was in the garden with the kids this morning and we were pulling weeds. I mentioned to the kids that we have weeds because of Adam and Eve. They were interested in that connection! So we recalled the story of the Garden of Eden, Satan convincing Eve to eat the fruit, Adam's transgression (and it's relation to the 2nd Article of Faith), Adam and Eve's expulsion from the garden, their travails with weeds and thorns and the fact that they are really our umpteeth great-grandparents.

It must have been a good story because I had very attentive listeners. About half way through the story Leah exclaimed, "I didn't know THAT!"

Once the story was over, Leah remarked that Jesus is nice to lots of people but he wasn't nice to Adam and Eve "because he kicked them." Then I had to explain that he kicked them out of the garden, but he didn't really KICK them!

To Post or Not to Post

That has been the question for the past week. I am finally sitting down and putting myself to work. Where has the week gone? I know that I have been keeping busy, but I'm not sure HOW.

A big event in our family was Rebekah's 2nd birthday. She wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but the rest of us were! I made her birthday cake the night before while I waited for Chad to return from a day trip to CA. I had a couple of ideas for her cake, but my ideas are always more spectacular in my head than in reality. So I scrapped those and ended up with a big pink ball. I edited and manipulated some bear parts on the computer and ended up with this.
Rebekah had an amused look on her face as I brought the cake over. I captured it the best I could.
The kids of course, were very excited about the presents and got involved right from the start.


I remember when the boys turned 2. Within the same week, they went from sweet little boys to tantrum-throwing terrors! I always thought that was so bizarre. Our girls are different. They are ahead of the learning curves and start the tantrums early. So now Rebekah's fits are at least legal. Let's hope that her tantrums don't last as long as Leah's (we're still dealing with them).









This weekend, we divided the family. Chad took the older three kids to his side of the family for some work and fun. I took Rebekah with me to visit my side of the family. The kids got to ride in Pamela's naked car (Leah call convertibles cars that are a little naked because they don't have tops on) and swing on the rope swing with their cousins in Grandma and Grandpa's back 40.








My mom watched Rebekah for over 5 hours so I could spend some time working in the library doing research on my dad's Swedish ancestors. I made quite a few discoveries, so the time was well spent. Thanks for the baby-sitting, Mom!

Chad met up with us on Saturday afternoon. We drove home on Monday, stopping to buy some peaches along the way. It took us about 5 hours to drive home. It usually only takes 3. We were driving 2 vehicles, so the fighting was lessened.

So yesterday morning, Chad and I put up some peaches. It was our first time doing peaches. We're learning each thing slowly. It's amazing that I did any canning. I only feel like resting lately. I still haven't completely cleaned up the kitchen from that activity.

Yesterday afternoon, we headed to the State Fair. The kids were all very excited about going. We saw lots of stuff, ate some very expensive food for dinner, visited a few (hundred) animals and wished that we could ride way more rides than was permitted. One woman made an effort to compliment our genes. She said our kids were so good looking that we should have a dozen of them. I replied that if they were as well behaved as they are good looking, there would be a better chance of that happening. It was a nice compliment, but I think she was just buttering us up so we'd buy some of her amazing lint rollers. (It didn't work.) Here's a video of some of our "fair fun" and some pictures.




















We've been moderately successful with our garden this year. We've brought in an armful of zucchini, bunches of carrots and multiple bowls of tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes have been SO yummy that I've been eating them by the handful. This baby will either really Love tomatoes, or be allergic to them! Nathan is our most excited gardener. He has been giving us progress reports on the zucchini. Just today he told Chad that there was one that wasn't quite ready, but probably would be in about an hour! He's also keeping track of our carrots. He found this one with "two legs" the other day and ate it this afternoon.