They Are Finally Here!

Yay! It feels like I have been waiting forever for the tomatoes to come in. I have been anxiously waiting none to patiently and they are finally here. There is nothing better than home grown tomatoes and I cannot wait to eat their sweet earthy flesh. Mmmm.



So far it looks like my yellow pears are the only one's coming in, but that is fine. I can wait on the others.

Splish Splash

It is summertime! That means time to pull out the pool. The kids have been having tons of fun swimming.

Earth Day Tree

I know that Earth Day has come and gone, but. . . . my sister Stephanie gave this Colorado Blue Spruce Sapling to me for Earth Day.


Can you see the little baby branches that have finally formed? They are so tiny an cute. I know that it will be a few years before it will be large enough for me to plant in the yard (trust my kids to not trample and kill it), but I look forward to when I will be able to.

Kid's Garden

Jacob planted the carrots and beets that are in the pic. above. He planted them in February. They are by the back porch just to the right of the door.

Ethan planted these pinto beans when he brought home a bean sprout home from school

and it died from lack of water.

Currently, Eva does not have a little garden of her own. However, she always helps me water mine. She really enjoys helping out. I will have her plant something of her own soon.

Score!

I was at WalMart in the garden area and they have a ton of stuff on clearance. I got two Gerber Daisy plants each for $1! How awesome is that?! The plant on the right looks near death, but it does actually look a lot better than when I first brought it home. It has perked up quite a bit. I am confidant that it will make a full turn around.

The Beetles Are Gone

Yay! The beetles are all now gone. The kids are very excited to be able to play outside again.

Okay, a couple of days ago I posted about a strange beetle called the iron cross blister beetle. My backyard is now overrun by them! I can't even let me kids outside!! Yesterday, after James got off of work, he decided that he wanted to go out back and see if he could find one. He smashed no less (most likely more) than 50 of them. I kid you not.

After the smash-a-thon we headed back in the house to read up more on these nasty buggers. If a horse eats just a part of one of these guys (found in the hay and/or grass) it can KILL it. Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!! Now my yard is basically smeared with these things and if my kids so much as touch the smear or get it on themselves and then touch their face they can DIE!!!!!!

Today, I went outside to clean up the dead (bring out your dead!) and by the time I found 1 to start shoveling into a pile I saw 1 fly into the yard and another two of them running around, I was just like forget it! I will have to clean up the mess in a couple of weeks when they are hopefully gone. Can I get another Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! ! ! My skin is currently crawling and I am officially freaking out!

Amateur Photographer

Yesterday I found Jacob in the corner, doing something suspicious. He was laying on his stomach facing the corner. What could he possibly be doing? Apparently, he had my camera.
I guess this is as good as it gets when you can only take pictures in the corner facing the wall.

Heebie Jeebies!

Okay, I went outside to admire the first of my summer squash (can I just tell you I am so excited about it!) and then, amid my proud observations came this huge beetle! (pic. below)




I was totally mortified! Bright colors! That must mean poisonous right?! I looked online and found out that this Thing is called an Iron Cross Blister Beetle. It can cause skin blisters if touched and is fatal if ingested. Oh my gosh! I have never seen anything like this. It was a good two inches long and before I even went inside to find out what the heck this thing was, I found a large rock and dropped it on the bad boy.

Man alive, I am so glad that my kids didn't find this outside. I am always just leaving them in the back to play by themselves. And can I tell you that this thing, I swear, started chasing me! Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but it was definitely following me.

An Unwelcomed Guest

Over the weekend we had a visitor. . . . I was plating up my kids dinner and saw something in the back yard. Lo and behold I saw a rabbit! How did it get there? I could only guess that it crawled in under our gate. The kids were thrilled! I had them stay in the house to watch it so that they would not scare it. It was all fun and games until it started going towards my garden and thus, wore out it's welcome. I went outside and chased it to the gate so that it could crawl back under and out. It was a great streak of gray-brown and the kids were thrilled that it kept running across the porch to hide. Finally I cornered it and after about 5 min. it calmed down enough to figure out how to leave. Of course, the kiddos were very disappointed that the rabbit was gone. Even still they keep saying that the rabbit would come back.