Deogratias

Thank God for our Bountiful Harvest

Despite the drought we  have been able to have a bountiful harvest in our little garden so far this year.  Friday night's downpour certainly helped, as did at least twice weekly waterings.  But we have enjoyed the delicious broccoli as well as one serving of zucchini so far.  See the first  photo for the menu tonight.

Zucchini with butter grilled in aluminum foil, salad garnished in sweet banana peppers and raw broccoli!  Yum!  Of course our carnivore nature requires that we have some grilled chicken to go with that.

Please excuse the strange arrangements of photos below.  I goofed, but I don't have time to fix it.  Below are some green tomatoes and bell peppers on the vine.  Between those is a completely unrelated photo.  It is the backside of our resident male robin.  He and his mate have nested atop our trellis under the canopy of wisteria vine.  I often see them go in and out, but today I caught him at home.  I tried to get his head in the picture, but the view was obstructed by leaves.  NO, AT SECOND GLANCE, I SEE HIS EYE!  It's a good picture, so CHECK IT OUT!

Which reminds me - I had better put pie on my shopping list this week.  I must have some pie pans to use as scarecrows so that the birds don't get all the tomatoes this year!  Another benefit of having a garden - PIE!

Birdfeeder News

OK, one of these days I'm going to manage to snap a picture of those bossy Mockingbirds or sneaky Catbirds.  And yesterday I tried to photograph a rare birdfeeder visitor - our state Bird - Brown Thrasher.  No luck, however.

This little fellow, however, will be sitting in my lap and letting me snap his pictue before long.  Today he was looking for water from the dog's bowl just by the backdoor while I stood right inside the door.  He doesn't even run very fast any more when the dog chases him.

Some people have asked me what kind of birdseed I buy to attract so many mockingbirds, catbirds, woodpeckers and even the occasional thrasher.  No, I don't go to a specialty bird store or even buy the high quality stuff at the CNC.  Rather, I buy stuff off the shelf at Kroger. 

                                                      

The birds just love this stuff, and unfortunately the squirrels do to.  I think I need to buy something to put under my feeder to keep those pesky squirrels away.  The kids got tired of shooting them with airsoft guns and the dog is even tired of chasing them.

Our Garden after the first harvest

Yummy Broccoli!!!

Hooray for homegrown veggies!

Today we made our first harvest from our little garden, and it was delicious.  Who knew broccoli could taste so good.  Of course, true to tradition, 3 of the boys hated it and one actually acted like he was going to throw up and cried.  But we're hoping that they'll be begging for more by the time it is all gone.  Or maybe they'll be saying something like - Do we have to have broccoli every night?!!

Lee, DV and I loved it and ate all we could get.  We're looking forward to more tonight, and making plans to plant more in the fall if we happen to still live here. 

Our First Hummingbird of the Season

A  celebrated moment for our family every year at about this time.  Last year it was May 18 and the year before on May 19, but this year it was the May 5th.  It could have something to do with the day I put the feeder out.  I decided to try getting it out a little earlier this year - yesterday - and we were overjoyed to see our first visitor at dinner tonight. 

One of my favorite things about summer is watching the cute little guys.  I love it when they chase each other around and fight to become the feeder's top bird.  He likes to perch on the maple tree outside our kitchen window and wait for others to encroach on their space and WHIZ - he pops out like a flash of lightening and chases the other away.    They are so territorial that they'll chase their mate and their babies away.

Sometimes in the mid or late summer it seems like we have a backyard full of hummingbirds and I have to dodge them when I walk around.  I love putting the sprinker up and watching them try to fly through and get a little shower.  And when they get comfortable with us, they'll even fly over to the feeder while we're sitting on the porch and we'll get to hear their buzzing noise.

Our Garden Revisited

Nearly one month from the day we first planted our garden and over two weeks after the frost took some of the plants, we finally got out there again and put in some replacements.  This time it wasn't a  mom and dad job, but rather a mom and boy job, and the boys did superbly.  I'm especially proud of Luke2 who actually dug two holes and planted a squash and a pepper all by himself.  Everyone helped with the weeding and the planting and it went very well.    While we were out there we did a little nature observing, including several earthworms and a snail.

The losses were about 3 tomatoes, two zucchinis, two crooknecked squashes, a cucumber and all the beans.  So now our garden consists of:

Tomatoes:

Bush Early Girl (2): medium fruit, 54 days until maturity

Roma (2) small, 73-80 days to maturity

Better Boy (5) large 70-75 days to maturity

Peppers:

Bonnie Bell (2) 4.5" x 4" 75 days to maturity

Banana Pepper (2) unknown

Sweet Red Bell (1) 4-6 oz 70-80 days to maturity

Squash:

Straightneck (1) 4-10" 46-52 days to maturity

Zucchini 6-8" 52 days

Other

Broccoli (4) unknown

Cucumber (1) 10" 70 days

Eggplant (1) 8" 80 days

The first thing I expect to eat is the broccoli, followed by squash and then Early girls.  The last thing to mature will probably be the eggplant.

I added a citronella plant to the herb garden today as well, and included some yellow marigolds too. 

Our Feeder Visitors

For two weeks I've been trying to capture photos of our most frequent feeder visitors - tufted titmice, Carolina chickadees and mockingbirds.  Somehow they always seem to fly off just before the photo is snapped.

New to the feeder this week is a flock of chirping sparrows who like to hang out below the feeder and pick up rewards from the messy eaters, namely the red bellied woodpeckers and the squirrels.  I've added their photos to the Visitors to our Feeder Photo Album.

The squirrels have become an annoyance lately, and Jabba the hut (our dog) has been busy with his most important job - chasing off the squirrels.   They have visited so often that Jabba has resorted to just standing on the porch and watching them run through the yard rather than following them. 

WARNING! ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS AND ANTI-GUN PEOPLE PLEASE DON'T READ ANY FURTHER!! The boys have become so annoyed at the squirrels, who can eat all the bird food in a day or two, that they shot a couple of them with airsoft guns.  Not enough to really hurt them, but a little shock to scare them away.  It seems to have worked, and it has helped improved the boys shooting accuracy.

The Importance of Nature Walks

Yea!  This is tthe second week in a row in which fulfilled our scheduled Wednesday nature walk.  We almost didn't make it.  In fact, we were about an hour late.  We were having a hectic day and no one was happy doing their work.  I didn't get a shower until after lunch, and when I checked my e-mail I learned that one of our homeschool groups was having a walk right around the corner.  So we jumed into the car and left.

It is such a nice break to get outside and look around and enjoy God's creation.  One of my favorite things about Charlotte Mason is the value she placed on spending time out of doors.  When I think about all the things to be learned just by a walk in the woods, I think it can far surpass any lesson at a desk.  We saw lizards, a dammed creek, poison ivy and many, many more things. The boys had an opportunity to visit with friends and then the baseball for a few minutes.  Later we took the time to draw in our nature notebooks, which are so much fun.  The more we enter into them, the more fun they are.  DV is even using cursive to write in his.

I can't wait until next Wednesday!

Our Garden

Boo Hoo!

This has to be the first year that I was on schedule with my spring planting.  Unfortunately, I was a bit ahead of the last freeze and we lost some of our veggies.  Temps dipped down below freezing 2 nights in a row and even though we had our garden covered, some of the plants didn't make it.   I'll have to go buy some more.  I'll update the garden list when I've done it.

Herb Garden

After repeated attempts to have an herb garden that I can actually use in my cooking, I've decided to put it nearer to the house.  I planted some herbs in pots on the backporch.  They are as follows:  Curled Parsley, Rosemary, onion chives and bee balm.