A chilly Valentine's afternoon

Well, it looked a lot nicer outside than it felt. With the wind blowing, it turned out to be a pretty chilly day. Henry, however, barely seemed bothered a bit. In fact, he attempted to refuse putting on his coat. Good thing we're still stronger than him!

It's amazing what a big boy he is suddenly!

Doesn't he look so grown up?

He had to prove how big he was by climbing up the "ladder" over and over unassisted. Well, you can imagine that I didn't stand too far away.

Just in case anyone has never experienced an ice storm, I thought I'd throw out a picture of the aftermath. It was certainly a new experience for us, and hopefully a once-in-a-lifetime ordeal.

Pickles!

Check out our first batch of dill pickles:

(we'll know how they turn out in about 3 weeks)

The first sunflower

Our little patriotic flower patch.

Yummy Bibb lettuce

Peas are still going strong.

Gardeninin'

Growing at full speed now!

D's first tomatoes

Snow peas

Bibb lettuce

Squash plants (near) & corn (far)

Cucumbers

We've also harvested some sugar snap peas, which were yummy! I can't wait for the cucumbers, though. Maybe I'll manage to make some pickles with those and the dill. mmm.

our first crop

Well, that's exaggerating a bit. We had our first mostly-ripe strawberry today. And it was yummy. I'm surprised that the strawberries are doing so well. I really didn't have high hopes for those.
So far the garden is doing okay. Most of the plants out in the raised beds are doing well, except the artichoke plants are dropping like flies. Our first corn sprouted recently, and the peas are starting to climb on the trellis.
I seem to be killing an awful lot of seedlings in containers this year, though. They'll sprout beautifully at first, then die off after transplanting them. I think it's a combo of not really hardening them off and too much moisture. A time or two after the rain they've really been drowned.
Sometimes the plants that thrive really surprise me.

Garden-a-palooza

sunflower and zinnia seedlings

upside-down, hanging banana pepper

snow peas & sugar snap peas

our indoor Meyer lemon tree

Gipper says, "Where's the water?"

A newly seeded lawn.

We spent the day aerating, seeding, fertilizing, and watering the lawn. Plus weeding the front beds, and moving rocks, and planting in the garden. Quite a productive Sunday afternoon. It certainly doesn't hurt that the sun doesn't go down until 7:30. Now we just have to continue watering and watering and watering...throughout the summer. The stuff we've read recommends "several times a day for the first week, then daily." Not much of a commitment, really.

We invested in an aerator/spreader attachment for the lawn tractor, which was an excellent choice. When I tried to use the push spreader, I soon came to regret it. That's a good workout, but painful.

Who's the patron saint of grassy lawns?

Our pumpkin patch, torn up and ready to seed.

A blank slate.

Here's the "before" version of our garden: two 10x3' raised beds, surrounded by gravel. Just waiting for all the fun new stuff we have planned. It looks a little depressing, all that grayness next to our neighbor's nice green yard. But soon it will be fun again. And we're going to start working on the actual yard itself, too--aerating, fertilizing, overseeding, and watering the shit out of it.

Yardwork

Yup, the Gipper is into it, too. I pull the weeds, and he chews them into submission.

I love getting home early, because I have such dreams of playing outside in the daylight when the weather is nice. And the weather is super-nice today. But then I go outside, and the laziness overtakes me. Is it just me, or does it feel more active to sit outside in a hammock than it does to sit inside at a computer? Just being outside makes me feel like I should get credit for working out. That's really sad. My standards are so low.

On a different note, I've volunteered us to work on the residency's website, which can be perused here. It's just a tiny bit outdated, and the undoneness of it offends the little graphic designer still hidden somewhere inside me. I know sometimes there's no avoiding the *under construction* pages, but I could live without the little caution bars. Maybe this can be my "little project." (Can you read the sarcasm there?)

Ready for spring

This is one of my favorite pictures of the Gipper.

I'm so ready for spring--I really want to start working on the garden. I've been mentally planning out what I think I'll plant this year:
- corn (probably an entire box)
- green beans
- sunflowers (just so much fun)
- onions
- okra (yummy)
- cucumbers
- pumpkins (in their own patch this time)
- herbs, especially basil
- maybe some squash

Last year we built two boxes, but I think we may expand to 4 this spring. Depends on how motivated we really get. The plan is to put the pumpkin patch over in the back left corner of the yard, although we've got to be careful to avoid digging up the cable/phone lines.

Here's one of the proud gardeners admiring his handiwork:

Now if the weather would only cooperate.