Holy Lawn Mowers

When we moved into this house, we didn't have a lawn mower. We had sold our last one when we moved out a few years ago, and we saw a bunch on Craigslist, but were so busy with moving that we decided to wait until things quieted down to get one. Then a week later, our lawn really needed to be mowed and there were no low priced lawn mowers to be found anywhere. So we borrowed one from Aaron's dad. It worked well, but it was only on loan and it has a huge hole in the side of it that spews oil out. So we kept looking, and found one from a guy in Albany (who happened to be Aaron's friend's dad, small world) that seemed ok. But it wasn't strong enough for our huge lawn. We happened upon a garage sale today that had a lawn mower (for $5 no less), but we decided we didn't want to mess with trying to sell the other one. So we went home and Aaron was moving the lawn, and got frustrated with our mower. We went back to the house to see if she still had the other one and she did, and it is better than the one we got for $35. This turned into a really long boring story, when really I just thought this was funny:



One will go back to Aaron's parents and the other will be sold.
Our new garden space:
So far it has onions, leeks, carrots, beets, potatoes, corn, eggplant and tomatoes. We have a little over twice this much room in the backyard too, I'm still waiting for my seedlings to get big enough to transplant, I got them started a little late.


We had a wonderful summer dinner: the best bbq'd chicken ever, rice and potato salad.


There were two shriveling nectarines on the counter. I was about to toss them in compost when Aaron said, mini crisps! So mini nectarine crisps we had. Sorry these pictures are blurry, I couldn't find my other camera, and I didn't mess with any settings on the other.


Summer is here!

World's Worst Blogger

I was recently called the world's worst blogger. I admit I have been doing a horrible job at keeping the cyber world updated. So what have I been doing? I know you are all burning to know. Well Memorial Day weekend we dug up half our lawn and converted it to garden space. So far I've planted corn, cilantro, potatoes, beets, carrots, eggplant and onions. I did take a before picture, I'll wait til I have a few spouts for the after. I'd love to show some pictures of the new house...but there are still like 10 half unpacked boxes, and 3 rooms that aren't put together. I've been wrapping up school by writing a lot of papers and driving too much. Aaron's internship has been going great, and they really like him, so fingers crossed they will hire him in February when his internship is done.
Basically I try to work on school all day, Aaron gets home, we go hiking/running/walking, make dinner, go to sleep, repeat. There never seems to be enough time in the day. And with that it's back to paper writing for me!
Oh! And how could I forget visiting Tuesday and Amber yesterday?? I didn't take any pictures, I think because I was too busy ooogling at her cute face the whole time. She is at the perfect age, interactive, well behaved, and did I mention cute? It was great seeing you guys Amber!

Hectic

Things have been busy and crazy and stressful over here. The move is almost complete. But here is a sample of my morning. My computer battery is running low. The cord is not where I left it and I have no idea where the other one is. Third box I check has the other cord. But it's a 3 prong. So I need to find a converter. After 3 minutes I found the converter, but now can't find where I set down the cord. Ok, maybe it doesn't sound that bad written down, but not knowing where anything is while being surrounded by crap starts to wear you down. Especially when you have homework, quizzes and papers you should be doing. I was going to post a picture...found the camera cord! This is what has been helping to keep me sane:



I love my little babies! And they are doing great in our new sun room. I had planted sugar snap peas at my last house and they just started blooming yesterday. We decided to dig them up, trellis and all, and attempt to relocate them here. I felt like we were digging a grave last night in the rain and dark, but we got them in the ground. I need to go check on them and make them a new trellis. They were a bit shocky once we got them here, no surprise. I have another busy day today...hopefully things slow down a little soon!

Megan's visit

Megan came to stay with me for a few days last week and we had a great time. She did a full report on her blog. I will just do a quick recap. We did a hike over by the hot springs that was pretty steep. It was a beautiful day and after we went and had a nice soak in the hot springs. I took Megan to Gen-X, an interesting clothing store specializing mainly catering to the Mexican population. She was loving this 3X shirt featuring and unsolicited advertisement for the "Air Force".

This is kind of a side note...this HUGE jumping spider had been living in the railing outside my door. He is on a 2 inch pipe in this picture. There have been wasps all over my yard trying to secure a nest location, and they keep trying to build one in his pipe. He seems to be afraid of them, and I think he may have been run off because I haven't seen him for a few days.


My lawn was getting out of control, and I had never mowed a lawn. Neither had Megan actually, but we teamworked it up and borrowed my neighbor's mower and powered through my jungle. It was quite satisfying to have an instant yard.


Megan's Happy Birthday shirt:


Megan's first attempt at batik, she did great! Here is the orchid on the front bottom corner:


A fairy on the back shoulder


Megan, Ashlee and I finally all got together at the same time and it was wonderful. It's so nice when everyone just clicks!