Saturday, May 14, 2011

Spring 2011 Garden Update! :)

"...plant gardens and eat their fruit."
Jeremiah 29:5

Our *many* gardens are looking absolutely beautiful this year!  So, I decided to show you some pictures of our gardens before the summer heat wilts them and before all the lovely pests eat holes in their leaves. :)

I'll start with the gardens located in the front of our house! :)

The three rows pictured are all strawberry plants (with some garlic here and there).  We've had this garden for about 2-3 years and it's doing okay.  The berries aren't big like they're supposed to be, but we make it! :)  

Strawberry season is in full blast! 

Seth, Eden, and Josiah picked lots of ripe, red berries yesterday!  They were amazing!  Normally the strawberries you buy from the store are a little sour and under ripe...well, our strawberries were warm (from sitting in the sun), deep red and they taste like they've been drenched in powdered sugar.  SO yummy!!!

But back to the gardens!

We have another garden to the left of the strawberries and there we are growing some Yukon potatoes.

Across the driveway we have some blueberry plants growing!
The plants are a little hard to see in this photo but there are about 6-8 lining the driveway.

Some already have berries coming!!

This year we planted more blueberries on a hill surrounding the front strawberry garden and in the backyard.  (Mom loves fresh blueberries. ;)


By the way, I'm sorry if this gets confusing!  We have so many plants in so many different places it's a bit hard to give you the full picture.  Come to visit and you'll see where everything is! :)

To the right of the strawberry garden (if you're standing in our front door) we have our raspberry row:

We also have some little, green berries coming and soon they'll turn into yummy, pink raspberries!
Right next to the raspberries we have our big potato garden.  (You can tell we like a lot of one plant if we have more than one garden dedicated to it! ;)

The two outside rows are potatoes and the one little row down the middle contains newly-planted greenbeans (to the far right are the raspberries I just mentioned)!

This garden is really long, so it's hard to portray the many potato plants growing!

The biggest potato plants have flowers coming on them!
We're really praying (and hoping) that no voles find our potatoes.  After lots of hard work goes into planting, watering, covering, and hilling the potatoes it's really devastating when some unseen creature eats your plants!!! 

Some of our little greenbean plants growing!
We planted greenbean plants between the potato rows because they deter potato bugs/beetles.  (This is called "companion planting" and it works wonderfully!)

The other potato row.
This row isn't doing the greatest but they should get bigger soon!!

Another view of our big potato garden! :)

 Our front yard. 
Potatoes on the left, then the raspberries, across the driveway is the big strawberry garden (and blueberry plants) and then the Yukon potatoes on the far right. :)  Have I confused you yet?

Near the big tater garden we have a smaller garden (a.k.a. "Seth's Garden") dedicated to more strawberry plants:
These plants produce the biggest strawberries.  We actually transplanted these from the runners our first strawberry plants produced. 

Across from that garden we have a garden currently dormant but ready for plants whenever we decide we need more! :)
When we need to plant we'll cut a hole in the paper, dig a small hole, insert the plant and then we won't have to worry about weeding!  Yippee! :) :) [This is how it's supposed to work...]


This garden is behind our house and contains even more blueberry plants and some transplanted garlic. 


A blueberry plant surrounded by garlic!


Another garden behind our house with kale, spinach, and pea pods.


The kale (pictured above) and spinach are going to seed so we picked our last leaves of the season yesterday. :) :)

Some of our pea plants climbing up the trellis.


A little pea pod!

The back of our yard. 

I'd try and detail where everything is but I would only succeed in confusing you, so I won't try! :)
Well, that was the update on our gardens!

Hopefully the next thing I'll have to say is that "the gardens are still beautiful and producing lots of yummy food."  We'll see what the voles and pests think about that! ;)
Kimber :)

Monday, May 9, 2011

Bowling with Na-naw

About two weeks ago, Na-naw took Hanah, Alexis, Eden, and I (Kimber) bowling at the AMF in Mechanicsville.  Hannah drove us over and Na-naw showed up about 10 minutes later with 4 of our cousins:  Erika, Claire, Gracie, and Collin.  

 Eden, Lexi, and Hannah waiting in the car at the AMF parking lot.

The sky looked extremely stormy and unhappy but thankfully we didn't get rained on!

Once we were all inside, we picked out our shoe size and walked down to our lane.

 Trying on some shoes.

My cousin, Claire, was really excited!


I guess I could say Lexi was excited too... :)

Na-naw bought two lanes and we were split up into two teams.  Team 1 consisted of Erika, Collin, Hannah, and I.  Team 2 consisted of Na-naw, Alexis, Claire, and Gracie.

Once Na-naw entered our names in the system we started bowling!  We (Hannah, Lexi, and I) hadn't bowled for at least a year so we had quite a few tries "in the gutter."  Eden had never bowled in her life but she did pretty well!

Picking out a ball.

The approach (this was the most nerve-wracking part for me!).

The throw...

...and the gutter!
Despite our many "gutter balls" we enjoyed our time together.  Na-naw is in a bowling league and so she helped us bowl better as the games progressed!



Gracie (a cousin) bowling.





Lexi and Claire waiting their turn.



Erika was probably the best "bowler" of the day (other than Na-naw).  I think she came in first in each of the two games we played!

She managed to get at least one strike every game!

Claire getting ready for her turn!

Gracie and Eden.

Lexi on her second bowl!

Myself, Na-naw, and Hannah enjoying our time together! ;)




My turn!




















Na-naw working it!

Hannah...what amazing form! ;)
P.S. from Hannah- I was absolutely horrible!  But it was fun to go and spend time with my cousins and grandma!!  

Collin.

Collin and Erika.

Team 1 finished bowling their two games before Team 2, so Team 1 went over for lunch at Chik-fil-A first! :)  Before we left, we grabbed a "team shot" of everyone!

Team 1:  Collin, Erika, Hannah, and myself.

Team 2:  Gracie, Na-naw, Eden, Claire, and Alexis.

Chik-fil-A was stuffed with people but we managed to find ourselves a seat and get some nuggets and waffle fries ordered!  
 Can anyone say, YUM?!

 After nuggets and fries, we ordered an Oreo milkshake and...WOW!...it was so good!



Once we were finished eating, Hannah drove Erika, Alexis, and I around town and we browsed different stores.  We then dropped Erika off at her house, said "hi" to Aunt Steph and headed on home.

What a wonderful day!  Thanks, Na-naw, for taking us bowling!  We had a great time and will treasure the memories forever! 
Kimber :)