keep tahoe blue...

I see these bumper stickers all over Northern California...and now I need one....I am a believer!!

We went up to meet Shelly and her most darling Hydes up at the great blue wonder and I felt shamed all day that I have such a natural paradise in my backyard and have not taken advantage of it....here's to a wonderful day amongst the gold speckled crystal blue water, huge rounded granite rocks, steep wooded cliffs, priceless vistas, crayfish, little fishes, kayaking, laughing and hiking (we had to park precariously on the side of the winding road and take one of the national parks trails into our spread)!!

on the hike in from the car...we dropped all the kids and gear at the boat ramp then parked away since the lots were full

looking for signs of wildlife

Maggie was the most agreeable little babe...she just crawled around snacking on treats and sand...such a precious girl!

little bits of fools gold float around all over the water is is really magical...

gordon and jackson were fast friends...they were very adventurous much to the distress of Ezra who was quite a bit more cautious!

My sister and baby Hazel...on the hike back to the cars

a passerby offered to take this picture for us...too bad we look super-imposed on the scene

It was so funny to hear this conversation between the boys on our way back to the Hyde's "beach cabin" as Goldie called it....
Oscar: "Mom, are all those kids our cousins too?"
before I could even respond...
Gordon: "No, ugh, those are our cousin-in-laws."
Well at least now it's clear...how happy we are to have such wonderful cousin-in-laws!!

Such a great day!!
Thanks for letting us crash the Hyde girls party!!

* a note we had a real good time "rock exploring" the lack in number & quality of pictures of oscar is due to his desire to stay back at the beach spot and dig...not a bad choice but I am sad we didn't get more pics of our little handsome man at this picture perfect spot!

The Garden of Eden....kind of

Now that we have 5 acres, chickens and a dog it's was time to get our act together and plant a proper garden....so we did.

PS I have not a stick of make-up on and well....

1. Steve, Merl (Grandpa Ward), Candy (Grandma Ward), and a little bit me....worked for 2 days to put up an 8' fence to keep the Olympic Caliber deer (which are way too plentiful) out of our plot.

2. Roto-till the heck out of the ground.....check!

3. Buy lots of seeds & plants....check!

4. Plant, water, weed and watch....which was really not that much work though weeding was intense since our plot is rather large (every weeding day the kids each had to fill up their grocery bag with weeds....I helped them each youngest to oldest....it was fun to tell stories and talk though we had many a complaint along the way) There was always an incentive to it too...swimming, popsicle, a movie...

Right away we knew we had a good thing going when none of our plants died...which has been the fate of way too many in the past...then after just a few days we had little sprouts coming up everywhere!! It was so fun to see and talk about the different things we planted...some of our stakes went missing and it was a kind of game to guess what it was...with the advice and help of our master gardener neighbor Vonnie...we have finally figured out what everything is!

After just a few weeks we had Zuchinni coming out of our ears and their leaves were like elephant ears...huge!! the pictures just don't to it justice...everything has gone so well and we have a real deal garden harvest EVERYDAY...we could run a stand!! Seriously berserk how well everything is thriving...I have never seen/experienced anything like it....Candy attributes it to the fact that our children pray for the garden, and I know that that is probably just what did the trick!

I love being out in the garden...you can literally hear the bees just buzzing around all over but they're so busy doing their work that they want nothing to do with you...they are so adorable pollinating like crazy...look at the little yellow pollen balls sticking to their legs...so cute...so natural?...


Here are some photos of the Garden when we got home from Florida (we planted our first plant/seed the end of June)....and the haul from the last 2 days (I am not exaggerating at all....2 days)


Our Harvest....(we ate some for lunch before this pic was taken...our actual #s are below)

9 cucumbers
12 beets
16 strawberries
10 jalepenos
3 eggplant
10 zuchinni (does not count the 6-7 that were waay too big for us to eat....they went straight to the chickens)
4 crook neck yellow squash (ditto on the others of these that were too big)
3 green peppers
13 carrots
1 hubbard squash
14 ears of corn
too many tomatoes to count
(note: we hadn't picked anything for a few days prior to this....which is why we lost some of the squashes...they grow and ripen SO fast...we also lost quite a few strawberries that got too ripe)

Here's a list of what we have/have to look forward to enjoying...
Cucumbers
Zucchini

Tomatoes
Cantaloupe

this is a tiny tiny new cantaloupe....just to add to our other 7 almost ready to go...we're picking our first one in 3 more days!!

this is the cantaloupe and our crook neck squash
Watermelon
Honeydew

Crook-neck Squash
Beets

Strawberries


Jalepenos
Teardrop Eggplant

Green Bell Peppers
Carrots (we have 2 real rows and tons and tons of spares all around the garden...Oscar was in charge of the carrots and sprinkled them out of a hole in the envelope as he walked around on planting day...in fact the boys prime argument for not filling their bag is because the things growing aren't weeds they're carrots)

Hubbard Squash (it's a winter squash...we have a bunch...this one weighs about 35 lbs)

Butternut Squash
Radishes
Corn (Ruby & White)

Sunflowers
Pie Pumpkins

Jack-o-lantern Pumpkins

Sugar Snap Peas
Ornamental Gourds
Onions


Happy Gardening out there!!