-
Tinkering in the Vegetable Garden
With mild weather the last few weeks we’ve been trying to get caught up in the vegetable garden with weeding and planting. Winter offers a good opportunity to grow a variety of vegetables, particularly herbs and leafy greens. Chris transplanted several dill plants that had self seeded throughout the vegetable beds in an effort to make room for planting onions and other crops. Chickweed had thrived in both the vegetable and flower gardens already this winter. I’ve been pulling tons of it, and yes, I know it is edible. I just haven’t gotten around to trying it, yet. We’re a little late in getting our onions in this year, at…
-
Eightmile Lake | Wenatchee National Forest
On our third night of backpacking in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, we took a relatively flat hike over to Eightmile Lake. There were a few rolling areas but it was an easy hike after our climb up and down Aasgard Pass. It was also a very quiet hike. There were a few people camping on the far side of the lake but we never interacted with them, and we saw no one on our hike into the lake. It might not have been alpine as the Enchantment Lakes were, but it wasn’t without a lot of grand scenery! There was a very cool old dam near the end of the…
-
In the Kitchen: Making
It’s taken awhile but I am slowly feeling like I can begin doing my old kitchen experiments once again. I may not be getting wild hairs on a Friday night at 8pm to make homemade pasta (done it!) but I feel like I can tackle some small projects in the kitchen once again. Suffice to say, the last 15 months have been hard, the first 9-12 months of that the roughest. An adjustment period. Some of the more curated blogs and social media sites are very great about depicting the ability for a new mother to keep up with her old ways, or even a mother with a new baby…
-
Currently | Late December
+In My Head Another year is just about over. I’m looking forward to 2016 and moving on from 2015. 2015 was a good year but the first half felt quite heavy. I’m not sure what’s going to happen in 2016 but I do know my parent’s 40th anniversary is in June and my dad turns 60 in September, so those are two milestones to be looking foward to. I had planned to try to work with Forest on potty training/elimination communication harder during this Christmas break but he came down with RSV and has been extra clingy, sleeping like crap, and lost his appetite, so working with him on that…
-
Another Sunday Hike On The Chinquapin Trail At Huntsville State Park
We first hiked this loop back in late March when Forest was almost 7 months old! This time we opted for a clockwise route instead of the counterclockwise route. The trail is the orange line on this map. It was a little chillier than I expected when we set out that morning and I was thankful that I had a hoodie on my fleece jacket. The sky was overcast and while there were some storms west of us in Austin, we didn’t expect to be impacted during our hike. There were lots of prints in the first creek crossing we visited, some we could identify and others we couldn’t. Chris…
-
The Future Gardener
It’s official, we’ve let the toddler loose in the garden! Ok, well, not without some heavy oversight! “No, don’t pull the garlic.” “Mom, how about these radishes?” “Yes, those probably need to be pulled, but just pick the leaves for now.” -Me “Ooh, this dirt-mulch is fun! I wonder what it tastes like?” “These marigolds are past their prime, Mom!” “Kaaalllleee.” “Hey, the pediatrician had these in her office the other day! I know, these can go in my mouth!”
-
Rainier From The Road | Wordless Wednesday
As seen from I-90, heading west
-
Aasgard Pass Descent
If you’ve been reading here long enough you know that Chris and I went to Seattle and the Cascades for our 10th anniversary in 2012. I never actually finished sharing the photos from that time and since I don’t always have a lot of excursions and adventures to share these days, I thought would try to finish sharing those photos over the next few weeks. If you missed any of those posts you can flip through them here. The big chunk of time we spent in Washington State, the primary reason for going, was to hike in the Enchantment Lakes. We had a permit for the Core Enchantment Zone which…
-
Compost Bin Update
When we installed the compost bin in early 2013 we knew that because we were using natural, untreated materials that we would eventually face rotting and need to come up with a different design. The compost bin is sill functioning but it is definitely in a state of slow decomposition. We’re going to have to come up with another game plan in another year or so. Here’s a chronicle of the pile over the last three years, with related posts near the bottom. Pre-compost pile, October 2012 January 2013 August 2013 November 2013 December 2015 Relevant Posts: The Future Compost Pile Compost Bin Complete Compost Bin Update
-
Soul Gardening
Last Friday was our work Christmas party and we were able to go home a few hours early after the festivities. Chris was out of town in southern Louisiana for work, a four day trip that turned into 12 days. The weather was unseasonably warm, low 80s, and so I opted to take advantage of a few hours of solo time in the garden while Forest was still in daycare. It was glorious to get some uninterrupted gardening time in but I still felt pressed for time, not accomplishing the amount of tasks I would have normally been able to handle pre-kid. It was ok, though, I weeded half of…