Pineapple flower coming soon!

This morning I decided it was probably safe to take my pineapple plants outside again. Look what I found! A flower bud on my largest plant! I am so excited!

Pineapple bud

The whole plant (trimmed for winter)

I planted this pineapple about when this little Princess

looked like this:

So its been over 2 years, which is about what it's supposed to take.

Fall Garden views

A week postpartum I ventured out to see how my neglected garden was faring. It has loved October and started growing tomatoes and peppers FINALLY. I think fall is really the best time to garden in Texas. I'm slowly learning and getting better at gardening here. Just keep learning...

Munchkin on the trampoline

Trainboy next to his ear of corn. We planted 4 ears at the beginning of August after a science project on the seeds. (just for fun) Three survived and one has an ear of corn on it!

Our miraculous ear of corn that will probably not get a chance to get big enough. Still cool to see.

Cherry tomatoes finally! Will they get to ripen?

Tons of banana peppers finally. Note - I thought banana peppers were sweet? These are super hot!

A few jalapenos! Too bad no ripe tomatoes to go with them!

My tomato wall.

Seeing the little cherry tomatoes makes me happy. I've kept them alive FOREVER and now they finally are making fruit!

The rest of my motley garden.

Mmm..fresh basil

So I have chicken wire wrapped around the garden because I never got around to building the removable cages I intended to build. The chicken wire kept out some pests but not all. The squirrels are insane here. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned how much I hate them. Now we have rabbits living in our front yard or something too. Then there are the birds that think the chicken wire was put there to help them eat the plants. Sigh. Next year I need to get the removable covered cages built like suggested in Square Foot Gardening. Hopefully Fixitman is reading this and will make it happen for me. :D

Garden experiments

I have come to learn that gardening in Texas is not as easy as I thought it would be. But I keep trying and learning. :)

One fun book we got this summer was called Crinkleroots Nature Almanac. Dinoguy was reading it one day and really wanted to make a beaver dam in our yard. Since this would require a good deal of excavation first to create water flow, I wasn't quite up to it. I suggested some alternatives in tubs and buckets but he had big scale plans. Luckily, a suggestion that it wait for a trip to a park with a creek (there are several we visit) was a success. But he decided we should grow some popcorn in the meantime.

Yes, it's August and we just planted corn. :D

It was a fun way to start it - you just put the kernel on top of the dirt, water and cover with plastic wrap and a rubber band. This way you can see the roots come out and go down and the entire sprout come up. As it gets taller you remove the plastic and eventually try to transplant it. I had read corn didn't like to be transplanted, but they did alright and seem to still be alive and growing.

All four kernels eventually made baby plants and I only killed one in the transplant. They are in the garden now and growing. Maybe the Texas weather will work to our advantage and we'll get a decent corn plant before the frost. I somewhat doubt it, but hey, you never know!

The Sunflower house that wasn't

Well it sounded lovely, romantic and easy in the books...

We dug out a trench in the yard in a sunny spot and planted the seeds. The squirrels then ate more than half of them. I replaced a bunch and the squirrels ate a lot of those too. I improvised a fence from what materials I had on hand in the shed (plastic sheeting and random poles). The plants grew and we had the semblance of walls. As the temporary wall started to fail though, it became prudent to replace it with something better. I thought chicken wire would work well. I was short on chickenwire and improvised on the last corner until I could get to the store.

But we started to lose sunflowers immediately. They'd get knocked over at the base and break. If they were only bent I staked them up hoping to help them survive. I blamed the squirrels (except for the one Munchkin accidentally tackled.) Then we saw the birds sitting on the chicken wire and going after the sunflowers. This is before there are any semblance of blossoms! So squirrels, birds, possibly rabbits for all I know attacked our sunflowers and slowly there were less and less of them.

The sunflowers also stopped growing taller. I guess the early hot weather and not enough water are mostly to blame but the "giant sunflowers" that survived never surpassed 3 feet. We did get a few small blooms. The moonflower vines that were supposed to grow up the sunflowers and make the roof had nothing to grow on in most spots and just tangled up in the grass. When we were down to 3 sunflower plants in just one corner and it was mid June I gave up. I mowed it down except for that corner and tried to protect that corner. The beasties got them in a few days and now all that remains of the sunflower house we attempted are 4 poles hammered into the ground in the yard.

I have a friend who was growing a sunflower/corn house. Hers did about the same as mine. Amusingly the sunflowers that ended up planted next to her house were 10+ feet tall. The ones in the sunflower house? 3 feet. I'm not sure what to tell you but Sunflower houses aren't as easy to grow as they sound.

I love Spring

I love the perfect outdoors weather and the blooming new growth. The hope of all the new things I might grow in my garden and just being outside with my family.

We're going to try and grow a sunflower house this year. Here's hoping it turns out awesome, because the boys are super excited.

Munchkin is just excited to be outside, period. She loves to explore. She's already got a bit of color in her skin and looks pink compared to other paler babies.

Hope you are outside playing and gardening too!

This & that

Munchkin just loves to play outside. She asks to go out whenever anyone goes near the door. She likes to walk on the trampoline and swing for short periods of time but also loves to drive her little cars, play in the little house and just wander around the yard. So we've been playing outside a lot lately. The weather has been quite pleasant.

Dinoguy read a chapter book from cover to cover one morning this week. It was called The Dragon in the Sock Drawer. He picked it out at the library. Trainboy is reading several words by sight and asking what things say and then repeating them like he's memorizing.

Trainboy and Dinoguy build lovely intricate lego things every day.

Munchkin can pull out a chair at the table and climb on top of the table in about 10 seconds. She has demonstrated this ability many times. This morning she climbed up and unscrewed the lid of the syrup on the table and dumped on herself and everywhere else. She was quite pleased.

Trainboy and Dinoguy collect sticks whenever we walk around the block for their stick collection. There is some sort of game involved as well, probably a battle.

So Spring is almost here, we have one last freeze this weekend and then hopefully warm temperatures! We're ready to grow our garden and a sunflower play house.

Pineapple update

Remember the pineapple tops I rooted and planted last year? No? Here's what they looked like when I first potted them.


Here are what the pineapples look like now.They have to come back inside now that its getting below 60 at night. I clipped the pointy tips of the leaves, they are dangerous! The small one in front I thought had died, but then it sent up a new plant on the side. Sometime this winter hopefully the flower bud will start to form and maybe next year we'll have fresh pineapple! It's a jungle in our house now!

Monday Feb 23 gardens and zoos

I think it takes a great amount of faith to plant a seed and believe it will grow.We planted seeds in our new garden box - Fixitman and the boys finished building it on Saturday.

Radishes, beets, spinach, lettuces, and peas. Cool weather crops to grow before it gets warm.Planting seeds and watering them is so easy for the boys. They seem to just know that the plants will come. I wish it were so easy for me.

I worry about if I will get the right amount of water to them and if we planted them too deep or too shallow. In short, I make it a bit stressful for myself. The simple act of planting seeds becomes a growing experience.

After we planted seeds it was off to the zoo for a last trip before our membership expired. I marveled to watch my boys at the zoo, how much they've grown in the past year. Munchkin happily slept while we saw the hippos, the giraffes, elephants, rhinos, monkey, goats... They knew where the animals were, and which ones they wanted to see.The meerkats were out on watch duty. They are adorable!

Dinoguy gives a baby elephant statue some love.

Trainboy and Munchkin in the stroller. All the direct shots of Munchkin were eaten by the memory card again. Argh.

These baby lion cubs don't look so small in this picture as they did at the zoo in comparison to their parents. I thought they were adorable. Then the dad started roaring in the next habitat over; it was very interesting to hear. It didn't sound like a roar like the Lion King as much as one would think.

Cold

Why is there a giant trench in our yard? On that nice warm day that we planted the pineapples, we also smelled gas outside and called the gas company. They came Friday night and agreed there was a leak and shut off our gas. Of course there was a cold spell coming thru starting that night!

We've been having an adventure, heating water on the stove to make a warm bath for the kids and to do dishes and running space heaters in our home to make it not cold. However, the adventure needs to end, and Fixitman has been working hard to help that happen, despite the weather (that is a nice thick coat of ice you see there) and non-helpful plumbers and city inspectors.

I'm not going to rant about the whole thing here, but instead focus on how awesome it is to have a husband who makes things happen - like the trench that still wouldn't be dug or the line that wouldn't be laid if it weren't for his hard work and phone calls. We still don't have gas turned on due to the adventures of finding leaks in the house as well, but the end is in sight.

Meanwhile, I've decided the middle of the yard really is perfect for a garden now that its been all dug up anyway. And Sarge does not understand why we won't let him go play out back in the nice big hole we dug him. He's highly offended. The boys have learned all about how appliances work, how we get our utilities and are immensely enjoying camping out in mom and dad's room. (Easier to keep them warm and monitor them in the cold!) Fixitman got an awesome workout helping dig a trench and Munchkin just keeps on being a cutie. My advice? Don't call the gas company on Fridays.

Growing Pineapples!

We are fascinated with seeds and all things that grow. We've sprouted or attempted beans, apples, avocados, sweet potatoes, mangoes and now pineapples! The boys are always asking about the seeds of foods and saying we should plant it. Especially with new or unusual ones. We had a great sale on pineapple at the store in November and bought a few. The questions about pineapple seeds came and led to the discovery of this informative website. We prepped our pineapple tops and set them to dry. Then I forgot about them for about a week and one was moldy and icky on the inside so I threw it out but put the other three into mason jars to hopefully sprout the roots. I wasn't super hopeful since I'd let them dry for too long but figured it didn't hurt to try. I was also trying to sprout a mango seed so there was water changing daily for a while. First they grew some white stuff on the bases that I worried was a fungus of some sort but decided to wait a bit before quitting. Then the first root appeared! They were alive! (The mango seed went mildewy from lack of water changes after Munchkin was born, while the pineapples survived and continued to grow roots.) Now I was procrastinating getting cactus soil to plant them. Partially because I tend to kill things once they are in pots and I forget about them. At least that's what happened to the sweet potato vine, the apple seedlings and several other experiments.

But this past week I stopped at the store after a doctor's appointment and got the dirt. Now to clean some pots. I ask Dinoguy to help and he cheerfully joined in for the wet and messy part. He was excited about planting the pineapples and playing with water? Sure! It was a balmy high 70's day as well, and he had fun with it, soon creating mud and building mud castles. When he was ready, he collected small rocks from the driveway for the bottom of the pots and then helped put the dirt in and then the pineapple tops! He happily soaked them and when they were drained, they came inside to live next to the sink for the next few months where hopefully they will grow good roots. Here are two on one side of the sink, which is the sunniest spot I have for them.I am especially inspired by this guy, who has successfully grown fruit on his plants in England! If he can successfully grow a fruit there, I figure we can too here in Texas! If they die, we'll try again. I'll happily figure out where to put them if they live and grow until they are 3 feet tall and wide! (See previous links for examples.)

Garden fun

Trainboy waters some of his stick flowers. He plants them, waters them, picks them, and shows me that they are growing.








Some of my herbs & plants - cilantro & thyme in the pot on the far right on the ground. Sage in a pot and Strawberries in a pot on the top. Oregano & Mint in the pot on the left, and my lantana flowers in the box.



My tarragon, rosemary & parsley in the pot on the left, and a whole lot of basil in the pot on the right.










I wonder where Dinoguy might be?













Dinoguy worked on teaching Sarge to "mush" today. We've been enjoying the movie Balto lately. :)

Home Depot Craft

We remembered to go to the Home Depot craft this past Saturday morning! :) Dinoguy is quite good with a hammer now. Trainboy is still too soft with his hits, but fairly accurate. They had some fun making the flower boxes, and I had some fun picking out a few things for our little garden. (It took me 30 minutes to get these photos off my phone since I didn't take the camera with me, enjoy them even if they are lower quality!

I want a large garden. A humongous garden. But with the uncertainty in our life at the moment, I don't want to spend money to make a good garden plot and our yard's dirt needs amending to really grow anything. (And protect the garden, and future compost pile from the dog.) So for now, I just have my herb garden in pots and Dinoguy's strawberry plant and a couple flowers in the front planter box. No pictures of that right now because I am not good at remembering to take pictures when I'm doing things and now it is too dark to take decent pictures. So I will add them later. :)

But I did take a picture of what I found in the back yard today when I went out to play with Sarge. :) He's gotten quite good at this! My friend Mel has another pic of him in a tree at a park on her blog, here.

Snowy Week

The past week has flown by and been full of fun and excitement. I was too lazy to download pictures or blog, so now I will post a few things quickly to try and catch up.

Weather wise -we had warm weather and we cleaned the car, and then it snowed overnight. (First snow in TX for us!) Then it was warm, then it got cold and snowed again. The daffodils have all bloomed here and a few trees are covered in blossoms, so it is an early spring snow, that mostly turned our yard into a large puddle.

Sorry that the picture is just of a car with snow on it. It only snowed in the middle of the night, and I took a picture of it then, because the snow was mostly gone in the morning.

The kids were super excited about the snow. The kids looked out the window when I pointed out the remaining snow and then returned to TV watching. When they asked about it a little later, it was all melted.

We have cut down more sucker trees in the back yard and its starting to look a lot nicer. Hopefully the big ones that are left aren't all dead! If so, oh well. The yard is a big pile of mud mostly, though grass is starting to grow in some of the brown spots and we hope to get a decent yard, and some gardening spots as well. Lots of work, especially when you are doing the cutting old school with a bow saw, clippers & a hatchet. I just keep thinking its good for building muscles, and Dinoguy thinks it is just plain old fun. Sarge also enjoys gnawing on the branches.



Sarge graduated from Beginner obedience class. He can crawl, spin, shake, sit, lie down, come, stay and go up on command. He is doing well, and is almost a year old. I have hopes to take him thru more obedience classes to get his Canine Good Citizen and become a Therapy dog. He is such a sweet loving dog, I think it would be a great way for us to give service and also give him more purpose.

Cloudy weather blahs bring updates

It is cold and cloudy today, at least compared to the warm sunny weather we've had for the past week. Add to that the fact that we've just completed a rather busy last week and I wanted to work outside in the yard but am a wimp about this 40 degree weather, and I've got the blahs. Perfect time to finally update the blog. :)

I spent yesterday morning cutting down "junk" trees and branches in the back yard that were annoying me. It is so much fun to cut & chop stuff! Dinoguy joined me in the destruction, while Sarge happily chewed up several of the larger sticks.

I've read and heard its not safe to let your dog play with sticks, but my dog will chew on live trees if he has to. I just hope that the larger trunks/limbs are less dangerous and won't cut his mouth.

Getting rid of the little spindly trees that had grown all around the perimeter of the yard already has it looking tons better. I hope it helps with the gardening too because we are ready to garden! We went to the nursery today and are getting ready to put stuff outside.

I've been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and it just helps ignite that fire to work in a garden that much more. It is such a beautifully written book, full of lovely imagery and fun helpful tips and stories. It really makes eating local & growing a lot of our food seem that much more obtainable to me. Learning about asparagus at the beginning was fascinating, and the whole book is like that overall. I am eager to try making my own mozzarella cheese too.

My cooking blahs that accompanied the move seem to have past overall. I have been trying lots of new recipes again, but not finding much time to blog about them on my food blog. Oh well. It's still tasty food!

We've been reading many non fiction books about trains & dinosaurs & volcanoes lately. We exhausted the library supply of fiction picture books on these topics and have happily moved on to the non-fiction supply which is still mostly full of pictures luckily, as those are just as fascinating as the words they include.

Being gentle these past few weeks has mostly been about meeting our needs for sleep, nourishment, learning & social activities. I have been pondering gentle thoughts with regard to how I think about myself and choosing positive and happy thoughts as peaceful and gentle and warm and fuzzy.

Here's hoping my mighty knight dinoguy and king trainboy bring you some warm and fuzzy gentle thoughts. :)