April 26, 2011

~Spring~

I feel like we are missing out on spring this year! Besides a nice day here and there, it really has just been awful!!! I was finally able to get in my garden and get some of my cool weather seeds planted! I have more to plant and hope to get the rest in once it dries out from today's rain. Yesterday the boys and I (that includes Ted) planted sugar snap peas, spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, kohlrabi, and two types of radishes. The rest of the spring/cool weather vegetables that we are planting are sweet potatoes, onions, arugula, green beans, carrots, and beets.

Once it warms up (probably middle to late May) we will be planting a lot more. We will have different kinds of squash plants, pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers, purple beans, broccoli, jalapenos, banana peppers, bell peppers, and basil off the top of my head. We have some great perennials, too. Like our asparagus patches. You can NOT beat fresh asparagus, seriously a million times better than any store bought. We also get mint that comes back year after year, and dill which comes in handy for when we are canning pickles and dilly beans!!

Our asparagus is peaking through, can't wait for our first meal of the season!

April 25, 2011

~Cute~

Look what the Easter Bunny left at our house! Eight, soft, cuddle, sweet baby chicks. Trevor is so in love with them, and would hold them all day long if I let him. Landon was a little cautious at first to hold them, but once he figured it out, he loves them as much as Trevor. We haven't let Ethan hold them, but he does love to pet them. The darker ones are Americanas and they will lay blue and green colored eggs, they boys will get a kick out of that!

~Sugar Bush~

This I meant to post weeks ago, and am now finally getting to it. Hopefully my motivation will return soon! We took the boys one Sunday morning to a sugar bush, not too far from our house. The boys already know about maple syrup and collecting sap, because they have helped my uncle before. I fondly remember when I was a kid and the early spring days spent collecting sap and turning it into maple syrup. We would roast marshmallows in the fires that boiled the sap, and we would hard boil eggs in the sap as it was turned into syrup.

It was a cold morning and the line for the pancake breakfast was never ending and long, so I waited in line and Ted took the boys around to explore and pass the time as we waited. They would go into the shed that was cooking the sap to warm up, Landon went on a pony ride, and they just hung out as our turn to eat got closer. Despite the cold, it was a great way to spend the morning and after I breakfast we took a ride through the woods by horse and cart and the boys were spotting all of the collection buckets that the sap drips into. Plus, it was only $11 for our family to eat as much as we could of pancakes, sausage, apples sauce, and of course fresh maple syrup! You really can't beat fresh maple syrup!!