My garden

Well my tomatoes were safe and sound in their little walls of water.  It was 80 last week and 40 this week.  Can you see all the new snow on the mountains. We even got snow grains here in the valley.  You can even see my new drip line set up with just the right amount of space.  

Just before the temperatures dropped I planted 6 more heirlooms outside.  2 are Cherokee Purple which I've never grown before but many of the gardening blogs I watch rave about them.  

In fact, here is the smallest one:

Gardening in the winter

Hah, I so didn't get the rest of the soil for the garden but I did get the rest of the hoops up.  I don't remember the short hoop when I picked it up from my parent's house but I can always remove it.  I also need to add a pinch of white pvc pipe to the top.  

My 5 year old son helped me put it all together.  We had a blast together. 

What boy doesn't like a little dirt? 

And spray paint - I did finish painting the outside.

Maybe I should have added the hoops to this garden instead - it's smaller and it's full.  Hmmm, maybe in the spring.  So, until January when I start my onion seeds, it's no more gardening for me.  However, I will be decorating, oh and cleaning the house.  

My house is so much cleaner and incredibly organized when I can't garden.

Fall leaves and General Conference

During the afternoon session of General Conference we decided to take another drive.  IT WAS A GORGEOUS DAY! And can I just start out by saying that it was just like this photo below.  Sometimes we struggle to get the eye to see what we see. When we saw what you see in this first photo we were speechless and Tyler stopped the car and got out the camera.  I added a tiny vignette but other than that I didn't do anything to the photo.  How did it turn out so great?  It's called a circular polarizer.  It allows you to cut the glare and get the sky to remain it's amazing blue color. Click on the photo to see it larger. 

Tyler took this photo.

And this one was just off the peak.  I took this photo. Gorgeous wild flowers!

We were shocked how much snow was up there.  It's amazing how much more than what we saw July 2010 and you'd think it being Oct 2011 there'd be less by now.

And Tyler took this photo too. Beautiful!

Hiking

Tyler wanted to get out of the house and so we went for a hike, in the snow, again.  After we drove to Burrr Lake and got milk shakes.  Then we drove to T grove to see if the snow had melted.  It had.

If you decide to go hiking here (hopefully the snow will be gone next week), bring mosquito repellent.  They are in swarms here even with snow still on the ground.  It was disgusting.  But if you ran fast enough you could almost enjoy the view.  

Happy Halloween

Hope your Halloween is a happy one.  Here we celebrate Halloween on Saturday if it happens to fall on Sunday. I mean it's a state wide thing. Seriously. So we did all of our partying yesterday.  We went to the Mall to get my son a new winter coat. They were handing out candy there. We went to Home Depot to look for a new freezer - they had a scavenger hunt there.  Then we went to Aunt K*s house and rode on Grandpa and Grandma's homemade train behind their 4-wheeler.  They rescued us from the downpour and we visited with the neighbors.  My nephew K sat with me both times in the train. 

Of course, back on the 27th we woke up to snow. Let's just say we were all very excited about that!

And my kiddos made their mark in it. I stayed on the dry sidewalk.

Cold Weather Vegetables

When I was in college, I majored in landscape architecture for a while.  In fact, I practically lived in the greenhouse at BYU-Idaho.  If you've ever been to Rexburg during the winter, maybe you'll understand why.  Someday I will have a greenhouse of my own.  Someday... for now I will be sprouting my veggies in south facing windows.

I just really like this photo - the drops of water on the leaves.  We've had a few cold days so I put the heating pad under the tray with the peat pots.  It worked - the black eyed susans finally sprouted! And having the dome over the tray, well, it almost feels like we have a mini rain forest in sitting on our breakfast table. I have to open them up once in a while to prevent mold build up. 

Click on it to see it larger.

These are lettuce sprouts.  Sad to know that several of those sprouts are going to get trimmed down, but only one per pot means bigger heads of lettuce. Besides I don't need that much. I've never grown lettuce before so this is all experimental to me, which I'm not afraid of at all. I do like romaine lettuce and so I do hope it grows into something edible. This is in my second tray that's hanging out in my living room window.

And here is tray # 1 - cold weather plants only.  8 - cabbage. 3 - kohlrabi. 2 pots of red onions.  1 pot of green onions. 6 - black eyed susans.  And I'm really glad that I went ahead and started the black eyed susans. It's been over 2 weeks and they are about a 1/4 inch tall. When should I start the zinnias for my daughter?

And can you see how much snow we got yesterday? Well, we received even more today.  In fact, my thoughtful husband left me the Jeep this morning so I could make sure and get back into the garage after driving to the bus stop.  We've got a very steep driveway.

Do you sprout your own veggies? I figured I could sprout 18 black eyed susans for $10 using the tray with the more expensive dome - although it's reusable all year, peat pots, soil, and seeds.  Or I could buy one pot from the garden center for $8.95.  To me it's worth the effort and challenge.  Especially when I have a 1/2 acre to landscape including my 15x40 foot garden. 

25 photos 'til Christmas - Day 17

We love the snow, so we brought a little of it in, in the form of plastic glitter covered snowflakes.  I put a nail on each side of the cabinet that spans my kitchen sink.  Then used fishing line.  I also added fishing line to the flakes, placed them at different levels, and scooted them across the line into place.

25 photos 'til Christmas - Day 14

Do you scrapbook? I do, did, hope to some more. I've been taking a mental break from it. Sad but true. But these photos make me WANT to scrapbook. I love the smiles of my children, their happiness, and excitement for life, winter, and snow.

Remember catching snowflakes on your tongue as a child? When was the last time you tried this? I honestly can't remember, so I'm going to have to change that the next time it snows. They were having so much fun. I enjoyed watching them, but I think next time I will have to join with them. This photo makes them look like they could just break out in song at any moment.

We love crazy winter hats.

And when was the last time you rolled around in the snow? Hmm...

Well, I better get back to work. Tomorrow I'll share photos of our candy gingerbread train. Actually my children decorated it. This time my husband bought the kit. He knows how exhausting this time of year is for me. All I had to do was melt the brown sugar, stick it all together and supervise.