May Long Weekend Wandering Style: All Over

I usually write to convey the activities in my life.  This weekend I documented a fair bit using my camera.  I got some great shots and I have been practicing my video editing skills so I thought I would try it here.  I hope this works.  Check out the Whalen's Wanderings weekend below. This is a great start to the summer I think.

Garden Harvest, Prizes and Memories

The other morning before I left for work I made a quick stop in the garden.  I was able to thin the carrots and take some good sized legumes for my lunch.  While I was at it I also grabbed some beans, which we have an over abundance of.  Our peas are now pretty much done with only a few of the plants re-blooming after the first harvest.  I need to check on this to see how I can improve this.

I had forgotten how much work went into prepping veggies after you harvest them.  I cleaned the carrots, about a bowl full, and topped them.  It was enough for one meal but it took about 15minutes to prep them for consumption.  The thought that I grew a portion of my lunch however was very rewarding.  Since I also had warmed up salmon I could also convince myself that maybe I could actually provide an entire lunch from off the land.  I had to ignore the fact that I was eating a farm raised salmon and Uncle Ben's rice.  No he is not really my uncle :)

Beyond the eating of the fruits of your labor, the other rewarding part of our garden was the learning opportunities it provided the kids.  They ate most of the peas right off the stalk.  They would raid the garden and then go sit on a nearby hay bale to chow down on the big peas.  The whole time they wore big smiles as they felt comfortable in nature.  It made me smile as I slaved away at weeding and mowing the lawn.  Speaking of the lawn...I think I need to go mow it again.

Hope you have a garden you can learn from and build memories in.

Nearing Harvest: Garden Update

We placed this bird box early in the spring and this wood pecker keeps knocking on the door but no one is home yet.

It has been awhile since I updated you on the progress of our garden, to be honest, it's been awhile since I've posted anything at all.  I have lots to write about but I need to find the time to put it all on paper, or I guess more appropriately, on the laptop.  Our garden has suffered as well from a lack of attention due to the busy schedule but despite some weeds, the carrots, beans, and peas are all coming along nicely.  In fact we have been eating some peas already and if the kids keep it up, we may not get any peas to the table.  Whether they get to the table or not, the kids have seen that cycle of how things grow, and that was one of the key reasons for starting a garden.  Yesterday evening as I was cleaning off a slip and slide the kids each raided the peas and my son proudly showed off how big the peas in his pod were.  There are also beans hanging now but they will take a few more days before they are ready for harvest and the carrots are in a similar situation.  I actually need to thin the carrots out some to foster larger growth from them.  Surprisingly we haven't had to many wildlife grazers and I thank the dog for that.

So here is what the garden is looking like.  Small but growing and with our success so far, next year maybe bigger.

Garden Update

It was a month ago that we planted our garden.  At the time I was worried that it might be a bit early to put it in but so far it seems to be doing fine.  I have had to place blankets out on three nights to protect the new growth from frost.  This evening I took a walk around our house and snapped some photos of what we have blooming and growing at this point.  We have been busy weeding and we use the garden to dig worms in for our fishing trips and most of all the kids have been learning a bit about where food comes from.  Our vegetable garden is a new venture but we have a few flower beds that we have been working and learning about since we bought our house in 2009.  I hope you enjoy the photos below.  They were taken on June 4th and will serve to remind us later when certain plants bloom.  We have taken other photos as well of others but they occurred inside the month of the vegetable garden being planted.

This iris sits along the southeast side of our house and smells great when we leave the house in the morning.

This flower beds is along the front of our house and the onion is now in bloom.

I'm actually not sure what flower this is and I'm hoping someone can tell me :)

Again not sure what these blurry bells are?  I said in the entry above, I'm learning.

These are our peas one month after we planted them

Our beans are approaching 6" in height and look healthy despite the frosty nights.

Our carrots are almost ready for a thinning.

Our lilacs are in full bloom and have attracted lots of bees.

Like the lilacs our snowball tree is crowding our drive way but doing great at masking the gas smells coming from the car.

Improving My Green Thumb and My Youth

This daffodil bloomed in our front yard April 24th.

I love getting my hands dirty, literally, dirty.  The smell of ground in topsoil and mud on my hands sends my olfactory senses into overdrive.  My memory bank kicks into gear and sends me back to when I was a kid.  My friends and I would dig holes into a exposed hillside and stick our action figures in, then we'd retreat to the bottom and toss bombs (rocks) at one another's man to see who could knock whose out first.  We'd entertain ourselves for hours doing this.  We'd be covered from head to toe in dirt and dust and we'd be hungry and thirsty.  From the eroding bank we'd sneak up to the garden and get ourselves some peas and carrots to snack on and we'd wash them in the hose.  When I get my hands dirty I go back to being a kid.

Whenever we get the chance my wife and I try to make sure our kid's hands are dirty.  Recently we just planted our first vegetable garden and they worked hard helping us prepare the ground and to plant the seeds.  I honestly thought "It'll be tough keeping them focused long enough."  It turned out I was wrong and as long as they kept finding worms to rescue, they kept right on digging and planting.

Our garden is not huge but it has 2 rows of peas, 2 rows of beans, and 2 rows of carrots.  Each row is about 8' long and spaced about 30" apart, which is what the instructions on the seed pouch indicated was appropriate.  The last time I worked in a garden I was just a kid and didn't really pay attention to the details.  There was slightly more to it than simply plugging the seeds in the ground.  I created a spacing and depth stick for each of the kids and they used the stick to create a "planting pocket" for each seed that was the right depth and space from the previous seed.  Each seed has different spacing and depth requirements.

The peas, it was suggested be planted 2" deep and 10" apart, while the beans should be the same depth but could handle being only 6" apart.  The easiest was the carrots as we could simply sow them in a straight row with no detail for spacing, however, my son my have gone a bit overboard in one area.  The local rabbits might love us later on this summer.

We've already been out a number of times as a group to weed and water our little patch of groceries and I'm sure by mid summer it will be something the kids will want to do as by then a water fight will be more appealing.  The weeding is likely to be a bit of a fight but my wife enjoys that aspect and getting her hands dirty that way so as a team, we have things pretty well covered.  Our seeds were sowed on May 5^th and by May 15^th we now have peas, beans, and carrots starting to sprout in our garden.  I can't wait to see how it all turns out and to eat some vegetables that we all grew together.

If we have a modest crop this year I'm already making plans to expand and grow a couple more things next year.  I may be getting ahead of myself as I'm not known to be a green thumb, so I will keep my dirty fingers crossed in hopes that we can keep the dog and other animals out of our garden.  With our dirty hands I think we are all living a bit more like a kid and feeling more youthful so I can see why gardening is considered by many to be therapeutic.

If you have time you should check out the garden at Sussex Regional High School or the Co-op Community Garden.  No doubt they'll bring back your youth.

The Start of our Garden

The kids were a great help spacing and sowing the seeds.

It's May 4th and we have our garden planted.  We have our fingers crossed that we aren't too early and that the frost is done for now.  When I looked at the calendar, I thought this might be the best weekend to get it done, so we did it.  Since this is our first garden we have kept it small and basic.  We've planted carrots, peas, and beans.

The kids were a great help today and hopefully learned a little bit about work ethic and getting your hands dirty.  It was a beautiful day with the temperature on the back deck getting over 30*C.  Mind you that is in direct sunlight.  The dog lazed around and barked occasionally when someone strolled by the house.  There  were no flies so it was a great day.  Now though the hard part, keeping up with the weeds and watering.  We are also hoping to teach our oldest child about keeping a journal.  I will help him keep a garden log through power point...I hope.  We'll keep you posted.

Blessed Evening

Monday was the first day of fishing season here in this part of NB and my son caught a trout and couldn't wait to eat it.  Last night I was busy with a meeting so I couldn't cook it but tonight I was home for the night.  With it being so nice out, I decided, since my wife also despises the smell of cooked trout, to barbeque.  I prepared my secret flour batter and placed 4 modest size trout (three frozen from the end of last season) on some tinfoil.  I added some butter to brown them up some and placed them on my barbeque.

Once the trout were on the heat I took the time to hoe my garden into some rows for the planting season.  We have some peas and beans already started and we may have been to eager.  The plants are getting root tied in the small space we have them in and its looking like at least another week before I can move them to the garden.  Temperatures on Sunday and Monday are supposed to drop to -6*C.  Despite that this evening the temperature was great for some light yard work and a barbeque.

Typically, Seth is a picky eater, one thing he does love though is trout.  He gobbled three and left me with one, which meant I got warmed up chicken strips.  The chicken was good as Shaylee, my daughter, would attest too.  They paled in comparison to the trout in my opinion but Shaylee would likely disagree there.  When I think of how peaceful and enjoyable my evening has been, and the kids aren't in bed yet, I can't help but feel a bit of guilt as I continue to hear about the bombing in Boston, MA.  I thank God for the way he has blessed me and my family and ask he watches over those struggling elsewhere tonight and maybe feed them some fish.

Yard Work as Sport

This is a version of the column I had published a few weeks ago in the Kings County Record.  I have been working hard lately trying to get my yard looking good.  Its almost complete and hopefully I'll have some pictures to post.  Enjoy.

 

It was with mixed emotions that I watched the sun come out this afternoon.  After a long rainy spell I was spiritually lifted to see the sun.  I then looked out at my lawn and realized that with the sun came the need to mow the grass 2 times a week.  In no time though I was whistling a tune as I pulled the mower out and made the first fresh cuts across the lawn.  I was dreaming of long hikes, campouts, casting a fly line, ball games, and lots more.

After the lawn I had to weed the flower beds out front.  I thought "I'll never get fishing at this rate."  As I weeded my mind started wandering and I was comparing gardening and yard work to other sports that I participated in.  Fishing is considered a sport but really I find gardening much more physical than fishing, and I find it harder to grow a good lawn than to catch a brook trout.  I don't dispute that stock car racing is a sport with it's continual left hand turn but I can easily compare that to mowing the lawn.

My mind stopped wandering and I came back to reality as I finished weeding the flower bed.  I went to the shed thinking once again of my fishing rod but instead grabbed the chainsaw so I could limb the apple tree and cut up a fallen limb from the ash tree in the backyard.  Timber sports are under appreciated, especially if your saw isn't working right.  I pulled on that starter for 28minutes before I finally got it to turn over for the first time this season.  I'm afraid I wouldn't make much of a lumberjack.  I used a step ladder to get up the apple tree just to prove the point further.

"Now" I thought, "I can finally go fishing."  I looked up though and realized the sun was setting so the fish would have to wait another day.  I headed back to the front of the house and worked until dark doing some more weeding.  When I finally called it quits and headed inside I was tired and sore.  That likely has to do more with my poor physical conditioning lately than yard work being physically strenuous.  Either way yard work is a great way to get outside and burn off some calories and we could all stand to do that regularly and why not get some work done while we do it.  Next time I'll try to enjoy the yard work a little more.

Coming up on June 4 is National Trails Day.  I encourage you to get out and hike, bike, or paddle your favorite trail.  While you're there why not do some yard work and leave the trail better than you found it.  If you wish to do more good for the environment, keep an eye out for the Kennebecasis Watershed Restoration Committee's "Water and Willows Day" coming up the following weekend.  This is a great chance to field work, which is the Olympics of yard work.