The garden for 2018 marks a considerably larger undertaking than gardens in the past. We have added an addition 21′ x 12′ bed and we are going for the gold on growing vegetables this year.
The list of what we are growing:
Tomatoes, Bell Pepper, Potatoes, Corn, Carrots, Green Beans, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Radishes, Cucumbers, Onions, Zucchini, Pumpkins, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Lettuce, Rhubarb
It was Little League day at Safeco field on Sunday for the Mariners vs. Tigers game. Cora and Harlan were pretty excited and they got into their uniform and we were off to the stadium.
When we got to the field, we got the chance to walk on the field as part of the Little League parade, which was a lot of fun.
The day was a lot of fun. We all shared a bunch of grasshoppers (yes the bugs) and the Mariners walked it off in the 11th.
Cora, today had its ups and downs. But it ended on a real high note. You suggested we just ‘put a dinner together’ and proceeded to the cabinet and grabbed Goldfish crackers and nuts. I exclaimed, ‘No no no, you’ve had absolutely enough carbs and junk today, you need vegetables!’.
Mind you I had no idea what we would eat that would make everyone happy that would get enough veggies in. Lucky for all of us, Cora had just harvested some kale and chard, and I some tomatoes (and both kids had gotten the pumpkins!). Cora saw that and immediately thought to make a salad. She grabbed the santoku knife, and started in on the kale and tomatoes (she scared me with the tomatoes but did em safely anyway).
She asked about other veggies we might have (remembering what we had eaten the day before) and I rummaged in the fridge, pulling out cabbage and celery. That girl proceeded to whip up a mean salad that EVERYONE in the family enjoyed.
Here are the fall crops we recently harvested.
Fall 2017 Late Harvest
It doesn’t snow very often in Seattle, so it is kind of a special event when it happens. While an hour almost in any direction will take to you to snow in western Washington, there is something special about snow in my yard.
We have had some hardware issues with the machine running the blog. I have swapped out bad hardware and have restored the blog back to the latest version. Enjoy!
Uluru (aka Ayer’s Rock)
We got our Austrailian adventure kick started with a trip to the Red Centre. This is a vast arrid landscape with two land formations that are stark in contrast to the surrounding area. The first is Kata Tjuta and the other is Uluru, also known as Ayer’s Rock. Both sites are very spiritual to the native Australian people. Uluru had a significant meaning for me, and the only reason I knew about it, was because it was described in a book I read when I was twelve (Atlas of Mysterious Places). The area around Uluru was covered with a red sand, the same color as the rock itself, for which the region has it’s name.
The science lesson on Uluru:
The 300 million-year-old rock is comprised of sand, feldspar (various crystalline minerals) and rock, and originally hailed from a sea floor. A large chunk is above ground today (348m), and the flat top and grooved sides are a result of weathering.
We took a short hike with the kids at the base of the rock. It was a pretty spectacular experience, despite the 100 degree Fahrenheit temperature (yes it was pretty warm, after all it is summer down here) and the flies that surrounded our faces almost the entire time. With the kids, we got a good dose of how disconcerted they were with the flies, and they pretty much wanted to go back to the hotel after the first 100 ft., but like the troopers they are they made the entire hike.
Also, as part of Uluru expereince, we made it out to the eastward lookout to watch the sunset. It was breath taking.
The trip to Uluru was the type of expereince that makes trips like this worth its weight in gold. We, as a family, are able to experience not only things we don’t see every day, but some of the absolute wonders that exist in the world, and how grateful we are to expereince them
It was passport picture time for Harlan and an amazing thing happened. He took a pretty phenomenal picture. So phenomenal that AJ talked about getting him setup to be a child model (all in jest mind you). But judge for yourself, definitely one of the best passport photos I have ever seen.
Kneel before Harlan’s Blue Lightning Zoolander!
Growing up, it was a family tradition to make and decorate sugar cookies. It was a tradition that to this day is a wonderful Christmas memory from when I was a kid. I can’t hear the Bing Crosby or Wayne Newton Christmas albums without remembering the sugar cookies.
As a dad, this was a tradition I definitely wanted to continue, and this year Cora is old enough to really help. She was in charge of sprinkles and added her own panache to the cookies.
The first step is to break out the cookie cutters and start making some cookies.
The next step is to decorate the cookies with homemade buttercream frosting and sprinkles. Cora has turned out to be a prolific user of sprinkles. To the point that I referred to her as “Sprinkles”. She promptly said “I’m not Sprinkles, I’m Cora!”
The fruits of our labors! AJ also helped with the more artistic cookies, but all of the color is Cora’s.
It was a great time, and a fantastic continuation of a family tradition that I have had for as long as I can remember.
This was a piece of art that Cora came home from school with. This was an amazing picture that she came up with all by herself. In Cora’s words….
“This is my family, Mama is in the middle, then (top to bottom on the left) Daddy, my brother (I made him a little small because he is so small), then me, and alien on the bottom. (Top-right) Those are jack-o-lanterns and the sun (top-left corner).”
Some of the art is a reflection of Creative Galaxy, which is a show that she has been watching. On Harlan and Cora, in the picture, you can see elements of pointillism which was from one of her favorite episodes.
Cora has definitely loved to draw and it is great to see her really starting to express it.
It definitely took longer than expected (2 years), but the table is finished. It originally started as a train table for the kids, but it turned out to be a really nice piece of furniture, and is contending for the nicest in the house. I think the table will be a general purpose table that the kids can play on as they see fit and there will not be any restrictions on what they want to do on it (That is why there is a pretty thick layer of polyurethane all over the table). It looks great and I hope the kids use it as a nice play surface for legos, trains, coloring, painting, or whatever their imaginations can think of.
Here was the original Sketchup drawing of the table two years ago. It turned out to be pretty close.
