Gurosiks Berry Plantation

 Because my strawberry plants have been disappointing and pillaged by the birds that live behind our home, I decided to go berry picking with some friends at church at Gurosiks. For those of you in the area that would like to go here is their website http://www.gurosiksberryplantation.com/ .  It was so much fun, and the strawberries were huge! It cost $9.25 per bucket (if you brought your own (previously purchased from Gurosiks) and $0.25 more if you needed to buy buckets. The buckets give you plenty of strawberries.

Yum! The strawberries were a bit watery this year, maybe due to the rainy winter season we had, but still delicious!

After picking berries we went to check out the gardens. Look at this beautiful rose!

I won a free bucket of strawberries in a drawing. So I have lots of berries. We made homemade strawberry ice-cream and have been enjoying them for breakfasts and desserts. I think I am gonna try to make fruit role ups with some of them in the oven. It should be interesting to see if it works.

Next berry season is blackberries. Yum can't wait to go and pick those!

How does your Garden Grow?

My name isn't Mary, and I hope I am not contrary, but my garden does grow. Here are a few updated pictures from the past few weeks. We are loving our little garden experiment. Also for family home evening this week we celebrated Earth day by planting some flowers in the front yard. I am really upset that the original pictures I had planned for the post were lost, thanks to a damaged sd card. But here are the replacements. Not as good as the first, but good enough for y'all to get the idea.

The back zucchini plants are growing down the back of the bale.

Tiny baby zucchini and it's huge flower. My finger to give a scale idea.

My tomato plants and sugar snap peas (finished harvesting those already). Back two by the fence are heirloom tomatoes and front two are grape tomatoes. I don't  have any of the heirloom tomatoes yet. There are carrots growing underneath, but you can't see them in the picture.

Baby grape seed tomatoes.

Cantaloupe and strawberries. My strawberries have been essentially bird food this year. I have 16 cantaloupe plants. CRAZY! I didn't think they'd all grow. I hope my friends and family like cantaloupe.

My broccoli plants and more sugar snap peas. The broccoli doesn't get huge like in the store, but is enough for a small salad or a snack.

This one is almost ready to pick, if I let it get much larger it will bloom flowers and then is no good.

Month of the Military Child

April is Month of the Military Child for those of not in the know. My kids get really excited about April because of this. The military is so awesome and provides a hoard of fun and free activities for all military children to participate. There are carnivals, free food, free fun and games, lots of Easter egg hunts (when Easter is in April), and other various events all through the month, and all over the base. Beth's CYSS (Child and Youth School Services) Pre-K class were asked to say the pledge of allegiance at the carnival celebrating the military child. Unfortunately it was rained out. Beth was SO heartbroken, that the only thing that would sooth her sorrow was me offering to record her pledge and post it on the blog for everyone to see. So without further ado......enjoy!



That is her brother Josh and her Daddy trying to help her out...you can see she wants to do it all on her own.

Straw Bale Gardening

A few of my friends have turned me onto the idea of raised bed container gardens. This is unusual because as you may have guessed from the title, the containers are wheat straw bales. There are many websites if you do a Google search that will explain what all is involved. I am really excited by how it is working out. Below are some pictures and captions for what you are looking at.

We have 10 straw bales. I set 2 together for each "bed." The bales have to "cook" for two weeks. To cook them they need to be soaked and exposed to sunlight.

While the bales cook, I planted my seeds in containers and bought plants to transplant once the bales were all ready.

Once the bales were done, I loosened the straw on top with a gardening fork/claw then added a mixture of potting soil and top soil. Here are my zucchini.

This bale has garlic and green onions. My green onion container seedlings didn't sprout and I spilled the green onions (on accident/purpose) all over the top of the bale. Problem is, I don't know which is grass (the bales grow grass all over them) and which one is green onions.

Here we have broccoli, a lot of it, and peas. The "trees" growing out form the bale are there for the peas to climb up.

I've never seen broccoli growing before. It grows out of the top of the plant. It is really interesting.

I am growing two types of tomatoes. The top is an heirloom tomato and the bottom is grape tomatoes. I have two of each plant.

Strawberries to the right and cantaloupe to the left and up close below.

Peas! I have babies all over again with the new tender veggies and fruit blooming. I am "nerdily" excited about seeing my garden grow.

After having the feeder up for two weeks, I finally have hummingbirds. They are Ruby-Throated hummingbirds and highly territorial of the feeder.

Here are some of the regular birds at the feeder. They are House Finches and are a red/scarlet color. They can be many colors, but mine are red.

Tomatoes and Peas. The "trees" are for the plants to vine along. There are carrot seeds underneath the tomato plants, a trick my brother suggested, but neither he nor I know if a root veggie will do good in the bales.

Everyday I go out in the morning and water my babies. I pull out the mushrooms that pop in overnight (a sign of a fertile bed so I've read and hope) and weed as necessary. The straw grass can be annoying to weed, but it must be done (with the exception of my onion bed). I make note of anything new and can't wait to tell Jay when he gets home. The watering has caused the back half of the yard to sprout up weeds, and we need to borrow my Dad's weed eater to take care of them. Today I also thinned out the cantaloupe seedlings so they aren't crowded. I can't wait to see how this experiments bares fruit as spring and summer pass on.

Hard Times?

So it seems like a really scary time right now for those of us employed by the Federal Government. Jay and I are worried about our money since using our savings this summer and to cure our dog Echo. We were gonna have to find a way to pay for a surgery for Josh, but we are trying to find a different oral surgeon who will take Tricare as well as the United Concordia. However with the government in looking like they may not be able to pay us, this may be a mute point.

I do have one question for the government. Is it a good idea to not pay people you expect to fight and work for you? Especially ones trained to kill with access to lots of weaponry? Just wondering. Revolution is a popular thing nowadays.

So what are we gonna do to make ends meet? Well there are steps and we will have to make some adjustments hopefully not as extreme as back to basics. We do have some food storage and hopefully this won't be necessary. I may head out to get a job as much as I hate having to be away from the kids, it may be a necessity. I will ask that you all pray for those of us who face this trial and we will be praying for you as well.

In the mean time I will take comfort in songs that let me know it will all be okay and hope like crazy that we will manage it all somehow.

Bring on the Rain - Jo Dee Messina - Jo Dee Messina Videos