Finally Spring!

Spring has finally arrived here! Well I guess I could say maybe summer is here. It got to 80F today! Just last week it was snowing. Gotta love Minnesota weather, that's for sure.

So I have been trying like crazy to get my new garden dug up and all set up, but my back has decided it want's to be a pain, literally. The last time it was this bad, I was for the most part bed bound for over two years. I am really praying that this is just a minor bump in the road, because I have a TON of stuff I need to do.

With this awesome weather, the boys and I have gotten our first sunburns of the year. The boys got it worse than me, but they have been outside more too.

I finally managed to get the old garden cleaned up and seeded with grass seed. Got most of the new garden fenced in. Got the dogs area raked and now wondering what to do with it. Did some repairs on the car with my step-son's assistance. So many things to do!

Well I just wanted to give yous an idea of whats been going on around here. Busy, busy, crazy as usual.  

Filled to the Brim

Wow! Let me say that again...Wow! This month has been just crazy here at the house. We have our granddaughter and her mommy visiting us for 20 days. It's been so much fun to snuggle and spoil that little girl. The family is trying its hardest to convince mom to move here, and I guess we will see in time if she likes us all enough. 

We are still in a holding pattern for the kiddies that we are trying to adopt. Waiting for the slow hands of government to move along, but that's ok because it is giving us time to get little odds and ends all ready for them. I managed to get them registered in the same school, and totally bi-passed the waiting list. Now that will be so nice having all six kids in the same school. 

Today we were adopted by another pet. It seems a Pekin duck wandered into our yard and decided it was a good place to call home. So I am scrambling to figure out just what a duck might need to make it a happy duck. So very out of my realm, I know nothing about ducks other than they quack. Yeppers, they quack. I just read how to figure out the sex, so tomorrow when it's light out I shall check out those tail feathers. Knowing me I will probably sex it wrong, cuz that's just my way. I guess I will be hunting around to find some free stuff to make a shelter for it. 

We spent a good chunk of the day trying to get the duck into my fenced in garden where it would be safer, but every time we got it close, it took off the other way. So we just left it alone, and when I got home from the store, I spotted it in the garden. Guess it's not so stupid, just stubborn. Now I hope it doesn't eat my garden all up. Well at least the watermelon, it can eat the rest of the garden if it wants to. Ya'll know what's going to happen now don't you? The little bugger is gonna just eat the watermelon and leave everything else.

A couple of funny things about the duck...One, it likes Princess. A lot. She was walking back to the house and it followed her. Three times this happened. Two, it seems to like Babygirl. Every time I have put BG out it has slowly waddled up the yard. It managed to get about 5 ft. away from BG, and then it saw me come out the door. Kinda a good thing, because BG was just lying there waiting for it to get close enough to get. She didn't budge an inch, during the whole time. I think BG likes the duck too...just on a different level. One I don't plan on seeing.

So things have been a bit crazy here. Gearing up for school which starts in a week...YEAH (big time happy dance from me)! Being claimed by a duck, and visiting peoples. Never a dull moment here, no sir, no ma'am. 

               Ducky

Forget the Laughing Garden

Ok so enough with the serious stuff already. I spend about 90% of my time being serious and depressing, this blog is supposed to be a way for my humor, to come out as I struggle to deal with my Crazy life. At least I think there's some humor in me somewhere. And on that note...

I really hate my forgetfulness, it makes life so complicated and chaotic. I listen to the boys babbling on to each other when they aren't trying to kill the other (when they are trying to kill each other, I don't listen), and the things that come out of their mouths just makes me chuckle. I would love to share some of the things, but alas my forgetfulness strikes. I am seriously thinking I should invest in a recorder so that I might share the cuteness with others.

In fact last night while driving home from picking Princess up from night school, the boys were have great conversations. I mentioned the recorder thing to Princess between chuckles and she got out her phone and tried to record them. It didn't really work, but thanks bugs for trying. Yes I call my daughter bugs, and it isn't because she likes bugs either. She's just my luv bugs. He he, I got to embarrass her!

Jokester and Superman have a typical brother relationship I guess. I personally think they do way more fighting than the average brothers, but then again I don't have to sit and listen to other brothers all the time. During the rare times where they are not trying to kill each other, these two get along fabulously and peels of laughter abound. Jokester, being true to his nickname loves to make Superman laugh, and he will stop at nothing to make this happen. Superman thinks he is hilarious. You know those videos of the babies laughing hysterically? Superman laughs just like that. His laughter is contagious. It makes you stop whatever you are doing to listen, and then wonder what they are doing or getting into.

On a different topic...the weather here in Minnesota is deifying all weather norms. We have virtually no snow, although we are supposed to get a light dusting today and tonight. Yesterday the temps were 52 degrees, which I think is much better than -20 below. I do understand the need for snow here, since we don't get rain...well usually don't get rain as I speak it is misting out, our spring will be very dry. Not a good thing for the farmers if we don't get some form of precipitation here. I decided to go out to the garden and see if my carrots were still going. I just threw some leaves over the tops of them in a half hearted  attempt to see if I could get carrots in the winter. I had read that if you throw about a foot of mulch over them they would keep going. My leaves didn't even come close to being a foot, more like four inches. To my surprise...there are carrots still growing, and to an even greater surprise the onions that I thought had died are growing too.

It's a carrot!

Some of the carrots didn't make it, or rather some of the tops didn't make it. I suppose when I go out this spring to start digging I will find some more. Hopefully they will have become good size by then.

My surprise onions. If you look close there is actually some green in there.

These really took my by surprise since I thought I had killed them this summer. They didn't have the ideal spot to grow and were over shadowed by the cabbage which went crazy. I'm very glad they are coming back since I use onions in just about everything. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

They might be small, but there they are, my carrots!

I had a really hard time getting a picture of these little guys, for some reason the flash on my camera is powerful enough to cause permanent blindness. That is, unless I stand fifty feet away from whatever I'm taking a picture of. I really need a new camera. Carrots...that's what I was talking about. I have never planted carrots before, in fact the only veggie's I have ever grown have been tomatoes for Princess. She loves tomatoes with a passion, and she really had her fill this summer. Jeez back to carrots here. I planted them kind of late and a bit too close and was too lazy to thin them out and didn't really have anywhere for them to go had I actually thinned them so they didn't grow very big. I also apparently have the soil that is the consistency of concrete as you can see from the largest white one that was starting to curve back up. Lessons learn right?

In all my garden was a huge experiment, and one that I really enjoyed doing. Before the earwigs attacked the corn, and the rabbits attacked everything else but the beans, carrots, and tomatoes my garden looked awesome! I found out that I really need to start my seeds much earlier than I did as some things didn't get to fully grow before the frost hit. In fact I should be starting them now I guess. Not sure where I will put all these to be soon to be plants someday, as my house is stuffed to capacity. I suppose I can always use the huge coffee table that is in my upstairs bathroom. Yes I have a coffee table in there, don't ask...please.

I would post a picture of my beautiful garden, but alas I can not find one. I know I took pictures because I was so proud of myself, but they are no where to be found. Which means I must have deleted them. The only picture that remains is of bare ground when I dug up the garden or rather when DH and his oldest dug it up...not very interesting if you ask me. 

Random thought of the day: hell I don't have one right off the top of my head. Minds a little on the blank side today.

On a side note, did you figure out how I got the tile of this post? I forget, the boys laugh, and I grew a garden...pretty good huh? Pa leeez it's called lack of imagination, you should re-read the random thought line again.