Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has been a very long and busy one.  Alice has had lots and lots of fun, and has learned the wonderful world party.  Monday was Memorial Day and was the third barb-queue we had that weekend.  We had it at our house.  We had hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, pie, ice cream, brownies, and fruit salad.  Alice was in heaven, also because she got to hang out with her friends.  The weather was not that great. it rained much of the day, and was cold.  We were able to cook the food on the grill, but we all stayed inside while we played games and talked.

 

Wednesday we went to the zoo in St. Louis, A friend of mine from high school was moving to West Virginia and we met up to go to the zoo while they were staying with relatives near by.  We all had a very good time, but it made for a very long day. Friday night my friend and his family stayed with us, so did one of Susan's friends from College. We had 9 people in our little house.  It was great to see them all again.  Susan and her friend went to a dance Saturday night.  It was actually a ball.  I didn't go so I will let Susan explain about it all on the blog.

 

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[flv]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2009/PettingPigs.flv[/flv]

On a side note Alice has been on something the entire time.  She has been very very talkative, and when getting ready for the parties and jut before them she would dance and sing and run all over the place.  If you have ever met Alice she is usually a very quite child, especially around strangers, but this week she has just been crazy/silly.

[flv]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2009/SingingSongs.flv[/flv]

 

[flv]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2009/CrazyAlice.flv[/flv]

 

[flv]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2009/CrazyAlice2.flv[/flv]

 

A quick note on the videos.  Some times at least with our computer they did not play properly at the beginning, just audio.  If I clicked on the progress bar to rewind the video then it started working just fine.

Alive!

They did it! The red wigglers actually survived my steaming compost 'welcome' and found a veritable worm feast awaiting them. They are fat and healthy and having a delightful time in the rainy morning cool (whew!)

Bobby's Sunday Summary (on Monday, a.k.a a crazy weekend)

This week was the first week that has been warm enough for swimming in the back yard.  Susan got the pool out this week for Alice.  She can probably tell the story better then I can.  She told me that at first Alice treated it like a bath, and would pick out all of the grass that she tracked in, and follow all of the bath rules, like no jumping.  After a little while she soon learned it was not a bath tub, but a pool and started having a lot more fun.  Sadly the pool has some cracks in it.  I guess that is what happens when the pool sits outside exposed to the elements all winter.  It is still fun, it just leaks a little unless you position it just right.

This week end has been very busy.  We have had two BBQs so far and there is one more on the way.  It has been a lot of fun, but somewhat exhausting.  I don't think I am going to want to eat another hamburger for a while after this.

CSA Share---May 20th

Another wet spring means late planting for this CSA. They apologized for the slim share this week, but rejoiced that the greenhouses were not flooded by all that rain recently.

• 6 eggs


• large sack baby salad mix and Asian greens (mixed)


• 50 worms

Yup, you read it right. Worms! Small red crawlers, to be exact. The kind you can use to compost kitchen scraps in record time. This CSA is so cool! I already have 2 compost bins sitting unused in the backyard and a 55-gallon rotating compost bin that gets occasional use so I figure "Why not try worm composting (i.e. vermicomposting) as well?" ;) And this is what happens...

I am far too lazy to assemble yet another special compost bin for the worms, so I decide that the 55-gallon rotating bin will have to do. First, I move the bin to the east side of the house where it won't get as much sun. I still have some of last year's compost in there, so it isn't an easy move :( Second, I dump in a tub of recent kitchen scraps and two tubs of water before dropping in the worms and closing it up. Finally, I mix, mix, mix, open the lid, and VIOLA! I see steam. STEAM?!

Oh no.

Our recent warm weather coupled with the bin's near-constant placement in the sun has led to a significant amount of heat being stored in that old compost. Even at 9 AM, the soil is hot enough to create steam. Good for killing weed seeds, but not so good for 50 small red crawlers. Erk.

Sunburned

I am currently sporting my first official sunburn of the year. It's not something I'm super proud of, but I'm quite pleased with the activities that led to such pain. Sunny outdoor work and play! Especially today's work and play. A friend of mine took me out to her parents' farm in Piatt County where they have grown almost 100% of their vegetable needs for the last few years. I'd like to have a larger, diversified "farmette" of my own someday, so I begged them last year to let me help them this year. Today was my orientation! What a treat!

Alice was leery of their enthusiastic golden retriever appropriately named "Moose", and uncomfortable in the constant wind (the prairie is windy almost ALL the time), but otherwise cooperative. We picked radishes, deer tongue lettuce (a variety of Bibb, I believe), and spinach. I picked up a few neat ideas for hoop houses and improving early crop vigor, and shared a couple thoughts on my experience with asparagus. I'm soooooo excited to be a part of this! Yipee!

Now if I could get a working camera back into my life, I'd post picts!