EKjourney Backup

The summer like weather has made weeds on steroids!  They are giant, blowing seeds everywhere, and the roots are deep and gripping into the soil.  It can be a bit of an overwhelming task to clean up so many garden beds but we are making headway. Lots of weeds!  Shaping the bed and adding new vegetable growing space.   Ivy and blackberries mixed in with weeds.  These retaining wall beds need a lot of work. We need to retain against the neighbor's yard with a higher concrete block wall to keep the ivy and weeds back and prevent the dirt from sliding down.  Instead of bird netting (to keep the deer out) we would like to line our fence line with cattle panels and then grow vines on them (I am thinking climbing roses, an evergreen clematis, fuzzy kiwis, and grapes). The hillside mess.  We haven't quite figured out what to do with this space.  It is too steep for terraces and really even for plants to take root (except weeds!).  I would l...

A little girl asked me if we could go to the zoo.  After breakfast, B's speech appointment, a few phone calls, animal chores, lunch making, diaper bag packing and whatever else we crammed into the 3 hours it took to get ready, we headed out for a spontaneous zoo adventure. As I feared, all zoo parking lots were closed and we were lucky to find parking way up a switchback road on the side of the road.  (Thank goodness Sawyer was there to help me push the stroller back up.)  It was quite a steep trek but the zoo didn't seem overcrowded and it was such a warm sunny day that we thoroughly enjoyed our outing. Polar bear resting in the shade  We didn't get to see the baby elephant only this big one pacing about clearly locked out of the indoor pen. We did get to see the baby otter swimming with its mother, though. "yi-on, raaaarw"      Hippos  B was no where near the crocodile.  He is not a fan of crocks or bats. The new flaming...

Gardening Planting  More planting  Watching the seeds come up  Watching chicks turn into chickens  Apple Blossoms  Digging for worms Finding worms Evening in the garden  Playing  Playing  Playing  Waking up in the night and sleeping on the couch  Delicious sandwiches - cheese, avocado, homemade bread and butter pickles Watching the sky snow cherry blossoms in the breeze  Eating outside  Devastating news...nap time  Hot dogs 

My parents bought the children bicycles.  They were so excited they wore their helmuts to breakfast.  Cuteness  My littlest with their feet hanging out from under the curtain.  Isn't fun when everything is a fort!  Getting ready for more biking.   B needs a better helmut. 

It poured down rain, impressive enough for me to stop what I was doing and gaze out the window and up through the skylight, and then the sky brightened up.  I love showers then blue! While I am not a fan of digging out dandelions, the bright yellow and green that is currently decorating much of the yard is lovely. Glorielle in on an elimination diet...eliminating allergy known foods to try and clear up her rash.  We went off wheat/gluten and that didn't help.  We went off stevia since the rash appeared closely to the time I started replacing sugar with stevia in my baking and that didn't help.  She is now corn, all dairy except for yogurt and kefir, and eggs in addition to gluten and stevia free.  The corn isn't a big deal, we only occasionally eat chips and popcorn.  Dairy isn't too bad since I can leave off Parmesan and grated cheese for her and I do anyway for Sawyer since he has never really cared for dairy.  Gluten isn't too difficu...