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Friday, April 27, 2018

Almost 6.


Ohhhh my lanta, we are exactly 2 weeks away from Timothy turning 6. I don't know how in the hell this is happening. Do birthdays really have to come every year?

You know what he told me? He told me he would still snug me when he's 6. And maybe even when he's 7. But definitely not when he turns 8.

So, by his calculations, I've got 2 more years of snuggle time....and then I'm cut off. I think I might cry buckets of tears.


Here's a sneak peak of his birthday photo shoot I did this past Wednesday! I'm thankful my children put up with my photo taking and cooperate during their photo shoots. They don't know it, but it's my way of coping with them growing up. It helps me deal with the age transition. 


Slow down, little one. There is no rush to grow up. 

With love,
Mama Hauck


Monday, April 23, 2018

Garden Time!

When the grass starts to perk up, the tress start to bloom, and flowers start to emerge.....


....it's time to garden!! 

We have all been waiting very patiently to get the garden up and running! We started a few weeks back with cleaning out the garden beds, adding chicken poop and fertilizer, and getting them all tilled up. 



The strawberry bed was just a mess, really bogged down with dead leaves and old runners. It took my mom and I (when she was here) a few hours to get the job done. Now it looks beautiful and the plants are really starting to perk up and take off! 


I was a bit worried about my raspberries. Nothing was happening for the longest time! I eventually started to see little buds forming on about 80% of what we had in the bed. I'm sad I seemed to have lost a few plants, but I do see new ones starting, so that makes me hopeful. It took me a good 30 minutes to clean the bed and cut out all the dead! 


We were gifted some cabbage starts from a friend, so into the ground they go! Molly also has her own little cabbage start from her teacher. She was so excited to plant it! When Anthony was in 3rd grade, his grew amazing! Molly is hopeful her's will do the same. We love doing cabbage every year. 


We were also gifted broccoli starts! We've never done broccoli before, so I'm excited to see how they turn out. Since planting, we've actually lost 3 out of the 9 plants, darn it. I think something got in the garden because those 3 were chewed right down to the stem. Seems to me like I already have to fill up the horse trough to catch and drown some squirrels, haha! The remaining 6 are doing well though, and we've taken measures to block the 1 crack we have in the fence by the swinging gate entrance. 


Also new this year, cucumbers! If all goes well and they grow, lol, we plan to pickle them for the kids, since they enjoy pickles. That'll be fun! I have all my garden signs freshened up and resealed for the garden, but I do still have to paint a cucumber one....so for now, it's the only bed without a cute sign! 


Carrots are a must for the garden. The kids love to come pull one for a snack, and I love to make carrot cake! The first year we did carrots, we had a great season. Last year, however, it was a bit light. With the addition of some chicken poop and a good tilling, we're hoping to have another good season. Also, Sammy built me a water spigot in the garden with one of those fancy curly hoses! I'm super excited about having a water turn on right in the garden and a hose that wont kink up and be difficult to use! Yay! 

 
Our third new veggie this year, snap peas! We enjoyed the green beans we grew in this bed last year, but I am looking forward to wandering down to the garden and picking off some snap peas to eat as a snack right then and there!


I'm really looking forward to watching the garden grow. I love going out there once I've got the kiddos off to school and it's quite and still cool outside and spending time watering and checking the beds over.  

And we have a new sitting area down by the garden too! My dad (hi dad!) bought us the table and chairs at a yard sale for our anniversary, and we got the pretty floral blue cushions to go with them. Ekk!


Don't forget the pumpkins! We raked the area, tilled everything up, formed 4 new raised squares, then each of the kiddos took a turn planting seeds! The pumpkin patch was such a hit last year, though they could have used a bit more growing time. Learning from our mistake, we planted earlier this year. Exciting!


I'm hoping our green thumbs pay off again this year with another wonderful harvest! 

With love,
Mama Hauck