*&$%# SNOW!!!!!

Do these peonies look happy to you??? Yeah, they look like how I feel about this snow storm!

My poor, poor garden!

This was before the weighted collapse.

Oscar and Poppy were excited to get the snow gear out again.

For the record today is in fact JUNE10th! My tomatoes that I have painstakingly taken care of since February, are in the ground. The basil was going nicely and it was finally looking like we might actually get summer...
I have had a cold for the last couple of days and in my sickly-sleepy brain I heard Rick tell me to look outside...It's snowing!!!!
I seriously was hoping that I was still in dream world, but alas I placed my spectacles on my face to discover that is was in fact SNOWING!
After trying to find some plastic to rescue the poor plants, I ended up using our bed linens, a kiddie pool, gunnie sacks, and anything I could find to try to protect them. And when they were finally caving in from the weight of the snow, I had to come up with plan B. I began using buckets from the garage (which I should have thought of in the first place!) and removing heavily weighted bed sheets.
I don't know if I was able to save them...I know there are definitely some that I could not save or cover. I just hope that the majority will pull through! I have a feeling that our local nurseries are going to find a bunch of tomato plant customers in the next few days.

Now, I hesitate to even say this out loud for fear of being cursed...but please, please, please, I AM READY FOR SOME WARM WEATHER!!!!!
I want to leave the snow clothing in the cupboard for at least 4-5 more months. I want to place the snow shovel in the very back of the shed and I don't want to see it for a very long time!!! I want to lay by a nice warm pool and watch my kids play in the water. I want to see big healthy tomato plants growing in my garden, I want to ride my bike without getting my feet wet! I want to wear flip flops and shorts without freezing my extremities...is this too much to ask?????

Oodles of catch-up

Wet, rainy ride.

When a group of mom's have their children cared for, and have scheduled a ride, they won't easily be persuaded to forfeit it due to a little(or a lot) of rain. Thus we freeze our appendages, and huddle like bunnies on bikes just to be out and enjoying being alive. We did cut the ride shorter than the planned 42mi. We will settle for 25 (The return half with a headwind and strong rain).

This is the garden progress...ahhh, to see things getting green. I am seriously considering getting a air-soft gun for Ricky's father's day present, to fend off the ravenous bunnies. They are not adhering to the liquid fence rules!!! We are going to have to call in for reinforcements. Our Home teacher said he would shoot them, but he can't in city limits....darn.
Smiley has been fired of bunny duty...he is NOT doing his job!!!
Ahhh...the new chariot. We have seriously been breaking in our new Jogger/ trailer. Kids love it, and the parents like to push/pull it.
Goal for summer: Master pulling the tike's to the top of our hill, without being breathless. Going nicely thus far, but looking forward to the giant Quads I will have at the end of summer.
Oscar's class field trip to the High school's "AG days" Yes, this brought back many FFA memories. A little uncomfortable to remember those awkward days of the past (notice cowboy clad HS student in his "cowboy-up" cool gear and his sweet pair of aviators to round out the outfit, yikes!).
Oscar seemed to love checking out the tractor. Maybe Rick will live vicariously through his son when he decides to become a farmer.
And since we can't be real farmers, we make it a hobby in the back yard. The seven chickens are growing up nicely, however they seem to be racist. The golden ones leave out our black and brown ones. They will pick on them and will keep them from getting food. Luckily the two outsiders are feisty and can hold their own. Oscar is a good caretaker and loves to catch, pet and care for them.
This is also the sad picture of the going away dinner for the Weikins...we will miss their fun family (and delicious bike treats). Otis (on the far right) enjoyed playing with the chickens too...maybe his parents will get some chickens when they get to Vermont???
Frog hunt! Lately we have been frog hunting. Current frogs caught total is 4. No we haven't brought them home, merely catch and release.
Rainy frog hunt. Due to the cold rainy weather we just had to get out of the house. No frogs were found this day...too cold. We were cold too, but happy to be out and about.

Life is full of busy fun times lately and I always think of a million things I want to post. Then it requires me to actually sit down do it...I'll have to work on that. In the meantime, you can rest assured we are in fun spring-time mode and look forward to school ending this week and having the summer (if it ever gets warm around here) to play!

Spring time bliss...

I have neglected documenting the beauty that has suddenly enveloped our yard. In three days over our trip to Seattle my favorite tree in my yard bloomed. We drove into our driveway to the beauty of this pretty dogwood. In mid april it begins to look like it is goign to bloom and yet it keeps holding off until one day it is alive and brilliant in all of it's beauty.
We have spent a great part of our spring re-sculpting our back yard. This is mostly Ricks handiwork. He is the muscle behind the tiller. I merely plant the stuff. I love that is now has morphed into a real garden place. The wooden pathways were the by product of the rotting raised bed.
Most of this brown space you are looking at has since been planted. (To date we currently have planted/growing: tomatoes, peppers, radishes, cucumbers, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, chard, beets, basil, assortment of flowers, artichoke, lettuce, spinach, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries(just planted we will see if they work??) , potatoes, garlic, thyme, oregano, pumpkins, lots of winter and summer squash, and dill. I think that is it for now.)
I will post more pictures soon. I love this time of year when everything is green and things are blooming. Life is just better in the spring!

Charred pita anyone?

(My beautiful batch of perfectly puffed pitas made yesterday)
Today's post was hoping to read "Super-mom makes lots of pitas and cleans house at the SAME time!" Alas, this statement was almost true. That is, until the final two pitas were cooking (they only bake for 4min at 500 degrees) and I simply forgot that I had one last batch of pitas in the oven!
(Look how puffy that black little pita is!)
You see, this Saturday is our ward's Christmas party and I am in charge of the ethnic Middle Eastern food tasting table. As many of you may already know, I definitely have a passion for this sort of food...especially pitas, not the store bought nasty kind, I'm talking the yummy home made variety (not incredibly complicated, but one must keep an eye on the time!) I therefore decided that our ward would have home made pitas to eat the other (I will elaborate more on this tomorrow) yummy stuff on. I have enlisted a few friends to also help cook them, but I have been making a double batch each day to make enough to feed our church's 5,000. Just kidding, it's more like 200-300 and they will be tasting portions.
The up-side to the burned pitas (you know I'm an optimist!) Is that I now have a beautifully clean 1986 oven! You see, we often make yams which when baked, get the bottom of our stove all gooey and yucky. In fact, I was just saying a couple of days ago that I was going to go buy some of that nasty smelling oven cleaner to try to get our oven clean.
After the initial plume of smoke and the opening of all windows, I finally dared open the oven door to find that nearly all of the nastiness had been burned off! Yeah! Our oven doesn't have a self cleaning cycle and yet all it took was burning a couple of pitas! A couple quick swipes with the wash cloth and I now have a sparkley stove.
Other fun notes of interest is that we are still getting fresh tomatoes from out tomatoes vines hanging upside down in our shed! Yes, you may be jealous. They are not as delicious as when they are actually on the vine outside, but they are much tastier than the store bought zero taste variety.
Tonight, to try and get rid of the charred pita smell in the house, I made some yummy summery pizzas to make our house smell a bit better. (My hair still smells like I have been in a chimney, not suite as stinky and mom and Oscar when sitting by the fire pit when it is burning cotton wood, but stinky none the less!)
This my friends is the joys of being a supermom...or maybe not so super!

Pumpkin Harvest...Are those from MY garden???

Here we have our Edgie family pumpkin harvest!
Can you believe these actually all came from my garden? There were even more than pictured, most of them volunteer from our compost pile last year. It was such a fun year of surprises as we waited to see what would actually grow from our volunteer squash plants.
Being one that LOVES surprises, I've decided to throw a few extra squash seeds into the compost pile that I hope will randomly appear somewhere in the garden next year. Just so I can anticipate and wait for the surprise effect!
Here is our budding artist at work...He was the inspiration for our pumpkin menagerie.
Here are the completed "carved" pumpkins...we decided to save the bake-able ones for a yummy pie at a later date. A few will also be going to school with Oscar tomorrow for his class to explore. Word on the streets (aka his teacher) the kids are gong to have to try eating some of the pumpkin innards (raw).
Tonight when I was putting Oscar to bed he asked me (nervously) if he was really going to have to taste them. I told him that yes, he would, and that they would probably taste good...I wouldn't really know I don't believe I've ever tasted the raw pumpkin guts before...Have you?
Happy Fall To the Blog World!

Seasonal Sampler

(Poppy donning her fall fashionable layers...really she asks to wear a jacket ALL of the time...Just like me! She also isn't afraid to wear a mommy shirt as a skirt!)
With 61 degree temperatures (in my house) greeting me each morning, I am reminded if the seasonal change that is taking place around me. Forcing me to adorn myself with multiple layers of clothing in an attempt to conserve my precious warmth!! Blasted cold weather! I know, I know, it is only going to get colder...I need no reminder...It is just that summer went so quickly, and now, I find myself scrambling to soak in the last bit of sunshine and green that I can before the doom and gloom arrives!
On one cloudy morning this week, Oscar exclaimed "mom I wish there was no such thing as clouds!" My response was, "well, if we didn't have clouds we wouldn't have snow to ski on or rain to water our plants." To this Oscar replied, "I wish the stars would rain or snow so it would never be cloudy."
Yes, He must be my sun loving child...
Oscar also began fall soccer, this could be one of the saving graces of fall transition. It is very fun watching our little tike run on the field (mainly in the direction of the wrong goal) full of excitement. He really is liking soccer, even if the logistics of what the game is all about, are still quite unclear!
Ahhh...another good thing of fall...TOMATOES! Yes we are basking in the remaining abundance of tomatoes, that is until the first frost. Above is the latest canning success! The recipe comes from Betina by way of her friend Beth Moxley...

Salsa
makes 10-11 pints

20 C ripe tomatoes, Italian plum type work best, peeled and chopped
3 C chopped onions
2-3 chopped green peppers
3-8 jalapeno peppers, chopped, the number depends on how spicy you like your salsa! (NOTE: wear rubber gloves when handling these peppers, the oil and juice can burn your skin)
1 C vinegar
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C NON-IODIZED SALT
2 t dried chili seed (sometimes it's called crushed (not ground) red pepper)
1 t cayenne (this is the ground red pepper)
2- 12 oz cans tomato paste
parsley and cilantro to taste

Put all together in large kettle. Cook over low heat (simmer) to desired consistency.
Process in water bath canner: 30 minutes pints; 40 minutes quarts
***NOTE: Can just quarter un-peeled tomatoes and pulse a couple times in the food processor. I use 3-4 jalapenos, it's spicy enough for Roy.

(I did not "cook down" the salsa previous to the water bath and it turned out really pretty and not to mushy...I also would decrease the amount of sugar by a little bit and add a few extra jalepenos for the hubby)
Oscar, who doesn't like salsa, tasted some and liked it so it is a yummy kid-friendly version. Rick and I devoured a half-pint in just a few hours....very tasty! I plan to make another batch this week.
And just in case you thought that our Kindergartener had out-grown the Super-stage, don't worry...he still isn't afraid to strike a pose! In fact Poppy now will ask Rick and I frequently if there are "Bad Guys coming"...She can be seen trailing along with Oscar in Super hero play...I suppose they too are prepping for the up-and-coming indoor play...Goodbye Summer 2007!

Annual Harvest Sampler...

Throughout our married life there has been one tradition that frequents this time of year. Canning. From the start we have had some really fun experiences canning and preserving food together. In fact one of our "saved" for purchases during law school was a pressure cooker. I'm sure that when we get to grape-juicing time I will elaborate more on our "first" juicing project...it is a great story that I shall leave for another day!
Here are some fun shots of yesterday's harvest.
What can be better than the summer/fall harvest? Maybe the first spring flowers. Alas, I cannot eat them...therefore I would submit that harvest time is the most rewarding for ALL of the senses...Need I say more than the earthy yummy smell of basil...or the invigorating, mouthwatering, taste of a fresh self-grown tomato??? Truly this is the time of year when my mouth and nose exclaim "Now this is REAL food!"
Here are the mounds of fruits and veggies that my sweet canning hubby canned yesterday. He really did all of the tomatoes and peaches by himself (Oscar helped a bit) but I was doing some pesto and had a baptism to go to. He did allow me to "watch" the pressure cooker for a little bit while he ran to get more bottles (I do think he was hesitant in doing so...he stressed the fact that I needed to do 5lbs of pressure for 10 minutes and adjust heat accordingly). For a more in-depth view of the project you can check out his blog. (fair warning, he has updated the format of his blog to include a up-close and personal view of my nostril)
Really, I'm so grateful for such a great husband who isn't afraid to don his apron strings and put a little muscle into the canning process. He is such a great guy! How many men do you know who would do such a thing??? Tomorrow, we will tackle the pears together.

Today we visited a favorite park in Palouse, this swing is really fun...it's like a merry-go-round on a swing. Ricky can only push for so long before he starts to get a bit woozy. Poppy, I think has inherited my tough tummy genes when it comes to heights and motion...Oscar hasn't been so lucky. Immediately after leaving the park he announces that his belly doesn't feel good...Rick's response is to make sure and puke out the window. Thankfully we didn't have to resort to such action.

Random Sampler

Ummm...A salad entirely from our garden!
This peachy delight comes from the NPR heirloom recipe contest...Click Here for the tasty peach puzzle recipe. Even if you don't like cooking, you should look at the recipe it is really cool how you make it.
Look MA, I've grown! Oscar asked Rick to cut the feet off his pajamas so he could still wear them. He then opted to wear both the jamas and booties to bed.
This is Poppy's latest addition to her facial expressions. When doing something naughty, I will say "Poppy are you being naughty?" Her response is to tilt her head and proceed to scowl at me untill I stop looking, and she can proceed doing the naughty deed. Yesterday she struck this pose for about 5 minutes while getting into daddy's work bag.

Saturday tidbits

First strawberries of the year! For the past week Oscar and Ricky have been checking on them waiting for them to turn...today was the day! The store strawberries are merely and memory of the real garden variety!
Rick performing a bird rescue...quite often we have humming birds and the like, fly into the sun room and can't get out. This happened to be a little sparrow. Thanks to the Risckter he made it out safe and sound.
Favorite snack of the week...inspired by our friend Jory, we decided to create our own trail mix jumble. Basically we went into the bulk food isle and got a little of everything and then mixed it all together. Oscar and Poppy have really been loving it as a snack this week.
Following the 3R's (reduce, reuse, recycle) Oscar passed along the "Fire" bike to his friend Sam. I took a picture so we could remember the "fire" bike without actually having to store it in the garage until Oscar at the age of 30 makes us get rid of it. Grandma and Grandpa E...Thanks for the fire bike the boy is crazy about bikes now! Today he did 5 miles!!!