Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Misc Musings of a tired mind....Extremely random thoughts....

I'm not sure, but I think I have blown a mental fuse here.... I'm tired and the whole "summer is right around the corner" thing has me thinking of dropping weight and dreading cleaning the house....

I have so much to do outside, and my littlest one LOVES, LOVES, LOVES being outside, so it should be easy, right? Well, somehow it's not. So today I am determined to start the digging for the raised bed I am planning, adding compost and other amendments to the soil in the garden, getting my various non-utilized containers ready for planting and just getting myself in order. And the weather forecast for the next few days will be hot, hot, hot! (well, 70's-80)

Groupon has a deal for an organizer to come into your house and suggest what you should do to get the clutter organized.  The Hubs is all for it... I'm scared of what this person will say about all of my stuff.... So now I am determined to clean out my closet and give excess to goodwill, organize my kitchen and laundry room. So, based on that, what do you do with presents from people that you never wear but feel you should hang on to because it was a gift?  Ditch? Stash? Ugh.....  Ok, check back with me about all of that!

I've exercised every day for the past 4 days, I know it's not that much, but I'm so lazy.  I take any excuse and I LOVE rest days from training etc. And tonight I am even thinking of heading into the yoga studio to visit my favorite instructor and get some Mommy time. But sanity did prevail... My running group is doing one of my absolute favorite runs this weekend, it's called the "train run." And it really involves a train.... You drive up to the train station at Solana Beach, ride it up to Oceanside and run back down to your car. 16 miles (give or take). I used to live 5 minutes away and didn't have 2 kids, so I did this run every chance I had.  Now I live 35 miles away and have to juggle 2 kids and waking up at the crack of way before dawn to get moving by 5:30 to make it to the station by around 6:00/6:15 to find parking and make sure I get on the train. And while I think 16 miles might be a bit much for me right now (considering I did 13 3 weeks ago and it was HARD), I might have done it anyway.... but I am letting the smart thoughts win out and not the part of me that just wants to run. That and the fact that I am doing a 200+ mile relay race in about 3 weeks and I was told that if I get injured, I will be severely mocked by everyone involved. And my friends have LONG memories.... I'm still getting harassed by a marathon in 2006 when I ditched a buddy at mile 18 after complaining about everything uner the sun for most of those miles!  I'm 99.9% sure I told her I was running ahead....

And.... Anyone use Grow Bags?  I was thinking this might be a great way to try growing potatoes this summer and wanted to see how this went for you. What size did you use?

Ok, here's to a productive day! Happy gardening all.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Harvest Monday 3/28/11

Happy Monday!  We actually had a harvest this week, I am just as amazed as you, I promise!!!!  I had forgotten what it was like to go out to the garden and obtain something to make dinner with. The garden has always been something nice to have a chance to dig in the dirt, but winter (even a mild SoCal one) makes you forget how nice it is to not have to rely on the store for everything.

This week we picked:
Tomatoes (I have no idea what kind, one of the boys stole the tag) - 2 5/8 oz
Peas - 9 3/8 oz
some scallions and lots of radishes




2 5/8 oz peas and 2 5/8 oz mystery tomatoes
6 3/4 oz peas (not including what the boys ate while we were picking)


Some awesome garden scallions
BIG radishes - it's amazing, I am allowed to eat radishes this year since Ryle has stopped hoarding all of them.


 The leeks that were planted during the St Pat's party cooking are actually growing!  So far 2/4 of the leeks I plopped into the soil have started showing signs of growing. I'm geeking out at the success.


Growing leeks
 Hopefully the small harvest and gardening experiment success will get me motivated to go out and plant more seeds! Check out what others are harvesting around the world at Daphne's Dandelions.  Happy gardening all =)

Monday, March 21, 2011

Falling behind at keeping up!

I am constantly amazed by how fast life moves!  There are so many things that happen that never get told about. So here's what we have been up to lately, and most of it is NOT gardening related.

In February we took a little ski break to Big Bear and taught the little one how to ski. He had a blast!  The worst complaint? He couldn't keep his hands warm.



Happy!

Then a trip to Disneyland before spring break (and March Madness) rolls around and it is mobbed. We decided to try a different approach this time and just drive up and down in the same day. It was our best trip yet. We were amazed at how easily we managed to leave the house and how smoothly everything went, and we saved ourselves lots of cash in a hotel and eating out. We will definitely be doing it this way in the future.

We stayed until it was bedtime for the boys.



And on the running front a few friends and I participated in the inaugural Safari Half Marathon. I think I have taken running to a new level of lazy.  I have been to the park before, and I wasn't driving up, so I looked at nothing prior to the actual race.  I had a friend tell me where the bib pick up was and car-pooled with another friend to the race.  So the whole course was pretty much a mystery to me. And man..... it was HILLY!  My legs were still weak 6 days later when I did my group run. It was a mostly pretty course, but not very nice smelling. And the mist over the flamingos was so pretty!


Simon, Gaby, me and Marvin at the start.

Flamingos
And this past weekend we had our 11th annual St Patrick's day party. We decided that we like hosting parties because we like to be around people, but we hate going places.  It's a sad truth!  On the menu was corned beef (of course), mashed potatoes, cabbage, potato leek soup, Irish whiskey cake (not made by me) and Irish coffee brownies (a new addition). As I was slicing the leeks for cleaning it occurred to me that leeks are basically big old spring onions in a way... so if replanting onion butts works to regrow onions.... will replanting leek butts work the same way?  Well into the soil they went. I'll let you know if it was a success or dismal failure in a few weeks.

And that's all that we have been doing lately. We had some last minute cancellations and now have a lot of leftover corned beef... so if you have any good recipes for leftover corned beef, send them my way?

Happy gardening all!

Friday, March 4, 2011

I'm grumpy

There's really no reason for it, I'm just grumpy. It's absolutely wonderful outside, my kids are mostly behaving and I just want to scream. Argg..... I am hoping that some down time with a good book and some gardening will help the grumps. 

So far we have gone as far as the planning stage of the side garden, now to actually acquire wood and soil for the bed before planting season passes me by. 



Enough griping already! Signs of spring are all around me.



 My potted peas are doing wonderful and we have lots of flowers that will soon be yummy peas. (and now of course I am contemplating purple podded peas.....)



 Kiddo's radishes are growing and being devoured. I need to do a second pot for them before he gets too far ahead of me.



 My tomato plant is huge for March.




And I can almost taste the fennel.




My first asparagus tip of the year has made it's appearance. 



And for my birthday, my boys bought me dwarf citrus trees!  (1 Eureka lemon and 1 Lime)

And now to get pots for my new trees and get some gardening done. Happy gardening friends!