My weekend project took an extra two days, owing to problems with my sewing machine. I battled and overcame, and here it is!
How appropriate that Sam is wearing a dragon shirt today. He isn’t outgrowing his love for dragons – unlike his clothes!
I’m still a beginner quilter. This is only my third ever. Now that I’m sorting out my machine malfunctions and quirks, I sort of had fun! I might even be able to actually “quilt” the next one, using top stitching instead of tying. I’m already thinking about ideas for some Halloween prints I’ve got in storage. But first- more COVID masks!
We are surprised and delighted by the success of our new vegetable beds.
So far we have harvested green beans three times.
The strawberries are infrequent, but a tasty treat that the boys fight over.
Our carrots taste good despite their petite nature.
We have enjoyed cucumber slices a couple times and have several ready to pick – I might turn them into refrigerator pickles.
The arugula was good while it lasted- the bugs like it too, and it’s all going to flower quickly once the weather got hot. This green lettuce is going strong and we’ve had several harvests.
There’s two broccoli heads coming in and more on the way. They have aphids and it’s a daily fight. We tried poison, diatomaceous earth, and even tried 1,500 ladybugs. The aphids keep coming back. I tore out the worst affected plants and leaves and just check it every other day, dosing with more diatomaceous earth.
Shaking out ladybugs.
We have okra that’s only now starting to grow pods. It’s been struggling between the shadows of the towering broccoli and the tendrils from pumpkins and cukes – I’ve cut off their strangling grasp a few times.
Onions are doing something. I’m mostly ignoring them. We also have pepper plants. They’ve been stunted by the crazy green beans and carrots. I recently staked back the beans to give the peppers more sun, hopefully I can get some before summer ends.
They were already impressed with its size…
Finally, there’s our pumpkins. We got two good gourds forming that the kids excitedly check on every day. “The pumpkins are so big!” They tell me over and over. They keep trying to call dibs, but I tell them we will see what survives before deciding who gets to carve them. Last week I installed slings made from repurposed supportive wear. I read you should do that if they weigh more than 5 pounds. It cracks me up!
(I’m trying out the new wordpress editor, still figuring out how best to share photos with it.)
One of the last things we did before the shelter-in-place order back in March was a visit to the zoo. They opened to the public again last month. I got a reservation for us to try them again this week, as a fun change of scenery for the kids. While Ben and I run errands regularly, the kids have been mostly home, day in and day out, all summer.
The zoo website said they had a lot of precautions in place for safety: reduced crowds, staggered reservation times, masks required for everyone (this was before the governor made masks mandatory in public for Colorado), all indoor spaces were closed, pathways are all one direction now, and extra sanitation stations and portable toilets set up everywhere.
It was fun overall. The kids say they had a good time and were glad we went. But I felt like it was not a great success. Mask use was pretty good, I’d say over 90% wore them well. But there was still the occasional family with noses and even mouths exposed. Anyone walking while eating and drinking had the mask off too. Also, it was more crowded than I would have liked. Because of the one-direction traffic flow, there were lots of clumps of people around visible animals, and traffic jams when someone stopped in the pathway.
I don’t think any of us were at risk for infection. The kids were excellent at keeping their masks with filters on on their faces. They didn’t touch handrails or signs, and asked for hand sanitizer when they made a mistake. We swerved away from people whenever possible.
The other problem was, of course, it was the afternoon of a hot July day. Can’t be helped 🙂 I packed water and hats and a cooling towel. We took lots of breaks to rest and had ice cream and juice to stay cool and hydrated. No matter, it was still sweltering. There weren’t many animals out because of the heat.
So it was a fun change of pace, but I don’t think anyone is clamoring to return until the weather cools and the crowds thin.
Celebration was low key at our house this weekend. We had cheeseburgers and put out the inflatable pool and slip n’ slide. We watched Hamilton (along with many other people, according to the glitching while streaming). That show is still amazing. Jack watched it with Ben and me, and I think he got a lot out of it. He says he liked it! I need to show him more musicals.
Jack’s music school put together a video recital for the summer. He plays two songs in it, but I don’t know where in the program they put him. Here’s the information if you are interested:
2020 Summer Virtual Recital YouTube Link
First of all, we would like to thank all of the students who submitted a video for our first ever virtual recital! They all turned out great and we cannot wait for everyone to see it!
We were not able to upload it to Facebook, so the video will “premiere” live on YouTube only, tomorrow night (07/02/2020) at 7 PM MST!
We will be leaving it up on YouTube for two weeks after it airs.
This video will be a private video and can only be reached through this link! Feel free to share this private link with your family and friends if they are interested in watching with us!
You can click the link before 7pm tomorrow night and it will put you in the waiting room and count down until the video begins.
Earlier this month I took the kids and my sister to Grand Junction for a little escape. The kids have been deprived of friends, family, playgrounds, and pools. We set to remedy that with a long weekend visit. Everyone had loads of fun. With the Masons they built LEGOs and went for a hike. With the Waterhouses we went to the book store, ate pizza, and went to a rock shop. Jack expanded his rock collection and Sam found a sweet green dragon figurine to add to his dragon collection. Looking through my photos, it’s mostly pool, pool pool 😀
Cranky boy getting the hair out of his eyes.
Sam BARELY went down the slide. I don’t think it counts when it’s slow motion and you get handed adult to adult.
We looked at some nebulas through the telescope. No planets, maybe next time.
I saw several shooting stars though, and we saw lots of satellites.
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