Oh Man!!!

I spent about an hour yesterday morning cutting down the cucumber and cutting back some of the herbs that had gone wild in the yard. In that hours time I didn't think about putting bug repellent on because it was morning and I just didn't think it was necessary.

I now have approximately 7 golf ball sized bites all over my limbs and one on my face. I have always reacted this way to bug bites. Once a pharmacist told my mom that I was not allergic to the bite it was most likely a reaction to the pesticides that the bug had come into contact with. Personally I don't really care what it is that I am allergic to I just really want them to go away. I have tried antihistamine pills and am rubbing antihistamine lotion into them. Any other ideas?

I feel like Will Smith from the movie Hitch when he eats the shell fish. Okay maybe it doesn't look that bad but in my mind it does.

Thanks bugs.

Cukes

I love to garden. I didn't say I was very good at it but I love to do it. But my favorite thing to grow isn't flowers or shrubs, I love to grow things that you can eat. There is something satisfying about growing a plant that is not just aesthetically pleasing but provides food. You can't get better than that.

There wasn't a lot of growing of anything when we lived in Arizona. We were really lucky to have a small patch of grass with a couple of dessert plants around it. But when we moved it North Carolina I discovered that i really like to play in the dirt.

My first couple of veg. gardens didn't turn out so great. But the third one was awesome. For me. Maybe not for an experienced farmer but for me I had a pretty nice yield. There, in NC, we had a couple of acres to work with so I had plenty of room to mess around with gardening. When we moved to Il our little suburban lot definitely was not big enough for a big old southern garden. But, I think I have made the best of it. WE have cukes, onions, jalapenos, tomatoes, green peppers, strawberries, cantaloupe, two apple trees, one Cherry tree, dill, cilantro, rosemary, oregano, and LOTS of mint. Just about my entire back yard landscape is edible. And it is all so pretty right now!

Things are finally starting to come in but the cukes are the big producer this season. I don't know what happened to them but I can't keep up with them. There are only two plants but there are tons of cucumbers!! And they are big and out of hand! Mom Jones just sent me a recipe for grandma's awesome relish and I think while the girls are gone I am going to be making some. These are the ones I just picked today and I can't tell you how many we have eaten already!!

Kristen

Bye Bye Birdie

Kylee noticed on Saturday that there were three little blue eggs in another part of the yard. Two were cracked open and one was not. We looked in the grill and the nest was empty :( But Kylee felt that if she put the one little egg back in the nest the mom would come back. So she put it back in the nest and we watched for the mom. No mom. Just some little black birds poking around.

The next day the egg was gone again. We have not seen mom return but Mike said he saw some new materials in the nest.

We talked about it and decided it was time to pull the plug. It obviously isn't a safe place for her to lay her eggs so Mike torched it and took apart the grill. I just got him a new one that I am calling his birthday present.

The kids were a little upset with the prospect of torching the nest but after the fire started they thought it was great!

I didn't watch.

Mike video taped it and I am sure it will appear on his blog soon.

Kristen

Bird Nest Barbeque

We have been noticing over the last few weeks that every time we have tried to use the grill that there have been little sticks and twigs in our grill. I assumed that the kids were playing in it and told them to stop!

Well, as I was cleaning out the backyard beds this weekend I noticed a lot of stick stuff coming out of the grill and when I opened it this is what I found.

The thing that amazes me is that we had grilled just four days earlier. This little bird did all this work in just four days!

The bird who built this filled up the ENTIRE grill with material then built a gorgeous mansion of a nest on top of the grill part.

I can't bring myself to destroy it.

So, the bottom of the grill is near rusted out and we really need a new one anyways.

For now the old one will be a safe place for a new bird parent to keep their babies.

Kristen