Planting the herb garden

Let The Sun Shine

As a family we did a run/walk for mental health.  Although this picture says run we are walkers.

We choose this one because it is only 2.2 miles instead of the usual 5K and a good way to get our feet wet in the spring for walking.

Dancer at the finish line.  There were well over a 1,500 people who completed the event. 

Dad and Spark finishing.  At the end you got a bottle of water and a huge chocolate chip cookie so any calories burned off we put right back on.

Greenhouses and Goats

Our 4H club enjoyed a behind the scenes peek at a greenhouse.  So much more goes on there than meets the eye.

Some of it is right before our eyes, but I just never noticed.  For example, each one of these hanging baskets has it's own drip irrigation.

Another thing I learned is that those first two tiny leaves on a sprout are called cotyledon. I feel so garden smart now. 

Seeing all these plants got me itching to get a couple seedlings started.

A small sample of bird feeders they had.  If there is something to stick out in your backyard, they had it there.  Everything was so, so cute, I didn't see one thing I wouldn't want.  The only thing that kept me from backing the car up to the front door and loading it up was that all that cuteness comes with quite a price tag. If we lived where it was nice out most of the year it might not seem like so much, but here in Minnesota, where our first and last frost dates only span about 4 1/2 to 5 months, it sure does.  

Next stop was the park for a meeting, Subway lunch and knocking a volleyball around.

We finished up the day with a visit to a goat dairy.  Nothing will make you say "ahhh" faster than 80 plus goats all together.  This pen held over 25 newborn kids. Made me think we needed more goats, but then I came to my senses.  Dancer's goat Jamal is from this dairy so I scoured the mommy goats to see if I could see the one that might be his mom. There were a couple that would fit the bill so there will be no definite  family reunion for him. 

Stacked Front Porch Planter

Most of the parts to the planter in the order from bottom to top of the picture how I stacked them together, I added one more saucer and pot not pictured. No need for all of them to be the same color, because I have confidence I am going to keep all the plants alive and they are going to thrive so much on the porch that no one will even notice the non white pots.  Plus I am cheap and there was no way I was going to go out and buy new pots for a project when we have a shed full of old ones. Wait, I'll just tell people, if they ask, that I am so green I reused pots from other years, that sounds better than cheap.

First layer, pot with saucer in it and upside down pot on the saucer.  Fill in dirt around the saucer and insert plants

Second layer is saucer, large pot then another saucer to make a planting area. By putting the saucers in the large pots it also took way less potting mix which would have added a lot of weight and money to the project. I will have to water it a lot more often because less dirts means it will dry out faster, but if I decide to move it I won't need two men and small boy to lift it.

View from the side, just keep adding saucers and pots until it is the desired height.

Top view, can hardly wait for the flowers to start growing and make all the layers full and beautiful!

Handy Dandy Stick Holder

We have a lot of soft wood trees in our yard which means that we could be picking up sticks each and every day.  Since we can't burn them fast enough we pile them up by the bon fire area and break off some when we have a fire.  We have a lot of bon fires but the stick pile never really goes away or it doesn't go away for long.  As the summer goes on the grass grows up through it, it looks like heck and it is a good place for little vermin to call home.  To combat a wee bit of the pile, and have it ready for tinder when we make a fire, I made this stick holder in about three seconds.  The credit for this goes to pinterest but from what site I don't know.  To make it, you haul a cinder block to where you want your stick holder, put four boards in the block, two in each hole going differnet directions and pile on the sticks.  Done. Now I just need to make about eight more of these.

Quarry Walk

We live near the "Granite City," named so because granite was, and still is, a huge industry in the area.  This quarry was started in 1863 by two Scotsmen and closed in 1950.  The park opened to the public in 1993.  I will use the term "to the public" loosely because it is a popular swimming hole and my dad has pictures of him, and many others, swimming and picnicking her in the 1940's.

Besides being able to "legally" swim in the 116 feet deep quarries, there are several miles of groomed walking and skiing trails.  It was beautiful to wander through the trails and pick up a few geocaches while we are at it.   

On this trip we were with our homeschool co-op Helmet Required friends.  

At this quarry, one of 20,  these two geese were almost across to the other side.  We took our cameras and started taking their picture (the beauty of the place is not captured on these photos).  As we were snapping away, they can swimming over to us and we swear, started posing.  As soon as we put our cameras away, they swam off.   Hmmm, a little wild life vanity?  

Signs of an Early Spring

We were excited that it was warm very early this year and we were able to get some barn cleaning done.  Yes, that really is exciting, usually the poo is frozen down and then when the snow melts it runs through the barn and make a huge, gross mess.

It was so nice that we shed our jackets.

Pancake sunbathing.  Being a farm cat is good work if you can get it.

Lola and Jamal were happy to be out and not have wet feet.  

And then this happened.  A few inches of snow came and ruined the whole thing.  Thankfully it didn't stick around long.

The Road To Blogging Is Paved With Good Intentions

These pictures are all from sometime in May.  This post is my attempt to do a little blogging catch up.

I'll start with a llama because there can never be too many llama pictures.

We went to Llama magic that was held at a fair grounds in the cities.

At Llama Magic you can buy fiber and llamas in the same buildings.  It was good we didn't bring the trailer with because there were some adorable crias for sale that might have found their way home with us.

Mother's Day we traveled up the road to see how high the water in the Mississippi River was and how fast it was flowing over the dams.  FAST!

At one park the kids couldn't resist climbing on their unique play equipment.

Stopped at the dam where we usually go fishing.  This support has a huge ledge around it that you have to climb up on to, now you couldn't even get close to it.   

The mist was so high that we couldn't see across to the other side.

Helmets Required took a trip up to the Hinkley Fire Museum.  This is a place has a fascinating story.   

First thing rebuilt after the fire was the train station.  Now it houses the museum which we spent a lot of time in because there is so much to see there.

The boys spent a good portion of the time hanging out in an Indian shelter.  They all thought it would be super cool to have one in their backyards.  I agree.

We stopped at the monument for the mass grave for those the survivors weren't able to identify. 

The plan was to start out the day enjoying lunch at the casino buffet and then going to the arcade.  After lunch, however, we found out that the arcade didn't open until later in the afternoon so we trekked back after the museum and boys played games while the rest of us watched and waited.

We toured a fish hatchery.  Working there would be Dancer's dream job, growing little fish in to big fish to stock lakes.  

Checking out fish samples.

Counting how many fish hatched.  

Pumpakunchen just keeps growing.

The 4-H Junior Leaders made May baskets for a local nursing home.  Like the lateness of this blog post, they didn't get them handed out until the middle of the month.  I don't think any of the residents minded that they weren't on the actual day, they just like to have the kids visit. 

This will be the first year we have a llama show in our own county so llama obstacles needed to be built.

Lots of painting and

hammering and we have ourselves a pretty nice set of obstacles to start with.

Helmets Required toured a military museum.  The boys climbed on all the tanks to pose for pictures

while Dancer checked out a Jeep.  I think she had visions of all the off roading she could do in it.

Our Monday co-op did a service project helping a member of the church we meet at clean out and 

plant her flowers.  With 14 people it didn't take very long.

We have enjoyed a few bonfires, always a nice reward after a busy day.

And we will end with a llama.  They got their spring hair cuts.  They will need lots more work before the fair but we did this much so they won't suffer heat stress.