Story of my life...

This is what our Birthday Cake Snack was supposed to look like.



This is what ours looked like. Hmm. Guess Pioneer Woman didn't have 12 and 10 year old boys making hers...

Ultimate Blog Party

I've never participated in the Ultimate Blog Party before... but here I am. My name is Carri... my husband Eric is an EMS helicopter pilot in rural Kentucky. We have 9 children.

My current obsession is learning to garden and try to supplement my family's habit of eating in a more Frugal way! Check out our Garden Club Fridays! And if you garden, Join the Club!

Garden Club Friday 3/ 20 / 09

Welcome to another installment of the Garden Club! How grow your gardens this week?

Before I update on my progress, I wanted to share a website I found this week... it is www.GrowVeg.com . You can put in your garden's dimensions and plan where to plant everything. It calculates the number of plants necessary, and planting dates, etc. according to your zip code. It will also keep track year after year and tell you where to avoid planting so you rotate the crops well.

The only drawback I see to the program is that it uses traditional row plant spacing, and I had to manually add my plants using Square Foot Method spacing. But it allowed me to do it, so I only see that as a small drawback.

The trial is free for 30 days, then it is $25 a year, or$40 for two. I think it would be money well spent, since it will help record keeping for 5 years. It was nice to be able to check that I had started enough tomatoes, etc.

So go check it out! You just might like it! Just don't spend so much time on the program you forget to actually plant anything! ;)

In my house we have made great progress in the gardens... last year the electric company cut a lot of cedar down from under the lines on our property... we have spent the winter (remember- this is a non-collective we... by this I mean my husband and older sons...) hauling cedars to make my garden frames for my new boxes next to the house. This week they hauled another 6 or so trees.

My eldest son also cleared (by shovel and hoe the hard way!) a large plot of land (25' x 36'!) for me to plant corn and beans. This area is rocky, but both those crops are pretty tolerant to rockier soil, according to what I have read.

I have finished transplanting all my broccoli and most of my cabbage. I still need to work more on the cabbage and the cauliflower, and some of the tomatoes are ready to transplant.

On another aside, I have discovered that the presto add water peat things grow the tomatoes much better than the seed starting soil. Just a note for next year.

And I have a question... anyone know why we wouldn't just plant the seeds in the larger pots and avoid the time of transplanting? I am sure there is a reason since everyone does it, but I was just wondering since it takes a lot of extra time.

So that's my week! No photos again, but I haven't slept more than two hours in a row in three weeks... photos will just have to wait!

Link up to the Garden Guru and let us know how your garden grows! Also pass on the word to all the blogs you see about gardening... I'd love to have all the expertise in one place... I can sure use all the help I can get!

Take the photo from the top of the entry, and be sure to link back here so others can find us too.

Have a great day! Each day brings us closer to spring!

Attention: The Plague has left the Building

Bethany hasn't thrown up or exploded out of her diaper in 24 hours, so I think we are safe to say that the Plague is on it's way out. So as long as no one else gets it, we should be out of quarantine by Friday afternoon.

Now we are just dealing with a cold... which I have contracted, unfortunately, seeing as I have gotten precious little sleep the last two weeks or more.

Yesterday Josiah and I took Mercy to Cincinnati for her follow up appointments. Everyone was pleased with her progress, and we have resumed the propranalol. We go back next week to up the dosage again... since her blood pressure went pretty low at the 2 mg / kg level, Dr. Adams is being pretty cautious. I am glad for that!!!

Mercy had appointments with both Eye doctors, and they were pleased also. She is no longer ignoring the bad eye as long as we have the contact in. We only have to patch the good eye two hours a day. So although that was a long day, all went well.

It was Josiah's birthday yesterday... (anyone know how in the world he is 12 already?), so we stopped at Hobby Lobby on the way home to spend his birthday money on model airplanes. Then we went out to dinner.

We left home at 4 in the morning, and returned at 10:30 at night. I was exhausted, and slept in until 9:30 this morning. I feel much, much better now. If only I could kick this cold!

Spring is here... the windows are open, and I am getting ready to get into the garden. Lovely!!!

And the Saga Continues...

The plague continues to go on, and now we have added a cold to the mix...

-Mercy is up and back to normal. We go back to Cincinnati tomorrow for appointments with the contact lense guy, the ophthalmologist, and with Dr. Adams. Hopefully she will be back to full health and able to re-start the propranalol.

- Bethany is on the way up after a very shaky weekend. Her diarrhea is less, and she is not throwing up as much. Hopefully she continues to improve.

- Matt has had a cold for the past couple days. Unfortunately he shared it with Nate, who woke up last night with a croup sort of cough. And for some reason there was no hot water to help with the steam... but this morning there was hot water. Weird. Don't know why.

But I had to give him Albuterol... which totally spins a child up. Between that and the fact that it has rained for a week straight, and I have gotten precious little sleep for the last couple weeks... I am ready to send him upriver. OK- not really. Maybe. ;)