Chores: We have been keeping plenty busy digging those last 7 holes for the orchard, mowing a little to keep down the weeds in the partitioned pasture, potting up tomatoes, watering trees, etc. Nate has rigged up a more convenient way for me to water the nut trees in the back which involves the wheel lines, a hose, and a wheel barrow. I get pretty wet and it takes about 30 minutes every other day, but we are determined to keep them alive and watered. The orchard is a lot more time intensive than I thought, even after all the hard work it took to get them in the ground, watering and caging takes up a fair amount of time in itself.
We also took a trip up to Ogden to Valley Nursery to pick up our last 7 fruit trees on Saturday. Unfortunately the staff there couldn't fit all the trees in our pilot so we only took home 4 from there. We now have: flaming fury on c24 root stock (supposedly the cold hardiest peach out there), contender and reliance peach trees; scout apricot tree; and a bing and black tartarian cherry tree.
The cherry trees (from home depot on our way home) are sweet cherries and claim to be hardy to -30 degrees, but to be honest they didn't look super healthy. They have a one year warranty so we'll see how they do. I start planting those 6 trees tomorrow. We are also going to mail order in one more apricot tree since we had to leave behind the Pioneer Apricot as it didn't fit :(
I took some time this cold wet week to pot up the tomato and jalapeno plants for the last time before they go in the ground. They are looking big and beautiful in my opinion. Hope we get lots of yummy tomatoes and peppers for canning, eating and baking!
Tomatoes in their growing trays - they still sit in the window in the living room and seem to be doing fine there. I think I will start to harden them off in the beginning of June and plant around the 15th.
Some other good and bad spring news, the two small apple trees are blooming (yay) so we might get some apples this year after all. And the bad -- my favorite rooster died last night from unknown causes :( Guess that makes the choosing the rooster decision easier, but I still feel sad because he was so nice and friendly. We are down to 8 meaties from the original 10 and we need to butcher SOON! They will be 11 weeks tomorrow and we don't really have a time set out to do the deed, especially with me working so much this month (at least two 12 hour days/nights per week, one always on the weekend). Better get our act together and figure it out!!
Avenlea 8 1/2 months: Still not crawling but getting closer and she is actually showing interest in becoming mobile. She goes from sitting to trying to crawl up my lap a lot and she reaches til she tips onto her belly for toys and snacks.
Avenlea also now has her first 2 teeth! Her bottom right popped through late last week and her bottom left just came in on Friday. She is much happier now that she's not teething.
Techie little baby
Avenlea has been sleeping through the night finally. She goes to bed at 7 and wakes up at 5:30 to eat them goes back to sleep until 7:30. It's so nice to get a full night's sleep!
Tea Party with Aunt Molly and Elly: One reason we rushed getting the fruit trees was because Molly wanted Chloe to spend the day and night with her yesterday. Molly's school put on a little tea party which she took Chloe and Elly to. Chloe also got to stay the night and have a sleep over which she reports was lots of fun.
The girls all dressed up for their tea
Sweet Chloe in the car on the way to Ogden. We had to take 3 potty breaks (one on a hill overlooking a lake) before we got there, but he stayed dry and it was fun playing "I Spy" and hearing them sing backyardigan songs.
Blain has been really into dragons lately, calling himself a baby dragon, or making mommy and daddy into dragons and he's the viking who blocks the fire with his shield. We are thinking about doing a "How to train your dragon" party for his birthday next month.
Cute Blain story from bedtime tonight: Daddy was telling an impromptu bedtime story (Chloe and Blain basically make up the story, telling him or me exactly what comes next) when Blain comes up with part of the story where he puts on a "big, giant, scary dinosaur costume with sharp teeth. An herbivore" all said in his husky scary voice. Nate and I were laughing so hard he almost couldn't finish the story. What a creative boy. After that daddy did a quick lesson on the difference between herbivore, carnivore and omnivore.
Happy Mother's Day: Overall not an overly exciting Mothers Day as I worked noc shift last night and slept through any though of breakfast in bed, and my little primary girl wasn't at church (she went to Molly's) to sing to me, but it was still nice to have a special day. Chloe made me a little "what I love about mommy" book saying she likes to wash dishes with mommy best and she drew me a pretty card with a raincloud on it.
Nate has been saving up his "secret cash" and gave it all to me to buy a fun item of my choice! We're thinking maybe a kitchen aid with a couple attachments or a vita mix type blender. I would secretly like to stash the cash until we can save up for a nicer camera, but we'll see how it goes. He also ordered me some Tim Tams from Australia which I can't wait to try, especially with all the cold windy weather lately.
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