The Skies Are Clearing!

Sorta, anyway.

Most days are more clear now.  And being that we've been dealing with sub-zero temperatures over the winter to be followed up with smoke and ash filled skies, being cooped up in the house has not been fun for our little family of five.  We don't have a large house where people can get away from each other, so it has a tendency to wear on the nerves of everyone.

So instead of doing much gardening, I've been enjoying some much needed ALONE time by kicking the Littles outside!

My favorite line of summer is, "Go play outside.  You're driving me nuts!"

Hehehehe.  Not the best example of my parenting, but it's true. And I truly believe that TV plays too much of a role in my kids lives at the moment.

But what do you do when the Li'l Sausage man of the house tears up every board game when you try to play it?  And you've built forts about 9,008,584,209,083 times?  And you've played with every toy you own the same amount of times?  You watch TV and play video games.

What in the world did people do with themselves during long bad or unhealthy weather BEFORE vehicles and techie toys?!

In any case, I was blessed with two happy children on a beautiful, smoke-free day this week.

Check out that gorgeous New Mexican sky!  Diva, Li'l Sausage and I enjoyed some time at the park.  Just the three of us.  Bad Boy stayed home.  The Literary Musician was off at Vacation Bible School with Grandma.  And the weather was PERFECT!  Not hot.  Not dry.  And just the right amount of cool breezes.  Mama got some cute pictures of these two perfect children.

I love that hat!

I love that smile!

I love that little man!

And he about killed me with several heart attacks climbing around in these death traps they call playgrounds.

But, man, oh man!  Check out that skill!

And after laughing at him for coming down a slide full of water (from where?), I got over it.

I watched from a distance.

And I enjoyed the brother and sisterly love they share so well.

I also enjoyed the fact that Diva rarely will allow me to take a picture of her without posing anymore.

I sneak shots of her now.

And even those sneaky shots are too adorable for words.  Of course, I'm incredibly in love.

They met a friendly dog.  Found a football that no one claimed.  All while Mama relaxed.

And proceeded to get sunburned because I regularly forget that I live in New Mexico at about a mile above sea level and incredibly close to the sun.

I should just live in sunscreen.  But nearly 30 years of living in The Land Of Enchantment has not taught me a thing.

Of course.  I'm stubborn.

What Do Children Do When They're Up In Smoke?

They get stuck in the house.

They get cranky.

They get bored.

And by golly, they get snotty!

Until Super Mom arrives with a balloon, a ton of blankets, some chairs and some pillows.

I'm sure you can figure out what the blankets, chairs and pillows can be transformed into.  At least I hope you can.  I'm concerned if you don't.  This is quite the travesty if you have no idea what I am talking about!

Pigs have officially been seen traversing over the Indian Ocean.  Just sayin'.

So while the New Mexican air fills with smoke and gives us beautiful shots of the mountains (before they vanished in the smoke), the children put their minds to good use and used their imaginations!

I know.  Kids.  Using imaginations?  In 2011?  I'm flabbergasted.  In fact, you could probably knock me over with a feather right now.

Not that that is difficult to do.  I have to have rocks in my pockets in a strong wind so all 107 pounds of me doesn't get blown down the road into a heaping pile of bones and flesh.

Here's Deebo, Sassy Mama's oldest, putting together some blankets over a dining chair.

This is the child, that while playing Apples To Apples, thought that the red card of "whips" went quite well with the green card of "spicy" earlier in the day.

Deebo is just slightly awesome.

And of course, she doesn't think she's awesome at all.  You can see her snag her spot in the shot of my little Diva.

Speaking of Diva, I love that she has a loony side.

^^^^^^  I say smile, and she gave me THAT!  ^^^^^^

Of course, Li'l Sausage wanted some pizza.

For a child that pretty much lives solely on milk (aka: "choka milk"), chicken nuggets and peanut butter sandwiches, I did NOT deny his request for some cheese and tomatoes.  No matter how deformed and filled with salt and sugar it may be.

And while I laid on the floor to get shots of Deebo and Diva, I was also able to capture this extremely rare shot of Li'l Sausage.

Please excuse the hair, the bags under my eyes and the general lack of makeup.  I have a three year old.

A very heavy three year old.

Well, it seemed that way anyway.  He did not exactly take a moment to sit gently.

*crunch*

Of course, discussions became quite serious over whether or not to give Li'l Sausage his own "room" in this rather magnificent fort they've built.

Li'l Sausage unfairly used his charms and wit against the all powerful Deebo.

And he had a difficult time expressing his pride after accomplishing his goal.

Of course, Tsunami, having been keeping to herself this whole time in the other room, decided to come out with the balloon.

What was with the balloon?

This little family decided to expand.

*shakes head*

If only she knew what pregnancy truly meant!

LABOR AND DELIVERY!

But, it was of no surprise that Deebo needed to be THE "mama" in this circle and the ONLY one at that. 

We finished off the play time with Deebo snuggling her pregnant balloon belly and Diva, while Tsunami decided to pretend she was giving Diva a manicure.

With the closed end of an ink pen.

And that concludes the 30 minutes this entire photo set was taken in.

*curtsy*

We're Going Up In Smoke!

You may be wondering why it's been six days since our last update.  Here's a hint:

Arizona blows.

A whole lot of ash that is!

Now, I am most definitely praying for all those affected by the Wallow Fire in Arizona.  However, I am also praying for those of us in our area of the country.  We're being buried in the smoke!

Two days ago, we had our massive water balloon war/birthday party for Li'l Sausage, who just turned three years old.

That was one memorable day, if I do say so myself.  But, I may be just a tad bit biased with a cute face like this!

I just have to say that while the temperature did drop a bit for the party that day, I am quite thankful it wasn't a giant ash cloud like it has been the rest of the week.

Suffice it to say, we had very little yard work done when we had to spend two days in the house and yard cleaning it just to have it turn into a post war zone.

Yes.  We've added TIKI TORCHES to line the wall!!!

But, of course, the weather has changed, and the ash cloud and smoke has rolled in and turned our sun bright red.

And proceeded to dump a bunch of ash all over us that we couldn't see.

Yes.  That's ash.  We didn't see it.  But I sure am feeling it today!

And took our beautiful Sandia's away into some unknown dimension of the universe.

Please note the lack of a mountain on the right.

So.  While I monitor my headache, sore throat, burning eyes and worsening cough from my desk chair, couch or bed, I'll show you how the lovely plants are doing outdoors that I only see once a day in the morning to water quickly and make a mad dash into the semi-better air quality of my little New Mexican casa.

Our little pumpkin seed is starting to branch off!

The Sun Gold Tomato plant is flowering!

My last living Roma Tomato plant is gaining some new greenery!

Mr. Scotch-Taped Pinto Bean is getting some new legs and leaves as well.

Our New Mexican Green Chili's are showing signs of new growth as well!

Here we see one of the two remaining parsley plants.  These suckers are starting to grow pretty rapidly as well!  Last week they each only had two healthy leaves.  You can really see the difference a little fertilizer makes!

Now, I had originally started with two long troughs full of mystery flower seeds.

I don't know what they were.

Bright Juggling Mama over here decided to toss in a bunch of rows of last seasons failed seeds and see what happens.  Then proceed to toss the seed packets without labeling anything.

*Head.  Please meet desk.*

Anyhow, I was overrun by fungus gnats.  And by the time I had a solution to the problem, this black-thumbed-wannabe-horticulturist had lost all but three of them.  However, this is what I have left of the mysterious flower seeds.  They seem to be flourishing now!

I am surprised to see any surviving members of the original flower population.

HALLELUJAH!

Here you can see my daisies are growing quite nicely!

And up next, we have Diva's strawberry plant that has recently bloomed rather nicely!

Last, but most definitely not least, I have the replacement cucumber plant.  The original germinating seed that Tsunami gifted us with was killed rather quickly by Mrs. Black Thumb over here.  And to prevent giant crocodile tears of absolute devastation, I purchased one.  Next to that, we have the last and only oregano plant popping up and getting it's first rather large leaves!

Do I need to support cucumbers?  It says on the tag that it can be grown in containers, however, we sure do have a lot of leaning going on here.  I highly doubt it has any affection for Miss Basil.

Not only have we been simply watching our plants grow by watering occasionally and avoiding all outdoor activity as much as possible, we have received a few gifts!

Mrs. Lumber Jack stopped by in the middle of the Battle of Casa De Rio Rancho with just a few, small, rather meaningless gifts for our three children.

They don't mean much at all.  They're not sturdy at all.  And they are most definitely nothing but cheap.

Okay. I really, really hope you've picked up on my sarcasm there.  Just sayin'.

Not only did Mrs. Lumber Jack stop by with these gorgeous umbrellas for the rug-rats, we also received yet another gift from The Literary Musician's grandmother.  Snapdragons!  I love Snapdragons!

Deebo, who has helped me write this blog as well as the last entry, would like to conclude:

"In conclusion, we have ash blowing and good plants growing."

The End.

How To Grow Edibles Amongst Goatheads And Pea Gravel...Sorta'.

Digging in sand, clay, rock and mountains of goatheads, is not exactly very easy.  A lot of people have just said to burn the evil seeds, but it doesn't quite work as well as people suggested.

Trust me.  We did it.  THREE TIMES!  The bottom of your shoe will still look a bit like this if you live in our house.

That is after burning.  Three times.  And shoveling, shoveling, raking, shoveling, and more.  We've given up.

Oh.

And the bottom of this shoe is after walking around in areas that have seen quite a bit of traffic.

On a good day.

So, after three summers, three burnings and endless shoveling and raking, we turned to defeat for a garden.

Until Tsunami brought us the pumpkin and pinto bean seeds.

*sigh*

With the fact that the pumpkin keeps growing and the pinto bean survived, we decided to take our cue and build a large raised bed based on the inspiration of Ana White.

This was her plan.

We also had to consider that we've seen squirrels, groundhogs, skunks, rabbits, bats and prairie dog's on our property over the years.  There's other animals as well, but they're not exactly a threat to our vegetation.  I don't think the local coyote family is interested in my tomatoes.

Yes, Mama J, be careful on your walks if you take them late at night.  There are coyotes living around here and have been seen on the street.

And yes, I gave you your nickname.  <3

Gotta' get this train back on the track.

A raised garden bed was our only solution.  And a tall one.  That was protected underneath by the critters in the area.

Guess I better start thinking about aerial protection.

Our Moose Dog?

That will work for now.

So I brought out the camera, a soda and Li'l Sausage to the front patio where we witnessed some amazing action by Bad Boy.

*get your head out of the gutter*

First, we started with untreated cedar fence pickets and freshly cut red wood stakes thanks to Lumber Jack across the street.

And we laid out and staked down some chicken wire.

Correction, POULTRY NETTING according to Lowe's.

*rolls eyes*

It's chicken wire.

Of course, Bad Boy worked on trying to clear the area of as many goatheads as humanly possible.  That took an hour.  And made...SOME progress...I suppose.

We paused for a cute picture of The Literary Musician.

Followed by some of the most epic Father/Son pictures of a lifetime.

Melt.

Swoon.

Collapse.

Giggles.

Falls down dead from being Love-Stricken.

All while Bad Boy built this:

Three times and carried it this way three times.

Stack 'em up, Bad Boy!

Stake 'em down and screw 'em in.

And do that about 1,569,128 times to come to this end.

Fill it up with some soils and fertilizer.

And WA-LA!

We let that sit for the evening, worked on some other projects around the house, and yesterday, when Tsunami and Deebo were here for the day, we planted the plants.

We've got here the Sun Gold Tomato plant, the tiny Roma Tomato plant that is struggling to survive, the New Mexico Green Chile plant and the Pinto Bean.  On the right end, we threw in the limped over parsley and Tsunami threw in some herb seeds for good measure.  We'll see if they do anything.

Directly under where I took the above picture from is our little hill with the pumpkin vine.

It's not a big hill.

It's not a big vine.

It's not a big raised bed at six feet by four feet (outside measurements).

However, we're doing our best and we'll see how the pumpkin grows.

Let's just hope that it does well and I can control it somewhat from knocking over all the other plants.


*wonders if pumpkins can grow over the edge of the planter*


*laughter ensues of the image of the garden bed being decorated like a Christmas tree covered in pumpkins*