Spring is for lovers...

Yes it is. Spring is when I met my wife. We would take walks around along the riverside, sit in the park and talk about dreams and life and generally just enjoyed every minute being together.

Sometimes the day to day of life, work and parenting get the better of us and we forget to just be a couple. The last couple of days we got to remember. The boys went down to SLC to stay with family and go to a concert while they're on Spring break and we had a chance to re-connect.
Yesterday we took a walk, and had dinner together and today we took a ride on the "eco-hog" to a nearby park and had a picnic dinner together.
I have to say I love riding around with her huggin me and I can't say I took the long way home on accident *wink wink*.

I just wanted to leave a message here to let her know I love her and I love our time together.

SHMILY baby...

P~

My new digs

A~, being the greatest and most supportive wife in....oh, I don't know... the world, refurnished and decorated a very cool old writing desk that we had in the garage and put in up in our bedroom so I have a nice place to sit and do my writing at nights. Now I won't be leaning up against the wall, sitting on the floor with a pillow behind me. No really, that's pretty much how 90% of my posts have been written to date.

This is a desk that we picked up a couple of years back at a thrift store for probably $5.00 max. It was in our youngest son's room for a couple of years, a place I like to call the wrecking room, and got pretty beat up. When we traded it out for a dresser, we offered it up on Freecyle but got no takers. Probably because it was so beat up. It was largely surface stuff though, and after A~ sanded it, did some Decoupage to the surface of the top with pictures of our family and the garden, it looks great and I feel like a real writer in my own personal creation station!

Thanks honey, for your love and your support of all my crazy whims. You're the best!
P~

A quick update.

Well, no big stuff tonight. We spent the night together as a family with a trip to our community pool (indoor) and then some tasty gelato from a local shop. Why the Monday night festivities? Well, Mamma's leaving us tomorrow. A~ that is. She's heading out to West Virginia tomorrow to visit her family. Her sisters getting married and we haven't been able to get her out there for a couple of years to visit so it seemed like a good time.

What does that mean for me, and for the blog? Hmmm.... not really sure how it'll pan out. I'll be posting for sure, just not sure on the frequency. The boys are sure to be needy, as their not used to being without Mom for long, and I'll lead chef and bottle washer if you get my drift. (This should be good?)

Also, tomorrow will bring interesting news one way or the other. What about? Well now, it wouldn't be a teaser is I told you now would it? Just a hint? OK, "wish me luck".
See you soon
P~

A great family night.

We had the best family night last Friday. After the evening chores were done, and everything cleaned up A~, the Queen of Ambiance, lit our new citronella torches and the candelabra under the gazeebo as well as some hanging candles around the yard. We turned the stereo on with a little Vivaldi Four seasons and had a great night outside until about 10:30.

After playing a little low-light horeshoes, there is actually more light than it looks like especially just after sunset, the boys started a campfire in the ring and had a couple of marshmallows for dessert. It couldn't have worked out better. It was a great time for us as a family, the type that you hope that your kids remember and try to have with their children one day. I was thinking tonight that minus the stereo and the small "Christmas lights" that are strung under the gazebo as well, this would be a great lights out event for us to enjoy some time. Maybe we'll have to do that.

P~

new seeds, birkenstocks and chickens

Oh yeah, and a wife giving me a ration of crap about turning into a hippie. I reminded her that I was born in the great north woods of Sweden, and grew up barefoot on the beaches of Southern California, so yeah, I've been a little bit hippie since birth OK?! Just because these are really the only kind of sandals that I like other than my crocs, and no they're not really Birkenstock's those damn things are way to pricey, doesn't necessarily mean that I'm a hippie. I just think my post from yesterday went to her head and she's giving me a hard time.
With Spring in full blast and cool weather plants getting put into the ground, I discovered that I didn't have a couple of the seed packets that I thought that I did; in the case of the radishes I did have the packet, just no seeds in it. Oops. I still need to get another load of compost for the beds, and should be able to get that in and add the greens to it this weekend, weather permitting of course.

The chicks are five weeks old today and are now fully feathered for the most part. It's been a while since I shared some pics of the boys and girls so I thought this would be a fitting milestone.

This was the scene tonight when I snuck up to take a picture of them all nestled together peacefully. Very cute, just laying all over each other. They're just like our boys when they were little, let em sleep together and it just turns into a mound.
This is what happens when a strange arm suddenly slips into the coup unannounced and clicks a picture of them. They all run to be the furthest back in the corner until they figure out what's happening. That big Leghorn pullet in the front is the one I call "Big Mama", I have high hopes for that one, look at them egg laying hips. :) I have to say also that I'll miss those barred rocks in the next couple of weeks after they fatten a little and get moved to the freezer. For any of you out there looking for a very friendly bird. I adamantly suggest you try out this breed. They are on the whole the most friendly birds I've seen. I secretly hope that one of them ends up accidentally being a hen so I can keep her, but as I said from the beginning, we're pretty pragmatic about them, if our ordinances don't allow us to keep cockerels then, well, you know.

Hope all of your little chicks out there are doing as well as mine have. I know a few people that ordered from McMurray hatchery had had some problems with illness. Mine were from Ideal poultry and have generally been pretty healthy apart from the two Minorca chicks that we got. Both of them got the same illness and died before two weeks. Oh well, you live you learn.

P~

2008 Garden update

After church this afternoon, we came home and spent a pretty relaxing most of the afternoon around the house. The kids of course ran right outside to skateboard and I, of course, off to deal with some gardening. I planted a bunch of seed that had germinated into some re-used 6 pack planters that I held over from last year. If you buy perennials, don't just rip the containers apart, you can keep them for the next years plantings. They nest inside each other too so they take up very little space.

The existing garden that is being held over from last year consists of 6 raised beds and part of the back property line planter bed. Together this all totalled 282 sqFt. This year we are increasing this by prepping and using a formerly unused area next to back of the house, as well as by using the remaining piece of the back property line planter bed. The total sqFt being added is 112, bringing the total of dedicated planting beds to 394 sqFt (78.8 sqFt per person.) This is for the dedicated planting beds. In addition to these, we will be planting other edibles around the decorative beds in the front yard as well. This is a pretty big deal here in suburbia, but I think our neighbors have gotten in the habit of stopping by when they see us in the yard to see what new stuff we have going on around the house, so I hate to disappoint.(we do not have a fenced yard and we are on a corner lot so it's pretty regular to see us in the yard.) To the front yard beds we plan to add all of our edible/aromatic herbs such as basil, rosemary, thyme, lavender etc. as well as some new garden items that should work well in the front such as tall flowering okra, edible flowers such as Johnny jump-ups, pansies and nasturtiums and we plan to add some "tufts" of carrots here and there to fill in the gaps with their greenery and who knows, maybe surprise a neighbor kid with a summer carrot from the front yard. (By the way, neighbor kids are a great way to break the ice about talking gardening and home food production. You'd be surprised at how excited moms get seeing their kids excited about eating veggies.)

Tonight I got a few cool season plants into the ground. I planted a 4-pack of cabbage that I picked up at the nursery late last week on a whim, I don't know if they'll make it or not based on the weather swings, but I have some seeds sprouting indoors that certainly will. I also planted a few rows of beets, some head and romaine lettuce, a single row of arugula (rocket) and sowed some mesclun under the A-framed pea trellises I talked about a couple of days ago. The idea with that is that right now while the peas are just sprouting, the weather is cool enough to let the mesclun get full sun. Later when the peas have grown up the trellising, they will leave just enough shaded area under them to keep the tender greens shaded and cool. It's another hunch, I'll keep you posted.

Finally I wanted to state something just for the record. My wife, although a excellent homemaker, chef, baker, etc, etc, is not particularly big on the outside. More particularly she just doesn't like dirt. This is of course the polar opposite to me who on any given day has some form of dirt wedged under my nails or in my shoes, or in my hair (what hair I have that is.) by the end of the day. She does her best and to her credit is always right there with me working her butt off, wearing elbow length gloves, to make our goals a reality outside. She just doesn't love it like I do. Anyway, that said, I have to say that she is one of the main reasons for us having a successful garden at all. I am a dreamer, a planner, an envisioner extraordinaire; but a "get on with it and get it done" type... not so much. This is where we compliment each other. She'll drive me nuts with her lists, and schedules and her "HONEY, you have to get this done if we're going to ____." but you know what? That's what gets the job done. If it wasn't for her ability to see the big picture, I'd never get things planted in time, I'd forget to water for a couple of days or who knows what else. I wanted to get that out there for the record. This year looks to be shaping up to be a great summer, and likely it'll be because she got me moving when I was slacking about.

(Oh man, I'm gonna hear about that admission forever.)

P~

St. Patriks Day

No, I didn't spell it wrong. That's how it goes in our house.
Notice a little something in that clover? Maybe you've been around here long enough to remember last year. Saint Patties day around our house is a kind of hybrid holiday. I personally, never wear green. Why? Well, let's just say I had a rough time today when I was growing up. Our kids of course do, and we all say Happy St Patrik's day, but honestly, it's more like Valentines day. Today's the day I met my wife. We didn't fall in love right away. Or perhaps we did, but couldn't really do anything about it. Either way, this day changed both of our lives. It was fitting really, A~'s heritage is Irish, and guess you could say my name is pretty closely associated with this day.

So now it's like our unofficial anniversary, but still official enough to not take too much effort to come up with a reason to hang out with her all day. 9 years already and still no one I'd rather spend an afternoon with.

Happy St. Patriks Day.

P~

Good News

I'd like to take a minute to let you all know about a what is destined to be a great blog, CountryBornCityMade. It's brand new so how do I know it'll be so good? Because it is my wifes! She's decided to start a blog, write more interesting articles and steal all my readers. Well, not really, she just thought it'd be a great way to get writing and share what she cares about, but I can see it going that way. She's a great writer, prolific reader, and certainly has her opinions. I hope you'll check in on her and say hi!
P~

side by side.

All day in the sun, she works by my side,
creative and stronger than she knows.
I steal glances, and admire from afar,
more each day my love it grows.
P~

I'm always surprised, but shouldn't be.

I recently made the following comment to a post that was on NoImpactMans blog:

I have found lately that sometimes "we", and by that I mean "I", will underestimate our other halfs. I have been growing more in love with my wife, as I have made the decision to try and consume less. Many of the things I have suggested, expecting a resounding NO, she's met with a very open mind and often an interest of her own in. My point is that, just as it's not wise to push anything down someones throat, it's also not a good idea to assume you know someone so well that you don't give them the benefit of the doubt and open that conversation with them. Shame on me.


Well, she's done it again. Yesterday, just in time for earth day, she was shopping at Albertsons, and saw these reusable shopping bags for sale. I had been thinking a couple of days before that that we could start using reusable bags at least once and a while, and true to form she comes on out with it while I'm thinking about it. I think about things sometimes, and assume that, since I don't do the majority of the "domestic" chores, I will keep my ideas to myself. I need to preface this with a little information. I have a serious case of the all or nothings. In other words I go very much full steam ahead when I get a thing in my mind. At any rate, the more I have been trying to make a change in my life, (Eating better, exercising, trying to read and write more rather than living in front of the TV.) the more I have been becoming aware of myself and my actions. I see a lot of areas where I can conserve, reuse, or just do things a little better. I don't ever see myself being a full on crunchy, no impact, the earth depends on my recycled poo type, and before I get a load of hippie hate mail, I admire those that are that way. They are certainly not doing any harm to the world. At any rate, I feel sometimes that I aspire to things that perhaps are going to be a burden to A~. I love her and I guess sometimes I just underestimate her. I always seems to be surprised by her, but I guess I shouldn't be. I could tell she was someone special when I met her, I don't know why I should be surprised by her now. Like I said, shame on me.

A Great Day

I had a great day today. The kids were down with their grandma and, besides the fact that A~ and I miss them when they're gone, we had a great day bumming around SLC together. Checked out some cool antique shops and just enjoyed having time alone. The trees downtown were blossoming, the sun was out and the weather was perfect. I don't think I could have planned a better day. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel ambitious and do some work around the house while I can, seems we're expecting yucky weather again. Oh well such is the nature of spring.

More later.
P~

St Patriks Day Love

Happy St. Patriks Day!

Today eight years ago, my life was changed. I was going to school in Salt Lake City. A few days before St Patriks Day I received a call that I was pulled from the classroom for. The beautiful woman who fetched me from that class was to steal my heart. We didn't have a chance to talk then, but on Friday afternoon, St Patriks Day, we did. From that moment on, I could not get my mind off of her. We would take walks in the afternoon along the river that ran next to the campus. We talked on the phone at night, and after finally getting a chance to spend a full afternoon date with her I knew I had found my soulmate. I was in love. I still am today. Some laughed at us, most thought we would never make it. They have all been proven wrong. I love my beautiful wife more today than when I fell for her eight years ago. My wish to you all on this day is that the luck of the Irish is with you, and that you too can know such joy.

Cha robh dithis riamh a’ fadadh teine nach do las eatarra.
Two never kindled a fire but it lit between them. - irish proverb