Garden Update

The seedlings, also known to Katie as her babies, are growing like crazy. We now have three shelves with lights.

The peas are going crazy and have now grown past the light, they are in the back here.

Kevin has moved many of the plants into newspaper pots he made.

New seeds have also been planted and are quickly coming up.

Next weekend we are hoping to start moving some plants outside.

Yard Prep

This Wednesday was my day off and the weather was not too cold so my brother, Katie and I went to work on the yard to get it ready for the garden. My camera stopped working so now I am taking pictures with my phone until it gets fixed. Here is the yard before we got started.

Katie got ready with her hat and gloves, ready to go to work with Olive's help.

Katie grabbed some branches from the pile.

And carried them off to the side yard.

Soon Katie got bored and went on to picking up rocks. This area of the yard is full of sand and gravel from the pool that used to be there. 

Once Katie was done with that she tried out a little raking.

When we were done it looked like this.

We are going to  have to remove most of the sand and try to get the gravel out next. To improve the soil I am going to be ordering a delivery of compost to till into the ground.

Katie Update

Katie has been a very busy little girl as I imagine most toddlers are. I have been looking a lot at art activities and things to do with toddlers and one thing I have read in many places is that they learn and function best creatively if their feet are on the floor or a flat surface. The recommendation is that they sit with their feet on the floor or stand. Naturally an easel seemed like a good idea. While at Ikea I got Katie one. One side is a white erase board and the other is a chalk board. I also got her some chalk so when we got home Grandma showed her how to use it.

Katie loves her easel. She brings her chair over and sits at it drawing and coloring. I like the chalk because there is not much else she can draw on that can be damaged like with the crayons.

Katie has also been riding her tricycle, her feet are really close to being able to push the pedals all the way. She has figured out that if she pushes one down the other one comes up and she can push it. Her rides have only been inside due to the cold weather, luckily we have plenty of room.

Katie also got her very first hair cut ever. Her hair has finally gotten long enough that it needed to be trimmed. She now has bangs so her hair will not hang in her face as much and the back was evened up, the longest part cut off was about 1.5 inches. Her Uncle had to hold her but she handled the process of getting it cut very well.

Her hair now curls up and hits her shoulders, also it no longer gets knotted up in the back at night. We all think she looks adorable and she seems to like to too.

There was a pair of overalls that Katie had and loved but she recently outgrew them and she was upset that she could not wear them. I went on a hunt and discovered how difficult finding overalls for a girl is. I spent awhile looking on ebay and everywhere else I could think of and found they were quite expensive. Eventually I did find some and after some shipping drama they finally arrived this week. I think she loves all the pockets!

Curtains

I have been wanting to get some curtains up in the house to make it feel a little more home like. I have not put curtains up at any of the places I have lived so it feels like a big things to do. However it is a hard decision to make with all the colors and options that are out there. I finally did decide to head to Ikea and get something simple and inexpensive to cover the windows, maybe add a little something to the decor and hopefully give a little insulation from the cold. I went with a simple white color and got all the same curtains for the living rooms, I had planned to get the same ones for my bedroom but miscounted. Those will require another trip. The curtains come in a set width and very long, they are available even longer but at 55"x98" that was long enough. My brother was recruited to put up the hardware for the curtain rods.

The curtains are sold to be hemmed and come with some iron on tape that lets you decide where to hem them. You measure and iron. I thought this would be simple but it was quite a task. Last weekend we put up seven sets of curtains and it took quite awhile but I think it looks more homey now.

The widow in Katie's part of the living room. There is also a bay window in this area but I have not figured out what to do with it yet.

The other living room window.

The second living room area, my library.

Around the fireplace.

This is in the sewing/office/guest room. These curtains are white with blue flowers but the pictures look pretty bad since the sun had gone down way before I finished.

The curatins are a little long right now but are supposed to shrink with washing. They also have creases since I did not take the time to iron the whole things, just the bottoms. The only windows left are my bedroom, the bay window and the dining room window. I think for the dining room I will make a valance which should be fairly easy. Hopefully I can get my windows covered soon since the morning light shines right in which can be nice but I would not mind taking it down a little. 

Beginning the Garden

The weather has been warming up and spring is coming so of course it is time to start the garden. My brother is the master planner of the gardens this year and has started a blog about it. He started by building a shelving unit that has lighting for the seed germination. 

Last week on my day off we started planting the seeds. I was able to get a bunch of these trays at the end of last summer on clearance so they were quite a bargain.

Katie was very excited about this process and was as always very willing to help.

She helped Uncle by putting the seeds in the holes he made. The seeds were going night night and had to be covered up so they could sleep.

Once all the seeds were planted the trays were put on one of the shelves just under the light. One tray has a seed heating pad underneath it as well. The light is set on a timer so the seedlings get the proper amount of light each day.

Half a week later we already have the first seeds that are waking up. Katie and Uncle like to check and see which ones have woken up yet. The beets are exciting because Katie loves beets.

So far some of the beets, cauliflower, broccoli, oregano among others are coming up. By the end of the week round two of the planting will take place.