Garden & Yard stuff

I picked our first big purple pepper (we had one earlier this summer - I think it was kind of a freak thing...) We've also harvested our garlic (which was volunteer! We didn't even know what it was until earlier this summer. Good thing we didn't hit it with the weed whacker! I'm even inspired to grow more garlic for next year! Yumm. We can't get enough garlic bread. No vampires in this house!I bet Aaren won't be able to recognize this tree! Yes, little bro - this is one that you propogated in college last spring. We brought it over to the big house last summer and it was in a pot (it even lasted over the winter in there) until about June or so and we transplanted it. It apparently is very happy where it is. It doesn't hurt that we water it every so often. We have it staked so it doesn't flop around.We've also seen some unusual bugs. Check out this spider...He's about 2 inches long and was in some weeds I wanted to pull by our garage. Yeah, I just left the weeds there and left him alone. I went back a week after I took this picture and he had a big puffy marshmallow-like thing he was about to dine on for supper...
Also, here is the biggest praying mantis I have ever seen (though I haven't seen too many, and most of them have been babies less than a centimeter long). He was happy in my petunia containers I have by the front door. I hope I didn't blind him with that bright flash and his big buggy eyes. But isn't he cute?? :-)
We also edged all of our sidewalks - a very big task since they hadn't ever been edged and we have a corner lot. We also have one sidewalk running from the house to the garage - I think it doubled in width overnight! It had been covered by so much grass!

Catching up!

I just realized I haven't written anything here for over a month. Oops.

Anyway, we've been busy finishing up the kitchen. I've got one good day of touching up paint, and some cleaning and I'll post some pictures. It looks absolutely beautiful! We've also just got some finishing touches on the bathroom ceiling. Perhaps I should finish that this afternoon and clean it, so you can at least see that! It's cute!

We've also been working on the outside of the house. I have some flowers in baskets on the porch, so it doesn't loook so bare and sad. And at least when you look at the porch, your eye goes to the flowers before the peeling paint... I'm quite disappointed, though, that I don't have any hummingbirds yet.

We have had several birds at our regular feeder. We've found that if we feed Safflower seeds, we keep the starlings away and the Cardinals love them. So do the house finches.

I think the birds are staying away from my garden! I've got a couple tomatoes (one of which is blooming), a couple pepper plants - one orange and I've already got a pepper started on the purple plant! My onions seem to be very happy, as well as my radishes! I am very surprised at my success so far, as Reed seems to be having problems getting stuff in his garden (it was a really wet spring) and it's my first year for the garden, and I dind't amend the soil at all. I have a compost bin started for this fall, though!

Our yard is looking better all the time! We sprayed the dandelions and Keith brought home a roller to flatten out the bumps. It looks much better now.

Here are some pictures of Katie, Sarah & J.T. They were taking on Memorial Day. I think they get cuter every day! J.T. has gotten so big! He is starting to say things, but we can't quite get him to say "Aunt Karen", let alone "Uncle Knucklehead." This past week, they have been busy picking Strawberries! Amberley has got quite a patch! I took a couple buckets full and made some freezer jam. YUMMY!