Organic Snail Control

We have a bunch of snails in our yard. I couldn't find any snail stuff at the store so I decided to try some organic control measures. I had the brilliant idea to offer a penny for each snail the children gathered. I thought they might bring me one to two hundred to feed to the chickens.

Isaac's snails. His big brother Jacob helped him a bit.


Nathan's snails. His pot was almost full!


Sarah and Elijah's snails.


Hannah's snails.


This idea was pretty expensive for me. They found 593 snails in about 30 minutes. This is their new job. While I'm out weeding or planting they gather snails. Easy money for them, and less snails to eat my garden plants.

Why?

Oh, wait, I remember now. Because I have teen boys.

Those are corn holders sticking out of the butter.

Finally!

I have been waiting for this day for two months.


It is time to make a fresh salad from the garden.

Show and Tell Friday

This was one of my favorite books when I was growing up. I think I read it once a year for about five years. I have read it to my children once already. My little girls love to look at it.


The illustrations are wonderful.


Especially the colored ones.


I always wanted one of these dresses when I looked at this picture.



Join in by clicking the picture below.

First Swim

He loves taking a bath so Hannah wanted to take him in the pool.


He had fun.


But I couldn't catch a smile.

Let them decorate!

I usually arrange all of the decorative items in my home. The other day I cleared off the dresser in the dining room and couldn't decide what to put back on it. I remembered the kitty collection my mom brought for me to use. These were on our kitchen counters when I was growing up. So I decided to let the girls arrange them on the dresser.


They were very careful with them.


Hannah made sure they each had the same amount of kitties to arrange.



Here is what it looks like now. I brought the teacup planter in from outside. And I added the books. I used to always have a library table with feature books which I would rotate from our bookshelves each month. I think I will start that tradition again.

This was such an easy way to include my daughters in the pleasures of homemaking. They were so happy to help.

Pretty? Lizard

Here is a lizard I was forced to take pictures of.

I like the contrasting colors. Isn't that a pretty shade of turquoise?


Jacob says it is a male. And that is more than I wanted to know. We have yet to search the net to find out what it is called.

Peeps

According to our teens, we are their peeps. The younger children are their little peeps. Our parents are their Grandpeeps.

And here is their favorite recipe for marshmallow peeps.

We remember

We pause for a moment to honor all those who have fought and died for our country and the freedom we enjoy.

To all who are serving now or have served:

Thank you!

The violet symbolizes faithfulness, modesty, virtue, affection, watchfulness, and love.

$10.00

Our oldest three children are boys and they do most of the dish washing so we are often short on plates. I thought instead of buying new that buying plates at the thrift store would be more economical. We already have remnants of about 4 patterns so a few more mismatched dishes wouldn't cramp my style(Ha!). So my plan was to buy all cream and white plates so that they will kinda go together. And here is what I found.


They were very dusty so I ran them through the dishwasher.


This was a neat jar and it had a top!


One of the three snack sets. My husband had the idea of using them for fresh veggies and dip. I've been wanting some pretty serving dishes so these will be fun to use.


Six assorted wine glasses. I just chose shapes that I liked. I'll use these for drinking kombucha and kvass. And then when my parents visit they will have something to sip their wine from. They usually end up with a mug!


And the reason I went to the thrift store, 10 salad plates ($1.00 total) and 11 dinner plates (.30 each). So we should be set for awhile.


4 used school library books. I just can't resist buying books although I do try to keep it to a minimum. The books were only fifty cents per hardcover and were also buy one get one free. So we got four hardcovers and four coloring books for $1.50. Ah, I love this thrift store! We figured that we spent less than 1/3 of what all of this would have cost from the goodwill.

So here is the grand total of how far our $10.00 went. 6 wine glasses, 10 salad plates,11 dinner plates, 1 old canning jar, 3 snack trays and cups, a creamer, 2 little glass dishes, 4 pint canning jars, a bowl, 4 coloring books, 4 hardcover books, and the cashier let the children fill up two bags with toys and gave us four packs of 24 count crayons.

Doggy visitor

Yesterday a dog ended up in our yard. So Jacob called the owner and she came to pick the dog up. The dog visited for about an hour. The children were outside working and playing so they got to know her a bit. When the owner finally picked her up Isaac was outside. He said "She is taking our dog!" Funny guy.

The balloon doesn't have anything to do with it. I was just too lazy to upload a more fitting picture.

Rainy day garden

It's show and tell Friday again. Click on the picture above to go to Kelli's site to participate.

We are getting some much needed rain. It is a nice break from the hot weather. I went outside this afternoon while it was barely sprinkling to take some pictures.

My daylillies are getting ready to bloom. This is our first spring here so I can't wait to see what colors they are.


The chicks saw me walking by and rushed the fence hoping that I had some yummy weeds or kitchen scraps for them. They were enjoying the rainy day.


Pansies in the front shade/sun garden. I love the bright colors of this garden.


Toad Hall. We are reading The Wind in the Willows and thought it would be fun to make a house for Toad, Water rat, Mole, and Badger. Nathan has taken on the project. This is Toad's mansion, boat house, and a little lake. He has plans for a bigger and better Hall in the works.


And last a rose. I really like this color and it has a nice scent also. It just glows in the sunlight.


Thanks for taking a little walk around the yard with me.

Gender differences

Boys dress up a pet because it's funny.


They play with a pet because it's fun.


Girls dress a pet up so they can pretend it's a baby.


Girls play with a pet because you can never have too many babies.



The pets pictured above were not harmed in the making of these photos. The dog loved the attention and the cat slept through it.

Poems by Nathan

We are using Wordsmith Apprentice for Nathan's grammar course. Here are three poems he wrote for one of his assignments.

Pizza
Good tasting pizza
With lots of pepperoni
Melted cheese, so good
Pizza

Pillow
Fluffy, soft pillow
High up on my bed
It wants to run away from me
Angry and mad

Oreo is cute
Puffy tail
Moving fast
My pet

Best buds

The kitties are getting along very well. Oreo even shares his food with the itty bitty. We have decided on a name for her. The people who gave her to us had the deciding vote. We are going with Calico and also Cali for short.

Show and Tell Friday

I am joining Kelli's show and tell friday this week. You can visit her site to see what others are sharing.

I am sharing two teacups that my mom gave me last time she visited. The brown one was my great aunt's and the red one was my great grandmother's.


The handles on both of them are shaped like bamboo. This one is labeled hand painted in Nippon(Japan). From my research it dates between 1891-1921. It does look like it was well loved and used.


This one is labeled made in Japan. I never met my great grandmother but my mom says she was a special lady. She emigrated to California with her oldest daughter and husband from Italy. My grandpa was her youngest child. She had ten children, eight boys and two girls. I wish I could talk to her about having so many boys. I'm sure we could share lots of stories and laughter.



I think I will get her teacup out of the cabinet to use when I am having a tough day. I can imagine the encouragement she could give me to do this sometimes tough job of mothering.

Children's garden

The children wanted their own garden. It had to be close to their playhouse. So I gave them this weed filled patch to work. This was in February when they cleaned out all of the grass and weeds. Then they planted some lettuce, green pea, and scallion seeds. I also gave each of them a pansy to plant.

Here is their garden now. The scallions never came up but soon their lettuce will be ready to go into a salad.


A little bunny and her baby came to live in the garden. They like to munch on the lettuce. Maybe one day they will have some carrots to eat.


They tend the garden themselves. Hannah keeps the pansies deadheaded and does most of the watering. Nathan is good at keeping the weeds under control. I am giving them some more room to plant. They want to plant sunflowers and will have room for some more veggies. The girls want to be able to pick some cherry tomatoes and carrots to have a pretend dinner in their playhouse.

Our garden now

You are looking towards the back of the yard. The grapevines are on the left. The pile of dirt is what my older boys are moving so I can make more veggie beds. There is a one foot deep layer of gavel that has to be taken out to get to the clay heavy soil. I think we are going to try to bring some topsoil in for this area.
This area is going to become an herb garden. It is right next to the grape arbor. We are planning a sitting area under the arbor. If you look all the way to the back of the yard you can see the chicken coop and yard with some compost bins next to it. I planted pumpkins, watermelon, cantaloupe, and nasturtiums in the compost. We are hoping to grow one really big pumpkin.

This is the crepe myrtle. It is starting to leaf out nicely. See the little apple tree next to the crepe? We had a few apples on it last year. My dad pruned both trees for me when my parents visited last month. My mom helped me pick out a bunch of perennials and some roses. They gave me a yard warming. They also bought us some nice pruning tools.
I planted some sweet peas, salvia, and lobelia in the fake well planter. I need to take them out and add some more soil so that they are up higher and more visible. Daylillies are growing under the crepe myrtle, apple tree, and all the way out to the front of the yard. I don't know what color they are. Hopefully they will bloom this year.

The veggie garden is in the foreground. The perennial border is around the dead tree. I have a mandevilla that was a Mother's day gift growing up the tree. The guys are probably going to cut it down in the fall. And then there is the new lawn that my husband started about two months ago. It has really helped to cool the yard down.

This is the view of the border from the house. See the cute tea cup planters? My mom bought those for me. Love them!


A closer look at the other side of the fake well and the crepe myrtle. I put some pansies here. They are one of my favorite flowers.


I hope you enjoyed the tour of our side yard. We have a lot of work to do. I like to take pictures of the veggie garden every month so I might post an update later.