Quotable Kids.

Scene:  Early morning. Bryce has discovered "our" pair of ducks on the pool.

Bryce:  Hey, ducks! Get out of Mama's pool!
(ducks ignore him, so he goes outside)
Bryce: Hey, ducks! Get out of Mama's pool!
(ducks fly away)
Bryce: I got rid of de ducks, Mama!

Too cute.

Bad photo--looking straight into the rising sun. BUT, you can see the duck floating on the solar cover and his
mate sitting on the edge of the pool. Bryce got them both OUTTA HERE!

Composting.

I have not been very successful with composting over the years. It's not for lack of wanting to compost or lack of wanting the finished product. It's also not for lack of knowing HOW to compost. It's mostly because I lose interest or I forget to set aside my kitchen scraps or the compost gets smelly due to too much grass or too much water or a thousand other reasons. Mostly, it's because I haven't found a method that is easy enough to maintain without constant vigilance. Was that a slightly disguised way of saying I'm lazy?

I've tried a few methods and found varying success with them. I've used the "pile" method, where you just pile up debris and then turn it once in a while. That didn't last-piles get neglected and neglected piles get animals. I tried composting in an aluminum garbage can with holes in the bottom. That got too "hot" and it went rancid. My latest and most lasting method has been to just direct-dig kitchen waste into the garden beds and let the worms do the rest. That's actually worked quite well! This winter I saved our  my coffee grounds and all our egg shells in a large flower pot on the back deck.  I dug those into the vegetable beds in early March and the worms had a field day. I will definitely stick to this method next winter.

However, there's no good reason to not give this composting thing another go. Americans put over 700 pounds PER YEAR of waste into landfills that could be composted. That's just crazy! Especially when you consider just the coffee drinkers alone-at 2lbs of coffee per month, that's 24 pounds of waste than can easily just be sprinkled into a garden bed! 

I'd been reading online about various composting methods and I wanted one that is cheap and easy. I saw a few tutorials on fashioning a tube out of heavy gauge chicken wire and then filling that tube up with your waste, grass clippings, a little soil, some shredded newspaper, etc. When it's time to turn the "pile", you simply lift the tube off, set it in a new spot, and shovel the composting waste back into it. Now how easy is that?

Brad took the "tube" idea one step further  and drilled a lot of holes into an aluminum garbage can we've had forever--but it has no bottom. (from my failed "composting in an aluminum garbage can" trial several years ago). It's even better than the chicken wire tube because it has handles and a lid. Fancy! I found a great spot behind our shed so it won't get baked in the summer, but is easily accessible so we won't forget about it.

Check it out:

Here it is--minus the lid.

You can see the holes here. Brad used a 1/2" drill bit for the holes.

Lots of room for another can or two.

My shabby chic picket fence hides the can from view.

Remember, do not put meat, dairy, or bones in your bin. You want to try to keep the amounts of "brown" and "green" about even or even a bit more heavy on the "brown."  Brown would be dead leaves, dirt, newspaper shreds, paper shreds, coffee grounds. Green things are the fruit/veg waste. If you get too much of one or the other, decomp will stop. Also, make sure it stays a bit damp.

Another thing that I do is when I'm weeding in my perennial beds and find a worm, I toss it into my compost. Sure, the bottom of the garbage can is missing and the worms can head underground, but as long as I keep up proper ratios and keep it damp, the worms come up out of the ground and do their thing on my waste.


2012 UPDATE-I've been successfully using this compost bin for over 1 year. I have had great success with it--as long as I remember to turn it. Because this is not a hot pile, it takes a little longer to break down, but I'm ok with that because I don't have to worry about it getting smelly.



Rain Barrels!!!!

Aesthetics? Zero.
Practicality? Ten.

Brad made and installed our two new rain barrels yesterday--just in time for them to get tested! I've been wanting them for awhile because-well, because rain water is better for the garden AND rain water is FREE. Ok, and well because I just think they're cool.

After looking on Craigslist for local sources of food grade 55 gallon barrels (ahem--at $30 or more EACH!), Brad purchased two from an apple juice company up near his parents' cottage. They smelled like apples!! Once they made it home and sat in the sun for a week they smelled like nasty apples, but whatever. The cost for these barrels was $20 and really no cost for gas or travel time because Brad & the boys were already up at his parent's cottage. Sa-weet!

We looked at rain barrel set up online. There are a couple of options for rain barrels: one is to use a closed top and feed the gutter straight into a hole. The other option is to have an open top that is covered with screening and have the gutter just lay on top. We choose #2, mostly so we'd have an intact lid to place back on the barrels when we disconnect them for winter. Using a few simple parts purchased from Lowe's, and drilling holes and popping everything together, the project of building 2 rainbarrels + installation took less than 1 hour. Total cost for parts was $9 for each barrel-$7 for the spigot and $2 for the overflow valve/parts. We had screening here, so that was zero.

All told, we spent $58 for two complete rain barrels. Here's a basic checklist of what you'll need from the store:
1 55 gallon FOOD GRADE barrel. MUST be food grade.
1" PVC a few feet long
1" PVC elbow
1 threaded faucet spigot + plumbers tape
Drill

For the barrel shown below, we basically cut the gutter/downspout and used an accordian elbow attachment we had on hand to direct the water into the barrel. We opted for 2 layers of standard window screen on the top of the barrel, using the ring that that came with the barrel like an embroidery hoop. You must cover the barrel opening in some fashion.

We have the barrel propped up on a few cinder blocks. You want it as high up as you can safely raise it to allow gravity to help feed the water out faster.

Use the drill to drill out a hole up near the top. Put a short piece of PVC in the hole, attach the elbow and the remainder of the PVC. This is the overflow valve.

Use the drill to drill out a hole for the faucet/spigot, down near the bottom. Wrap the threads of the spigot with the plumber's tape & screw it in. That's basically it.

Front rain barrel. The perennial sweet pea vine will (hopefully) hide it from street view.

Top of front rain barrel. You can the see the white PVC overflow valve. It just dumps directly down into
the flowerbeds below it. We may lengthen that pipe a little to better direct it.

Next was location. They need to be on the south side of the house as that's the side that has the most gardens and the north side of the house needs some relandscaping. (*cough cough* That's a different post altogether!). Brad built a platform for them to stand on out of items we had on hand-so the platform cost was zero.

Front rain barrel--platform is concrete blocks and a few pieces of scrap lumber. The hollyhocks
will fill in around it and it'll be more hidden.

Back rain barrel. Again, a platform of concrete block and wood. The overflow valve on this one vents directly into
the gutter downspout and then empties out in front of that flower bed. Pretty ingenious!

Closer up view of the rear rain barrel. It's a little crazy right there, the "Snow In Summer" plant grows through the
frame of the raised bed, the spigot for the water is right there, and the hose to connect it to the hose reel
is also right there. Not sure about landscaping around this spot--it's a high traffic area.

A decent rain storm can through yesterday, just a few hours after installation. Perfect timing!!! Brendan went out during the rain to check out the progress. The barrel near the front of the house was reaching the overflow valve (!) and the barrel near the back was only about 4" deep. There was a leak from the gutter to the "elbow", so most of the water was spilling out. Brad went out later to fix that problem. (oh, and Brad wants me to point out that the barrels don't leak AND he used no caulk on them.)

The results today? Front rain barrel is FULL and the back one is about half full. So exciting!  I already have plans in my head to hook up one more barrel to the front one. You can connect several together off the same downspout, which is very cool.

They're not much to look at-yet-but they will pay for themselves in short order and I'm sure we'll say, "I can't believe we didn't do this before now!"

9/9/11: I'm pleased to report that since their installation, the rainbarrels have MORE than paid for themselves.I have collected & used almost 1,000 gallons of rainwater that did not go into the sewer for treatment AND I didn't have to pay for. We've just added a 3rd rainbarrel and hope that next summer, I won't have to use the hose to water at all. I ran out of rainbarrel water & was forced to use the hose to water my garden & perennials 4 times this summer.

This post linked to Centsational Girl.  Life As Mom

Quotable Kids.

Scene:  Chatting at the dinner table.

Brett: Maybe I will get married when I'm older. (neither Brett nor Brendan wants to get married)
Me:  Oh really? Why'd you change your mind?
Brett: You get to boss your kids around, so if I get married I can have some kids and boss them around.
Me: (horrified that maybe I boss him around too much) That's not why you have kids, Brett. We do more than boss you around, we do fun stuff, too.
Brett: Yeah, like make popcorn and play in the pool and watch Wipeout.
Me: (relieved he finds those simple things FUN!) How much do you think I boss you around?
Brett: You boss me around .5
Me: .5? Out of what, 10?
Brett: No, 5.

Whew!  Relieved that I'm 4.5/5 FUN and only .5 bossy.

Memorial Weekend = Work Weekend.

Rain. We've recieved more than DOUBLE the usual rainfall for April/May here in Hockeytown. Great for plants already in the ground--not so great for the many flooded basements and streets. Also not so great for garden chores.

*sigh*  I'm so behind! I'll blame it on the rain, okay?

Some of the chores for this weekend include lots of vegetable garden work. Here's my list for the veggie garden (finished items are crossed off!):

1. Buy seeds (cukes, green beans, peas, spinach, cabbage, lettuce, potato, onions). Ok, potato/onion will be sets, not seeds.
2. Buy tomato and pepper plants.
3. Decided whether to grow parsley, cilantro, dill and basil from seed or plants...
4. Plant all this stuff! (either direct sow or under lights in the basement)
5. Weed veggie garden.
6. Have Brad build new veggie beds from old wood.
7. Remove chicken wire; fashion into composting "tubes." (change of plan--remove chicken wire, use old metal trash can for composting)
8. Hang plastic mesh on privacy fence for climibing veggies.

The rest of the yard:

1. Trim shrubs by deck.
2. Plant annuals in pots for deck.
3. Edge/weed beds around deck.
4. Dig out iris & barberry by pool.
5. Dig & divide & replant giant ornamental grass by pool.
6. Prune lilacs.
7. Weed behind pool/shed.
8. Edge front perennial beds.
9. Dig out stump & remove shrub out front.
10. Edge beds out front.

Whew! I think that's it. I'm sure there's more-and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to finish all of this, even with the help of my minions children. I'm sure we'll make time for playing and for grilling out, too.

Have a great weekend!

May 31 update: ok, so I didn't get ALL the things done from my list---but we got SO MUCH work done around here! Several items didn't even make my list that we did complete: finish installation of new garden beds, prune neighbor's apple tree, weed behind the shed, weed/edge by front fence, weed/edge by side of house, build/install rain barrels, plant sunflower garden...and so much more!


Sept 14 update: I finally got it ALL finished. Seems my list was a bit aggressive! It took all summer, but I got it all done, and then some!

Rain, Rain Go Away. Seriously!

Three inches of rain fell today, with more expected overnight and into the next couple of days. We've had flooding in the vegetable beds, along the downspouts, and in the streets. It's crazy!!!

Even crazier? Brad opened the pool last weekend. Seemed like a good idea at the time!  The thought was to open it up a little early so it'd be ready for the kids to swim in it over Memorial weekend.

Sooo, what happens when you open your pool, fill it and THEN you get 3 inches of rain?

This:

First--don winter waterproof boots and your raingear. Try to not splish and splash on the grass; it was mowed 4 days ago! (can you see the sloppy, muddy vegetable beds in the background? They've NEVER flooded in the 14 years we've lived here!)

Then, you splash and splash back to the pool, put the pump in and rig up a sprinkler to the drain hose. A sprinkler? Yep. A sprinkler. We normally drain the pool just in the back behind the pool, but that's mucky and wet. Brad figured it would be better to spread the water around a little.

And there it is. Necessity is the mother of invention! Maybe we'll drain the pool this way every time.

Mid-May Garden Update.

Well, May in Michigan is once again a gamble. We've had rainy day after rainy day and while that's great for the garden itself, it's not so great for getting garden chores completed. You have to dodge the thunderstorms and wait for everything to dry out only to find out it's going to rain AGAIN!  blargh.

Is is nice to know that some things in the garden just truck along with little intervention from me. Take my strawberries, for example. We moved them and thinned them out and they are just toolin' along, happy with the rain and cool-ish temps:

We went a little insane with the broccoli planting. I put in 15 broccoli plants. Yep. FIFTEEN. That's a LOT of broccoli. The plan is to blanche and freeze the broccoli. We've never had more than 3 broccoli plants growing in a season, so it'll be interesting to see how much broccoli 15 plants produce. And yes, I'm aware that those 15 plants look like they're on death's door, but they're just unhappy from being transplanted.

Here's the onion bed. They were started from seeds from last year's onions in the garden, transplanted to this bed last November, and continue to just grow and grow. This is about 50 onions or so, and last year the 50 I grew were barely enough to get us into September. I'm planning on growing another 50 in the next few weeks. Onions require full sun; this bed receives full sun from mid-morning until after dinner. Our neighbor's apple tree shades it a bit.



Happy Birthday, Brett!

Brett turned EIGHT today. Where does the time go? He requested a cookie cake-and Brendan delivered. He was happy with his birthday presents and had a great day. Party to come!

First EE Clinic Appointment.

Bryce had a very lengthy 2+ hour appointment last week at the EE clinic at "The U" (University of Michigan). The boys have been seen by U of M docs for years and we've been happy overall. This was Bryce's very first EE-specific appointment and he was seen by a new pediatric GI and pediatric allergist.

Overall, the appointment went smoothly. The GI doc was very thorough, going over Bryce's history starting at infancy. She asked a lot of questions and seemed to take a lot of notes. Many of her questions I just don't have answers to-like things about his sleep habits or food habits. It's hard to know if his actions are behavioral or EE-driven. He's 3. Three year olds sometimes have behavioral stuff. (insert massively sarcastic icon here!)

The new allergist (Dr. G) was something else. He's not the one we've seen for the past several years (Dr. M), he's newish to The U and very much more agressive than Dr. M. He was ready to food challenge Bryce right then and there--totally against what Dr. M has been telling me. Absolutely no way was I going to food challenge Bryce at age 3 when he does NOT have enough labs to show that he's "not allergic" on paper. He informed me that if Bryce could eat egg that our  "quality of life would improve significantly". Really? What does he know about our quality of life? I think we're doing pretty well over here!

I let him have it. No way was I giving Bryce egg, especially after he'd eaten one TINY bite of a pancake at church that had egg & dairy in it and he got hives, sneezing and instant black eyes. This is the kid that reacted to AIRBORNE egg. He reacted by merely TOUCHING an egg carton. Thank goodness Dr. M will continue to be Bryce's allergist for his IgE allergies, and Dr. G for the EE.

Then, Dr. G informs me he works for the company that makes Neocate, the brand of hypoallergenic formulas that many EE kids have to consume to live. He tells me he wants Bryce to gain 1-2 pounds, hands me a pack of Neocate samples, and tells me to get Bryce to consume 8oz of Neocate Splash daily.

(screeching brake sounds echo through my head)

I tell Dr. G that Bryce will NOT consume this stuff (it's horrible, by the way) and that our insurance doesn't cover it (it's horribly expensive, as well). I ask why can't I just get him to gain a little through food? (umm, bacon comes to mind!). He kind of turns on me, from being sorta nice to mean, and tells me to "Get used to it because Bryce will be on Neocate very soon."

Ahem. Well, we'll see. Bryce is to have another scope in June (to be scheduled) and the results of that will determine the next course of treatment. One thing I've learned is that there is not ONE solitary treatment for EE. The disease is very different in each kid and thus, so is their treatment. I've talked to some folks who believe that going on a hypoallergenic formula is necessary to "reboot" the kids' system, and others who believe that going on that same formula will make the body react more violently when foods are reintroduced.  Brad and I are in the camp of "lets find his EE triggers and keep Bryce eating food"--we've worked too hard with him getting him to eat, to just take it all away.

For now, we've upped Bryce's rice milk consumption to 16oz per day, we've added his beloved "hotties" (hot dogs) and "circle-y" (bologna) back into his diet and allow him free reign over bacon consumption.

How big is Bryce, anyway? He's 3 years old, 40.5 inches tall and hovers between 38 and 39 pounds. He's in the same range as Brendan and Brett were at 3 and they didn't have all of Bryce's medical issues. I think he's doing just fine on the foods he can safely eat.

I won this battle, but the EE war is just beginning.

Lilac!!

This is our 70+ years old lilac "bush."  It's really more of a tree! It was amazing this year, mostly due to our very long & snowy winter. I can't really prune off the dead blossoms as it's 12-14' tall, but I do the best I can. A few years ago I pruned away all the branches that were growing lower than 4' in height and that has just made this a fabulous speciman.

2011 You Be The Chemist.

Brendan's third appearance--that's right--THREE YEARS IN A ROW!--at the Michigan You Be The Chemist Challenge (YBTC) was quite exciting. Sponsored by PVS Nolwood Chemicals and Dow Chemical and filmed at Detroit PBS, it's a very exciting day. Brendan's 3rd year straight at the State Challenge appears to be a record; there were a handful of contestants from 2010, but to the best of my knowledge, he's the first to come back for 3.

This is the second year that YBTC was recorded before a live studio audience of parents and siblings and it's just such a treat that these chemistry whiz kids receive the kind of celebrity they deserve. The goal of the folks that sponsor this contest here in Michigan is to push chemical education & competition to the level of the National Spelling Bee or the National Geography Bee. Michigan was the first state to broadcast the Challenge; California has followed suit and recorded their 2011 Challenge as well.

24 State Finalists beat out about 5,000 other middle schoolers to get to the State YBTC; it's quite an impressive amount of work these kids do to land a seat. Brendan and 2 of his classmates from the gifted program at his middle school were representing our county-this was the 2nd year for his classmates in the State Challenge.  Brad and I knew the competition was tough, but Brendan was cool as a cucumber. We were shocked when one of his classmates was knocked out in Round 3-but he was re-entered later when it turns out there was a computer glitch. The kids use these wireless clickers to choose their answer from the question on the screen and with technology comes glitches.

The kids answer 3 rounds of questions in sets of ten; a maximum of 2 competitors is eliminated at each round. Then they complete 3 rounds of 5 questions, again with a max of 2 competitors being eliminated at each round. Brendan's other classmate was elminated in the 3rd round of 5 questions. Then they move to single elimination questions. The questions are not graduated--they are randomly easy and "harder" mixed throughout. Brendan made it to the 11th single elimination question when a silly mistake knocked him out.

Brad and I were SHOCKED at the question that knocked him out---the rule of thumb is that if MOM knows the answer then BRENDAN knows the answer. As I knew the answer, I just couldn't believe Brendan didn't!  He made a silly mistake with his clicker (insert long drawn out sigh here!) and landed in 6th place overall. His remaining classmate tied for 4th. Brendan was very upset initially, but by the time he did his exit interview for the TV broadcast and had a snack (did I mention the food they lay out for this competition?) he was all smiles and raring to go for 2012.

Congrats, Brendan. You rank higher and higher in the state every year. Hopefully, 2012 will be YOUR year!!!

Bryce in Photos.

A lot of tower building has been going on lately. Grabbed a photo of this one before
Captain Destructo knocked it down.





Captain Destructo poses for a photo op.





"Mark-a-dees" (markers) work best when lined up.



"Take a picture with cow!"



Early May Garden Update.

It's true.

I've finally killed something in the garden.

I have a green thumb. Truely, honestly, making stuff happen in the yard really come easily to me. I've done difficult things, like starting lavender from seed. I've transplanted shrubs in July. I've planted my veggies long before the last frost date and I've never killed anything.

But the asparagus is no more. You experienced gardeners will know that asparagus is a perennial that requires little care once established. It will grow along abandonded farmhouses for years. It turns out, however, that transplanting asparagus (truly an advanced gardening skill) was too tough for me.

Here's the aspargus in 2010. I've perfected how low I can hack cut it back. It
came back year after year for 10 years.

Last fall we I got the brilliant idea to move the asparagus, make the garden bigger and make the asparagus happy. It required Brad's help as the asparagus crowns were extremely overgrown. He worked his tail off digging it up. I worked my tail off dividing the crowns, making sure there were roots, and then planting it in the new bed in front of the kids' play area. I thought this would be a good spot as it would get full sun AND the added bonus of screening the view of the kids' play area from the street. When asparagus is left to grow without being hacked cut back, it grows 6 or more feet tall. Perfect little privacy screen--so I thought, anyway.

Here's a closer view of the new bed, right after we planted it:

And here's how it looks today:

Nothing. Absolutely nothing is coming up. I'll have to dig it all up and purchase new crowns. Bummer! For this summer, however, I'm going to plant this bed with sunflowers and cosmos. No sense letting it go to waste!

Lamp Re-do!

Spray paint is my new friend.

Ever since I spray painted our lamps downstairs, and then some of our vent covers, I've been wanting to spray paint the lamps in our bedroom. They need a little sprucing up.  And since spray paint is cheap and easy for even a non-crafty person like myself, I gave it a go.

Here's a quick before:
(pay no attention to the day-glow yellow circus tent walls. I have no idea who picked that color. cough cough)

So, the lamps are kind of a neo-classical style, with a nice glass shade. They work well, but don't coordinate with anything in the room. Especially the yellow circus tent walls.


So here we are, in progress. I lightly dusted sanded the finish, wiped it clean, and took it outside to my spray station table on the deck. I use big pieces of cardboard to protect the furniture and then I gave it an undercoat of a $4 can of "espresso" paint:

Undercoat and 2 final coats of oil rubbed bronze later--voila! 

Pretty cool, if I do say so myself! 

All linked up to Thrifty Decor Chick!