Cave of Bells

A few weeks ago we went to Cave of Bells with Stacy, Artie and Tyler.  It was so much fun and the cave was amazing.

Backyard Update

We decided to use our tax return on our back yard. So not only did we put a garden in, but we also added grass!  We absolutely love it, but our dogs might love it even more.  It has definitely cut down on the amount of dirt and dust in our house so that is a big plus.  We spend so much more time in our back yard, it makes me so happy :)

The garden is also doing amazing!  After only a few weeks from planting we had things sprouting all over the place.  Now it has been just over a month since planting and everything is growing like crazy, especially the corn, tomatoes and sunflowers.  We have already picked some tomatoes.  I even gave Jacob a few for his birthday.  And I have used some of my basil in my cooking.  It is awesome having a garden!  Check out the pics!

Corn!

Aren't they beautiful!

The irrigation is in. No more watering by hand!

Michael's Birthday

For Michael's birthday we took him out to The Keg for dinner, of course it was amazing.  Although Michael decided to try the escargot, which I dont think he was a fan of.  Luckily the prime rib there is so delicious.

On Michael's actual birthday he had to work a twelve hour clinical shift, but I wanted him to have something fun for his birthday so when he got home he found a basket with a note telling him I wanted to tell him 27 things I love about him, but he would have to find them first.  I sent him on an easter egg hunt around the house.  He had a lots of fun.

For Michael's Birthday, along with family, we got Michael a new BBQ grill.  He loves it!  In the last month we have used it multiple time each week and already went through one tank of propane.  Michael is an excellent griller!

Planting

Saturday I finished filling the beds with a wonderful soil mixture of soil, manure and mulch.  Then I soaked them to get water nice and deep.  Dont they look awesome!

Monday Michael and I went to the nursery.  Since summer is just around the corner I needed to get some transplants for the things I am a little late in planting.  I also got  seeds of the things that do great in the summer.  So in box one I have green onions, lettuce, carrots, radishes, tomatoes and sunflowers.  In box two I have bell peppers, banana pepper, corn, squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, and watermelon.  I have strawberries but I'm not sure where I'm putting them yet.

I am having so much fun with my garden.  And Michael is doing a great job helping me out with some plants and watering.  I cant wait to get my irrigation system in.

When I was planting on Monday I had a visitor to the garden.  A Humming Bird!  It was so awesome, it was flying all around the plants and got with in 3 feet of me.  So yesterday I bought a humming bird feeder in hopes that it will come back.  No sign of him yet.

I did make the mistake of letting the dog come in the garden while I was planting and of course while I wasn't looking Stark decides to eat the tops off my onions.  You would think I would kick the dogs out after that, but no of course not.  So Gambit shows some interest in the strawberry plants and what does he do, knocks one of the developing strawberries right off.  I know they like gardening, but I guess they need to stay out :( 

GARDEN TIME!

So we decided to start a garden.... ok I decided, and Michael is going a long with it and doing lots of extra work.  Don't I have a great husband.  Anyway when we moved in to our new house last June the back yard was completely bare, just a ton of hard rocky dirt.  So what better to fill it up than a garden.

For inspiration we went to Michael's Uncle's house, he has a beautiful every fruitful garden.  He gave us some good pointers to get us started.  Originally I planned to plant right at ground level and mix in compost and potting soil.  Well last week I spent at least 3-4 days soaking the dirt and digging at it.  Much to my disappointment I was only about 4 inches deep.  This ground was ridiculously hard.  So I persuaded Michael to help make me raised garden boxes.  This was a great idea and I love them.  They are 12 ft. x 4 ft.  Michael cut the wood and I put them together.  What do you think?

The dogs love the garden boxes.... well I think it might be the soil and manure they love.  Our dogs may have an interest in gardening, but I'm afraid they might smoother it with too much love.  So we decided to build a fence to protect our investment. 

In order to put the fence in, we needed to bury posts.  Well I already said how hard the ground was, so Michael decided to rent a Two-man Auger.  That's right I said two-man.  Michael thought that a one-man auger wouldn't be strong enough for our hard ground.  So I agreed to the two-man auger even though I was a bit afraid, those things are huge, let's just say when the auger was sitting on top of the ground the handles were practically in my arm pits.  Michael said all I would have to do is weigh down the one side.  Well that is not even close to what happened.  Once that auger dug a hole WE had to pull it out and that thing was not lite. 
So much for just weighing down one side.  At the beginning I tried pulling it up with my arm strength and that wasn't working.  It got to a point where I had to squat down a put my shoulder under the handles in order to get enough lift.

I wish I would have taken a picture to show you all how big this was next to me. But this picture is of two full grown men, you can just imagine me and Michael with one of these.  And I didn't even get a hard hat! 

Well we only had 5 holes to dig and that didn't take long.  We had the auger for 4 hours and since we had plenty of time I thought it would be great to break up the ground that the raised beds would be sitting on.  Well this turned out to be exhausting.  Lifting and moving that auger over and over wore me out, but it was worth it.  Check out the ground now.... this will be great for the plants and drainage.  But next time Michael will have to get someone else to help run the auger :)

I will keep everyone updated on our progress.

Masters Complete Dec 2010!

Wow, has it really been since September since I last Blogged.....I guess it's true.  Well I guess some exciting stuff has happened since September.  I think the best thing was I completed my thesis and finally got my MASTERS DEGREE!!!  It was a lot of hard work and long hours but it was worth it.  I officially graduated this last December 2010.

For those of you that are interested  my thesis was a project-based thesis where I created Riding Through Life a curriculum guide for utilizing equine assisted learning with children who have high functioning autism.  It ended up being almost 140 pages!  It was a huge project. In November and December there were some days I spent over 16 hours working on it.  My faculty adviser didn't think I could complete it in time, but I pulled it off and I think it turned out great  If you want to read my thesis or just take a look, it was published on Proquest, here is the link: http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.prescott.edu/pqdtlocal1005733/docview/840632464/previewPDF/12E7DF65093190AB10E/1?accountid=28426

I'm hoping you don't need a password to get on. Enjoy :)

Making Bread

I have started making my own bread and it is taste.  My mom got me a wheat grinder and a bosch for my birthday/wedding present and I love them.  Last month my friend Mandy and I went to a cooking class at Shar’s kitchen center.  At that class they taught us how to make fresh whole wheat bread.  Well the next day we decided to practice ourselves so we wouldn’t forget all the little tips and techniques.  We ground our own wheat and threw all the ingredients in the bosch.  A couple hours later to our surprise the bread turned out amazing.  I have made bread about 4 times since and every time it comes out great.  If you want the recipe go to our cooking blog at http://easy-fun-delicious.blogspot.com. The recipe makes 4-5 loaves. Don’t they look great.