I finally got some of our peach pictures sorted through. We had such a fun time picking this year.
We’re quite lucky the Bracken’s don’t weigh us before and after leaving the orchard… I think Emmett ate his weight in peaches!
Emmett
Berry Picking
This weekend we got to go to a local U-pick berry farm. Raspberries and strawberries and a good time was had by all. We were so happy that this was suggested by our new friend, Kristen, and her daughter, Ciara. Bonus – they live in our neighborhood. Also, as you can see, we got a new camera! Woohoo!
Big Days for Sweet E
Just before Cora was born, Emmett hit a growth spurt. He suddenly got solid – heavy for the first time, filling out his long, lean little body. He really did become a big boy right as he was becoming a big brother.
Right after his sister was born, he got his very first hair cut:
He got to hold his baby sister:
AND he learned to go potty on the potty:
He also had his first head injury. It was minor, but it sure scared me! He hit his head on his bedroom window and broke it, cutting his head. It was the first time I had all three kids by myself. Thankfully, Henry was a huge help, Rick was only a few minutes away, and no stitches were needed. Emmett wasn’t upset by it at all – he didn’t even cry. He’s a tough kiddo, and I have a feeling it was just the first of many minor (but potentially bloody) injuries to come with my little fearless adventurer. I better get tougher though, since I can handle poop or vomit all day long, but just seeing a bloody nose makes me dizzy.
Two is really such a great age. Fortunately with Henry and so far with Emmett, we have had none of the “terrible twos” (three was another story, however). Don’t get me wrong, Emmett’s very independent and I hear an awful lot of, “Emmett do it, Mommy!” But he is very funny and charming, and such a delight most of the time.
Categories: Emmett, what not
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Virtual Homestead Tour
Welcome to the Schell Urban Homestead’s end of July virtual garden tour! I was really excited when Erica at Northwest Edible Life invited me to participate in letting all you Nosy Neighbors peek over our garden fence!
Here’s how the Lazy Homesteader does the Nosy Neighbor Virtual Homestead & Garden Tour:
The first part of this tour that makes me really excited is that I’m actually documenting what the whole garden is doing at a given point in the summer. I never remember when we get the first tomato (this week! A Silver Fir Tree Russian heirloom). The kohlrabi is a giant variety that Rick’s grandpa brought us from Slovakia. It will get to be over 8 pounds and will not be woody. It also keeps great all winter, and it’s starting to bulb up to about baseball size in the last few days of July. Rick’s parents shared cucumbers with us last week and the week before, but ours have only just begun to flower.
The unexpected thing that I am loving about this tour is the truth of it. In the pictures of the onions and watermelons, you can see both the weeds I’ve neglected to pull, and the light-colored, hard clay that we grow in here in Colorado. Normally, I’d make an effort to hide both the weeds and the soil, because the shiny-happy blogger in me wants you to think that my garden is perfectly groomed and full of rich, dark, beautiful loamy soil. In fact, some people do think that. Rick’s grandparents even commented this week on how they couldn’t grow something that we could because their soil (about 25 miles from us) is hard clay. Rick and I burst out laughing. So here’s the proof. We don’t have perfect soil. This is how it looks after eight years of work amending it. And I’m glad I let it show.
Some of my other favorite highlights from the slideshow (the shiny-happy stuff):
Corn from our neighbor’s garden, actually. His corn is peeking over our front yard fence. Well, not peeking, so much as towering. We are actually sharing our harvests this year, so that is how I’m justifying including crops that belong to someone else in my garden tour. 
The hundreds of tiny cherry tomatoes on Henry’s plants make me giddy. And I can’t believe how big those two plants are. Over six feet high!
The garlic I harvested in the week before Cora was born is drying in the garage, and the beets I pulled a few days ago are beautiful, although we might have pulled them about a week earlier if we weren’t in new baby mode.
We’re still waiting on the first eggs from the pullets, but we are getting two or three a day still from the older hens.
I was really hoping to include a picture of our raspberries this year, but they suddenly quit producing just last week. Luckily I found something in the strawberry bed to show you instead!
Be sure to check out the other homesteads and gardens in Erica’s Nosy Neighbor Tour. Thanks for stopping by!
Categories: Beekeeping, Chickens, Community, Cora, Emmett, Food, Garden, Henry, Hugelkultur, Urban Homesteading
Tags: Chickens, Food, Garden, Simple Living, Sustainability, Urban Gardening
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WooHoo! Emmett’s Two!
And he had a great birthday party! My favorite part was the super-cute cupcakes from Annie Cakes and Cookies! Emmett loved them too, and all the fun gifts he got. Thanks to everyone who made it so special!
Mother’s Day Big Brag
Wow! Happy belated Mother’s Day! Here’s my official brag about how great my family is and what a great weekend we had on the homestead. This weekend I had requested to get the garden planted. The plan was for me to spend Saturday with my mom and sister while Rick and the boys went with his mom to the botanic gardens, and for us to plant the garden on Friday after Rick was home from work and on Sunday.
On Friday, we planted corn, onions, and carrots with the neighbor and put in our tomatoes. But Friday night, we got a call that our friend, Chris, had caught a swarm of bees for us, and another call that the CSA asparagus was ready to pick.
Some things just don’t wait. So on Saturday morning, while the guys were at the botanic gardens with Grandma, my mom and sister came over here for bunch, and Chris brought us the swarm.
The bees we had last year left in the fall, we’re not sure why. We think either the queen died or left since there were bees milling around aimlessly for a week or two before they were all gone. There were no dead bees, just gone. Last year’s swarm was also much smaller and our friend caught it later in the season while we were out of town. He had installed them for us then, so this was the first time I got to experience putting bees into the hive, and Chris walked me through it. My mom got to watch ME put the bees into the hive (and took pictures for us!).
These new bees were pretty cranky, they had been in the box for a couple days and were hungry and thirsty. It took me three good tries to get the majority of them in the hive and get the bars on the top. My initial trial of things, they sort of swarmed around my head and clung to the gloves I was wearing. But they seemed to calm down significantly in a few minutes and I was able to knock the majority of the rest of them into the hive and get the bars on top without any trouble. I was really surprised at how they clung to the box, and also how quickly they just took to the hive.
We put them in with the old comb that last year’s bees had left behind (we’re pretty certain there were no mites or diseases), and they settled down fairly quickly. Many bees zoomed off to the water and sugar-water we had out for them, but others went to the entrance of the hive and started fanning their wings to spread the queen’s pheromones so the remaining bees in the box and the air (there were still quite a few) would come on in and start making the new hive their home. It was really exciting and I’m sad Rick missed it again.
Then, it was back to brunch with the girls for me. It was a really nice time (I made lavender pound cake and my sister made yummy pecan-dark chocolate scones). When Rick and the boys got home, we headed up to the farm to pick asparagus. It took us less than forty-five minutes to pick a good 25 pounds before we trimmed it all up. It came out to about 14 pounds of asparagus, processed and frozen, plus some to eat fresh this week.
Sunday, for some unknown reason I woke up super early, before any of the guys rolled out of bed. When they got up around 6:45, they gave me some sweet cards and kisses, and promised to build me a picnic table next week! We got dressed and they took me out to Snooze (one of my favorite places) for breakfast. Afterward, we came home and started up more planting work.
We did the boys’ hugelkultur bed first. Henry planted watermelon, carrots (two kinds) and tomatoes (an heirloom red cherry and a “white” cherry that will actually be yellow). The boys got a new real shovel and special, colored tomato cages. My mom always said she wouldn’t be a mother without me, and I sort of feel the same about my boys, so they get treats on mother’s day too). Emmett ran around the hugelkultur while Rick scrambled to make barriers to keep him from trampling the seeds.
It was nap time before we knew it, and Rick and I spent the afternoon putting up asparagus (Rick did most the work), and planting out the rest of the main garden bed. By the evening I had gotten plans for my new picnic table, an order placed for the grub hoe I’ve been lusting over, a [nearly] fully planted garden bed, four kinds of basil in my flower beds, a delicious sunburn on my shoulders, a home-made dinner with fresh asparagus, and a perfect day with my guys. Lucky me!
I hope your Mother’s Day weekend was just as special as mine was! What did you do?
Categories: Beekeeping, Emmett, Food, Garden, Henry, Hugelkultur
Tags: Family, Garden, Simple Living, Urban Gardening
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[Nearly] Wordless Wednesday: Easter 2011
Yesterday I completely forgot to give the Easter update! So here it is in pictures!
Happy Spring!
Happy first day of Spring! This weekend we were able to spend a lot of time outside… the perfect way to celebrate!
Here are a few photos of what we found in the gardens this weekend as we were cleaning out all the beds, planting a few seeds here and there, trimming last fall’s stalks, etc.
Also this weekend we converted Emmett’s crib into a toddler bed. He is growing up fast this spring! So fast that we are switching him to his big boy bed this week (a twin size that matches Henry’s new bed) since it has better rails and he already fell out of the toddler bed twice so far.
What did you do to celebrate Spring?
Howdy!
3 kids, 8 chickens, bees and a garden on my urban 1/8 acre. Striving to find the simple life - the easy way. I spend my free time blogging and getting dirt under my nails along side my hard-working husband. Yay for modern housewifery, urban livestock and front yard gardens!
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