This Is Us

  We had to drain the water out of the pool this year so we could put clean water in and adjust the support poles. Nick ended up having to go out of town for work so I needed some help getting some more bricks put under the poles. Xander and his best friend Cairo went to the hardware store, bought the bricks for me, and then put them under the poles. It may not seem like a lot, but for me it was a huge help and I grateful appreciated them taking time to help me.

  We have been having problems with our cat and bugs getting into our garden beds this year.  I read that sprinkling cinnamon on the soil will keep them out.  Cats and pests don't like the strong smell of cinnamon.  Cinnamon also has antibacterial and antifungal properties which helps control plant diseases, umm hello... How wonderful is that?!  It can also help roots grow on cuttings. If you sprinkle cinnamon on your seed starting blocks it will help your seeds start out their journey healthy, as it helps prevent diseases. To use it on cuttings, lightly dust the cut end of your cuttings before planting. I will be sprinkling cinnamon on our garden beds and seed starting blocks every spring from now on!  Who's with me?  

  Our first gardening beds weren't tall because we didn't have to fill them up with much.  However, it was hard to pick the fruits/veggies, pull weeds, and made my back sore. So Nick has added metal to some of the boxes and built some new boxes taller.  We put cinder blocks and branches in them, then we filled them with dirt.  We moved the strawberries over and planted other stuff in the other new beds..  This will make it so much easier to garden out of. Hopefully we can get the rest of the garden boxes adjusted to taller ones and get other things growing in them.  It's so nice to have them taller... I love them so much!

  On Saturday we (I mean Nick) not only built  this trellis  but he made some of our garden boxes taller with metal that he had. We moved our strawberries over so we could get rid of all the stupid weed grass stuff.  We need to do the other two boxes. It's so nice to have them taller.  It's easier to weed, when we need to, gather the fruits/veggies, and see what needs to be done. This is what they looked like before. This is Lydia and Tyler helping me move the strawberries over.

  We needed to close off our garden area because Rooben kept getting in the garden beds and making a mess. We went to the hardware store and got stuff to make a trellis for the blackberries, a gate, and close off the end. Lydia and Tyler got to ride with everything on top of them. Lol!  Zain did a great job helping Nick get everything built and put up. We used the plastic lattice and treated wood. Hopefully it lasts a long time. We took Rooben to Lowe’s and he was pouting because he had to be in the shopping cart. 😆 🛒  Tigger climbed on the ladder to help! 😆 🐈‍⬛ 🪜 

  Today we got another small snowstorm.  I am so thankful for the moisture.  It is filling up our lakes and giving us the water we need.  I know that come summer we are going to be wishing we had this moisture. It's just that by this time of year I am so ready for spring weather and can't wait for lots of sunshine and warmth. Here are a couple pictures of the little snow storm we got.

We got a winter storm warning this afternoon and it’s in affect until tomorrow at 11 pm. We already have a lot of snow in a short amount of time. Xander’s school sent a text and said it would be a distance learning day. Which he is very excited about. We haven’t heard anything more from the other kid’s schools, except that they would contact us tomorrow morning.  I took a few pictures of the storm that came in. These are from a little earlier this evening… These were taken at 10:40 pm

  In March of 2021 Nick bought me a tool box from the hardware store for all my gardening stuff.  It's the best gardening box I could ever ask for.  It has a little box on the top that I can put my seeds in to protect them from the wind and water, while I'm out getting everything planted.  Inside there is a little removable shelf that I can put my tags and pens in and the rest of it holds my knee pads, gloves, shovels, etc. It is so helpful!