Seven Gardenly Takes

I
The snowshoe hares can't wait until we put in a garden...


My parents have never had to worry about rabbits in their garden—their fence, 6 feet of chicken wire, starts more than a foot off the ground in order to be tall enough to discourage moose from jumping it! We've had snowshoes all over the place, though, so our garden plans are going to have to take them into account.
II The kids and I did some "planting" the other day, if you can call it that; we took 5lbs of too-old-to-eat barley and scattered it liberally over a cut bank that did a lot of collapsing during the spring melt this year. I'm hoping that enough of it germinates to get some degree of root structure there to help hold the hill together next spring. If it doesn't take we'll go buy grass seed or another kind of ground cover, but I wanted to try what we had first. 
III
No 70-degree days this week, but we've had some very respectable upper 50s and low 60s with frequent rain showers. There are still a handful of small patches of snow and ice in shaded spots, but the ground is certainly clear enough (and the trees green enough) that we can all agree that it is spring. All of the perennials in my east-facing flower bed were pulled out last weekend, which was kind of sad: they were pretty! But they really did need to go, because their bulbs were attracting too much attention from the local vole population, and I do not want them to have incentive to be tunneling around right up next to the house. Plus, we need the space for edibles.

IV
The other day Little Bear learned why I've been so insistent that they stay out of the clay mud: he went down to play in the softest, stickiest corner of the yard, and wound up having to have me "rescue" him because he sank in well past his ankles. His boots stayed there half-buried until Matt came home and the mud had hardened a little, because I was not about to risk the mud myself with Otter in the front pack! Now I'm keeping half an eye on that corner of the yard every time the kids are out playing, because I remember the lure of sticky mud... We had the same boot-stealing mud at the house I grew up in, and when I was about LB's age, I remember trying to see how stuck I could get my boots but still be able to get out without help. Is unreasonable to hope that the same "game" doesn't occur to LB?

V
I need your thoughts on weeds, specifically on getting rid of a large number of them spread over an area large enough that pulling them by hand isn't a practical solution. I've always been opposed to using chemical weed-killer because it's not great for people or the environment, and especially since our water comes from a well and we're putting in a garden—I don't want those chemicals getting into our food and water supply! Matt's allergic to the dandelions all over our yard, though, and the flower bed we're preparing to fill with herbs and vegetables is edged with several layers of stacked paving stones, with "volunteer" columbine and irises growing out of all their cracks and crevices. Any ideas for me?

I did suggest getting a goat, only half in jest, but that suggestion was definitely turned down :-) The snowshoe hares have seemed interested in our bumper crop of dandelions, though.

VI

We have two small, round garden beds that were set aside for the kids this year. LB was initially planning to have one bed split between radishes and beans and the other all carrots, but then he realized how much work it was to plant teeny carrot seeds, and the second bed wound up being half beans as well. Kit decided the radish and carrot seeds were too small for her, but she loved helping to plant the beans! She and LB have been running out every morning to see whether their baby plants have come up yet. I'm so glad that they are excited about gardening!

VII
Because I am overambitious, I'm working on a map for planting our big bed up against the house before we have a bunch of people over on Monday. Perhaps I'll talk myself out of trying, because I already have objectively too much to do between now and then, but I would really like to have it looking nice—and to have the plants started, since our growing season is so short! Intense, thanks to the 24-hour sun, but short. So far, my plans for the bed include napa cabbage, basil, cilantro, garlic chives, calendula, and marigolds. We'll see what else winds up in there!

Are you gardening this year? What do you grow?

Strawberries & Cream Baked Oatmeal

This recipe is dedicated to those of you who, like me, always seem to pick out strawberries that only last a day or two before they start turning squishy.

Over the weekend I picked up several pounds of strawberries with the intention of making jam... Only to get home and realize that I already helped my mom make jam this season, when Otter was very new and I was very tired, and so I already had eight pints of jam in the cupboard. Oops. So the kids and I made strawberry bars, and strawberry popsicles, and after making popsicles we still had a bunch of puree left over. Working off the idea that strawberry puree is basically the same as applesauce, I cooked it down a little and wound up making it into a pan of delicious, moist, hearty baked oatmeal. To be honest, I'm considering sending Matt back to the store this evening before the sale ends to pick up more strawberries for me to puree and freeze—it's that good!

Strawberries & Cream Baked Oatmeal

3 cups rolled oats
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
About 1 3/4 cups strawberry puree, cooked down to 1 1/2 cups
1 1/2 cups milk of choice (I used coconutmilk)
3/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 to 1/2 cup honey
2 to 4 Tablespoons nut butter (I used cashew butter)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and pour into an 8x8 or 7x11 (2.2 qt) baking dish. Bake for 25 minutes or until firm. Delicious warm or cold!

Quick catch-up

There are two draft posts sitting here, completely finished except for photos, but both kind of need the photos and Blogger has decided it doesn't want to let me upload photos and I'm tired of fighting with it so... I'm just going to write a photo-free post instead. Sorry!

This afternoon Matt made one of his fancy grilled pork roulades, this time stuffed with onions, red bell pepper, and fresh pineapple. It looked and smelled amazing! And then we cut into it, and learned that pineapple contains this enzyme that breaks down proteins... The meat had a weird, almost chalky, consistency all the way through. It was very disappointing. Funny/frustrating thing is, if we had used canned pineapple it would have turned out perfectly because the super high heat of the canning process kills the enzyme!

Well, now we know. No more fresh pineapple + meat dishes.

We have successfully reintroduced eggs with no one reacting to them, which is hugely helpful when I remember about it. (i.e. only once last week) Two more weeks until we can start reintroducing everything else. I'm getting so tired of this diet... It's not terrible, when I plan well, but it seems like last week things just kept coming up that made it more difficult to make the planned meals... I'm hoping to do better this coming week.

The kids are looking forward to their second week of summer break, now that the yard is approaching 3/4 free of snow. It is so weird having temperatures into the 70s and half the yard still covered with snow, but we had so much out there that it's taking a long time to melt! Regardless of the snow, LB and Kit have both been happy to get outside multiple times every day.

Occasionally I lose track of how young Otter still is, because he is so big: at 8 weeks, he has nearly doubled his birth weight already! He's fitting well in 6 month clothes. I don't recall LB or Kit growing quite this quickly...

LB and Kit love talking to Otter, making faces at him, helping with him... LB especially is doing a good job of helping with both of the younger kids: while I was busy in the kitchen today, LB brought Kit and a pile of books over next to Otter, and read aloud until both of his siblings had fallen asleep!

We had been talking about going out of town for a hike or picnic for Mother's Day, but it turns out that greenup is happening this weekend—pretty much every deciduous tree in the area leafing out at the same time and sending pollen everywhere—and  between the pollen and the fact that the sudden rapid snowmelt is causing rivers to rise quickly (and all the places we wanted to go are near rivers), staying home is sounding like the best choice. Matt offered to grill for me, so that will be nice.

What are you doing for Mother's Day?

May Day

Not sure whether we should be punctuating that as one word or two this year... It sure doesn't look or feel like May outside!

There were ice pellets bouncing off the deck railing when I finished putting the kids to bed this evening... It feels like this winter will never end!

I've always loved the idea of "going Maying," looking for wildflowers on May 1st, but it's never been warm enough long enough before that for flowers to be blooming. This year takes the cake, though; I have never seen this much snow still on the ground in May. 

A couple of weeks ago, the craft in LB's Waldorf curriculum was fingerknitting flowers. I had grand plans of making a whole bouquet in time for May Day, but... as grand plans plus kids tend to go, I finally finished the first flower during Otter's nap this morning. The instructions called for finishing the flowers with a yarn needle, but after two weeks of "maybe I'll make it to the craft store next time," I just used a crochet hook and it worked fine.

I cannot find the program we used for our May Crowning last year—how I can have a whole stack of liturgical year-related books and none of them mention May Crowning is beyond me!—but there's definitely way too much snow in the yard for a procession around the house like we did last time anyway. The kids and I pulled some ideas from Catholic Icing, though, and had fun crowning our big statue of Mary and arranging little paper flowers that LB made next to the little statue in the kids' room. We switched from Easter hymns to Marian hymns for bedtime, too; not sure yet whether I'll stick with Marian ones through the whole month of May, or go back to Easter ones until Pentecost. 

How did (or are) you celebrating Mary in May?