Happy Earth Day!!

Hello everyone.  As you know, today is (or rather Friday, the day I typed this was) Earth Day. Now, whether or not you did something to celebrate, I don't care.  Far be it for me to jump all over you for not doing something to honor Mother Earth, when I pretty much sat on my keester and fiddle-farted with my laptop for most of the day.   HOWEVER, my kids did plenty!  
They helped their grandma plant our garden for the season.  This year they planted:
* corn
* green beans
* replace one of your artichoke plants because it was trampled on
* tomatoes (in a very generic topsy turvy)
* carrots and lettuce (both using some sort of bio-degradable strip with the seeds built in so they are evenly spaced and yet some how still all cramped too close together)
*  redirected our black berry bush (re-using part of our previously delapitated gazeebo)
* added a few more "wild flower mystery seeds" to where the California Poppys took over and choked out the rest of our previously beautiful & diverse array of flowers. (sounds a bit political to me)
* and planned out where to later add our pumpkin plants closer to mid-summer. (if not, you get pumpkins in August and well... they don't keep 'til Halloween.  We've tried.)

I don't know about you, but the whole adventure makes me tired just thinking about it.   But I'll be out there to enjoy it once the weather gets warmer and it's time to eat it all harvest.   ;0)

Pictures from previous years:

Small Pumpkins. Great for scarecrow butt cheeks. ;0)

Our smallest tomato year ever, but still not bad since we didn't plant any that year. 

Rogue tomato plants!  Gotta love them.

Ivy and what WAS our wild flowers... ignore the weeds.

Maybe THATs what choked them out.  Hrmm....  Nah!

This is what happens when you don't pick your artichokes in time.

Pretty isn't it?  Scotish Thistle anyone? ;0)

Haven away from home. ;0)

Ya, warning... with the pretty sunflowers comes bees.

But they're so pretty!!!

And eventually... yummy. ;0)

Happy Earth Day!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday and a few words

I took this picture a couple months back.  Yes, I saw this sad thing on the road.  Yes, that is packaging tape.  Yes that is packaging tape you see holding the gas cap on.  And yes, the tail end was a lot worse.

And people wonder why I have such high anxieties when it comes to driving.

MESA: Where Nerds Are Grown With Love!

A few months back, my daughter joined MESA at school.  MESA stands for Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement.  Great program that helps under priviledged children (sadly, that includes our children off and on) learn the fun points of geekery in the hopes that they grow up to become the next Bill Gates and take over the world!!   Or, atleast someone who designs things that won't break.  Which is good too.  

Saturday was her first MESA Day competition.  She competed in Tetrahedral Kites and Kapla Blocks which she had to stack in a tower and balance an apple on the top. She never got to the apple part. Because the tallest/most stable towers win, she was not satisfied with her attempts and knocked them all down.






All the kids took a math test to start off with. Top 3 scores in each grade won a medal. Her school won a lot of medals! In the math test alone, their 3rd grade group sweeped! They also won medals in the kites, kapla blocks, water bottle rockets, popstick bridges, pop up books, macaroni cars, and a few others I can't recall.

Cait was not one of the winners, but she had fun. It was pretty awesome! :0)