*sigh*.....But They're Sooooo Cute!

Last of the Lettuce

Its starting to get bitter, so this is the last of the fresh lettuce for a while:(

More Garden Pics

F'in Rabbits!

This is whats left of the sunflower house:( The rabbits wouldnt leave it alone, and ate all of the beans and sunflowers. The calendulas made it though. I used to always think that rabbits deserved respect, that you should just expect part of your garden to be eaten...and while I still sort of feel that way, they are eating everything! Every garden is being nibbled on and they are not leaving anything for us.

The are also eating and digging in the veggie beds. They decimated the beans so we ended up fencing it off.

We will probably end of fencing each individual bed next year *sigh*. I did not want to have to do that, not just because of the cost and work involved, but its ugly:( I am trying to make this an attractive and functional garden....oh well.

Pizza Ponderings

I got Dan a Seal-a-Meal food vacuum for Fathers Day. While making dinner for tonight, I realized how handy this could be for future pizza nights. Tonights pizza consisted of making the dough, making the sauce, roasting and chopping the peppers, steaming and chopping the broccoli, chopping the onions, and chopping and cooking the chicken. The spinach was already chopped and the cheese already grated. I realized that it could all be prepped ahead of time easily and frozen, especially using the vacuum.

This ties into why we are expanding our gardens. We want healthy, organic, fresh produce. The problem comes into play in preserving it. Who knows how to can anymore? I am planning on learning. I also want to preserve by freezing and my hope is to be able to get lots of meals ready to go. I dont want just frozen casseroles and soups. If we ever get around to ordering some chickens and grass fed beef, this will need to be preserved as well. Obviously it will be frozen, but I would like to stuff some, marinate some, precook some, etc. so it can be pulled out and meal ready.

I have been thinking to of trying to get a bunch of mamas together next year to preserve the harvest. If we get organized in spring with what everyone is growing, hopefully we could get together a couple of times throughout the harvest and prep, can, etc. while taking turns keeping an eye on the kids.

They Grow So Fast

Cherry Tree

Cherry Pie

Its ugly, but Lilah helped *a lot*.

The cherries are ripe and we actually got around to picking some before the birds ate them all. Dan and Lilah picked a bunch the other night so we made a cherry pie. As I dont like cherries, we also made a custard pie. I dont know what I was thinking, I started them both at 4 in the afternoon on a day where neither child had napped....it was fun;)