Broken things can still be beautiful

Can you spot the duct tape in the midst of all those tomatoes?

That's the second break for this sunflower. The first break is hiding in the white pot. Little Abe dropped a large broom onto this plant when it was about two feet tall. It cracked right at ground level and fell to the ground. I loved my sunflower last year and was devastated at the disaster. Little Abe felt as badly as I did about the accident so we decided to try and fix it. I sliced the bottom off of a cheap pot I had in the garage (that I was given a few years ago) and slid it down over the top of the broken plant. I filled the pot with dirt and gave it a good watering. The sunflower plant continued to grow as if nothing ever happened. It was a good save.

Not too long ago I went out back to see the plant laying flat on the ground once again with a giant break in the center of it's stalk. I honestly do not know what happened. It needed water so that's possibly why it collapsed or it was hit by the neighbor kid's basketball. I wouldn't doubt the latter in the least. This break was much worse since I couldn't bury it and since the plant was so much bigger but I wasn't giving up none the less. I tied the plant to the fence and with two Popsicle sticks and a good helping of duct tape I secured the break. It did stop growing. The head stopped following the sun and the leaves would wilt anytime the soil got the least bit dry but the head kept developing so there was hope.

Today it happened. It's not six feet tall like the one last year (it's a little under five feet). The head isn't gigantic and it's not filled with hundreds of beautiful seeds but this lovely flower is proof that broken things can still be beautiful. 

I'm encouraged by it and clearly thrilled that the little guy pulled through.
Never let your wounds destroy you.

Backyard Edition, July 27

This morning I slinked along. Ever so slowly I accomplished all the essential morning chores before I grabbed a cup of coffee and two slices of toast with blackberry jam. Since the heat wave hit I've been battling some serious sinus pressure and congestion but despite the incredible heat little Abe and I headed out back with our morning treats. He sat in his little green chair and I in mine. My tan little boy wore a simple pair of navy shorts, no shirt. He looked like every wonderful moment I can remember from my childhood; sun kissed skin, golden tinged hair, and the look of a well lived summer all over him.

We sat in the hot morning sun listening to the gentle breeze rustle the leaves on every tree. The birds were at work singing their morning tunes as usual despite the unusual temperature. The tomato garden in all of it's splendor spread out before the both of us and neither he nor I mumbled a word as we sat and ate.

I realized in that moment that I was experiencing perfection, pure simple wonderful perfection. A quite hot summer morning just relaxing with my son. Both of us enjoying the fruits of our labor, having fought the blackberry bushes together to collect the treasure. We then turned the fruits into the delectable jam. And now here we were, silent, together, enjoying the treat on such a splendid summer morning right alongside the garden we've so diligently tended to all summer long. These moments don't last long, but in them I find myself overcome with pure joy. I am forced to stop and think, to smile greatly, and to realize again each time, "this is life at it's finest!"

And now I document the garden growth.

First tomato turning red

Pie pumpkin plant in front.
Bidwell Casaba melon in back.

One of two bean plants.
I planted the seeds a little late this year but they should still do great.

One month of sunflower growth.
These are two different plants.
The photo in the upper right had corner is the first
sunflower sprout just over a month ago.

Let the Gardening Begin!

This may be the point in time when I should change my blog title to: The Chronicles of my Yard (I'm not going to though).

It seems, being the incredibly novice gardener that I am, I underestimated those sunflower sprouts that I spotted through the snow in January. I'm 98% sure that they are sunflower sprouts coming up from seeds that fell from the giant sunflower I had growing last summer. And I hadn't realized they could winter over and withstand such cold.

I'm going to be watching these little buggers really closely, thinning them out, and hopefully they will result in one (or two or three) fabulous, wintered over, self planted giant red sunflower(s). If these are just a strange weed that completely mocks a sunflower sprout I am going to be rather crushed. Only time will tell.

: )

Average daily spending for 2016: $18.71

First Yard Work of the Year

We've been having a bit of a thaw the past few days. It feels so wonderful to get outside and breathe fresh air. Ahhh! There's something, be it however odd, that I just love about using my muscles and exerting extra energy while in the great outdoors with the endless blue sky hovering above and wisps of wind coming and going.

Today's chore was far from glamours. I spent a good amount of time cleaning up after the pups. But it was a chore worth doing, it can certainly be classified yard work, and I had the tremendous privileged of being out doors. Spring is a long way off but this year's first bit of yard work is officially in the books.

Little Abe spent his time chopping at ice, stomping in mud (frozen dirt actually), breaking twigs off the lilac bush and running all around. We both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

The photo above, something that once again causes me to marvel at life, and growth, at the power of seeds and nature. This patch of dirt that had only two or three days ago been covered in at least a foot of snow is now home to a small congregation of giant red sunflower sprouts, courtesy of that pesky squirrel that spent several days late this past summer climbing the large sunflower and eating the seeds. I'm not expecting them to survive the winter. I mean it generally snows on and off in these parts going into April. BUT what a little treasure to find buried beneath the snow!

Sunflower Art

Yesterday we harvested the seeds from the sunflower. If I'd waited much longer the squirrels would have eaten them all.

Little Abe and I sat on the kitchen floor for at least 10 minutes removing each one. We both had red colored sunflower sap (thats the only thing I can think to call it) on the tips of our fingers. What an oddly entertaining activity. I couldn't believe how stunningly beautiful the head was after the seeds were all removed. Sunflowers are truly amazing all the way through, from height to strength, to the roughness and thickness of their leaves, the beauty once they open and rapidly they go from a lovely first opened bloom to an enormous seed filled circle.

The seeds are all lying out on a cookie sheet now. Today we put the empty head of the flower to use by painting with it. Little Abe just painted different colors on it with a paint brush. He pressed it down after each color. It was a good deal of fun until he started to notice the bees flying around (remember, he got stung one week ago). After that we called it quits. I rather like the way the little pressings turned out though.

Spending rundown today: Well it was inevitable; I was going to have to buy the dog food sooner or later: $25.43. I also had a strange sort of shopping trip in which I purchased specific ingredients in order to make recipes with the tomatoes: $29.02. I needed heavy whipping cream and chicken stock for the soup, more flour to make pizza crust again, some cheese for sandwiches and pizza, meat for making meatballs to go on spaghetti, and a few other food items.

My budget for the month is $436 which leaves $131.26

Average daily spending for 2015: $17.96
(the above average considers the following two days as no spends)

Debt Quote Tuesday; Oh I can make that

Creativity is intelligence having fun.
-Albert Einstein.

If there's one thing to be said about the frugal life it's that as long as you keep your mind open you can have a lot of fun finding creative alternatives to spending money.

I've done a lot of brainstorming for this upcoming, long drive but short trip and way too much noticing things in the store that would be "just perfect." So far I've not done the greatest job keeping track of what's been spent to prepare for the trip but I haven't lost receipts so I'll add things up soon and I think I've done good.

I wanted to buy a cheap map so that I could keep track of our progress with little Abe in maybe 30 minute increments while driving 8.5 hours down south but, uh, maps aren't cheap. So instead I got foam-board from the dollar store and drew up a map with just our route on it. It will be a little geography lesson for him too. I want to place stickers along the route as we drive and it just so happens I had to work with labels for a project at work last week and I held onto all the blank ones instead of throwing them out so that I can make some stickers in the shape of little blue cars for our map. I could have easily got some cheap stickers somewhere but I like free better.

I've seen a few things you can hang on the back of the front car seat so that drinks, snacks, activities are more accessible or more organized for the kiddo in the car and I almost bought one today until it dawned on me that I could probably make a pretty good one myself with fabric I have on hand, a metal hanger, and a hot glue gun (I do not have time to sew one up right now) So I'll be working on that this evening... we'll see.

On a different note I've been wanting to get some sort of compost bin for ages but every time I look into them I haven't been able to find one that I can afford, or even afford to make, no matter how many of them say "inexpensive DIY" in the headline. I've finally found one that I can make myself for FREE. I'm going to give it a try maybe tonite or more likely after we get back. The "bin" uses three crates (I have one and I've already gotten one from someone who no longer needed it so I only need one more), you glue a lining in the crates (I have the exact lining used in the tutorial on hand), and then place newspaper in the bottom. The post talks about making a lid but I'm pretty sure I have something in the basement I can use for a lid instead. HERE's what I'm talking about. Yay! I'm finally going to have a FREE compost bin. I like this one too because there will really be no heavy lifting and it's super portable.

This is sort of a scattered post and I'm sure I'll post updates on all of these things sooner than later. For now no more talk of making ANYTHING until my kitchen is clean!

AND now, measuring in at just over six feet tall the "little" lady has all of her lovely petals on display.

SOOOO Close

I've been eagerly anticipating the bloom of my very first sunflower. When my sister in law gave me the sprouts she had no idea how big each flower would get, if they would cluster, or even if they'd be red or yellow. The seeds were a strange hybrid. She harvested them herself from one flower and has grown them before with all different results. The one sunflower sprout she gave me that survived the neighborhood wildlife (although it's enormous regal leaves have been heavily attacked by bugs) is now taller than me and has far surpassed how big I thought it would get. I'm in love with the giant thing and cannot wait to see it's flower. Today is the first time it's started to open. I probably looked out my kitchen window at least 100 times to make sure I hadn't missed the bloom. But no, the sun is now setting and the flower is not yet fully opened. Tomorrow then, right?

Additionally on the eager anticipation chart is our vacation. I am a little overwhelmed by it's rapid approach but very excited. The hotel rooms are booked, restaurants have been researched (mostly), caves in Kentucky have been thoroughly (internet) explored, and my wonderful lovely sister has been booked to stay at our house with the furry family members while we are gone. My to do list is extraordinarily long right now but I am so excited just to get away!!! (this is little Abe's countdown so that he has a better grasp of when the trip will be)

Sorry its so blurry; I'm too tired to retake this photo right now

The Garden; Weekend of Carrots

I'm declaring this the weekend of carrots. I was hoping to eat two or three carrots a day (and we have been) until they were all picked. Yesterday I noticed these little rust colored beetles in the bin. I don't know if they'd harm the carrots or not but they killed my beautiful basil plant last summer so I didn't want to risk it. I pulled up about half of the carrots that were left and I'll probably pull the rest of them Sunday or Monday. Now to eating carrots! (These grew so well in the bin)

As for the rest of the garden my tomato plants have gotten huge and they are doing grand. There are little green roma tomatoes all over them. These little green beauties make me so happy.

There are three bean plants (that I didn't snap a photo of) that seem to be growing VERY slowly but they look good. And the two watermelon seeds I planted have sprouted and look really good, tiny, but good (also didn't take a photo). The watermelon seeds threw me for a loop. I planted two and one sprouted. The other did not, until at least two weeks later. Maybe it's our region, maybe it's watermelon but everyone I've talked to says they never had much luck with watermelon. What I hear from most people is, "I tried growing them one year." The two plants look good though so right now I am hopeful. Our strawberry bins are done producing but I know the u-pick strawberry places around here are done for the season too so my little guys had a very good run this year.

My sister in law, who I grew some tomato plants for grew some sunflowers from seed for me. She gave me eight plants and thanks to the neighborhood rabbits I have ONE left. I've never grown sunflower before and this plant makes me so happy. Now that it's made it to this grandiose size the rabbits are leaving it alone (Also I surrounded it with used coffee filters that I weighed down with coffee grounds. The rabbits have stayed away from it since the day I put the filters down. My theory was they wouldn't want to step on them and it seems I was right). 

Seeing this regal thing with such a hearty strong stem and large course leaves that grew from the tiny little sprout she gave me is just, hm, in a way it's miraculous. I can't wait for the flower to open either. It's going to be SO big. I imagine it's very much a novice of a gardener type thing but I truly love looking out the kitchen widow at different times of the day and seeing the sunflower tilted and bending this way or that depending on where the sun is in the sky, attempting to soak up as many of the radiant beams of light that it can get on the top of it's sunflower head. Makes me smile every single day.

Average daily spending for 2015: $18.11