Little Rock Stars

Admittedly, it is tough to manage everyone at all times in my house.  There are times when Sesame Street gets thrown on and then after an hour or so I noticed I haven't heard from Smoosh or Squeakers in awhile.  This happened this past week.  After coming up from a lesson with Beans, I thought "hmmmm, it's oddly quiet in the house."  Always a bad sign.  I found a trail of cut cardboard, duct tape that had restuck on itself, and yarn.  Following the trail led me to the cutest sight of the week:

That's Smoosh and Squeakers, giving a concert to an audience of attentive stuffed animals.  They watched on Sesame Street how to make their own guitars and proceeded to do so, mostly on their own.

I must say, they had a very captive audience.  Beanie soon caught the rock star fever and was quick to join them in the merry making.

Thank you, Sesame Street, for proving to me that I don't really NEED to watch my kids all the time and a little bit of screen time here and there isn't so bad.

The Greenhouse

In our old house, the downstairs storage room was dubbed “The Grow Room.”  Without surprise, this title raised a few eyebrows here and there.  It was the room where many seeds were planted, seedlings tended, and bulbs forced for indoor growth.  The clever man I share my life with had installed lights for all the little plants I started in the late days of winter.  They brought sunshine into our lives when the days outside were still short and dark and cold.  When we moved, we lost our Grow Room but gained a permanent greenhouse in the backyard.  A bona fide, real live greenhouse complete with tables for seedlings, large under table storage, and a heater to keep us and plants toasty as winter works its very slow way out.  It was our Grow Room, all grown up! As with most things on this farm, it wasn’t as easy as just starting up the heater and starting to grow things.  First, we needed a door.  Found at ReStore.  Installed on our 10th anniversary.  Done. 

Next, we needed heat.  We tried lighting the pilot of the heater, amid my own silly fears of blowing up the greenhouse, to no avail.  We called the propane company to fill up the tank, to which he just confirmed that the heater was not working.  We (we, being Joe) learned about thermocouplers and successfully installed one to get the heater running again.  Done.

Ready for growing?  Not yet.  We still needed to stabilize the temperature so it would be safe enough for the plants.  Joe is great at thoroughness.  Me, not so much.  I would have thrown the plants in and watched them all die as I wondered why.  Joe, however, is not like me, thank goodness.  We placed the thermometer in and began to monitor the cycle of the temperatures.  With lows of 19 degrees and highs of 109, something had to be figured out.  A fan entered the picture, as well as fidgeting with the heater settings switch.  Finally, over a several-day monitoring period, we found a consistent temperature range of 60 to 70 degrees.  Much more pleasant for the plants.

Now, it was time for soil, seeds, and happy planting!

Getting her herbs and flowers planted!

 Smoosh decided enough planting for the day.  He built a habitat for the polar bear.  And then it melted in the heat...great hands-on learning of global warming!  He let me know that now the poor polar bear would have to swim to find the next iceberg.  Oh the learning that goes on in the greenhouse.

This man looks good playing in the dirt.

Now, it's time for the plants to do their job!  Grow little guys!! I already making big plans for vermicomposting and some chicken ladies in there.  There is plenty of room now for us to continue to grow.

Time to Get This Running Again!

I am sneaking in this post before it has been a full year from the last.  It's amazing to see the last post and realize how much has changed over the past year.  We have said hello and goodbye to a few wonderful (and maybe not-so-wonderful) kiddos.  We said goodbye to our house that we loved so much in the suburbs to a farm we are falling madly in love with out in the country.

We sadly said goodbye to our beloved family pet, Callie but were then blessed with an adorable puppy, Willow, to welcome into the family.















And the cats, oh goodness, how we have added cats to the household.










 Looking back, it's been an incredible, busy year for us and we are looking forward to another incredible year as we start to grow on our farm and our lives head in a completely new direction.  Hopefully, this year there will be more story sharing of our adventures as we go!