Mary Mary Quite Contrary... Part 2

My gloves..ready to get to work!


My Garden Fixings!

The garden is in the ground! Last weekend I had planned on putting all my “goods” in the ground. But Senor Smarty Pants (my beau) came home this weekend. I was so glad to see him after a few weeks apart but this did put my gardening on the back burner. So Sunday it was! I desperately wanted to finish “The Proposal” and then go garden...but my mother wasn’t hearing it. She said I needed to get out there and get it done. The lovely Nebraska wind was not making it look any more desirable either. But I got out there and got it done. We had to rake the area to get some fresh soil and then we had to use the “string markers” (yes that is the technical name) to make sure the rows were straight. I knew that my dad would not hear of this garden not having straight rows. So we were off. We planted the giant sunflowers along the south side for shade and also about 1/2 way along the west end. Then the zinnas all the way around the other sides-except for a small opening so I could get in. Then we planted the tomato plants, lettuce, 3 cabbage plants, radishes, 3 more cabbage plants, spinach, and then peppers. We had to nix the beans because we ran out of room. Oh well! Let the growing begin!


Not so sure I'm cut out for this stuff...skinny jeans...and my arms were tired
after this...row...:)


Lettuce...can't wait for this stuff


:)

Blessings!

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary... Part I

This Winter seemed to be a long one. Now, while I love winter I couldn’t help but get Spring fever. But this fever brought some unusual symptoms. One of them: the desire to have a garden! I never thought I would want this or enjoy it. My family used to have one growing up, but it was always my dad’s domain. Over the years the garden got phased out. But this year, I want one, and I want it to be MY domain. (yes I realize my father will more than likely inch his way in) I first approached ol’ Pat about this a few weeks ago. He didn’t take me seriously. I’m not so sure I would've taken me serious either. But after numerous reminders, hints, and questions, he resigned himself and marked off my request of a much smaller garden patch compared to our old nearly an acre garden patch. This patch is closer to the house for convenience and smaller so I can manage it with as little intervention as possible! Ever since I have been thinking about this garden the above nursery rhyme has been playing in my head....




I received this picture via text message from my mom on Monday evening. Apparently my mom was thinking of the same nursery rhyme only the caption on her text read a bit different: "Jessi Jessi How Does Your Garden Grow?" My garden is 16 ft by 16 ft. I cannot wait to get out there. Last Sunday my mom and I went to the nursery and bought my plants and a few seeds. I was very selective on the types of plants I purchased...if it had a cute name and was pretty...it was in! Now for the information you all have been waiting for!
The contents of my garden will be:
Early Girl Tomatoes
Purple Beauty Peppers
Cabbage Plants
Leaf Lettuce
Radishes
Carrots
Spinach
Green Beans
Giant Sunflowers (along the south side for shade...)
A Zinnia border

My garden however will not contain Silver Bells or Cockle Shells....it will also be lacking the maids...
It is going to be the cutest garden to ever exist.

Blessings!

Back in the "olden days" with Papa Smith

I spent the night at my grandparents house this weekend. Over last year or so I have began wanting to soak up all I can of them. I thoroughly enjoy listening to them bicker :), tell stories, and just spending time with them.

My Grandpa Smith. He was born in 1928. Yes he is getting up there. But one thing always amazes me his is memory. He recall such details from the past. I barely remember what I had for breakfast. He loves conversation so, when you start one with him, be prepared to listen for a while. Also be ready for random and slightly irrelevant facts added... sometimes they make things interesting. We got on the subject of school. My Grandfather is a very smart man. He graduated high school at 16 or something. He attended elementary school at a country school like so many kids of his time. But high school was in town. His family didn't have a car for him to drive and the trek to school was too far to make everyday. This is were the story began.

My grandpa stayed with a women he called "Grandma" I guess everyone in town called her this. She also had another man staying with her. She didn't have much money. She was a widow and only received a small pension from the government because her husband had been a WWI vet. She had a garden so most of her food came from there. The room my grandpa stayed had no heat. To get to said room he had to go out the back door walk outside, walk through a screened in porch into another building and then upstairs. Hence the no heat. Grandma lived in the other part of the house with the stove...smart lady. He said he was so grateful for a place to stay and she was a kind lady. Thank you "Grandma" for helping my grandpa out.

After the Christmas Break my Grandpa had different arrangements. He had made some friends that lived across the pasture from him. Guess what luxury they had....a car! Grandpa decided to live at home....and ride a horse over to the Slagle brothers place and hitch a ride in their car to school. I for one cannot imagine having to get up that early to ride a horse, (it was over a mile) to get in a car, to go to school. He said home was warmer, so this arrangement was better.

I am unsure why the car thing didn't work clear through school. Maybe the brothers were older than Papa. But another family had lived in town or close to town, I guess and they ran a dairy. Claude- the man of the house- milked early in the mornings and late at night. Grandpa slept on an old Army cot in the kitchen- we all decided it was most likely the warmest place in the house. He said that sometimes Claude's alarm wouldn't go off in the mornings and he would be running late. This is when Grandpa would get a wake up call, Claude would ask "Can you milk a few cows before you go to school?" So Grandpa would get up and milk some cows. Then he would come back in, clean up and go to school. Again....I barely make time in the mornings to slap on some mascara! Grandpa wasn't sure what his parents gave Claude and his wife for payment of him staying there. Grandma and I said maybe milkin' those cows did the trick!

When Grandpa actually told me this story it took a a good 20-30 minutes...this is the condensed version! I hope you all enjoy your grandparents as much as I do. I also hope this post didn't bore you, I just wanted to document it and share, I find their stories fascinating!

Blessings!

My Mind-Blog Mode

I am officially a blogger. This first post has me thinking...how does one exactly start a blog? I mean obviously i know the logistics of starting a blog, getting a gmail account, thinking of a name, and gaining the courage to write your thoughts and share happenings of you with the blog world blah blah blah. But this first post...what do you write? I don't have any pictures to share right now....do I introduce myself...probably not since I honestly think I will have all of 1 person look at this blog. But, maybe I suppose, more may visit....Over the last few days of this blogs development I have somewhat built up the "hype" (to myself naturally) this entry needs to be goood. Needs to set the tone for the rest of my blog. Oh goodness.... So what else shall I type about?

How did I come to the blog world? Well i have 2 cousins that have blogs that thank thanks to facebook I learned about and soon became a frequent visitor of both. From there it just grew. They shared blogs that they thought were interesting and so I checked them out and so on and so forth. For the last few weeks I have been thinking about starting a blog and what some interesting blog topics would be. Then I watched Julie and Julia and the desire grew.

The last straw though, was another blog. This blog was speaking about how this young woman was just meant to blog. She found herself narrating her day, trying to make blog posts out oh her daily happenings, but the real kicker, how she was as a child. She had said that as girl she was constantly imagining situations. THIS WAS ME. I cannot count the number of times I put on layers upon layers of my play clothes. And fyi these were no Disney Princess play clothes. No way Jose I didn't want to be a princess. I wanted to be a pioneer woman. A mother of many children who had to raise said children in the wilderness that was the wind break behind my childhood home. I wanted to be a traveler, a teacher, a real woman. This continued until I was probably too old to be playing these games. But there is a point to this. I have so many things that pop into my head and this seems like a perfect outlet. If I had had a blog as a child I more than likely would have came in after I was finished playing and wrote down the events. That would have been a great post eh?!

So now my mind is in "Blog Mode" I see things in blog. I think in blog. But right now I should probably get off this blog and study...

Blessings!