Reading buddies

Strawberries!

Strawberry season again.  Picking with Ali

More garden

Blueberries

Corn and squash

Flowers will go here

Reject fishing poles from Tim for our bean tp

Bees!

Our neighbor had a swarm hanging out at eye level on an oak branch in his yard.  We decided we couldn't pass that opportunity up and rushed to pull out the bee kit I bought for Eric 3 christmases ago and put together the last of the pieces.

Here is the swarm hanging out on the branch

Eric cut the branch and put it in the box

A few hours later, we moved the bees across the street, and tada! We have bees!

Garden update

Well, we finally got the raised bed built and then I had to fill them.  For the ones adjacent to the parking area, I was able to get pickup loads and fill them by hand.  This allowed me to plant my currants and gooseberries.  As well as some onion starts that I threw in just for the heck of it.  It took 3-5 truck loads to fill each bed (short vs tall bed).  I filled 5 of them.  ugh

I also got the asparagus planted, over month after delivery but they are in the ground!

Potato boxes started! Artichokes in the ground

for the rest of the beds, instead of doing the wheel barrow thing, we hired a guy with a conveyor truck.  It was wonderful.  He just shot the dirt where it needed to go.  

It was glorious

the berries are filling in

Some squash and cucumbers getting started

the potato boxes are pretty cool if you've never seen them.  You just keep adding layers as they grow and theoretically get a tower of potatoes.  

Here's the beds with lots of starts planted

grow babies grow!

Korean dinner

I have been playing with cooking Korean food lately.  I had only really ever experienced Korean barbecue which is not my favorite (sacrilege I know).  After all the korean TV I've watched lately though, I decided to give it a try.  I found this great website, and a new obsession was started.  

This was my Korean feast for 10.

Korean food has lots of side dishes to join the main dish.  So, the table is pretty full.  It was fun and yummy.  Lots of work though.  

Menu

Kimchi jigae (kimchi stew)

Beef bulgogi 

Ssamjang (spicy dipping sauce)

Daegujeon (breaded cod fillets)

Cheonggyeongchae doenjang-muchim (bok choi with soybean paste)

Sigeumchi-namul (spinach side dish)

Gage-namul (eggplant)

Gyeran-jangjorim (eggs in soy broth)

Dububuchim-yangnyeomjang (tofu in spicy sauce)

Dubs-ganjangjorim (tofu in soy sauce)

gim (roasted seaweed)

kimchi

kkakdugi (radish kimchi)

and of course rice

We have simplified versions for dinner weekly now.  

Yummy.

Deschutes tick fest

We went on a spring camping trip with Katherine and John and the girls.  Hiked up the access road from the mouth of the Deschutes.

It was beautiful, and fun, but ummmmmm

Sat down when we got there and within second I had 3 ticks on me.  They were everywhere.  The dogs were covered.  Basically every half hour we would pick ticks off the dogs, getting 5-10 per pass. 

It was horrible.  and gross.  Other than that, such a fun trip.

The girls did so well carrying their own packs, we hiked 5 miles in.  So go girls!

Amazingly, no humans got ticks the entire trip.  Poor dogs though.

Breakfast

Sam visit

Sam came to stay with us for a few days while dad went on a trip.  

Man is he a big dog. 

Such sweet trouble

And no, this is not a dog thing, but come on, just more goofy cuteness

random fun garden stuff

Look what is growing in the mulch!

And the bazillion daffodils and tulips we planted in the fall are starting to come up.  Spring is fun