Preparing a Garden

We dedicated a weekend to preparing a garden site in the back yard. Erik had laid down plastic to kill the grass for me last fall. Then he rota tilled the area for me and it looked perfect to plant. However we ran out of time so I assumed we would plant the next weekend. The fence is falling down on the same side of the yard as my garden site. Our neighbor told us that she wants to replace it with a 6 ft tall chain link fence instead!!! This made both Erik and I panic and feel sick at the thought that our only privacy in this fishbowl we live in would be taken away! He went over to her house the next day and proposed the idea that he would take apart the fence and fix it. She agreed to that (not really wanting chain link either but it is the cheaper way to go). That weekend (the one I thought I would be planting my garden) poured and we sludged around the garden site working on the fence. Erik did a great job fixing it. The only problem is that my nicely rota tilled garden turned into compacted dried out cracked clay! There is no way my little seeds would grow in this! Unfortunately I had already planted the raspberries my mom gave me. So the weekend after we fixed the fence Erik bought me a truck load of compost that he mixed in and rota tilled the garden area again. It was a lot of work but it was worth the time and energy because now my seeds have a chance of survival. I planted the fruits and vegetables I bought from starts: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, cucumber, arugula, and cilantro. I waited for warmer weather to plant my seeds. I also learned the importance of slug bait! I woke up one morning to find that both of my squash had been eaten to oblivion and that my cucumber plant was halfway gone. I started squash from seeds and also decided to plant pumpkins. When the weather got nicer I planted: butterhead lettuce, another type of lettuce, spinach, kale, carrots, swiss chard, more cilantro, and potatoes. I am still in search of basil starts since I didn't plant any by seed. I also have strawberries, blueberries,and huckleberries. My raspberries and apple trees will not be producing fruit this year.

Garden halfway planted. Recent pictures coming soon!

More Landscaping

The end of the school year got pretty busy, especially since it was my first time teaching the end of the school year so I haven't updated the blog in ages! In May Erik and I met my mom at the Clackamas fairgrounds for the Master Gardener plant sale. We came to look so we brought my car, but we had no idea how affordable the plants would be! We went crazy :) We bought a hardy fuchsia, a cherry tomato and regular tomato plant, and two orange bell pepper plants. We kept seeing people walking around with beautiful azaleas but we couldn't find where they were coming from. Finally I found the booth that was selling them, however, they were sold out. The nursery owner told us he would have more tomorrow. So what did Erik and I do? We drove to Canby bright and early the next morning and bought two blueberry bushes, three azaleas, a Japanese lace leaf maple, and a Japanese coral bark tree! We have enjoyed all of our plants and the neighbors have all comented on how nice our yard is looking. We even inspired our neigbor to the right of us to relandscape her front yard. We are by no means finished but the place is looking better from the outside. I am still searching for the right evergreen perenial to go in the garden bed under the window. I am considering hebes and then planting bulbs and anuals in there too...we'll see what hapens.

Landscaping Our Yard

Erik and I have both been very busy with work lately. My mom came down over spring break to help me come up with some plants that would work in our yard. We made a list and that was as far as we got. In the mail this week we received a coupon for a nursery in Salem so Erik and I decided to check it out. We had a wonderful time looking and pricing all sorts of plants. We ended up buying a Florida Cherokee dogwood, two evergreen huckleberries, and three hydrangeas! Then we spent the afternoon planting them. As we were planting I was pulling weeds and came across more poison oak! This time the leaves were on it so I could recognize it. But just as proof I took a picture :) Then I pulled it and threw my gloves in the wash. I kept my fingers crossed all day hoping that I wouldn't get it again. It looks like I'm in the clear! I certainly hope we don't have anymore, but it wouldn't surprise me if we did.
After buying plants yesterday, I can't wait to buy more. I still would like to get a Japanese lace leaf maple, roses, fuchsias, and other flowers. There is an independent farm/nursery that Erik and I drive past on our way to and from work that is selling fruit trees for $8.00. I haven't had time to stop and see what type yet but I want to get some! The trees look like they are 4-5 feet tall and have pretty big burlaped root balls. We don't really have room for fruit trees, but I am hoping to find a spot.

Cheese!

I am so far behind on my posting! I'll use some of today as a catch-up day. Over spring break, my mom, Raeme, and the boys came to visit me. My mom and I wanted to make cheese and we wanted to teach Raeme how. It was very exciting making cheese in my very own kitchen, however, I don't think I could do it alone! We only had half a gallon of raw milk so it didn't make very much. At first we were really concerned because the curds did not set up right and there seemed to be way to much whey!

The curds did not want to stretch, so we decided to make fresh mozzarella balls with herbs and oil. After awhile the cheese started stretching so the balls came out more like rectangles. We sprinkled the herbed cheese with garlic salt and then put it in a container with olive oil and refrigerated until that evening when we ate it on salad. Yum! I can't wait till I have some more time to make cheese again!

Poison Oak!

I have been begging Erik to help me clean up the front yard since we first bought our place last June. Unfortunately I do not have a before picture. But in our front yard we had a mossy patch of grass, a dirt mound with lavender and another bush planted right in front of our door and to the side there is an oak tree with English ivy, vinca, and blackberries all over grown. The ivy and blackberries were taking over the rhododendrons and the oak tree. I worked for two days and barely unearthed any ground and managed to tweak my back in the process. Finally we got a sunny nice weekend a couple of weeks ago and Erik was motivated to help me clean up the front yard. We worked all weekend removing ground cover and leveling the yard but still did not finish. and our yard debris can was overflowing. We decided to do the rest later. The next Saturday we were out there cleaning up the yard and removing ground cover again. I noticed that around the oak tree and rhodie their were some bare twigs sticking up. I didn't know what type of plant they were so I was debating if I should keep them or remove them. I decided to clip their tops and remove them.

Saturday afternoon my left wrist started itching around where I had a scratch, then my elbow. That night I woke up with my arms on fire itching and burning. When I got up on Sunday I had red swollen blotches on both of my left and right arms. Erik and his dad both said that it was a rash and irritation and that it would go away soon. Instead it got progressively worse. It hurt to have anything touch my arms but they itched and burned and felt like they were on fire. Since I am a substitute it is hard for me to get a sub, especially the week before spring break and we had a field trip that Tuesday. My mom told me to go to urgent care. So Erik and I spent all evening in urgent care were I was told that I had poison oak and was put on Prednisone. And boy has it been one miserable week! The prednisone hurts my stomach and keeps me awake at night, benadryl makes me feel like I have been drugged, and the creams wear off in 30 mins. The teachers at school have been so helpful taking care of me and finding ointments to use to make me feel better. All I can say is thank God for spring break! I don't know if I would have survived another week. I told my students that I had poison oak so that they wouldn't be alarmed when they saw how awful my arms looked, but they would forget and come up to me tapping my arms, which was extremely painful. Mid-week I started wearing short sleeves and that helped remind them not to touch me!

We thought that Erik had some how managed to escape the poison oak but on Wednesday night a ring around his glove line showed up. It didn't seem to be spreading so he just used the ointment that I had. He is not on Prednisone and his spots our not drying up very quickly. They are oozing and more are appearing now. Great! We've washed the towels twice, all of the sheets, our clothes, our tools, everything! We are hoping that his will go away on its own because he is too busy at work to leave to go to urgent care. The good news is our yard is going to look great I just never realized it was going to be this painful and difficult!

Removing all the grown cover

I never imagined poison oak to be growing in the front yard of a house in a subdivision in Salem!

Piles of what we removed
Treasures we found in the ivy! please note the two Gigi pets!

The beginning of a painful week!

Next weekend Erik and I are going to go tackle the yard again. This time we will be working on leveling and planting grass. I will take more pictures of the yard. I can't wait to plan my native/ shade garden with the help of my mom!

3 weeks in

Wow! I have been teaching first grade for three weeks now and it has been CRAZY! I got the call the Monday of the last week of February. It was kind of nice just jumping into teaching because it left me no time to think and worry. I thought I was just subbing for the morning but the teacher I was subbing for was put on bed rest that day so my long term sub job began. It has been very rocky. The students knew me because I have been in and out of the classroom all year but it was still a very hard transition for many of them. I originally thought that I would be able to keep a blog on my experiences. Little did I realize how extremely busy and tired I would be. Spring break is a week away and I will have to try to do some updating then. As for now, I am exhausted but absolutely loving each day, the good and the not so good!

Kindergarten

Last week I spent three exhausting days in kindergarten. I think that all teachers need to spend consecutive days in kindergarten to give kindergarten more credit as teachers. Their job is NOT easy. They may not teach as many classes or subjects as other teachers but they have their hands filled. The class I was teaching had 20 five and six year-olds with no aid or helper. These kids were wild! There were about five maybe six of them that needed constant monitoring and reminders about how to play nicely, sit in their chairs safely, talk quietly, and stay on track. Some kids were already reading, while others I couldn't even understand what they were saying.

They also know how to manipulate! My first morning one kid said they had to go to the bathroom (which is all the way down the hall at the other end of the school) I let her go and then they all said they had to go to the bathroom. I knew they didn't really but they were doing the potty dance and a couple even had their hands down their pants. So I got them all in a line to take a group trip to the bathroom. This is a bad idea, NEVER DO IT!!! They went running and screaming down the hall with me chasing them trying to get them to walk and be quiet. All the teachers came out and closed their doors. I was embarrassed and humiliated but it only got worse. The boys would not come out of the bathroom and one of them decided it was a good idea to moon me. I told him to pull up his pants now, wash his hands and come out here! He instead decided to take the foam soap and through it around the bathroom with the other boys!!! I wanted to cry and walk out the door. Luckily the other boys were ready to come out so I herded them back to our class.

Thursday went better because a mom decided to stay and help out in the morning so when one of the boys disappeared I was able to go look for him instead of alerting the office that one of my kids went missing.

Friday the kids were tired and hyped up for the furlough week. The cried over everything. I was so happy that it was my last day but it was great experience. I learned that kindergarten teachers deserve way more credit than they are given. I thought that first graders in September were hard to deal with but imagine what kindergartners are like! They have come so far socially, emotionally and physically by the time they are in first grade it is unbelievable. I love watching the process of kids grow and learn it is so amazing. Just another reason why subbing this year has been beneficial.