Summer Lovin'--The Jungle

I am going to attempt to catch up on life and the adventures therein.  I was a little (a lot) burned out with blogging and decided to phase my addiction into something more instantaneously gratifying ...facebook. 

But I've missed actual writing and so I think I'm back for a while now. 

Maybe.

As for catching up, here's the first installment. Introducing " Summer Lovin'-- The Jungle. 

What started out as this: 

Has now become this:

This is what we lovingly refer to as "The Jungle".

Goes to show what a little bit of compost and steer manure can do to otherwise extremely sterile soil.  (sterile, as in, not ONE weed popped up the entire spring)

We've never experienced anything like it.  It boggles my mind.  The plants are bigger than anything I have ever seen.  The green bean plants reach well above my knees.  It's insane.   Not even the hail storm we had the other day could stop their growth.

 Holy Monkey Lovin'.

As you can see, we didn't plan enough room for their ginormousness.


Who knew there was gold in dung? Not me...that's who.

Check it out....

The pumpkin plants have started taking over the kids digging area.

 I'm not gonna lie....I'm not too sad about that.  I'm thinkin' we may just need all of that space next year.  No more dirt caked faces (clothes, hair, eyes, tongues, etc) and no more mud pie slinging.  DARN, DARN, DARN! (wink)

Back to the goods.

The biggest yield-er, so far?  The ZUCCHINI!

These babies are just from today (sans 2 that Rob took to work).  That's 9...in ONE day!  Plus the 15-20 we have previously harvested makes for A LOT OF ZUCCHINI!  It's a good thing we love it.

In addition to plumping back up my freezer stores (sliced for regular dinner table consumption and shredded for tasty winter baked goods awesomeness) we have been enjoying a lot of this:

Squash, green beans (also from the garden), 1/2 to 1 TBSP olive oil, 1 tsp minced garlic and a dash of seasoned salt.  SO TASTY (unless Rob cooks it and puts in 4 TBSP oil).

 and some of this:

Grilled pizza---SO GOOD!  You can find grilling instructions on Our Best Bites here.  I also make my own pizza sauce using 1to2 15 oz cans tomato sauce and Our Best Bites garlic bread seasoning recipe (to die for).  Better than ANYTHING you will find at the store.

Next on the list for zucchini love:
This,  this, this (SO GOOD--already had it once--thank you Lisa), this , ohhhh and maybe this.

(Pinterest....I LOVE YOU!)

In the meantime we will are anxiously awaiting more green beans, tomatoes, crookneck squash, cantaloupe, cucumbers, walla walla onions, pumpkins and carrots. 

Fresh food makes my mouth water. 

How about you?

Sigh.....

Now I'm off to eat a Twix.

Goodnight!

Privacy is HIGHLY overrated

Who was I kidding.  When have I EVER been a private person. 

So...I've given up my privacy and opted again for an open blog. 

I hope y'all are excited about that. 

Not that you care, really but hey...if it makes you feel better, blogging buddies, it means that I will most likely be blogging more often. 

I know that will excite a few of you (aka Kara).

Love,

Melanie

a few more pics....

 



 
 

Family Pictures 2012...sneak peek #1

We had an amazing time (sans millions and millions of mosquitoes) yesterday taking pictures with Alisha of Leeshy Lou Photography  .  She was very sweet and good to work with.  The boys did AWESOME!  Total cooperation.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven (again, sans the mosquitoes).  Her "magic potion" (besides being cute and fun)?  A Phineas and Ferb Pez candy dispenser attached to her camera which she would randomly open up and disperse among the restless natives.

Here are a few she has finished editing and posted on her FB page for those of you non-facebooker's to see (grandma's and grandpa's and a few uncles and aunts).

Ewwwww.....their kissing.  Get away as fast as you can.

See...told you they were cute. 

Can't wait until she is ALL done and we have 30 FABULOUS edited family photos.


 

Adventures in Okanogan

The move is done. Complete. We are SLOWLY settling in, emphasis on the word slowly!

Our disastrous first couple of days here totally slowed down my usual "putting up house" progress but things are finally starting to take shape.

After too much time in doors, I decided the kids and I needed to tackle a project outside.  Just so happens we had just such a project.

Leaves....LOTS OF LEAVES!  (the house has been vacant since last summer so last years fall's tree dumpings had been left decomposing in the yard until now.)

These 10 bags are from the front yard alone!  The back took another 6 or so.

The boys LOVED this part.  The house we lived in before didn't have a tree in sight.  I'll admit we have really missed out on the whole fall time playing in the leaves thing.  I don't think that will be an issue as long as we are in this house.  :)

 We've already spent plenty of $$$ on home improvement stuff, finished our first project (drywalling an unfinished wall in our storage room), and I've hung the first (and only so far) item on the wall.  I can't wait until we actually close on the loan and I can start paining and replacing animal "marked" (aka soiled) carpets.  :)

I thought I would share a little walking tour of the house for those of you who are interested (and have been asking for one). Come on over to YouTube to view.