378lbs and Counting

Despite the blight on my tomatoes, bugs on my squash and bean plants, and of course my ever so helpful babies; we have grown 378 pounds of food so far in my little gardens.  Can you believe that?  This is my chart - which may seem a bit ridiculous to some (super high tech I know), but I wanted to see how "worth" the effort gardening was going to be.  So, every morning after picking I would log what was what - for example 2 large cucumbers equaled a pound, 10-12 okra equaled a pound, 2 large tomatoes equaled a pound, etc.  Definitely not a fail proof method, especially since my girls tend to pick and eat- completely ignoring mommy's logging method, and obviously I guesstimated quite a bit, but I don't think it's a gross over-estimation by any means.

So, just in case you are wondering, my garden is still kicking.  We are picking tomatoes (which have jumped back now that it's not 120 degrees out), okra, cucumbers, wax beans, green beans, peas, bell peppers, basil, Swiss chard, collards, lettuce, radishes, carrots, and hopefully soon winter squash (that was just planted so it'll be a while).  I fully anticipate the collards and Swiss chard to go all winter long too.  Isn't gardening in Bama crazy?  Actually, I think the reason that everything has done so well is because it had to have an extreme will to live - babies and their feet are not so attentive or forgiving to tender little plants.  Add in a couple cats and dogs and I'm surprised everything wasn't trampled to death back in May. 

In all seriousness, the only things original in the big garden now are the pepper plants, the okra, basil and my big, beautiful German heirloom tomato plant.  Everything else has done it's thing, been yanked out, then re-planted with something else. 

I've decided that you must have a tenacious personality to garden; unless of course you are my sister who grew an entire crop of tomato plants without planting anything (Trac, are you kidding me?)  Regardless, I'm feeling a little proud - not too bad for a city chick on a 1/4 acre lot, and very blessed.

"Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness." 

94 Cents and a Parking Token

Alright, alright.  Been slacking, I know.  Computer issues, camera issues, and baby issues.  Blah, blah, blah.

After the Falls, we were headed to Raleigh.  More family time, and supposedly the beach and the Hall of Fame.  OK, what were we thinking???  Who goes on their first vacation with 3 little bitty children and decides to drive 3100 miles in 8 days?  Well, the hubs and I do of course!!!  The same people who decide to drive on a toll road with absolutely NO CASH.  The only toll road along our entire trip that ONLY takes cash.  This of course led to a frantic search along the floor boards of the car, and dumping out my purse in order to find EXACTLY 94 cents and a parking token, to which the toll money "taker" thought we were nuts, but after much pleading, let us pass on through anyway.

So we head to Raleigh and arrived about 5am after driving the 56 miles of construction through D.C.  Why would we find out if there is construction first?  That would be just silly.  We got to see Aunt Suzy again, and 2 of my cousins.  They took us to the absolute coolest museum for kids ever - Marbles Kids Museum (http://www.marbleskidsmuseum.org/galleriesandexhibits).  In which, they had the biggest Legos I have ever seen, so my cousin Andrew and I absolutely had to build a fort, complete with windows, doors and roof (after which the kids didn't even really play in, but we had a good time).

So we left Raleigh, and decided that there was no way in hell we were driving out of our way.  I mean AT ALL.  The kids were really not having a great time in the car at this point, so we decide to just pick an attraction on the way home.  So, we decide to go mining for gemstones. 

Yep, we went to the backwoods of who knows where with our 3 small children and bought a bucket of rocks to mine for gemstones.  Now, don't get me wrong, the people seemed fairly nice, but people make entirely too much fun of Alabama when everyone we met had like 2 teeth.  I digress....We bought a bucket of rocks.  We do have a whole slew of uncut gemstones now, and one of the smoky quartz that I found was made into a necklace, but I'm still having a hard time with buying of a bucket of rocks from a man that only had 2 teeth.  As usual though, the hubs and I had a good time, sifting through rocks and letting the kids play.

After that, it was beyond time to go home. 

All in all, we had a great vacation.