Daniel's radishes...

I got my veggie garden all planted yesterday. I planted onions, fennel, beets, carrots, lettuce, zucchini, broccoli, pole beans, cilantro, and parsley.  I will be planting my potatoes soon and I have a cool idea that I am going to use.  Look for a post about that soon.  :)

I saved a nice little end spot next to the pole beans where Daniel could have his own little garden.  I had him plant radishes since they are super easy to grow and they will be ready to harvest in less than a month.  I can't wait to see his face when he sees the little seedlings coming up. 

My brother Ben, sister-in-law Mai and sweet little nephew Charlie leave for Alaska tomorrow morning.  I will have a post up about that soon.  Needless to say it is making me feel a little blue.  I am going to miss them so much! 

GRAND OPENING!!!

The day has finally come!  Today is the grand opening of my Earthen Vessel Shoppe! 

The first items to go up on my shelves are some baby bibs and burp cloths.  I made them out from the Urban Cowgirl fabric collection by Moda.  They are perfect for the sweet little cow girl in your life.  I will have some baby boy bibs up soon.

Coming this fall I will be stocking my shelves with handmade cards and lovely crocheted ear warmers just in time for the changing seasons. 

I hope you enjoy my little shop! Keep an eye out for new items!

Who left the water running...

 

A little while ago I noticed that our laundry room floor was starting to bubble up.  Not good.  We knew we had a leak somewhere.  Rue crawled under the house and found a leak in the pipes going to the washing machine.  The above picture is from Easter.  My brother Ben and Rue were discussing how to go about fixing the problem.  Little Charlie was to supervise the project but the day the repairs were to be made his Momma put him down for a nap. The guys were almost lost without his leadership but they pulled through on their own. 

 

They started by opening up the wall.

Then they started ripping up the floor and found a nasty, wet, moldy mess. 

 

Here is the little hole that caused all that damage! Basically every time I was doing a load of laundry water was being sprayed under the floor. And I do LOTS of laundry!

Ben heading into the dungeons. It's fun having a secret passage way in the bottom of my pantry. Can't wait to use those mason jars for some canning!  :)

 

Oh the bravery! There's creepy things down there, there's crawly things down there, there's squishy things down there.  Rue calls it our "end of days" hideout.  That would be the only thing that could get me to go down there.  

 Looking through a hole in the laundry room floor.  Apparently there are prehistoric sized pill bugs down there and slugs with fangs! I think someone has an over active imagination. I could never be found guilty of that!  I asked him to check for zombie spiders and he said all the spiders down there seemed friendly.  (For a refresher on our zombie spider epidemic click here.)  ;) 

So right now the floor is all torn up and we are drying out all the wet floor boards.  Thankfully none of the floor joists were rotted.  We have a dehumidifier I will be putting in there at night and hopefully that will speed the drying process up.  I can still do laundry at home thankfully.  It will be a while before we will get nice flooring to put down but right now we are just thankful to have the leak fixed and a roof over our heads.

I am so thankful to have such handy men in my life. I am so thankful to have a husband who wants to learn how to do all these things on his own so he won't have to pay someone else to do it.  At this point we only had to spend $40 on a couple of supplies.  (And $10 for pizza for the hungry workers.)  That's pretty good compared to the hundreds of dollars we would pay a repair man to do the job. 

Guillemot Cove Wildlife Reserve...

Rue took Daniel and I to Guillemot Cove Wildlife Reserve on Tuesday. It is near the quaint little town of Seabeck on the Hood Canal. I was breathtakingly surprised at how beautiful it was. I wasn't expecting to get to see the Olympic Mountains and there they were!

The hike started out in some beautiful rainforest. It was great having Daniel walk between us because his motivation to keep going was not losing sight of Daddy. :)

Old outhouse. I guess someone really needed to go!

Old abandoned cabin. There were still beds inside. Very creepy, yet fascinating.

Daniel telling Daddy that there are mountains over there.

The view of Hood Canal from the beach house porch. You can just see the snowy bottom of the Olympics. I can't wait to go back on a sunny, warm day and enjoy the full view.

We are so blessed to live in a place where you can smell the salty sea air and be able to gaze up into the mountains at the same time.
What cracks me up about this picture is that both of their left ears are sticking out of their hats in the same way and it was not planned! They are so alike even in the tiniest of ways. :)
Yes, I was there. :)
 
The Stump Tree House.  The story goes that escaped prison convict Dirty Thompson built this house and hid out in it for a while until he was discovered.  Not a very romantic story if you ask me.  Rue calls it the fairy house.  I think I will go with that.  :) 

I can't wait to go back on a warm sunny day sometime this spring or summer!

Dan the Handy Man...

One of our kitchen table legs needed some tightening so who did I call?! Mr. Dan the Handy Man of course! Daddy just put new batteries into Dan the Handy Man's "drawer"(drill) so Mr. Dan was very excited to help with this project.


As you can see Mr. Dan wore proper handy man attire. ;)
Not sure what the watering can is for...and neither is he.

My new fire pit...

I am very excited about my new fire pit. I know it's nothing fancy but it will serve it's purpose nicely. I like to think it's rustic. The reason there is moss on the stones is because I stole them form the front yard flower beds. I wanted to make my fire pit without spending any money. The key hole shape is for cooking outside. I will build a fire in the round area and rake coals into the square area where I will do my cooking. I will use my Lodge cast iron dutch oven for most of the cooking but I also want to experiment with other methods. I can put a grate over the square section and do some grilling. I am hoping to get some good practice in at home so when we go camping I will have all the kinks worked out. Bring on summer!!!

Starbuck says hi. :)

Hansville Wildlife Corridor...

On Monday Daniel and I took a little trip out to the Hansville Wildlife Corridor. It was an absolutely beautiful day.


Daniel sure loves a good hike. He was beside himself with excitement when I got him out of bed and told him we were going on a hike.

He loved finding little walking sticks. He would use one for about five minutes and then come across another one he liked better, cast off the old one and charge ahead with the new one. Hmmm, that could be a good metaphor for life. Well, for some things and NOT for others. ;)

I taught him how to "water" a tree for the first time. He was so excited about it he wanted to "water" every other tree we walked by! He couldn't quite catch the concept that he had to wait for the "tank" to fill up again. I can't wait to go on more hikes with my happy little hiker!

Easter 2012...

Easter was lovely. It started out with a wonderful church service and then lunch at our house with my family and Rue's parents. The sun was shining and it easily reached 70 degrees. At one point we were all out in the front yard sighing with content at the feeling on the sun on our faces and shoulders. It has been way too long. (Mom took all these pics.)


Daniel and Charlie discussing the weather and economy. Daniel was very interested to hear about the differences between American and Vietnamese cultures. (Mom gave me money to buy them matching Easter shirts.)
The men discussing how to fix a leak behind our washer without having to call a plumber. I love having handy men in my life. Charlie will be overseeing the project.
The lovely Halls. They will be leaving for Alaska in May. They will be living in Healy and my brother will be working at Denali National Park. They plan on staying after the summer and purchasing a nice chunk of land up there. My plan to thwart their leaving is well under way. ;)Mom and Dad. The reason Dad has such a cute grin on his face is because he is glad he actually made it to the ground without injury. Daisy should have been snapping pictures of his adventure getting to the grass. We don't call him Grampa for nothin'! Isn't Mom purrrty! She just lost 50+ pounds, got her hair highlighted and started wearing big hoopy earrings. She sure is a hotty!


Could Daisy be any prettier?! Still can't believe she will be 16 next month! Wasn't she just 8! Where did 16 come from?!

Huntin' eggs!

Each egg had an M&M inside which the boys were quick to gobble up.

Leave it to boys to find the single patch of dirt on the lawn and step in it...

...and sit in it and throw it and EAT it! Charlie loves the taste of dirt and chocolate.
Rue's parents George and Bonita, the love birds. :)Happy spring time everyone! He is risen!!