Now the wait begins...

Well, we got the rest of the raised garden beds done. We planted seeds in the first bed a couple of weeks ago. Last week we finished putting dirt in the other 2 bigger beds, and last Sunday after church we planted the rest of our seeds. We also went ahead and planted our tomato plants, bell pepper plants, onions, garlic, and jalapeno pepper plants. Hopefully Jack Frost will stay away and not bite us in the butt for planting before Mother's Day.



















Things are really greening up here. Our one apple tree is just covered in blossoms. The second apple tree has blossoms for the first year ever - just a few - but it has some!































The grapevines are growing...

















The wild blackberry bushes are getting green and will be blooming soon...















And the strawberry bed is doing very well so far. We planted some starts, as well as about 6 bigger plants. There is a mixture of huge June-bearing strawberry plants, and some Ozark Beauty everbearing. I can't wait until we can actually harvest strawberries from them next year! I want to try making jam, as well as having fresh strawberries to eat.















The seeds we planted in the first bed are coming up. The green beans are the latest to start popping through...















The peas are starting nicely...














As is the leaf lettuce...














Some broccoli is showing up....














And the carrots are starting...















I'm still waiting on the turnips and cucumbers to pop up. In the far left bed we planted some mammoth sunflower seeds, some Honey Pearl sweet corn, a couple of individual-sized cantaloupe seeds, and a couple of pie pumpkin seeds. We ran out of room, so we're trying to start the Giant Magic Pumpkin seeds in hills to the left of the last bed.














So....now we just water when it doesn't rain...and we wait. Hopefully we'll have a good harvest from our garden this year. It's really nice working in the garden with Rich...being outside in the sun and working on something together.

I'm also still knitting on baby (aka Peanut) clothes. I'm working on a baby gown right now. I'll post pictures of it when I'm done. Well...that's about it for today. The bus just pulled up, so Kota is home. Rich will be home soon, so I need to start thinking about dinner. I hope God blesses your day as much as he has mine!

News Flash!!!

Sorry for the long delay in posting. So much has been happening! The best of which is this...(click on the picture to make it bigger)

I'm gonna be a grandma! :) Although the timing could have been better (i.e. marriage before pregnancy and a little more financially stable), I'm very happy that I'm going to have a grandbaby. He or she is due November 17th. Here is a picture of Chey and Will (baby's daddy).

And I've already started knitting baby things! I started this blanket the day I found out Chey was pregnant.
I love making Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ), so I already had one of those knitted and put back for "someday" grandbabies. I made a pair of socks...they turned out a little bigger than I thought they were going to...
Guess we'll have some socks for when the baby gets a little older! I've made one bib in a neutral color, since we can't find out the sex of the baby until the 18th week of pregnancy.And I've just about got another bib finished in another colorway.

Now I just have to figure out what to cast on for next! I think it's going to be some of EZ's "longies" or baby leggings and another BSJ to match.

Rich hasn't been getting a full work-week because of the economical downturn. We're limping along budget-wise, but hanging in there. I'm sure glad that we started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace program when we did. We've paid off several debts so far, but we still have a ways to go. Rich thinks things are going to pick up soon where he works, so hopefully we'll be able to start paying extra on debts again soon and get even more paid off. We are trying to live as frugally as possible. We haven't been successful in trying to get vegetables to grow in the clay soil we have here at home. We've tried multiple times. So this year we decided to build raised garden beds. To save money, we used 8-10" diameter cedar trees for the sides of the beds and then used 2x8's for the ends to hold the logs together. The beds are 4 feet across so that I can reach them from either side to weed, pick things, etc.
The smaller one in the back is a strawberry bed. I can't wait for fresh strawberries next year! We bought some dirt that was $20 per truckload and mixed in some "miracle grow" style enriched garden soil with fertilizer, and some manure. I invested in a $15 soil tester, and the numbers look pretty good. I think this might work really good! We are planning to do "square foot gardening" and "companion planting" - putting plants together that benefit each other. We're going to try growing green beans, cucumbers, peas, sweet corn, leaf lettuce, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers for salsa, and tomatoes. Then we're going to try to put some small cantaloupe, pumpkins, and watermelon in the ground to see if we can get them to grow. I'd really like to make some pumpkin butter and freeze some pumpkin for pies. Our apple trees are growing...hopefully one day we'll have apples for apple butter. Our dwarf peach tree is doing well, and we planted another one last year. We won't get peaches off of it for another couple of years probably, but I can't wait to have peaches. Next year we're planning on building a chicken house so we can raise our own eggs. We're thinking of raising some rabbits for meat, too. We have a rabbit hutch. That would help to supplement the deer meat we have each year.

Rich is as handsome as ever...although beginning to get a few gray hairs in the mustache and sideburns. You can't see his gray like you can in my hair (thank goodness for Loreal! LOL). Our 20th wedding anniversary is this September - I can't believe it's been 20 years already. Seems like just yesterday we were getting married! As they say...time flies when you're having fun!

Dakota is doing great...she's a beautiful young lady. She's a freshman, and I know she will be graduating high school before it seems possible. Time sure flies. She has a boyfriend right now named Anthony. He seems to be a good kid. She's not allowed to "date" yet, but he comes out and plays video games, goes to church with us sometimes, etc.
I got baptized on February 22nd in my new church. Although I was raised in the Nazarene church, I've found a new home in a small, country, Lutheran church. I really like it. The pastor is great, as are the members. Rich has been going with me nearly every Sunday (YEAH!!!), and Dakota is going more frequently all the time. We went to the sunrise service on Easter. They are starting a new bible study tonight, using The Shack. I'm going. I think it will be very interesting.

I also just completed a 3 month course as a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE). Completing the course makes me a forensic nurse examiner for our hospital. I will take the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner certification exam this Fall. I'm spending a lot of time right now getting our hospital's SANE program up and running. I was our hospital's first Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) and I hope to become their first SANE. It is very fulfilling nursing work. I've completed 5 cases now, and each one has made me more glad that I invested the time in the course and this program.

I took an ABATE riding class and learned how to operate my own motorcycle. I am the proud owner of a used Harley Davidson Sportster 1200. It is soooo fun to ride! It's cold and rainy outside today so I don't want to get it out. Here is a picture of it...I'll post another one once I can get it out in the sunlight.
I also asked for quilting supplies for Christmas 2008. Santa obliged, and I was blessed with a new sewing machine, quilting supplies, and enough material to make my first quilt. Here is one of my first quilt blocks.

I haven't had any time to work on quilting since right after Christmas, because I started the SANE class. I'm hoping to get back to it soon, but right now, my priority is knitting baby clothes.

Well, I need to get working on some things here at home, work on the SANE policy for work, KNIT BABY STUFF, and re-read my chapters for the bible study tonight.

Lots going on

There have been a ton of things going on...the oldest daughter moved out shortly after my last post (and shortly after her 18th birthday). She did it against my advice, but she's of age, so I can't stop her, so I guess I'll just have to accept it and move on. I had to give up working at the open heart unit because it was taking too much time away from the youngest daughter...now that she's the only child I have living at home, I want to spend as much time with her as possible. She's lost a lot of weight, and I'm more than a little worried about her. My wonderful hubby is enjoying the warm weather, and both of us love the fact that we can ride the motorcycle again...we love the time alone together. In true "biker" style, I've gotten some new body art...
I shocked the crap out of a lot of people by getting a tattoo...but I really like it. I looked for a long time to find just the one I wanted...the heart represents my valentine birthday and all of the people, both here and gone, that I love. The flowers represent the fact that I love the outdoors, and the fact that I love to "stop and smell the roses" in my busy life. Well, I need to get busy knitting on my mom's Mother's Day gift....sorry mom...no hints here! :)

Time...

....a funny thing. If it doesn't naturally get away from you fast enough (as evidenced by the fact that I haven't blogged since the middle of August and it's now Mid-March), the government makes you lose an extra hour on top of it all (I still hate daylight savings time!). DD#1 is getting ready to turn 18, DD#2 is getting ready to turn 14, and I am now officially on the brink of 40. My best friend (also known as my wonderful, loving husband) is just as awesome as ever! I love that I can still say that after nearly 19 years!!!Well, let's see...a lot has happened since I blogged last. I gave up my job as the ED Manager in November (I'd hated it for months, but wanted to give it a fair chance). I had initially turned down the interview in the Cardiovascular Unit (CVU) at a nearby hospital, but once I went back to being a staff nurse in the ED (ER), I contacted the CVU again, and I'm now working there one day a week or so. I love it! I've been sick since Friday with the flu (I insanely thought that I was going to escape that bullet this year), missed work in the ER all weekend, and am off today. I'm going to be working on my hemodynamic monitoring knowledge. I've never gotten to experience arterial lines and "fancy" hemodynamic monitoring in the ER, since my ER is smaller. I say "fancy" hemodynamic monitoring, because in an ER where you don't place central lines and arterial lines, your hemodynamic monitoring consists of using parameters such as the patient's heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, capillary refill, level of consciousness, etc. instead of all of the fancy numbers like the central venous pressure, pulmonary artery pressure, etc. I'm just learning more and more...and loving every minute of it! I've helped take care of a fresh open heart patient just coming back to the room from the OR, and helped take care of patients getting ready to go to have their open heart. It's totally awesome! I feel like a nurse again! I like the ER because of the variety of things I see/experience, but I really love the CVU. I see myself having to make a choice one of these days (when my body says I can't work as much)...but until then, I'm going to do both for a while! :)

I finally got mad enough at the debt we have amassed, that I put us on a strict budget. We now have a plan for getting out of debt and should still have time to put back some money for retirement afterward. I'm really looking forward to being completely out of debt in 7-10 years. I know a lot of things can happen between now and then, but at least we have a plan now instead of continuing to flounder in a sea of debt and still racking up more debt in the process.

As for knitting, I have completed several projects since I last blogged. I've joined Ravelry, and am trying to put my projects up on there. I just finished an EZ Baby Surprise Jacket (although I still have to put buttons on it), I made a hat to go with it..... (Knitpicks Swish worsted weight in Delft Heather)

I've made the hubby two pairs of socks (Knitpicks Fellici in Coastal),

I finished a Hoosier dishcloth and hanging towel (pattern here), made a couple of two-color patterned hats out of EZ's Knitting Workshop book, and made a sweater to match one of them, which I gave to DD#1 for Christmas. DD#2 was the recipient of the 2nd hat, but I haven't had time to make the matching sweater yet. Given the state of DD#1's room, I'm not even going to try to find them. DD#2 is so obsessive/compulsive that she'll know if I move a single thing in her room trying to find the hat, so I think I'll wait on taking a picture of that until she gets home and can get it for me. I'm currently working on a pair of socks (Apple Laine in colorway Blue Bayou, purchased from Wool-Tyme in Canada). I actually purchased this wool about 2 years ago and am just now getting to knitting it from the stash. I also have another colorway...Best Friends...it's a blue based colorway, whereas this is more of a brown-based.

(supposedly for me, but I'll probably end up giving them away for an upcoming holiday if I don't get another pair made before then). I don't know whether my handmade socks are actually worn by my mom, or if they're just sitting in her drawer...but I like giving them to her anyway. :)

The sheep venture is out of the question...at least for now. I will settle for buying fleece. :) My wonderful hubby got me a gift certificate for my favorite LYS for Christmas, and I used it to buy two lovely Shetland fleeces. I've handwashed the dark brown, and am handcarding it. It's slow going, but I love doing it. I've gotten 3 skeins of yarn done now,

and I'm eager to get the rest of it done, so that I can knit myself a new jacket...I think I'm going to make the Bog Jacket out of EZ's Knitting Around. I bought the DVD from Schoolhouse to go with the book, and I love them! I have some white Shetland roving from a fleece that I bought at Sheepstreet a couple of years ago. I think I'll use that in combination with the dark brown that I'm working on now for the jacket. If I have enough left over, and I think I should, I'll make a hat and mittens to go along with it. :) I doubt if I get any wool carded today. I hate carding it in the house, because it has quite a bit of vegetable matter (VM) in it, and it makes a mess. It's much better if I can card it outside. We actually had a day in the 60's a week ago...the gorgeous hubby took me on a motorcycle ride, and then I came home, sat on the deck, drank a beer, and carded wool. Now that's my idea of relaxing! This weekend, however, we got 10-12 inches of snow! It's supposed to be in the mid-50's by the middle of the week, though, so maybe I'll get to card some wool later in the week.

The second fleece I bought with the gift certificate for Sheepstreet is an oatmeal color. I may end up sending it off to be processed, depending on how much vegetable matter it has in it when I look at it again. I like carding it myself, but I also get frustrated with the high VM because I can't get it out as much as I'd like. Sheepstreet has changed to a new hay for feeding the sheep since these fleeces were sheared, so the VM content should be less. They will be shearing again in April, and I want to try to buy another fleece or two.

I also took a handpainting yarn class at Sheepstreet, as well as a spinning class. I just love the folks at Sheepstreet...Nancy, Tim, and Pat...You're the best! Here is my first ever handpainted yarn - a sock yarn that I call "American Pride" :)

Finally, I dove into my first cables...trying them out on a scarf and hat of my own design. I like them, but I definitely need to make the outer pattern on the scarf in something that doesn't curl...perhaps a garter stitched edge with the cables more in the middle. But hey... a learning project! :)
Well, since I want to spin later (my reward for studying hemodynamic monitoring), I need to get to studying.

My How Time Flies!

I can't believe it's been a (little over) a month since I've blogged! Time is flying by. It will be Christmas before I know it, and I've just barely started making gifts! I've been working a ton, too, though, as we have 21 night shifts open, and day shift is short several days, as well. I've been asked to interview for the Cardiovascular Unit at another hospital. I'm considering it very much. I have a new dishwasher arriving this week, as GE notified me that our existing one has some defect that makes it a fire hazard if you've used rinse aids in it (which I have). It was either a free service call or $150 towards the purchase of a new one (duh...it's a 6 year old dishwasher!).

Well, I'm off to the grocery store before it gets to the 95 degree mark today. And then it's back home so I can wash down the house and dream about owing one of these:

More about that next time! :)

Time for some catching up!

I finally had time to take some project pictures, so get ready for some serious catching up!



Desert Poncho - The Desert Poncho is about finished. I ran out of the Mocha Lion Suede as I was binding off the final row. I went to several local stores where I had seen the yarn over the past several months, and none could be found, so I found some online. I'm ready to finish the bind-off and then do the fringe, and it will be done. I wanted to make this poncho a "little big" because I want to wear it on cool evenings in the fall and spring when we're camping or sitting outside. Ummm...can I just say that it's "definitely big". I will have no trouble with it being long enough to really keep me warm! It's almost a dress! Another lesson in checking gauge for me!

The Fiber Trends Lace Leaf Shawl is finished, and I've given it to my friend Jill as a wedding gift. It was my first true attempt at a lace project (and blocking), and I'm very happy with the outcome.


















Garter Ridge Cardi
I've also made good progress on my first cardigan that I've mentioned in previous postings. It's made out of the same yarn as the Lace Leaf Shawl...just in different colors. I've completed the back and both sides and have them sewn together. I'm going to have to take one side off and resew it, though....the pattern doesn't match up exactly on that side, and it's very distracting when you're looking at it. I'm about half done with the first sleeve. After the sleeves are done and sewn on, it will be time to sew on the border around the neck and the front, and do the buttonholes and buttons (another first for me). Here are pictures of the progress so far on the cardi and a picture of the detail of the pattern:

The pattern is easy, and it really looks nice. I'd like to try it again with some of my homespun sometime for a winter-weight cardigan. This particular cardi is going to be very light-weight for spring (hence the yellow and green, which remind me of my daffodils that I can't wait to see coming up every spring!).

A new hobby that hit me out of the "blue"
My hubby and I recently attended a civil war re-enactment. Mind you, I've always felt like I was born in the wrong century, but I now have an outlet for that! We're going to be participants in the re-enactments! We joined a local group of local Northern recruits, and I can't wait to get started! The hubby's clothes can all be purchased for a reasonable price, but buying mine pre-made would be very, VERY pricey...so....I'm learning to sew. So far I've made my pantalettes (bloomers), a chemise ("shimmy") and a petticoat to go over my hoops, so they won't show through my dress. I did go ahead and purchase a set of hoops and a corset, because I'm not sure that my sewing skills are up to boning or stays yet. I also have purchased the pattern for my bodice and skirt, so I'll be starting on them before long. My momma was wonderful help in getting the petticoat pinned up to the proper length for hemming so that it doesn't show underneath my skirts (Thanks Mom!). Being a civilian while the hubby is fighting the battles will be fun (and hot with all of those layers of clothes!), but I'm also looking forward to the dances and good times that the groups have after hours when they all get together. I've always been fascinated with the Civil War, so this is a perfect fit. Unfortunately, it also means that I will have to leave my metal knitting needles at home and remember to grab the wooden ones so that I can stay in character!

Well, that's about all of the updates I have for today. Back to laundry, picking some wild blackberries & raspberries for freezing (or a pie), and working on finishing up the current knitting projects. I think Sunday (tomorrow) may even be a day for spinning!

Lace Leaf Shawl

Well, the lace leaf shawl is done and I'm blocking it. I'm just waiting on it to dry. I'll get some pictures up tonight after it's dry. It's made from Kraemer Yarns Little Lehigh Pebbles DK weight in "First Tooth" color. Now it's back to my cardigan. I'm working on the right front side.