Early to Bed

When I was growing up my favorite books were the little house on the Prairie Books. My favorite being Farmer Boy. I learned alot about what it took to be a farmer and some good farming tips. I was fascinated by the way that the whole family worked together and the bounty that they were able to provide for thier family and the people in thier community. They also had alot of fun. That life was foriegn to me because I grew up in middle class suburbia and we did not have a garden except once. My mom grew radishes. I did have neighbors though and i was always asking to see what they were growing. One thing that has stuck with me is that farmers go to bed early and get up early. I have always been an early riser and I used to be in bed by 9pm. Over the past few years I have gotten out of the habit of going to be early mostly because my kids are older and they stay up later .Lately though I have been really tired. School started this week so I decided that we all should go to bed earlier. Well guess what. After 4 days of going to bed before 10p instead of 11 or 12 I woke up yesterday morning feeling great. Whats more I am waking up earlier and having alot more time to plan my day and have time to myself.
This is good for the blog as well because here i am before 7 am.

I am headed out to the garden to hoe and plant. Things are looking really good . I am really excited about the spinich and lettuce . Looks like we should have some in the first basket. The corn ear worms did some damage to the corn but we are not giving up and will be replanting this weekend. Peppers and eggplants are going strong and we will have lots of those.

Have a great holiday

Summer Vacation

I am back....... My husband Charles and I had an amazing vacation to the east coast ( Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticut.) This vacation was the first time that my husband took more than 3 days off of work in years so when we left I was worried that he would not be able to relax but he did . It was hard not to with the beautiful places that we went to visit. I used to live in Maine , Connecticut and Massachusetts and consider New England one of the most beautiful places in the country. Even though Charles has travel on every Continent he had never been to these states. So we started with the coast of Massachusetts .We stayed in little town called Marshfield at my parents ( a block from the beach). Morning walks on the beach, lunch at a seaside restaurant outside overlooking the ocean and lobster dinner at my parents house(complete with newspaper on the table and yummy clam chowder) .

Next Charles and I went for a drive up to Maine up the coast and then onto Millonocket Maine. We stayed at Baxter State park in a little cabin where we hiked the appalachan trail, fly fished, canoed , swam in crystal clear water and cooked over a campfire. Baxter state Park is one of the most Pristine places in US .

It was so great to share this place with Charles who loves the outdoors as much as I do. I would reccomend that everyone who is able goes and visits this place.

We went to Connecticut after Maine where I surprised Charles by taking him to a old playhouse in Ridgefield to see our favorite singer , John Hiatt. Great concert.

We ended our vacation back in Massachusetts for a few more days at the beach , touring around Boston and even visited a farmers market where niece (who has the family green thumb) sells vegtables for a farm she works at .

This farmers market was in Cohassett Massachusetts. It was about the size of Bryans farmers market but on a beautiful grassy common surrounded by 300 year old homes.

Vacation is always a wonderful thing ,but it always comes with a price. I"m not talking about the monetary one. I am talking about the double time ,that no matter how well planned your vacation is , you spend catching up on everything that you forgot about for 12 days. In the case of gardening it is weeds. I will say that I was thankful for rain and everything I planted before I left,got off to a great start.

Well thanks to a tractor, a tiller and some hard work all the weeds are under control . I am happy to be home with my hands in the soil.......