From the Garden . . .

It's harvest time! This year we put in a new garden area in our yard. We have 3 raised beds on the south side of our house. Drew built these great cedar boxes (we'll have to get a picture posted) and we filled them with organic soil & compost.

We've planted peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers, basil, sweet corn, popcorn, zucchini, cucumbers and watermelon. I also had cauliflower, red cabbage and broccoli, but they were destroyed by the cabbage worms. So sad.

More saddness, I decided to trim back the watermelon plant. It was growing and growing and growing. It was about ready to grow into the neighbors yard which is across the entire garden area. I hated to cut it back, but needed to make the executive decisions to trim it back. Several vines are now in our compost bin.

Our harvest to date is peas, beans, cucumbers, zucchini and a few cherry tomatoes. We've had so much rain this year we haven't had to water. Though Drew installed a rain barrel just off the corner of the house, so we'll have this as a potential water source.

Happy Gardening!
K

Feeling Better

Kelli's health updates:

I'm feeling better -- though spending the last three + days sick has not been my idea of fun!
Tomorrow I'll go back to work. I tried to go this morning, but just didn't have the energy. I'm looking forward to not being sick, not coughing and sneezing and aching and being stuffy. I feel like I've been run over by a truck!

Oh - and my knee - almost healed! Just in time for our next cyling adventure. For those that haven't heard, we've signed on to ride 3 days of RAGBRAI. We'll be riding with Team Pucker. It promises to be an eventful few days.

K

Weekend Update

This weekend I met Bill in Chicago for the NASCAR race. We had a great time and may decide to make it an annual event. It is almost exactly half way for each of us.

Kelli stayed home to work on some of here arts adn crafts hobbies. She unfortunately got sick and was miserable yesterday whenI got home. She is feeling (and sounding) much better today. She stayed home from work to get more rest.

Our New Rain Barrel

Rain barrels are used to collect water that would normally come out your downspout and go into an already taxed sewer system. The water can be reused to water your lawn, flowers, and garden. This is a part of our new green lifestyle that we have adopted. I am making a few modifications to this barrel before we put it to use. More to come on that.

4th Weekend

We had a great weekend. Friday we went for a 20 mile bike ride. I got a flat tire at mile 3 and Kelli crashed at mile 9. She was OK, I was more concerned about it than she was.

We were running short on time due to my flat so we turned around at mile 10 and headed home. We got cleaned up and headed to my moms for lunch. We got to see most of Jackie's whole family. It was about 15 degrees cooler than last year. So we could actually sit outside comfortably.

Saturday we got up early and did a ride on the Wabash. We met Tom, Amy, Chris, & Karol at the trailhead and rode to Malvern 23 miles south. We had breakfast in Malvern and stopped for a beer at the Mineola steakhouse on the way back. It was a great ride and got to catch up with everyone along the way.

Saturday night we met up with everyone again at the Hot Shops for the Liquid Arts Festival. It was a great event, one we'll make sure to do again and again. Free homemade beer and wine! You cant beat that.

Sunday was our day of rest. We were lazy all day long and never changed out of our PJs.