They Say The Cutest Things!

This is one of those things I just wanted to get down on paper (disk space) somewhere before I forgot about it.  It is the cutest thing ever.

Jackson, who is now 7, is such a sweetheart!  What I really love most about him is his heart.  He is so compassionate and open toward everyone he meets.  It is extremely rare to find someone he doesn't get along with.  

A little background information will be helpful for this story to really make sense to anyone who doesn't already know our family.  My husband, Doug, is very dark complected and tans very quickly in the spring and summer.  After an hour on the lawn mower, he looks like an Indian and I've been asked more than once if he was from the Middle East (which wasn't such a good thing after 9-11).    Jackson has always said his dad was "brown", which is true.  He is browner than most and I appreciated Jackson's attention to detail.

Last fall, before the '08 Presidential election, Jackson commented about all the signs we were seeing on the highway.  He explained to me that McCain was against Obama and that they had won "round one" and "round two" would be soon.  Whoever won that, would be our President.  I was impressed he knew so much about the election since I hadn't shared any of that information with him.  And, of course, he was reading the signs which I thought was great, too.  Anyhow, when I asked him who he would vote for if he could, he got excited and told me he would definately vote for Obama.  When I asked why Obama was his choice, he said "because he's brown like my dad."  

We all got a kick out of that!  Poor Doug was the focus of laughter from West Plains to Brunswick.  It was so funny and I don't think Doug minded too much.

Well, a week or so ago, I commented to Jackson about what a nice tan he had.  He looked at his arm and said "Yeah, I'm starting to look like dad."  I could see a lightbulb go on and he looked at me with a puzzled face and said, "You mean, Dad's not really brown?  Is he really just tan like me?"  When I said yes, he just sunk and said "Oh".  He was disappointed!  All this time he really did think  Doug was *really* brown!  It was so sweet.  Then, he started asking about other "brown" people he knows.  

Too cute!  It is so sweet to see how open-minded and innocent he is without any negative junk in his head yet.  I wish I could keep him that way.  He loves everyone and it wouldn't matter what color they were - brown, yellow, pink - whatever.  It's all good with Jax.

  This was taken on his 7th birthday in April.  He had a candle in his cinnamon roll before we went to school that day.

Baby Tomatoes

My first tomatoes!

The tomato plants are my favorite, so I decided to give them a whole post of their own.

I'm so excited to have fresh tomatoes of my own right outside my back door!  Yum!

I have five plants in the back yard in large plastic tubs.  We drilled holes in the bottom for drainage and filled them with the same mix we used in the garden boxes.  However, I did add one scoop of fertilizer in the center of the bucket about 10-12 inches below the plant.   We bought wire fencing at a hardware store to make our cages, which fit wonderfully inside the buckets.

I found heirloom plants at Wal-Mart and Nixa Hardware.  I've got a Cherokee Purple, Brandy Wine, Mr. Stripe, Orange Oxheart and a Yellow Pear.  The pear isn't doing so well, but everything else looks great.  We've got baby green tomatoes on all plants and a ton of flowers.  Mr. Stripey has grown to the top of the cage already, which is four feet tall!  The Orange Oxheart isn't too far behind.

I did start some tomatoes from seed and those plants are up on the deck.  I didn't start them soon enough, so they are alot farther behind.  I'll know better next year.

    

 Brandy Wine      Mr. Stripey & Orange Oxheart

How My Garden Grows!

I've enjoyed my garden so much!  I was so intimidated by this whole process, but it has been so easy and extremely rewarding.  The hardest part was getting it all set up, which really wasn't difficult, either.  If I can do this - anyone can!

The first pictures are just after I planted, which was the week prior to Mother's Day.  I put in two 4'x4' squares running east/west.  I used 2"x8" boards to make each square and filled them with a mix we learned about at a garden class.  You can read about that in my earlier garden post.

I planted two Black Beauty zucchini and two different types of yellow squash.  The zucchini were plants I purchased, but the yellow squash are heirloom varieties that I started from seed myself.  

In that same square I put oregano, rosemary, a few okra and one broccoli.  I tucked in a few marigolds here and there as well.

In the second box, I put six broccoli plants, three types of bell peppers, basil, and more marigolds.  This is what they looked like in the beginning.

                   

I also planted five different varieties of heirloom tomatoes in plastic tubs.  This has worked out wonderfully.  Four of them are doing great.  Mr. Stripey, the Orange Oxheart, Cherokee Purple and Brandy Wine are beautiful.  The exception is the Yellow Pear that just hasn't done well at all.  I think it isn't draining as well as it should, maybe.  The others are growing wonderfully, though, and we have small green tomatoes that I am so proud of! 

Here's what it looks like today.

                

     

The squash plants are growing like crazy and have almost completely covered all the other plants in that box.  I'll know next year to save one whole box for squash and zucchini.

Catching Up

Well, it's been a while since I've posted, mainly because I couldn't find the card reader for my camera's memory card.  I would so much rather read posts with pictures and I figure you would, too, so I've just put it off until I could find the reader.  It's been found, so I'm ready to do a little catch up with posts about the garden and kids.

Here we go...