Seed Catalog

Well, it is that time of year again!  We received our Territorial Seed catalog the other day, and it is funny how I get excited about a seed catalog.  When I was a kid and we were overseas my sister and I got excited when the Sears or AAFES catalog came, ahhhh how times have changed, now I get excited over the seed catalog.  We also get catalogs from Burpee, a large see distributor and Annies Heirloom Seeds.  I kind of decided to stick with Territorial since they based here in Oregon, down by Eugene, which gives me a piece of mind that a lot of the seeds they sell have been tried out here in the Pacific Northwest.  Last year in my search for Mammoth Mangel beets, I ended up getting the seeds from Annies, and I may order some more this year.  We have already started discussing what we would do differently in the garden, and I am always looking to expand it.  Since we do have a bit of a deer issue, I may try and put a lot of our squash outside the fenced area as the deer do not like them.  This will open up considerable room in the fenced area for other things like sweet bell peppers or lots of lettuce.  We will need to deer proof the garden better this year.  We currently have a 4' fence, but I extended the posts up 3' from that and ran a wire around the top to try and prevent them from jumping in, but by the end of last year's season they had found a way in.  So, we are probably looking at the plastic mesh deer fencing that I will need to string around to raise the height.  We also have one motion activated sprinkler, but it is not enough for the size of our garden.
Blueberries: We have picked up some small blueberry plants to add to our existing mature plants that we put in last year.  These are smaller gallon size.  We purchased four from Costco of all places, and four from Als Garden Center.  These should go in pretty quickly, but then I will need to make a trip to get the fir sawdust to mulch around them.
Fruit Tree's:  We are finally going to plant some fruit trees.  Once again we bought some from Costco, because we could not resist the price, but then I went by Al's.  Al's are probably $8/tree more but the quality is vastly superior, they just look healthier, and the branches are all nice spaced and at the correct angles, unlike the Costco tree's which sometimes just have branches on one side.  We are going to plant them all and see how it goes.  The big question is where do we want them?  It is kind of an important question as they are not easy to move once planted.  I have a feeling they will end up down by the bee's, which will ensure they get as much sun as possible.

Of course with all this comes the realization that I have not accomplished everything that I wanted to during the winter months, and pretty soon the garden will be calling me.  To top it off I definitely need to get the fencing done as I read a news headline today talking about the price of beef going up the next two years.  It would be nice if we did not have to worry about that by raising our own grass-fed steer.  Article Link.

Evan turns "8" officially

This is how we greeted him Sunday morning on his birthday. Of course he found a way out but had to do an army crawl on the ground. 

Evan's choice for breakfast was an egg breakfast dish with sausage in it and homemade scones. 

He is loved by all!

He is taller then his older brother! We are looking at probably a son over 6 feet tall. 

A great mixture of characters.Yes that is a real bullwhip and tomahawk (but it isn't to sharp). He's dressed up in different attire the whole week. This picture fits him perfectly. He is always in some kind of dress up and all the kids love to be out playing paratroopers in their fox hole that they have dug recently, or playing cowboys, or Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. 

His choice for dinner was Broccoli cheddar soup, biscuits and apple crisp and ice cream. 

We were able to take just him out to dinner last night to his favorite restaurant, Red Robin. It is amazing how much food this kid can put away. 

Ev, you are such a special son. You are always making us laugh and you love to play with all of your siblings. You love your school work and are such a go with the flow kind of kid. But you are growing up so fast. Sometimes to fast. We pray that as you continue to grow and mature that your heart's desire will be to serve your Heavenly Father and to let Him lead you. We love you and look forward to watching you grow this next year. 

Love,

Dad and Mom