And where have we been?

Well, in truth, we’re living between two homes, finishing off the school year for our high schooler and elementary schooler, preparing everyone for new school (high schooler) and home school (soon to be middle schooler), and driving down to the farm on weekends to plant, check on things, decorate, repair, and so much more, all while getting our suburban townhouse ready to sell. Anyone want to buy a 3-bedroom townhouse in Reston, Virginia? It literally just needs some paint and a couple of quick repairs.

Anyway, what I’m saying is that with that and also with my day job, I have been BUSY. But right now, starting at 6 pm last night, I am on VACATION for a week! Tomorrow I go see my college kid sing Mozart’s Requiem at school, and then I am off for a full week at the farm to get away from the insanity that was my last month at work. Because my goodness what a month it was.

But all that said, we have TREES. Let me explain. Part of our plan was to grow fruit trees, and our Realtors bought us a grafted tree from Fast Growing Trees as a housewarming gift. It’s got 4 fruits: peach, nectarine, apricot, and plum. I was elated. Because FGT was having a sale, we went online and bought a bunch more, and now in addition to the “fruit cocktail” tree, we have several others in the ground, including 2 Pink Lady apple trees, a Chicago Hardy fig, a pomegranate, an apricot, a pear, and 2 thornless blackberry bushes to go next to the very thorny blackberries that were already there, plus a blueberry bush. I think we are still expecting some others, too. The house came with 2 peach trees, and they gave off about 8 suckers. I cut them off and they are rooting and sprouting, so we will soon find a place for them, too.

Oh look I learned how to make a slide show!

We also did some cleaning up of areas that had been used for planting in the past. The kids helped after my 11 year old came down to the garden patch and asked if I was overextending myself. No really he used those words. They all know to tell me to check my pacing. Below: The before mess, the kids helping, the after less of a mess, the kid and his wheelbarrow.

Finally, or well finally for today, we did some changes around the house, most notably paint to the dining room. My daughter helped with the paint. My son helped with trying out the hammock.

This week I hope to finish the dining room trim and get some plants in the ground. We know that this year is not going to be the most spectacular for growing since we’ll be there only part time, but I’m planning to harvest a bunch of the wild mustard that’s blooming everywhere, and I definitely want to get some of my seeds sown for spring plantings. OOH. It’s getting exciting.