BACK YARD RENO PART 1

You ask what have we been up to?  Well as the weather warms I have been spending my time in the back yard working hard.  I spent the 2 months of "winter" in our new home trying to plot out the best location for a garden.  For this year it is along the east side of the back yard.  This plot of dirt originally had cedars running along the fence; they were only a few years old so this made them prime targets for successful transplant to someone else yard. Thanks to Freecycle and Craigs List they were all gone in about 2 weeks; all 64 of them. We kept 3 that we relocated to the back of the yard to create a visual barrier. Eventually behind the cedars will be a potting bench and a compost bin.

I know some of you are thinking why remove all the cedars they were hiding that ugly chain link fence well we have other plans that will hide that fence in a few years.  This includes hopefully a new fence and some berry bushes and trees, but for now taking the Cedars out gave me a great temporary space to plant vegetables for the next few years.  

As you can see in the picture we have started planting and I still need to work on turning the rest of the dirt and adding some nice black earth to the top and so on.  I will be planting cucumbers, tomatoes, string beans, peas, kale and radishes to name a few.

More picture to come as the work progresses.

life's been busy...

I just realized it's been more then 15 days since I last blogged - such a bad little blogger I am.  I find things get busy and well our blog is what suffers.  What have we been up to these days?

Put up a fence last week...

The picture tells you all.

Play dates with friends.

I just love this picture of C Monster and his "BFF" yes I think my 2 year old has a BFF.  Z Monster lives next door to us - so I think he sees her more like a sister.

Sand Box - Part 1

On Canada Day we spent the morning building a sand box. We used 2x10 for the sides, some 2x8 for 2 seat to sit on, some 1x6 for the bottom along with some gardening weed barrier stuff...  It was surprisingly very easy to build.  Today I hope to get out to sand the sides down (make sure all the splinters are gone); then tomorrow we are hopping to build a lid for it and then fill it up...

C Monster has a swing

Also on the toddler fun front; I made a swing for C Monster. I used an old piece of 2x6 that was lying around from all the construction that happened to the house in the last 5 years. Sanded it down and primed and painted it with the left over paint from the house projects.  I also had tones of rope left over; I braided 3 nylon ropes together - that way it's sturdier but also a bigger rope for him to grab onto.  Then we hung it in the back under our walk out.  When it's not in use I can lift it up and hang it away. I have to say I was pretty impressed with how it turned out...

Sluggy

Our garden is doing great this year except for a few crops that slugs are eating faster then I can deal with.  And I think Sluggy might have had something to do about it...

I guess a 4" slug eats a lot and fast because since we relocated him to the park my garden is doing a whole lot better.

 Berry picking

This morning we spent the day raspberry and black currant picking - here is our loot.

We went to Organics in Markham - definitely will return again next year or sooner.  They have much more then just raspberries and black currants.  We also got some home made jam and some fresh bread made on site in their stone oven... It smelled oh so yummy.

They had some chickens and a turkey roaming about - C Monster quite liked that.  If you live in the Markham area make sure to check out their website or visit them.

 Drying vegetables

One of the things we love making is crackers - but if you want to hide veggies in crackers it's best to dry them up first.  About a month ago now I built a frame out of wood and attached a mesh bottom to it - simple drying rack like our ancestors used to use many many moons ago.  Here I am drying carrots and onions.  As I write this I have zucchini drying.  The carrots so far turned out fine; still waiting on the others to dry up.  Will let you guys know how it goes.

Looking forward to...

The pride parade tomorrow.  (HAPPY PRIDE EVERYONE)

Holiday Monday Morning

My Garden  

My garden is growing so well this year; I was out there this morning pulling some weeds and could not bealive my eyes when I saw little itty bitty cauliflowers.

 

First Harvest

Used them in a potato, radish, cucumber salad.

Home Made Wood Blocks

We had about 3 feet of 1" quarter round left over after some repair that we had to do to our back walk out.  Basically one of the structural beams gave out - thanks to my dad we now have 2 new structural beams.

I did not want to throw out bran new wood that is perfectly fine - but it was really to short for anyone to use.  I decided to cut them down in various lengths and sand the ends - voila blocks.

And that was my morning; making blocks, gardening - now I am listening to Digital Gunfire while getting lunch ready and blogging.  C Monster is outside enjoying the fresh air with Papa.

Looking Forward To

Seeing my friend Kim and her little ones at the park this afternoon.

A week in Images and Words

The TTC

We started the week last weekend with a trip on the TTC.  C Monster loves the TTC.  What is not to love about trains, buses and street cars.  We tend to walk everywhere so going on the transit is a treat for him.  He also loves being a big boy and holding on the bars and so on.

The subway is a "chocho"; the street car is this weird gesture with his hands and the bus is the gesture from the wells on the bus go round and round.  I love how with everyday C Monster us communicating more and more with us.

By the way we were taking the TTC to go to my friend Lisa's birthday; she wanted to go bowling.  Happy belated B-day Lisa.

Drop in Fun

Since the weather turned to well almost summer; I had not been out to the drop in's in a bit.  So on Tuesday we decided to go to Blake.  C Monster loves it there and best of all we bumped into one of our friends Darlene and her grandson.

C decided that he had to paint not with one brush but will all the brushes... I don't need to mention that he made a mess do I.

That being said his artwork was quite nice - we have to go back next week to pick it up.

During the nice weather the teacher brings the kids outside;  they have such a nice playground there - really well designed for little ones.  If you live in Toronto - East End this is definitely a spot you should check out. (Blake Street Junior Public School, 21 Boultbee Ave, (416) 393-9415.

 The Garden is Growing

I played rusian roullet with the weather this year and planted early.  Well Toronto is well past frost warnings but I did not know how the garden would react to be planted in April instead of may.  So far so good. I noticed my carrots are srpouting same goes from my radishes and most of the seaddlings I transplanted are surviving and growing. 

Chocolate?

I just had to share this video with you guys...

Looking Forward To

Seeing Grandpa Roy Tomorrow.

Where have I been?

If anyone wonders where have I been the answer is in my back yard working.  I think it's been over 3 weeks now since I have been to the park or a "drop in" in the morning.  Don't get me wrong we still make it out in the afternoon or after supper to the park - C Monster is not totally being neglected for the back yard.  Also he really loves playing and "helping me" in the back yard.

So the day is finally here I get to plant grass today or tomorrow.  and then C Monster is banned from the back yard for 3-4 weeks to let the grass take.

You ask what did we do?

A Box for the Garden

The first thing was to build a small box around our vegetable garden.  We just built the the wall 2 4x4 high and only along one side and the bottom of the garden.  This was really just to help the dirt stay in garden - it also ended up helping us ensure our garden fence is installed straight.

I had a hard time deciding what to do about this wall and how to build it; see we live in an area that is of concern for termites.  I looked at stone and brick but the cost was much more then we wanted in invest; that left wood.  I started researching wood and pressure treated wood. Non-pressure treated wood is really not recommended for use in the ground especially if you know that termites like your area already.  There are a few exotic wood that you can use but most of them are from virgin rain forest half way across the world.  Knowing all that I started looking at pressure treated wood.  Their are 2 kinds of pressure treayed wood available on the market CCA and ACQ.  CCA is the traditional pressure treated wood that hear all the bad stories about the chemicals used and ACQ is a new alternative that does not contain any chemicals that the EPA considers of concern to the environment and humans.  I am not going to go any greater detail but here are 2 website with loads of information.

Does Pressure-Treated Wood Belong in Your Garden?

Chromated Copper Arsenate (CCA): ACQ - An Alternative to CCA

We were able to find ACQ wood both at Home Depot and Parliament Building Supplies.  I have to note that Home Depot had no clue what I was talking about and I have to call the mill that their wood is from directly to get the information; however Parliament Building Supplies informed me that they only carry ACQ wood.

Home for the Edemama

The next step was making a home for our Edemama, I decided this year to plant along the neighbors fence in addition to our vegetable garden.  This looks beautiful and also gives us a little more food.  I purchased a small border that matches our fence - this is to keep the #1 predator for our plants out - C Monster. This year I am also planning on doing companion garden; so in this patch we are also planting our lettuce and spinach.  

I also found these great spirals to use instead of wooden steaks.  I prefer medal instead of wood; as much as wood is sustainable because it will biodegrade I find I can only use my wood steaks for one or 2 years and after that they are dead.  These ones are sure to last many many years.  

Patio Stones for the BBQ & a Place to Rest

 

Next step was a home for the BBQ, for 5 years now the BBQ has just stood in dirt...  I spent time on Craig's List trying to score some patio slabs for free but was unsuccessful so we ended up buying some. We just got whatever was the cheapest per square foot - they are under the BBQ so who really cares what they look like. 

 

I also rejigged the stones we had placed last year at the foot of the tree.  I placed all our outdoor decorations up - the bench; some glass balls; lights; flower pots.

Finally we Have a Walk Way 

 

Last night I picked up some "fake" flagstone.  They are made from concrete.  We laided them down as stepping stones. You can't really see them well in this image because of the dirt but they are installed and we have a walk way once again.  We took out the old walk when we bought the house 8 years ago and since them well had noting. Last thing left is too plant the grass.

 

Looking forward to

Relaxing in the back yard while C Monsters plays in the grass.

I feel like I am ignoring you

I feel so guilty, that I have not posted in almost a week (I think).  Life's been busy - so I guess that is good for us.

Back Yard

We have been spending pretty much all our spare time working on the back yard.  Today I picked up some patio stones to set up an area for our BBQ.  The last 2 weekends were spent building a box around the garden.  Next step after the bbq area will the the walkway - or if the weather is still behaving planing the garden.

Here is a picture of our littlest helper pounding away with his hammer.

My Seedlings

My seedlings are growing like mad - they are ready for the garden but the garden is not ready for them.  C Monster loves watering them almost every morning for me.  He is perticularly proud of teh edamame since he planted them himself.

Family

On the weekend we visited Tara and her kids (Geoff's sister) C Monster had so much fun and I think B and S Monster also really enjoyed his visit. Tara and her family are so great they keep pretty much everything from their kids for us - she is the reason we almost do not have to buy any clothing.  This weekend we got to take home a tricycle for C Monster - he loves it.  This time we booked our next visit with them right away we often go almost 6 months without seeing each other - I can't let that happen again.

Cat Food

C Monster loves feeding the cats. We turned our head away from him for a minute and he had one dish packed to the brim;  when I told him to put some in the other bowl - he did ; but it was the water bowl.  Note the nice mess he also made... However if it was not for C Monster I think many days the cats would not eat as I am always forgetting to feed them.  Every day when C Monster sees their bowls he says "Bo num num".  Bo is one of our cats.

Looking Forward To

The peanut butter cupcakes I am baking for my moms group that is meeting at my house on Friday.  If they turn out to be yummy I will post the recipe.

Lots of Creative Cooking and a bit of Gardening

Paper Maché Part I

This morning C Monster and I had some fun ripping up a bunch of paper ( the paper is one month worth of junk mail - I think it is sad that it only took one month to accumulate this much unwanted mail). Sometime in the next few days we will use these strips of paper to make some paper maché car garages and tunnels for C Monster to play with.

Cassava Peanut Butter Cookies

So we have had a box of Cassava Crackers for over a year now and wont eat them because well we don't like them. I decided to get creative and try to make something out of them - I remembered making crumb cookies almost a year ago when we had enough bread crumbs to leave a trail from here to Florida. ( I am in Canada) I figured I could alter it some and make cookies with the Cassava Crackers - and guess what it worked. These are not my favorite PB cookies (well my favorite recipie for PB cookies comes from a pastry chef so what do you expect) but I would give them a strong 3.5 out of 5 stars and C Monster seems to love them.

The recipe used for inspiration was Bread Crumb Cookie by Thrifty Fun. Below is the new ingredient list the basic direction to make the cookies stayed the same.

• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  
• 1/4 cup unbleached flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/3 cup raw cocoa nibs
  
• 1 1/4 cups panela (or brown sugar)
  
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2/3 cup canola oil
  
• 2 cups cassava cracker crumbs (place crackers in food processor)
• 2/3 cups peanut butter
• 1/3 cup quick cook oats

Beets; Beets; Beets

In our food box this week we had some beets; while reading TasteSpotting I stumbled on a beet chip recipe that I wanted to try. C Monster refuses to eat beets - I though maybe if they were a little more fun he might try them. I was right he gobble a handful up before bedtime.

The recipe calls for simple syrup and I also had a jar of this left over from making candied grapefruit peels - so it was perfect.

After I was done all the beets I collected the remaining simple syrup now turned red from the beets and made some lemonade with it. (Some very pink lemonade).

1 1/2 cup simple syrup - or to taste
1 cup lemon juice
3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)

Mix all ingredients in a large pitcher; serve chilled.



Garden Prep

This week has been so nice with everyday above 15. Today was no exception so C Monster and I went out back in the afternoon for a few hours he played and I did some work. Then he helped me with some work on prepping the yard for a vegetable garden. This year we are expanding with an additional row along our neighbors fence here we will plant soy beans and lettuce.

I am so excited my soy bean seeds arrived today. We ordered them from West Coast Seeds; soy bean seeds seem to be hard to find despite the fact that is started from seedling they will grow wonderfully in Canada (at least that is what I am told) - On the agenda for tomorrow with C Monster is planting the seeds in seedling pots. It's the first time I ordered anything from West Coast Seeds; I am sure they are fine but will let you know in a few weeks when they sprout.

Looking Forward To

To Saturday morning and working on my LLLC Leader application.

Seedlings, Supper and Terrible Twos

Seedlings

This afternoon C Monster and I planted most of our seedlings for the vegetable garden. I say most because I am recycling plastic containers, toilet paper rolls and other various containers for planters - and well ran out of planters. I bought a bag of potting soil and dragged it into the kitchen were we worked together at filing all the containers - C Monster quite enjoyed playing with dirt in the house. I did the actual seed planting because C Monster was way to excited and I am pretty sure if I would have let him handle the seeds they would of all ended up on the ground.

We planted chard, kale, onions, broccoli, cauliflower and beans. The seedlings are going to be placed on the window box in our master bedroom; until they sprout I am going to keep them in plastic bags - this causes a greenhouse effect.

Supper

Tonight for supper I think I outdid myself we had homemade soda bread; lemonade and soup. The soda bread was crazy good. As always I followed a recipe but modified the ingredients - Irish Soda Bread with Dates by Phoebe Bites.

All-purpose flour, 2 cups, plus 2 tablespoons
Whole Wheat Bread Flour, 2 cups
Granulated sugar, 1/4 cup
Baking soda, 1 teaspoon
Salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons
Unsalted butter, 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick), cold, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Whole milk, 1 3/4 cup
Apple Cider Vinegar, 1 teaspoon
Egg, 1 extra-large
Zest of 3 Blood oranges
Cranberries dried, 1 cup
Flax seeds, 1/4 cup
Pumpkin Seeds, 1/2 cup

Terrible Twos

I try really hard to only use positive discipline - try not to say no. Today well I was not that good at it; I caught myself over and over saying no out of frustration as C Monster was driving me crazy with his shenanigans.

1. Tackles E Monster not once not twice but 5 times during their play date
2. Dumps his snack on the floor 2 seconds after I give it to him
3. Discovers if he shakes is sippy cup that contained smoothie it will splash all over the place
4. Spits at E Monster
   
5. Throws is edamame all over the kitchen
6. Throws one of the planters for my seedlings up in the air when it's full of dirt
7. Bit me
8. Pinched my nipple when I told him he could not nurse
   
9. Kicked me in the face while nursing (twice) - this is why I told him he could not nurse
10. Dumped his soup in his juice then asked for more juice
11. Raspberry style spit in my face

Despite all of those crazy annoying things C Monster did today he also:

1. Kissed me good morning
   
2. Helped me pot my seedlings
3. Ran around the house wearing a crown for most of the day
4. Helped clean up the potting mess
5. Let E Monster play with his favorite toy all morning
6. Said mine and mmm to the bread I baked
7. Sat on the potty
8. Is asking for help when needing instead of screaming in frustration
9. Kinda let me brush his teeth (only after a fight)
10. Kissed E Monster all better every time he tackled her without me asking him to
    
11. Gave me a great big hug ans kiss goodnight
    

Geoff hurry up and finish the book on discipline you are reading....

A little bit of everything

C Monster Turns 2 and I get a kiss

Last night I fell asleep in C Monster's bed; so I ended up spending the night. This morning when he woke up as always he wanted to nurse; after he was done he climbed on top of me and approached my face - I started squinting as I assumed he was going to climb on my head or something. Instead I got a good morning kiss - this was the first time I got a good morning kiss without asking for it.

Apricot Muffins

This morning felt like a muffin morning so I looked in the cupboard and decided what was old and should be baked - "Dried Apricots". After a quick search on Google I found a great recipe on All Recipes that I modified. Here are the changes to the ingredient list; the directions stayed pretty much as the original recipe.

1 cup chopped dried apricots
1 cup boiling water
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup ground panela
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 canola oil
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
4 tablespoons kamut flakes
1 egg

Rain Boots

After our lovely muffin breakfast that C Monster actually ate - Hooray. I checked the weather and we got ready to head out to music class. Since the temperature was so nice already 1 with a high of 3 I decided that I would let C Monster wear his yellow rubber boots that he loves so much. (for those of you thinking 1 degree is still cold - music class is only 5 minutes away 10 max if he stops a lot) I just wanted to mention this because well here is hopping the nice weather stays. Melt melt melt away snow.

Garden Planning

When the weather starts turning to warm it's that time again to plan your garden - and yes the Wiseman's have a vegetable garden. So I grabbed my seeds from last year; colored pencils; a notepad; my new garden bible - Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening. I was lucky enough to get all my research done while C Monster napped but when he woke up I still have the layout to draw up - I sat him down with me at the table and gave him some crayons and a few pieces of paper and asked him to draw his own vegetable garden.












So you ask what are we planting? - Tomatoes; Basil; Radishes; Bell Peppers; Beets; Hot Peppers; Broccoli; Celery; Cauliflower ; Green Beans; Chard; Collards; Kale; Mint; Parsley; Edemame; Lettuce; Spinach; Chives; Sage; Onions and Carrots.

We planted most of these successfully last year except for Broccoli; Edemame; Spinach and Onions. All of witch except Edemame I tried last year and failed - This year I read up on them and will try a few different things and fingers crossed everything will grow.

Motorcycle In Papa's Eye

A 2 year old takes down an adult with a motorcycle. Tonight when I went up to C Monster's room to check on how the bedtime routine was going I found Papa sitting on the bed holding his right eye. Here is the conversation:

Me: Are you OK?
Papa: C Monster hit me in the eye with a motorcycle.
Me: I've told you before you are bigger then him.
Papa: So.

Goodnight all it's time for me to watch Chuck.

Backyard Robin

A robin's been hanging around our backyard as we work on the garden, waiting to catch the worms and grubs that we disturb, and take them home to his or her nest:

Eco Friendly Fridays

Pesticides:

Everyday your child under five consumes on average eight pesticides a day. You may not see an immediate reaction in your child but pesticides are know to have a cumulative effect, particularly in growing bodies and could cause health problems in the future. I will not explain all the negative effects they can have here but will share a few easy tips on how to avoid pesticides.

1. Use non toxic pest control options at home.
2. Wash and peel conventionally grown vegetables and fruits.
3. Remove an discard the outer peel of conventionally grown leafy vegetables.
4. Rotate foods so that you are not eating the same food every day. (different pesticides and amount of pesticides are used with different foods)
5. Purchase organic foods when available
6. Only purchase organic foods if you are consuming the peel or outer layer (i.e. berries, broccoli)
7. If you have the space start your own organic garden
8. When eating conventional grown foods stay away from the core of the fruit as pesticide then to accumulate near the seeds.
9. Try to only purchase organic pre-packaged goods as it is impossible to confirm what parts of the vegetable and fruits were used and how they were washed.
10. Only purchase organic dairy and meat products as conventional dairy and meat have a high percentage of pesticides.

Have a happy toxic free friday.