Our daughter celebrates her 10th birthday this weekend and year after year, she always asks for a ‘pile of dirt’ for a present. For real.

It’s the type of gift you really can’t grow out of, when you think about it…and why would you want to?!  Even Berkley is already digging the stuff.

I’ve yet to meet a kid that doesn’t revel in the brown crumbly stuff.

They can entertain themselves for HOURS.

Throw in some water and you’ll be hard pressed to get them OUT of the dirt.

My friends…….Nature. Is. Where. It’s. At.

Cheers to dirt and letting our kids dig deep in the stuff!

michele.

What is it about seeing kids and their pets that warms this gals heart?  

Especially kids that are learning to be responsible petkeepers.

Maybe it’s watching them care about something other than themselves.   Watching them figure out the best ways to communicate, learning patience and making the effort to really understand what their pet (dog, in this case) is all about, to be engaged in the human/animal dynamics.  It’s pretty powerful stuff, in my opinion.  We all know how not having a proper handle on our pets behavior can add stress to a household, and even the pet.

Happy, well behaved dog = Happy Family.  

My daughter and our collie,  Junie B. have been participating in our 4-H Club’s Dog Obedience classes and it’s been a wonderful experience all the way around.  The first few weeks were a bit frustrating for her, because Junie can be a bit stubborn, but with each passing week, it gets better and better.

I’ve seen positive changes in Madeline as well as Junie.

Junie is loving the extra attention and the one on one time and is becoming an even better dog because of it.

Madeline is gaining the confidence and ability to really communicate with Junie and learning the proper tools for working with dogs.  She is even looking forward to showing her at the county fair.

I too am learning things that I bring home and share with the rest of the family…(Jon, specifically) ha.

Agility is her favorite….Madeline would run Junie through the agility course for hours, if she could…she’s been bugging her dad to build her some of the equipment to have in the yard.  Poor Junie would never get a rest!

A dog is only as good as its’ keeper a lot of the time, and dog training is an invaluable tool to help us all do a better job of things….and when we can get our kids involved at an early age, all the better.

Cheers to 4-H for the great programs they offer and all the joy a pet can bring into our lives!

michele.

Each year, we try expand the garden somewhere.  Goal being less lawn, more edibles.

This week, we finally got around to creating two new raised beds using cement blocks.

love.

Love.

LOVE them.

They blend right in with the cement block patio furniture we built last year, and I’m excited about the extra planting room you get around the edge…..It’s like having 52 additional containers to plant in!

I remember my grandparents having these types of beds and I recall them always being filled with tomatoes.  I vividly remember the moments when my Grandpa was teaching me about ‘suckers’ and how the stems have all these feelers that root out when planted deeply…and then of course….nibbling away at the cherry tomatoes every time I passed by.

As a kid, they just seemed like big grey concrete thingies….when I look at the ones we recently built in the yard, I see something completely different.

I see long-lasting.

Cement block is very durable and these beds should be around for a very long time.

I see ‘contemporary’.

They’re very neat and tidy looking — clean lines and a bit ‘modern’, ironically enough.

I see  affordable.

Each block cost $.88 cents at Lowe’s.  The first bed used 26 blocks — $22.88 ….not a bad price for this size of garden bed (roughly 5 feet by 14 feet).  You then need to factor in the price of dirt/compost/sand to fill it…which when you buy in bulk is more cost effective and added about another $35 to the final cost of each bed.

The second bed needed to go up another layer so it used 52 blocks.  

They were also easy to install….most of the work was spent in ground prep…..our entire yard seems like one big ‘hill’,  so we did have to do some leveling by moving dirt and using a layer of sand.  I hope to keep adding to this concrete jungle each year.

Now for the fun part….planting.

Cheers to growing your own edibles….how have you expanded your gardening efforts this year?

michele.

One of our b. organic guests recently asked if I’d be interested in participating in their annual ‘Bubble Ball’ which raises money for an incredible organization…. ChildServe.  The task was to simply design and build a display for the event that was themed around our choice of children’s literature.  I chose a book that I use all the time when visiting elementary schools titled ‘Bottle Houses – The Creative World of Grandma Prisbrey’…by Melissa Eskridge Slaymaker.  It’s based off the true story of Grandma Prisbrey — an inspiring lady who built herself an amazing homestead using only materials she salvaged from the nearby landfill.  There are so many useful messages inside this little book. Read the rest of this entry →

Finally taking a moment to sort through some photo files for blog posts AND just came across this writing that my daughter saved on my computer a couple of years ago…… Read the rest of this entry →