Family Time: Over The Spring Break Part 1

We went on a 2-day road trip back to Kansas over the Spring Break because we have been a little homesick, plus we also wanted to get our garden started. In that way, when we get back to our old house this summer, we will have some growing vegetables in the garden. That is if they even make it, but we are crossing our fingers and toes!

Road tripping has been a part of our kids life and thank goodness I can now say they are both seasoned travelers. There might be times where they get restless and anxious to get out of the vehicle so they could run around, but that's because they have been so good sitting and sleeping in their car seats for hours. We just make sure we have plenty of food, water, favorite toys, and a few stops to grab a bite to eat or to the park. We love road trips! 

On the day we left for Kansas, there was a snowstorm and it wasn't really a pleasant drive after all. It was freezing cold and our Jeep was covered in thick ice I could barely get my little girl out of the vehicle. It was so thick that you could hear the ice rubbing against the tire, so we had to stop at the gas station to fuel up and clean up the Jeep. But on the second day, it was nice and sunny and we made it safe back to Kansas.

Bosselman Travel Center
Our little man's favorite place in Grand Island, Nebraska. Every time we travel, we have to make sure to stop at this place so he could play. 

Two of my favorite things when traveling. Naked and F'real Milkshake. Yummy! 
I only get to treat myself with some F'real smoothie when traveling because they are available in some gas stations. 

Kids on bike and scooter while shopping for groceries to stock up our empty fridge back in Kansas.

Getting the garden ready for mama to plant. 

The Killer Tiller. 

I am excited to see some vegetables growing when we get back. 

Have a great one! 

Container Gardening Ideas On Pinterest

With the Spring Season just around the corner, I can't help but think of gardening again. I mean, getting our garden ready, planting seeds indoors, all that stuff. Like I said before, we still have our own place in Kansas and this Spring Break we are heading back. And if the weather is right and the soil is dry, we will be able to till the garden, getting it ready for planting. But it won't be a huge garden this year though because we won't be around that long this summer to fully enjoy some fresh greens.

And with that said, I also want our own little garden where we live now in Wyoming. Since we are renting a house, we don't really get to make our own backyard garden, so I thought why not make a container garden instead. I have been collecting tin cans and egg cartons so I can use them to plant vegetables. Nothing really beats fresh veggies, especially if it is something that you planted and free from harsh chemicals. I have been searching on Pinterest for some Container Gardening ideas and inspiration and here are some of my favorites. 

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There are tons of container gardening ideas you can find on this site. 

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(sorry couldn't find the link. let me know if you, please. thanks)

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Self-Watering Storage Container Gardening

I also wanted to try planting carrots in pots because we have never really been successful in planting carrots in our garden. Also, because we do have a family of bunnies that love to visit our garden every day. And planting some potatoes too in a potato tower. I sure hope I could do all that. Here's what a potato tower looks like. 

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And gardening won't be fun and festive without these fun, colorful, easy to build wind chimes made out of cans to hang outside. Ahhhh... so many great ideas that I would love to do when warm weather sets in. How about you? Any gardening plans this year? 

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I also wanted to make this for my kids outside so they can have things to hit with and make music. 

While I was thinking about Spring and Gardening, I also remembered this video taken a couple years ago of my little man and his mud bath in our garden where we planted seeds. Enjoy! 

Family Time: Last Weekend At The Old Place

These photos were actually taken last weekend when we went back to our old place in Chetopa. And in about a week from today (Thursday) we will be heading our way back to the old place for the summer and we couldn't be more excited.  We miss our old place so much and every time we are back, we realized how much we love this place. Because we haven't been home for a long while, we came back to a yard that almost looked like a jungle. I mean, tall grasses everywhere and it  was not a pleasant sight so mowing the yard was in order.

I on the other hand was also busy transplanting some garlic and onions before the husband tilled our garden. One of the things that I miss about the old place is gardening. Because we are renting this place that we live in right now, I can only plant things in pots, which is fine. But I am not inspired in planting anything in pots while living temporarily in this duplex. It is just different when you are renting than owning your own place and you can do whatever you want. Before we ended our weekend, we planted a few vegetables in our garden already and we are excited to go back home and see if some have grown well. 

This year, I wanted to make a teepee for two reasons. One, for my string beans, and two, for my kids to be able to play in, and I did. It was easy to make and all I did was tied up three little hedge posts, I lined the bottom with newspaper and cardboard as weed blocker. I covered it up with dirt and some grass cuttings that were plentiful in our yard after my husband mowed our yard. After the teepee part, I planted my string bean seeds around each post. I hope they have germinated by the time we are back. I love strings beans and I can't wait to enjoy some fresh harvest this summer and even through the fall.

While my husband was tilling our garden, one baby rabbit popped out from under the ground, then one came out, and another one, until we had about five baby bunnies. They were living under the ground in our garden and I was glad none of them got hurt by the killer-tiller. With no choice, we had to relocate them and we hoped that their momma bunny found her babies in a new location. They were sure soft and cuddly, but we can't raise them. I hope they are still alive up to this time and momma bunny had found them.

We were really busy taking care of our yard and garden last weekend, but we all enjoyed it. The kids enjoyed it too because they got to play outside and be all muddy and dirty. My little man did a great job helping me plant some things in the garden and he enjoyed that. I can't wait to go back home for the summer and see how things are doing. There is nothing better than to enjoy some freshly picked vegetables from your own garden and I am excited!

After a long day of work, we had some grilled chicken and it was good.

Bits N Pieces: Our Life Lately

Busy household this has been these past few days. From traveling and house hunting, we finally found a place to rent and will be moving early week next month. I don't really know if I am up for this or not, but I guess I have to. New place. New town. New people. New adventure. What a summer it has been for us.

Another thing that made me busy was prepping a lot of veggies and fruits that we have in our yard freezing them for the winter. I have been peeling, coring, chopping, cooking, all kinds of -ings I have been doing. Although it is a lot of work, but I really don't mind afterall because I know our freezer is going to be filled with food that came from our yard. I am thinking there might be a lot of pear bread and maybe pear ice cream making once we move to our new place. Exciting! I also made some pear honey the other week and was able to make 13 half pint jars of pear honey. Yummy!

Because we had few garden goodies left, we traded some of them off for some fresh farm eggs. Goodness, it was so good. It's been awhile since I had some really good organic eggs. I even made myself an egg sandwich on a homemade bread that I made with some fresh tomatoes from our garden. Ah! Good life.

Homemade Egg Bread with Wheat Germ and Flax Seed

I know it is summer and the heat is brutal, but it did not stop me from making some homemade bread. There is just nothing better than devouring some fresh homemade bread. My little girl seems to love it.

Some vintage Quilted Crystal Jelly Jars that was from my mother-in-law. They are way too cute to use for my pear honey, so I bought some canning jars at the store instead. That way I can give some away to some friends as well.

Pears and Apples

There was folding clothes and diapers, and the kids watching their favorite kid show.

My not so fancy closet.

I am hoping to convert one room in our new place as our entire closet, so I don't have to tuck away seasonal clothes. Half of my closet are all vintage clothes and half not. I did another closet cleaning and got rid of some clothes. Well, I'm still not done. More clothes need to go for donation.

Cute tushies!

There was some sewing and altering my newly thrifted clothes.

And here is  my family. My life and my all. There might be some challenges and tough times, but it's all worth it. As of lately, we have been dealing with a growing threenager. This little man is cute, sweet and all, but boy he makes parenting sure challenging at times. I still love you boy.

I love these people!

Family Time: Another Garden & Yard Update

Another garden and yard update from the Blankenship Family. We hope you enjoy! We have been blessed at the chance of enjoying our garden this year and eating a lot of fresh veggies and fresh fruits that we planted. It is a great reward to be able to enjoy something that you know you worked hard for. Thank you so much dear God! Nothing beats fresh and homemade. Here are some photos!

Here is my wonderful man working hard at tilling our garden. Thank you, sweetie!

One huge cauliflower. We planted four this year just to see how it turns out and it did pretty well. We were able to enjoy some fresh cauliflower and I also made baby food out of it as well. I even gave two to a good friend of ours who watched our place for us while we were gone for a few days. We are definitely planting more next year when we get back here in Chetopa for the summer. One thing or I should say two things I missed planting this year was my kohlrabi (German turnip) and eggplants. Oh! My string beans as well as I ran out of seeds, so I guess that makes it three things. Well,  I am sure there are other things I wanted to plant this year, but didn't get to doing it and could not think of what it is at the moment. Anyway, I thought I stashed some string beans seeds in the freezer last year, but turned out I didn't. Ops! Better luck next year. We also have some fresh sweet corn and man I am talking really sweet corn. My husband enjoys eating eat raw fresh from the garden every morning. Absolutely sweet! This year is by far the best we have in terms of planting corn and actually getting to enjoy them because usually we are gone for the summer and we don't get to take care of our garden that much. We are definitely enjoying our fresh produce this year. Now if only we could get these two chickens to lay some fresh eggs. Hmmm.... Can't wait for our Brussels sprouts as well! How about you? What kinds of things did you plant in your garden or pots this year?I would love to know.

Maybe someday my husband will start making his own wine or grape juice? I don't know what's he is  going to do with all of these grapes. I know the blackberries don't look black at all, but that is because it is an unripe berries and once they are ready and sweet they turn dark and it's a treat! They are the thorn less kind and big. Thanks to my Filipina friend who gave it to us for free.

Our two survivors happily exploring our yard and hopefully we get some fresh eggs in the near future. Our neighbor girls named them Feathers and Peanut, so we went with it. It's cute! Feathers is the one with light colored feathers and Peanut is the one a bit darker. That would be Feathers on the front.

I picked up some fresh veggies early in the morning and had some really good veggie soup. What a way to start the day.

Preparing some fresh fruits to make some baby food. I know they don't look all pretty and shiny like the ones you buy at the regular store, but trust me it is the best. It is not sprayed with any harsh chemicals at all and it is as organic as it can get. Delicious!

One of the beautiful flowers I have in our yard. Easy to take care of, it comes up every year, and it blooms beautifully in the afternoon at 4. Hence the name 4 o'clock. So beautiful!

Lucky Dou (Our Chickens)

For those of you who followed my blog, then you already know that we bought some little chicks before in an attempt to raise them for eggs. Out of all twelve of them, we only have two lucky chickens left. We are hoping these two will survive and will make it all the way through the laying eggs stage so we could have a taste of some fresh eggs before we move to a new place. Raising chickens is not something that is new to me because when I was in high school we were raising chickens as part of our school project. That was the first time I learned how to butcher a chicken and that was not fun at all.

Anyway, these chickens are not raised for meat just purely for fresh eggs because I can never eat these two cuties. They are so funny when they walk around the yard looking for something to eat and they would usually chase each other because the other one wants to have what the other chicken has. They're like competing against each other on who gets the best food first or something, and yet they are so sweet because they miss each other, they hang out together in our yard and they sleep together. Just so cute! Our dog Spink doesn't seem to bother them at all, but on the other hand, our little man gets too excited and wants to terrorize them all the time. I know! Don't worry, the chickens have gotten used to Harley messing with them.

Anyway, here are some photos of what's going on in our yard so far. Sorry, more yard photos again. 

 Not the best looking garden this year unlike the past few years we've been gardening, but it works and it provides us some fresh vegetables for sure.

 Broccoli.

We don't just have worms to worry about, but a family of rabbits are also helping themselves to our garden. Oh well! We don't spray any harsh chemicals to our garden not even using any fertilizer, so this is as organic as you can get.

Freshly harvested collard green, chard and onions.

I made some veggie soup that night and it was good! 

Have a great and safe Memorial weekend, everyone!!!