Don’t tell the kiddos, but we use a lot of onions when cooking. They add flavor to so many things – stews, soups, hash browns, fajitas, browned hamburger used in casseroles, and of course fresh salsa – just to name a few. The last few years, I’ve been freezing a quart or two of sliced green onions. They come in handy.

This year, I thought I’d take a crack at growing some larger storage onions. From what I’ve been told, the trick is to plant these onions very shallow so they are just covered with dirt and far enough apart so they have room to bulb. From the looks for things, I must have done something right.

One Red Onion, One White Onion

Most of the onions are still just below the surface. By the time these two started growing and were rained on a few times, they were actually above the surface. We haven’t used any of them yet, but they sure look good. I’m hoping they don’t disappoint.

A couple weeks ago, I shared pictures of what the second floor of the house looked like at closing. These pictures were listed as bedroom 2:

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 2

Sissy ended up picking this room to be hers. It was actually her second choice. Her first choice was the attic. The attic is a full, walk-up attic with 2 dormer windows – 1 of which would make a great spot for a window seat. You’ll notice that while I agree finishing the attic would be pretty cool and not very hard, it hasn’t even made the To Do List yet.

The DW and I agreed that we weren’t going to do a full remodel of the upstairs when we moved in. Generally, things were in good shape and we wanted to wait until a remodel would include new windows, insulation, wiring, etc. For now, we where focused on fixing what needed to be fixed and freshening things up.

Sissy’s Room

So what changed? Sissy’s room was rather simple. The ceiling had some water damage, so we* pulled down the tile blocks and did a thin drywall overlay. Next we textured the ceiling and walls – the existing plaster was smooth. A little paint – Sissy picked the colors – then we rolled up the old carpet and removed the curtains. Here’s where we really got lucky. The wood floor beneath the carpet was almost perfect. With just a little scrubbing it was set.

The Wood Floor We Uncovered

With a few decorations and a new light fixture, the room hardly looks the same.

*to give credit where credit is due, when I refer to the work that took place in the 2 weeks between closing and when we moved, we means a crew consisting of my parents and my brothers, and their families.

With all the excitement last week, the kiddos ended up spending some time with each of their grandparents at some point during the week. Some of this time was already planned, while other visits were the result of our unexpected stay in the hospital. Either way, the kiddos had loads of fun with each grandparent and plenty of stories to tell – poor LuLu was so excited she couldn’t stop talking about her trip – even 45 minutes after she had gone to bed.

Their Nana took the opportunity to teach Sissy to sew. Sissy received the sewing machine from her other grandmother, but didn’t have a chance to get it out of the box yet. I thought it may have been a little intimidating at first, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

Concentrating

After making several simple items to get her started, Sissy whipped up this pillow case.

Sissy’s First Pillow Case

I heard there might be plans for another pillow case… and curtains… and shams… and sheets. All I’m going to say is that’s a lot of tie dyed pink.

Potato Boy stuck to his motto of “play hard, sleep sound.”

Is He Guarding Potatoes?

Ready For Bed

LuLu even got to spend a little time with her favorite uncle. When I asked her what she did with her uncle she said “We picked up chickens!” He was trying to get her to say that she helped him pick up “chics.” I might need to watch that a little closer next time.

Though the kiddos did something a little different with each of their grandparents (and an uncle), at this point I’m guessing there is one universal truth – none of the houses they stayed in have any ice cream left this morning.

So when I picked LuLu up from daycare yesterday one of her teachers said LuLu talked about nothing but fireworks all day. It came as a shock to me. With the DW on bed rest, and Potato Boy and Sissy away for the night, we weren’t planning on any fireworks – and we hadn’t mentioned anything to LuLu about fireworks. They were right though, that’s all LuLu talked about as we drove home… “when are the fireworks”… “why is it dark for fireworks”… “we’re seeing fireworks!” So, after looking around a bit I found one of the local towns was having a fireworks display that would satisfy a 2 year old – there’s larger displays in the area, but fighting the crowds in this instance wouldn’t be worth it. So I told LuLu that we’d go see fireworks, but we’d have to wait until it got dark. It didn’t take LuLu long to pack a bag and watch for the first signs of dusk.

Is It Dark Yet?

Around 9:30 we kissed the DW goodbye and hopped in the car for the 15 minute drive to town. We stopped a couple miles outside of town and parked in a business parking lot – close enough to see, but far enough away that the explosions wouldn’t be too loud. LuLu was bouncing off the walls with excitement talking about nothing but fireworks. Though, I’m not sure why she insisted on the DW’s sunglasses while we waited.

How Bright Are These Fireworks?

The best part – as the first rocket lit the sky and exploded into a large red circle Lulu points and says “What’s that?”

Potato Boy and I learned to make the most out of the girls’ afternoon nap time over the weekend. Since we had ignored the garden for the last week, we made sure to make the rounds and see how things had changed. It may be the first part of July, but the temperatures make if feel like the middle of August. Everything in the garden has been growing like weeds – even the weeds! Here’s a few shots of how things look:

The Potatoes Are Drying Down And Ready To Dig

The Broccoli Is Almost Ready

Green Peppers For The Picking

The First Carrot

Golf Ball Sized Tomatoes Are Everywhere!

Summer Squash Hiding Behind The Leaves

And pinching off all the strawberry blooms on the new plants this spring seems to have paid off – there’s runners everywhere.

New Strawberry Shoots

It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the plant on the bottom left has a dozen runners. It won’t take long for the strawberry patch to fill in at this rate.

With all the heat, I’ve been considering a soaker hose…

What a difference a week makes! The Dear Wife (DW) was discharged from the hospital mid-week and sent home on bed rest. It took the rest of the week for the kiddos and I to adjust to the new “normal” – we’re hoping for at least 5 or 6 weeks of this. I must admit with everything else going on, most of the projects around the house have fallen down the list. Potato Boy and I did have some time to check in on the wild black raspberries while the girls were resting on Saturday. This was the first time Potato Boy had joined me picking berries. He was a little timid at first.

Potato Boy Scouting For Berries

With the lack of rain around here the berries have been slow, even with the heat. (As of last week we were listed as D1: Moderate Drought) We managed to find a handful or two or ripe berries, but there seems to be a bunch of red berries just waiting for a drink.

Not Ripe Yet

Nothing Ready Here Either

As you might have guessed from the pictures, we didn’t get to pick many berries, though Potato Boy did get the hang of picking wild berries. Once he got going he was finding patches I hadn’t seen on my previous passes.

There’s No Hiding From Potato Boy Now

This could come in handy. Though, I’m starting to wonder if the raspberries he’s picking are actually making it to the bucket.

So here’s the view from my temporary “bed” –

Just Outside Our Window

The South Endzone

Kinnick Stadium

For those of you that don’t know, Kinnick Stadium is the home of Iowa Hawkeye Football — which means we’re located across the street in the University Hospital. Apparently, the kiddos little sister didn’t feel like waiting until September to make her grand entrance and thought that yesterday would be more appropriate. The good news is that didn’t happen. The bad news is that one of the most requested rooms in the hospital will be our new home for a while.

Most of the weekend was pretty quiet. I was able to get caught up in the garden a bit on Saturday. I noticed there are green peppers and summer squash that will be ready in a couple days. There are also tiny green tomatoes, and blooms on the cucumber, zucchini, and green beans. I picked all of the peas and was surprised how insistent LuLu was to help the DW shell peas. For only being 2, she was surprisingly good at it.

LuLu Helping

If you consider the lack of rain so far this year, everything isn’t doing too bad.

We also had some guests on Saturday night. Pip managed to tree an old raccoon and her kit. After the deer incident, any time she starts barking like that I take the camera along. By the time I got there, they had found a hole in the tree and were comfy… all you could see in the dark were the larger raccoon’s eyes.

Hiding From Pip

One of these days, Pip is going to meet something she can’t out smart… judging by the way things looked Sunday morning, these raccoons weren’t up to the challenage.

It’s almost a year since we closed on the house. The DW and I were looking at some of the pictures last night we took during one of the walk-throughs prior to the closing. We originally took the photos, along with measurements of all the rooms, to help with planning what we’d need prior to moving in – paint, flooring, drywall, curtains, etc. So much has changed already that I wish we would have taken more pictures then. Below are some of the quick snapshots of the second floor bedrooms.

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 3

Bedroom 3

And finally, Bedroom 4. This room was a bit of a mystery as the walls and ceiling were covered in wallpaper and the floor had wall to wall carpeting – we weren’t sure what might be hiding underneath.

Bedroom 4

Bedroom 4

All in all, the rooms were in good shape, just dated since the second floor of the house hadn’t been used in many years. There was some minor water damage from prior to the new roof, but nothing more than cosmetic.

It’s hard to remember the rooms looking like this since we worked on every room prior to moving in. I’ll share the story and more photos of each bedroom over the upcoming weeks.

We were told by the previous owner of our house that along the fence line across the road there were several patches of black caps. Around here, “black caps” normally means wild black raspberries, though wild blackberries often get lumped in the same pile. Either way, they’re normally a sweet purple berry hidden between thorns and patches of nettles. They can be a little smaller and seedier then the hybrid varieties, but I think they have a better taste
– so the plan is simple: pick, eat, repeat.

Wild Black Raspberries

I had no problem finding several patches. Though these little guys tend to pile up slowly and most of the patches were just starting to ripen, so I didn’t come up with many. If it rains, there will be plenty more during the next two weeks. If it doesn’t, this may be the highlight of the season.

Berries And Ice Cream

At least there were enough berries for a small treat for everyone. Though, LuLu insisted I was making the ice cream “yucky” by adding funny strawberries. Don’t worry, that didn’t stop her from crawling onto my lap and striking a deal. I ate the “waspberries” while she ate the ice cream between a slew of questions about why I put berries in her ice cream.