Asher's 1st Birthday

Happy first Birthday Asher Urijah! I can't believe my baby boy is 1. I swear with every kid we've added, time seems to speed up exponentially. Asher continues to be a perfect addition to our family. He has the sweetest disposition. He's just a happy easy going baby (it took us 3 times but we finally got one). He's very mellow and quite the observer; you have to be with 2 older siblings like his. He's been army crawling for a few months now, but just recently figured out how to get up on all fours. He also recently started cruising so I'm sure walking is just around the corner. He takes his time with everything and I am quite alright with that.

For his birthday we had a farm party. Of course, the house was decorated with various farm animals and the kids got to be farmers and plant a sunflower and they also did a "hay hunt" where they dug through the hay to find eggs. The highlight for Asher though was the cake. He didn't even wait for us to stop signing "Happy Birthday". He just dug right in and started two-fisting it.

The farm cake and cupcakes. Asher's Haystack Grammy and Téa reading "Old MacDonald" A view of the decorations from the deck. Birthday Boy Some of the farm hands. Caden, Téa and Aleah planting their sunflowers. Aleah showing off her gardening skills. Our uninvited guest. Caden and his sunflower. Aunt Valarie and Asher. My little gardener girl. Hunting for eggs. Asher doing the "Hay Hunt". "Happy Birthday to you". That was yummy! Best buddies.

House projects

The house projects are never ending, or so it seems. We have been busy, as usual, trying to put the finishing touches on our house. When we had time to finish them, we didn't have money and when we had money, we didn't have time. 'Tis life I guess. Anyway, over the past few months our house has really started to take shape and is feeling more and more like our home. For starters, with the help of my experienced dad we put the "skirting around the house. Being a modular home means it is lifted off the ground using piers. The skirting is the pieces of wood that cover from where the cement curb around the house stops and where the actual house starts. This took our house from looking like a trailer to an actual home. We also painted the house. This also made a big difference. The paint was peeling, the skirting didn't match and the house had with stood a few bumps and bruises on it's journey out to the mountains. Don and I did the prep work (not fun!) and my brother Cody was nice enough to help us spray the house. Don and I finished up with the trim. What a difference! I have to say that one of the biggest projects accomplished was the addition of our deck!!!!!!! It's wonderful. Until the addition of our deck you were only able to enter through the laundry room or our master bedroom - talk about inconvenient. With the new deck however, we are now able to use the 2 main doors to our house. My dad as usual drew up the deck plans, and helped build most of the deck. We feel so blessed for our home and all of the help we have received in the making of it.

The skirting. (It's the yellow part in this picture)

Where our future deck will be (looking out one of our main doors)
Where our deck will be (facing the double door from the previous picture).


Can he fix it? Yes he can. Caden helping build the deck.
Papa, Daddy, and Caden hard at work.
Mr. Fix it.
The deck frame.
Facing the double doors again, after the deck frame is up. PS if you look at the house you will see the beginnings of house painting prep work.
Daddy cutting some wood.

One of my projects is painting and reupholstering some old chairs.

Painting is almost done, just finishing up the trim.

Kaizen Organic Garden

Well, it's that time of the year to plant a garden. I love growing our own food and now that we have kids it's that much more important to us. We think it's vital that they know where their food comes from and they are involved in the process from seed to harvest. They have had so much fun this year. We are also strong believers in growing food in a sustainable way that is healthy for the planet and our selves. As a result, our garden is 100% Organic, all the way from the seeds, soil, and fertilizers, and pest control. No synthetic chemicals here. Yay! Anyways, we have put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (literally) into our garden (the tears were organic by the way) and we couldn't be more pleased with the results. We have 20+ varieties of tomatoes, everything from Sun Gold, Zebra Striped, Cherry, Roma and even Purple Cherokee. The weather is just getting warm enough where they are really starting to take off. There's nothing like picking a vine-ripened tomato and eating it. They are so sweet they are almost like eating candy. We are also growing several types of lettuces. We love salad in this family so this is an essential item for us. We have Red Romaine, Arugula, Salad Bowl, Mesclun mix, Spreckels and Lolla Rossa just to name a few. We are also growing several types of carrots, radishes, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, celery, and even brussels sprouts. In the 2nd row of our garden we have our 3 sisters trio which includes 6 varieties of squash (zucchini, butternut, winter squash etc), a few types of corn, and beans and peas mixed in. In the 3rd row we have melons, and pepper plants. These include; Purple Bell peppers, Orange Bell peppers, Carribean Hot pepper, Banana pepper and way too many more to list. We also have lot's of random things mixed in here and there like Kale, Chard, Artichokes, Eggplant, and even Rainbow Quinoa. As you can see we went a little crazy this year but our goal is to majorly cut our grocery bill. Next year we hope to add fruit trees and berry bushes to the mix.

I'm also determined to not waste a thing. As a result we're planning on canning our own stewed tomatoes, pasta sauce and salsas. We also learned that most plants have secondary things you can eat from them. Did you know you can eat the leaves off a Radish, Cauliflower, and Carrot plant, and that they are very healthy for you? Well you can, and we have been adding them to everything , casseroles, soups, stir fry's. It's amazing to think that there is a hunger crisis in this world but we are throwing away perfectly good food just because it's less desirable. Well, not us. We're going to use everything! Here's a peek at the Kaizen pride and joy.

I have several pots and hang-baskets or herbs. Once you cook with fresh herbs you will never go back to dried store bought ones. I have everything from basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, dill, cilantro, garlic chives, mint, lemon balm and even curry. They're so yummy!
My first batch of seedlings Here's the future garden area. It's just a hillside covered in brush now, but we have a lot in store for this area. Some of the brush we cleared from the future garden area. Since it was a pretty steep hillside we had to terrace it. That means to build the rows, we had to physically bring in 100's of wheel barrows of rocks and dirt. Here's the start of row #1. Row 1 planter boxes built, and the start of row #2 below. Starting to plant in row 1, below row 2 is getting ready. Row 2 getting some dirt and plants put in. More stuff in row 1 sprouting Cherry Red radishes and Daikon radishes.
Time to harvest some potatoes. Our potato harvest! Cheddar Cauliflower Getting ready to help mommy Getting ready to pull out a Daikon radish. Pull harder Téa!
Yay, she did it! Next up was some Kale. Lolla Rossa and Arugula are coming in. Radish greens and Red Romaine lettuce Red Romaine lettuce and Kale Let's go see what's for dinner. My little gardener girl.

Caden pulling out a carrot Yay!
Cheddar Cauliflower and Carrots This is how I get most of my work done. Supervisor Asher making sure Mommy is doing a good job. ; ) Row 2 starting to take shape.
Look what I found mom! A Purple Kaleidoscope carrot Hmm, I thought carrots were orange. Cucumber, Peas and Corn in the back. Golden Zucchini My helpers checking out their goods. Spreckels, Lolla Rossa, Spinach, and Oak Leaf lettuce. YUMMY! Yes we grow Purple, Yellow and White Carrots in our garden. There are also Sugar Snap Peas towards the bottom of the basket. I finally put the 3rd row in. There are mounds of several melon varieties including Watermelon, Cantaloupe. In between the mounds are tons of peppers including Better Belle Pepper, Habenero's, Jalapenos etc. Free pest control. My little helper : ) Yummy Lolla Rossa Lettuce. Téa checking out the beets. A view of the 3 rows from the far end of the garden. Carrots, Chard, Kale, and a Daikon radish. My seedlings have to be protected from the predators, aka the Chicken and Dumping Gang! Carrots, Kale and Golden Zucchini. Carrots, celery, radish and a variety of lettuces.