Straight From Farm to Mouth (Skip the Table)

It's finally strawberry season here in New England and, boy oh boy, the fruit is lovely this year.  I forced my husband, I mean, I requested we take a break from our crazy Saturday work schedule to go and pick strawberries as a family.  Little man had been asking to go pick berries and we don't get to do alot of fun activities with daddy (hard working guy these days) so we had to work it in.

To the berry patch-

First, baby girl had a quick lesson on how to NOT destroy the plants while trying to pick berries.

Then off she went-

After realizing the 'fruits of the labor', she didn't stop-

This might sound silly but we recently read, Blueberries For Sal, by Roberty McCloskey.  From that story little man understood the concept of picking and saving food for the winter.  He did a good job picking and saving instead of eating them all.  He does like having a job, makes him feel 'big'.-

I like having jobs like this myself  :)

In the meantime, still chowing down-

Look at that tummy-

We managed to get enough picked-

And turned it into good things for the future-
(Every time I pick berries and make jam I think of home.  When I used to pick up strawberries at Scott's roadside stand on the bypass during my lunch break for me and my co-workers at Numark.  It meant summer was really here.)

Though little man did pretty good holding out on eating the berries while picking, strangely enough he doesn't have the same will power towards the sugar snap peas in the garden.  Only a few have actually made it out of the garden to the dinner table.  Baby girl loves them too.

More garden news later.  And still no piggies... probably mid to late July now.  And house news.... we scheduled the basement guys to come fix our leaky basement by installing french drains and get a new sump pump.  Pricey unfortunately but important in caring for our foundation.  On the downside.... probably no central AC installation that I was hoping for this year. :(

Side Yard Before and After

Pardon my blogging hiatus.... lots has been going on.  This post is a quick before and after of our side yard improvement, nothing jaw dropping here.

The cleanup started about a year ago to this date when my parents visited.  My Dad cannot sit still and has to always be busy with something.

 After the brush was cleared we were able to get the two trees cut down.

Then Jonathan tore up the area (since it was all weeds and crab grass), re-seeded it and such.

Last our neighbor put up a new split rail fence just a few weekends ago.  He has been wanting to do this project for some time.  Sweet!

Not the best before and after pics, but here it is again-

After-

So thats about 1/16 of our yard.  Now onto the rest.

We are currently dealing with a flooded basement after all the rains, about 1" standing water throughout.  Basement guy was here today for an analysis of how to fix the problem.  Looks like we will be doing some home improvements in that area soon.