Twofer one

I wanted to break this up into 2 posts, but oh well.
So I have had some thoughts about our yard lately. A few months ago, Stephen started doing some research on how to espalier fruit trees. Click on espalier if you want to learn about it- I had never heard of it though I had seen it. This way he could get more trees in a smaller area and keep them lower maintenance, plus make a kind of fence out of them for the front yard. He checked out books on it from the library and we talked to experts in the area about what kind of trees to get, etc.
So when I told people over Presidents Day weekend that we had bought 10 fruit trees, I got varied responses. LOL Stephen and I both grew up on an acre or more and our parents had/have many full size fruit trees, so of course 10 sounded like a ton of work to them . . . my dad said of Stephen "well, he doesn't lack ambition". This is so true. I started thinking back to all the places we have lived since we got married. Stephen is always trying to make use of whatever space we have, which some years was very little. My friend commented on having a "bountiful yard" and I thought back to what Stephen's twin brother said when he bought a duplex- he wanted his property to work for him (or something to that effect). Well, that's what Stephen has been doing all these years as well. He finds it amusing to see what will grow as well, but I think he just has this desire to make where ever he's living produce something- anything. Thus the chickens and all the future plans for the yard. So I thought I would document some of his doings over the last 6 years.
The first summer we were married we had moved into my grandparent's old farmhouse with a huge yard and garden area. We moved there in March and Stephen had filled the whole garden plot with plants in time for growing season. We got quite a lot of fruit and veggies that summer- those white gourds grew on their own and were quite the fun Halloween decor. The following summer we knew we would be headed to Chicago by August and there wouldn't be time to harvest much of anything. So Stephen decided we would grow a whole garden full of basil and cilantro and sell it at the local farmers market. We spent $25 on bulk seed and planted the whole garden plot. Needless to say, we got bags and bags of basil - the cilantro bolted to seed too fast. We took the bags down to the Boise farmers market and a veggie vendor said he would sell them for us at a cut. We made $25 and ate endless amounts of pesto that summer. Stephen was happy.
In Chicago we rented a duplex. The only summer we were there Stephen talked the landlord into letting us pull all the thistles in the alley behind our place and put in plants. We also got permission to plant in a 6 inch strip next to the garage with corn- these were the results.


It was HILARIOUS to drive by and see that row of corn next to the dentist's garage.

Once we moved to Seattle we were able to grow potted cherry tomatoes behind our apartment complex.

We bought our house last April and the first thing Stephen set on was getting the garden plot ready. It took a lot of labor to get all the trees, bushes and then turf out of the area we wanted it, but we did get a garden in and we had some success.
Staking out where the fruit trees in the front yard should go.

Hard to see them, but here are the 6 apple trees. The wire guides is where 3 branches on each side will be "taught" to grow. Dwarf trees will keep them from getting much beyond 5-6 ft tall.
Next to our side fence in the front yard he put in 4 cherry trees- they also will be espaliered. Plans include a full size peach tree, blueberries, raspberries and possibly an apricot tree.

Another note: Stephen is no carpenter, but I am amazed at what he comes up with. We have all this leftover fencing lumber from the fences they built last summer (Stephen, neighbors and his parents - I mainly hauled junk).

These are some boxes he made in less than an hour to put raspberries bushes into.

He designed and built the chicken coop complete with removable side for cleaning and a nesting box door to collect eggs (we got 3 this week!!)

The chicken coop now rests in the garden spot so the chickens can fertilize the garden- look at our girls now!

The littler box home he made with scratching post covered in leftover carpet that was left in the shop.
He wanted the clothes rack removed from the laundry/pantry room so we would have more floor space- so he rigged up this hanging rod from leftover lumber.
Finally, he tore out old sheet rock around our wood box that had water damage years ago and is filling in the sides of it with our lumber.


My other post was about our week- we've had crazy cold weather and the girls were DELIGHTED when we got some real snow that stuck to the yard. I didn't catch Odessa's real face here, but she was absolutely beaming scooping up armfuls of snow and moving them around the yard. She would live in Alaska if we let her- she loves the snow SO MUCH and will stay out forever in it.
This weekend I cajoled Stephen into going down to the mall- he has never been!!! It didn't hurt that the JC Penney rewards that were going to expire I encouraged him to use and find some work clothes that ended up being almost free- that's the kind of shopping he likes . . .
After the girls spent their allowance they've earned from feeding chickens and setting the table, we met our friend Hermes in the "Asian" wing of the mall where they have a Jollibee, Chow King and Red Ribbon bakery, all chain restaurants that are all over in the Philippines. The first time I discovered it, I couldn't stop grinning. So even though us American missionaries always made fun of the Jollibee food (Asia's McDonalds with funny tasting hamburgers) I tried their fried chicken at Hermes' urging and we got some Filipino spaghetti with sweet banana ketchup sauce and special hot dogs and ground pork in it- don't forget the grated "velveeta" style cheese on top . . . Oh I acutally miss that crazy spaghetti. Jollibee's was good, but the homemade stuff that I ate at people's homes was even better.
But the kicker was the halo-halos we got from Chow King. OH MY- they super size them American sized. They were delicious.
My back continues to be a constant pain, and my blood sugars were high when they tested me for gestational diabetes so I have to take another glucose challenge (2 hr this time, FASTING) and start taking better care of my body these last 8+ weeks of pregnancy. After the coming week which will be very busy, I am going to stop working so much and go to Physical Therapy, walk more and go to the dentist- finally.
And that is my insanely long post that should have been at least two. Oh well.