attended the (Draper) traditional 4th of July parade in Carmel,
and then had fun with lots of boys and lots of fireworks!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Whenever Daniel goes unsupervised in our garage, he goes straight for the two kid-sized snow shovels and proceeds to scrape them across driveway, grass and sidewalks. 
Daniel has definitely reached the age when he knows he's a (cute) rascal.
Stuart has been asking us for the last few weeks if he could take the training wheels off his bike. He hadn't even tried them unbalanced yet (he was basically riding a tricycle), but was undeterred by comments from a more fearful Simon like, "Stuart, it's not as easy as it looks." (Simon is not the most courageous kid I've ever met in terms of mastering new skills and has yet to let us so much as loosen his training wheels). Anyways, we unbalanced them quite a bit for him (I think he needs a couple more days of practice before we take them all the way off) and here he is, proudly sporting his helmet and gear and trying to ride "super speedy." Hmmm....I think his bike is getting too small.
Daniel has definitely reached the age when he knows he's a (cute) rascal.
Stuart has been asking us for the last few weeks if he could take the training wheels off his bike. He hadn't even tried them unbalanced yet (he was basically riding a tricycle), but was undeterred by comments from a more fearful Simon like, "Stuart, it's not as easy as it looks." (Simon is not the most courageous kid I've ever met in terms of mastering new skills and has yet to let us so much as loosen his training wheels). Anyways, we unbalanced them quite a bit for him (I think he needs a couple more days of practice before we take them all the way off) and here he is, proudly sporting his helmet and gear and trying to ride "super speedy." Hmmm....I think his bike is getting too small.
So the obvious lapse of time between seedlings not yet in the ground (my last post) and harvesting vegetables (this one) shows how long I've been away from our blog, but I have two good excuses: a trip to Europe (with it's attendant preparations and recovery afterwards) in May, and a broken digital camera for most of the rest of the summer. I'm coming to re-acknowledge the fact that I have three children and a home to take care of and can't vacation carefree in Europe any longer, and my camera is now fixed, so I'm back!
I will post some pictures of the vegetable beds soon, along with a surprise that popped up and took over our compost pile this season. But back to the post title--beans! My mom gave me a pound of heirloom Vaquero beans from Rancho Gordo at Christmas. We cooked and savored most of them, but I kept a few aside to try in the garden this year. I knew what they should look like, but it was still amazing to pick the plain-looking dry pods today
and have these pop out!
I don't think growing bush beans for drying is the most efficient or cost-effective use of garden space, but I think I'll do a couple plants of different kinds each year, just because opening the pods made me so happy. 
Simon and Stuart also helped me harvest some mature potatoes yesterday. If you've never done this with little kids (which I hadn't until yesterday), it's WAY better than an Easter egg hunt, and not just because the prize is potatoes instead of more unwanted candy. Digging in the dirt, finding earthworms and potatoes big and small--that is seriously my idea of fun! Yield was about 5 pounds for 4 eyes planted. Here they are:
I will post some pictures of the vegetable beds soon, along with a surprise that popped up and took over our compost pile this season. But back to the post title--beans! My mom gave me a pound of heirloom Vaquero beans from Rancho Gordo at Christmas. We cooked and savored most of them, but I kept a few aside to try in the garden this year. I knew what they should look like, but it was still amazing to pick the plain-looking dry pods today
and have these pop out!
I don't think growing bush beans for drying is the most efficient or cost-effective use of garden space, but I think I'll do a couple plants of different kinds each year, just because opening the pods made me so happy. 
Simon and Stuart also helped me harvest some mature potatoes yesterday. If you've never done this with little kids (which I hadn't until yesterday), it's WAY better than an Easter egg hunt, and not just because the prize is potatoes instead of more unwanted candy. Digging in the dirt, finding earthworms and potatoes big and small--that is seriously my idea of fun! Yield was about 5 pounds for 4 eyes planted. Here they are:
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