welcom to my garden video tour

Hold on to your hats....the camera moves quickly at times.

hair-de-do

Natale brought her hair clip for play time today. They girls spent their free time in front of the mirror making colorfully crafted hairdos.

 

 

super moon

I made Jay pull over so we could photograph the super moon rising as we drove down the mountain on Saturday evening.

tutu cute

Our half-way rendezvous point for exchanging Tessa is my favorite discount grocery store. 

Today after moving her school bag and her overnight bag and her snack bag from her mom's car to mine, Tessa and I headed in the store to do so bargain hunting. Somewhere after the granola bars and before the tea aisle we stumbled upon this pink tutu just Tessa's size. How could I say no? 

She was so inspired to dance she could hardly wait to get home and get started. Her free dance involves a lot of twirling which is pretty tricky to capture in one shot so I set the camera to multiple shots and held down the trigger hoping I would capture something to preserve the moment.

It made me smile remembering some other sweet little girls dressed in pretty pink tutus dancing around the living room.

figgy pudding

Last week I stopped at the local nursery to replace my mint plant that had died in the heat. When I went to pay for the plant the nursery worker was busy with another customer so I wandered back to the fruit trees. I was surprised to see several three foot tall fig trees with price tags of twenty dollars each. Now to be honest it was only this past year or so that I first tasted a fresh fig. Up until that time my fig-experience had been limited to Fig Newton cookies that my dad took in his lunch bucket. Now twenty dollars looked like a bargain just waiting to happen but I didn't have the right vehicle for tree shopping that day. I returned the next day with Jay and the pickup and now the figgy is happily adjusting to it new home.

get the lead out

Through a recent series of events I found myself in the office of a local naturopathic doctor taking a test for heavy metals. I was anticipating a high level of mercury but was surprised at the large amounts of aluminum, cadmium and lead present. The doctor said five or more metals are cause for concern and my test showed 14 metals in various amounts.

I was scheduled to start IV chelation this past week but after getting more information I've decided to do an intense heavy metal detox first and then make my decision regarding IV therapy. 

I started a healing log so I can target my eating towards foods that will help with the elimination of the toxins. I'm researching foods and adding vitamins and supplements along with the oral chelation the doctor recommended.

I now know that hair analysis is a more accurate test of metal toxin levels than the tests that measure what is being excreted from the body (which only measures those metals currently moving in the body). Heavy metals can be stored deep in tissues of the body. 

The plan in my mind at the moment is to detox from now until sometime in August and then retest (only this time using a hair analysis). I know it doesn't follow scientific procedures to retest using a different test, however, I want to use the most accurate measure possible. Neither test is cheap and I can't justify doing a second test at this point just to get accurate baseline numbers when it is already obvious that there are too many metals present.

Your prayers for the Father's healing hand as well as self-disciple with food and lifestyle changes needed for healing are greatly appreciated.

numbers

Tessa is a numbers person but Natale is much more comfortable with words. The last two weeks we decided to switch things up and start the day with math instead of waiting until after lunch. Although Natale still prefers language activities to anything with digits, the switch has made an amazing difference in the amount of math study we can take down in one setting. I figure that has got to make a difference in the long run. 

And so...although neither N or I are especially pleased with the idea we will continue to put those numbers front and center in our day.

 

 

One of our math lessons this week. Tessa worked at counting out pattern blocks to match numbers while Natale rolled big dice and used stickers to write the resulting addition problem.

chairs

 

Last Saturday night after we left Hopi and before we reached Show Low it became obvious that we would not reach our destination before our wakefulness hit E. So we stopped at a motel on route 66 that featured a two pancake and drink breakfast. The breakfast was humorous as we weren't even asked if we wanted anything extra (I was all for splurging on some eggs). Our pancakes and OJ delivered, we were on our own (don't even bother asking for honey rather than fake syrup). 

But the bright side of waking up in a cheap motel on route 66 on a sunny Sunday morning is the photo opportunities therein. I spotted this wonderful row of metal lawn chairs calling out to my camera. After a couple clicks of empty chairs Jay offered to sit in the picture for me. Remembering my new photo-tip that including a person in any photo adds interest-I couldn't turn him down. And just like Goldilocks he proceeded to sit in EACH of the chairs. Silly boy!

 So I snapped away.

This morning I had fun trying out different photo-effects.

 

tales of learning

Because Natale's mom had this week off Tessa and I had private school this week. It didn't take long before we pulled out the hose and fill a little plastic pool with "spray water" in order to cool off.

 Between the new-baby-family-time, an unexpected elongated Memorial Day weekend, and a battle with a bug I hadn't spent much time with Tessa during May. 

The first thing I noticed when her family delivered her on Monday morning was she seemed taller. It soon became apparent she is in a growth spirit when she couldn't go longer than an hour without announcing "I'm hungry". I made a raw Zucchini Miso salad (that I was certain she would turn down) with buffalo sliders for dinner on Monday and she raved about how wonderful dinner was every time she passed through the kitchen.

Tessa was delighted with the tomatoes ripening in the garden as tomatoes are a favorite food. We picked tomatoes and carrots and beets (better know as mint leaves) to float in our water, collected eggs and made it all into math lessons. 

The marigolds I planted along with the tomatoes are in full bloom and she was tickled to get permission to pick one each day. She loved how soft the petals felt. As she put the stem between her fingers admiring her flower ring our conversation went like this:

Me: Do you remember why we planted the Marigolds

T: No

Me: Because the bugs don't like them.

T: Once they see them they will like them.

Me: I think it is the way they smell that the bugs don't like.

T: (smelling her flower) When the girl bugs smell them they will like them.

How can you argue with that?

welcome to my garden part 7

k

The North West corner of the greenhouse is still "under construction". After our tour of The Garden Pool last summer we started making our own mini aquaponic pool. We dug a pit (no small task in this caliche-pocked soil) lined it with cement, built a raised box to extend it above ground and left the cement to cure. It's ummmm, nearing a year now I think the cement might be ready now. 

In the meantime, I started my favorite part of the aqua-experience in a large plastic bin. I ordered some duckweed off from ebay (talk about a good business - selling your weeds). We added an oxygen pump and some chicken poop to the tub and then the newly aquired duckweed. Then nothing happened. It didn't die but it didn't grow either. Finally I threw in some more chicken poop and suddenly my Duckweek began multiplying. Now I scoop up two big handfuls of the vit-rich green aqua-life every day and refloat them in the chickens water. Free chicken vitamins!

To make the best use of my shrinking garden space. I put my planting table over top of the Duckweed pool. This is were I work with my seedlings until they are ready to go into the ground.

for betsy

Not as bright as your guy but just as companionable.

up the mountain

The last two weekends we have found oursleves "up the mountain" visiting with our former house guests, Rob and Sue. I always enjoy visiting Payson, it's cooler and there are trees and green things. I typically like to take my camera for a walk down the country road and see what interesting things we can spot in the viewfinder. Last Shabbat morning Jay offered to join us. This is what I saw...

One of Sue's newly acquired bees (get it...Sue Bee Honey?) investigating her roses. We are scheduled to bee sit once the weather turns cold.

Looking for gold in the wash-what else would he be doing down there!