Do bees fly at night?

Ed's "the shack" bbq was inspired by the OC/LA County Fair Turkey Leg Grills. We grilled the night it was built and almost every night since!


These are my last two pumpkins each on its own vine. I thought it would be idea to remove pumpkin flowers at night since they would remain fresh for morning breakfast. I also thought that when the sun set, bees couldn't fly. As I was out picking off flowers with Mellie, she said, "Liz I hear buzzing..." as I tried to leap out of the pumpkin patch I felt a the legs of a bee crawling on my back under my shirt. Yup, I was stung.. twice! (can a bee do that or maybe it was two bees). My husband came to my recue and flicked off the stinger. While the initial sting didn't hurt, I still feel like i have the stinger in my skin. While Ed gets stung every year in the same ear, I haven't been since I was ten. Now I'm rethinking my bee hive hobby that I was planning to start.

Just a few days later!

We cut on of the pumpkins off and ate it over the 4th of July weekend. Today, I went out there to see how it's grown. Wow, it really took off! There are a few more on the same vine, we are going to have to eat. In our home, the "loser" get eaten... yum!

The eggs have finally hatched and the birds have flown away. "Empty Nest" -

July 5th

Wow, chickens go to bed early, the sun hadn't completely set and they were all calling it a night.

This peach jam came from the peach tree next to the house. This season's bounty was very large and sweet! This was the first time Melisa and I had canned.

We picked zucs for the first time this season. On our first day out there we got alot.
Look at our baby pumpkins grow! Its nearly the size of the soccer ball! I need to place a pellet under it and cut some of the smaller pumpkins off the vine.

Slight overflow -June 20

The chives and chiles are being grown on the side of our home, close to the kitchen for easy pickin'.

This picture is so cool 'cuz it shows different stages of passion fruit.

My poop donors are having a union meeting, as soon as I got close, they scattered. They are plotting something...

My boys love wagon rides.

don't worry, this is recycled water.

The Boys Section

We decided to set aside a part of the gardening area for the boys to play. We had seen a few landscape shows that recommend sectioning off the play area to make it look separate from the yard. We decided to use deer fence since we have plenty of it on hand and we can easy see threw it to keep an eye on the little guys. We made a long entry way to give it a feel of a maze.

Once you enter, you'll first see a play house area or an aviation port. Adjacent to the house is a small bench where the storytelling area will be. There is also a parent lounge (table and bench), an activity center with a chalk board wall pending (along the fence), and an open-ended space for riding their bikes or just running around (maybe we'll add a sand box). At the end of the entrance we're also thinking about adding a water feature. I've also sowed some 2' pea seeds to cover some of the wall fence and give it a more defined look.

The new trees in the yard are getting set up to where they might be placed.

Our catus is growing! Even these plants need water once in a while.

The new home of our bird house gourds and Pumpkin mix variety pack. We planted seedlings even if it looks like nothing is there.

Finishing some projects and starting new ones 6-18-09

The roses are in full bloom. This is my hub's department since he's into pruning and watering them. Although I'm the one that sprinkled Dr. Earth's Rose Food on them a week ago, so I should get a little credit, too.
















We finally found a permanent home for the raspberry, boysenberry and black satin raspberry. Now we just need to stake the sides to hold them up and we're done on this berry nice project. While I never planted the tomatoes (the storage bin near the wooden fence), they have a lot of tomatoes growing with lots of blooms merging! And on this raspberry project day, I promised Eddie to never plant in fruits or veggies in containers again. This promise came about due to root binding in containers and becoming extremely heavy in planting and he thinks storage bins look ugly.

Why did I start another project when I haven't finished any of the other ones? I love butterflies and want a better way to give tribute then a butterfly garden. Ed said I should plant low growing plants in order to see the design. And plant the larger dill, cosmos and such where the grass part near the fence is. I have a bird bath that has been neglected for some time. I'm going to bring it over here to make this a backyard habitat for butterflies and caterpillars.