I Just Love My Landscaping

While planning our new house, my mind often wandered to landscaping. Visions of the Missouri Botanical Gardens in my home city floated in my mind...then I would come crashing back to reality. Reducing our utility bills with shrubs and trees probably should have come to mind, as this side benefit becomes more important all the time. My thoughts, however, were of blending the sharp edges of the house into the countryside and of shifting an open field into a beautiful, shady retreat.

White Hydrangea

Last fall, we worked as a family tackling our first project, the front landscaping, with two willing participants and three forced-labor children. The first job, unloading a truckload of composted manure...a shovelful at a time, was not terribly popular.

Moonbeam Coreopsis

Next up, spreading a truckload of mulch, which we purchased at Hardwoods, Inc. in Belvue, Kansas. We have a very old truck that we took over and had them fill for a couple of nickels. Well, a few more than a couple, but it was very inexpensive. Again, we all grabbed shovels and blanketed the area with fragrant cidar mulch.

Pink Blushing Knockout Rose

The final step was, of course, my favorite part, digging the holes for the plants that had been delivered by Master Landscaping of Manhattan. Jill at Master Landscaping drew our design taking our ideas and giving them a lovely polish.

Little Princess Spirea (in front), Royal Star Magnolia (on the end)

When we built the house, we decided a sprinkler system was more important than a refrigerator or windows. Even so we still wavered back and forth because of the expense. I'm pleased to say we have all three. So after planting, the hubby re-adjusted the sprinkler system to water the new plantings and we sat back to watch. (sat back...ha ha ha...more accurately, we were freed to work on something else).

The front landscape has many purposes...

Prairie Fire Crabapple with Veronica all around

Not only beauty, but a park for the animals...

an extra run space for our basketball playing boys.

... and for us, landscaping is a relaxation opportunity...strolling to take in the bursting blooms, pulling a few weeds and breathing in the fresh air.

The Great Wall

We had a bit of a drainage problem after the house was completed, so earlier this spring we had the handy-dandy, earth-mover man come and re-work our driveway.

As an added bonus, his work created a place where we needed a rock retaining wall. In my imagination, this wall would offer endless landscaping opportunities... or at the very least add some interest to the front yard. The only downside is most of my outside "images" involve work for the husband. Fortunately on this one he didn't seem to mind.

We headed down to the local stone yard and selected a tumbled limestone called Dover Shell. This stack was delivered Saturday morning.

After the rain stopped and the area dried up enough, Bart got busy on this weekender project. He measured, dug, selected, hauled and leveled. Repeat, repeat, repeat!

As I watched and took photos I could feel some words bubbling up and pushing to get out..."would you like some help?"

"Sure".

My job was backfilling behind the stones. I felt a compulsive need to try to separate as much dirt as possible from the gravel. ho ho hee hee...I'm afraid, I wasn't much help.

About as much as the cats....

...who had a compulsive need to walk the wall.

The hubby finished up on Sunday evening.

Isn't it cool???

A Summer Lunch?

My friend, The Country Doctor's Wife is truly a fountain of wisdom, especially on matters of customer service, family relations and cuisine. I have no doubt that the new editions of Emily Post and Rachel Ray will carry numerous quotes from her blog. So when she paired two garden favorites together for lunch the other day, I followed suit.

After all, this spring I dove into the gardening world once again with an unparalleled enthusaism - reading organic gardening books and magazines, and dirting my hands whenever possible. I've studied and tried mouthwatering recipes based on homegrown vegetables and fruits, and have worked to bring more cooked-from-scratch meals into our home. As called for in the recipe, I have fresh homegrown tomatoes and cucumbers.

Aren't they lovely?

Something, however, went seems to have gone wrong. I've made a big mistake in following the recipe and I'd better consult CDW on this mishap.

Some pizza rolls showed up on a plate...



...my plate!

Just Wondering

How do you convincingly explain to a boy that socks were not meant to be disposable?

Playing Student at Back to School Night

Last night was Back to School Night at the Middle School for Middleman. It started with a free hot dog dinner... if you serve free food, they will come. I pitched in a little in the meal prep and geez, that time was priceless. Lots of sage advice on handling teenagers flew around during the assembly line work. Thanks, ladies.


Following the meal and a welcome from the principal, the students with parents in tow completed a super-shortened school day. A bell rang and we headed for the first class...gym. The gym teachers worked hard to fill the 8 minutes and warned we may have to fill the extra time by running laps...huh? Isn't this pretend school? All concentration was lost as I imagined us old-fogies hoofing around the gym... thankfully the bell rang... onto the next class.


We moved through Middleman's schedule, sitting at his desk and glimpsing his view for a few moments. We heard the philosophy, guidelines and expectations of each of his teachers...got to size them up. They gave us varying ways to contact them and were quite sincere in their desire for us to use them. I couldn't help but be impressed by the number of teachers who off-handedly expressed a love for their subject! Their pleasure at starting a new year was leaking out everywhere. It was contagious. I even appreciated hearing the "new" late work policy - the third "new" late work policy in three years. They were not ashamed of improving it and working to pull the best out of the students. Not even a hint of a "this is the way it's always been done" attitude. I liked that.

We also gained an understanding of the amount of energy consumed by our son each day. He needs to hike from one end of the building and back no less than five times a day. Doesn't leave much time for socializing, daggumit! Must be why he loves getting to school early and eating lunch.


The demands on Middleman's time, energy and attention are great. Back to School Night helped me know caring people are in the building, willing to help...gives a Mom great comfort. It's going to be a good year!

One of Our Own Earns Prestigious Award

Brook, Greg, Piper, Brett and Maddox

As many of you know, our brother-in-law, Greg, has served in the military for his entire career. He has earned many promotions and honors, including his most recent promotion to major. As a career military person, Greg volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan. Last July, he traveled to the southern region of Afghanistan very near the Pakistan border...not a safe place. He remained for almost a year, returning in April to a very happy family.

We learned yesterday that he has been awarded the Bronze Star. This medal may be "awarded to any person who, while serving in any capacity with the Armed Forces of the United States, distinguishes himself by heroic or meritorious achievement or service." This is a great honor and one that we are not surprised Greg has earned. He is a man of high character, courage and innate leadership ability.

Congratulations, Greg! Thank you for devoting your life to serving our country.

P.S. If you decide to deploy again, voluntarily, we may have to hurt you ourselves... xoxo

A Cow in the Backyard

Yesterday, I had coffee with my neighbor and she casually mentioned to me that she was thinking of getting a cow...maybe, two cows. These would not be pets. They would be cows for eating. The neighbor on the other side of her has wanted to do this as well and they have been toying with where to put fencing and exactly how this would all work. She visited with a knowledgeable farmer from our church, who mentioned that we (here's where we come into the picture) have some nice brome grass on our field back by her barn. Cows really like brome grass, she explained. Maybe we would be interested in a side of beef?

Ah...

Well...

Stutter, spit, choke...

You better let me think about it...


At the dinner table last night I brought up the subject.

My husband's response, "Excuse me...???"

My oldest's response, a silent, you've-completely-lost-your-mind stare.

My middleman's response, "We're going to have a cow in the backyard and then EAT it?" Earlier this summer, one of my kids said that the potatoes we had dug from the garden were gross because they were so dirty. We have become a bit removed from "the how" of our food reaching the table.

My youngest's response, "I think we need a leapord or a lion in the back pasture, not a cow."

After the idea sunk in for a while, and brains whirled about the workings and meanings of such a quest, the thought of raising our own hormone-free, pasture-feed beef seemed to take on a bit of acceptance. I just mowed that field over the weekend and coincidently kept thinking surely there's something interesting we can do with this pasture...