One year ago, Scott & I participated in a miracle by attending Aaron’s one year party and releasing balloons in memory of all the Trisomy 18 babies not fortunate enough to have made it to that milestone. Well, last night we released 4 balloons, one for each of us in our family, at Aaron’s second birthday party. What a miracle! You can see lots of photos at the mom’s blog and you can play “Where’s Waldo?” to find the photo of my back.
It’s June and the daffodils are done but the late spring flowers are on. Here’s a sampling of what’s going on out in my flower gardens right now. They’re starting to look pretty good now that all the seedlings are finally in the ground and it’s warming up. I have 5 varieties of penstemon blooming, 3 varieties of poppies, and several different gaillardias. With vigorous spraying, I’ve managed to keep the deer from eating the rosebuds, so they are just starting to open on some of the bushes.
I’ve been wanting vertical structures for the vegetable garden for a long time and it’s just never happened, so today we were out weeding and planting some more veggies and I mentioned that Scott should lash together a structure for the cucumbers before we plant them and he just did it! Such an awesome husband! He went to the woodpile and a few minutes later all those mad Scout skills had made a cucumber teepee. Will it work? Stay tuned. But we have verticality in the vegetables! Wah-hoo!
I have a long-standing goal of reading all the Newbery award winners. This began when I was young and was renewed when Brian was in elementary school and decided to take up the challenge. I read along with him then, but as he grew older and moved on to other reading material, I also moved on. Again. A few years ago, I decided that I would focus again on this perpetual challenge and try to knock out a few more each year. To date I’ve read 64 of the 91 books so honored. So I’m making progress. Early in 2011 I realized that since my favorite genre (by far) is historical fiction, I should be reading the books given the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. (Because who doesn’t need more reading challenges in their life?) To be eligible for the award, a book must have been published as a book intended for children or young people, it must be set in the New World (Canada, Central or South America, or the United States), it must be published by a publisher in the United States, and it must be written in English by a citizen of the United States.
Before I decided to read them all, I had only read 5 of the 29, so the rest have been read during 2011-2012. Herein is the list with my star rating from my goodreads.com reviews. I read some really excellent books and a couple of duds, but for the most part, the books that have received this award have all been worthy. I enjoyed stretching myself and getting them all read. Someday I’ll finish all the Newberys.
2012, Jack Gantos, Dead End in Norvelt, 2 stars
2011, Rita Williams-Garcia, One Crazy Summer, 4 stars
2010, Matt Phelan, The Storm in the Barn, 3 stars
2009, Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains, 5 stars
2008, Christopher Paul Curtis, Elijah of Buxton, 3 stars
2007, Ellen Klages, The Green Glass Sea, 3 stars
2006, Louise Erdrich, The Game of Silence, 4 stars
2005, A LaFaye, Worth, 5 stars
2004, Richard Peck, The River Between Us, 4 stars
2003, Shelley Pearsall, Trouble Don’t Last, 3 stars
2002, Mildred D. Taylor, The Land, 4 stars
2001, Janet Taylor Lisle, The Art of Keeping Cool, 4 stars
2000, Miriam Bat-Ami, Two Suns in the Sky, 2 stars
1999, Harriette Robinet, Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule, 4 stars
1998, Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust, 4 stars
1997, Katherine Paterson, Jip, His Story, 4 stars
1996, Theodore Taylor, The Bomb, 4 stars
1995, Graham Salisbury, Under the Blood Red Sun, 3 stars
1994, Paul Fleischman, Bull Run, 4 stars
1993, Michael Dorris, Morning Girl, 3 stars
1992, Mary Downing Hahn, Stepping on the Cracks, 4 stars
1991, Pieter Van Raven, A Time of Troubles, 4 stars
1990, Carolyn Reeder, Shades of Grey, 4 stars
1989, Lyll Becerra de Jenkins, The Honorable Prison, 5 stars
1988, Patricia Beatty, Charley Skedaddle, 3 stars
1987, Scott O’Dell, Streams to the River, River to the Sea, 3 stars
1986, Patricia MacLachlan, Sarah, Plain and Tall, 4 stars
1985, Avi, The Fighting Ground, 4 stars
1984, Elizabeth George Speare, The Sign of the Beaver, 3 stars
I’ve had some questions about my process for growing seedlings, so here’s the scoop. I germinate them in Jiffy pellets which I put in trays with clear plastic domes. I place these under basic shop lights and fluorescent lights bought at the big box home improvement stores, on heavy duty wire shelves purchased from similar places. I have a hanging wire shelf above these, and on the right I have narrow plastic shelves given to me by a neighbor who got a real greenhouse. (covet, covet) These shelves are in my downstairs furnace room.
Once the seeds come up and have a leaf or two, I remove the domes and when they have two true leaves (or soon after), I take the pellets and place them in 4″ pots filled with Miracle Gro potting soil and put them back under the lights. These photos were taken April 7 and they had been going for about 3 weeks.
Once the seedlings get all big and healthy-looking, I start moving them out to what I affectionately call my “theater greenhouse”. This is the other half of the wire shelving, located in my garage with shop lights and bulbs. A few years ago I wanted to encase it and couldn’t figure out what to use and Scott cleverly came up with this solution.
When Brian was performing in plays at Lone Peak HS, we were in charge of hanging vinyl signs on the fence across from our house. We took them down when the show was over and the teacher didn’t want them back, so we accumulated a collection, thinking they may come in handy someday. I put a long one crossways, and a shorter one over the face. I close the edges with clothespins and it makes a lovely greenhouse that’s cooler than downstairs but warm at night when it gets really cold. I can lift the side to water and it’s just really awesome. This is the half-way house for seedlings on their way outside to face the cruel world. Once it gets warmer, say the middle of April, I start the tedious process of moving trays out during the day and in during the night. I usually drag the shelves out and uncover them, but I had so many this year that Scott built me a wooden trolley with rope handles for pulling trays in and out. Where I live it’s still too cold at night in April and early May so the plants get used to the warm sun and cooler days, but I protect them from the frosty nights. By the end of April I check weather daily and if the nights are in the upper 40’s I start letting some of the annuals stay out. Perennials don’t mind the cold and have been hardened off and in the ground by this time.
The accepted wisdom in Alpine is that you don’t dare plant before Mother’s Day. I live by this wisdom and there have been cool springs when I’ve waited longer than that. These photos were taken May 17, after I’d bravely begun to plant some annuals, hoping for no more frost. Alpine has been known to regularly get June frosts. Grrr.
The seedlings this year are my best crop ever. Best germination rate, best harden-off without killing rate, and largest plants at planting time. I learned everything I know about seedlings from my mother-in-law, the Master Gardener, and even she was impressed with my output this year. Brag, brag!
