Family Fun Projects + Blue Bird Gourd Birdhouses

I know it's officially the middle of winter now, but I'm already starting to dream about what I'm going to plant in my garden this spring... One reason is that I absolutely love this project. It has been a very cool way to see the long-term fruits of our labor and it's given us something fun to do during the cold weather and fun gifts to give out as Christmas presents.

In today's post, I'm sharing a fun, family friendly project that you can start thinking about as you plan your garden... and I'm guessing there are a few of you out there...just...like...me :) Our family made Blue Bird Gourd Birdhouses from a few of our gourds in the garden whose plants eventually grew to look like this...

And the gourds eventually grew to look like this....

But after the winds grew cold and the frost came, they eventually looked like this... Total time elapse about 6 months...

Once you take them off the vine at the end of growing season, it's important just to let them be in an area that has ample air movement. This bench was right next to the edge of the garden where they were growing, so it turned out to be a good spot to let them cure... For two plants, we ended up yielding about 15 useable gourds...

A couple of weeks ago, we decided that it was finally time to go ahead and get these gourds ready to turn into birdhouses...

To get them to this point, there are a couple of steps that you need to take. First, fill a big basin full of 3 parts water and 1 part Clorox and scrub them to remove any mold or loose flakes on the surface. Once they dry, then sand them down with fine grain sand paper to remove any last bits. Next, have your handy husband (or you, if you know how) drill 4 holes on the bottom for rainwater to drain out and two holes in the top to pull a wire through so that you can hang the birdhouse in a tree... After that, using a circle cutter drill bit, cut a hole in the side of the house... Finally, clean out the inside of the birdhouse with a large spoon to get all of the seeds out -- of course that part is optional if you want your future birds to have food + home...

Our first gifts were going to be for Peyton's pre-school teachers, so we decided to do these in batches and to start with 2. We will eventually make all of the birdhouses and give some of them away as presents, so that will give us some fun projects to do during the rest of the winter...

Next, we used a white outdoor paint and applied it to the exterior of the bird house... There is a lot of information out on the internet about what color to paint the birdhouses and what size the hole should be for each species of bird. If you are making a Martin birdhouse, then you would just add some polyurethane and be done, but little Miss wanted to add some color, so we did our research and determined that blue birds don't have enough homes AND they don't mind color on their houses. Just be sure not to paint the whole house a dark color or the little birdies will get TOO HOT in the summer.

During the painting process, you have to shift the gourds around a bit to be sure to get them thoroughly coated...

And then, you can get out the fun paints and let your little one go to town... Of course, Peyton LOVED this part of the process...

After that, just add a coat of polyeurothane and add the wire in the top and you are all finished...Needless to say, our pre-school teachers loved their gifts and appreciated how much effort went into this project.

So if you are looking for a family friendly project that you can add to the list for the new year, then I would definitely add this one to the list...

Next up... my New Years Revolution!!! Have a happy day, everyone!!!
 

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Adventures of a gardener...and an inspiring story...

Happy Thursday, everyone! Can I just start off by saying that I'm super excited to share today's post! The only thing about gardening that I think I may enjoy more than my own is to visit someone else's thriving garden.

In today's post, I'm sharing a fun trip that I made a couple of weekends ago to a local gardener who has been in the business for at least 60 years. I learned of her through a friend at work during a casual conversation about picking green beans... because, everyone has casual conversations about picking beans, right?!?! Anywho, she is located just outside of our local thoroughfare and, let me just say, the land is beautiful!

Her neck of the woods is wedged in between a protected land conservation and the Kansas River. Needless to say, there is an abundance of wildlife present in just about every direction. In fact, on my way to her garden, I saw a family of skunks. Although I have lived in Kansas for the majority of my life, I have never seen an entire family of skunks... In an odd way, it was sort of a cute sight.

Pulling up to the drive, I saw a myriad of garden paraphernalia, which much to my delight indicated that I was in the correct location. The landscape was rolling and rich in vegetation and in Kansas, this time of year, that is truly difficult to come by. As I entered the property, I was greeted by a lovely older woman dressed in garden attire sporting a garden hat and a four-wheeler. As she pointed to the location where I should park the prius, a thought entered my mind, "I hope this is me 40-50 years from now."

Let me start by saying that I am a big believer in first impressions, because in most cases, I can size someone up in the first 3 minutes of my conversation and I expect others to do the same with me. Call me unfair and judgmental, but I do know this about myself and I'm almost always right. So when I nearly tumbled over my two feet just getting out of the car, I was worried that she would ask me to turn around and leave because people who can't stand on their own two feet, shouldn't be allowed in gardens... Instead, to my humbled surprise, she greeted me casually and as I stuck out my hand to shake hers, she lovingly grasped my hand in both of hers and said, "let's head to the garden." So sweet :).

As we made our way to the garden, I was so wishing I had brought my DSLR to take a few pictures because I was speechless due to the beauty of my surroundings. Instead, I managed to take a few pictures with my iPhone, but let me just tell you... these pictures do not do the landscape any justice...

After a few more niceties, she directed me to the bean field and set me loose to picking my beans. There is something cathartic about being alone in a garden, in the country... the quiet... the stillness... nature...

After about ten minutes of picking, I decided took stock of my beans and my surroundings...

I wish this picture of the school bus was better, because I LOVE it! I love the vintage tone of it and hope that sometime, I can come back out and take better pictures of her farm, because it's just so beautiful and real.

In my short time of about an hour and a half, I managed to pick about six pounds of green beans, to which she added another four pounds that she picked for me. The charge was .75/lb. I gave her a ten dollar bill and told her if she would have me, I would love to come back. She loaded me up with a sack full of okra and told me to come back soon.

There is just something about that generation that leaves me feeling like people of today are just missing the point of life. We spend so much time connecting through social media and not enough time making real life connections with others and nature.

I loved the simple nature of her farmstead...the fact that she was born in the house shown below and that she had been working the land we were standing for decades. I loved the sincerity in her tone and I loved that she was so willing to welcome a complete stranger into her garden. Not sure I would be so open and willing to do that... Every once in a while, I see these glimpses of myself in others and this time, I saw a future picture of the life that I hope to lead... simple and honest...without all of the bells and whistles of meaningless "things" that we acquire and have little practical use for.

If you want to expand your horizons on the simple life... I would recommend this book...

I'm about half-way through it right now and I LOVE it! It's a true story about this writer who lived in New York and went to do a story on organic farming and fell in love with the farmer and completely changed her lifestyle into a more basic form. The book expands on the whole idea of Community Supported Agriculture where you basically remove the middle man (grocery store) and people have access to local and fresh food for their entire diet for an annual fee. I love this idea! I am so inspired by these stories.....

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We've got tomatoes! A diary of a gardener....

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I hope that you are having a great week! Man, it's hot here! I'm not sure why, but we are in the middle of a heat wave in the midwest and it's just too hot to be outside. Hopefully, these 100 degree temperatures won't last too much longer because it will wreak havoc in my garden. The good news is that right now, my tomato plants are starting to produce and we are starting to try a few different varieties of tomato. The picture below is one of my Black Krim varieties. As you can see from the picture, it is darker in color, but what you can't tell in the picture is that it's VERY TASTY!

I'm also very excited about how lovely both the butterfly garden and main garden are looking.

We are starting to see a few sunflowers and zinnias blooming. Zinnias are perfect with a little one because she likes to go out with her little scissors and cut a few flowers to arrange for the house. We have a special place in the entry way where she likes to display them - it's super cute!

For this picture (thanks Jake!), I just wanted to display how tall the tomato plants are starting to get - crazy, huh!?!

For anyone who is looking for a good summer read and who think they might be interested in gardening, I definitely recommend the following book...

It's a funny story about this man who is addicted to gardening and to finding new and interesting varieties of vegetables to grow in his garden. He's also prone to pests, and other issues and it's just very funny and easy to relate to if you are interested in that kind of thing.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope that you have a wonderful rest of your day - be sure to stop by later this week - I am going to have an update and lots of cute pictures for Casey Wright Photography.  :)
 

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It's the little things...

Well, the good news is that I was able to squeeze in my photo session last night AND we received one inch of rain, which we desperately needed. Last night turned out lovely with the pictures being in the evening... the light was lovely. And luckily, the rain came, but held off until the middle of the night... I was so glad that we ended up getting an inch of rain...

I'm also excited to see these lovelies turning red. I CANNOT wait to eat one of these Brandywine Heirloom varieties... I've heard that they are really good and meaty... Can you say Yum-O!

Also, picked a few Early Fortune cucumbers and low and behold, there was a Lemon Cuke ready! Peyton and I cut into it and it was Delish! They have a nice sweet flavor to them... not sure they really tasted lemony, but either way, it was good!

In addition to the garden, I managed to bust out the scrapbooking supplies and finally finish up my December Daily. Have no fear, my friends, I will be bringing you Christmas in June, soon enough!

The best part of the day was getting to watch my nephew play baseball. Thankfully, we were able to trek just a few miles up the road to enjoy a beautiful night and a fun game of baseball! Fun times!

So, on the longest day of the year... I do declare that it's the little things in life that make me feel so complete. I just need to make sure that I don't cram SO MANY of those little things into each day! And I will be just fine... :) Happy Day, everyone!
 

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My growing garden...A diary of a gardener

Happy Wednesday everyone! As a gardener, I am happy to say that there is a 70% chance for rain this evening - which we desperately need. As a photographer, I'm not so happy - I'm supposed to have a maternity session this evening and the rain is likely going to force us to reschedule... Oh well, you can't win them all!

I do have a funny story to share.. I've been feeling a bit under the weather with a summer cold and honestly, it's been so retched hot outside that I haven't really wanted to spend very much time in the garden...however, yesterday, I went out to water and found that 3 of my large (and when I say large, I mean taller than me)   lemon tree tomato plants were completely tipped over! ACK! Part of the problem was that I had NO IDEA how big these heirloom varieties were supposed to be, so I was happy when I found these $1 tomato cages on sale on Mother's Day at my local Ace Hardware Store. Little did I know that within a month, I would be unable to actually see the cage because the plants were so big! So here we are, Peyton and I, in the garden in the middle of a 100 degree day... I'm asking her to hold up the plants, which by the way, are about 2 feet taller than her while I sprint over and grab some of my older (yet more trusty) tomato cages to prop up the beasts.

So, I have deduced a couple of thoughts from experience...

1. DON'T BUY CHEAP TOMATO CAGES

2. Even if it's hot and you think you don't need to, go visit the garden at least once a day to make sure it's all in order - ESPECIALLY if it's windy...

So there you have it folks...real life lessons from an actual crazy person gardener.

Let's move forward... I took some fun shots of the garden a few days ago...here goes...

Here is a look at a growing birdhouse gourd... Peyton love these! She wants to pick them now and has a hard time understanding why we have to wait... More to come on that...

Here is a shot of my growing brandywine tomatoes... I CANNOT wait to start eating these... NOM, NOM, NOM!

Here is a shot of my lovely marigolds... At first I wasn't too worried about their aesthetic beauty, more about their ability to detour bad bugs from the garden, but as it turns out, they are truly lovely and add some much needed color to my garden of green... I'm thinking I will start these from seeds for next summer...

And here is a look at the beastly plants... As you can kind of see, there are some other brownish tomato cage fence helping to hold up the larger tomato plants...

Here is a closer look at the lovely groupings of the lemon tree tomato variety... Right now, on each plant, I would say there are at least 80 tomatoes growing and I think I have 4 of this variety planted in my garden :).

And from my butterfly garden, I noticed that the beautiful common milkweed was starting to bloom... So pretty!

And last but not least... here is a shot of the lovely canopy from the lemon cukes. I've never grown this variety before, so I'm really excited to try them out... They are very prolific in the garden right now...

So there you have it folks, thanks for taking a stroll through the garden with me... It's always an adventure :) Have a good day!

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My growing garden... A diary of a gardener...

Happy Thursday, everyone! What a busy week! How is it already Thursday?!?! I feel like the first four days of this week have just slipped right through my fingers. Between studying for the Praxis II (education certification test), taking pictures and just everyday life, I have managed to make this week more busy than expected. However, I am really looking forward to an extended weekend with the family, so that will be good. In the meantime, I am sharing some fun gardening stuff today... The weather has been hot here, so I've been doing a lot of early morning watering of the garden...Doesn't it look perty with all of the hay down around the plants!?!?! I checked this morning and I have about 30 tomatoes growing right now! So exciting!

We received this lovely sign in the mail for our Monarch Waystation - we are now official!

Here is our official certificate commemorating all of our hard work - so fun!

I have a ton of stuff to share tomorrow, so be sure to check back to see what I've been up to this week! Have a Happy Thursday!
 

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A Monarch Way Station...A diary of a gardener...

Happy Monday, Everyone! I hope that everyone had a great weekend! We had a great time going to a Royals game, I had an early morning photo session on Saturday, found a great garage sale for a teacher that was retiring, and then went to a few family type events. Pretty busy! I also found some time to work in the garden - yay! Lucky for you, I had a few extra minutes this morning before I left for work, so I could take a few Instagram Pics of our butterfly garden :)...

In today's post, I will be introducing you to our Monarch Way Station that we created. There is a great program at the University of Kansas where you can actually create a Monarch Butterfly Habitat and register it nationally. Monarch butterflies are special in that they travel to Mexico during the winter months and then fly north during the summer months to lay reproduce. Because of the overpopulation and growth, their habitats are decreasing at an alarming rate. Therefore, we are doing our part to create an environment full of their favorite plants so that they can find a home at our house. Here is a look at our Monarch Waystation Area...a.k.a. the Wright's Rainbow Butterfly Garden (we let the little one name it :)......

Because all of our plants are starting to get bigger, I was able to mulch around them to keep the moisture in. I love that red mulch! ....And this is a picture of our Verbena that we picked up. Butterflies love them because they are a succulent plant which means they retain water. They also bloom all summer long, which the butterflies love...

We also planted some flowers from seed - 4 flats to be exact. We planted 4 different varieties of zinnias and sunflowers. The exciting part is that I didn't label them, so it will be a surprise once they bloom - we can't wait to see their vibrant colors...

A butterfly milkweed...

A butterfly bush...

Marigolds... I think I might plant these from seed next year since they are good in both the flower and vegetable garden...

And a beautiful Lavendar... so pretty!

And while I'm attracting butterflies to the garden, I might as well attract hummingbirds :). This is one of the fun Mother's Day presents that Peyton and Jake gave me. Isn't it pretty?!?

As the summer rolls in, I will continue to update on the growth and progress of our butterfly garden. If you are interested in starting your own Monarch Way Station, you can find the details at the Monarch Watch Website...just click here....

In other news... I'm excited to see these gems starting to grown in the garden... These are from the Hillbilly potato leaf tomato plant. So exciting!!!

Last weekend, I planted some butternut squash plants and they are starting to emerge... so exciting!!!

As always, thanks for stopping by! Happy Gardening!  Be sure to stop back by tomorrow, I have some project life stuff to share!

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