A busy day...

Our front porch boxes are doing GREAT! We already have a ton of sugar snap peas.

Here are two heirloom tomato plants and a poblano pepper plant in front.

New seeds started...Okra, Cucumbers (Salad and Pickling), Green Beans, Sweet Bell Peppers, and Corn! On the right you can see our mint and basil plant.

We are running out of room, but I love that there is so much blooming! We added a new variety of tomatos today...Super Fantastic is what it is called. When we were choosing it, the one next to it was called Fantastic and I can't imagine why anyone would choose Fantastic when you could have Super Fantastic.

I finally gave in and picked a carrot today....so exciting!

We gave it the taste test and.....it was FANTASTIC....or maybe even super fantastic!

Our blackberries are beginning to look like berries...

And after a week and a half in Texas, we came home to a GORGEOUS blooming rose bush....

Henry has been doctoring it, hoping it would bloom. We fed it some egg shells because we heard roses like them...

I guess it is true...they are so pretty.

It was also time to turn the compost. This is before the turn...

And here is the completed, newly turned pile.

Our potatoes also went crazy while we were gone. They are doing great...three varieties.

And unfortunately, the weeds in the garden also went crazy. This is the garden before several hours of work....

And here it is after....

The leaves are supposed to help keep weeds down in the rows and also keep moisture next to the plants. We'll see whether or not it works. Our most exciting news is the new additions in our front bird house. Henry built this bird house in hopes that some birds would move in and have babies....and.....meet the newest members of our extended family....

I think there are five. Here is a video of the mama or maybe dad...I'm not sure....coming back to the house with a worm in its mouth. You will have to watch sideways, because I don't know how to rotate the video. We aren't sure what type of birds they are. I am thinking maybe Carolina Wrens, but I'm not sure. Look at the top right corner of the arbor and you will see the bird sitting there wondering what I am doing....

As many of you know, Emily's grandfather on her mother's side has been dealing for some time with Alzheimer's disease. Thursday he was moved to hospice and is being kept comfortable. One of the things Papa loved to do was work in the yard, garden and keep the bird feeders filled. He was very talented at all of these things and passed this love on to me. So we spent all day today thinking of Papa and working our tails off. It was a good day.

Peace and love to each of you,

Emily and Henry

A Great Week in TEXAS!!!!!

We flew to San Antonio on Monday, April 20th and Henry's dad Robert met us at the airport. He took us to lunch (TexMex of course) and to pick up his truck since he had to be back at work. We went and picked up Henry's youngest sister and brother (Brynn and Steven) from school and went to get ice cream at Amy's Ice Cream...a Texas original. Then we set off for the park for a couple of hours. 

We met some more family for dinner (TexMex again!) before being surprised with tickets to the SPURS playoff game. (Thanks Robert!) It seems as though we were good luck since this was the only game they won for the series...it was a TON of fun and there was a LOT of energy in that arena!

On Tuesday we got to spend some time with Katharine - relaxing, going to Trinity and running some errands. We even tried a Korean hamburger place...delicious!

On Wednesday we headed to Austin and got to see the recent addition to Emily's homechurch...Westminster Pres. in Austin. The new building is gorgeous and it was fun to see staff and friends. On Thursday we had lunch with Emily's grandmother, Marmee at one of our favorite Tex-Mex places...Chuy's! Later that night we had some friends over and we had a great time. 

Friday we headed for Frisco and the busy fun continued. We had a delicious fajita dinner on Friday with some of the best guacamole ever made thanks to Carson and Henry!

On Saturday morning, we watched Carson's soccer team...the flames...play an exciting game of soccer.

It was an EARLY game and I think Collier was smart to wear his pajamas and eat breakfast during the game.

He does this funny thing with his tongue...he loves to smile and make noises....such a cute baby. Here he is with my middle sister, Molly...or Aunt Moddy as Carson calls her.

Having fun with Uncle Henry...

Henry telling Carson what a great job he did in his game. Carson LOVES his Uncle Henry.

It is a tradition in our family for Mom to make a sign for whoever is celebrating a birthday. This was one of her best signs yet...it is hard to see, but the "60" is full of pictures from my dad's 60 years. Dad insisted that age is a state of mind and he has decided to be "40." 

And on Sunday, we continued the celebration with Collier's baptism. He wasn't too sure what his Aunt Memy was doing, but didn't object.

Collier was named after a close family friend....Sharron "Collier" Carnes. Sharron gave me this stole for ordination, so it was neat to be able to wear it for Collier's baptism.

On Tuesday, Henry and Carson got busy and worked on a new vegetable garden box. It was pretty tricky because the ground isn't completely level in this part of my sister and brother-in-law's yard. They spent a long time talking about it...making a list of supplies and deciding what to plant. They both had so much fun!

The best part...playing in the DIRT! And mixing it up of course...

Collier helped by staying happy and occasionally making noise. He is such a good baby...

Busy hands, hard at work...

The final product. I can't wait to see how it does. They are growing red bell peppers, tomatoes, okra, cantaloupe, green beans and slicing cucumbers. He is also growing squash and zucchini in a large pot that he had started a couple of weeks earlier that has already grown a lot. 

We wish we had remembered to take more pictures. We got most of these from Emily's sister Amy and we didn't take any in San Antonio or Austin. 

It was a fantastic trip full of wonderful people. We were glad to get home and continue to be grateful for such loving families and good friends.

Peace,

Emily and Henry

Coming Right Along...

We've been busy! The coop is almost finished. We have to plant the green roof on top and fill the bottom with wood chips. Oh...and we need some chickens. Other than that, we are pretty much done!!!

Here is the finished outside...the color looks a bit darker in person. Our options were limited. We bought the paint for $4 at the Habitat Re-Store...so we took what we could find.

Here you can see the perches which we made using some fallen branches from the woods behind our house. You can also see the feed and water containers and the ramp the chickens will use to get into the run.

We figured ventilation will be important once the coop is filled with chickens. It doesn't get as hot here in the summer as it does in Texas, but it still gets hot so this fold down window will help get some sun and air into the coop. You can also see the nesting boxes. There is a door above these for easy egg gathering.

We hooked a chain from the shed to the large door on the front so we can prop it open. 

We decided to make it a Texas coop for the North Carolina chickens. 

Speaking of Texas, we are headed that way on Monday!

Henry and I have had fun building the coop together but I have joked that next time I do pre-marital counseling, I am going to make them build a chicken coop and when they are done...if they can still communicate and still want to get married, we will go forward with it. Ha!

I hope you are all doing well. Grace and peace to you all. Love, Henry and Emily

A Catch Up Post...

Happy Easter! It has been a while and we have been BUSY!

Some really big news is that Henry got a job. Check out his bio here: Henry Job

He is enjoying the opportunity to be creative and work with great people. Another perk is that we have the same day off and similar schedules.

Here is a brief update of our recent adventures...in no particular order.

One of my congregation members offered to take my picture by our flower cross and Easter Lilies. I never think of such things and I am grateful for people who do. Holy Week and Easter was exhausting, but also very meaningful and wonderful. We had three services on Sunday and the men of the church made a pancake breakfast. It was a joyful and beautiful day.

We have been busy working away on the chicken coop. The chickens will come live with us Saturday, May 2nd if we are able to seal and paint by then. We have actually done more work since I took these pictures, but the coop has been covered for two days because of the rain so I haven't been able to update the pics. Here you can see the nesting boxes on the closest end and the hole in the bottom left will be where they exit to get into the run where they will stay during daylight hours. The door will fold down to be a ramp. It is very high tech. Ha!

Here is a better view of the nesting boxes. There will be a hinged roof for easy egg gathering.

And an updated shot of the chicken run complete with wire roof and door. We will be able to drag this around to different places in the yard so the chicken can dig up worms and eat grass and bugs.

Here is a side view. We are actually done with the large ice chest looking door and the roof of the nesting boxes. We will paint it with exterior paint that we are planning to buy for REALLY cheap at the Habitat Re-Store which is conveniently located in downtown Matthews. The roof will be a "green roof" and we will grow ground cover plants on it that we will be able to feed to the chickens.

Here are our potatoes. We learned about this at our local hardware store which happens to be the coolest hardware store ever and has been in Matthews over 100 years. We have planted four varieties. You plant them, cover them with dirt, compost and leaves (really whatever you have) and once the plants grow to be about a foot tall, you cover them again. At the end of the season, when the plants die, you undo the wire bin and are the proud new owners of more potatoes that you could ever eat. We will figure out something to do with them. 

Here is the new use for our Texas license plates. We already have a family of blue birds living in here. I only looked once, because I didn't want to scare them, but this birdhouse is right in front of the cats' perch and they love to watch them come and go.

Our newest addition to the garden is two heirloom tomato plants. We got them planted last Saturday after the opening day of the Farmer's Market! There was a lot of excitement at the market and some great new sellers. Here you can see Henry thrilled with me for telling him to pause mid air. His shoulder, by the way, is doing GREAT. For those of you that don't know, he had surgery less than two weeks ago and is healing well.

Here is an update of our boxes. These are the lower boxes with onions in the front and brussels sprouts in the back. We had to turn them around so the onions are now in the back because the onions were growing like crazy and shading out the Brussels sprouts.

And an update on our larger boxes. The large pot on the left has a blackberry bush in it. The box has sugar snap peas in the back, two varieties of lettuce (romaine and butter), carrots on the left and spinach on the right in the front. There is another box like this on the other side of the front door and another variety of blackberries. We have already been able to eat lettuce and spinach. I can't wait to try a carrot. They are a sweet, short and stubby variety.

We are still trying to take advantage of all of the great local hiking. Here we are at Reedy Creek Nature Preserve. They are about to build a natural play area and Henry has been attending some planning meetings. Exciting stuff and a beautiful place. I was being silly here...

And a better one...

We are heading to Texas in LESS than a week and we are both very excited to be back after being away for six months straight! We hope you are all doing well. I will try to be better about posting, but life is busy and that is a good thing.

Happy Easter and Lots of Love!

Emily and Henry

YIKES!

I knew I was a bad blogger, but two months is sad. A lot has happened and I am not prepared to write it all out now, but in a nutshell: We are doing well...happy and healthy. Henry got a job! Holy Week starts tomorrow. The chicken coop is coming along. The farmer's market starts up again next week. We are headed to Texas at the end of the month. (Yea!) Life is good. Our veggies are doing great in our boxes out front. Henry is quite the wood worker and has made another bird house and a bat house! We've gotten a lot of rain and the pollen here is ridiculous. More soon...we'll add pictures, too. Peace. Em and Hen.

Chicken Run and Spring Crop...

We have had a gorgeous day and have been busy outside. 

Here is the beginning of our chicken coop and run. The run still needs a top and the coop only has a floor. The coop is the house part, totally enclosed, where the chickens sleep at night and lay their eggs. The run is where they hang out during the day to get some sun and scrounge for whatever they can find in the grass/dirt....

...like giant worms such as these which we found in the dirt and moved to our garden.

Here is Henry with his recently turned compost. We were hoping the compost would be done for this Spring planting, but it is still cooking, so we had to buy some this round.

Here I am standing on the floor of the coop. It will be 8Ft by 4ft. The Matthews rules state that each chicken has to have 4sq. ft. of floor space. Our chickens will have 8 sq. ft each. Spoiled chickens!

This is me inside the run. The only piece of wood we bought for this project so far was the floor of the coop. We have enough to frame out the coop, but will have to buy more wood for the walls and roof.

Here is Henry with one of our square foot gardening boxes that we put in the front. These little ones have brussel sprouts and onions.

Here you sort of get an idea of what it looks like. We put two larger square foot gardening boxes on the porch and two smaller ones in front. The ones on the porch have sugar snap peas, two varieties of lettuce, carrots and spinach. So I guess we are growing a salad on the porch.

A top view of one of the smaller boxes. You can just barely see the onions up front.

The twine is for the sugar snap peas to grow on. We thought we were pretty clever with these.

And here we are soaking the seeds. One of the books said it helps to give them a boost in getting ready to grow. I guess we'll see!

Hope you have had a wonderful day, too! Peace! Emily and Henry