Butterflies, Gardening, Projects, et al.


Some little {phfr} updates from 'round these parts...

Our peonies are almost done blooming, thanks in part to a super helpful child who tried to pick some for mom but succeeding mostly in just bending the stems all to the ground because he couldn't snap them.  So at least it was an excuse to cut the rest to grace the house.  Peonies makes such a {pretty} cut flower!

We released some butterflies last week.  Our first batch of caterpillars came dead but the company sent out a replacement in a couple of days.  We tried again with great success so we had some {happy} boys.

We've done this a couple times but both before these two could really remember so it was fun to watch them do it!





I can't remember if I shared our garden move here but the old raised beds are gone and the husband moved the garden to a better section of the yard.  

The plants are {happy} about it.  He's done 99% of the work with the boys and it all looks awesome.  The spinach is beginning to be harvestable but the rest still has a little bit to go.  We have all the things...lettuce (mix and romaine), spinach, brussel sprouts, broccoli, snap peas, shell peas, provider beans, some other type of green bean, eggplant, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, hot banana peppers, basil, marigolds, corn, orange pumpkins, and white pumpkins.

When you have boys who need some purposeful work to do, you set them at removing two bush/tree things that have grown too big too close to the house.  (Can you see one of them hidden in there?)

Not sure what's {funny} about this except that I have no issue with the rusty saws and children chopping down trees if it helps me get a project done.  


And it was probably pretty {funny} to watch me and the lady and three of the boys finally pull the tree down in success and sweatily lug it over to the burn pile.


I'm so excited that the husband and older boys are also tackling this job this year!  I've been wanting to paint this garage for years but it was never high enough on the priority list.  Now that the older two can mow the lawn, they're able to do that during the week so the husband doesn't have to spend hours on the weekend tackling that!  It's awesome and leaves us able to get to other projects that we've been eyeing for years.  I knew paint would make such a huge difference and I was so right.  The old paint was more an orangey-red and either was only put on in one coat or it was just a stain.  The parts that are done look so fresh and nice!  While it would be nice to have a free couple of days to do it all in one shot, that's not {real} life right now so it's getting done one big section at a time.  We're about half done?

And sad but {real}, our bees didn't survive the winter!  We were really disappointed.  I'm not sure what went wrong since it was an easy winter for these parts.  There was still honey so it wasn't a food issue and we didn't see any infestations of anything.  So now these two hives sit empty and sad and waiting for a decision from us on what to do next.


3 comments

  1. Your garden looks lovely. We *just* got ours in - picked over tomato plants, free onions, and some cauliflower because why not? If they all die that will be okay but if they all produce I'll be thrilled.

    And I'm sorry about the bees. That's so sad.

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  2. Everything is lovely! So happy you're getting a garage face lift :) and sorry to hear about the bees :(

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  3. Peonies are one of my favorites for cut flowers - and the smell so good, too.

    I love the idea of raising butterflies - my girls might like it too, but I would do it just for myself!

    Sorry about the bees...

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