Most ofJune

Swimming is great, but sometimes just cooling off your feet in the water is enough.

I received a few trays of free annuals from some friends of mine, and Evelyn helped me put them in my garden.

 Matthew came by to inspect our work.

They really look small and unimpressive but I remembered not to plant them too close...they will grow!

Matthew offered to lifeguard the kids while they swam.

My "potato garden" down the hill really started to grow...including the weeds. The potatoes had to be mounded too. We planted some of the "three sisters" in the middle part. Beans, corn and pumpkin. We did get some pumpkin and potatoes. The raccoons got the corn. And the beans just died.

Matthew was in charge of plumbing. He did such a great job last year that I hired him again. I think he preferred putting out irrigation lines over planting and weeding. ;)

He had to plug them all in the main line, cut them in the right spots, put caps on the ends, etc. I was happy to limit my involvement to executive decisions.

Walking by, obviously needing more work to do, is Daniel.

Jennifer and Evelyn have some delicious snacks brewing. Not that I tried them, personally. I did plague them later to get all those plastic items back into the recycling box because they really look awful laying around the property everywhere.

And Nathan shows up from a hard days work. There really is nothing like living within biking distance (or walking!) of where your teenagers work. I absolutely love that Nathan can get himself fed and to work without my help. (Please don't slam the door too loud when you leave, though, I'm sleeping!)

Fun with umbrellas. Not sure why an umbrella, but ok, sure!

We planted some "popcorn corn" up here. We had success a few years ago where the raccoons felt it wasn't worthy of their notice. We are still hopeful at this time.

Things are coming up. Including a very weedy spot we are not keeping up with.

We are definitely spending a lot of time in the gardens, to make up for the lack of school books.

It is nice to have Evelyn come by. Of the kids, she is the most eager to help in the garden.

Almost done with the irrigation. Mom, are you sure you want it here, that close together? we might run out?

"Did I do enough weeding now? Can I go play?" I tried get the kids out in the garden early(ish) in the morning (not early like Nathan) before it gets too hot, so that we can try keep the weeds in a manageable state.

Melanie often excused herself from garden duty, along with a helper. "I have to work on my strawberry garden!" She was getting a fence around it to keep the squirrels out that ate all of last year's berries. She didn't get a roof over it in time though, so we still didn't win the battle. :(

Jennifer found a new method of weeding. "It's easier to see the weeds from here!"

I got out the old chainsaw and worked on cleaning up some deadfalls and thinning out the pines and spruce along the driveway.

But the chainsaw didn't always work properly, so I got frustrated. (Shadow punch!) It turns out that the blade was put on backwards after winter storage. Oops! At least that was a free fix. :)

Time for hats! Church was opening up for in person services with full capacity...but also, outdoors. So we got all excited about hats (these were for playing at home, though). Church outside can be very hot, and it the full sun it is stifling! So we invested in hats and took icewater to help us cope.

Daniel helped Evelyn tie a strap on her hat so that she could bike around and it wouldn't fall off.

Evelyn inspected while he worked on it.

And Jennifer worked on a cowboy hat, adding a good sturdy strap to it too.

Matthew spent a bunch of time trying out some basic computer programming on Scratch. If we weren't watching, though, he spent most of his time trying out other kids' games instead of working on his own.

Melanie used a bunch of her free time with quilting.

I sewed a little too. My project was little sand bags to tie on the branches of my plum trees in hopes of keeping the branches nicely spaced. Still no plums this year. They did flower...but the nasty little gypsy moth caterpillars can be blamed this year, for chewing and damaging the plum trees.

Jennifer puttered away on her colour by number. Getting close to halfway.

And we had story time outside after naptime.

Melanie would join us sometimes, especially if she didn't have a really exciting alternative.

The reader herself.

You can fix kites while listening!

I remember reading Scout, Nobody's Girl and On the Banks of Plum Creek. And the boys and I are still trying to get through The Lord of the Rings. Since the summer before this summer. Slow going, mostly because they are busy boys.

"Can you read another chapter please!"

And guess what? We are going to go camping finally!! We had some thoughts of going in May but plans had changed. Now we can go!! (Just not Nathan, he has to work and take care of the chickens. But it's only for a few nights and we'll try take you on our big trip. If we go!) Always the kids are eager to get the gorp ready. For the more tedious packing I don't have such trouble with kids squabbling about who gets to help.