Trip to Rhinelander and Our Garden

Well, Michael's track season's wrapped up for the year. This was his first time in track... and he liked it. We were kind of surprised how well he did. The picture at right is him finishing the 800 meter at his last meet; I think he placed 4th that time... but he had won the 400 during a previous meet. This time he was tired out because he'd just done his field events and run the 400 meter beforehand. He was aggressive during the first lap; it was exciting watching him pass people. But he probably should have paced himself better. Still, we're proud of his effort.

The older kids only have one week of school left, and it's a short one because of Memorial Day. They're excited. Today was Leila's last day of school. Let the summer begin!

(The picture above is from Mother's Day weekend. We're sitting in the old garden bench I bought last year with $20 of birthday money from Mom. Jon replaced a broken board and painted it for me. I think the bench is cool because it's shaped to fit a corner. Jon also surprised me with the two hanging plants overhead).

Brother Bob playing with the kids

On Mother's Day weekend the kids and I went to Rhinelander. I hadn't been home to visit the folks in awhile, and my brother John had mentioned that him and Jim were coming for a visit, so it seemed like a good time to stop by. John lives in Peoria, Illinois for his teaching job, but is off on break for a few weeks. My brother Bob was also able to make it home from Madison, so the weekend was a Bragg-family affair.

Leila hits the ball to her uncles!

The weather was beautiful. We had a campfire and went for walks in the woods with the family dog, Oscar. Oscar's a big galumphing golden retriever who loves to jump into swamp water and shake himself off when he's standing next to people.

I think Grandma missed this one

And we played softball. Bob wasn't sure if he could throw yet because of the bicycle accident he was in last year, but when playing us he didn't have to throw far, so he was fine. Bob set up a casual game involving ghost runners and lots of chances at bat, so even Mom, Leila and I participated. We all managed to hit the ball multiple times (Leila's going to be a natural athlete, I think). It was fun to see Mom trying something different and light-hearted. But I guess the kids enjoyed seeing me play too-- you don't see me getting sporty very often, either. I don't know why, though. That "crack" of the ball hitting the bat is really, really satisfying.

John and Jim

John and Jim had arrived the night before and had already spent a bunch of time helping Mom and Dad around the house. John got up on the roof and cleaned the chimney; Jim rototilled the garden. John will be coming over for a longer stay with them around the time of Susan's wedding, so plans to help Dad with some larger scale projects. They're going to be changing the grade of the lawn, doing some painting on the back of the garage, and also general landscaping and weeding. I'm proud of the way my brothers find ways to help Mom and Dad. And I want to make sure Jim, my honorary brother, gets full credit here: he also crushed a bunch of cans and did dishes while John and I went for a lengthy after-dinner walk without him.

Leila with Uncle JoJo

Jim bought this quilt from Mom

I'll close with some pictures from around our house in Colfax. We planted our garden recently... and expanded it. Besides the regular garden Jon planted 5 rows of corn. The "big garden" includes some of our old standbys, including strawberries, onions, carrots, beans, tomatoes, summer squash, lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers and peppers. But we're also trying some new things including rutabagas, garlic, horseradish, broccoli, dill and cauliflauer. I planted most of the garden myself because Jon has been away working so much. In my inexperience (Jon usually does the planting and I do the weeding) I ended up with a bunch of extra cucumber, zucchini, and squash seeds... and no where to plant them.

Here's where my guilt kicks in. Now that Jon's back working in Iowa his hours are really gruelling and his 6 day work week (along with the long commute) make it impractical to come home on weekends.  But I couldn't help but mention the problem with the extra seeds, so he came home to work up a new garden patch for me. The poor guy was tired, but he got it done. It's kind of an experimental thing, though, because he rototilled compost into the soil that wasn't really fully composted yet, so we're not sure how that's going to work. But I gave it a good watering, threw some hay over the top and have my fingers crossed.

Jon's talking about adding another row to the big garden because he doesn't think I planted enough tomatoes and peppers. And I may not have... we go through a lot. Besides eating them fresh in sandwiches and salads, we can a year's supply of salsa, tomato soup, and even tomato sauce with our supply. I chop and freeze bell, jalapeno, and banana peppers for cooking throughout the year. I dry chili peppers in the oven to store in the pantry. Last year we had so many jalapenos I even made home-made poppers to keep in the freezer.

Flower bed at front of house

5 chickens-- no rooster

Last year's 6 strawberry plants??

The "big" garden doesn't look like much yet



The rutabagas are coming up!



Old wire spool from work makes great potting surface

The "experimental" garden in our composting area

Hope everyone is well! Expect another blog after this coming weekend... I'm going to visit my sister in Madison and plan on taking lots of pictures of our FABULOUS time together. Bye...