og with what's going on with us. My birthday was a little more than a week ago and it was...decent. It's just not fun getting older anymore. I thank everyone for the birthday wishes though!! The weekend before my birthday, Mom and I ran down to Cannon Beach for a long weekend. We had nice weather the full day w
e were there and then it was pouring the day we left, just as it should be ;) . We both bought a whole bunch of yarn from Coastal Yarns to knit up into some beautiful sweaters for ourselves. Other than that we were pretty short on funds so we just enjoyed the beach and the time off with our puppies.For my birthday
instead of a cake Mom made me a lemon curd crepe "cake". It was in the most recent Martha Stewart magazine and it was soooooo delicious! Layers of lemony sweet/tartness and light tasty crepes in between. I got some knitting patterns and a book on fair isle sweaters from Mom as well as some expansion packs to our game Carcassonne and the New Moon soundtrack. The movie came out the day after my birthday and showed up in our mailbox a few days later. So all in all it was a pretty nice birthday.Also this month Mom has been going to a series of Master 
Gardener seminars. I could only go to two of them, but Mom is going to all four. It has really helped us out with our raised beds for our vegetable gardens. Like the fact that we made them the perfect width across at 4 feet. We also learned that "double digging" or loosening the soil 2 feet down will he
lp drainage and allow the plants' root to grow down instead of out when they get to the compacted soil. Since our beds were a foot deep we just had to dig down an extra foot inside the beds. This weekend we got a 5 yard load of top soil/compost mix delivered and filled the beds with most of it. We also made a mounded row on the 
outside of the garden to grow corn in. We learned that if the soil is mounded it will warm up quicker than what is down in the ground. This will let us sow into the soil earlier. We were pretty pooped after hauling all that dirt but had fun with it too. So did Toby and Ariel...they just love fresh open dirt.
Gardener seminars. I could only go to two of them, but Mom is going to all four. It has really helped us out with our raised beds for our vegetable gardens. Like the fact that we made them the perfect width across at 4 feet. We also learned that "double digging" or loosening the soil 2 feet down will he
lp drainage and allow the plants' root to grow down instead of out when they get to the compacted soil. Since our beds were a foot deep we just had to dig down an extra foot inside the beds. This weekend we got a 5 yard load of top soil/compost mix delivered and filled the beds with most of it. We also made a mounded row on the 
outside of the garden to grow corn in. We learned that if the soil is mounded it will warm up quicker than what is down in the ground. This will let us sow into the soil earlier. We were pretty pooped after hauling all that dirt but had fun with it too. So did Toby and Ariel...they just love fresh open dirt. Speaking of planting things we also started some of our seedlings in seed start
er systems in the house. I have been keeping a gardening journal so that we can see when things started and what went wrong and hopefully how we fixed it. We are keeping them in our craft/solar room that warms up very nicely when the sun is out. Our broccoli and cauliflower seedlings came up first and looked to be doing well. But then they got really leggy. You see the sprouts aren't supposed to be very long before they set out their first true leaves, you want the plants short and stalky. But our sprouts just keep getting longer and 
longer. We looked at our seed starter's book and it said they weren't getting enough light. So today we went and got a shop light and some cool white and soft white fluorescent bulbs. The book said that it is the range of visible light that the seedlings need to grow and that the cool/soft combo works well, you know red to blue light. The tomato seedlings have come up too and are just as leggy, so it looks like we will have to start over with all of those. Its' all a bunch of guess work but I think it will pay off. So needless to say we have been thouroughly busy!
er systems in the house. I have been keeping a gardening journal so that we can see when things started and what went wrong and hopefully how we fixed it. We are keeping them in our craft/solar room that warms up very nicely when the sun is out. Our broccoli and cauliflower seedlings came up first and looked to be doing well. But then they got really leggy. You see the sprouts aren't supposed to be very long before they set out their first true leaves, you want the plants short and stalky. But our sprouts just keep getting longer and 
longer. We looked at our seed starter's book and it said they weren't getting enough light. So today we went and got a shop light and some cool white and soft white fluorescent bulbs. The book said that it is the range of visible light that the seedlings need to grow and that the cool/soft combo works well, you know red to blue light. The tomato seedlings have come up too and are just as leggy, so it looks like we will have to start over with all of those. Its' all a bunch of guess work but I think it will pay off. So needless to say we have been thouroughly busy!
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