We finally emptied the finished compost bin! This has been a process I’ve been working on for a few weeks. Malcolm loves to help me. When I said I was going out to dig up the compost heap, he yelled, “YEA! Let’s go!” Some compost went on 2 raised beds I’ve been cleaning out when I have a moment. Some went on one row of dahlias I cleaned out, some on the raspberry row and the rest was thrown onto the garden to be tilled in later on.

We tied up the raspberries. We are very late with that chore, but at least it’s done now. The Marion (black) berries were done a couple of weeks ago. Rob and I worked together–one held up floppy vines and the other tied the knots. Of course, our grandson was right in there helping out. At one point, he pulled the baling twine string out of the bucket all the way down the row, around the end, around my boots, around to the other side where Papa was, to try to give him some string. Once I got untangled, we continued on with the project. It really was quite cute, since I didn’t fall or anything.

Last week, we worked a crazy amount of hours. We did a lot of fun activities as part of that work, and some just for fun. It was so busy, though, that Rob and I divided and conquered at times. One or both of us took kids to the aquarium, OMSI, swimming pool, store, church, a nerf gun war, to volunteer at the food bank, to volunteer at the after school program our church runs for a local school, school, preschool (back and forth on both counts), choir practice (one wanted to go watch one day, another wanted to “sing in the choir” as I practiced Sunday morning), played games, watched movies, ate popcorn, had my mom and sister over for a day, and had a hot dog roast in the back yard. My mom and sister played games and visited with whichever kids were there at the time. There were more things we did, but those were the highlights. We did as many of the mundane activities of life as we had time for, but everyone ate every meal they wanted and had snacks, if desired, as well. Laundry was done, and everyone washed and bathed, as needed. The rest….I didn’t sweat over.

I canned up several pineapples I got on sale for $1.49 each, right after Easter. I cooked a turkey I purchased last Thanksgiving and canned 7 quarts of broth from that. I froze bits of meat ate some and made soup, which is gone. I had an easy assignment for the Young Adult group and only needed to take some gf/df cookies this week.

We have a small section of garden that is planted. My peas and snow peas are up well. The beets and carrots are up a little–they are kind of patchy. The lettuce was up super well, but the slugs ate it. I have 3 left. Time to replant.

The bags of leaves have been decomposing in their plastic bags all winter. Since this picture was taken, the bags have been emptied and the leaves spread over the garden to be tilled in later this week.

I thought there was a good picture of the plants in the greenhouse, but I can’t find it if there is. The plants in there are doing very well. I’ll try to get some shots taken this week.

Rob has started having meetings concerning his Kenya trip, and is getting excited about the things he will be helping with when he goes. We are very thankful, as his support for the trip has been flowing in, as the Lord lays this ministry on people’s hearts. He has almost 3/4 of what he needs and we are very thankful, especially when you realize that he only found out that he was going on this trip a very few weeks ago. I am so excited that he gets to go and will hopefully be helping with a little pre-prep if something needs to be done. I’m planning out a few things to make my life easier while I’m holding down the fort here at home and have promises of family members who can help me like they did last year when Rob was gone to Bangladesh.