Busy Birthday

May 10, 2008 - It was a busy day as it was my birthday, a perfect work day, and we were having a yard sale. But what a beautiful day to be outside with the family all running around, visiting in between tasks!

We started the day setting up for the yardsale (my sister, the yard sale queen, arrived around 7:00 am).

Joe and I decided to put out a few plants for sale, just to see what would happen. Well, turns out - not much happened. We sold one cell pack of zucchini plants!!! But hey, we really didn't want to get rid of too many of our plants because we want to grow as much as possible, and if there was any plant that EVERY gardener has enough of, it's zucchini, so it worked out.

Plus Joe had a great day selling some of his treasures, including two bikes. They will be hard to see go, but hey, anything for the cause, right? Right?

Even Natalie had a big day, watching and learning as her mama made deals. This is her at the end of the day - what a trooper.

So, while Elizabeth and Joe worked the front yard, I spent most of the day working the back yard, and working on my tan (first sun burn of the year, guess it's time for some sunscreen).

I started with a bunch of weeding - we have a lots of radishes, which are still tiny, but delicious. And just yesterday I discovered that my swiss chard has come up! I kind of lost hope, but turns out they were just hiding under the massive weeds, so I took care of that.

Here is a pretty little beet plant. Joe and I love beets, so next I added an extra row of them. Then I planted 3 rows of carrots and dug a new bed for beans. Joe tilled up a nice big bed for some corn - apparently you have to plant several long rows of corn for it to pollinate adequately. Never knew that. But hey, we like corn.

And here's our hired help hard at work. It's the chickens job to pick out all the weeds and bugs after Joe tills up the new beds. These are some highly satisfied employees - they love it!

In the afternoon Joe and I headed over to Northern Dutchess Botanical Gardens to buy some herb plants - I didn't really grow any of my own herbs and it's one of the things that makes the most sense to grow instead of buy at the grocery store. So I went a little crazy, but turns out my brother had called ahead to have a birthday gift certificate waiting for me - thanks Bill! I planted these guys in pots for now just in case I want to move them to the new property or even just to move them inside in the fall.

Then it was clean up time. Especially for Natalie.

And how better to finish your birthday than with a lobster dinner! After proclaiming for days that I didn't want anything special for my birthday, I decided at the last minute that I had to have lobster. So my wonderful mother ran out and got lobsters for me, Joe, and my sister. We steamed artichokes to go with it (anything you can dip in melted butter is alright with me) and finished the meal off with icecream from Holy Cow. My grandmother and aunt dropped in for dessert and it was just a really simple, small celebration. So now I'm 26 years old, and I have a funny suspicion that this is going to be one of my best years yet.