Family Fun: Gardening and Pool Partying

 Kids made a fancy "picnic" lunch for themselves. Tomatoes and cucumbers with strawberries on the side.

 Our garden tomatoes are looking more organized now. Grandpa J picked up these metal posts for me and I used zip ties to attach welded wire fencing.  Since their are so many plants now (about 40), we are using a trellis system, instead of tomato cages.

The squash are all covered up to protect them from the squash beetles... and the ground hog.  The cantaloupes and cucumbers are still trying to recover from being munched.

 Poor little cabbage -- another gopher massacre.

 

 The giant stump is out! Grandpa J finished hacking it off with the ax during their most recent visit.

I planted a knock-out rose bush there instead.

One of the local pools opened this week with a Pre-School Pool Party. We had fun trying the big 6" deep baby pool and the large 2 ft deep kiddie pool.

 

They also had some games set-up, like kiddie pools filled with shaving cream!?!

Three doors down from us is a pick your own farm. The kids and I picked 12 pounds our first day. We ate a lot while we were there. I had forgotten how delicious ripe fresh local strawberries are. This variety in particular is fantastic. Small, but so sweet. The entire batch was gone in less than 4 days. We will go pick some more this week and next week. Hopefully, we can somehow accumulate enough for a batch of jam.  This is the only picture I took there -- her face post-picking as I was strapping her in to go home. She was asking for more!