BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02429 I really tried with the Carrots. They had been growing since May and The largest one wasn't even 3 inches long. I finally pulled them all out of the garden. The garden is winding down. I cut back the dying zucchini leaves so that the new growth could flourish. Not sure if it will but I keep looking to see if we get any more zucchini.  It is the start of the first full week of school. Everyone is back and ready to go. andy has been walking to school and back. Having little trouble getting up for the day so we are proud of that. Andy has a new friend and they have been walking home together so that is nice to hear. Andy's new friend even invited Andy to an end of the Summer party.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02419 Our pepper plants have been growing larger and larger but they hadn't started producing any peppers until now. So this little guy is just starting off. I hope that this will end up proding plenty of peppers once it gets going.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02396 On the way back from our walk today I took a photo of the Hydrangea by the fence. It is nearing the end of the season and this particular plant is starting to wilt. Why does it look so vibrant? Well, I have been playing with the effects on my phone’s camera app. So, I am editing this on my phone to make the image much more striking. You can see the wilting, though. Tonight Eva was back at Folk dancing and she even jumped off the drawbridge twice. She had a great time. Before Allison and Eva went off for their trip to Folk Dancing we had ribs for dinner. I had gotten a rub at Eugene Henry’s the other day and in the morning I took the ribs out of the fridge and let them thaw. Once they were thawed I rubbed the ribs with brown sugar and the rub that I had gotten. Then I put them in the oven for 2 1/2 hours. Finishing everything on the grill afterwards.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02395 On our second day at the Cape this week Eva spent the entire day at Science School and then had a fun night with friends at Folk Singing and then they had twice baked potatoes together. She’s had some great times with friends this Summer. It has been an awesome experience for her. Tonight Allison, Andy and I went to Anejo for dinner with my friend Stephanie and her son and boyfriend. It was our first meeting of her boyfriend and her son. Stephanie worked with me several years ago and we’ve kept in touch ever since. We had a great dinner together and enjoyed our time with Stephanie, Josh and Julian. Andy even got to hold Julian and Andy looked so happy. The kid loves babies and dogs. Andy is very gentle with both. I did not get any photos at dinner but Stephanie did and shared them with me. They are of Andy and the baby but I’m not posting them. So, I have a photo of the tomatoes in my Dad’s garden. He’s got a ton of plants and lots and lots of tomatoes.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02366 I may be overstating it but the Zucchini in my garden has been growing like crazy and that one plant in the whole seed sheet is taking over. Allison counted 13 blossoms on the vines today and I bet there will be more soon. I’m very happy with how the garden has come along so far. We have lettuce that is ready to harvest, Allison and Andy harvested some to bring to the Cape and I think the carrots might be busting through soon, too. This has been a learning thing for me. I really do not know what I am doing with this, Seed Sheets was great for this and I may be ready to plant my own way next year. We’ll see.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02364 I went for an early walk along Great Bay today. I had last night off but have to work in the office tonight so I wanted to get home early so that I could sleep. I took Andy with me because we were all headed home. Eva went with Tara and Erik because they were bringing her to the bank for a new checking account. They set up all that she needs for her accounts. Allison went and picked Eva up from the bank and then went to the Farmer’s Market with Eva to pick up a few things. We all vegged out in our respective spaces when we got home. A couple of days to recharge before going back down to the Cape. The kids have always needed a couple of days to just be back in their own spaces doing their own things each Summer. When I got home I removed the protective screen on the garden. My zucchini plants are growing HUGE. They have started to bend because they were pressing into the screen. We’re even starting to get some blossoms on the plant. On the walk this morning the w...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02359 I headed back to the Cape after a short nap this morning. I had worked from home over the weekend. It is just easier, I can sleep and take care of the house and all that without anyone having to think they need to be quiet. I can also avoid 7K questions about being tired. Today’s photo is of the milkweed that my Dad has in his gardens. Their house is now an official weigh station for monarch butterflies. Milkweed is a plan that they thrive on and also they lay eggs on milkweed so each year we get tons of monarch butterflies on the milkweed plants. It is actually a fairly nice looking plant and having it in the yard really helps attract pollinators. I may have to ask for some to plant in my yard for my garden.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02324 The Rhododendron bushes are in a bit of a sad state. Several branches are dead or dying but then there are these crazy buds that are growing. elsewhere around the house we have the seeds that are in the raised bed starting to sprout and some are going crazy like the zucchini. The only one not doing anything is the cayenne peppers. I think we may even begin harvesting the zucchini in the next month or so. I will have to get a cage around the thing to prevent the squirrels from getting into the garden. On the Virta front things are going very well. My blood sugars have remained stable since I began the journey. No crazy spikes or anything. I do think that I will have to vary up my meal choices so that I do not get bored with this. I’ll try the recipes but probably not the cream cheese pancakes again. It tasted like eggs with cinnamon. Which, essentially, it was. But I am finding good alternatives to everything. It makes sense and it is working.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02313 I received the Seed sheets that I had ordered last month. I filled the raised bed with the rest of the soil and compost that I had set aside as I waited for the whole thing to settle more. It has been settling quite a bit with all the recent rain and I figure it may take a whole season to get it to perfectly leveled out. But I took the seed sheets and installed them today. We got Zucchini, two types of lettuce, dragon carrots, cayenne pepper and scallions in the mix. They each came on a sheet of anti-weed material with the seeds in dissolvable pods. I watered them with the rain barrel by putting the water into a watering can. I have a pump coming tomorrow so that I can use the rainwater like I would the hose. That way I can mist it and spray it much better than just dumping the water on. I also planted the arborvitaes that I bought. I may have to pick up a few more and get that area along the fence going with a row of them. I’d like to replace the whole are...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01252 For years we have had roses on a trellis at the gate in the back yard. This year they have been blooming like crazy. These are the most roses I have ever seen on the plant and they look incredible.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01242 When we had Tim clear out the back garden it was pretty clear but about a month later it is back to growing like crazy. There are these pretty purple flowers all over the place and some milkweed and more. I’ll have to weed out the weeds but let these flowers grow.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01226 This morning I got up and cleared out the area along the garage that we are using to plant Allison’s Lilac bushes that we gave her for Mother’s Day. I had to pull out some elephant ears and lots of weeds and vines but I was able to clear it all out and plant the three bushes. I hope that they thrive in this location.

Photo-A-Day #536 09/26/06 Things just keep popping up around the house. The compost from the dump pumpkins also had squash seeds. So the pumpkins began to grow one way and the squash went the opposite. There were two squash however one got a bit nasty so it was off to Tara’s composter. Maybe more will grow when we use that compost. As far as the pumpkins, we now have 4, they should be nice and orange but the time Halloween rolls around. And speaking of Halloween, my friend Derek sent me this Halloween Game. Halloween bowling. I created a Kodak Marketplace. I may try this out and sell some prints of some of my pictures. Who knows. http://marketplace.kodakgallery.com/benspark

Photo-A-Day #516 09/06/06 That squash plant in the front yard seems to have a new addition. Allison saw this little squash on her way into the house today. The new season of television shows has begun. Last night Allison and I watched the new Fox show called Standoff. This show stars Ron Livingston from Office Space and I thought it was a pretty decent premiere. Tom Wopat was a guest star. I will probably watch this again. Bones is back, we watched last week’s premiere episode last night and tonight we watched the second episode. For some reason this season they are emphasizing the way that Bones is so different than everyone else in that she has terrible social skills. This frustrates me because last season she was coming along and becoming more social. Nevermind the fact that Tempe (Bones) is some much more social in the books. I need to get to some of the later books to see what happens but the character backstories are so different and that has made this season harder to watch. The...

Photo-A-Day #507 08/28/06 Today I had an eye Dr. Appointment, a check up on the eye surgery and a new prescription for glasses. Then I ordered some glasses. I’m going to take my old glasses frames and get some new sunglasses made out of them. I still like them and they fit me well but it is time for a new look. So in 7 – 10 days when the new ones come in there will be a photo. Today’s photo is of some miniature foxglove that is in the front of the house. It is one of the weeds that in years past were pulled. That is until Tara let them grow and we realized that they were actually some pretty flowers. This past Saturday Dad and I did a clean up of the side yard and part of the back yard. It looks great now.

Photo-A-Day #503 08/24/06 Before I left for two weeks of travel this plant was itty bitty. It has now taken over the side of the house. It is a squash plant however it did not get fertilized so there will be no squash this year. Maybe next year it will get lucky. I finished Deadly Decisions today and started Fatal Voyage. Looks like Tempe s hitting the ground running in book #4.