My Everything Corner

Serveral years ago, I received a garden swing for Mother's Day.  It has been one of my favourite features in the yard ever since. In our Cold Lake yard, it moved around constantly, but out here, I put it under a maple in the northeast corner, and it must be the perfect spot, for it hasn't moved in 3 months.    The canopy, weakened by the sun and damaged by the wind, is better left off anyway.   It is very natural to just lay back and look upward into the branches of this beautiful, old maple. My kids, especially my son, love the swing.  He loves to lay it out flat and lie down on his tummy with his nose aimed toward the ground.  He then swings himself while watching the ground move back and forth, back and forth, for what seems an impossible amount of time.  It must be very hypnotizing, because he is always in a very relaxed state after he has treated himself with a bit of motion from the...

The majority of our yard spans in front of the house, south, and to the west.  We have a lot of trees, most of which are very young.  The ones you are seeing in the foreground are Giant Leaf Poplar, (whose leaves sound like rain), and Lilac.   I'm not sure what the variety is, but they bloom a light pink.  There are also Green Ash, Willow, Larch and some little Spruce trees, all planted in neat rows to eventually shelter the yard from the main grid.  In the background, the trees are mature and with exception of the large spruce to the east of the house, are growing in the wild.  There are mostly maples, poplar, and warrior caragana.  But there are some wild roses, chokecherry and saskatoon bushes as well.  So far, it looks as though everyone has yellow folliage for the season.  I would really like to see more reds, so I'm going to find a way to work in some different specimens to break it up a bit.  There are cherry trees in th...

"I can fly!', are not  words any Mother wants to hear from her young child.  But when they've spent 3 days working on a flight suit that they hope will make them airborne, one hopes that they will achieve at least a slight lift off. My 8, almost 9 year old daughter, Kaitlynn has always had a strong, vivid imagination and a drive to create.  She is constantly coming up with new ideas, and actually, a lot of them have worked.  So when she came to me with her paper feather suit and asked me, "Mommy, tell me honestly.  Do you think I'll be able to fly with this suit?"  I have to admit, I was a bit stumped as to what my answer should be.  Should I be honest and tell her exactly what was going to happen?  Or should I falsely encourage her and tell her to jump off the roof?  I decided to walk the middle ground and said something to the effect of, "I think you might need a few more feathers and a stronger support for those feathers, but go play ...

After a very rainy couple of days, on September 1, the kids were very excited to start school.  My sister, Auntie Lynn, is their bus driver, as well as the school cook. Two of her children are on the bus, and the kids just think this is a fabulous connection to have.   There are only 30 plus children in the entire grades K-8 school, and only 3 classrooms.  Grades K, 1 and 2 are together, grades 3, 4, and 5 are mixed and then the grade 6, 7 and 8's make up the last class. Their old school had about 70 kids in one grade alone and they were separated into 3 classrooms.  So this is a huge change.  But they are adjusting very well, and have even told me that they really prefer this school to their last.  Nearly 3 weeks has passed since their first day, and they are feeling right at home.  Their bus ride is even shorter out here than it was in Cold Lake.  A total of 35 minutes a day was shaved off their daily riding time.  So much fo...

It was fun to watch how our yard handled a half inch of rain in a little under a half hour.  When planning our landscaping, it is essential we know what rainwater does.  In our case, we're lucky.  The water all flows a nice distance away from the shop and the house, through a nice little ravine in the grass across the driveway and into the ditch.  The only thing that needs attention is the driveway.  We cannot change where the water goes, but we can change how fast it drains.  We don't need a massive mud puddle in our driveway for days after a rain, although my kids would disagree. As for that natural ravine in the grass, I can easily envision a dry river bed running from the driveway, all the way down to the ditch.  How many years will that take me to do?  A few I think.  I've already started eyeing up a few rock piles from which to start my harvest.  We are currently working on building our garden shed.  A much needed building in...

The threat of an early frost had us fleeing to the pumpkin patch to save our crop. We came home after enjoying a supper with relatives and after being given some serious advice, we were out there with flashlights unil about 8pm (yes, it is getting dark that early already), saving all that we could find. There were only about 6 plants all together, but the patch grew massive, bearing nearly 100 fruit. We took off about 75, and left the small ones to weather the storm. We did not get a frost that night and that was over a week ago. Upon closer inspection in the daylight, we have found at least another 25 pumpkins and squash. We will let them grow until the threat of the next frost and then in they will come. The morning after picking was spent washing each individual with a bleach solution, and then placing them in their own space (not touching their neighbors) on wooden pallets. Now, hopefully, they will last to be carved for Halloween. To date, the most pumpkins we'...

There is nothing like a wide open space to encourage kids to play outside. My kids have always loved the outdoors, but since we've moved out here, they've at least tripled their time outdoors. Between the snake nest, the salamander crossing and the froggy patch, they are always on some sort of adventure, exploring and collecting. Not long after we moved in, we added bicycling to our repertoire of things to do outdoors. Within minutes Jared was off his training wheels, and my daughter wasn't far behind. Now we all ride together. Our favourite road runs just east of our place. It is quiet and there is a large water feature about a mile down where we love to watch the ducks swim and flap around. It is still very green here, but soon will be my favourite time of year to be outdoors. Once the colours start to change and the leaves start to cover the road and once I need a sweater to be comfortable outside and it gets dark early enough to enjoy the stars again. Th...