Garden War: Round 2

The weeds may have won a few battles in the garden last year, but I believe I won the war.  I had so many tomatoes, zucchinis, and squashes that I did not know what to do with it all (other than schlepping it off on every person who came to my house in the months of July and August).

I used last year's yields to help me plan this years garden and make a few changes.  My favorite thing about last year's garden was the beans.  I had never grown beans or really had them fresh very many times, and I was blown away by how awesome they were.  So, this year, I planted six different varieties of beans and about 12 plants of each variety.  I know, I know, I am probably going to be drowning in a sea of beans by the end of the Summer, but it will be a delicious sea full of yellow, green, purple, and yellow and purple striped bean pods!! 

As far as the tomatoes, I learned my lesson.  Last year, I planted about 16 tomato plants that produced enough tomatoes to satisfy all of Italy for a year.  This year, I only planted 12; it's not much less, but it is less.  I just like canning them so much that I was unwilling to plant any fewer than a dozen. 

I decided that last year's potatoes required more work than I was willing to do for too little yield, so no potatoes this year.  I did, however, plant about twice as many broccoli plants that all did great!  The four cabbages I planted have had me saying to myself, "What am I going to do with all this cabbage?  Perhaps more egg rolls!!" 

While I am definitely still battling weekly with the weeds (and losing about 50% of the time), overall, the garden looks like it is doing well, and it is only June!  Here's to a Summer full of vegetable deliciousness!!

roxy the foxy

Oh, the things that happen.

Last Saturday, the dogs were in the backyard barking for-ev-er.  I finally went outside to get them, and I realized there was something on the other side of the fence.  At first glance, I thought, "Great.  It's a kitten."  I was not excited at all about it potentially being a kitten.  I actually started thinking, "What am I going to do with a kitten?  Who can I pawn it off on?"  But when it made a weird hyena-like noise, I realized it was most definitely not a kitten.  Upon further inspection, I realized it was indeed a baby fox!

This probably goes without saying, but I proceeded to run inside screaming.  I found Matt, and demanded he come out to look at it.  He just leaned over the fence, picked it up, and carried it inside.  The whole time, I'm following him saying, "Oh my god, you are carrying a fox."

After some quick research, we determined that it was about 12 days old and that we could feed it preemie formula.  As you can imagine, I immediately went to the store and got some formula.  When we found her she was about 10 inches long (without her tail) and 4 inches tall.  She weighed a little less than one pound!  I have not measured her again, but I do know that she now weighs one pound, two ounces.

Her name is Roxy, and she is awesome.