Farm Living is the Life for Us!

Since we finally had a free weekend, we decided this would the best time to put together our garden. After consulting the experts (grandparents, parents, sisters, brothers, friends, Google), we decided our best bet would be a "no-dig" garden. This means we would build a frame and build the garden on top of the ground rather than digging into the ground.

Step one for a "no-dig" garden: Dig! The area we picked to place our garden was covered with perfectly good grass. And since we had a few bare spots in the yard, we figured we'd use what we have!




The furkids did an excellent job filling in when we needed an extra pair of hands!
After Alec dug up the grass, it was time to lay the frame and hammer it into place.


Berman checked the garden for weeds while Mango tempted us with a game of fetch!


The first layer of our garden was cardboard. After the cardboard, we laid down newspaper. Mango held down the newspaper before we could give it a good soaking.



Berman kept a close eye on the tools while Alec and Mango laid down a layer of hay. **Side note: Lucy is not in most of these pictures because a certain Miss Someone could not stop barking and was banished to the house.**



Alec did a "please-grow-garden" dance!

Then it was time to add the compost and...manure...ewww! Gross!

Alec carefully read the planting instructions. We planted about 1/2 of the garden with seeds and the other 1/2 with plants.




And after a good watering, we were done!

Gardening is hard work, but hopefully it'll be worth it!


Oh - and we may have brought a little too much country to suburbia. After we finished our garden, a hawk flew into one of our pear trees, dropped a bullfrog then flew off!

We are so lucky!

We wanted to thank everyone for all of their warm wishes, congratulations and prayers while we begin our lives together.

We are so fortunate to have such a strong support system in our lives. Our friends and family have been absolutely amazing over the past few months. Looking at the gifts, cards and emails has been an emotional experience. We are just overwhelmed by everyone's generosity! How lucky are we to be surrounded by so much love!

Now that the boxes are unpacked, feel free to stop by for a cold glass of lemonade and a visit or perhaps a soak in the hot tub! We promise…we won’t put you to work!

A Nantucket Wedding

IOHI Surprise Shower!

Back from vacation!

Well we just about have everything unpacked and all of the boxes out of the house! I think I remember saying a couple of weeks ago “moving in is a lot easier than moving out”. Now I’m not so sure!

There are so many little things we still want to do, but will have to save for our weekend projects. We painted the master bath – no let me reiterate – we sanded, cleaned, primed, primed, painted, touched up – the master bath! There’s not a lick of royal blue or silver to be found! Oh – and never give a paint brush to a girl with a touch of OCD. Lesson learned!

Alec cleaned, filled and balanced the hot tub. Last night, we couldn’t figure out what to do next on our ever present To Do list, so we soaked in the hot tub which was really more like lukewarm tub. Alec thought it was fine, but 84 degree water does not a hot tub make! The jets felt nice and the lights gave us a funky show, but it was COLD when we got out!

The furkids and I finally talked Alec into turning on the air conditioner last weekend. We were just dragging around and panting while Mr. Thrifty was staying cool as a cucumber thinking of all the $$ he was saving on the electric bill! UGH! We are all in much better spirits now!

We got a few new pieces of furniture including a bed. This bed is crazy high – I think it hits me just below my chest. Believe me, there is no graceful way for me to get in this thing! I have a little step ladder that I move room to room (everything is so high in this house!). I think I need to set it up next to the bed or dig out the wiener kids’ ramp!

I’ll try to post new-and-improved house pictures later.

Our New Baby!

Add featherbaby to our crew of furbabies! The other day, Alec discovered a nest of baby blue jays in one of our Bradford pear trees in the back yard. Well, they weren't exactly babies! They looked to be about 25 years old, jobless and still living at home!

Sunday morning we woke up to yet another Oklahoma flash flood with hail and everything. When we looked in out back flowerbed, we found one of the baby blue jays laying on the ground by a bush. I was sure he was hurt, but Alec assured me that he was just trying out his wings. Mango (lab furkid/ honorary wienerkid)didn't help much by immediately running up to the baby. I think she learned her leason when momma and daddy blue jay started dive bombing her! Regardless, the puppers were banned from the back yard for the day and only allowed out under close supervision.

The baby blue jay bounced around the yard all day trying out his wings. He would hunker way down then give it his all to get up on the bottom horizontal slat on the fence. It was so cute! Mom and dad were always close by to make sure he was safe. Mom even brought him some food to help get his strength up. We watched the little guy late into the evening and he looked just exhaused. There he was, in the middle of the yard, no where to go. His brothers and sisters had all flown away.

About 2am, I woke up to thunder and alas another flash flood! I told Alec I was worried about our little feathered friend. I began crying at the thought of him out in the middle of the yard getting soaked. I said I hope he doesn't drown! Alec said nothing. He got out of bed and headed toward the kitchen! I grabbed a bath towel and followed.

Alec went out into the pouring rain, at 2am and found the baby in the yard right where we had last seen him last night. He gently layed a tea towel over the baby bird and placed him on the bath towel I had laid out on the patio. That's the man I married. That's my husband!

This morning we moved the baby bird up to our patio table to keep him away from the furkids. His mom stopped by a minute ago and brought him a little breakfast and our little guy is already trying out his wings.


PS - I'm a bit worried that Berman may have lost his "hound dog-ness." Yesterday he was within 2 inches of the bird and didn't even notice! Geesh!

Tour de 'Tuck!

Today we decided to rent bikes to take us around to the sites of Nantucket.


The cobblestone streets were a bit challenging and the traffic was certainly picking up. You could definately tell that the high season was just around the corner! So we got out of town and ventured out to some beaches. We first stopped at Brandt Point one more time to video the spot where we were married yesterday. We had hoped to capture the cermony on film, but the rain and wind made it impossible.


We then headed over to the Jetties Beach which is one of the nicer swimming areas. On our way there, we saw a deer run right across the street in front of us! An older local man was riding his bike too and rode with us to the beach. He was really nice and he's a real estate developer on the island. And you will never believe what he wanted to talk about! Oklahoma football! Of all things! After he left, we parked our bikes and walked to the shore. This beach is actually on Nantucket Sound - the area between Nantucket and "the main land" as it's known around here.

We looked for more cool shells and rocks to take back home. Of course we had to take some newlywed pictures!


Then it was time for lunch so we went back in to town. My stomach was still upset so of course we feasted on...what else...more seafood! We had a bowl of clam chowder and a lobster roll (kinda like tuna salad but with lobster instead).

After lunch we took a bike trail out to Surfside Beach to see the Atlantic Ocean one more time. It was quite a trek across the island and we managed to time our trip, which went right through the school zone, just as school was letting out! The locals are super nice and patient with silly tourists on bikes! I'm sure my legs will be sooo sore tomorrow -they were on fire today! The trail to the ocean is a steady uphill climb. UGH! But once we got there...





We rode back in to town, dropped off our bikes then sat out on our balcony and watched our new neighbor getting his boat ready for the summer season.

Then it was time for a nap - dirty feet and all!