Strawberries and all kinds of summer fun!

Having a backyard that is not entirely covered with trees is a good thing when you enjoy gardening. Its nice to be able to do that again. This year we have planted tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, red onion, red potato, broccoli, peppers, carrots, watermelon, beans, and green onion. We also have a fairly large raspberry bush that we are looking forward to sampling. It is so fun to watch it all thrive. We are doing the composting thing which is going ok, but since I'm not a patient person I get frustrated at times.

Water lilies in our pond.

Trampolines are so much fun. Especially in the summer. The kids have been having a great time turning the sprinklers on and jumping on the tramp.


We have all kinds of birds living in our yard. Several times a day you can see them bathing in the pond. We even have 2 nests that we enjoy. The one with the blue eggs is next to our garage and only about 4 feet off the ground. We like to tease the mommy bird a bit. If we walk by and stand any where near her nest she flies out and lands on the grass and starts squawking at us. The one in the petunias is actually in a hanging basket over my front porch. I have been just reaching up to water but the other day I brought it down to give it a good watering and surprise! I thought it was odd that there were 2 different kinds of eggs in there.


We enjoyed a trip to Cuff Family Farms to pick strawberries! It was hot and sweaty but we had a good time with our friends the Summers and Ariana's friend Sienna. One of the benefits of picking your own is that you get to eat all you want while you are picking. There is nothing like a very ripe, warm, juicy strawberry right off the vine. In the evening we made about 18 cups of freezer jam, froze a ton of berries, and had some on vanilla ice cream for dessert. We decided this will be a Watkins family tradition...at least while we live in Appleton.