Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Two Week update

Well, if I don't get this done, it will be a three week update.  Joanna and Norman are doing very well.  All good check-ups.  She's going through the nesting phase a little late..  I came home last night after work and she had the mattress off the bed and was condensing and storing winter stuff and putting things in order. Actually in a camper this needs to be done on a continual basis or there is no room for you to move. 

Mr. D was away for a couple days to the Middletown Bible Conf, in Middletown, CT.  I would have loved to go, but took two days off already for the birth of Norman.  It gave me some time to spend with Joanna so we went out to eat Monday.  We haven't been to a restaurant in a long time, so this was  a very special treat.  Then last night we had homemade bean/rice burritos together. 

The worst part of Mr. D being gone is of course I miss him.  The next worst thing is having to take care of the "stock" (chickens and ducks).  It's been raining for a few days and all around the coop is a greasy muddy mess.  I somehow avoided landing in it.  YEA!  Actually, taking care of the birds is not a bad thing, just getting up so early when I'd much rather be Z-z-z-z-z-z-z :)



from Google images... this is Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington State.
I've been to this park... when I was very young.  Scenes like this are common.  Isn't it beautiful with all the spring flower?

We are planning the garden.  I ordered a few seeds, but most likely we'll not plant too many new things this year.  Our garden is looking pretty good right now.  The chickens have been out there all fall/spring eating anything that's green and bugs and stuff.  It needs to be tilled, but otherwise the weeds are gone and it should be much easier to get ready.

Hmmmm... must have slept wrong on my wrist last night 'cause it's really achy this morning... hard to type.  Just took my watch off, maybe that will help.

Back to the garden.

I bought some different beans this year.  Mr. D loves the Romano pole beans, but they don't have fruit until late summer.  This year I want to supplement them with some "potash" to see if the vines will produce more and earlier.  We always add manure which is rich in nitrogen and the plants are lush and green usually, but the Romano beans don't produce a lot of fruit.  I think it'd be good to add some other nutrients to see if that will help.

So this year I'll plant Romano, asparagus beans, and Ruth Bible beans on the fencing and some half runner Amish Gnuddel beans.  I've heard good things about the Gnuddel and I'll grow them on the corn as the seller suggested.  I'm hoping they'll make good dry beans for winter soups.

We'll also have Jacob Cattle bush beans for shell type beans and dry.  I have eaten these as green beans, but they're sorta stringy. 

Other things we'll have are Lutz Winter Keeper beets, Amish Paste tomatoes, stakeless tomatoes, our own "Dan" squash which is a good hard winter variety, straight neck summer squash and zucchini.  There will also be spring peas, and parsnips that have overwintered.  The herb garden will have a few new things.  I'll try again to grow some lavender.  I'll also put in some Basil of a different variety. 
I think I bought some more strawberry chard seed too.

In the flower bed I hope to dig up and transplant a few items, making them more visable and improving the bed they are in.   Mr. D has put the chicken egg box right in front of the flower bed and I just think it needs some "shaping up".  I had originally just put that flower bed in quickly so that my flowers would survive when we moved.  Now it needs some help.

Gotta love spring.  It's been cold this week and rainy, but looks like the weekend will be glorious.  I'll post some pictures of the progress.

Happy Day to you!





Thursday, April 12, 2012

Once a Month Blogger

It was never my intention to turn into a once-a-month-blogger, but seems that's what it has come to.  I would love to share with you all the stuff that is happening in my life, but it seems that something always comes up and gets in the way. 

Well, I have some very, very, happy news.  Little Norman is here.  My wonderful daughter Joanna has given birth to a 8.4lb 20" bouncing baby boy.  He's such a cute kid.  I am blessed now to have 2 superduper grandbabies... oops... grandboys can't say "baby" anymore for Brandon... he's almost as tall as his mom now. 

So let me tell the tale.....  not to put you to sleep necessarily, but to record these happenings for "posterity".

Joanna came to the house (camper) from her house (camper) 100 ft away... on Wednesday AM 6:30.  She had gotten up in about 1:30 AM and was spotting, so she drover herself to the local hospital to see what was going on.  They checked her all over and told her that they felt her water was broken and leaking and that she should go home and get some rest and call her Dr. in the morning.  She had tried to get some sleep and now she was at our camper calling her Dr.  They made an appointment right away and she went in to get checked yet again.  Her Dr. felt that she should probably check in since they were unable to confirm that her water had broken.  We got to the hospital about 8:30 AM and they started an IV with antibiotic and got her settled in her room.  It was clear that this was going to be a rather inactive day, so I went on to work.  Joanna got some rest that day and was still not in any great labor when I came back after work, so about 8 PM I went home and decided to get some rest myself.  I called work and took off Thursday and Friday since it was pretty sure something was going to happen on those two day or at least before the weekend.  The Dr. gave Joanna something to soften  the cervix and a few hours later... about 9 AM on Thursday they began a low dose of Pitocin.  Finally she was getting some significant contractions.  By noon the contractions were getting intense.  About 7:20 PM she was ready to push.  By 7:44 she was holding her little baby boy after giving 3 hard pushes he was here.  It was a good delivery and she is doing very well. 

Joanna came home on Monday (cause nothing happens in the hospital over the weekend ya know), and is quite the Mommy.  It's been amazing to me to see her thrive in her new roll even with less that 4 hours of sleep each night.  At Norman's first check up on Tuesday the Dr. thought he was doing very well.  He's gaining weight and his color is great and he's very alert. 

Now you know this is the Grammy talking, so you will understand that I am just a little prejudice, but we love him to death and think of course that he's the most special baby in all the world. 

Here's some pictures to confirm what I just said.

feeling a little miserable right now....


only an hour old... we suddenly thought to take a picture :)


at about 2 hours... Mom's up and running.... sorta


next day... getting his footprint taken...



here I am in all my glory... snoozing on Mommy's lap.


our little bundle... a cute little cowboy swaddler... gift from our friend Carrie...
Norman James Peel... first outing... to prayer meeting.
Everyone was so happy to meet you and Gramma was really proud.


more admirers at church... and a mommy admirer too.

So that's the story as best I can recall.  We've had some very happy days this past week.  Thank you for spending some time with us.