This is NOT Peter's Garden

I've lost the battle, but not the war.  I broke down after losing all of my precious tomato, cantaloupe and pumpkin seedlings to the durn rabbits and bought replacements.  I bought a beefsteak tomato, a cherry tomato, a sweet pepper and a jalepeno plant.  I dared because my step-dad was  nice enough to gift us some used chicken wire that we decided to put up around the outside of our current fence.  It was only enough to wrap half the garden, so Brian was kind and went to town to buy enough chicken wire to finish the job.

This is the "before shot of the inside of the fence.  If you look toward the center, close to the fence, you can see part of a toilet paper tube I'd used to plant the pumpkins in before transplanting into the garden.  The rabbits ripped it out of the ground.

Brian is unrolling the gifted fence here.  It was the perfect height.  At this point, the chicken wire may actually be holding the picket fence up.

The finished fence has provided a safe place for my new little plants and the wire is barely visible.  Kiah came out to watch us staple the second batch of wire and she kept asking why we were only doing half.  I told her several times we'd already done half the garden and we were finishing.  Her young eyes couldn't detect the fence!  

There is one wee bitty gap in the fencing by the gate now.  I've been praying that if the rabbit finds the space that at least God will give him a blue jacket complete with golden buttons that will get stuck on my gate if he enters.  

Now, if I could only remedy the problem with the beast that keeps stealing my hummingbird feeder!

Frugal, Family, Fun

Today I am glad for the skills I learned from my family growing up and what for what I continue to learn as an adult on a tight budget.  I don't know that I considered us to be poor when I was little, but as I look back there were many things that we did that saved money even if that wasn't the goal.  Maybe it was my parents' upbringing that taught them to be frugal and it trickled down to me.  Whatever the case, as I looked at my sink this morning I realized that I was being quite frugal, having fun and it was because of and for my family.  Here was a frozen ham bone leftover from Easter, string beans from the market that are more affordable, tastier and healthier fresh, and my kitchen compost bucket, which is from a gallon of ice cream we polished off months ago.

Perhaps the word frugal can be substituted for the word stewardship.  It's making the most of and not wasting what you have.  Recently, I've been reading a lot about the concept of stewardship in that everything I have is ultimately from God.  My time, my treasures, my talents, all come from Him.  What should I do with what He has given me?  How do I not waste it?  How do I share it?

Interesting how He seems to tie things together.  Since being unemployed for the first time living in our new home (this is our 3rd summer here), I've been daydreaming about gardening and trying new things.  I started tomatoes, cantaloupe and pumpkins from seed, as well as a few flowers.  The seeds grew.  I transplanted them to larger containers--again being frugal and using empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls lined with paper coffee filters.  The seedlings stretched toward the window and I decided to move them to the garden.  While Brian and Cory were gone on a backpacking trip, the remaining three of us worked the garden with a hay fork, then tilled the ground, and planted the young plants planning for trellises and growth patterns.  Unfortunately, the ground is heavy clay that decided it didn't have anything left to give and a rabbit ate the choking plants.  With nothing left, I decided to make the best of the time I wasn't using toward weeding and watering to improving my soil and learning  how to make the most of what I already have.  There was that idea again.

I think that I'd like to share this journey with you.  In case you want to join along or know more. Here are some of the books and blogs I've read, shows I've watched, and what I've tried by trial and error.

Try this for a fun start.  I also really liked watching their show, It's Not Easy Being Green.

This is what I'm reading now.

I'm also reading this.

I also just finished a book by John Seymor called Self-Sufficiency, which had a little for me and a little for Brian.