Besides working out in the garden, I've been making stuff with things we have. Last year I went to pull out the ironing board and it was broken. I'm thinking maybe the grandson went to use it and didn't realize it isn't as strong as he is. It couldn't be repaired. Believe me, my hubby is handy and can fix a lot of things, but this one wasn't going to fly. I looked online and found designs that are painted on them. Some even make "people" out of them. I wasn't that crafty, but I did paint it with a blue top and then red and white stripes. I figured it was a cheap decoration for our country's 250th anniversary. 

One of our grandsons asked me if I would give him a simple sewing lesson. I made a little sewing kit for him with some extra spools of thread, needles, some straight pins, safety pins, and some extra buttons. I had him sew a button on a piece of square material and then showed him how to pin two pieces together and then sew the three edges. He made a little pillow with a button in the middle and he really liked that. We stuffed it and I showed him how to pin the other edge and he sewed that together. I felt like that was a good use of our time and he was thrilled. He's hoping to move out from his mom's place in a few months so he's trying to learn life skills like cooking and mending. Last year he and I baked white bread from scratch and banana bread; he learned the difference between yeast breads and sweet breads. 

The vegetable gardens have been keeping me busy trying to keep ahead of the weeds, which is next to impossible. We've had about three batches of radishes and green onions and one larger portion of leaf lettuce and then a smaller portion. The reason I say gardens, is we have 4 different areas. The largest is in the back of the property and it has the best soil. Our soil make up is really weird. Most of it around us is tan and very clay like. But in the very back, the soil is darker and richer. We did add some manure and compost last fall and this spring and it's fairly rich now. I have two small raised gardens that we put bags of soil in. Then there's another small area where we planted sweet corn and sunflowers. It's not totally clay, but it isn't as rich as the the back garden. Then there's the small garden by the pole barn where I have herbs planted because they like that clay soil. My Oregano and Thyme are going to town. I used some of each for my pork roast today. 

I picked some mulberries a couple of weeks ago. I know some people think they are not great fruit, but they have lots of good nutrients. I made 3 pints of jam to put in our pantry. Last year it was so dry we didn't get any mulberries and very few wild black raspberries.

My daughter in law and I attended a class on herbs through an extension department. We figured we'd get a little information and maybe, if we were fortunate, we'd get an herb to bring home. Imagine our delight when they gave us a two tiered planter and had the dirt and different herbs so we had enough to plant in each area. That was an unexpected surprise. 

Although I did buy some plants, many of the vegetable plants I grew from seed. I wanted to try that this year because plants are expensive. I did buy three cucumber plants. I'm hoping to save seeds this year to plant next year. I'm learning as I go on some of this. One plant I have not been successful with is lavender. I've tried three different times and so far, I'm not getting them. I will get a couple small plants and then they die. So, I guess I need to do more research.

My husband's late wife had a Silhouette which is like a Cricut. I've been teaching myself how to use it. I make some of my own cards. We recently did interviews for the church secretary, so I made thank you cards to thank the people on the team. It was really nice when a couple of them commented how impressed they were with not only a handmade card, but the fact I wrote a thank you note. One person said no one does that anymore and he said he misses it. 

We received some well needed rain today. My rain barrel didn't have much in it and I emptied it the other day watering some of the plants, so I'm thankful for the rain today. I'm hoping the rain will make our plants thrive instead of just survive with the tap water. 

Writing this down, it doesn't seem like I've been all that busy, but I go to bed pretty exhausted, so either I'm getting old and weak, or I don't realize how hard some of this work is. But, it's good to be busy.