Archives for the month of: April, 2009

The Giant Pumpkin Experiment: A Seed Giveaway

April 25, 09 //

As Spring approaches, we’ve started a garden. We will also attempt to grow a giant pumpkin, but I need your help. And maybe you can grow your own pumpkin, too, because I have seeds to give away.

I’ve been encouraged to grow pumpkins thanks to my good friends Christy and Nick of Country is a State of Mind, who are kind, pumpkin-crazed people. Every year Christy and Nick grow giant pumpkins, enter their pumpkins in giant pumpkin competitions, and then they get inside their giant pumpkins and use them as boats. (I told you! They are pumpkin people!)

Here are two photos of Christy and Nick, taken by Christy and Nick:

Christy sent me a ton of giant pumpkin seeds, and she encouraged me to send some of them to you!

If I try to grow a giant pumpkin, will you try to grow one too?

I need six people who are silly enough to attempt to grow a giant pumpkin in their garden this summer. I’ll send seeds to you in the mail.

In order to enter, please leave a comment below letting me know you want to grow a pumpkin this summer.

What does it take to grow a giant pumpkin? Good directions are here, as recommended by Christy. But you don’t have to take it really seriously. If you want, you can just do what I’m sure I’ll do:

Dig a hole.
Throw the seed in.
Attempt to follow the directions.
Keep to the rules for a few days.
Forget about my pumpkin for a week.
Forget about my pumpkin for another week.
Think of Christy’s passion for pumpkins. Feel guilty and do some pumpkin maintenance.
Ignore my pumpkin for the rest of the season.
Write a sad blog post about how I killed my pumpkin.

Are you with us? All you need is somewhere to grow the thing.

Christy starts her seeds in the house on May 1st, transplants them outside on May 15th, and keeps a styrofoam cooler over them until the danger of frost has passed. (I bet a bucket would work, too? Christy, you have to guide us!)

I haven’t started growing my giant pumpkin yet. I plan to start my seed(s) in a week or two. Is anybody with me??

Edit: People kinda involved in the Giant Pumpkin Experiment are as follows:

Phil
Gary Gray
Amanda
Naomi
Danielle
Arenda
Melissa
Chad
Lindsay
Lacy

I’m plumb out of seeds. That’s it for pumpkins! Thanks, participants!!

Starting A Vegetable Garden

April 20, 09 //

Starting a vegetable garden is yet another part of country living that I know very little about.

Because our growing season here on Prince Edward Island, in Canada, is pretty short, I’ve overheard discussions at the hardware store that lead me to believe that it’s wise to start your vegetable plants inside.

Feeling inspired, I bought a few seeds (brussel sprouts, roma tomatoes, watermelon, broccoli, and bell peppers), some earth, and a seed tray.

I chose these specific seeds because they take a long time to bear fruit/vegetables. They take between 70 – 90 days to go from tiny seed to edible brussel sprout, tomato, watermelon, broccoli, or pepper. Vegetables with shorter time requirements (ex: radishes, which can go from tiny seed to radish in as little as 25 days ) don’t necessarily need to be started indoors.

After I got home, I was so excited that I threw the seeds into the earth without giving it much thought: I ripped open the packages, buried one seed in the first small tray compartment, threw eight seeds in the next tiny compartment, and just generally randomly planted the seeds with little rhyme or reason.

After all the compartments were full, I realized that I’d neglected to keep track of which row had watermelons, which row had peppers, etc.

So there I was left with a nicely planted tray of random vegetables.

In retrospect, I think I neglected to keep track on purpose because I like surprises.

It has been about a week now, and look at all the growth!

As you can see, there are a few slow-sprouters, but one variety is growing very quickly.

I was convinced that the fast grower must be watermelon, because the tips of the sprouts remind me of watermelon seeds.

Cameron guessed that the fast-grower was broccoli.

I haven’t looked into it any further because it’s fun to see what takes shape.

How can teeny tiny seeds become sprouts…who then become leafy…who then become the fruits and vegetables we know and love!?

April Snow

April 18, 09 //

April snow is not something I’m accustomed to.

But this morning I woke up, glanced out the window, and saw our yard covered in fresh snow.

I snuck out of bed, grabbed my camera, and padded around the yard taking photos. As I walked around the yard, the sun began peeking through the clouds.

By dusk tonight, the snow had completely melted. Here I am in a T-shirt in front of my favourite birch tree, which can be seen in the first picture, too.

It looks as though the snow was never even here. But only a few hours ago a white blanket covered it all!

All this in one day!

These weather changes remind me how quickly things can change for good or bad. Such reminders prompt me to make the most of my days and be thankful for the good while it’s here.

When it comes to weather, which one is the good and which is the bad? Now that winter is almost gone for good (for now), I’m getting nostalgic for the good old days, so I can’t weigh in on that debate.

Curling Season

April 12, 09 //

Curling season is now officially over and we’re feeling kind of sad. Big thanks to our friend/neighbour who encouraged us to join this year and big thanks to our teammates for sharing with us an unsuccessful but extremely pleasurable curling season!

Although neither Cameron nor I came from curling families, we fell into curling culture and now feel like we belong at curling rinks.

Our history with curling

Cameron, although active, is not much for “sports.” He played hockey for a few years as a child, but it didn’t go over well. And there were other experiments into athleticism, which didn’t really take.

But, as a preteen, Cameron became transfixed with watching the sport of curling on TV.

Eventually, in his mid-twenties, Cameron decided to try the sport first-hand for the first time. He wanted to rope me into it, too. About five years ago (before we started this adventure we’re on), he got all excited and said, “We should join curling! It’ll be so fun! We can be on the same team and, and, and, um, will you please just join curling with me?”

Cameron is a calm and serious person. So when I see his eyes sparkle with enthusiasm, I can’t crush his bubble, even though I was thinking, “Curling..? Sigh.”

And so we bought brooms and retro curling shoes and we learned how to play.

The game of curling

For anyone who doesn’t understand curling, it’s actually an amazingly fun game.

You can think of curling as a live-action chess game. The goal is a lot like chess, you have to play your pieces (rocks) in a certain way to win, right? You’re trying to block the other person’s move and get points, just like chess.

So, just like chess, while the other person/team is playing their turn, you’re thinking about your next move. BUT, you know how in chess you decide on what your move is going to be and you just pick up your piece and move it there? Easy, right?

Well, in curling, once you’ve decided what your move should be, then you have to execute your move. It’s like you’re throwing your rook across a giant chess board and hoping that it lands in the right square.

No, your rook/rock doesn’t always land in the right square. And if you’re me, you’re just happy if your rook lands somewhere on the giant chess board and doesn’t fall off the table onto the floor.

That’s curling as I see it, anyway.

I recommend curling. It’s fun.

Don’t knock it ’til you try it!

Buffaloland Provincial Park, PEI

April 5, 09 //

Buffaloland Provincial Park, PEI, is a 100-acre park that is home to a number of buffalo. It’s my understanding that buffalo are not native to PEI; these buffalo were gifted to PEI by the province of Alberta a number of years ago.

Buffaloland Provincial Park is also a five-minute drive from our house. But even though it is located so close to our home, we had yet to catch a glimpse of any buffalo. We frequently drive by the park, but would never see hide nor hair of these great beasts. “Do these buffalo really exist?” I wondered. In a 100-acre enclosure, there are many places to hide.

A few days ago, the sun was shining and we attempted to walk around the Harvey Moore Bird Sanctuary, but the snowy trails were too deep in snow to walk upon. So we quickly looked for something else that would keep us outside in the unexpected sunshine.

Buffaloland Provincial Park was located just five minutes further up the road, so we headed up the snowless road to check out Buffaloland. I certainly didn’t expect to see any buffalo, but as we approached the enclosure, we saw one buffalo in the distance. Then we realized that there were a whole lot of buffalo. We counted 23 buffalo within our sight.

We were quite enthralled with the discovery of 23 buffalo. Such moments are more exciting when the possibility of not seeing what you’re looking for is high; it makes the discovery of what you’re looking for that much sweeter.

Stop and Think

April 2, 09 //

Stop and think. How often do you stop and think?

Most of us don’t spend nearly enough time stopping and thinking. By stop and think I just mean taking a moment to consider something…anything! It could be stopping to consider, “What do I want to do with the next hour?” or “What do I want out of the next five years of my life?” Both short-term and long-term questions are important.

How often do you stop and think?

Many people make a concerted effort to stop and think. I knew one person who’d pull up into his driveway on the way home from work. Instead of rushing inside, he’d simply sit in his car for a few extra minutes and contemplate how he wanted to spend that evening. For him, those few extra moments were enough focus for him to figure out what he wanted to do with his spare time that day.

For me, I’ve used blogging as a way to force me to stop and think. The act of sitting in front of a blank computer screen makes me focus. “What do I want to write about? What’s going on with me these days? Was I happy or sad today? What do I want to do over the next year?” I ask myself all kinds of questions when I sit down to write a blog post.

Cameron is a good thinker. I sometimes come across him spacing out looking as though he’s doing nothing at all. It used to make me do a double-take. “What are you doing? Are you just sitting there doing…nothing?” I’d ask.

“I don’t know.” He’d answer. “I’m just thinking.”

His thinking used to disturb me. Now I know it’s just him planning and dreaming and taking stock.