10 tips for having a vegetable garden

I decided this year that we would have a garden again. Not too many different things, just easy and simple... Here are some things that I'll have to remember for next year: 1. 4 rows of BEANS is just TOO much, even if half is green and the other half is yellow... 2. If there are 'different' colors of seeds, it means that there is a different kind of vegetable involved 3. Tomatoes do not turn red when not in a sunny spot 4. Only 4 out of the 50 tomatoes that do grow in the sun, will turn red 5. 3 rows of Cherry tomatoes is just not such a good idea 6. Think about what to do with thousands of cucumbers, BEFORE you plant them 7. remember that it's not just picking the vegetables, you also have to actually do something with them so you can enjoy them all winter long 8. Be ready to have your house being taken over by tomatoes so they can lay in your windowsills and turn red instead of green or black 9. Pick the beans before the rain season starts, even if that means picking them in 37C 10. If you do not follow up on number 9, you end up with muddy beans Now here's hoping that next year I will remember my own 10 tips! The picture is not even half of what came and still has to come out of the garden...

Me and my second hand shopping...

Second hand shopping was never really on my 'fun' list... As a kid I did love going to 'rommelmarkten' (comparable with yardsales, only not in peoples yard...) but when I got older, I just thought buying used things from someone else, was gross... Up until I got kids of my own... :) And moved to Canada... :) I'm still not too used to digging through bins and bins of clothes to find something that fits me or one of my kids, but I am trying to! More so for my kids then for me! :p Although I have to admit that I had a lot of fun last spring when I went second-hands-clothes shopping with 5 other ladies! But doing things with 5 other ladies involving shopping and clothes is always fun, second hand or not! :p Anyway, here in Truro, we have a second hand store called "new to you". It's actually a Community workshop and so all proceeds go to Colchester Community Workshops. Today Bauke and I visited the "new to you" shop and we found some great deals: All for 50 cents each...
I can tell you, with deals like this, I don't mind second hand shopping at all!! Marten can practice his words, Bauke can learn his letters and Rachel can tighten up her drawing, all in the middle of having fun!

How did the chickens cross the road? They didn't, but the Lama did...

Today was quit the busy day here at the Zijlstra house... First of all, at 3.40am this morning I (yes... me myself and I) got out of bed to help out in the barn (milk test had to be done) Since I got woken up twice (by precious kids), of which one was at 3.15 I was pretty awake in the barn! :p As soon as the last liters were written down, I crossed the road (ok, the title does not apply here! I'm not a chicken, or a Lama...) and prepared everything that needed to be prepared before the kids would wake up (lunch for Marten, etc) Before I could even lay down on the couch, Marten and Bauke woke up (6.30) and so the day in the house started... Marten ended up 'not feeling too well' so he stayed home (prepared lunch for nothing) And we had a pretty 'normal' day... Up until 3.30pm... Time to get the chickens ready to leave the farm to get 'you know what' ... Yes, I was not looking forward to this moment of the day, since I (yup, me myself and I) had to bring those chickens to the 'slaughterhouse' (creepy...) and because Tjipke would leave before I would be back, I had to take the kids... I'm telling you, those kids learned a hard real life lesson today... Just a few months ago those cute little chicks arrived at the farm, they were little, 'beautiful' (as Rachel calls them) and actually quite cute! They were even named... We've seen them grow up to become such nice chickens... and then it was time... time to end their life... :s For me, I'm ok with this, I rather have the chickens that I will eat (:s) fed by my husband then anyone else (right) But my poor kids... "but mommy, they are so nice, they never hurt me" said Bauke... "they're still so beautiful, I don't care that they're fat" said Rachel... "It hurts mommy, I don't want this to happen" said Marten... And so our journey starts... we loaded the chickens in the car (not mine, luckily) and off we went... 1 Meter ahead 1 pops out of the box... "red alert red alert" call the kids... I put it back in the box and add some more duck tape to the lid on the box... 15 Kilometers ahead, the same one pops out of the box again... this time I added a phonebook, to lengthen the side of the box (and more duck tape, to keep it all together) About an hour later we arrive at the place... The chickens get taken out of the boxes and off they went... Tomorrow we can pick them up, ready to be frozen... I was ready to have some cry babies on our way back, all I heard was Bauke repeating himself "but they were so nice, sigh" and then Marten asked "when will oom Sjoerd buy some new chickens, I really like to have chickens on the farm again, maybe ones that lay eggs..." Done and forgotten... But still a lesson learned maybe a bit too young... Oh yes, the Lama... On our way there I was looking all over the place for deer (ever since I got hit by one, I'm sooooo scared it will happen again) when all of a sudden there was a lama by the side of the road! Pretty funny, must have gotten out of his fence... :p

Lego

As the title says, this post will be about... good old Lego's... :)

Almost a year ago, Marten really got hooked on Lego! Both Tjipke and I love Lego's too, so we were pretty excited when we discovered this!! I must say... we got a little spoiled...

It started out with just a little bit... well... that's how all things start out, a little bucket of bricks, and 1 truck... but soon enough it got a bit out of control, and now we can open our own Lego museum! Grandparents pitched in on our new addiction, loads of Lego sets were shipped from Europe (where they still are a little bit cheaper and easier to get) and birthday and Christmas helped out too... Then we got lots of lego sets from friends, second hand! And last week I was at a yard-sale, where I found TWO boxes full of Lego, for $10,-!!! (The space aircraft was build out of this batch!!)

And guess what Marten wants for his birthday and Christmas this year?? Right... LEGO!! We need a bigger house to house all this Lego... :)

All I'm saying: all you Lego fans out there, come and visit LegoLand at our house!! :D