Gardening in My Rubber Boots

Aug 31

Outdoor Movie Night

Last night we held our first outdoor movie night in our back yard. We asked everyone show up around 7 p.m. to pick a spot and visit. Then started the first movie, WALL-E, around 8:30.

After the kiddies went home, we watched Haunting in Connecticut for our second movie. We figured a scary movie was fitting for backyard movie entertainment.

Then for the third movie, Adventureland, we went inside since our friends Aaron and Kala were the only ones left and it was starting to get chilly. That and we didn’t want to keep our neighbors up too late (we did let them know & invited them).

I tried to get a picture of everyone during the first movie but, unfortunately, it turned out a little blurry. I’ve never been known to be a great photographer.

Anyway, to add to the overall outdoor movie experience we ended up renting a popcorn machine. We LOVED the popcorn machine. It not only added to the experience but freed up time we would’ve spent manually making popcorn for our guests all night. We may even look into buying one for future parties – it’ll be well worth the investment.

To fancy it up a bit, we also provided some fun popcorn toppings:

Truffle Salt
Parmesan Cheese
Melted Cougar Gold Cheese
Tabasco
Johnny’s Seasoning Salt
Fresh Ground Sea Salt
Peanut M&Ms
Gummy Bears

But, since the popcorn machine is magic, it really didn’t need any toppings at all. Every batch of popcorn tasted perfect.

This is a bit of a surprise since we didn’t purchase the pre-measure kits that came with the machine and ended up guessing: 1 cup of popping corn, 1/4 cup of grape seed oil (then olive oil later when we ran out) and 1 tablespoon salt.I’m sure these aren’t the official measurements but they worked great last night! Plus, we just used the random oil we had in the house and I’m pretty sure this is NOT what you’re supposed to do. I read online that coconut oil is best.

All in all it was a great time. I highly recommend throwing an outdoor movie night – even if you can’t get your hands on a popcorn machine. It’s even a treat for the chickens since they’re waddling around the yard right now eating up fallen popcorn.

Aug 27

Dahlia Eye Candy

Row after row of Dahlias on display

This past Sunday we drove to Everett to check out the 2009 American Dahlia Society National Show; this year’s show was hosted by the Snohomish County Dahlia Society.

As you may already know, I love Dahlias.

That being said, I was a little surprised how fast we walked through the hundreds of flowers on display. I guess that’s what happens when you bring along a crafty 10 year old boy. I still don’t know how he did it…

At least I got pictures of the blooms that caught my eye as we rushed past.

Depending how how you prefer to view photos, I gave you two different ways to view (on Flickr):

Click here for the slideshow
Click here for picture thumbnails

If you’d like to know more about the event you can visit their Web site http://www.scdahlias.org.

Aug 16

4 Comments

What’s Blooming this August 15

Here’s everything that’s blooming in my garden this August 15, 2009.

Aug 11

11 Comments

Reed Fencing Covers Ugly Chain Link

Front Fence Covered With Reed Fencing

I’ve been trying to find something affordable to cover the ugly chain link fence along the south side of my yard for over four years now.

So, I was pleasantly surprised to find 6′ x 15′ rolls of reed fencing for $22 each at Lowes. I didn’t know such a thing existed!

I picked up five rolls and started covering the fence the VERY SAME DAY.

The front yard after picture is above. I don’t have any before pictures because I hated the fence so much I never took pictures of the flower beds.

The back yard ‘in progress’ picture is below – you can see the weeds growing from the neighbor’s side of the fence. As you can see, I still need to do some trimming but it already looks 100 percent better.

Anyone can do this little project in a couple hours. All you need are the rolls of the reed fencing and some black zip ties.

Back Fence While Adding Reed Fencing

Back Yard Fence After Reed Fencing

Update 4/29/2012: Our fencing lasted almost 3 years in our wet Seattle weather. I just ordered some bamboo fencing (at $60 for a 4′ h x 8′ w roll) to replace the reed fencing — in hopes that it’ll last a little longer. This option is a little more expensive.

Aug 3

3 Comments

Stella Sneaks in Coop While Chickens Roll in Dirt

I took a little video of the chickens rolling around in the dirt outside their coop. Then about halfway through the video you can see Stella sneak inside the coop to check it out.
The chickens almost got her twice when she tried to sneak past them on her way out of the coop.