Another Bug

Okay, is it me, or does it seem like there are new or at least "never an issue before" bugs out this year? I now have these black beetles on my tomatoes called Blister Beetles. If they come in contact with human skin they exude a chemical that can cause blisters - nice! I think I actually squashed a few with my fingers.....I'm okay so far, but they are chowing down on my tomatoes. The plants are doing fabulously and I have kept the tomato hornworms at bay. I guess, once again, Sevin is a good solution for the beetles, but I was really hoping not to spray my tomatoes with anything. I think I will keep picking them off (with gloves) for now.

My tomato crop is really starting to come in. I have made a couple of batches of tomato sauce and am working on another now. I also decided to make large batches of fresh salsa and freeze half. I am hoping for salsa and sauce for the whole winter. When they really start coming in, I will get out my pressure canner.

I harvested my edamame completely today. I think I will freeze it in small bags. I'm the only one who eats it and it is very filling. I yanked up the plants and fed them to my goats. Then I planted my fall crop of lettuce and spinach. I am also trying cucumbers - again. I have lost every batch to wilt so I keep trying a new location. I know it is those dang cucumber beetles and the lovely, vine borer.

Infant Potty Training

Okay, I know this is a random topic for me. Every once in a while I will mention it to someone with a young baby, but folks rarely stick around for the explanation. When you mention that you potty trained your baby at 4 mos old, they nod, "really? that's great." but they don't believe you. I read an article about infant potty training with my 2nd and 3rd children, but the methods just seemed really impossible to me. (The articles I read had you starting with newborns, using cloth diapers, wearing the baby, and making a sound when you felt the diaper getting wet....ew.) With child #4, I finally gave it a try, with my own modifications, and it worked. I think you might find my methods acceptable.

Infant potty training can be started when the baby has good head control and semi-solid bowel movements (bm), usually after starting some solids at about 3-4 mos old. When you see that your baby is having a bm (straining, squirming, etc.) quickly take off the baby’s diaper and put him on the potty to finish. Usually the baby will also pee at this time. Start making a noise to identify with that body function - “psss”, “pee, pee”, etc. Whenever the baby pees in the potty, make that noise or say those words repeatedly. Within a week or two, the baby will associate that noise with peeing and will pee whenever you put them on the potty and make that noise. Since you can identify a bm by their body movements, noises, and facial expressions, you don’t need a noise for that function. Put the baby on the potty whenever they have a bm and several other times a day during transitions, such as when they wake up, before going out, before they take a nap, or when you put on their pajamas.

Infant potty training cuts back on the use of diapers because the baby is doing most of their elimination in the potty and is potty trained much younger than most children.

My daughter was almost completely dry during the day at about 6 months old. She was completely potty trained by about 10 months old, meaning that she could wear underpants during the day and communicate to me that she needed to use the potty. She was dry through the night at about a year. There was no transition from diapers to potty training, and no control conflicts over potty training (which I endured with my three older children.) Going to the bathroom on the potty was a natural thing for her and once she had complete control developmentally, that is where she was accustomed to going.

People think it is a hassle to interrupt what they are doing to take off a baby's diaper to take them to the potty. I think it is more of a hassle to change a stinky toddler than it is to hold a baby over a toilet while they go IN it. Maybe you can change them at your convenience, but it's not really convenient at that point! At some point, you are going to have to interrupt what you are doing (maybe for days, even months....) to undiaper-train your toddler. I am telling you, this is much much easier and you will be shocked at how quickly they "get it".

Thank you for your attention. I finally got to tell my potty story. I would really like to hear if others actually follow through with this.

Additional information:  Just decided to add a few comments in response to some questions I have gotten over the years.

•When potty-training my infant, I did NOT take them to the potty while out at a store, public places, etc. but if I knew they were going I would just say, "oh, you're going potty...pee, pee, etc." so that they would still associate those words with the action.  This should not be a stressful thing. There are enough opportunities in the home (or places you might be comfortable changing them - a friend's house, grandparents', etc.) to train them, and they are very smart!

•It is never too late to try this method.  Don't say, "oh, my child is already - 6 mos, a year, so it's too late, I'll just wait until she's two."  No!  Start now.   If you can tell your child is pooping her diaper, or she goes off and hides in the corner. Take her to the bathroom, lay her on the floor, pull of the diaper (carefully!) and put her on the potty. I had a changing table on my bathroom counter and one right outside my other bathroom, conveniently located to the toilet.

•What if they have already gone some in the diaper?  Still take it off and let them finish on the potty or spend a few minutes on the toilet.  This will give them the knowledge that this is the proper place to go and most likely they will pee when they are sitting their anyway.

•How often do you need to put them on the potty?  I would say that I put my daughter on the potty about 5-10 times a day in the beginning.  The first week or so there were only a few times a day that were prompted by recognizing it was time to poop.  The other times were before and after naps, baths, bedtime, and anytime that her diaper needed to be changed (yes, it would be wet during the training period because not every urination would be caught.)   I would say within 3-4 weeks, I began to wonder if I should put this diaper back on, because although it was not soiled, it was getting pretty used and out of shape!

Lasagna Gardening

I read somewhere about "lasagna" gardening and so I started one in March. I didn't follow all of the specific layering that is outlined in the book, but just used the general principles.

In lasagna gardening, a layer of newspaper or cardboard is laid down directly on top of the sod. I used chicken feed bags (don't use goat feed bags, they have a layer of plastic - which doesn't decompose as quickly and may be hard for plants to get through.) The bags/cardboard/newspaper kill the sod, removing the necessity to turn over a new plot by digging through thick grass.

On top of the feed bags I put any and all compost that I could find in my yard. In my case, I have really good stuff readily available. I mucked out the goat shed and put that on there. I found the place where my daughter dumped her chicken house manure and put that on there. I hauled over piles of leaves from my grandmother's yard. Rabbit poo from under the hutch. I guess I was supposed to add peat moss and maybe some soil, but I figured there was plenty of regular dirt under the bags and that the plants would reach it eventually. I refuse to pay money for dirt and poo! That being said, manure sure makes the difference in plant growth and production, so if you have to buy it, so be it.

So, I took a picture of another lasagna garden I am starting next to my old garden. It doesn't look like much and that is kind of my point. It's real ugly, so if you are planning some shindig or something, make sure you put it somewhere discreet.

See, it's just a pile of lumpy hay, poo mess. I wish I had taken a picture of the first one I did. Below is the finished one complete with my lovely tomatoes (and my daughter for scale). It was just a lumpy rectangle in the middle of my yard. Then we decided to host my in-laws 50th anniversary party......it was planted and fenced in one weekend.

Ideally the lasagna garden should be started in Fall, giving it time to all compost down for the next growing season. I started this one in March and it was significantly-composted down by the end of May. I did turn it over and made a smaller compost pile within the garden with the stuff that wasn't quite ready yet (hardened chicken poo). None of my composting components are extremely acidic so that they would burn my plants. This is the best I have ever seen my tomatoes and it was the easiest garden to start.

Garden Critter Battles

I am quite fond of gardening. I am doing battle with a number of critters right now. My husband suggested that I keep a gardening log to keep track of some of the things I've discovered. I thought a little sketch book would be cool, but decided I can type faster. I included links to the pictures for this particular blog entry in case you would like a visual reference (but I didn't include the picture ON the blog in case you are eating lunch.)

This year it's a double assault. It started with the Mexican Bean Beetle which my Victory Garden book defines mistakenly as a Cucumber Beetle. The fuzzy yellow larvae are really decimating my pumpkin and squash plants....or so I thought. As I plucked off these quite easily I noticed little troops of gray aphid-like bugs on the plants. They didn't appear to be eating anything, but lo and behold, they are called Squash bugs and can cause wilt in pumpkins and squash like the Cucumber Beetle does to cucumbers! Frustrated that I was going to lose everything, I sprayed with Sevin this evening. I have done quite a bit of research on Sevin and it seems to be very safe....for humans. My only concern is for the bees. The packaging suggests using it at dusk to avoid harming bees.

Another critter is the Tomato Horn Worm, lovely fellow. In the past planting Borage with my tomatoes has kept them at bay. This year my tomatoes are growing so rapidly that the Borage can barely reach the sunlight! There are a few peeking through between the tomatoes, but I guess not enough to keep away all of the THW like in the past. The THW are masters of camouflage. Although my children managed to find two of them in about 30 seconds, while I was out there for 20 minutes looking. I knew they were there, but for the life of me I couldn't see them. The evidence: munched leaves and tiny barrel-shaped poops. I don't know why I am so grossed out by them. They are basically pure tomato.

Well, that is my critter story. It's a different one almost every year. Last year was tomato wilt, the year before was the Cucumber Beetle. I have seen Japanese Beetles this year as well - I should probably look up their dastardly effects as well, but so far they are not doing too much damage...that I can see.

Our Trip in Sketches

I mentioned that I did some sketches on our trip. I didn't bring my larger sketchbook with me because I thought, "it's too big. Who am I kidding? I'll never use it." I found a little Moleskine (a sketchbook) in a bookstore at Lake Powell and thought, "this will fit in my back pocket." So, I bought it.

Lake Powell

Some flowers that were growing between the rocks at the lake.

The kids jumping off the rocks at Lake Powell (this probably isn't to scale, the person should probably be smaller!)

These were mules at the Kaibab Trail (North Rim of the Grand Canyon). Steve took the older kids hiking down the trail, but he didn't want to carry Elise back up, so she and I hung out with the mules.

More mules

There had been a fire in the Kaibab Forest. Miles and miles of burnt trees. Some white and some black.

As we traveled to Zion, there were these "Vermillion Cliffs". Very deep red. Wish I could capture their grandeur and color.

When we got to Zion we got out at a shuttle stop and hiked down to the river. This is what I was drawing when I stood next to Aidan in the "Our Trip in Pictures" post.

Steve took the older kids hiking in the Narrows this day and I spent the day with Elise. We hiked to the Emerald Pools. This is the middle pool. The cliff is the opposite cliff face and just beyond the pool is a sheer drop. If it was spring the pool would have flowed over and been a waterfall.

This is a dragonfly a little girl found and gave to Elise. Elise asked me to draw it. I was going to press it between my book but thought better of it (see the smudge?) Oh, it was already dead. Elise wanted to carry it back to camp to show Steve but it blew apart on the shuttle! She said, "oh, that's okay, we have your drawing."

When we got back to camp, Steve and the kids weren't back yet, but our friends were. So we walked to the river to play in it for a while (we thought it might clean the kids up a little - no showers in Zion! HA! Boy were we wrong!) Elise wasn't still enough, but I managed to get some scribbles down of my friend's boys.

I drew the opposite cliff face while the kids played.

The tunnel at Zion was one lane, so I drew this cliff while we waited our turn. The Red cliff stood in stark contrast to the gray/white cliff behind it. If I had more time I may have put some color into the back rock, but it kind of captures the striking differences in rock.

After we left Zion, we went to Bryce. The rock formations there are funky "hoodoos".

More hoodoos.

The ravens were bold.....but they wouldn't stay still for a portrait.

This is called Powell Point. I only had a few minutes to sketch this. Everyone else hopped out of the car, snapped a few pictures and said, "okay, let's go!"

These last pictures I did in the car as we traveled away from Bryce and the terrain kept changing. There were just mountains and then beyond that there was another range and another.

As we went through the mountains there were stands and stands of aspens. They looked like stripes going up the mountains. We weren't still enough to capture it. Even the kids didn't really get a good picture of it.

Even in one view there is variation in the terrain. The foreground was like sand mountains, then a layer of rubble with a giant rock formation, then mountains..and mountains.

Then flat, with a rock, that got bigger and bigger as you approached it.

As we passed through Capitol reef, the formations were again, layers of different texture. Almost hoodoos then sand, then rubble, then mountain.

That's all she wrote (sketched).

I may try to recapture the first part of our trip from pictures and draw in the last 1/4 or so left of my sketchbook....but who knows when I will have time to do that.

Our Trip in Pictures

Well, it took me forever to upload these pictures. So I am going to start by praying that Blogger doesn't crash on me........amen.

Well, by now you have the overview of our trip,

so I will just try to keep this to narration of the pictures taken by my husband.

If you get bored, just scroll ahead.....isn't that neat?

Not like Grandad's video of his and Grandma's roadtrip.

We flew in to Denver, but then immediately drove to Colorado Springs the next morning and went to "Garden of the Gods".

If you look very carefully,

you can see two rock climbers climbing up this knife-edge rock formation.

The kids climbed high enough for a picture.

Next, we drove across CO heading towards Mesa Verde.

I wanted a picture of the expansive vista.

Really, photography can't capture it.

We decided to make a side-stop at Black Canyon of the Gunnison

before going to our hotel in Montrose (a nice little Days Inn run by Sarah Palin).

Good thing. It was Tyler's favorite place.

Most of the other Canyons are bigger but the Black Canyon is DEEP.

The straight drops really emphasize the depth of this canyon.

This is looking across to the other side.

It is amazing that people would farm the tops of these Mesas

(My husband says it's not a Mesa, well, mountaintop.)

Looking out over the tops of the Mesas made me think that it was an entire other civilization. There is such a cavernous (literally) divide between the valley and the top.

Here is Avanell ushering Elise away from the edge,

it was too nerve-wracking, even with the guard rail.

When we arrived at our campsite at Mesa Verde,

I had to make dinner, of course.

Pizza:

drizzle oil in pan,

place tortilla in frypan,

cover with sauce, cheese and pepperoni.

Serve.

The next day we did tours of several of the cliff dwellings.

We decided that this heavy-set ranger was chosen for Balcony House because it was one of the most difficult to get to and if he could get to it, you sure could.

You had to climb very steep stairs

and crawl through very narrow openings

to get to the dwelling

designed to be virtually unreachable.

Here we are in front of another dwelling called Cliff Palace.

There are hundreds of cliff dwellings in the park and only a few are accessible to tours.

We saw lots of wildlife.

These mule deer bucks were grazing together by the parking lot in Mesa Verde.

And this coyote was looking for a handout IN the parking lot.

We stopped to take his picture and he trotted after the car.

Tyler caught a lizard in Zion.

We saw a herd of bison. I think this was on our trip out of Zion.

Brazen ravens in Bryce

and chipmunks (We did not feed him.

You are not supposed to. This man was just being stupid.)

Tyler tried to make friends.

Elise's favorite was the Stellar's Jay in all the forests.

One was in our Mesa Verde campsite the first morning.

He was loud and unafraid of us.

Steve got a pic of the Kaibab Squirrel.

This squirrel only lives in the Kaibab Forest at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

He said if he had known it was rare to see, he would have tried to get a better picture.

On our way to Lake Powell, we passed through Monument Valley.

We arrived at Lake Powell and drove around the area.

(That is Elise, I think in this little cove.)

The Lake was created by damming the Colorado River, a very deep and awesome lake.

The kids jumped off the cliffs (from a legal height, of course.)

I jumped too.

But mostly I drew.....(will post some sketches later)

and kept an eye on Elise.

Here she is making her way over to Steve and the other kids with me following her.

It looks more treacherous than it was!

Here are brothers in front of the lake (I think this is Lake Powell).

A scenic overlook on way out of the Lake Powell area.

The boys were too close to the edge here.

The kids actually got along pretty well.

Here are the boys being Sports' Announcers commenting on Avanell's jump off the cliff.

The commentary was hilarious.

Wish I could remember it.

Brother and sister stood on the precipice without pushing.

I wasn't here for this, but Steve tells me they were uncomfortably close to the edge

(this was in Grand Canyon).

They even joined in some goofiness together.

And carried a tired sister.

But don't think they're perfect. There was the usual sibling jibes and tiffs.

Elise pitched one when she had to sit in the far-back seat

(after being in the middle seat for over half of the trip.)

She marched to the edge of the parking lot at one scenic overlook and pouted.

She was cute. Poor thing. We laughed.

Next stop, North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Here are the kids outside the lodge.

A short hike from the lodge

to a precipice that overlooks the canyon. I love this picture.

You can see the rain falling on the far off mountains and we could see the lightning too!

We drove to another trail in the park.

We were all a little nervous here as Steve made us pose for this picture on the edge.

At least Elise is sitting down. We kept wanting to look behind us.

Then we hiked in to another location to take pictures of the sunset.

We stood there for an hour or so with some other couples and individuals

(that we didn't know) waiting for the sunset. It was really fun.

After that we drove to Zion National Park. I think Zion was my favorite.

I have less pictures of Zion because Steve did not take his camera

on a trip through the Narrows which took up a whole day.

I do have quite a few sketches though.

Above is a picture of the "Great White Throne" taken from the "Virgin River".

The contrast between the different rock formations and colors in Zion were beautiful.

Here is some mother/son bonding caught on film.

Aidan and I are both drawing in our sketchbooks.

Here's a few of Avanell's pictures in the Narrows.

That's Steve in the foreground.

and the boys.

After Zion was Bryce, not too far away but a dramatically different landscape.

Hoodoos.

Repetitive forms all over the place.

They are formed by water freezing and melting in the rock over and over again.

It is very cool at night in Bryce.

The temperature dips below freezing over 200 days a year.

It is desert though and so, it gets pretty hot in the day.....

I guess that can really stress a rock into doing funky things.

The kids found a side cave to hang out in.

The hike out of the canyon was brutally steep, especially at 8,000 feet.

Funny, though, Elise did not complain at all. She was a real trooper.

Here is Steve and I in Bryce. Did I mention this was our 20th Anniversary trip?

After Bryce we hightailed it to Denver, but the terrain got more and more interesting!

Change after change! but you will have to wait for my sketches!

For now, a parting photo.

We saw a real cowboy herding cattle across the road.

He was wearing a baseball cap. Steve said he was "all cattle and no hat."