California Mid-State Fair

August in north county brings the hottest days of the whole summer and a little event called the mid-state fair. It is actually quite a big event for us little town people. I have been going since I was a little girl, riding the rides and eating funnel cake every year. I even camped out there when I had dairy goats in 4-H. Over the last couple years though, I have found it rather annoying and irritating with the crowds of people, the overpriced EVERYTHING, and the 105 degree weather. Every year I say I'm not going and every year I end up getting sucked back in. This year was no exception when I won Kelly Clarkson tickets from Farm Supply. None of my friends wanted to go so my mom kindly offered. She didn't know any of the music but said she loved live music so it would be fun. Our seats were about 14 rows back in the middle. The closest tickets I have ever had at any concert.

My mom and I before the concert.

The opening band was The Jane Carrey band, Jim Carrey's daughter.

Kelly Clarkson rocked it! My mom and I had so much fun. She was great to see in concert. What a voice! Thanks mom for coming with me!

Then Jared won tickets on the radio to Styx and REO Speedwagon. The next day, he won two more tickets. So, the next night we went back to the fair with our friends Mike and Lauren. I'm not really into older rock music and I couldn't get over the fact that the musicians looked so old but tried to dress and act so young. Everyone else seemed to have fun.

Two days later I was invited to see Lady Antebellum on a free stage at the fair with a bunch of girls. We had a blast eating all the fair food, shopping, and riding on a roller coaster. Nicki and Devin sat behind us.

Amanda and I.

After the ride I was slightly sick to my stomach and bruised on my left side from the force of the ride. Oh well, it was still a lot of fun.

We ended the night with Lady Antebellum. Fun times!

More garden bounty

Our squash plant flowering.

Hiro helping in the garden.

One of the three melons that were all eaten by some wild animal. Possibly a raccoon?

My corn that became ripe while we were in Oregon and was picked too late. It was all bad. So sad!

A banana pepper harvest. We have been stuffing them with cream cheese and garlic and then wrapping it in bacon and throwing it on the bbq. Delicious!

Our first green beans.

Garden Update

Most of the garden has really taken off over the last couple weeks. The corn is taller than me now. This picture is of the corn and our tomatoe plant.

This half of the garden is one big mess. We really had to squeeze everything together to fit it in the garden. In the back of the picture is some melon plants and cucumbers. The front is tomatillos and basil. I will be making a lot of pesto this week and freezing it into ice cube trays.

This is the first tomatillo!

Some budding green beans.

My zucchini plant is not doing so well. There are some zucchini growing but most of the leaves are dying. It is getting enough water. Maybe it has a fungus or something. I hope it makes it!

My first yellow crook-neck squash!

The banana peppers are doing very well.

We planted the green beans up against the first row of corn. Now the corn is acting as a trelis for the beans.

G-man's Graduation

So I'm feeling very old these days. Not only is my little brother now a legal adult but he has recently graduated high school and will be attending the same college as me come this fall. I am very proud of him and was excited to be at graduation. I can't believe it has already been nine years since I graduated from the same high school. Yay class of 2009! Grant's girlfriend Kelsey also graduated.

We got to the graduation 1 1/2 hours early so we could get a good spot in the bleachers. My mom, dad, and grandpa did crossword puzzles to pass the time.

I worked on my tan.

Family picture time!

That weekend, we had a joint graduation party with some other families whose sons have been friends with my brother since elementary school. We had a pinata, mexican food, and a jousting bounce thing. Just about everyone got into the jousting. Jared had to pause to answer the phone. It must have been very important.

One of the more hilarious matches was my mom and aunt Carol. They laughed so hard there wasn't much jousting.

My grandfather and brother.

Sunset

Templeton Sunset

Our Apricot Tree

So we apparently have an apricot tree. I got home one day and noticed some on the ground and the birds going crazy.

The tree is directly off the deck and grows over the roof. My friend Lindsay and I took turns climbing the ladder to pick the fruit.

The fruit tasted great but was very small. I think I will prune the tree back this winter and hopefully that will increase the number and size of the apricots next year. This basket was all we got from the tree.

A Lovely Start to Summer

It's raining! What a magical sound to hear in June. Surely the plants outside are happy, especially the weeds. As you can see I have some weeding to do. I have figured out the specific weed we have in the veggie garden are easier to pull out when bigger. I have been waiting to go out there and now it is raining. Darn. Guess I will have to put it off a little longer:) Too bad school is over. If I had a test to study for the garden would be free of all weeds and my house would be spotless.

The corn and green beans are growing fast. Jared keeps asking me if the corn will be knee high by the 4th of July. Everything seems to be growing except for the pumpkins which never sprouted.

These are my new gardening/ chicken feeding shoes. Crocs for $15 at Costco. What a deal! Now I won't have chicken poop and foxtails in my shoes anymore.

I started an herb garden on the side of the house. I planted everything in pots so that if the deer eat anything I can move them onto the porch. There is no fence around this garden so I am a little worried. Jared caught a mom deer and baby eating my poor little sunflowers a couple days ago. See below:

The herb garden has Italian parsley, parsley, mint, cilantro, thyme, roesmary, and some jalapeno and basil plants left over from the garden. I'm trying to grow potatoes that our friends brought back from Italy in the wine barrels. They are high protein potatoes originally from Africa. They haven't sprouted yet. The sunflowers are growing behind the wine barrels.

The chickens are getting more chicken like and less like little alien birds. They are very curious and come to check me out everytime I feed them. They also like to check out the deer and Hiro the cat. They love to eat any type of melon. So far I have named three of them but I still don't know if any are roosters. The white is Hollywood, the tan is Buff, and the dk brown is Big Red.

Hiro's new favorite place is sitting in front of the chicken yard. He likes to stare at the chickens through the fencing. Then they run over to him flapping their wings and he gets scared and runs away. It's pretty funny to watch.