Happy Presidents' Day!

Lucy "Honest Abe" O'Mara wishes you a happy and relaxing Presidents' Day!

A favorite bath game at our house is the bubble bath beard.

Remembering Jack Dana

Today would have been my Grandpa Dana's 90th birthday.  He died exactly one year before Lucy's birth and I wish he would have been able to meet her and see how amazing she is and to see me as a mother.  Although he never met Lucy I am glad he was able to meet David.  I remember when David and I were visiting him, probably the first time I introduced them ... at the time I was still planning to return to San Diego where I had lined up a job.  I was explaining about the job I had accepted and that David and I would be dating long distance and he just turned and looked at David and said something like "How the hell is that going to work?"  Well I guess that was the wisdom of a life well-lived speaking (with the benefit of foregoing subtlety in your 80's) because not long after that I decided I better stick around Reno to see where things went with David and we were engaged not long after.

December, 2005 in Concord, CA.

The old adage is that a woman usually marries a man like her father, but David has always reminded me more of my grandpa.  He was a very patient person with a quiet faith.  In his youth I think my grandpa had a build similar to David's.   He enjoyed cooking and entertaining and a good margarita, he seldom complained, and he knew how to love an intense woman like my grandmother, Thelma, who passed away last March. 

I have many fond memories of my Grandpa and will be remembering him in a special way today, which I will always remember each year as his birthday.  So here's to my Grandpa on this February 9, may he rest in peace. 



Mullet in the garden - late October 2011

I could not resist the opportunity to photograph Lucy's undeniable mullet.  It can be styled but without adult intervention it is just this cute little mullet. 

Lucy and Bentley enjoying a warm fall day

Examining the garden with Nonnie

Lucy and Nonnie

Halloween 2011

Here are a few photos of our fun Halloween.  Lucy was a Tyrannosaurus Rex and David and I were Dinosaur Hunters/Catchers.  We attended two family-friendly parties.  One hosted by our friends Heather and James and another hosted by the Pryles.  Enjoy!

That is one scary Lucy Rex!

Her face here is a little scarier

Brilissa as 80's rockers of some type.

Dana/Tinkerbell and little Logan/Peter Pan

The Reichenbergs

Lillian and Lucy

Johnson family ... Orrin and Alicia are characters from Dexter. Lillian is (cute as) a bug/butterfly.

Garrison and Carmen just days before their wedding

Hosts Heather (Edward Scissorhands) and James (Mr. Hangover) Robertson

The Zarcone Zombies

Courtney, Alicia and Catherine

Mr. Prosciutto Face

Heather

Kim and Mike Loranger (homemade costumes!)

Erin's scary snacks for the kid's party

Lucy and Sophia (T-Rex and Cobra ... cutest reptiles ever)

Cousins.  L to R: Lucy, Sophia, Eve, Abby, Maddie (ages 16 months to almost 5 as pictures)

These two just love each other

I love the mild disorganization of trying to photograph a group of children.

Watch out for these chompers!

Lucy and Brooke dancing at Tanuary III

Buddy Walk 2011

In October we took part in the annual Buddy Walk at the Sparks Marina.  This was our second year participating in the Buddy Walk, which benefits the Down Syndrome Network of Northern Nevada.  David's cousin Jordan is endowed with Down Syndrome and David now serves on the board of DSNNN, a great organization that promotes full inclusion of individuals with Down syndrome, and providing education, awareness and advocacy in the community.

Molly, Lucy, David, Jeremy and Jordan. Buddy Walk 2011.

Lucy (all decked out in her ND gear) with Grandma and Grandpa

Little walker, big shirt.

The Square Foot Garden - 2011

We first became interested in square foot gardening after borrowing the All New Square Foot Gardening from my mom, who I think learned of it from my Aunt Christine (they are both great gardeners).  Square Foot Gardening permits you to grow a lot of different produce in a small space and involves limited maintenance.  We are lucky that one of our local garden shops, Rail City Garden Center, carries the special SFG soil mixture, Mel's Mix.  When we redid our backyard last Spring we saved some space especially for this purpose.  I highly recommend this method, especially for novice gardeners like us.  We had never really grown vegetables before other than a meek and brief attempt to use a topsy turvy.  Also, Lucy loved it and she gets excited when it is time to go outside to care for our plants! 

Crops we tried this summer included zucchini, yellow summer squash, red onions, shallots, green onions, carrots, potatoes (we got only one potato!), bell peppers (also not a good yield), artichoke, eggplant, (planted too late but it was pretty), cucumber (total failure), green beans (literally two beans, total, which I ate straight from the garden) and herbs (all went to seed while we were out of town in June).  The most successful crops were onions, carrots, zucchini and artichoke (despite transplanting the artichoke to its separate container once it got too big for the SFG).  We also had loads of tomatoes but we grew those in separate pots with Mel's Mix.  All in all it was a very fun experiment and one we are continuing with our winter garden (emphasis on experiment with the winter portion).  Even if winter lasts a long time again in 2012 we now have our mini-greenhouse that we built (see below) so that will enable us to get an earlier start.  

These photos tell the story of the garden from inception through our current winter garden (lettuces, rainbow chard, lacinato kale).  We also planted garlic and short day onions to harvest in Spring 2012, but they may have gone in too late so we will see how that turns out.  Stay tuned for what crops we try for 2012!

Helper-in-chief, Lucy.

Lucy and David building the garden box, May 2011

Mel's Mix.  In the SFG method you do not use any of your own soil, you use Mel's Mix, which is a mix of vermiculite, compost and peat moss (1/3 each).

Pre-planting

Lucy points out some of our new plants.  She often tried to eat ate things strait from the garden.  Note how little the onions are here (on the left) and how you can barely even see the zucchini plant in the back right corner (in this photo it is hiding behind what turned out to be a very lazy pepper plant).  Then note below how big everything got later in the summer.

We grew some very decent sized zucchini.  I think that is a dime in the photo.

Mid summer!

Our garden yielded one lone bell pepper.  On the left you can see the artichoke plant before I transplanted it to its own container. 

Some rogue carrot seeds escaped the garden and flourished in the decomposed granite beside the box

A torpedo onion peeking above the soil

Lucy with one of the artichokes we grew.  They were yummy but more herby tasting than grocery store variety.

Fresh harvest.

That is one single zucchini plant in the far right corner.  It was basically a zucchini tree.  And look at those tall onions!

Onions (and their cousins) are a great crop because they are easy to grown and good keepers.  We dried a lot of onions and shallots and they're stored in our cool garage.

Newly planted winter garden, November 2011.

Kale!  The kale is the happiest of our winter crops so far.  As it gets colder the leaves become more colored.

The frame of our homemade greenhouse before we added the plastic sheeting.

Baby rainbow (bright lights) chard.  Even the roots are brightly colored!  Those with pink stems have hot pink roots and the the yellow variety have bright yellow roots.

Lettuces.  I have now moved these inside to the window in the kitchen (see below).  Outside became too cold.

Fancy greenhouse.

Chard is surviving but perhaps not thriving.  Dec 20, 2011.

Kale is doing well.  I know these plants look small but I'm just impressed they are all still alive.  Dec. 20, 2011.

Lettuces recuperating indoors.  (Christmas cactus at the right about to bloom!)