Weekend Shenanigans

This weekend's events.

My friend Jamey works for a company that outfits Jeeps with modified shocks, wheels, and basically anything you ever could want to add to a Jeep. Ha also has one he built himself for crawling (off-roading, generally speaking, but specific to jeeps, more or less), and I went out with him on Saturday. The first video below is of some other guy trying to go up a big rock and not making it. The second is of Jamey and me going up the same one yesterday.

Where others fail...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUMTgsR9ueY

Jamey and Byron succeed...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ras1Lhhtz-c

Jamey's youtube page:
http://www.youtube.com/user/paineszj?feature=mhum

Here's a post of happy things, just for someone special in my life (I hope she knows who she is!).

My friend Bree's baby boy, Jack! Born 10 weeks early, he's growing fast now!

Lily of the Valley from our backyard. I was so excited to see these coming up this spring!

My parents' dog, Lily. She adopted my family in the spring. Lily is the nickname for Little Sh!t. :)

And you all know and love this girl. She has a problem with personal space.

I hope these pictures put a smile on your face, my love! You know where I am if you ever need anything! {{{hug}}}

Team Fruit

Last Wednesday was the Kent State Blue and Gold Golf Outing. The outing is an annual event for three generations of Fruit men, and this year's event was especially enjoyable since it wasn't pouring down rain like it was in 2009.

As always, we tore up the course (literally, huge divots and disturbed foliage are the norm for us- the course is lucky it survived) and got to schmooze with big-wigs like the new Kent State athletic director, varsity coaches and student athletes.

The highlight of the outing was when one of the golfers in the group behind us made a hole-in-one to win a $56,000 Acura. It turned out that he was a former Kent State Golf team member. 

Here is a photo of Team Fruit in our matching shirts- from left to right are Granddad Jim, David, me and Jeff.

Here's a garden update! Things are growing like crazy out there now! I ate my first tomato today, a "Sweetie" cherry tomato that I grew from seed, starting in February.

I love the bright yellow cucumber blossoms. We should have our first edible cuke tomorrow! I'm not exactly sure how to tell when a cucumber is 'ripe' so I'll have to guess.

This picture is from June 25th. The basil and parsley (grown from seed) are starting to fill out!

Here's a photo from July 17th. Now we're talking! The tomato plants are up above the fence and the cuke vine is taking over!

Another shot for perspective of how lush this garden is.

Some baby tomatoes and blossoms. I think these are grape tomatoes, maybe?

Baby cucumber!

Cute little yard signs I got at JoAnn's. I need this mint to grow some more so I can make mojitos!

Sugar Snap peas grown from seed! These were never prolific enough to cook with, but I ate a handful as a snack everytime I checked on the garden.

Lush patch of Italian flat-leaf parsley.

Pea tendril with tiny spider on it.

Hope you enjoyed the garden tour... next time I'll have bushels of ripe tomatoes to show you (hopefully!).

xoxo

Once we got the frame for the raised vegetable bed built, it was time to fill it! We went to our local garden center/drive-thru beer distributor (yes, you read that right) and bought bags of soil, peat moss, and compost.

The dogs were in their regular supervisory role.

After a little bit of (back-breaking) work, we were left with a pile of empty bags and a full garden!

The girls were relieved.

On a beautiful day in early May, we set out to put our raised vegetable bed together. Following this tutorial from the Pioneer Woman, we got our materials and instructions put together.

The beagles gathered to supervise the process. They like to be the project managers.

Byron got to work making the boards square and even.

He hammered the stakes into the ground to stabilize the box and attach the upper level of boards.

Here's a peek into Byron's man purse, I mean tool bag.

Rosy continued supervising Byron. She takes this job very seriously.

A higher vantage point gives her a better place to view the process.

What a mischievous boy.

After all that hard work, we needed a treat.

Since I determined today that we actually still have a reader (Hi Suzanne!), I've decided to try to revive the blog!! We've been really busy here at Fruits/Roots. I've started working full-time in Oakland and that, coupled with my 45 minute commute each way (to go 8 miles!) has really wiped me out! I'm not ashamed to admit I have a 10pm bedtime. Every night. :)

Anyway, despite being busy we're still trying to get some projects done around the ol' casa!

Here is one of my favorite easy fixes!

The concrete pad outside our backdoor is old and beginning to crumble. We want to replace it eventually, but this summer was not the time. But, when the beagles came in and out the door multiple times, they were tracking concrete dust and gravel in and out with them.

Enter IKEA's Platta tiles. They're designed to be used on decks and patios and worked out perfectly for us! They just snap together and 3 packs at $35/pack fit our back patio perfectly. Not bad for less than $100 and a half-hour of our time!

Somewhere I have a picture of the completely finished product, but it's lost in computer-land somewhere! I'll have to find it and put it here too!

xoxo

Ever wonder how two former rabbit-hunting beagles adapt to suburban life? I caught our girls in action this afternoon after the neighborhood cat had been in our backyard (I think that's what it was). The deep bay belongs to the black beagle, Mocha, and the high-pitched one belongs to Rosy, our newest addition.

Sorry the video is sideways. I recorded it on our point-and-shoot camera and didn't think not to hold it vertically!

Enjoy!

We recently jetted 0ff [drove] to our action-packed [relaxed] anniversary weekend in Paris [Seven Springs, PA]. On our itinerary? Eat, drink, sleep, Kentucky Derby, repeat [except for that part about the Derby, that only happened once].

Near Seven Springs Mountain Resort, you see a lot of this:

Trees, winding mountain roads and scenic vistas. Since it's still pretty early in the summer [late in the spring?], most of the trees were just getting their bright-green first leaves. The earth has come alive again! [This winter, I wasn't sure it would!]

Byron did the driving. He is very serious about driving.

See? More trees and winding roads.

One of our day trips was to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. Built in the 1930s by Wright for the Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh [of department store fame], Fallingwater is arguably Wright's most famous piece of architecture. It was even on the cover of Time Magazine in 1938!

It's a quick daytrip from the city, and really close to Seven Springs. If you haven't been, you should go! The tour is interesting, the house is amazing, and the grounds are beautiful!

If I could only raise the ceilings of the whole house (they're really low) and scrounge up many millions of dollars, I could live there! Living right above the falls on Bear Run makes the whole house like nature's best white noise machine!

The rest of our anniversary trip consisted of multiple buffets at the resort, watching the Derby, and trips to CW Klay Winery and Glade's Pike Winery [I'm in love with Glade's Pike's Seyval Blanc!].

All in all, it was a wonderful, relaxing weekend and I can't wait to do it again!

xoxo