I smell like dirt

I decided to spend some time trying to tame my garden. It took a few hours, some major weeding and pruning of my tomatoes but I was happy with the end result.

In the end I could see all of my green pepper plants and I smelled like dirt. Whenever I go to pick tomatoes I have to reach into a jungle of branches in order to find any. I always come out smelling like my garden...I am not entirely sure how I feel about it. I think I like it because I feel connected to my garden and to the earth, but in reality a tomato plant doesn't make the best perfume!

For a little perspective I have included this picture of my garden back in June. As you can see the small tomato cages seemed like they would suffice.

Here is what my garden looks like now, post grooming. The green peppers now have room to grow without tomatoes smothering them. The plants have swallowed the cages, you can barely see them anymore. I have had to add a few spikes to keep the plants upright. I need to get more. It is crazy how heavy the branches are when they have a few tomatoes on them.

Dear pepper plants,

I am so sorry that I allowed the tomato plants to usurp all of your space. Now you should have plenty of room to grow, to get water and sunlight. Please forgive me and please make me some peppers now so I can brag about you too!

Love,

Liv...your somewhat slacking gardener

There were many casualties this morning during my pruning. I had to cut a lot of cherry tomato branches as they were growing all over the place and weighing down the other plants. Some of the larger tomatoes fell during my work as well. I saved a few of the big green ones to try making fried green tomatoes. Never made them and I don't have a recipe, but I will try to find one! Anyone have a good one?

the canon works/date night

I bought this camera on a whim thinking it would provide me a little bit of entertainment. Plus I loved the sound of the shutter when I clicked the button, that alone I thought was well worth the $5! Part of our date night for last week included getting film to see if the camera worked. I had a lot of fun taking pictures and was very happy when I developed the film yesterday...the camera still works! The pictures below are pictures I took on my digital camera of the original pictures. I didn't want to spend more money to get digital copies of the film because I wasn't even sure the camera would produce actual pictures. Forgive the poor quality and my shadow and reflections on the pictures!

While on our date we were driving in St. Paul and I saw this great old bus. I love the colors and the shape of the windows. I am a sucker for retro things. This isn't the best picture ever but it was one of my firsts and it was out the window of a moving car.

As part of our date we met up with our friend Caleb and the girl he likes ;-) We sat and watched the Red Bull Flutag event. It was really fun, but really hot! I love this picture of them...the original picture is great, not the picture of the picture. I like that you can see Joel and I in the reflection of their sunglasses. Also the sky was incredibly beautiful that day, and these two are good looking...like all the people we associate ourselves with!

Here is my favorite and most readily available photo subject. I think he is so good looking! The next few photos were taken while we sat in a booth at Mickey's Dining car.

I am probably the only one that will ever enjoy this picture but it so much a part of my regular life that I felt it was worthy of being captured. It is Joel on his iPhone. I also love that it shows the ring we just bought in Peru.

Here our cat Lindy looks innocent enough but if you look closely you can see a moth between her paws. She had been torturing the poor thing all morning, carrying it back and forth between the dining room and the living room. Naughty kitty, but cute picture!

After developing my film yesterday I found this shirt at Target. I thought it was funny and loved that the camera on it looked so much like mine! I just couldn't pass it up!

date night

I have a confession...tonight I tried to bully Joel into taking me out for ice cream...I am weak! Thankfully Joel said no, and said he was only trying to help me. So I had to think of a dessert I love that doesn't have dairy in it. I gave Joel three options for our date night

1. Go for a walk and eat popsicles

2. Bike to Cub to buy some angel food cake

3. Go out for strawberry pie

He chose #2, which I also thought was the best option! I love going for bike rides with Joel. Soon I will post pictures of our new bikes. I love them and I love going for bike rides with my hot husband! Also the angel food cake with strawberries was SO delicious

Now we are going to watch "Bounty Hunter". Start date night if you haven't yet, it is the best!

finally a productive day!

I think I have entered a mourning period. August is quickly approaching, school supplies are taking over target and I could count down the days left of summer. Of course I won't actually count the days left of summer because it is too much to bare! This mourning has left me with little inspiration to get things done. But I have talked myself out of it enough to know I don't want to waste time dreading the end of summer, instead I am going to try to cram in as much as possible!

Today I woke up, put away clean clothes, picked up the house, did laundry, watered my plants, picked the ripe tomatoes, went grocery shopping, developed film at target, returned broken garbage can, bought a new garbage can, made four new headbands, biked to a few garage sales, mailed package at the post office, went to the chiropractor, read a little bit of my book, organized my craft room, had dinner with my sister and brother-in-law and now I am sitting down to enjoy date night with Joel!

Hooray for making the most of one day!

My garden is out of control!

Here are our tomato plants, they are completely taking over our entryway! When I bought cages for them I thought the small cages would be enough but I was way off! Those cages have now started to topple over. I feel like I need a machete when I go out to collect the ripe tomatoes.

Here is my first and only bell pepper so far but another one has started to grow.

I have had tons of tomatoes and there are hundreds of green ones still waiting to be harvested. I gave a bunch to a friend to make fried green tomatoes...so far we have been able to consume all of the ripe ones but soon I will have to figure out how to make salsa, spaghetti sauce or tomato soup.

This is my favorite tomato so far! It was so tiny!

This week I took my green pepper, added a few tomatoes and some of my basil and made stuffed bell peppers.

I know it doesn't look pretty but it sure was delicious!

Here is mine without the cheese of course!

It is so fun to be able to use veggies and herbs that I have grown to make dinner! What else should I grow next year!?!

joynin

Shawn discovered this great artist named Joynin while she was in Lima. She took us to Miraflores to see his work and he was there. Here is Shawn with him in front of his paintings.

We went back later and bought two of his pieces.

Here is one.

Went went back the next day and bought one more! The one above was too big to carry home on it's frame so we had to take it off the frame and roll it up. We still need to get it restretched. I can't wait to get them up in our living room! They are abstract but in the big one I can see our Peruvian adventures!

the pack

this picture deserves it's own post. This is Kristin and her archaic pack! It was the source of many laughs throughout the trip, but I can't imagine her or the trip without it! Love you Kristin!

day one: the bike ride

Where we started our biking adventure. Here we are at the top of Mount Veronica at almost 15,000 feet. It was crazy to arrive and see we were starting above the clouds!

It was very cold and windy at the top. Thankfully we were provided another water proof layer to put over our clothes. We also donned helmets, goggles a scarf and of course a reflective vest. I am in front and Joel is the one in back. We were ready for some serious biking!

This was my view while biking. It was crazy beautiful! You can see a bit of the road ahead.

This is where we stopped to snack.

Here is where we stopped for lunch.

Here we are at the end, thankful to have finished the 60 mile trek. It was quite the adventure!

day two: the hike

The crew half way through our trek with the view of Machu Picchu in the distance.

Stopping at a glorious mountain spring to cool off and replenish our depleted water supply. That water was a wonderful gift!

Our hike was hard but beautiful!

Yet another picture of us kissing :-)

day three: machu picchu

A few things about Machu Picchu city

1. It was pretty amazing

2. The first thing I said when we entered was "holy cow"

3. The Incans were very skilled builders, look how they used the natural rocks and added in carved rocks

4. The tour guides don't necessarily always tell you the truth, but at least ours had a great hat

5. It was definitely worth the trek to go see it

6. The llamas that are employed there to eat the grass will also eat your food

7. Joel's favorite part was probably the llamas

8. my favorite part was probably how they carved canals for the water

9. It would have been tough to be a farmer at Machu Picchu, I can't imagine farming the terraces

10. As only fitting me, (if you know me you will agree) I took a nap there

day four: zipline

One the fourth and final day of our outdoor adventure we did the second longest zipline in South America. For a hilarious account of this adventure visit my friend's blog here!

Yay we survived! Let's kiss!