Now that the weather is warmer and The Ramos School for Boys is officially out for the summer (- big congrats to Manu for graduating from the first grade with honors!), we’ve had more time to work on yard projects.  My parents have also been coming on Sundays to help us.  None of this would be possible without them!  They are the most hardest working people I know!  Plus, they find anything/everything we need for the yard on Craigslist for cheap or free.  It’s so crazy!

Of course, our blueberries were/are our major priority.  Once the weather got warmer, we aggressively pruned and made clear rows on both acres.  The flowers bloomed, the bees came to pollinate, and now the blueberries are growing.  We’re looking forward to opening Grace’s Blueberries U-Pick towards the end of July.  We are also pleased to announce that Grace’s Blueberries has decided to be a Team Revolution race sponsor!  A portion of our proceeds will go to help the people living along the Amazon river.  We are praying for a plentiful harvest.

We also decided to expand our vegetable and herb garden.  This year, we’re growing tomatoes, Korean corn, Korean pepper, cucumbers, potatoes, carrots, beets, and different herbs.  We tried planting Korean pumpkins, but some animal came and ate every last one.  Not cool.  We planted them out in front so the small plants had no defense.  Anyhow, the boys plan to set up a vegetable stand to sell our produce to raise money for a mission offering.  This is how Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories impact lives.  We’ll see how that turns out.

A smaller project that Israel and the boys worked on was to give our fire pit an upgrade.  We bought bags of pea gravel and used old concrete pieces that we got from a friend to create a “mow-free zone”.  As you will see in a little bit, that has become the theme of all our yard work.

The before…kinda.  The real “before” had green grass growing ridiculously everywhere.
I sprayed grass killer so you can see the grass was turning yellow in that area.
The after!  No more super-long extension cords to trim with the weed-whacker!

And finally, we’ve been working on an on-going project that we hope to complete on Sunday.  Our backyard patio area has been such a pain to maintain since our mower can’t fit in the narrower spaces.  So, to avoid so much technical mowing and trimming, we decided to mulch a large portion of the area around the patio and herb garden.  Israel is also working on a space where he hopes to have an outdoor kitchen area.  With all of the mulching we’ve been doing, we bought a used John Deere tractor with a front loader.  It’s been a huge help.  Manu knows how to run it better than me.

Even when we got married, I never, EVER, imagined I’d be the type of girl who lets her kids run around the yard barefoot and shirtless, who runs a blueberry U-pick (-what in the world?!?), and who dreams of owning a $10,000 John Deere.  Yet that has become a very real part of my life.  God is using it to add a new dimension to who I am and I cannot help but count it a blessing.