明尼蘇達州遊記-木刻,野生園

這週一二因 老公家要家庭聚會，所以大家約在明州一家賭城相聚，順便做了一些參觀

木刻-
老公的叔叔是個雕刻家,專用電鋸雕刻,特地表演給我們看他如何刻木頭.

這是放在店外的展示品

左圖他正在準備東西, 右圖有沒看出是在刻什麼東西ㄚ??

是啦! 美國老鷹!

這是在比賽時要比誰可在最短時間內刻出的椅子, 世界紀錄是十秒,老公叔叔年輕時是十七秒. 小孩們都是著坐一下好玩.

明州一家私人野生園-

據說這裡是很多從世界各地的攝影家來拍動物照, 這裡的狼狐狸等動物從出生就跟人在一起，所以非常溫馴而且不怕人，你可以看到我們把牠們當娃娃在玩，中間大家還跟"狼群"合唱-蠻好玩.

狼

水牛

大家搶著餵小鹿班比,鹿寶寶根本不怕人.

右邊是鹿寶寶的家人, 左邊是鹿寶寶喝寶奶就跑回家人那.

這三隻臭鼬可當寵物養毛很舒服，因沒有臭腺所以無法噴臭氣，但時時有那噴的動作.因明州規定只有有執照着才可觸碰臭鼬-怕狂犬病，所以只可遠觀不可獬玩.

Windmill Retain Wall

Jun 23 Windmill updates:
When we came home from outside and the tree was planted. Now I only need to plant some more flowers around the three and windmill, then this project would be finished



Finally it is a sunnday. In the early morning my husband brought the oldest one to swim practice at 5:45am then he went to work. After the practice end, he picked her back and came home to work on the reatain wall in the front. The girls all went out to help. But the girls' piano teacher has changed their lessone from this afternoon to morning so the girls just did whatever they could help out. Before noon the half circule of the retain wall was finished. I am thinking to put the tree in with some hosta around the base, but one request is the flowers of tree need to be "purple" color. The windmill, which my father-in-law made, will be in anther half circule. Then I will plant some turlips around in the fall. Look it I think I need to get a dutch boy and a girl then pain them to black and yellow(not blue and white) to match the school color. But my father-in-law thinks I should get a chinese boy and a girl as well.




The left side was working in process, then found the windmill would be too low. The blade will hit the wall if it turns to right. So after whole circule finished, the millwind was moved to left a little and raised a little high. It will look more nice after the tree and flower bulb plant.

After the Rain

This morning a sudden heavy rain came down. We were so surprised to see a huge river was formed in our backyard and lead to my neighbor's backyard, then a lake was there. It was so big and we haven't seen ut before since we moved in last August. But it was disappearred quickly-when we went home after swimming practice-around 7:00pm- the lake was not there any more. I talked to my another friend,who has lived nearby-when I met her in the pool. She told me it used to be a pond, but later the city decided to fill it up and became a green space. Today the rain was too heavy, so the lake was formed.




I think I should put a bridge to it after the patio finished for decoration and labe it-Here will be a river!!




The left sideof the picture is another side of the lake(took it when I stand in the right side of my neighbor house), and the ride side of picture is from my sunroom. You can see the lake is really big.




In this morning I harvest at least 8-10 of Napa cabbage, I gave away rest of them to friends. only left these 4 napa cabbage. Still 3-4 in the garden, Need to harvest soon otherwise they will become bug's food. I also got 2 big cabbage and some other vegetables. Everyday I need to pick the pea pod-there is about one rice bowl full every time I pick.

visitor in the pond

Today work on cleaning the garage, then found a frog in the pond around the lily pad. The girls were so surprised to see it and took pictures of it. Hopefully the frog will like the life of pond. Also the goldfish are getting bigger, and there are two water lily flowers in the pond.

Patio and garden update in June

紅磚陽台完工中:
終於有幾天是晴天，趁著天氣好就開始鋪紅磚，要先一層一英吋沙在細石子上，我老公用一英寸厚的塑膠管當呎用-左圖上的管子就是了,在右邊的圓弧裡的磚頭柱形東西是要來當簡易版的爐子-Fire pit. 希望今天可完工>

Patio updates

Finally, we begin working on the patio again. First need to one layer fine rock and one layer sand above the rock layer, then need to use a compactor to compact the rock and sand down. We rent the compactor for one day and it only cost about 60-70 dollars. Better than using the hand compactor.


This is final step to compact down the sand and rock-go through several times already.

Before put the brick, the four columns and fire pit need to be installed. This is the two columns which is the entry way to the patio.


Luckily the four columns were finished before the rain came. The right side was whole view and left side was close up. The blue tarp was tried to covered the patio-but not enough. The patio need to be drier before installing the bricks and fire pit. Need to wait a little to finish the job since there has been forcast about rain in the whole week. Good for the plants but not good for us.

This is the whole view of left side(from the deck look out), and the patio is in the middle part.-which is the blue tarp cover it-I still need some more rocks or plants or status to decorate the pond.

This is close view of sandbox. As you can see, the girls already build a fort in it and put some chairs which they can sit. EVenthough they use my PVP pipe as look out (pretend). I have been thinking to build the play house above the wood deck and make the slide down and connect with my first floor wood deck from the house-need to think throught a little.

Do you think she look like the status of liberty???


June Garden update


The weather is being so good-temperature is around 80F at day and 60F at night. Every couple days there is a rain, so everything grows well as well as weed.





Under hoop house the vegables are growing well, but the temperature is pretty high, so open the the fabric for cooling down.




Finally my bitter melon is growing-several seedling died since the up and down temperature. Now there are four seedling of bitter melon are growing and at least two varities.




The favar bean is fruiting. hopefully can taste it soon.



This is first year, the cucumb is grow so thick stem and flower so early-hoops house is really help.


This is chinese parsely and itialian parsely. I think I have at least two kinds of chinese parsely in this area.

Calendula(金盞花 ) open the first flower. I like yellow color flower. I plant some sunflower seeds also and hopefully the flower will open soon.

I got some small taro(芋頭)-only less than couple dollars- from oriental market which is sprouting so I plant them in the pot and put them in the pond. They grows pretty good and better than the blck one I got from Early May-which cost me 20 dollars.