What a dirty blog! or My new Mustang!

As I mentioned that I might in my last post here are the pictures from my first use of my dyson animal vacuum. I was amazed and pleased with how much dirt and fur it picked up. And the fineness of the dirt too. My rugs look cleaner than they have in a long time. They even look brushed where they were starting to matt. And my black rug isn't looking so gray anymore! Plus the vacuum was really easy to use and it wasn't a problem at all to dump the dirt.

So here it is: note the clumps of cat fur as well as the piles of fine dust:

The living room has only a small shag rug and most of it is covered up by a cedar chest.

The entry also has a small rug. Here's a picture of the entry so you can get a sense of the size:

The dining room was the hardest to get clean with my other vacuum. I was never satisfied with the job it did. But now look at the pile my new vacuum picked up and the rug looks so much better! It really got all that cat hair up!

Then the den where the kids play and snack.

Ewww!! Gross right? I vacuumed only 2 days ago! But I am so happy to know that that dirt is no longer on my floors! Ick! I think we'll all be breathing better soon.

So the thing looks like a toy or even space-agey but it really acts like a machine!! It is a Mustang of a vacuum cleaner! I think, like people name their cars, this one needs a name too. Have to think about that. Suggestions? Has anyone named their vacuum cleaner? (I know, weird huh?)

New Vacuum

So, our old vacuum is just not sucking like it used to. In fact it's putting out more than it should. haha. I have been frustrated with it for a while. We have a cat with white fur and we have a black rug in the dining room. Plus a shag rug in the living room. And our furniture is getting furry. Our vacuum just isn't cleaning like it should.

Then there are allergies: Alan with his asthma and Katherine with her eczema. Katherine especially has been suffering. She is allergic to cats (and maybe milk but that's still being tested at home). I have a cat I adore and have had for 10 years. I'm not ready to give him up. So I am doing everything else I can do. I have put air filters through the house and changed the furnace filter to an allergen rated one. She's really improved since. The next thing to do is to get a good hepa filtering vacuum that will also clean a shag rug and pick up fur really well.

So, I was at Target yesterday buying a present for Gabby to take to her friend's birthday party today. With curiosity, I walked over to the vacuum isle just to take a look at the market. I found only one vacuum among the several there that was rated "asthma friendly". I took a flyer home and stayed up way past my bedtime researching this particular vacuum while also looking into other top of the market vacuums. By far this vacuum had the best ravings. But also this vacuum is the most expensive. Hmmm...worth it?

Well here it is:

Pretty cool looking huh?

It is a Dyson. This one is the Dyson DC25 Animal model. It is a top of the line vacuum and the best for allergies and picking up dirt and fur. It's the more expensive of the dysons but it has what I am looking for. There are other less expensive models. It was amazing what some of the customers said about it (and the other models). Even some of those pictures! People would vacuum with their old vacuum and then vacuum with this and take a picture of the dirt and dust it picked up. Some even had to empty the canister twice before they were through and they claim to be regular vacummers. Okay, that has me hooked.

Plus it's lightweight, has an attachment to pick up fur off furniture, has a lifetime filter which doesn't need replacing and it's bagless which is good for the environment. Plus it acts as a little air filter. From the Dyson website: "Air expelled from a Dyson cleaner has 150x less mold and bacteria than the air you breathe." So it's not spitting out dust and odors like my old vacuum is. Wonderful!

I found one on sale at Best Buy and will pick it up today if it's in stock. Expensive, yes. Worth it, I think so. I have already seen Katherine's eczema improve just from putting air filters around the house and changing the filter in our furnace. I can do so much more with this vacuum and I think I can still keep my cat! Definite plus there! And hopefully I will have my new vacuum for several years.

Haha. Maybe I'll post my pictures of our first use too. That could be fun and maybe slightly embarrasing. But hey. If it works like everyone says then it'll be a keeper!

My Backyard Fruit Orchard

The project I have been working on lately is one I can't wait to see the fruits of (pun intended haha) and taste them too! We have decided that this is the year we are putting in fruit trees. We want to buy our trees from a nursery rather than home depot like we did at our other house just to see if we can get some better trees for our money. So I did some sleuthing online and here is what I found:

There are a few websites that look good for buying trees from. Adam's County Nursery which is in PA is great place to start. They give you a good selection to choose from and tell you when the fruit matures so you can compare and decide what fruit is best for when you want to harvest it. They also tell you what stock your fruit is grafted on and for the apples they have a really handy graph to show you what size you would expect your tree to grow to. Plus they have some good information on each tree: when they flower, when the fruit matures, whether or not they need a pollinator. The only downside is they run out of stock quickly and you may not find just what you want even though they grow it. They seem to do a lot of wholesale business selling to area orchards and nurseries but if you buy at least 3 trees they will drop the shipping charges.

Willis Orchard Company is in GA. They also have a great assortment of fruit trees, nuts and grapes. They also sell you trees that range from just a couple years old to fruit bearing age and instant orchard age which I assume to mean that you can get fruit from it the year it is planted. They also have some really nice pictures to see what the fruit looks like. It is also one of the two main nurseries that come up if you do a google search for fruit trees for sale.

Ty-ty Nursery is also in GA and is the other of the two sites that come up in the google search. They have lots of "tempting" pictures and appear to have a good selection but their "helpful" information is useless. They are all talk and apparently no substance. In fact a google or even amazon.com search for them will turn up a lot of negativity and unhappy customers. They appear to be a fraudulent company so keep away. If they are legit they need to work better on their PR.

Miller Nurseries has some good reviews from posts I found online. I wouldn't have found them without the chatter because they didn't come up on the first page of the google search from what I saw. I am glad though that I found them. They have good selections. They also sell dwarf and compspur trees. The other places above sell the dwarf but I wanted to make sure I could get a dwarf cherry and here I can.

There are other places too but these are the ones that stood out and were most worth mentioning.

So, some information on fruit trees. First there are many different types of stock that the fruit is grown on. The largest is standard stock. These are the giant apple trees you might find out in a field that are not easy to harvest. You would definitely need a ladder. These can be 20 to 30 foot trees.

Semi-dwarf trees are more accessible. The can grow to 20 feet and you might still need a step-ladder to harvest from them. But you can also keep them pruned shorter. Their range is about 10-20 feet.

Dwarf trees are the pick for a backyard orchard. They are short enough to harvest from the ground with a range of 6-10 feet. The rootstock on these can be weak though and they often need staking to protect them under the weight of the fruit.

Then there's a more compact tree called a compspur. Comp = compact Spur=the fruit grows from little spurs from the trunk. They say that compspur trees can produce more than a semi-dwarf tree. Plus you can plant them closer together and their height averages 10 feet. The only nursery I found online that sells these is the Miller Nursery and I've only seen compspur apples. But there may be other places that have them.

The shortest trees I have found are the mini-dwarf or natural dwarf. I might have the term wrong but they average between 4-6 feet tall and are good for patio planters and small backyards.

Apples come on all the above. Peaches and nectarines are grown on standard stock but they are still small in nature growing about 10 feet high. But check before you buy them to be sure. Cherries are mostly semi-dwarf but you can get them as dwarf trees.

Apples, unless otherwise stated by the nursery, need a pollinator. A pollinator is another type of apple or crabapple that flowers at the same time and the bees can pollinate them. Without a pollinator you won't get fruit so you would need two trees. My favorite apples Gala, Honeycrisp and Grannysmith apples work well together because they flower at the same time.

Nectarines and peaches are self pollinating. Only one tree needed here! Also, I learned that a nectarine is in fact a peach. It was discovered in an orchard growing between two peach trees. Sometimes a nectarine sport will grow from a peach tree and a peach sport will grow from a nectarine. The gene for the smooth skin of the nectarine is recessive and of course the fuzzy gene is dominant. So it's just a matter of preference. Do you like the fuzz or not? I don't like the fuzz.

For the cherries it depends on what type you want whether you need to get two trees or just one. Sweet cherries like Bings need pollinators. Tart cherries like Montmorency are self pollinating. Tart cherries are the best for pies and jams.

So what am I putting in my garden? I have ordered dwarf Grannysmith and Honeycrisp apples and a white fleshed nectarine called Emeraude from Adam's County Nursery. I love that I can keep those local. I will be getting a dwarf tart cherry probably from Miller Nursery. We will also be planting blueberries - which I have ordered from a very local New Jersey blueberry farm Grover's Blueberries. I think we will also do Concord grapes which are great for jam and juice.

Yes, our backyard will be turning into a fruit orchard and I SO can't wait to see it all come to fruition (haha, like the pun?) over the next couple years! I just hope we're here long enough to enjoy it!

Family Resolutions

As is tradition we did a Family Home Evening last week on making and setting goals and made some resolutions together.

Alan has set a goal to be able to run 5 miles in 45 minutes. A great goal and hopefully one he can reach before the Moorestown 8k in June. He also plans to finish school in May. I am really excited about that one! He would also like to write and publish a paper.

I have set goals to continue to be active through walking and running and to try to keep active through this pregnancy especially after a first trimester of utter fatigue. I also have my sights set on a possible 1/2 marathon in a year in Disney World (if we can get our family out there). I also will be doing preschool at home with Samantha, reading my scriptures regularly and keeping up our family blog.

Gabby has set a goal to eat healthier foods and also be more active. She wants to learn to ride her bike without training wheels (mom and dad are really tardy on that one). She wants to run with Daddy once a week and has a goal to be able to run 1 mile. And she wants to participate in the township sports programs.

Samantha wants to go on a real horse ride. Hmm, I wonder where we can do that? She also has goals to memorize our address and phone number, learn to write her name and learn the alphabet and do preschool with mom. She got the Leap Frog alphabet magnets for Christmas and the other day at dinner on a whim I had her learn A through D. Gabby pointed out that I was preschooling her. The next day at dinner she said "mommy, preschool me!"

Katherine's goals are to keep learning to talk which she is doing really well. She said her first sentence the other day in fact: "I want that", and has been saying more and more each day. We also have goals to potty train towards the end of the year.

Our Family/Couple/House into a Home goals:
3 temple trips this year. (I hope we are still here when the Philly temple is built because I would love to do more than 3 in a year.)

3 Family outings - one has already been done. We went to the Franklin Institute and got a family membership. Guess I know where the other two outings will be. Frankly (haha) I think we should try to do more than 3 family outings but with Alan trying to finish school and a new baby coming this summer it may be all we can do. But this doesn't count time going to visit grandparent's and the Taber beach week in August.

Save money for a trip to Disney World in a year. (Which is a secret from the kids at the moment so shhh...)

Redo our family room. Yep. That will be a job. Ideas for a massive brick fireplace? Personally I think the brick is ugly. Might paint it. Would love to tile it but that may be asking too much. Maybe drywall part of it in and then tile the rest. It is brick floor to ceiling and covers most of a wall. Anyway, we'll save that for another time.

Redo entryway stairs and hallway and finish our living room. The stairs need painting. The entry and hall could stand to have that textured-wallpaper-that's-been-painted-over removed. We did our living room a while ago but needed to touch up the paint around the ceiling and our vents were never put back. Shabby job that needs fixing.

Clean the basement and set up our food storage.

Fix all the drafty windows and doors and check on air ducts (the basement is warmer than I think it ought to be) all done before next winter sets in.

I think that is plenty for one year. Hopefully we can get these things done, meet our goals, be in better health and spend good times together. It'll be a good year I think.

On the Run Again

A year ago, almost exactly, Alan and I set a goal to run our first race that was scheduled in June, an 8K in Moorestown. Some other members of our ward were going for it so we decided to as well. I was never a runner before and was really out of shape. But we did it. I was thrilled that I had accomplished something so difficult and also so amazing. We'd run our first race! I was in better shape than I'd been in a long time. The unfortunate thing about this is we didn't set any new goals even though I knew I needed to in order to keep going. Summer heat hit. Vacation hit. Then school hit and I'd only been out to run again a small handful of times after the race was done.

I'd gone to the gym in the meantime and taken some pretty intense classes. But when vacation in August hit and then school threw my schedule off in September it was hard to keep up the frequency that I'd had. Going once or twice a week and missing weeks. Then first trimester extreme fatigue hit in October and I quit exercising.

Fast forward about 3 months and my energy is coming back and my muscles are screaming for more movement. Last Sunday in sacrament meeting a friend talked about her adventures in running this past year as well having not been a runner before and the goals she set for herself. It was a talk on making goals and improving oneself. A really good talk too. This got me to thinking that I should try to pick it up again. But how, seeing that I'm pregnant and it's generally taboo? This same friend later this week mentioned a half-marathon in a year which of course got my attention. I thought it would be a lot of fun but again, how can I train for it if I'm pregnant? Taboo! I looked at the pace requirements (16 minute mile) and realized that if I go for several brisk walks per week through the next 6 months and then train for running after the baby is born I can easily make those requirements. I would have at least 4 months to run maybe five if I recover quickly. And if I can run even a little bit while pregnant I'll be that much further ahead and I won't have lost everything I gained last year. Plus, I have been wanting to have a more active and fit pregnancy this time around instead of cringing at exercise the whole time like I'd done with my other pregancies. I want to show that I can do it.

Well, I looked into running while pregnant online through a google search and found many encouraging things about it. Turns out running is really good for mom and baby. Baby is leaner and healthier. Mom is the same and has an easier delivery and quicker recovery. Plus the pregnancy weight comes off more easily (we'll test that one for sure). Blood pressure is lower, she's stronger, aiding the delivery and the baby is likely more able to self-calm.
While running the belly doesn't shake as badly as you would think and the baby has plenty of padding. A woman can run until delivery as long as she is comfortable and can use a belly belt for added comfort.

Guidlelines: You should always check with your doctor first. I haven't yet but will mention it at my next appointment in a couple weeks.
Pay attention to how you feel. Any pain and you should stop. If you feel good then keep going but don't push too hard. You likely won't be able to do as much as you had in the past. You should drop your pace or drop your distance or both.
You shouldn't take this on if you haven't exercised or even run before. Pregnancy is not a good time to start running and really you should be running regularly already. But if you have run before and have the strength and energy for it then give it try always listening to your body. But do exercise even if you haven't exercised before. Your pregnant body needs exercise. (Mine certainly does and has been screaming for it).

So, definitely encouraging. Do I qualify as having been running? I know it's been a while and I kept up on exercise otherwise except for September until now. Can I still try it? How much can I run or have I lost everything?

Well this morning I tried it. I had some energy and also will power to get myself dressed and out into the cold air. Thankfully it wasn't too bad out. I could run in long sleeves but didn't need a coat or sweatshirt. That helped. A lot. I'm a baby when it comes to running in really cold or really hot weather although I'm more of a baby when it comes to running on the treadmill. It bores me to pieces!

There is a convenient mile route through my neighborhood so I took off running to see how far I could go before I had to stop to walk. I figured I wouldn't be able to run the whole mile. I was right but suprisingly I got further than I thought I would. I managed just over a half mile. Then I had to stop and walk for a few minutes because my lungs and quads were burning. I ran again the last tenth and then some of a mile.

I looked at my stats from a year ago when Alan and I first started. I had a 19:21 pace. Essentially all I could do at the time was walk. I couldn't even jog to the corner. Today, starting again, I had a 13:40 pace. And pregant too! Not bad huh? I think I might be able to do a half marathon in year. That's my hope anyway.

How do I feel now a couple hours after my run? My quads are tired and my lungs have loosened up but that's to be expected pregnant or not. Otherwise I feel petty good. I think I'll keep going.