Did you know that plants have friends? I didn’t! For instance, tomatoes and basil like each other. Bush beans and beets are pals, but pole beans and beets don’t like each other at all. Many plants don’t like garlic. Most like marigold. I read up on companion planting, and thought of implementing it in my garden. Turned out to be a daunting task. I found myself panicking each time I had to put a new plant in to make sure that buddies hang out together.

One thing that I did notice (which I am really excited about!) is that unlike all the previous years, this year I don’t have any flea beetle on my eggplant. I have them surrounded with lemon balm, lemongrass and marigold. We’ll see how the yield is, but it sure is fascinating.

Another interesting art project that I am working on is beer can planters. I needed pots of a specific size, but couldn’t find them at Lowes. So decided to make my own by cutting beer cans and using decorative tape. Here’s a couple of pics. Hopefully I’ll have a finished planter to show by next weekend.

And finally the kids, of course! Tanya is at the “Curious Chemists” camp with friends from school. Leena is busy with rocks and bees.

School is finally over. Tanya is now home until the last week of August. This is what summer vacations look like.

Leena got to play with Tanya’s school chicks. She went quite crazy. I think the chick liked her!

Johan presented a workshop “Building a Solar Hot Water Heater” hosted by Spring Creek homesteading. He worked hard on getting it together it last week. Doesn’t he look like a natural?

I was busy with the kids and the house. We hit the pool last Saturday. Here’s a “selfie”!

Until next Sunday, have a fun week.

Summer is around the corner. Tanya is at the end of her second grade. She goes to this amazing school called Nittany Valley Charter School. Her class has been following twelve chicken eggs through their period of incubation to hatching. They have recorded their observations in a journal. The chicks have just hatched. I got to hold them too. They are pretty friendly!

Some kids from her school also went camping a couple of weeks ago at teacher Carolyn’s farm. Tanya wrote about it so I don’t have to.

Meanwhile, Leena has been busy in her backyard school…

…. and Johan with his! He got his latest treasures from The Netherlands this week. Time for some new experiments with stirling engines.

Finally decided to try blogging. We wanted to start a new Bulan blog to document our great road trip that we were going to take in our “Bulan”, which is the name of our camper, next month. But that trip is now off! This blog will document our weekly activities in State College, one of the best places to spend summer in!

Had a nice long weekend. We decided to go camping in our backyard! Tanya had a great time reading the Naughtiest Girl books in the tent, and Leena was super excited as it was her first time sleeping in a tent. The dog was brave about it! Looking forward to some serious fun this summer!

Tanya and Leena braved some backyard monsters!

Tanya made some jewellery out of weeds