Sunflowers for Renee

Ever since Kyle joined Facebook, this blog has been receiving the updates it should. However, with Renee working out of town and not having a FB account, she doesn't get to see all the cool pics I put up over there.

So, as requested, here are some pics of our massive sunflowers that grew up this Summer 2009.

Too Much "Napoleon Dynamite"?

The Stich Bros finally re-enacted the scene from "Napoleon Dynamite" in which Napoleon pulls his brother Kip behind his bike to his first Rexkwando session.


StichBrosRideNapoleonDynamiteStyle – YouTube

Moon and Stars Watermelons - 2008

Renee
We sure wished you grew so much larger. Next year will give you a healthier start and see how much better you do.

Baylin
These were very sweet but very late. I know now why they have their name.

Gavyne
The watermelons were small and were sweet. When taking a bit, it was very easy.

Kyle
Nothing stands more as a testimonial for how nutrient-poor our soil was as these speckled watermelons. Our biggest one could best be described as "personal sized." We saved the seeds, though, to start new ones next year when the soil will be rich.

String Beans - 2008

Baylin
I didn't enjoy the texture and flavor, but we got far more than expected.

Renee
We were so excited about our beans. We were told to expect them to go off "crazy." After replanting them 2,3 times they finally grew. Slowly they climbed, and at the last minute beans appeared. Not a feast, but enough for a meal. But, we are not discouraged; more beans will be planted again.

Gavyne
In the beginning, none were growing and at the end, a giant load came out of them. The taste was a basic bean taste.

Kyle
We were told that once they start to grow, string beans will take over. We never experienced this. It was all we could do to get them to climb, let alone turn our bean teepee into a mound of beans. Eaten raw, these Kentucky Wonders were delicious. Cooked, they didn't match expectations. Next year will be better.

Roma Tomatoes - 2008

Kyle
Aside from the occasional water damage, the Roma tomatoes grew exactly as predicted. Firm, juicy, long and plump.

Renee
You were my favorite to eat. Popping you as easily and readily as the cherry tomatoes. Though your skin is a little thicker, your juices were just as sweet. I'm looking forward to many more of you in the years to come.

Baylin
I never really tasted it by itself, but I think I tasted it in the salsa. I think it had the most water damage.

Gavyne
The tomatoes tasted exactly the same as cherry toms. The only difference is their length.

Mother's Stops Making Cookies

And now for a break from healthy garden food...
Since 1914, pink and white frosted circus animal cookies have delighted the world. As of Monday, 13 October 2008, the world will lose these whimsical tasty treats. Citing steep increases in raw material costs, Mother's Cookies will cease production of their signature brand.

We miss you already, mama.

Kentucky Wonder String Beans - 2008

Baylin
I didn't enjoy the texture and flavor. But, we got far more than expected.

Renee
We were so excited about our beans. We were told to expect them to go off "crazy." After replanting them 2, 3 times they finally grew. Slowly they climbed and at the last minute, beans appeared. Not a feast but enough for a meal. But, we are not discouraged; more beans will be planted again.

Gavyne
In the beginning, none were growing and at the end, a giant load came out of them. The taste was a basic bean taste.

Kyle
We were told that once they started to grow, string beans would take over. We never experienced this. It was all we could do to get them to climb, let alone turn our bean teepee into a mound of beans. Eaten raw, these Kentucky Wonders were delicious. Cooked, they didn't match expectations. Next year will be better.

Brandywine Tomatoes - 2008

Kyle
I need to research how "Brandywine" got its name. Is it the deformed shape they assume, like a baby born from an alcoholic's womb? Whatever the reason, the Brandywine tomato is saucy! The flavor contains hints of Italian spices. When cut, the tom produces a thick liquid, just one step away from qualifying as tomato sauce. The Brandywine really made our salsa robust.

Renee
You grew so funkily. Every one misshapen. But your taste did, oddly, have an alcoholic flavor. I wonder if that's how you received your name.

Gavyne
They look bad but the taste surprised me. The flavor was sort of bitter and I loved it.

Baylin
These messy, misshapen tomatoes had green spots on some, but it didn't matter to me. These were very sweet.

Beefsteak Tomatoes - 2008

Renee
We expected so much from these 'matos. You were supposed to be HUGE and beefy! But you weren't. Although your flavor was fine and you did suffer some in the beginning due to fertilizer damage (a little garden inexperience), I just can't get over how small you ended up.

Kyle
Talk about disappointment. Expecting these tomatoes to grow into huge orbs, they all stayed small. They had terrific flavor, though. Next year, we'll have to figure out how to feed these beauties so they can achieve their full growth potential.

Baylin
In the beginning, it had a very poor crop from water damage. In the end, we got quite a lot, but we lost most of them to water damage.

Gavyne
The beefsteaks were small and that was disappointing until I heard that other people had the same problem.

Carrots - 2008

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Kyle
Not too much excitement to report with this crop. The soil wasn't right for much more than small tidbits. We expected them to be small, since they were Half Danvers. But, these were especially little.

Renee
Probably one of the most disappointing crops. They were given plenty of room and oddly grew in only small patches in that space. Most didn't survive adolescence. Of those that did, some seemed to thrive, but their "root" was tiny. The final carrots, although tasty, were small in size and quantity.

Gavyne
The vegetable was small but a powerful carrot taste.

Baylin
All the carrots were small and pretty sweet, too. There were so many rocks that most had multiple ends.

Strawberries - 2008

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Gavyne
Delectable red berries. The sweetness of the berry consumes you when you eat it.

Renee
You were discovered curiously in a moss patch under the cherry tree With love and care, you were divided and replanted to grow and flourish, which is just what you did. There were a few scares at first, including mutated fruit. But now, you're strong with sweet, bountiful berries.

Kyle
Misshapen and sparse at the start of Summer, these strawberries are in their prime right now. Perhaps they needed some time to acclimate, but I was always told strawberries are a June fruit, not year-round. You have to eat these morsels right away or they turn to mush. Next year, we build a huge patch around the base of the towering Ponderosa pine.

Baylin
They were sweet but small. I'm sad that we lost most of them to the critters.

Cherry Tomatoes - 2008

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Renee
Everyone was excited for these quick pick, quick snack, sweet little red treats. Two were even potted and adorned our doorway. Each boy claimed their very own plant to pick.

Kyle
What can you say about the cherry tomatoes except, "Nature makes the best fruit snacks." Not one of these marble-sized morsels made it into a salad. Graze, graze, graze won't the Stich Family!

Gavyne
Cherry tomatoes are a wonderful bite-sized food. They're juicy and explode in your mouth after you take a bite.

Baylin
The flavor was average, but it had a nice taste. The harvest was very plentiful.

Ground Cherries - 2008

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Renee
This renegade of the pepper patch quickly outgrew its hot and spicy neighbors. Beautiful to watch grow and bloom, however not one for straight picking and eating. Great addition to salsa. Will grow again in center of melon patch for aesthetics.

Kyle
This had to be the surprise hit of the year for me. It grew quick among the hot peppers and put off some of the tastiest sweet tomatillos you ever sampled. The blend of flavors was indescribable, unlike anything I've ever tasted.

Baylin
I hated it. The flavor was bad and I didn't like the texture.

Gavyne
I didn't like it, because it was still sticky and left a bad taste in my mouth when eating it and after.

Dark Prince Tomatoes - 2008

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Baylin
I loved it! It was my favorite out of the whole bunch and I hope we grow them next year.

Kyle
If you weren't told the name of this tomato beforehand, you would think the Dark Prince is rotten. On the contrary, the almost black meat is the sweetest of all our tomatoes. And, it makes for an exotic lookin' and great tastin' salsa!

Renee
You displayed your "dark prince" appearance early on, black almost at the stalk. And you amazed us as your fruit colors unfolded, so different than all the rest. But the most memorable will be your sweetness.

Gavyne
Addicting, juicy, new!

Sweet Corn - 2008

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Baylin
I liked it but I was sad of the small crop.

Gavyne
I loved it because of the good-sized pieces and I want more.

Renee
I was hesitant with you at first. You're so specific with your rows and columns. But watching you grow, so tall each day, you touched my heart, and rewarded me in so many ways. Your place in our garden will always be here.

Kyle
Although we had a small crop and the last few years looked like an eight-year-old's smile, this crop was sweet and tender yet firm.

2008 Stich Garden Reviews Begin

Now that fall has swooped upon us, we have sampled every berry, fruit, and vegetable from our garden.

Kyle says, "Overall, the garden could have been much better. Our soil severely lacks any form of nutrition, not to mention all the trash we found buried among the roots — bent and rusted nails; broken ceramic and intact marble tiles; mailbox doors and even decomposed bags of garbage."

After speaking further with a friend who owns a nursery, Renee presented the idea of creating our own topsoil. We are going to build up beds and fill them half with bark mulch and half with manure. Over the winter, the materials will decompose into one soil after turned with the soil below.

"This way we can add some breathing room for the roots in our clay heavy dirt," says Renee.

Over the course of the next few weeks, we will post our review of each item we grew in our garden this 2008. Enjoy!

Movie Math Problem — The Big Lebowski

Kyle gave us a word problem that's near and dear to him. We figured it out, but we're not going to post the answer until we hear back from some of you. Here's the problem; can you figure it out?

How many times would you have to watch the The Big Lebowski to make the total time of watch "on the hour"? Total Runtime = 117 minutes...

...Now the revealing of the answer is that you have to watch it forty times which equals 78hrs. and that would be 3 and 1/4 days. Our family sure doesn't want to watch it that many times, would you?

Backpacking The Siskiyou Crest

Here's the movie we put together of our backpacking trip on the Pacific Crest Trail. We traveled almost all the way by Jeep to the Wrangle Gap trailhead, walked the remaining distance of the road, and looped back around to the PCT.

To read "Kyle's Special Journal Entry," click here.

And now, The Stich Family Chronicles is proud to present "Backpacking The Siskiyou Crest."



Backpacking The Siskiyou Crest — YouTube

One Year Later...

After much ado, Kyle finally did it. He managed to get our Alaska-visit part of our 2007 photo review. "There are still a couple rough spots, but at least I was able to save this movie file."

Enjoy this two-part second part of the 2007 Stich Family Photo Review.


The Last Frontier Part I — YouTube


The Last Frontier Part II — YouTube

Happy 4th of July!

Hey all,
Below is a quick video I put together of Ashland's 4th of July parade. This was the first year that either of the boys have marched in the parade. Baylin was stoked that Gavyne's band teacher invited younger siblings to carry banners and flags. They made their tie-dyes with most of the rest of the band on Wednesday. Pretty styling duds, huh?


Sing, Sing, Sing! — YouTube