I finished clearing out the tomato plants from the two brick planters and dumped the debris.
It’s almost 100 out there now, according to our thermometer in the SHADE on our deck, so I’m opting to wait to try to use the weed whacker until about 5:00 or so, when hopefully, it will be a bit cooler. :0)
In the meantime. I wanted to share how the elephant ears are doing!
They don’t have too much farther to go until you won’t be able to see the windows in the garage behind them. I’m thrilled.
They are truly happy in this pot, with enough sun, the irrigation system, and a bit of protection from the winds we get up here.
When the weather is such that the leaves are spent after freezing, I’m going to just cut them off level with the soil and then cover them thickly with mulch, hoping to get them through the winter and able to thrive again next year.
This is the way I feel at times working in our yard. I don’t know how long it would take for things to go back to completely wild if my efforts had to stop, but I don’t think it would be long. We live on top of a ridge line and have left most of our 8 acres wild. We keep a small ‘civilized area’ at the very top, around the house and shop, with space for my square foot garden.
I will go outside soon to try to finish the latest effort – clearing out the two tomato planters and weed whacking around them, plus around the yard. Today is supposedly the last of the really hot weather here, with a cold front, rain, and cooler temperatures forecast for tonight and tomorrow. Hooraaaaaaay! I’m ready.
I’ve just finished my third session in the yard today.
I’m trying to get the two brick tomato planters cleaned up. I’ve collected three wheelbarrow loads of greenery packed down. I’m ALMOST finished with that. I’ll try to finish that tomorrow, and then finally do the weed whacking I need to do around both planters, and then as far as I can reach under the deck.
I got overheated the first two sessions. This last one was better. The sun is starting to ease off for the day, so I’m not huffing and puffing badly this time.
I’m debating with myself about whether to just leave them for the winter, or to haul Mel’s Mix out there, filling up both planters, and then putting tarps on them. Much will depend on the weather over the next weeks.
For now, I’m glugging a big bottle of cold water, putting my feet up, and saying “Ahhhhhh!” :0)
We’re having nice weather here in Arkansas today. I’m planning to spend some time in the yard again today, pulling out spent plants, trimming, pruning, etc. I’m concentrating on not overdoing it, since the people on TV keep insisting on calling me ‘the elderly’ when they’re talking about Covid and vaccinations. GRRRR!
I would like to remind them –
David Mamet-BrainyQuote
So we will run an errand or two and then I’ll spend several sessions in the yard today – resting in-between – and see how much good I can do out there. :0)
Since our weather is much more civilized than it has been – only 90 degrees F. today with much less humidity – I’m planning to pull out our tomato plants today. They have spread their vines all over the place, making it impossible to mow or weed whack, and have stopped producing tomatoes, so it’s more than time to get them out. Fresh ripe tomatoes are one of the joys of our lives, so it’s well worth the time and effort to put them in each year. We get spoiled from the color on our plates, the fabulous aroma, and delicious taste for two to even three months each year!
I have a lot to clean up in the yard, particularly since I’ve neglected all but the absolutely necessary with the heat we’ve had, but I’ll try to do a bit each day until things look better around here.
Toronto Star
I have never coveted money, as such, but it would be really nice to never have to worry about it. I’m happy whenever I see someone who has really been successful in this regard due to hard work and providing something people enjoy. I read awhile back that Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, one of my favorite authors, has a net worth of around $400 million. I couldn’t be happier for her and her family. She has given me so much through her writing over the years, providing entertainment, escape, and challenge. I selfishly want her to live, thrive, and write forever. :0) (I’ve preordered the paperback version of a new J.D. Robb book that will be delivered in December, and she has a newer hardback coming out in February…)
I think you already know that I’m a champion procrastinator, having given myself several awards for it over the years. (Everyone should be good at SOMETHING. :0) ) My latest procrastination is about bookkeeping. I’m TRYING to make myself catch up. I’m several months behind right now. As one of my friends, Maria, suggested about my dieting efforts – that I should break the big goal into doable chunks so it doesn’t seem to intimidating – I’m trying now to say ‘one month at a time,’ and have put the first one on my to-do-list for today, along with the removal of the tomato plants. Fingers crossed I can get it DONE.
After a lot of lightning overnight, we’re having a truly lovely day today. I will finish my blog writing and “have at” my to-do list. Have a great day!
Yesterday I saw that the weather people were forecasting a cold front and rain overnight. My husband had mowed the lawn recently, but I had been putting off my part of it, weed whacking, for several days. I finally got out there, even though it was really hot and humid, taking two sessions to make my way around the house, cleaning up the areas that he can’t reach with the mower – along the sidewalks, around the edge of the front porch pad, the garage pad, under the deck, the steps on both sides of the deck, around the planters, etc.
It took me about an hour to finally cool down after I came in. I drank lots of water, rested, and finally jumped into the shower before fixing dinner. I really don’t handle hot weather as well as I used to. The cold front and rain did, indeed, come overnight. It makes me happy today to see that it looks like someone really does live here and care about things. :0)
These are from the bulbs I gave up on when nothing happened in the spring when I re-planted them after over-wintering them in peat moss in the garage. Even though our heat index is still around 105 degrees F., these continue to bloom. I threw them off “the edge of the world” in the front yard. There is no irrigation there. Amazing.
These are in the planter to the east in our yard. This planter has a lot of shade – I think TOO MUCH shade for the plants to be happy.
These are much happier. They are in a planter beside the front porch.
And these make my heart sing. I don’t know whether they will get taller than the windows behind them or not. They are way over my head now and seem to be smiling.
YARD – My sanity may be waning. I’m really trying to tackle the waist-high grass and weeds that have taken over behind the shop and beside the garden. When it’s not raining and dry enough to work, the heat index is 100+. ARRGGHHHH!
Yesterday morning I did get a start on it. The first part of the project is trying to ‘free’ the 250 gallon propane tank out there. It’s almost buried with all the high grass around it.
The reason that I have this project is that, due to the guy wire making one corner of the garden fence border secure being in the way, my husband can’t mow this area. (actually, he DID do it once, being hard-headed in the extreme. He got the grass cut, but had tears and rips in his arms and on the side of his head from forcing his way through the small opening while on the mower – and then back out again – while I was occupied elsewhere. I ripped him a new one while cleaning up his wounds, making him promise not to try this again. I told him that I would use the weed whacker on the area.
Since I’m a lazy, procrastinating person, I’ve let it get totally out of hand. My husband noticed it the other day, so I’ve redoubled my efforts to get this area under control before he decides to ‘handle’ it again.
It rained overnight, so things are too wet right now. We will go to Lunch Bunch in about an hour and then I’m hoping to be able to do a session or two when we return, though the forecast is egg-frying-outside this afternoon. Fingers crossed.
SHOP – I should be able to spend some time out in the shop this afternoon. I got a bit more done on the Christmas presents I’m making, plus am now ready to start re-painting the dragonfly after making sure the glass is secure on his wings and gluing new eyes on.
I’m sitting in the a/c under my ceiling fan glugging a bottle of water as I type this. BOY! The weather people are either nuts or lied. They SAID it would be cooler today – high only in the 80s and less humid. I’m heading up for a shower as soon as I finish this. If a weather person were here, I would bite him or her in the leg.
I decided, because of the weather report, I would grit my teeth and get a tarp on each of the six raised bed square foot planters today. Once you get started out there, you feel obligated to finish.
I didn’t find any sign of ants in the planters (thank you, EIGHT), but I DID have a bunch of them in the trash can where I stored the tarps and the bungie cords. I don’t THINK I got bitten/stung, but I hosed down the trash can and put it upside down on the ground to try to get rids of the ants and other bugs. (I may have spoken too soon. I just slapped an ANT crawling down my arm!)
It’s good that I finished this today. I can put it behind me, anticipating my next garden and dreaming of what I will plant.
Isn’t this guy beautiful? – and the photograph is awe-inspiring.
We don’t have any outside errands today, so we’ll get our mail later and consider it done. :0)
Audrey Hepburn – Katiedaisy.com
As soon as I finish this, I’m going to fill up my two-gallon spray container with EIGHT and go out to the garden to spray it in the garden boxes, murdering any bugs there. (I’m still having to treat the ONE sting/bite a fire ant gave me the other day, though my arm is finally not swollen anymore). If the heat is not yet lethal (it’s supposed to FEEL LIKE 110 this afternoon) I’ll fill my other container with KillzAll and spray the boxes for weed roots I missed while cleaning out the boxes. Fingers crossed.
Clipart
I had an idea of what I would like to make for my friends for Christmas this year! I ordered some things and received them a couple of days ago. I started work on them yesterday in the shop and will turn on the a/c while I’m out spraying so I can continue working today on them – plus a dragonfly I’m refurbishing.
agirlandagluegun.com
We’re getting to the very last of the tomatoes now. We were delighted to find these yesterday right before dark.
I’m keepin’ on keepin’ on regarding my efforts to lose the lard. My old body is stubborn, but I’m eating right, exercising, either going by my routine or working outside in the garden. I’m trying to drink all the water. My efforts vary, but yesterday was a 4-bottle day. Nothing exciting to report, but efforts continue.
This is my square foot garden. I finished the weeding of the six 4’x4′ foxes. The next step is to spray the soil alternative with EIGHT to kill the bugs and KILLzAll to take care of any weed roots I missed. Finally, I’ll cover the boxes with tarps to stay until the next planting time. The heat index today and tomorrow are supposed to be around 110 F., so I’ll do what I can in the mornings and then wait until the next day.
The onions are drying now. The sun, wind, and any rain will work together so I can put them in mesh bags and hang them on hooks in the pantry soon. I’ll check when we get back from doing errands to see if we have any ripe tomatoes to gather.
Not sure what the rest of the day will hold. As usual, I would appreciate a quiet day.
I’ve done two sessions so far today in my veggie garden – about an hour and a half. It’s really sunny, in the 90s and HOT out there. I’m trying to get the last of the garden boxes weeded and cleaned out. This is NOT my favorite part of gardening.
I got 4 of the boxes done yesterday. Unfortunately, of the six boxes, these last two are the worst. They were both filled not only with dead veggie plants and weeds, but also Bermuda grass. It amazes me that Bermuda can plant itself and thrive about 4 feet up from the ground, and fire ants choose to make their homes there, too.
I will try to get the last box weeded today. We’ll have lunch in about half an hour and then I’ll go back out. I don’t know if I’ll get the tarps on today or not.
My husband – (the wonderful man who (1) figured out how to make a garden where I didn’t have to get down on my hands and knees or bend over double, (2) MADE the wooden boxes and the structures to hold them up, (3) designed a system for automatic watering of the plants, AND got me a used cement mixer so I could make the Mel’s Mix more easily) – made the mistake of just now (having just gotten up from a nap) telling me how I should be doing the project and “suggesting” I cover the boxes with tarps when I finish weeding. I just looked at him, glugging water. After being married to me for over 52 years now, he realized that maybe his suggestions about how I could do the garden might be mistimed. He is now in the living room watching TV.
I’m a “Good Girl” this morning. This doesn’t happen often, so I have to pat myself on the back while telling you about it. :0)
I told you that my plan was to work in the garden this morning. Many times my plans go awry, I get distracted, my husband wants me to help him do something, or I’m just plain lazy. I have good INTENTIONS, but it just doesn’t get done.
I’ve just come back from working in the garden! I harvested as many onions as I could find and then weeded three of the six raised garden boxes. I did NOT get bitten/stung by a swarm of red ants! On the way back to the house, I spread the onions out on the trailer edge. I unhooked hoses. I am cooling off and glugging a bottle of cold water as I type.
I am substituting my work in the garden for the elliptical trainer exercise I was scheduled to do, and am putting a gold star on my calendar. I PLAN to do my yoga practice as usual this afternoon. :0)
So far, it looks like I won’t have to mix and spread Mel’s Mix. The three boxes I weeded today were fine on the amount of soil alternative.
The PLAN is to finish weeding tomorrow morning, harvesting any remaining onions. Then all I’ll need to do is cover the boxes with tarps and take down and store the irrigation control from the outdoor faucet.
I’m heading out to my square foot garden soon to pull up the sweet onions. Our weather is such that, even with our irrigation system, most of our plants have given up the ghost. This was a weird summer, much cooler and wetter for a lot of it and then super-hot and dry with sun hot enough to almost boil the plants right on the vines.
The only thing left in the garden now is the onions. My plan is to go out this morning, armed with my 2 gallon sprayer filled with EIGHT, and pull the onions. If ants start swarming, I’ll hose everything down with the EIGHT and try again tomorrow. We have an old trailer which basically sits in one spot all year round. It has a metal mesh bed that allows great drainage, so it’s a wonderful place to spread the onions so they can dry. I’m hoping to get the onions pulled up and drying today.
I’m hoping that I can get the garden boxes weeded, topped off with Mel’s Mix (peat moss, Vermiculite, and three kinds of compost), unhook the irrigation system, and then cover each of the six 4’x4′ raised boxes with a tarp to keep the soil alternative IN and the weeds OUT until I’m ready to plant again. I’ll try to show you my progress.
Please keep all appendages crossed that the fire ants don’t attack me. :0)
If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you remember that I was devastated when I tried to winter-over elephant ear plants my friend, Laufrain, had given me, but failed. I re-planted them and nothing at all happened. I finally bought some ‘bulbs’ (is that what you call them?) from an online nursery. I got six and spaced them around the yard a bit. As you can see, they seem to be happy, and I’m thrilled.
I’m especially happy because my square foot garden is over, except for harvesting onions, and our tomato plants are looking very sad. Many of our flowers have just given up in the heat, even though we have an irrigation system.
These are to the left side of our front porch. They seem to be smiling, too. They have good protection from gusty winds and blowing rain here, too.
These are on the far side of the house. They seem to be doing fine, but aren’t as large as the others.
I just love these huge leaves!
And the surprise of the day is here. We have an area around the house we have dubbed “civilized,” keeping it mowed, etc. The edge of this drops off into woods we just let grow wild. A lot of yard waste we throw “off the edge of the world” here. If you look really carefully, you can see – two batches of elephant ears! I threw the failed bulbs here and some of them have NOW made leaves! Wonders will never cease. :0)
The sum total of my ‘harvest’ today. With the over 100 degree F. heat, even with our irrigation system, the tomatoes are boiling right on the vines. I’m afraid we’re almost finished for the year.
I do have some tomatoes from the last harvest in the fridge. They are getting soft, though, so I’ll cut them up and freeze them for stews later on.
I told you before that I still need to harvest our sweet onions from our raised bed, square foot garden so they can start drying. “I” tend to “boil right on the vine” in this heat, too, so I’ve been putting the task off.
We’re supposed to have a cold front moving through this Sunday, so hopefully I can do this, plus start to clean up the garden for the season. Right now it looks like no one cares. :0(
On a happier note, here are the some of the elephant ear plants –
Our mailbox decoration represents a return to our ‘normal” summer in Arkansas, rather than the cooler, rain-filled summer we’ve had this year. We’ve gotten quite spoiled, not fearing heat stroke as we mow, weedwhack, tend our flowers and square foot garden veggies.
All that ended about a week ago now. The rain stopped, the sun came out with a vengeance, raising our actual temperatures to 100 or more in the afternoons, and the heat index to surge even higher. UGH.
The only thing left in the garden now is sweet onions, weeds, and our two planters of tomatoes.
My husband managed to get the civilized part of our yard mowed, mowing right before dark one evening and then first thing in the morning the next day. I followed that with weed whacking right before dark night before last, and then finished it up last night and blew the debris off our sidewalks and driveway pad with our leaf blower. I was planning to use our push weedwhacker this morning in the area behind our shop and beside our garden, but we talked about it and decided I would really be risking heat stroke. I walk outside, with my headband on, and I’m instantly wringing wet. I think we will only do what is absolutely necessary until this “Punishment from Mother Nature” passes. We might even wait until fall…
I WILL pull the sweet onions and start drying them soon. I don’t know how much longer the tomatoes will make. Even with our irrigation system, the tomatoes are almost boiling on the vines. Happily, my elephant ear plants and phlox or doing well, even with the heat. I’ll try to get out and get pics for you.
When I get out there early enough, I’m still working on the refurbishment project of of our yard critters. Right now I’m repainting “Mama and Baby Snail.” I post a pic when they’re ready to go back outside.
Every summer I regret the fact that we ran out of money when we were building our home over 30 years ago. We managed the main house and the small shop, but we had to give up my dream of a pool. I taught swimming every summer from age 14 through college to help pay for my education. We live on top of ridge line, and had to dynamite several times to be able to have our basement, septic system, and the pool. We got the first two, but not the third. Every summer I dream of a beautiful in-ground pool. Of course, I also dream of Sven, the gorgeous pool man, coming to take care of it – and me. (If I’m going to dream, I’ll include it all… :0) )
Our “Dog with Bone” yard critter is back up and feeling frisky. With the rains we’ve had, he had been in three pieces in the shop for quite awhile. In fact, when I took our dog Amber out with me, she wasn’t used to seeing him and barked, running over to check him out.
I plan to start cleaning another “shovel bird” today.
One of the reasons I was outside with Amber was to check on our elephant ear plants. They seem to be happy.
The jury is still out on whether the two plants of lettuce I bought at the grocery store yesterday will live or not. Last night I flooded the soil with water and then left the pot in the sink drainer overnight. Today I cut off a lot of limp leaves, but things are still alive. This is a fun project whether it works or not.
We’re supposed to get a lot of rain over the next three days. I’m hoping this keeps the temperatures down low enough that I can work in the shop a bit without croaking. Yesterday I got the “Dog With Bone” yard critter cleaned and ready to start re-painting. When we get home from Lunch Bunch, I’m hoping to be able to work out there.
Meanwhile, I found these wonderful things I would love to have –
I made a quick trip to the east side of the house where our two tomato planters are to see if we had any ripe tomatoes. WOW!!!!! I left the ones that looked ripe, but were still firm out there. We have enough that I can share with our friends!
Two updates:
The experiment where I bought and planted two live lettuce plants last week was a bust. It’s just simply too hot now for them to live. There is the possibility that a plant or two could live IN the house on the window sill, but I didn’t see them the last time I was in the store. Maybe next time.
I managed to find a place selling seed packages, so I bought two and will read more about what they need. (Here’s the link to the post if you missed it)
Cerinthe Major Pride of Gibraltar Purple Wax Flower-Etsy.com
I found this yesterday in my travels around the net. This may be the most gorgeous flower I’ve ever seen. My heart filled when I saw it. I’ll have to look it up to see if I can try to grow one. Fingers crossed.
The grocery store was selling lettuce plants yesterday! I bought two, having little hope that they would do anything this time of year, since they are a cool-weather plant. One of them has already croaked :0( – but this one is still alive as of this minute. I’ll probably have to go ahead and clear out the garden for the season, since my yellow crookneck squash plants are producing lots of huge leaves by very little else. I’ll go ahead and pull everything out, unless this sweet plant is still alive. I’ll pull the onions and start drying them out. We have possibly severe storms coming in this evening-into-tomorrow, so this will wait until next week. It was a fun thing to try, though.
Meanwhile, though my tomato plants don’t look pretty, they are producing. This is what I brought in this morning. There are more to come tomorrow. This is the time of year we feel super rich. We have lots of ripe tomatoes to each for both lunch and dinner. :0)
I’ll take pics of the onions when I get them onto the trailer screen to start drying.
Usually, I have the better crop from the two plants in what we call the ‘nook’ planter – a brick planter we converted to a square foot garden planter that is square and is in a niche beside our back porch and in back of the house. It is protected from a lot of the wind that whips through here and doesn’t get the unrelenting sun the other planter gets.
This year it’s the opposite. The eight foot planter – also converted to a square foot planter – getting full sun and unprotected from the wind – is giving us the better yield.
We are very grateful to have ANY tomatoes because I’ve heard from others that this is a ‘hard year’ for tomatoes. People are getting plants, but they aren’t blossoming or growing tomatoes. We have sharing one larger tomato or two smaller tomatoes as part of our dinners this past week – the first of the crop – and enjoying every bite. When I told my husband that we had hit the lottery today, he wanted to have some – RIGHT NOW.
You can’t get fresher than right off the vine and still warm from the sun. Love and tomatoes! :0)
I have elephant ear plants in three places in our yard – one main planter and then two where I really didn’t expect them to come up and thrive. This one sprouted up about a week ago. I had honestly forgotten I planted this one. I’m delighted.
This one is in one of the tall brick planters on either side of our front porch.
This is the main planter. There are three plants here. They seem to be happy and thriving!
Our heat index this afternoon will reach the triple digits, so I’m going to get our to the shop pretty soon to continue work on refurbishing the ‘turkey’ yard art critter I started yesterday. I’m hoping he can go back out to his place at the base of a tree beside the driveway by the end of the day. I forgot to take pics of the ‘before’ on the turkey. He was basically just super dirty and desperately in need of new paint. I’ll take pics to share when he is back in place.
Did I tell you I HATE automatic Windows updates? For some reason they always cause us problems. We can’t NOT do the updates, but it’s sure a pain to deal with the havoc they generate. Yesterday it was one of our printers that suddenly won’t print plus our personal DVD computerized collection isn’t opening as it should. My husband fought with it most of the day yesterday to no avail. He wrote Microsoft and is hoping they have some help for us. He also talked to our son via a conference call, in Thailand. Hopefully, answers will come today.
Tomorrow at Lunch Bunch we’ll celebrate the birthday of one of our core members. Our friendship – going on 20 years now – is priceless.
My husband has been celebrating the lack of rain lately. He’s been praising the ‘brown and crunchy patches of grass in the yard, meaning he has to mow less. I told him to enjoy it while he could. Rain is due this weekend.
My spring garden is about to come to an end. I got what is probably the last of the yellow squash, leaving only sweet onions. I’ll probably pull the onions soon, leaving them to dry on the trailer bed and clean up the garden. On the good side, though, we had the first two ripe tomatoes of what I hope will be a wonderful season. My husband and I shared them for lunch yesterday. They were delicious. I hope we get enough that I can share them.
Every year about this time I wish we had been able to build the pool we wanted when we built the house. Since we’re on top of a ridge line, we had to do a lot of blasting to build a house amid all this rock. We blasted for the septic tank, the basement, and then blasted the whole back yard for the pool. We ran out of money before we got to the pool, though, so it never got done.
I worked every summer from the time I was 14 through college teaching swimming with my 6th grade gym teacher to make money for college. I really miss the great exercise I got. I tell myself that if we had a pool, I would go out and swim every possible night before bed. The reality of that would probably be that I would gritch and moan about having to get my exercise cleaning the pool, rather than getting to swim in it. I would have to fight for space to swim laps, having to dodge raccoons, opossums, squirrels, and other critters I don’t want to think about who thought we had built the pool for THEM…
The sun is shining, but we had a cold front move through, so the temperature will only get to the mid 80s today with low humidity. BEAUTIFUL!
My new elephant ear plants (all three of them) have come up now and are looking healthy.
I finally programmed the irrigation system so that we don’t have to check it nightly.
Knock on wood – nothing has fallen apart lately.
With all this good, it’s hard to be down. My spirits are still high from the nice lady who stopped in her truck to tell us how much she enjoyed our mailbox decorations. I felt bad that we had gotten really lax about changing them, so I told her we would do better. We changed from our Calvin & Hobbes decoration to our Pepe LePew & Penelope decoration. I hope she has driven by and likes it. :0)
I hope that your Tuesday is a bright and happy one.
Last year I had a truly beautiful display of elephant years – two plants given to me by my good friend, Laufrain. I tried to over winter them in the garage in a trash can of peat moss, but nothing came up when I replanted them. :0( I ordered a set of three bulbs online and planted them. Nothing was happening. I planted some Impatiens so the planter wouldn’t be completely empty. Suddenly, the plant on each end of the planter sprouted. Nothing in the middle. Two days ago I noted something different. The plant in the middle had sprouted!
HOOOOOOORAAAAAAY!
AND – to put icing on the cake – our irrigation system worked as it should have last night, coming on just when it should – proving that my last reprogramming effort was correct! My husband is a bit miffed that “I” figured it out, but I’m just ignoring that. He’s so smart, fixing everything in the house and yard and making me feel stupid most of the time, so it feels REALLY GOOD to have figured something out. :0)
I finally had a bit of success on losing the lard. I’m almost back to 30 pounds down since my heaviest now – hoping to hit that officially in the next day or so. I’m learning once again how much easier it is to put it ON, rather than taking it OFF.
Yesterday I was moving most of the day. I was in the shop working on the refurb of our Box Turtle Yard art piece. It was hot in there, but I had a fan. I was up and down, pulling and hauling. After resting a bit, I weed whacked, doing two sessions that I had to stop when the weed eater started to smoke! My husband will look at that today to see if it is salvageable. Anyhow, it was a lot of work out in the hot, so I guess that helped finally shed a bit more of the lard.
Today I’m going to put the refurbed box turtle back where he lives in the yard, take pics to show you, start work on another piece, use the leaf blower to clean up the two sidewalks and garage pad, and then cut up lots of veggies for the “kielbasa and veggies” cookout for tonight.
Today is a pretty day, though the humidity is still high. Thanks to a neighbor’s super-kind compliments about our mailbox decorations, we will change our decoration when we leave to go to Lunch Bunch. This is what we’ll put up –
Pepe LePew and Penelope
We will enjoy catching up with our long time friends as we have every Friday for over 17 years now. It’s impossible to explain how close we feel, having shared highs and lows, laughs and tears all this time. The number of people at lunch changes from time to time, depending on who is being visited, which other friends took time to be with us, but the core remains the same – Kay, Linda, and me, plus my husband who was ‘graciously’ taken in as an honorary member of Lunch Bunch. Kay’s husband also joins us from time to time when he isn’t working. He is in high demand because he can run many huge machines like an artist – a vanishing skill.
When we come home, I’m planning to get out and weed whack the yard. My husband got the recalcitrant riding mower running and got the main part of the yard done. I need to do the parts he can’t get with the mower, of which there are many, followed by leaf blowing to clean things up, and then spraying with KillzAll weed killer to discourage new growth. I don’t know how long I’ll last in the heat, but it’s good knowing I can come in, jump into the shower, dress in clean clothes, and maybe even have a nap this afternoon.
Tomorrow is the official start of “Lewis Refurb 2021” where I wash, scrape and thoroughly clean one of our yard metal critters, then repair or replace parts, repaint, and finally spray with polyurethane for protection so it can go back outside. The sun and rain and temperature ranges are very hard on them. I’ll do the best I can to give them some more years as members of the Lewis family. I’ll start with our “Box Turtle.” –
This is what he used to look like. I’ll take a picture when I get started so you can see what Mother Nature does to our ‘creations.’ The poor thing is NOT a happy camper right now.
The other thing I’m hoping for this weekend is that my husband will be in the mood to cook out. I have some kielbasa and some lovely veggies that would make a delicious meal. I’m hoping we can have a late dinner, sit and talk on the deck, with our rope LED lights on, making things festive, while we enjoy the evening and our animals.
I hope that you’re having a nice day today and that you’re looking forward to an enjoyable weekend.
We got out first thing this morning to tackle getting our irrigation system going. Mother Nature suddenly turned on summer here – going from unseasonably cool with lots and lots of rain to NO rain and ‘feels like’ indices of 100+.
Thankfully, no blowouts this time. I managed to reprogram the system, which thought it was January of 2007 when I started. I THINK I have it programmed now to start this evening, water for 10 minutes on station 1 followed by 10 minutes on station 2. I have my alarm set to check to make sure the system for the garden is working at 4:30 and then the yard system starts at 6:30. Fingers crossed.
I’m adding more products to my HandmadeHavenByLinda site on Etsy. I have several sales of 25% off running now, so I’m adding more choices for people to take advantage of the savings.
Welcome Wildlife
We have had several cottontail rabbits in our yard lately. Our dog, Amber, is too slow to even think about catching them, though she makes a good show of chasing them and woofing. I saw two first thing this morning – a very happy way to start my day. :0)
Now that we have the irrigation system going (hope, hope) I’m planning to enjoy a lazy day in the air conditioning until it’s time to check on the watering.
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