I’m having a good day so far, though – as you can see above – obviously not a good hair day…. :0)
First of all, IT’S NOT RAINING! In fact, from the look of the weather forecast, our rainy season has finally come to an end. This means that we need to get out some time this weekend – preferably this evening – and test our irrigation system, fix any blowouts, and schedule and run the system. Some of our spoiled plants – used to the cooler temperatures and lots and lots of rain, are starting to look wilted.
One of the last tasks remaining on the dismantling of the greenhouse project was to tie some neon pink surveyor’s tape on the stake in the ground so that the people who come (on no particular schedule that I can tell) to mow the gas company’s easement on the side of our yard won’t hurt themselves or their equipment running into or over the stake. I also took a sledgehammer. I hit the stake several times in all directions and was able to pull the stake completely out! So I brought the stake, hammer, and tape back to the house. Mission accomplished!
I took some pictures of some of the prettier things in our yard while I was out walking around.
This picture and the next are really making me smile today. Last year I had truly great elephant ears. I over-wintered them in peat moss in the garage and replanted them at the beginning of the spring. Nothing happened. :0( They were gone. I ordered some bulbs online in desperation. I received and planted three bulbs. Nothing was happening, so I decided that I wasn’t going to have anything. This one popped up yesterday. You can see the second one in the next picture. The third one hasn’t done anything, but I won’t be greedy. I am truly delighted and hope they will get large and lush.
We had a good harvest yesterday. My spinach output is dwindling with the warmer weather and soon will be finished, so I’m getting as much as I can and freezing it so none will be wasted.
I’ve never actually done much with yellow crookneck squash before, so this is a lot of fun. I have a lot of little bitty squashes coming on. I decided that the ones above were large enough to harvest. I have a spiralizer tool that will make them nice for sauteing this evening to serve with some pork chops. :0)
It looks like I might have a good sweet onion crop this year. I won’t actually know until much later, but things look good right now. I also have some celery that I grew from cutting off the bottoms of celery I bought at the store. The stalks are ‘spread out’ rather than like the ones you see at the store in the tight groups, but they taste fine, so I’ll take them.
We have small green tomatoes and lots of blossoms on our tomato plants. We have two brick planters that we converted to square foot garden planters. I’m hopeful we’ll have lots of ripe tomatoes to slice and enjoy soon.
I need to do some weeding, but it’s getting dark outside, looking like it’s going to storm. Maybe I can get something done between raindrops…
Yesterday I made good use of the beautiful day, working outside much of it.
I harvested the last of the lettuce and some of our spinach. I pulled out bolted lettuce plants and cabbage that had been attacked by various bugs. I cut off dead or sick leaves from the yellow squash plants. The only thing remaining is to do a bunch of weeding, and then the garden will be in pretty good shape. I brought the harvested veggies inside, cleaned and stored them.
Then I tackled something I have been putting off for over a year (Have I told you that I have awards for procrastination?) – taking the remains of our greenhouse down.
We built our greenhouse 3 or 4 years ago. I wanted to extend our growing season by starting seeds. I had visions of over-wintering plants out there, and more. We built it from some plans we found on the net.
Sad to say, the greenhouse was a disappointment. We learned that, unless we were able to heat and air condition the greenhouse, it was too hot or too cold much of the year, no matter how many things we came up with to try. We couldn’t afford to heat and air condition, so my efforts out there were quite limited. Several storms came in succession last year and completely battered it. I cleaned out anything salvageable, and then we tried to ignore the remains.
Yesterday I started using a knife to cut off the remaining torn plastic. Then I got our Makita with the idea of unscrewing the holders that hold the pvc pipe ribs to the base. At that point, my husband came out. We got the pvc pipe structure free. I finished gathering the plastic in a leaf bag, and hauled a bunch of wood from one of the doors around to the place where we collect things we’ll take to the community clean up next time.
Today I’ll weed whack, since my husband got the yard mowed yesterday and it’s supposed to rain this evening. Then I’ll tackle more of the taking-down-the-greenhouse project.
I’m looking forward to our cooking burgers on the grill tonight as a reward for seizing the day. If it’s like yesterday, I’ll feel like a busted can of biscuits again this evening. :0)
The tall plant on the left of the picture is lettuce that has bolted. I still managed to harvest some lettuce, but pulled this plant, and others out because the leaves will be bitter. The combination of the suddenly much warmer weather and all the rain we have had lately brought my lettuce harvesting to an end.
My poor spinach plants will do the same kind of thing soon, since they are an early spring plant. I’m going to harvest from the remaining plants as long as I can because the spinach can be frozen.
These yellow crookneck squash are cute, aren’t they. I don’t know what I’m doing here, but I’m having fun watching the sweet little things grow.
I had to pull the other two cabbage plants, and I still need to do a lot of weeding to get the garden in reasonable shape. I didn’t take pics of the tomato plants but they have little bitty green tomatoes and lots of yellow blossoms on them. I’m really hoping we have a good tomato harvest this year. Ripe sliced tomatoes are one of our favorite things.
WEATHER – It’s a good thing I’m not water-soluble, or I would have sogged down into a puddle by now with all the rain we have had. We just returned from putting our trash out for pickup and running errands. I wore a hoodie, since my husband has no patience for me trying to use an umbrella. I just throw my hood up to stay as dry as possible.
YARD WORK – I pruned our rose bushes and weeded a bit yesterday. Some unfriendly bug bit me on the back of my hand. It swelled up and itched like crazy. I finally got the itching to stop and the swelling should be down by tomorrow.
I was watching for ants, since I react badly to their stings/bites, but whatever bit me snuck up and did it before I was aware. I am going to try to harvest more lettuce, since my plants are starting to bolt, but it will have to wait until the rain stops.
EMAIL HACK – I seem to be over the worst of the repercussions from my email being hacked. I spent the entire day yesterday, except for the time pruning the roses, contacting as many friends and family as possible, giving them my new address, plus getting on our important websites and changing email, user name and password. What a hassle! I did get to talk to people I would LIKE to talk to more often, so that was a really good thing. If I finally reach a real person at Google, I will try to enlist their help in finding out who is responsible for the hack.
GENERATOR – Just as your car will never act up or make the noise you’ve been hearing when you take it to the shop, our generator came on just fine when the tech came out to help us figure out why it didn’t do its weekly test and or continue to run when we started it manually. He looked it over carefully. It started right up and continued until he turned it off. We told him the ‘overcrank’ light was on when we went out to look. My husband suspected the carburetor, but the tech was looking more at the fuel regulator, whatever that is. He said he would check his manual for ‘old’ generators to see if he could be of more help if we need to call him again. Meanwhile, $131.50 later, the generator IS working…
WEIGHT LOSS – My newest motivation to lose the lard seems to be working – at least, so far. Last Monday we had our routine doctor appointment with blood tests. We were doing fine (for old people) and the doc said we didn’t have to come back for 6 months, rather than the 3 months we have been doing. I decided that I wanted to try to finally lose a significant amount of my poundage by the time we go back in November. Since Monday I have lost 4.6 pounds. I’m trying to keep my focus on trying to really watch my portions, try not to eat in-between meals, or if I do, eat a really careful snack. I’m trying to move more, and pick up my afternoon yoga stretches again.
So far, my yoga efforts have been a dismal failure. Usually, I’m out in the yard when I WAS doing yoga. I’m telling myself that if I’m up and moving, that’s good, but I know it’s not a substitute for the good stretching I do with my practice. I’m going to rethink WHEN I’m trying to do my practice so that I can work in the yard AND do my yoga stretches on a daily basis.
ART ROOM – I’m still trying to overcome my stupid fear of failure regarding trying a new art technique. I’m really fascinated watching people demonstrate ‘acrylic pours’ and then ‘pours with crackle gel.’ They are getting wonderful abstract colorful work with gorgeous texture and cracks highlighted with gold. I’m going to keep making careful notes as I watch (and drool) and see if I can get started on it in my art room this week.
I hope that you are having a fabulous day, enjoying the weather where you are, if possible, or if cooped up inside like me, changing over to something fun INSIDE.
Here is today’s leaf lettuce. I will have to harvest as much as I can in the next few days. The too-much-rain has made my garden a mess. My lettuce is bolting (long, tall towers of lettuce that have bitter leaves. I have a lot of pests I don’t normally have.
I will see how much I can salvage before the next rains start and pull up the rest. This has been a spring for the record books.
Today I have harvested these two cabbages, a head of lettuce that was trying to spoil, and the yellow crookneck squash here. I have lettuce leaves in the sink awaiting processing.
The rain has caused a LOT of my lettuce to bolt, making the plants shoot up tall and taste bitter. I filled my veggie basket, and will go out and see what else should be harvested. I’m going to have to pull the bolted lettuce out. I also have little bitty worms all of a sudden. I’ll need to use some Eight on them. I’m so glad I found a spray that is safe for plants, people, and animals, but kills the bugs.
I will make several trips out to the garden today, salvaging what I can. I’ll share some pictures when things are as much under control as possible.
We will leave for Lunch Bunch in about an hour. It looks like we may need a boat if this keeps up.
I would like to harvest more lettuce, but Mother Nature has been playing with us over the last week or so, starting the rain up every time I get ready to go outside, almost like a faucet, waiting until I am out there, and then dumping on me. I can imagine her laughing at me. :0)
Other than squeegeeing, mopping, and toweling off the porch floor over and over, I’ve been playing in my art room. I’m trying to eventually try an ‘acrylic pour,’ but I’m a bit intimidated, so I’m trying one new technique at a time, building up to it. I put the second coat of a stuff called, “crackle medium” on the background of a painting on which I used Unicorn Spit paint. So far, nothing is ‘crackling.’ I’ll continue to experiment, having lots of fun, until something good starts to happen. :0)
I think I already told you that I am newly motivated to get the lard off. We had a routine doctor appointment Monday. We were doing so well that she said we could wait 6 months to come back, rather than the usual three. I’m now trying to lose a significant amount of my lard before we see her again in November. This week has been a good start for me.
I hope the weather is good where you are and that you can make this a wonderful day.
I just got back from my massage. I really didn’t care that today is rainy because I always feel SO much better after my wonderful massage therapist, Lynn Moody, 479-629-7601, finishes with me. Ahhhhhhh!
My main exercise since the 17th has been a series of squeegeeing, mopping, then toweling the porch floor each time the rain stops. The wind makes the rain come in and then the water sits there. I’m trying to lessen the damage as much as I can by taking care of the water as soon as possible between deluges and storms. We’re supposed to have two more days of this, and then MAYBE a 3-day-respite before the rains come back. I don’t remember our having quite this much rain before.
I will also try to harvest some lettuce if the rain will allow. We’ve been enjoying a combination of head lettuce, spinach, and buttercrunch lettuce from our garden with our dinners. :0)
I have on my to-do list today a return to my afternoon yoga practice. I’ve been so busy the last few weeks it got lost in the shuffle and my body is noticing. Hopefully, I can get in a nice session of stretching to finish off the good Lynn did with my massage this morning.
Also on the list is playing in my art room. I’ve been watching some demonstrations of acrylic pour art, plus another technique you can do with pieces of the pours that are left over. I’m a bit intimidated, to be honest, but my mouth waters as I watch what the artists are doing.
I’m trying SOME of the techniques, easing into this slowly. I’ve started a piece with my Unicorn Spit paint. I just put a coat of varnish on what I did yesterday. When that dries, I plan to paint some flowers, and then use the crackle paint on the background. Finally, I will use some metallic paint to highlight the cracks. Fingers crossed that it turns out SOMETHING like what my brain is picturing. :0) It’s such FUN to play with the colors!
Good morning. I’m not feeling very energetic this morning. No problems, really – my get-up-and-go just got-up-and-went. :0)
I harvested a lot of spinach yesterday. I still had some in the fridge, too. After watching a YouTube video on storing fresh spinach, I’ll take mine out of the gallon bags. The guy recommends using plastic containers and paper towels. I’ll store some that way for salads. I’ll chop up the rest and freeze it.
It hasn’t started to rain yet, but it’s supposed to today. In fact, it’s supposed to rain all week. I’m actually looking forward to it because I won’t have to feel guilty that I’m not out in the yard working. :0) I really want to start playing with the new art stuff I received last week.
I have materials to try an ‘acrylic pour.’ The Internet defines this as, “Acrylic Paint Pouring is a fluid painting technique used to create art by pouring acrylic paint onto a canvas. … The Acrylic Pouring technique allows artists to apply colour in puddles, pools and marble-like patterns. Pouring results in a smooth, glossy paint film that is perfectly even and blemish free.”
A lady did a beautiful demonstration of using some leftover “pours” that she did on a piece of plastic, transferring that to a piece of wood. She used a material called, “crackle gel” to add texture, and then rolled on gold paint to highlight that texture. The resulting piece looked like this –
Mii’s Paintings
This makes me drool, and itch to play. So Mother Nature, please bring on the rain so I can give myself permission to play in my art room! :0)
I hope that you are safe and happy this Monday morning. Have fun with your day!
I may have mentioned (griped) that, starting about 6pm this evening, we’re supposed to get rain every day through the 27th! So Thing Two on my list today was to harvest some of our veggies from the garden.
The garden has gone nuts. I filled my basket with spinach, then went back and harvested lettuce. By the time I got everything washed and stored, I was too tired to go back and harvest more.
The thing I’m MOST pleased with is that I grew an actual head of lettuce. Just like one you can buy in the grocery store.
Today’s lettuce harvestToday’s Spinach Harvest
It’s about 4pm here now. I’m going to get a cup of coffee and enjoy my book for awhile, now that I have finsiehd Thing One and Thing Two. :0) I hope your Sunday has been a good one.
The predicted rains haven’t started yet, so I will try to harvest some veggies today. I’ll post some pics after I wash and bag them. Happy to live on top of a ridge line right now. We may need a boat by the end of this…
KFSM – TV5 Fort Smith AR“Dancing Dragonflies” Hand-Painted Tote Bag
I sold this tote on Amazon Handmade last night. The image doesn’t show how sparkly it is. It will go in the mail tomorrow. :0)
TopSail Beach NC
My SIL and some friends are renting a house on the beach for a week for lots of peace and relaxation. She took this photo this morning, pre-sunrise. I am so happy she can get away and soak this up! And WE can enjoy her vacation vicariously!!! :0)
Yesterday the postman delivered a big box with the things I ordered to try a couple of techniques new to me – acrylic pours and crackle paint. Here is the link to a YouTube demonstration if you’d like to watch
It is a wonderful day here so far. It’s overcast, but not raining. I have two main things to do:
THING ONE – get a haircut this afternoon
THING TWO – finish planting flowers.
Yesterday we went to the local nursery to get two flowers that my husband likes – impatiens and wave petunias. We’ve cut back on what we’re planting this year as kind of a leftover from the pandemic. We had already checked several places for flowers. This year I would have been content with planting any number of flowers we saw. Finally, it came down to the fact that my husband wanted wave petunias and impatiens, and was willing to drive to Ft. Smith to get them. Happily, we were able to find a bright orangy impatiens for the front porch and other shady areas in front of the house, plus wave petunias in a gloriously deep purple.
Pahl’s Market
This is the color of the impatiens I planted yesterday. It should spread nicely, filling a couple of shallow round faux terra cotta planters on the porch, plus I dotted them in the brick planters that line the front of the house.
Good Shepherd Holbrook, NY
This is the color of the wave petunias we found. I’m cleaning out 4 large terra cotta pots that live up high on the railing of the deck, plus some other planters on the floor of the deck.
I’ll take pictures when the flowers start to look nice.
Tonight the rains are supposed to start. (My mouth dropped open when I saw this. I may still look like a gaping fish. )
Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight. A stray thunderstorm is possible. Low 63F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
Sun 16
79°/64°PM Thunderstorms50%SSE 11 mph
Mon 17
76°/65°Scattered Thunderstorms51%SSE 9 mph
Tue 18
77°/66°Scattered Thunderstorms51%SE 9 mph
Wed 19
74°/66°Scattered Thunderstorms57%SE 11 mph
Thu 20
79°/67°Scattered Thunderstorms45%SE 10 mph
Fri 21
78°/68°Scattered Thunderstorms44%SE 10 mph
Sat 22
83°/67°Scattered Thunderstorms37%SE 9 mph
Sun 23
82°/65°Scattered Thunderstorms38%SSE 8 mph
Mon 24
82°/65°Scattered Thunderstorms41%SSE 8 mph
Tue 25
82°/65°Scattered Thunderstorms36%S 9 mph
Wed 26
82°/64°Isolated Thunderstorms33%W 8 mph
Thu 27
83°/65°Isolated Thunderstorms31%SSW 7 mph
Looks like we’ll be dodging a lot of raindrops until further notice…
My husband brought a couple of blooms inside so we could enjoy them in here, too. :0)
Rio Samba Roses
I love it that this rosebush shows all different stages of this wonderful rose at the same time. It starts out in a tight yellow bud with dark coral edges. It blooms into a bright yellow bloom with coral accents, and then finishes with the whole bloom coral.
This is a second Rio Samba rose bush. At the beginning of the spring, I cut all 3 of these bushes WAAAAAY down, cutting off 2/3 of the branches, which had gotten long and scraggly. I had no idea if the roses would come back or croak. Happily, they seem to have appreciated the hacking I did on them. This is the 3rd bush. Right now all three are blooming their hearts out. I need to trim the all coral roses to encourage new buds.
Raised bed square foot garden May 13thThis is cabbage. I’ve never tried to grow this before and I’m like a kid at Christmas. The center portion is where the head of cabbage is forming. I’m going to find as much information as I can. It’s FUN!One kind of lettuce.2nd kind of lettuceCan you see the cute yellow crookneck squash?I have blossoms on the tomato plants, although none show in this picture.
The forecast is for thunderstorms EVERY DAY between the 17th and the 27th. I’m going to try to get a nice harvest in, either today or tomorrow, before all the rain starts.
This morning my husband and I ate breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants in Greenwood, The Dari. We did this (1) to celebrate a stellar report from the dental hygienist for both of us, and (2) we always have breakfast out when we have to get blood tests at the clinic for a doctor appointment.
So my diet is pretty much blown for the day. We are having a portion controlled frozen dinner of tortilla crusted fish this evening, so maybe that will make up for the truly delicious, rare breakfast with all the fixings. I have to say that my emotions are like a yo-yo lately. I go from being really serious and sticking to my diet, to thinking I’m getting older and the world seems to be going to Hell in a hand basket so I might as well enjoy one of my last meals. Until I can get my ‘yo-yo-ness’ under control, I foresee very slow, if any, weight loss for me. :0(
I’m trying to get into the mood to get and plant some flowers in our deck planters. We will probably go to the local nursery tomorrow after Lunch Bunch to see if we can find some wave petunias and periwinkles. We’ve checked a couple of other places, but can’t find them. I hope our luck is better at the nursery.
We are about to start more monsoon weather. It’s a lovely, sunny day today, and we’re supposed to have another nice day tomorrow. I couldn’t believe the weather website, though. Starting Saturday, we’re supposed to have rain EVERY day from then, through the following Saturday, AND through the following Thursday. (Saturday, the 17th through Thursday, May 27th.) REALLY. I need to get out tomorrow and harvest more veggies.
I’m finding it hard to grasp that we’re already into May, and a third of it is gone!
Arkansas is having a ‘monsoon’ season this year. I’m growing some veggies in a raised bed square foot garden and they are loving this weather. It’s been cool and wet. For example it’s overcast, looking like it could rain any second, and is only 49 degrees right now. Friday I was able to share some spinach and lettuce with good friends. I’m planning to do my third harvest of the season today, if the weather will cooperate.
lettucespinach
Yesterday, after over a year of absence, I started accounts on Facebook and LinkedIn again. My accounts had been hacked and I couldn’t change my passwords or get any help from support at either place, so I gave up and closed my accounts. I missed some of the people I had met, so yesterday I created a new email address so I could sign up again. I have no idea of anyone remembers me anymore or will connect with me again, but I figure it’s worth a try.
My latest project – after putting the house back together after new carpet and porch flooring – is to switch my winter clothes for summer ones. Funny timing, since we may be setting a record for the coolest May we’ve had since I’ve lived here, but I’m in the middle of it now. I have the actual clothes switched. Now I’m trying to get things organized, plus I’ve promised myself I will try things on, going through for things I can donate.
We are continuing to enjoy getting healthy, individual portion meals from Real Food and from Stu’s Clean Cookin’, both of which have opened in the past year in Greenwood.
Calvin & Hobbes Mailbox Decoration
We haven’t been putting up mailbox decorations for awhile, due to the chaos in the world. We finally put up my favorite recently. I think we can all use a hug.
I hope that you are having a good start of a new week, too.
Today’s spinach harvest is the best I have ever had. I am really amazed hat how large and healthy the leaves are! Some of the leaves are 8 inches long!
This is a small head of lettuce. frilly lettuceButter Crunch Lettuce
I could have harvested a lot more today. I’m HOPING that the storm tonight doesn’t batter my sweet plants. I have a gallon bag of spinach and a gallon bag of lettuce that we’ll give to our hairdresser when my husband gets a haircut tomorrow. Meanwhile, we will have a huge chef salad for dinner tonight. :0)
We’re due for possible severe storms this evening, so I went out to get some pictures, just in case, so I could share them with you.
Our rose bushes were in awful shape – with straggly branches way up over my head – so I cut them back by a good 2/3. I figured that either they would be happy about it or we needed to start over. Happily, you can see that this one is already blooming with a bunch of buds. :0)
This sweet bunch of flowers tries to bloom each year. Usually, we have a bad storm just at the time these need a bit of protection. I try to get a picture or two, because they don’t usually make it through the storm.
It raises my spirits to walk around the yard, seeing HOPE in the planters.
I’m waiting for my coffee to kick in. It’s overcast and rainy-looking. Severe storms are forecast for this evening, so I’ll need to get out to my garden and do a second harvest in case we get the hail they say we might.
I’m also going to try to finish getting things put back where they belong after our new carpet and flooring project. Even though I’m sleepy, I’m smiling every time I see the carpet and walk on it. It’s nice. And new, And clean. I also love the way the porch floor looks like weathered wood. I have my side of our entertainment center in the living room to straighten out and then things will be done. Hooray!
The garden was looking strong and healthy the last time I checked. I’ll try to share some pictures with you. I have all appendages crossed the the storms this evening won’t break the plants. One year we had bad hail that battered things so much I had to cut everything WAY back. Then the weather turned really warm and the early spring plants gave up the ghost.
If you’re feeling sleepy too, I hope we can both wake up and enjoy the day.
Our new carpet and porch vinyl installation was finished up by Friday mid afternoon. Aside from walking around smiling, we’ve been trying to get things put back where they belong. We had to empty out all the furniture, filing cabinets, etc. to do the install, and all that STUFF had to go SOMEWHERE. That ended up being EVERYWHERE – living room entertainment shelves, dining area floor, garage, my art room and the guest room upstairs, etc.
Friday I concentrated on making sure that we could make our way around the house without falling over anything – clear paths, places to sit down, place to eat, etc. My husband very kindly got my computer working again so I could work on getting over my computer withdrawal. :0) I also brought the drawers to my desk down from the guest room upstairs. There are 15 drawers in my old style roll top desk, so I made a lot of trips up and down stairs – good exercise, but a bit hard on this old woman.
Yesterday we moved all the files back into the office. We have two 4-drawers file cabinets and one 2-drawer cabinet. We got most of them back in. I’m working on one drawer today that was filled with OTHER STUFF – trying to go through it and get it better organized, and give away or throw away things.
Today I’m also concentrating on getting our supplies shelves fixed. Right now, the entertainment shelves in the living room are jam-packed with things from the office. I’m going to try to go slowly here, again trying to get rid of some things, but mainly to organize them so that my husband can find things. He has a harder time as the years pass, so I’m trying to look through things with an eye to where would be the easiest, most straight-forward place to store whatever supply it is – pens, rubber bands, tape, staples, etc. so he can walk up to the shelves and pick it out right away – or at least, that’s the plan. I’ll take my time.
We’re supposed to get rain today with more tomorrow, so yesterday I also took the time to check on my garden a bit. I planted some elephant ear bulbs I received in the mail. I may harvest a bit from the veggie garden this afternoon in case the weather people are correct. That will give me some good breaks from the reorganization of the office.
And today we welcome Mal, Humphrey the emu, and May, 2021.
The fact that all of these gorgeous Australian firefighters are young enough to be my sons doesn’t diminish my ability to appreciate the ‘view’ in the least as I help them in their fund-raising efforts by buying their calendars each year. :0)
I hope that things will get better and better as we start a new month.
I just walked out to my raised bed, square foot garden to see if the recent storms pounded my sweet veggies into the ground. (We had bad storms particularly Wednesday evening with high winds, lots of close lightning that had me cringing at times with the loud bangs, and some hail. Thankfully, all seems to have come through fine. Pictures to follow, and I will do my second harvest.
So far, so good on my garden veggies. We are due for rain this evening-into THURSDAY, with some possibly severe, so fingers are crossed again.
This is the whole garden, except for the two brick planters of tomato plants on the other side of the house and yard.
As you can see here, the zucchini and yellow crookneck squash didn’t like the recent freezes. I’m hoping that the main plants are healthy and that they will put on more leaves now that we have supposedly passed the danger of freezes and frosts.
The spinach is happy.
Buttercrunch LettuceThis is cabbage. I’ve never grown it before so I have no clue what I’m doing. I’m like a little kid watching a magic show. Nook TomatoesAs you can see, these tomatoes need to be weeded.
All appendages are crossed that all my sweet veggies make it through until Thursday afternoon, when the rains are supposed to be over for a bit.
I’ve been covering my veggie plants and tomato planters with sheets for 4 nights now, and so far, things seem to have come through the freezes all right. The Zucchini has had the most reaction. I’ve had to cut off several leaves from the plants. They blackened with the frosts and freezes. There is enough left of the plants that still looks good I think they will make it.
According to the weather website we are now past the freezes. This is really unusual here. Usually, our last frosts are April 5th, and that is even pretty late since I have been trying to grow things. We are supposed to get rain tonight and all day tomorrow.
I have the sheets spread out on the fencing around the garden, trying to dry it out during the day today so I can bag them up and put them away.
I HOPING that things will get back to normal for gardening soon.
Although the veggies seem to be doing all right, my elephant ear bulbs did not make it over wintered in the garage. I have finally given up on them and ordered more bulbs. I am hoping those will arrive soon so that I can get them into the ground.
I gathered my first harvest of the year recently, and we enjoyed a main meal salad last night, featuring our own spinach and lettuce! It’s been quite awhile since we were able to do that. I loved it!
Today is sunshine-y and pretty, but it’s still only 37 degrees outside now. This is the third night I’ve had to cover my veggie plants, hoping they won’t freeze in the uncharacteristically cold weather we’ve been having. I think after tonight, this cold wave will be finished and we can get back to normal. So far, so good. Fingers – and all other appendages – including my eyes – are crossed.
I finally gave up on my elephant ear bulbs that I tried to winter over in peat moss in my garage. They aren’t showing anything good. I have ordered some bulbs and will plant them as soon as they arrive. I’m sad to lose the ones I received from my friend, Laufrain.
My husband and I went searching for new carpet and flooring yesterday. We compromised on some new carpet and I got my choice of flooring for the porch. The man is coming today to measure and give us a final cost. My husband told the lady we got the carpet and flooring from them in 2012, but it turns out that we got our kitchen tiles in 2012. We got the carpeting and porch floor in 2008, so it’s a good time to get new.
I sold a hand painted tote bag on Amazon Handmade overnight, so I’m heading out in just a minute to get our mail and then drive to the post office to mail the tote. It really makes my day when someone likes what I’ve created enough to buy it for themselves or as a gift for someone else. :0)
Our iris season always starts with deep purple iris. They are almost finished now. They are followed by pale yellow iris, and those are blooming madly all over the place now, along with some mauve colored ones here. :0)
We also have a few very pale coral iris and some ‘mauve’ iris, but those are few and far in-between.
A few years ago I devoted one of our brick planters to planting new colors of iris. Each year I did up some of those and replant them elsewhere in the yard.
I love all colors of iris, but I wish the deep purple and the yellow would bloom at the same time. Apparently, though, they have a system which decides which bloom when, and mostly, only one color blooms at a time around here.
These are two yellow iris from the planter I talked about. They have a really nice, deep yellow color. We also brought in one of the mauve ones.
If I get bogged down, I just go outside and walk around the yard a bit. Seeing things blooming lifts my spirits.
I got some things accomplished over the weekend that make me feel like I’m starting the coming week well.
I caught up on the filing and bookkeeping that had been piling up for quite awhile. I gathered the things I brought home from the booth my friend and I were renting in a local shop. I’m not ready to go through them right now, but at least I’m not in danger of falling over them on my way to and from the computer.
Our credit card was frauded and we had to cancel the one we had and start over with a new one. We had to contact a bunch of places to get things updated. I’ll finish the list today with some phone calls.
I discovered the local weather people were warning of a frost and freezes the coming three days. I got my plants covered last night. They came through just fine. I’ll cover them again tonight and tomorrow night. I enjoyed gathering my first harvest of spinach and lettuce yesterday! :0)
I will start hanging things up on the porch today. We have decided to start researching putting a new floor cover out there, since the project to replace the ceiling, seal off where the squirrels were getting in, and hanging a new shutter are finished. As an added project, I paid the guys to repaint the rest of the woodwork out there, so things look fresh and clean. Ahhhh!
At the same time we replace the porch floor covering, we’re going to research replacing the carpeting in our living room, foyer and office. It’s beyond being able to look better with cleaning. Our records show we have had it since 2009.
Our list of things to repair or replace is getting a bit shorter, so it feels good.
As you can see, the plants in my veggie garden are happy at the moment!
I celebrated our first harvest of 2021 this afternoon.
I am about to go cover up the veggie planters because the weather people are forecasting a possible frost tonight! I find it hard to believe, but I’ll sure take the time to go cover things up.
I will get out tomorrow and do some weeding – particularly in one of the tomato planters, plus do some fertilizing. I will also mix and spray more weed killer, starting under the planters in the garden.
Here is today’s harvest of leaf lettuce. I actually have three kinds this year – head lettuce, a kind of frilly leaf lettuce I haven’t harvested yet, and Butter Crunch lettuce. I had enough to fill 3 one-gallon storage bags.
Here is the harvest of spinach today. Again, I had enough to fill 3 one-gallon storage bags. This is the best lucky I’ve had with spinach ever.
We will have a nice, fresh salad tonight to go with our leftover hamburger patties and macaroni and cheese.
A. A. Milne – E.H. Shepard – Winnie the Pooh – DreamsQuote
Last night I gave into our desire for comfort food, since our weather has been gray, cool, and rainy lately and made hamburger patties and macaroni and cheese. It hit just the right note with my husband, and he declared the meal ‘delicious’ several times.
Mostly we are trying to watch what we eat in an effort to lose our lard, get as healthy as we can, and be able to continue doing most of what we would like to do. We have found two places locally who are offering REAL FOOD and STU’S CLEAN COOKIN’ – individual frozen dinners with few ingredients – all of which you can pronounce and understand – with measured portions that are GOOD for us. We feel as it we have found a treasure trove.
Particularly when the weather is good, I like to spend a lot of time outside – working in our veggie garden, gathering harvests of lettuce, spinach, radishes, yellow squash, zucchini, broccoli, onions, and tomatoes each time I can for us to enjoy right from the garden. Much of the time I am helping with the lawn or weeding my flower beds, so it’s nice to have veggies from the garden and a good-for-us delicious dinner that only has to be nuked to be ready to eat.
As soon as I finish here, I’m planning to go out and take pics to share with you, hopefully harvest my first gathering of veggies, plus get things ready to cover the plants for some possible freezes this week.
I hope that you are well and happy this morning, and that your Sunday is a nice one.
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