At the risk of alienating you completely, I wanted to tell you I DID IT!!!! I used the new one-gallon sprayer and got ALL the garden boxes sprayed with KILLZALL to kill the weed roots. I finished the job in about 20 minutes from start to finish. I’m going to take the sprayer attachment out of the container this time and run water through it with the hose, hopefully keeping it from clogging up.
HOOORAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!
Mother Nature may have gotten the ‘fall’ memo to start the day yesterday, but she seems to have mislaid it. We’re forecast to have possibly record-breaking heat today before a possible ‘cold front’ comes through tomorrow. I’m trying to get motivated to both fully wake up and then mix up a two-gallon container of weed killer and spray the garden boxes. Hopefully, I can actually get that done this morning. I’m ready to put the garden away for the season now.
I love to try to grow veggies. I’m particularly glad that we figured out a way for me to continue trying for several years to come by discovering square foot gardening – thereby bypassing our terrible rocky soil – and then the idea of building garden boxes that look like ‘tables’ at my chest level so I can simply walk up to them and plant, weed, and harvest without having to bend over double or get up and down nine million times trying to take care of things. We also figured out an irrigation system so that I don’t have to stand out with a hose.
This past season was a challenging one with unusual weather for us. I was happy to get anything to grow and was very happy to be able to share some of our lettuce and spinach. We had enough ripe tomatoes to feel thoroughly spoiled – although, being greedy – we would have enjoyed a longer season. I’ve recently harvested a good group of sweet red onions that are drying in the sun on a well-draining trailer bed beside our shop.
I’ve already sprayed the garden boxes with EIGHT, a wonderful chemical that kills bugs, but is safe for our animals. I have cheerfully murdered countless fire ants who had the audacity to set up their homes in my garden boxes, ready to swarm me when I tried to harvest the onions. I’m back to normal now, except for some ‘spots’ on my arms, but I have a long memory when things sting and bite me.
After I spray with the weed root killer, KILLZALL, my husband has said he’ll help me cut the weed barrier fabric cloth to the proper size and put it over the Mel’s Mix, but under the wires that delineate the ‘squares’ of each box. We’ll put bricks in to hold the cloth down, and hopefully, the boxes will be ready to plant in the spring.
Have a wonderful Saturday.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I’ve just come in from weed whacking. I got almost the whole back yard finished, but the weather was really getting to me. I came in, drank a whole bottle of water and tried to rest and cool off in preparation for going back out, but pooped out.
My husband mowed while I was weed whacking. The back yard now looks like someone cares. The front looks like someone cares a little bit. :0)
I told my husband I probably wouldn’t be able to get back outside to work until Saturday if I didn’t finish today (massage tomorrow morning and Lunch Bunch Friday) but he insisted I stop, going out with me to wind up the 100 foot heavy duty cord we use while I got the weed whacker. I have to admit he didn’t have to twist my arm much to get me to stop.
We talked about it and agreed that we would rather have each other in as good health as possible than a great looking lawn and flower beds. We’ll do things a bit at a time as the weather gets more encouraging of our efforts.
Filed under Gardening, Mother Nature
SOME PROGRESS!
I’ve just come in from mixing up and spraying almost two gallons worth of ant killer on our garden boxes.
I misspoke – saying I was spraying with SEVEN. That’s a weed killer. What I mixed up and sprayed is EIGHT – a killer of ants and other bugs.
The sprayer attachment worked perfectly! My husband is taking a nap right now, so I’ll wait to tell him until he is awake, but I’m delighted with his efforts yesterday. I must have a mean streak in me because I really enjoyed it when I found a pocket of fire ants and mercilessly hosed them down. :0)
I got two mosquito bites while I was out there, even though I sprayed myself with Deep Woods Off. :0( My ant sting/bites are almost gone, though.
It’s too hot and humid to do much more out there today, but I’m planning to mix up and spray two gallons of KILLZALL – the weed killer – tomorrow. I carefully labeled the container for the EIGHT remaining. It’ll be great to have the two containers working again.
Progress!
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Well, this morning’s work in the garden was less than stellar.
I mixed up a two-gallon sprayer of SEVEN to spray the garden boxes for fire ants. I pumped up the sprayer and it wouldn’t spray more than a second or two. It was already fully pumped up, and it just wouldn’t spray. I finally went back to the house and found a smaller quart-sized container and used that to at least spray AT each of the boxes. I came in when the sweat was getting into my eyes, feeling defeated.
My husband says he thinks we have another sprayer that we haven’t used. After awhile I will go see if I can find it and take it out to the garden. Hopefully, I can transfer the SEVEN to the new sprayer container and finish hosing down the garden boxes for the ants.
I WILL get this done – one way or another.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I LOVE this guy. I want him to come live with me. :0)
We’re having a beautiful morning, cool and sunny. It’ll get to the 90’s this afternoon, but we’re enjoying the cool while we can.
We’re going to see if we can find a roll of black weed barrier fabric to spread on the top of the Mel’s Mix in each of my raised bed square foot garden planter boxes. I’m still glowing over the compliments I got from my husband – who mentioned it again last night! – on what a good job I did of weeding and harvesting. (I’ll try to remember to get a picture of the onions we grew.)
We’re hoping that the weed barrier will keep the weeds from taking over the boxes again. With the tarps we put over the boxes last year, we had to worry about trying to drain rain water off so it wouldn’t puddle in the middle of each tarp. What we did was better than nothing, but didn’t work as well as we had hoped.
With the barrier, the rain doesn’t NEED to drain, except as it normally does, going right through the barrier. We’ll put bricks or stones, or both, in each box to hold the barrier down. This will be a good experiment.
We’ll get our mail as we go and HOPE that we don’t have to stop and re-gather trash from yesterday….
Happy Wednesday!
My husband just came in from walking around outside. He said, “You did a GREAT job of weeding in the garden.” I’m still amazed.
He wanted to go to Yeager’s tomorrow to buy tarps to go over the boxes as we have done in the past. My good friend, Marsha, had suggested that I use weed barrier fabric stuff and plant through it to keep the weeds from coming up so enthusiastically. I suggested to my husband that we use the barrier stuff to keep the weeds down until the spring, instead of the tarps. We wouldn’t have to worry about the water draining off the tarps. It would just go THROUGH the weed barrier. I could check it from time to time to see if I needed to add more until it was time to plant in the spring.
In the spring, when it’s time to plant. I’ll remove the barrier, add more to plant through, or plant things, then put strips of the barrier stuff in between the plants. That should save me a LOT of work.
We’ll go get the barrier stuff tomorrow. :0)
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
A cool front came through sometime early this morning and it’s only 68 degrees this morning! Woo HOOOOO!
Yesterday I worked almost 3 hours in the garden, trying to harvest our sweet red onions. I did two sessions, having to weed AS I harvested because the weeds were SO bad, I couldn’t FIND the onions. (I know. Embarrassing, to say the least.)
I got what I thought were 3 ant bites, but it turned out to be a few more. No big swarms of ants, but several teed-off ants got me. My left arm is a bit swollen and tender, even though I took allergy meds and put Benadryl ointment on my arm right away.
I got three of the six wooden planters weeded and harvested, and will try to finish the job today.
I’ll mix up my bug killer before I go, so I’m locked and loaded, ready to hose down any ant that even looks in my direction.
Meanwhile, we’re enjoying a cool breeze with the front and back doors open. Ahhhhhhh.
Trying to stay busy on this sad day.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Okay. Picture the mess above on six 4’x4′ wooden ‘table’ gardens chest high and you will have an idea of what a MESS my garden is right now.
I’ve just come in from working for about 45 minutes and I can tell this is going to take SEVERAL sessions, possibly over a couple of days or so do to the FIRST thing on my list for outside – harvesting the sweet red onions.
I have to pull the weeds in order to FIND the onions. :0(
So far, I’ve harvested half of a big bucket of onions which I spread out on our trailer bed by the shop as I came back to the house just now. I have an entire large trash can full of weeds to dump before I start another session after lunch, when I’ve had a chance to rest and cool off.
I’ve finished one and a half of the six wooden boxes. I’ll see how hot it is, and if I can simply ignore the heat and sun for a bit. It IS cooler than it has been, with a high of 90 predicted for this afternoon.
I have THREE ant bites, but I haven’t dug into a bed of them where they swarm up yet. Hopefully, that won’t happen.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Awwwwww. I want to hug this dog.
This morning I’m planning to get SOMETHING reasonable done outside. I worked outside Wednesday, making some good progress, but then life and other commitments got in the way while it was cooler on Thursday and Friday. I’m hoping to get my sweet red onions harvested from the garden and spread on the trailer bed in the sun to dry today. My garden is awful now, but I’m going to ignore that, doing what is pressing on me the most outside each day possible until things are under better control. Our weather is supposed to be cooler for a couple of day starting tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to that and hope to spend a lot of time outside.
I cleaned out the books in the guest room and on my side of the bedroom about a week or so ago. My husband just noticed last night when we were getting ready for bed.
Things got busy and I pooped out last night, so we just had soup and crackers for dinner. I’ll cook the chicken and rice dish my husband likes tonight.
And that’s our quiet, happy day. I hope YOU have one, too.
I simply melted into a puddle when I saw this photo. What a sweetie! I want to cuddle him.
We’re going to shop for supplies today, hoping that when we go down to the bottom of the driveway, our trash is gone and we don’t have to re-gather strewn trash all over. Time will tell.
Today is DAY 55 of my daily yoga practice. Yesterday my husband remarked that he was “proud of me” for keeping up with the daily yoga. That’s the equivalent of an Olympic medal around here, so I’m feeling really good. :0) The stretching is helping me feel better – more energetic.
I spent much of the day yesterday bouncing back and forth between listening to music on my computer and reading. Lazy, wonderful afternoon after the morning’s yardwork.
Enjoy your Thursday!
Filed under exercise, Gardening, Thoughts on a ________
I just spent about an hour outside, getting two more rose bushes pruned, cleaning up the elephant ear planter a bit, and hacking down a bunch of stuff overgrowing our trio planters. It will take several days to get things under a semblance of control, but I can handle the heat for awhile in the mornings now. I don’t know what these sweet blue flowers and greenery are called, but they sure are happy right now.
I thought the elephant ears would croak in all the heat. Even with the irrigation system, they look really unhappy in the afternoons. I got things looking a bit better, though there is more work to do.
Filed under Gardening
I’m not sure I’m ready to tackle the day yet.
We did take our trash down this morning – on our trash people’s holiday schedule. I’m HOPING the trash actually goes away, not strewn all over. I will be glad if I ever have confidence in this new trash company. So far, I feel jubilant when I don’t have to re-gather trash from the ditch and the road at the bottom of our driveway and call them…
I’m going to TRY to get outside and prune more rose bushes this morning. I got snafued by strong sun yesterday, making me feel as if I were on a griddle. Hopefully, getting out there earlier will help.
Today is DAY 54 of my daily yoga practices. I’ve added three new-for-me poses to my original practice, and I’m feeling progress on some of my poses. I’m stretching a bit farther, holding the poses a bit longer, differences no one but me could tell, but satisfying, nonetheless. NOTE: See the way this young girl is sitting? THAT is something I’ve been trying to do for about a year now. I could sit TOWARD my feet, but my knees would hurt too badly to even think about actually sitting that way. YESTERDAY, my bottom touched my feet for the first time. I was only able to hold it for a couple of seconds, but… :0)
Happy Wednesday!
Filed under .gifs I Love, exercise, Gardening, Thoughts on a ________
With the rain we’ve enjoyed recently, the roses on our Rio Samba rose bushes burst forth. Now they’re sad, needing to be pruned. I just went out to see what I could do and gave up after a cursory amount done on only one bush.
I felt like the sun was literally burning through my skin! I decided to be prudent and not actually allowing myself to emulate a fried egg sandwich and came in. I’ll try it again late this afternoon or tomorrow morning.
There is a LOT that needs to be done outside, but I’ll need to time it more carefully.
Filed under Gardening
I think this photo is stunning. I almost expect the birds to move their heads! Incredible. Speaking of nature, we’ve seen deer on the way to town three days in a row. I’ve already told you about the doe and fawn we saw. Then, when I was on my way to my massage Thursday morning, there was a doe standing beside the road. She was by herself, or at least I didn’t see any other dear or fawns. I drove really slowly past her. She just looked at me. She was beautiful. Yesterday, on the way to Lunch Bunch, we saw a deer who gracefully jumped in a big arc over the road to the other side.
Today is DAY 43 of my daily yoga practice, trying to make it a HABIT. So far, I can say that my yoga practice takes priority over other activities each afternoon. I feel happy that I’m doing something good for myself.
I only found one ripe tomato on one of the plants in the niche planter beside the house yesterday, and it wasn’t in good shape. I’ll look again to see if there are any green ones that might ripen, but it looks like I’ll need to schedule pulling out of the tomato plants for the year. I will also schedule harvesting the sweet red onions – the last thing in our raised-bed square foot garden – soon. I might have to wait until next week to get these two things done, but they’re on my list.
My books don’t look this bad, but I haven’t really been careful about storing new books – and I have a bunch – plus we haven’t been donating books as we usually do, since our local library suspended their book sale fundraisers for about a year now. They just started accepting donations again, so I’m getting serious about going through my books, starting in my bedroom and working my way down, going through everything, gathering books for donations, reorganizing the rest. This is a big project, but I’ll just do what I can each day until it’s done. I’m lucky to have the ‘problem’ of more books than I can handle right now, and I need to share the wealth. :0)
We slept later this morning than usual. The conditions were perfect for great rest, but I was shocked at the clock when I woke up enough to care what time it was. I leaped up, threw on clothes and went down to let Amber out. She was patiently waiting, and I feel guilty we made her wait so long. I did our normal morning stuff, and then cut up stuff for a chef salad with chicken tonight, plus a peach for our dessert.
Amber and I tried to be quiet in the office to give my husband a chance to sleep longer. I was working at the computer when Amber started huffing and puffing and running around the way she does when she’s excited. My husband came down the stairs then.
We’re having a nice, sunny Saturday here. I hope you are enjoying yours, as well.
Good morning! I wish I were with this seal, enjoying the ocean. Did you wave back?
YARD – I’m about to go outside and finish the weed whacking I started yesterday. My husband mowed yesterday, so when I finish, it will look like someone cares around here again. It’s actually cool right now, at 76 degrees F., so it shouldn’t be bad to work.
SCHOOL – School starts here in Greenwood tomorrow morning. There is one main road between our home and the larger road that goes to town, and having two schools on this road has been a real problem. It’s not so much the school buses, but what my husband calls, “the mommy traffic.” The moms come to pick up their kids from school and they quickly clog up the school driveway in front of the schools. Then they think nothing of spilling out onto the road and blocking through traffic.
The biggest problem, other than being really annoying, is that emergency vehicles are unable to get through, so if you have a fire, need the police, an ambulance, etc. you’re out of luck. I wrote a very careful email to the administration last year, pointing this out, and asking if more parking could be set up for the moms off the road so that the stalled cars didn’t put the community at risk.
A kind lady wrote me, saying they were discussing staggering the start and stop times at the schools, hopefully improving the problem. We still avoid leaving the house either before school starts or when it is due to let out, but we haven’t been caught in the traffic since.
ART ROOM – Once or twice a day I go up to my art room to add another layer to the Christmas cards I’m painting for my friend to send out this year. They’re starting to come together, and I do a lot of grinning because each part is so much FUN. For awhile I can put everything that is bothering me aside, concentrating on colors, design, sparkles, and more. Such a beautiful break from ‘the world that is too much with us.’ (I guess my middle name should be ‘Ostrich,’ I spend so much time escaping.)
DAY 30 – Today is day 30 of my daily yoga practice – an effort to make my yoga sessions ‘habit.’ Lately I’ve had to make choices as to whether to do my practice or not because inadvertently, I run out of afternoon time. I’ve made the choice to ‘YOG’ as my husband calls it, so I’m keeping my priorities straight.
Weed Whacking Awaits….
Filed under Challenges, exercise, Gardening, Thoughts on a ________
I have to admit that at this very moment I’m feeling a bit older than usual. I just finished weed-whacking the front yard, the driveway area in front of our trio of planters, around the driveway pad, the back sidewalk edge and a bit more. I’m inside, drinking water and trying to cool off before we fix lunch. Then, I’m HOPING it won’t be too hot for me to finish the back.
For ME to do weed whacking, I have to get in a certain position. Holding that position while working, plus the weight of the weed whacker, plus fighting with the 100 foot extension cord I need to use makes me tired pretty fast. I used to be able to do the whole job in one session. Now I quit after 45 minutes. Oh, well. Maybe I’ll feel younger later…. :0)
This is probably the last tomato we’ll get this season.
This year has been difficult, with cooler than normal temperatures in the beginning of the spring, then WAAAAAAAAY too much rain, then WAAAAAAAY too much heat with NO rain, then just killing heat, killing off the plants no matter how much we try to irrigate.
Because we built our raised-bed, square foot garden and arranged for daily irrigation, we were able to enjoy fresh lettuce and spinach at the beginning of the season. We converted two brick planters on the other side of the house to square foot planters so we could plant tomato plants. These were on irrigation, as well, so we were able to enjoy a nice crop of tomatoes, though a much shorter season than usual.
The garden is down to just sweet red onions, ready to be pulled up and dried as soon as this heat allows. The tomatoes are almost completely gone now. We’re lucky to have enjoyed some nice, fresh, home-grown veggies, but we’re also lucky we don’t have to make a living from our efforts. :0)
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I say, “Wonderful Wednesday” because I’m leaving in less than an hour to get a haircut. I look like a dandelion gone to seed right now and saying that I can’t wait to be ‘healed’ is a vast understatement.
It’s going to be hot today (102 degrees F.) with unknown heat index – SURPRISE! – but we might get RAIN tomorrow, so I have hope.
I’m looking forward to playing in my art room this afternoon. The jury is still out on whether the cards I’m trying to paint will be ‘keepers’ or not, but I’m having a great time experimenting with different ideas and techniques. One of the reasons I start making presents and cards for Christmas so early is that what I’m ABLE to do doesn’t match what I would LIKE to do, and so several false starts are inevitably involved.
Our tomatoes are mostly gone now. I have a few that may ripen, so I check the plants every few days for treasure. I will soon pull up the sweet red onions from the garden to start them drying.
I’m on DAY 19 of my yoga. I’m determined to keep on keepin’ on until this practice becomes as ingrained as brushing my teeth in the morning. This practice, I think, is one of the keys to my health, my ability to do what I want without a lot of pain. I want to live a long time so I can continue to annoy my husband. (53 years and counting…)
I hope you have something fun planned for today, or if not – you have a pleasant, happy Wednesday.
This morning’s harvest.
As you can see, we have breaks in the skin now, due to erratic watering. We water for 10 minutes daily, but with the hottest streak of weather we’ve had in a decade or more, and the lack of rain we’ve had lately, there just isn’t enough water to make the plants happy. I don’t know if we’ll lose the plants or not.
If Mother Nature chooses to continue to be harsh, we’ve still had a lovely harvest and have enjoyed lots of delicious tomatoes for lunches and dinners and can’t complain. We do have a streak of greediness, though, and hope we can pull the plants through and enjoy more tomatoes.
We had a nice harvest this morning, with more coming soon. The weather has started affecting the quality of the tomatoes with some breaks in the skin, a couple of bad spots, etc., but they still taste absolutely wonderful and we’re spoiled beyond redemption, shamelessly devouring some for both lunch and dinner daily while we can. :0)
Tonight we’ll enjoy a “Main Meal Salad” (chef type salad) with added chicken from Lunch Bunch, so we’re having a nice, healthy day.
I just love this photo. I WANT this sweet animal!
As far as I know, everyone will be at Lunch Bunch today. It’ll be a nice reunion. We have a few errands to do, but won’t be out long.
I’m having a lot of fun in my art room, working on the presents I’m painting for my friends for Christmas. I’m making 8 things, and I’m almost finished with some of the first sides. Apparently I smile while I’m painting – I’m finding my cheeks are hurting a bit in the evenings. :0)
I’m going to do an extra-long session of yoga this afternoon. I missed it yesterday and my body is reminding me about it today. You would THINK that after so many RE-learnings of this lesson, the message would stick. All I can say is I’m fighting sloth, stubbornness, and stupidity – a pretty lethal combination.
This morning’s harvest. We went into withdrawal yesterday because we didn’t have any ripe tomatoes from our garden to eat. Today makes up for yesterday, with more coming, probably tomorrow. YUM.
Hoping for a safe, quiet day for all of us.
I slept well – in fact, we even slept late – but I’m feeling lazy this morning. I have no excuses. I’ll have to push myself to get something done today.
I did go out a minute ago to get a pic of our elephant ear plants and to see if any tomatoes were ready to harvest. It’s warm, but cooler than yesterday.
The poor elephant ears have had a tough time this season. The main problem was that we needed to have our well house set up modified so we could have TWO irrigation systems, one for the back and the 2nd for the front. The one in the back was working, thank goodness, because the two tomato planters are on that one. We just got the 2nd one – the one for the front – Friday morning. The elephant ears are starting to perk up, and they look better since I cut off the dead stuff and cleaned up the planter. Hopefully, they’ll have an easier time now.
I spent a good amount of time in my art room playing yesterday. The presents I’m making are starting to come together now. I really get into the zone when I’m up there, listening to wonderful music, playing in my paint, enjoying when our dog or cat come up to visit. Having some ‘alone’ time is what my soul needs sometimes. I’m lucky I have a place I can get it.
I don’t have to cook this evening! We’re having “Main Meal Salad” tonight with leftover chicken from the Lunch Bunch. We both enjoy this every once in awhile. I’m even able to sneak in a couple of extra veggies without my husband complaining…
We’re looking at what I hope will be a quiet day. I hope yours is enjoyable, too.
Filed under Gardening, playing in my art room, Thoughts on a ________
I’m feeling more hopeful this morning.
Yesterday our plumber came and put in the 2nd line for irrigation in the well house. My husband helped him figure out the ‘plan’ on all the pvc pipe in the well house, and they finished the job in just under the hour we had before we needed to leave for Lunch Bunch. We thanked him profusely for working us into his over-busy schedule.
When we got home, my husband got the timer programmed and ran the system manually. The poor plants in the front yard have only had the rain, and not any of THAT lately, for far too long. I’ve been dumping water into the elephant ear planter, but that’s all. Today I got out and cut the dead stuff out of that planter. I’m hoping we can save the plants we have in the front yard. I’ll try to work on things early in the morning or just before dark, trying to get things taken care of again.
I also harvested 2 more ripe tomatoes today – with 4 more probably ready tomorrow! My husband said he noticed some ripening when he was outside yesterday. I’m back inside now. It’s too hot to stay outside very long, but I can get what I need to accomplished if I just get off my duff and get out there at a reasonable time.
I finished listing some new products on my Etsy website late yesterday afternoon. Things are in good shape there now, I think, and I’m hoping to get some sales.
Today I’m planning to play in my art room. The website took all my time yesterday, and I didn’t go up to my art room at all. I look forward to making some progress today. (I was painting in my dreams last night. :0) )
Yesterday I made the tuna casserole we’ve loved for years, but haven’t eaten, due to the carbs. Now that we’re on the Mediterranean eating plan, I updated it to include a BUNCH of veggies. The casserole included tuna, macaroni, cream of chicken-mushroom soup, onions, mushrooms, carrots, green beans, broccoli, some fresh Parmesan cheese and some Mozzarella cheese. My husband said, “This is GOOD!” He didn’t mention the veggies, so neither did I. :0)
We got a big boom of thunder right before we went to bed, but I didn’t see any rain when I looked. Later, when my husband took Amber out for the last time of the night, he said he could see it rained, but it wasn’t when they were out. We must have gotten 3 drops of rain. I’m reminding myself it’s better than none.
I hope your Saturday is a fun one.
I’m thankful for air conditioning when we are under a ‘dangerous heat advisory’ through to the weekend with a heat index of 115 for Friday. I just went out to our shop to get some things to add to my Etsy site and the heat slammed me in the face the minute I opened the door to go out. I was REALLY glad to get things done out there and back into the house. (My dog, Amber, and my cat, Abby, accompanied me, and even THEY were happy to get back inside the cool house.)
I’m thankful that, even though my garden is pretty much over for the season (except for a couple of zucchini plants, red onions, and tomatoes) I had a nice harvest this morning.
I’m thankful to be having such a wonderful time starting to paint the totes I’m giving for Christmas this year. My ideas are starting to come together. My head and heart are full of memories of each of these wonderful friends as I picture their faces as I paint. I listen to some of my favorite music up there AND I’m ALSO thankful I can turn on the a/c upstairs so it cools off while I paint! :0)
(I’m hoping that my husband and I look like this wonderful couple when we grow up.) I’m thankful that our day so far is quiet and happy. Sharing your life with someone is one of the most challenging and rewarding things you might be lucky enough to do.
I hope you have lots of things for which you’re thankful, too.
I don’t know yet how this summer’s harvest will compare to years past, but the QUALITY of the tomatoes so far is stellar. NO blemishes. NO bad spots. Nice and firm. Delicious. It just doesn’t get better than this. :0) I wish I could share some with you.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
The zucchini are growing, but very slowly. I’ve never grown these before, so I’m not sure what to expect. The red onions seem fine. All else is gone, with the exception of my two tomato planters on the other side of the house.
The elephant ears are doing well, in spite of our having to water them manually.
The tomato plants were looking dry, so we ran the watering system for the back manually to make sure all was working as it is supposed to.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
The company who supplies our water is sending a man with a sample bottle and instructions today for us to take a sample of our water first thing tomorrow and put it out on the porch for them to pick up. They do this from time to time and then send us the results. It makes me feel good that the quality of the water is being checked from time to time and that they would let us know if there were any problem. This the the Milltown-Washburn Water Authority. We also have well water. It tastes good, but I’m glad we don’t have to rely on it for household use, as it was tested and found to be ‘highly aggressive’ (read acidic) and would eventually eat through the pipes in the house and our own PERSONAL pipes…. something I don’t like to think about.
We have our front and back doors open. It’s a GLORIOUS day today. A cold front came through overnight. I don’t know if we got rain or not, but the temperature was a delicious 69 this morning. It’s 76 right now, a bit overcast and feels WONDERFUL. The high is supposed to be 86 today and the humidity is in the comfortable range for the first time in a month or so. AHHHHHHHHHH!
I’m planning to check my garden today, plus my tomato plants.
Enjoy your day!
The next time you see me, the weed whacking will be finished, the sidewalks blown free of debris, and I’ll be clean from my shower. I just have a bit more weed whacking in the front to do – session 3…
Filed under Gardening
I’m resting from my first session of weed whacking. By noon today, until 8pm tonight, our heat index is going to be 106, so I’m out NOW, trying to get the weed whacking done while it’s ONLY 85.
There’s about half an hour towards the end of the day, when the sun is starting to go down when it’s fabulous outside here. I try to arrange things so I can walk around then, soaking up the glory of it. I take pictures, make mental notes of the next thing I need to tackle, wish I had more flowers (there are never enough), play with Amber and Abby, who follow me around, and maybe sit for a bit on the front porch steps or on the back deck before going in. The world is perfect then, ‘free’ from problems, strife, and stupidity, when I feel filled with the joy of being alive.
If our weather here were like that for more of the day, I might spend all day outside. Since I’m older than dirt, it’s probably a good thing that our Arkansas weather in the summer is totally UN-civilized, hitting you in the face with the heat the minute you step outside, moving from one place of a/c to the next as fast as you can.
I have one more weed whacking session in me before I will have to stop for the day, clean up outside, then come in and shower, getting ready for the rest of my day.
Filed under Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Mother Nature, Seasons
I think this squirrel looks ready for action, not ‘flopped.’
We had a really nice evening cooking out last night. My husband had a bottle of Corona with a slice of lime. I had a sugar-free Dr. Pepper Creme Soda over ice. Our dog, Amber, went between checking each of us, tail wagging frantically, and running around in the yard, nosing everything. Our cat, Abby, just found a spot on the deck and sprawled on her back, feet up in the air. We had the LED rope lights on, so everything looked party-like, and colorful. The charcoal smelled good even before my husband added the hamburger patties. No one was mowing, so it was quiet. The worst of the heat was gone and it was pleasant with the deck ceiling fan stirring the air. We talked, played with the animals, thoroughly enjoying ourselves.
We added corn on the cob to our dinner. We were too full for our strawberries and ice cream, though. We’ll enjoy some of that tonight.
Today I’m dressed to the nines in sweatband, old shirt, old jeans, long socks, old shoes, ready to go out in a minute and weed whack before it gets too hot for man or beast outside. Actually, it’ll be ‘regular’ summer weather, nothing out of the ordinary, but it’s smart to work first thing in the morning or right before dark to avoid overheating. I’m going to try to get the main yard done, front and back, to go with my husband’s goal of mowing the yard yet again, although I think he’s planning to only hit the high spots today. The lack of rain has finally meant that some of the grass is holding steady while the more weeded areas have shot up again. By the end of the day it should look like someone cares around here.
It looks like we’re going to have another week where our plumber hasn’t been able to make time to help us with our 2nd line. We’re watering manually in the front planters. I’ll be glad when it can be automated, but it’s not that bad yet.
I hope that you are able to stay cool wherever you are today and that you’re doing something fun.
Happy Wednesday!
Filed under Gardening
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