I just came in from hauling and spreading six 40-lb bags of potting soil, 3 in each of our two brick tomato planters. That’s the end of the soil hauling. The next three days are supposed to be stormy/severe weather, so it’s likely I won’t be outside more than is absolutely necessary until Thursday. I’m hopeful we can get our tomato plants then and I can get them planted.
I did my weights exercise video before I worked outside. I’ll rest awhile, drink a bunch of water, then do my yoga stretches. The dog in this gif could be Amber. She is just larger. :0)
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All I have to do for dinner is put the rotisserie chicken in the microwave and put salad dressing on the salad. Yea!
These are actually photos I took yesterday, before the freeze, fearing that the overnight freeze would kill our treasured wisteria. I’m happy/relieved to tell you it is alive and well, maybe a bit worse from wear, but hopefully will continue to bloom more and more daily.
This wisteria has lived through freezes, snows, ice, thunderstorms, gusting winds, droughts, etc. Seeing it bloom like this really fills me up with hope for the future.
I had to cover my garden planter boxes with sheets last night due to a freeze warning. “The average last freeze for the River Valley is March 26th, with the latest on record occurring on April 17th 1921/1951.” I really hope this is the last one.
I uncovered the plants a few minutes ago, stuffing the just-washed sheets into the bag and carting them to the garage, to wait until ALL chances of freezing are finished until the fall and then I’ll wash them again for storage.
My sweet veggies, including the zucchini plants I planted yesterday, came through just fine. I’m really relieved.
(Greenwood is just southeast of Fort Smith)
Today I’ll try to finish hauling the bags of potting soil to the two brick planters we use for tomatoes. After a stormy Mon/Tues/Wed next week, I hope to find some good tomato plants to plant.
After the freeze this morning, we’re supposed to have a beautiful weekend. I’m getting a bit of whiplash from the changes back and forth.
I just learned we’re supposed to have a freeze tonight. UGH. I’m hard-headed, so after Lunch Bunch, I’m going to check for head lettuce and zucchini plants to put in the garden, anyway. When we get home, if I’m successful finding them, I’ll plant them, weed the raised garden boxes, and then cover them with sheets tonight.
I’m getting to the end of WEEK 2 on my eating low-carb and ‘moving-more’ efforts. I’m gradually changing my eating habits, relying on MyFitnessPal.com to plan what I’ll eat for the day to make sure I’m under my calorie and carb limits.
downshiftology.com
Though I told my husband he can eat what he wants (within reason, since he’s Type II diabetic), he says, “I’ll eat what you eat.” So today at Lunch Bunch, instead of the breaded, fried chicken tenders with honey mustard we have been eating forever, we’ll have a hamburger patty, side salad with blue cheese dressing on the side. Tomorrow I’m making low carb spaghetti. I’ll fix macaroni for my husband and Zucchini ‘noodles’ for me (Zoodles). Please see pic above.
Pinterest
I’m also doing well on my ‘moving-more’ efforts. I’m doing my yoga stretches every afternoon after my other strenuous activities are finished. I’m doing weights exercises with a video for seniors I found online. (I also found several other videos he has done, and hope to incorporate them into my day soon.) Finally, I’m working outside every day the weather is cooperative. Today, for example, when we’re back from Lunch Bunch and errands today, I’ll use the wheelbarrow to move four or five 40-lb bags of potting soil out to the tomato planters I weeded yesterday, prepping them for the coming tomato plants. I’m going to try to find zucchini and head lettuce plants while we’re out today. I’ll plant what I can find, then weed the planters, then plan to cover them up tonight to protect them as much as possible from the freeze.
The Senior Alliance
I wish I could show you a pic of my friends at Lunch Bunch, but I’m respecting their wishes and their privacy. Today is a special Lunch Bunch. It’s our waitress’s birthday, so we’re bringing her gifts to celebrate. She’ll be surprised, and she’ll be reminded how special she is.
We’re going to have a nice display of twice-blooming deep purple iris soon. As you can see, I need to clean up this planter a lot. I’ll try to thin these out, moving them elsewhere around the yard.The wisteria is looking better each day. There is a small redbud tree behind the wisteria, plus a forsythia blooming behind it, too. A display like this really brings up my spirits!
I’ve only had to cover up my veggie plants once for a freeze since I put the plants in the ground, and for that I’m thankful. I’m watching the weather forecasts like a hawk, but so far, things are going well.
leaf lettuceSpinachBroccoliCauliflowerYou can see the red onion sprouts, too. You can also see some of the neon-pink surveyor’s tape I put on the fence so the deer won’t run into the fence.
Next up, I plan to put in radishes, bell pepper, and celery.
Today’s plan is to start prepping the two brick planters on the far side of the house that we converted to square foot garden planters, preparing to add some tomato plants, probably next week, depending on the weather. I need to get the weeds out, and then add a bunch of Mel’s Mix (a mixture of peat moss, Vermiculite, and at least 3 different types of compost) to each of the planters. Who knows where this stuff GOES?
I just came in from working in the garden a bit. I strung pink neon-colored stretchy surveyor’s tape all the way around the garden, working it through the fence in spots so that the deer will ‘see’ there is something weird there in the dark and hopefully won’t run into the fence.
Then I mixed up our two-gallon sprayer with KillzAll and sprayed it under the planter boxes in the veggie garden. My back started yelling, so I’m listening to it and taking a break for awhile. Later I’ll mix up another container full and hopefully finish the job.
I spent two hours yesterday weeding our rock beds that run along the front and back of the house. I finished, and even my husband was impressed, saying they look, “Great.”
The only problem is that my back is NOT so pleased with my efforts, even though I sat on my garden stool part of the time, used a padded knee pad part of the time, and stood part of the time, trying to vary my position often to avoid problems.
NEXT time I’ll only do the front OR the back, not both in one day.
Maybe I can do TWO sessions of yoga stretching today….
The rain started early this morning. We avoided the possible severe weather, though, thank goodness. It’s still rainy, though we’re due for a break in the rain until ‘downpours’ this afternoon. An inside day, for sure.
Happily, I pushed myself yesterday, doing three sessions of weed whacking to clean up the edges from my husband’s good lawn mowing. We almost look like someone cares!
Since we have a cool front along with the cloudy, rainy weather, I’m cooking Keto Chili tonight from Suzanne Ryan’s Simply Keto recipe book. I feel I have a good start now on my renewed effort to lose the lard. My scales are noticing my efforts this week. :0) Today, since I can’t work in the yard, I’ll try to add some time on my elliptical trainer in the garage along with my afternoon yoga stretching session.
VectorStock
A good thing: my husband agreed to try using a cell phone again, mainly because he wants to be able to receive verification codes on HIS phone rather than mine. We went to AT&T yesterday, and the two nice people there got the new phone added. The guy showed my husband how to get rid of the stuff he doesn’t want on the phone, so now he’ll quit bothering me about the stuff on mine… PLUS, the lady helped me make it so I can again take pics with my phone and email them to my computer for use on the blog again. (I haven’t been able to make it work since I had to change my email address.) The final great thing was the guy suggested I call ‘611’ on my cell to ask them if they would waive the extra fees associated with adding another phone. I was to ask for the Loyalty Dept. I did and they DID give us a credit toward our next bill. Yea!
Another good thing: I spent a long time on the phone this morning, trying to get the status on some wire transfers we did lately. The nice lady was able to confirm one was ‘good,’ and is researching the other to find out what’s what. It’s good to find competent, polite help when you need it.
My husband is trying to make his new computer work. It’s together physically now, but he’s having trouble adding software. My contribution is to keep my mouth firmly shut. Some access to things we share aren’t working yet, so I’m modifying my activities until they do again.
I managed to bake some really low-carb dinner rolls for our dinner. (I’m trying to replace the deli/bakery dinner roll we’ve been eating.) They were okay. I will continue to look for a recipe we like better, but this would work. :0)
I also cooked a Sausage, Egg and Cheese Bake recipe for a low-carb dinner. It was as good as we remembered. I froze the leftovers into individual containers so we can have two more easy dinners from one cooking session.
I got a gold star on my calendar for doing a good session of yoga.
I mixed and sprayed two gallons of weed killer under the planter boxes in my raised bed square foot garden. I’ll probably need to spray at least one more time, but I have a good start on it now.
My husband mowed our lawn for the first time this season. He had to air up the mower tires first, having to repair a leak on our air compressor in order to DO that, and then get the mower running – always a headache after it sits all winter, but he prevailed and it now looks like someone cares, at least a little, about our yard.
Today I’ll try to weed whack all around the front and back yard to complement the good job my husband did on the lawn. (I have even more motivation than usual because we have a 90% chance of rain tomorrow.)
I just checked my veggie garden and things seem to be going really well at this point. I could actually start harvesting some lettuce leaves, but I think I’ll let them go awhile longer.
You can see spinach, red onion sprouts, leaf lettuce, and one broccoli or cauliflower plant in this box.
broccoli and lettuce
Spinach, red onions, broccoli and cauliflower
Spinach. I can’t wait to start harvesting these leaves. I plan to put lots in our salads, saute some of them in extra virgin olive oil and bacon bits with a bit of garlic, and then freeze the rest. I really hope I get a good crop this year.
This afternoon, I’ll mix up several two-gallon containers of KillzAll. I’ll spray some under the planter boxes and around my garden, and then move on from there – as many containers as I can during the afternoon.
Since our weather is supposed to be sunny and in the 60s this afternoon, I’m planning to spend a lot of time outdoors today. I’ll check on my new spring garden, plus mix and spray as many two-gallon containers of weed killer as I can handle today. (Good exercise, too!)
Mary Braatz_National Wildlife Federation
We caught a raccoon in our humane trap overnight (finally!) so we’ll go out in a bit, get our mail, relocate the raccoon, and hit the store for incidentals on the way home. Hopefully, we can fill up the bird feeders again, unless he’s part of a huge family of raccoons…
In my travels around the yard, I went out to check my early spring raised-bed square foot garden. So far, the plants seem very happy.
“It was such a pleasure to sink one’s hands into the warm earth, to feel at one’s fingertips the possibilities of the new season.” ~ Kate Morton
This is my veggie garden. I have yet to plant radishes, and I’m still on the look-out for head lettuce, since that’s my husband’s favorite. We both love fresh, ripe, home-grown tomatoes, but it’s too early to plant those. I’ve converted two or our handmade brick planters on the other side of the yard on the far side of the house to be tomato planters. I’ll share pics of those when we get them planted later on. As you can see here, one of the next things I’ll do is mix up some weed killer and spray it on the ground underneath my planters. I’ll also spray a perimeter around the whole garden, outside the fence. Another chore is to find our bright, neon-colored tape to string through the fencing so the deer don’t run into it. Here’s a closer view of a couple of the six planters we have. You can see I’ve really spread the plants out this year. some of the squares are empty, hoping for the head lettuce or radishes, but you can see the wispy sprouts of the sweet red onions on the right of the picture if you look carefully. SpinachLeaf Lettuce – Romaine
I’m thankful for a warm, dry home this morning. I really got chilled on my walk, but my spirits are definitely lifted now.
It’s cool here (45 degrees F. and a pretty good breeze), but I needed some spirit-lifting and took my camera outside to walk around and see what I could see.
tulip treetulip tree blossom closeupjust one of the groups of daffodilsRedbud starting to bloomForsythia starting to bloomWisteria budsHarder to be down when Mother Nature is starting to put on her annual show! :0)
“Be like the flower, turn your face to the sun.” — Kahlil Gibran
We’re supposed to get lots of rain today, particularly this afternoon and this evening, possibly severe. A “normal’ spring day for Arkansas.
Yesterday, since cleaning up my counter in the garage did NOT yield the garden irrigation system timer for which I was looking, we went to Yeagers and bought another one. We bought weed killer for our lawn at the same time. My husband spread that while I tackled the new timer.
I managed to program it and install it on the outside garden faucet and then hooked up the hoses in the garden. I turned on the water to test it, but the pressure was way down for some reason. We looked at the well house, since that’s where the water for the garden comes from. After a LOT of unpleasantness, my husband figured out what was wrong. He repaired a broken wire and then was able to get the pump pressure up. So we THINK we’re fixed now. I’ll check it this afternoon to see if the sprinklers in the middle of each planter box are actually sprinkling, or just dribbling as they were yesterday.
In my travels back and forth from the well house to the shop, I noticed that our tulip tree was blooming! Since our possible severe weather this evening may batter the sweet tree, I tried to get some pictures.
Since my counter in the garage is now cleaner, and –my desk in the office is STILL clean –
today’s project will be tackling the kitchen. THAT includes a deeper cleaning of fridges, countertops, ceiling fans, wall air flow systems, and vacuuming the pantry, kitchen, dining area, utility room, and two half baths.
Hooray! We did it! We made it to spring! Whoo HOOOOO!
I was beginning to give up. In Arkansas it almost never snows after my birthday on the 9th, but we broke records in temperatures and amount of snow this year AFTER my celebration of adding another year to my personal total. I couldn’t be happier that MAYBE we’re through with frozen precipitation of any kind. I’ll continue to watch the forecasts for freezing temperatures for awhile yet.
My spring garden is mostly in now. I’ll continue to see if I can find some head lettuce, and I will plant some radishes, but the main part is in now. (The scraggly-looking things you see in this photo are red onion sets)
SpinachLeaf lettuceBroccoliCauliflowerOne of the planter boxes
My husband looked in the shop, but didn’t see our irrigation control timer yesterday. Today I’ll see if I can uncover my counter in the garage and find it. My counter has become the catch-all for everything – including my husband’s zero sugar soft drinks, zero sugar gallons of tea, plus my seed planting stuff, plus tools (garden and otherwise) and more. It is truly awful. At least I’m actually looking for something I need, rather than JUST having to label this a character-building exercise. It MAY keep me going on what will probably be an all day project…
In the meantime, let’s all give Spring a huge hug!
I’m reading Life Force by Tony Robbins. One of the suggestions is that you drink half your weight (in ounces) of water daily. My eyeballs are already swimming, but I’ll work on it. (He says that coffee actually dehydrates you. Since I’m a coffee-a-holic, this is a sad thing to hear.) So I’ll try to cut back on my coffee and TRY to drink even more water.
Another is to eat a more plant-based diet. My husband tends to dig in his heels, so I just talked to him, telling him I will include more veggies in our meals. Since he told me last night he LIKED the way I cooked the broccoli, I’m encouraged that I can do more of this type thing without riots. Small, gradual changes in a good direction.
I’ll go out later to visit our new early spring garden to see how our new plants made it through the latest rain. I’m hoping that the rain was greedily slurped up and that all are feeling happy. I’m reading about growing cauliflower better, since I’ve only been minimally successful, growing very small heads before having to harvest. Fingers crossed. I’ll take some pics.
Shutterstock
I’ve been neglectful regarding saving stuff on my computer lately. SO neglectful that I actually had to refer to my NOTES on how to make a new system disk and save my data to another. I’m embarrassed, but I got it done. I’ll put it on my calendar now so it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.
Norman Machine Tool
I told you that our air compressor suddenly quit working. My husband took apart the top of it, finding the part that he thought was causing the problem. He ordered what he HOPED was a replacement part, and it arrived yesterday. So when we got back from Lunch Bunch, he took it out to the shop. He spent a couple of hours, and he FIXED it! He replaced the part, put everything back together and tested it. It worked perfectly. So now we’ll be able to change our snow tires on the truck for the regular tires once we really believe we are finished with snow and ice for awhile. :0) Another wonderful thing was that he fixed the compressor for around $80. If we had had to buy a new one, a much smaller one would have cost around $450 plus tax, plus shipping. He’s a miracle worker.
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I’m starting to feel a difference in my efforts to move more. I’m feeling less creaky in my afternoon old lady yoga practices, and the working in the garden is definitely getting me moving more. I’m going to see if I can increase this as the weather improves.
It started raining last night and is still raining today.
I got my early spring garden planted, so I’m really happy about the rain, even if we drown going to Lunch Bunch today. :0)
Two days ago I got some leaf lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower plants in my raised bed, square foot garden. Yesterday I planted to bunches of red onion sets. I don’t have the irrigation timer installed yet, so I was really glad to see we were expecting rain last night. The garden is started! I’ll probably plant some radish seeds, plus more lettuce (my husband likes me to try head lettuce) if we can find it, but basically, the early spring garden is in. (This photo shows three of the six planter boxes. I took it before I planted the onion sets.)
I’m looking forward to seeing my friends for Lunch Bunch today. It’s a big moment of ‘normal’ in a chaotic, scary world, and I treasure it, and my friends. We’ll probably stop at Real Food on the way home to see if we can find some goodies to bring home.
Since working outside isn’t in the cards today, I’ll concentrate on cleaning some of the inside. Most of what I vacuum up is dog hair. You would think Amber would be completely bald by now.
I hope that you can stay safe, warm and dry today.
I had filled up our raised bed, square-foot planters with Mel’s Mix (peat moss, vermiculite, and three kinds of compost) at the end of fall. We put a square plastic bucket in the middle of each planter, then stretched a tarp over each box, using bungee cords to secure them. We had to replace the tarps about a month ago or so, since the weather and sun had pretty much disintegrated them. The purpose of this was to try NOT to have to spend several days prepping the garden before I could plant.
When I started yesterday, the tarps were completely water-laden. I pulled them off the planters and spread them beside the shop, holding them in place with bricks, to dry in the sun. I stored the plastic buckets and bungee cords in one of the trash cans and put it under one of the planters.
There were VERY few weeds in the planters, so I was able to get started with the planting almost immediately! Hooray!!!!!!
If you look carefully, you can see the wire we strung in two directions, creating the ‘squares’ for planting. I was able to get spinach, red onion sets, broccoli, leaf lettuce, and cauliflower plants in town.
I got everything planted except for the red onion sets. I’ll try to get those planted today.
I need to find the timer for our irrigation system, put new batteries in it, and hook it up to the garden faucet, and then hook up the hoses that go to the garden planters.
You can see the hose that runs down the middle of the three planters on one side of the garden. You can also see the sprinkler in the middle of each box. Both sides are set up the same way, then tied together so the whole system works as one on the timer.
I’ll try to get the red onion sets planted today. We’re due for rain late this evening-into-tomorrow, so it’ll be okay if I wait until the weekend to get the irrigation system set up.
I’ll see what other plants are available the next time we have a chance.
We’re still eating ‘sicky-food’ around here, at least another day – soup, crackers, eggs, toast. I awoke suddenly last night with my husband being sick. We got his system settled down with Alka Seltzer. I dealt with the aftermath and then couldn’t sleep, so came downstairs and read for quiet awhile. We both slept in this morning a bit. My husband slept through the night and is feeling stronger today, thank goodness, but we’ll be very careful with his food again today, hoping this will be past us soon.
cheezburger.com
One of the really LARGE perks of being old and retired is that – if you’re up a lot of the night for one reason or another – you can take a nap or two during the day so you’re not TOO much of a zombie. To say we’re grateful for this is a vast understatement.
Treehugger
If my husband’s health improves, we may look for garden plants this week. I’m just ITCHING to throw off the tarps from our raised-bed, square foot garden planters and get some plants growing! If I do, I’ll take some pics to share.
In innate perversity, I want to start my garden today so badly I can TASTE it – in the middle of the snow we had yesterday. If the weather were beautiful, I probably wouldn’t be feeling so antsy to start it. :0)
I looked at the weather forecast for the next 10 days here in Arkansas, though, and there are NO freezes and beautiful weather ahead, so my plans to get my early spring garden going have me chomping at the bit.
I think my husband would seriously think about having me committed if I wanted to go shopping for plants today in the middle of the snow, so I’ll wait for it to melt. Maybe we can shop Monday…
I want to look for spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, and as many kinds of lettuce as I can find to start. I’ll also start some radishes and sweet onions. Anything more would be gravy.
As soon as the snow melts, all I have to do this year is pull the tarps off, hook up the irrigation system, and plant.
This photo gives you an idea of how we’re set up. We have six 4’x4′ wooden boxes like this up on iron supports about my chest height. I’ve filled each one up to the top with Mel’s Mix (peat moss, Vermiculite, and as many different types of compost as I can find or create). This photo doesn’t show the wires we’ve strong across the boxes to create ‘squares’ for planting.
The idea is to alternate plantings so you get the benefits of crop rotation, disease prevention, and weed control. For example, I could plant one broccoli plant in the middle of a square, skip the adjoining squares, and then plant another. You can plant 4 spinach plants in a square, but I choose to only plant one, giving it plenty of room. The picture also doesn’t show the hose that runs down the middle of three boxes, with a sprinkler in the middle of each box, for irrigation. We connect the hoses to a timer.
There is a fence around the six planter boxes to protect the garden from deer. We have chicken wire around the bottom to discourage rabbits, etc.
We’ve also converted a couple of brick planters on the other side of the yard to square foot planters for growing tomatoes.
I’ll post pics when I get the garden started. Ooh! I can’t wait!!!!
We came through the night – with threatened severe storms – just fine. The cold front came through and now it’s 31 degrees F. We have another chance at a ‘wintry mix’ Friday, but I’m really hoping the back of winter has been broken and that we’re moving on to spring. I’m also hopeful that Mother Nature receives the memo and acknowledges the official beginning of spring on the 20th, if not unofficially, before.
My spring garden of veggies is still only a bright spark in my mind. I’ve decided to wait out this week and see what happens Friday. I want to uncover at least some of my raised bed square foot planters and fill them with early spring plants of spinach, lettuce, and broccoli, if not more. (Ours looks much like those in this photo, except we built them up at my chest level, on metal table-like supports, so I don’t have to bend over double or get up and down from my knees.
Meanwhile, our daffodils are determined to put on bold, happy faces no matter what our weather is doing. I’ll gather some more to bring in the house today. Free Arts
I’m definitely starting to have ideas rattling around about playing in my art room. I’ve been finding artwork all over the net that is getting my juices flowing, particularly involving mixed media stuff.
Have a safe, happy beginning to your brand, spanking-new week.
I’m itching to start working in the yard, cleaning up, and planting early spring veggie plants in our square foot garden. I just walked around the yard between sessions of rain and was so excited to see more daffodils blooming here and there.
Then, as I was getting ready to come in, I saw our tulip tree has a gazillion buds plus some that are showing color!
We’ll still get more freezes before we can officially say goodbye to winter, but it really brings up my spirits to see the plants bursting forth.
I’m keeping an eye on the 10-day forecasts to see when I can get serious about looking for early spring veggie plants. All I need to do is pull off the tarps and grab my trowel! (If you’ll pardon the expression…) :0)
I’m in awe of people who create ‘felted’ animals. SO much patience and talent involved. This elephant melts me into a puddle.
This is a happy Friday.
First, the weather, which has been so challenging lately, is truly beautiful. Our high temperature is supposed to the in the 70’s today with lots of sunshine! We JUST celebrating the last of the ice on our driveway. It’s still in the ditches along the north sides of the road to town, but it’s finally gone otherwise. I happily waved, ‘bye-bye’ to it. :0)
I immediately wanted to go get some plants, but will need to be careful to watch for freezes in the next couple of weeks if I do find plants to put in my square foot garden.
We have Lunch Bunch today. If all goes to plan, all of us except one will be there today for the first time in about 3 weeks or so. It’ll be great to catch up with our friends.
After, maybe we’ll check to see if there are early spring plants available. I’m particularly looking for lettuce, spinach, and broccoli. We’ll see.
I am actually caught up with all the pesky bookkeeping/taxes/filing etc that I truly hate. Yesterday I updated an ‘important’ spreadsheet for our son that lists information he would need in case both my husband and I croak. I was able to send him the link to it via our chat program. AND my desk is still clear!
I did my yoga practice to earn one star, then my husband and I took off the fragile tarps and bungee cords from the garden planters and replaced them with new tarps and cords. We also put new tarps on the cement mixer we use to mix our Mel’s Mix for the garden planters and the pile of potting soil bags we keep to replenish the brick planters around the house. With temperatures in the 60s and bright sunshine, it was the perfect day to do it – earning a second star. The third was for the scales smiling a bit at me yesterday.
We have another stellar weather day today before things deteriorate tomorrow and into the coming week. I’ll make sure to get outside and walk around the yard this afternoon to show my appreciation for the day.
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I actually just came in from walking around the yard and taking a few pics to share. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to spring. As we uncovered the planters before covering them up again yesterday, I wished I could start playing in the dirt.
Here are our raised-bed square foot planter boxes. I was pleased to see only a few weeds in the Mel’s Mix of the planters. They’ll be ready to plant when the time comes. I’m having trouble waiting. :0)These are the trash cans that hold all the ingredients of Mel’s Mix for my garden: peat moss, Vermiculite, and three different kinds of compost. You can also see a tarp over our used cement mixer. I throw all the ingredients as I measure them into the mixer, then mix and pour the contents into containers to haul over to the planter boxes to fill them up. The mixer does a great job and saves a lot of effort and time.
I also took some pics on the way back to the house from the shop and garden –
Some of our “emu” planters waiting for me to fill them up with potting soil and plant some flowers. I’ll have to clean out this planter, but I’ll plant some colorful flowers around the feet of our ‘peacock.’ This is on one side of the top of our driveway. We have a sign in the tree saying, “Trespassers will be composted.” Our ‘watermelon’ propane tank is in the background toward the top of the picture. You can see colorful pieces of the peacock and one of the emus at the top on the right, plus our ‘crow’ shovel bird on the right, standing on the boulder. Our “turkey” helps a ‘guard dog’ with a rifle stand guard on the opposite side of the driveway.shovel bird that doubles as a bird feeder in one of the trio planters that are between our driveway and the front yard.
I love wandering around the yard. I had to stop myself from spending time weeding and getting ready for spring, since I wasn’t wearing a jacket and it was in the 40s out there now. I’m still hoping the weather people have it wrong and we won’t get ice Wednesday and Thursday….
We have some interesting weather here in Arkansas the next couple of days. We have a ‘wind advisory’ today – even warning about being watchful of gusts when driving! THEN we have ‘heavy downpours,’ ‘thunderstorms,’ and possible severe storms late this afternoon and overnight, a cold front moving in tomorrow, with possible FLURRIES (It’ll be in the 60’s today…). It’s ‘hold-onto-your-hat weather!
I MAY finish the infamous ‘Find-My-Desk’ project today. My husband mentioned that he saw there was a piece of furniture under the piles yesterday, but then his intelligence kicked in and he wisely shut his mouth rather than adding to his observations. :0)
Tenor
My simultaneous ‘Shut-My-Mouth-and-do-More-Yoga’ project has a good start now, though the results may not show for quite awhile.
youshouldgrow.com
A third project I’m beginning to think about is my Raised-bed, Square-foot Garden project for the spring. I’m getting out my grid paper and will start to plan what I’ll plant and where I’ll put it in the garden. This is all based on where I put things last year, so I’ll have reasonable crop rotation, and then I want to have a ‘square’ between like plants (like I don’t plant broccoli plants in adjoining squares) so cut down on any disease problems. I use up lots of grid paper as I dream, making notes on when I should start looking for plants in our local stores. I want to be ready to plant broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, and spinach, for example, as soon as I can get them into the ground. I’ll group them so I can cover them each night with tarps until the weather is more cooperative, making their growing season as long as possible.
As soon as I finish at the computer, I’ll get to work on my desk again. I’ll post pics when this project is done. Have a wonderful Wednesday!
I just came back in from driving our trash down to the bottom of our driveway and getting our mail. When I started to go down the driveway I caught a glimpse of yellow out of the corner of my eye. When I got back, I got my camera and went out in the yard to find two groups of daffodils budding and blooming in the middle of February! Talk about something that really lifted my spirits. I wanted to share them with you. I KNOW that they don’t realize that it’s still the middle of winter here and that they’ll get frozen one day soon, but their determination to bloom in the middle of whatever is happening around them is motivation for me to try to do the same.
My “Find-and-Re-Organize My Desk” project is going slowly, but I’m definitely making progress. Instead of just stuffing things away somewhere else this time, I’m really trying to re-think where it makes the most sense for things to live – rather than piled on my desk. This takes more time, but will be helpful in the long run. I’ve already cleaned out my tax records file drawer in the desk, caught up with January 2022 records on new spreadsheets on my computer, and filed January’s stuff in old-plus-added folders. It won’t look like I’ve done anything on the project until it’s finished, but I’m plugging away at it with several sessions during the day, with walking out to the shop and back between sessions to enjoy the weather and get my body moving more.
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I actually did a session of yoga yesterday afternoon. It felt so good I’m going to do another today, rather than waiting until Wednesday.
I hope that you enjoyed your Valentine’s Day yesterday and that you’re having a hopeful Tuesday, too.
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