Progress in the Garden 6-27-2020

I recently got caught up on weeding our raised-bed, square-foot garden. In this picture, you can see that I have onions in most of this planter box and part of another. I read that the ones which have shot the greenery up and have bloomed are the ones we should eat first, because they won’t dry and store well. I have also read that it doesn’t matter that the others are losing their greenery. They will continue to get larger if I just leave them where they are.

 

 

This is another wide shot of the garden. It’s hard to show you the whole thing at once. What you are looking at is SIX 4’x4’x8″ wooden boxes with drain holes set into metal supports about my chest level. They are tied together with hoses, with a sprinkler in the center of each box, so we can water each day for a specified time. (Later on in the summer, the sun will be so strong that it doesn’t matter how much you try to water, things will simply burn up.) For now the plants are happy.

I have planted zucchini and yellow crookneck squash. I will add some radishes at some point, but I’m keeping things simple this year. The plants have gotten larger, but haven’t shot out vines yet.

It took me two days to get everything weeded and under reasonable control.  You can see the size of the onions.

I also have empty, weeded squares now, where I can plant radish seeds. My two little bitty celery plants are still alive. I have no clue when I am supposed to tie them up (this is supposed to result in the nice celery stalks you get at the grocery store. I’ll see if I can find some information.

I showed you the tomato plants yesterday. We are looking forward to enjoying some sliced tomatoes with our dinner tonight!

Today will be hot and humid. Right now we’re enjoying have the doors open and a nice breeze coming through. Later today, though, we’ll close up, not only because of comfort, but because the dust cloud from the Sahara is due this afternoon and tomorrow.

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Tomatoes!

We have two tomato planters. The one above is 8 feet long. The one below is about 4 feet wide. We took the potting soil out and put Mel’s Mix in, converting them both to square foot planters.

 

This is the ‘nook’ planter that is at the back of the house and beside the back porch. It’s a bit more protected that the other planter from the elements. Both took off during the rainy season here, growing really tall and bushy before I had a chance to try to control them a bit. Now I’m just trying to support the branches as well as I can and hope we have some nice tomatoes.

 

You can see we have some green tomatoes of different sizes.

 

Today I found some ripe ones!  I also found that we had blossom end rot, so I added bone meal, food, and some blossom end rot spray to both planters.

 

 

I will try to cut off some dead stuff and neaten things up in a day or two, after the rain will have hopefully made the additives sink into the soil.

 

I’m delighted to show you the first harvest of what I hope will be a great tomato season for us. We will eat one this evening, enjoying every bite! :0)

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Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening, Healthy Eating, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

More Wonderful Watercolors

Artisticaly

 

 

Humid Peach-Artwoonz

 

 

Jan Helton Artworks

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Molly’s Food

Molly

I have told you that the vet told us that our sweet Molly has cancer. He helped us clear up the immediate problem she was having with her jaw, got her through a bad period with pain and inflammation pills and antibiotics. This has given her some really happy dog days and we are treasuring each one. Right now she is sleeping, but many times during the day she is barking to go outside, prancing around the yard, barking to come in again, and demanding a treat for doing that. (She’s getting one, too. :0) )

We have always fed her twice a day. She is not hungry first thing in the morning now, ignoring her dish.  She eventually eats what is in the dish, plus is hungry for dinner in the evenings.

We keep her in the office behind a gate to protect her from Amber, our 3-year-old, 95-pound yellow lab, who is jealous of her. We are very careful to make sure that we know where both dogs are before we let anyone outside, or let them in again. Molly’s food and water dishes are in the office, safe from others, until she wants them. At least, that is the PLAN.

Lately our animals are getting sneakier.

My husband got distracted yesterday morning and left the gate to the office open after letting Molly outside. By the time he came in with his cup of coffee, Amber

Amber

had come in and cleaned the dish. I insisted that my husband make her another bowl.

Another time I found one of our cats, Abby, polishing off the food in Molly’s bowl.

Abby

The only one who HASN’T tried to eat Molly’s food (at least that we have SEEN) is Smoke

Smoke

We are redoubling our efforts to protect Molly’s food so that when SHE is ready to eat, it’s there. Constant vigilance is required….

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I Love Cats

Leonardo Da Vinci – Jess Peterson Photos – via Etsy

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Thoughts on a Friday 6-26-2020

Thrive Global

I’m feeling GOOD this morning. I’ve been eating very carefully since my illness and I think I’m at 100% this morning – no upset – no pain – AHHHHHH!

We have the front and back doors open this morning, bringing in a nice breeze. There is a good chance of rain today, but I’m hoping it will hold off until AFTER we get home from Lunch Bunch with our good friends. This week is the last week we have to eat at a picnic bench in the parking lot. July 1st the restaurant will open in some capacity, so next week we are back to our normal table. (We go early enough that there are usually only the two waitresses there with us, or someone coming in to grab a take-out, so I’m not worried.)  One of our friends is celebrating a birthday today, so it will be extra nice.

I finished weeding my raised bed square foot garden before I got sick, and that is still looking good. The squash plants are looking healthy, though they haven’t shot vines out yet. The little bitty celery plants are still alive. I’m going to check our tomato planters on the other side of the house this afternoon.

I’ve decided that one of the next projects will be pressure washing.

Getty Images

We have two sets of outdoor chairs that are in serious need of a good cleaning. I will also do the deck, back sidewalk, driveway pad, front sidewalk, and front porch. This will probably take several days of work, but it has been a couple or three years since I did it last time, and so is needed.

I’m working on my Important Spreadsheet, getting through the first pass on it yesterday. I need to find answers to questions, and then I’ll finish that up, print copies for several places, send the URL to our son, etc. I will put it on my calendar to check for needed updates in three months, instead of six, next time.

My husband and I decided that we needed more help and motivation on our keto eating plan. Neither of us has built up good willpower and so we have gotten lax lately, gaining several pounds. We decided to do two months of the South Beach Diet

to give us a good push toward getting back on track and losing some lard. We have signed up and are awaiting our first month’s delivery. I’m HOPING that we will be well on the way at the end of the two months. Built into the program is DIY meals, so I will still be using the good keto recipes we like – just reminded of portion size and encouraged to NOT add things we shouldn’t. Fingers crossed this will stop our bad habits and make the scales stop frowning at us.

I am awaiting an order of wooden shapes for earrings. I am in communication with a nice lady who likes these –

 

but would like them 2″ in diameter, instead of 1″, as they are on the website. She also wants them in hot pink and white. I can’t wait to get started! :0)  I also ordered some other shapes, so will dive in and see what other fun I can have.

Feeling better is making me think of spending time in my art room. Hopefully, I can get upstairs today…

Have a wonderful Friday!

 

 

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Filed under DIET!, Family, Friendship, getting the lard off, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds, Thoughts on a ________

Finger Painting by Iris Scott 4

Iris Scott via Sara Barnes, MyModernMet

 

 

Iris Scott via Sara Barnes, MyModernMet

 

 

Iris Scott via Sara Barnes, MyModernMet

 

 

Iris Scott via Sara Barnes, MyModernMet

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Preparation

Shrinking Bunny’s Buns – WordPress.com

I am in the middle of doing a process I suggest everyone do – making a list for your family of important data they would need if you get ill or die. I know, it’s not an upbeat subject, but it’s an important one.

I started this several years ago, when my husband asked, “Where is the _____?”  I now have a spreadsheet that lists all of our information for whoever is left between me and my husband, and for our son, who will be dealing with all the details when the second one is gone.

I have a list of what is in our safe deposit box. I have another for what is in our safe. I have a spreadsheet that lists all our financial information, important people to contact, suggestions on how to get rid of our stuff, death arrangements, account information for utilities, etc.

I have on my calendar to update this every six months. I’m having to make a lot of changes this time, and have a list of questions for which I need to get answers, so I’m changing my updates to quarterly for next time. I was really amazed at how much as changed in the past six months!

One of the things on my to-do list from this time is to see what I need to do to be sure that ALL of our accounts are in BOTH our names. I tried to change some information the other day and they wouldn’t talk to ME. (I was not the account holder – I’m just the one who pays the bills.)

If you are already doing all of this, I applaud your efforts. If you’re not doing ANY of this, you might consider getting started. If you’re like ME – you need to get off your duff and update the information and be sure it goes to the places you need it to be.

 

 

 

 

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Laugh

KatrinaMayer.com via Picture Quotes

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Texting and Driving

Bored Panda

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Perspective

Pinterest

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More Watercolors I Love

balakrishnan-webneel.com

 

 

wc-Chenwen-PurpleLake

 

 

Homesthetics

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Finger Painting by Iris Scott 3

Iris Scott via Sara Barnes, MyModernMet

 

Iris Scott via Sara Barnes, MyModernMet

 

Iris Scott via Sara Barnes, MyModernMet

 

Iris Scott via Sara Barnes, MyModernMet

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I’m Back!

Eternally Sunny

I am back to the land of the living today, after sleeping half the day yesterday and then TEN hours last night! I have noticed that since I am a MATURE woman – aka “old broad” – it takes me a lot longer to bounce back after getting sick. (Another one of the many perks of getting older.) I actually feel some energy this morning!

I will still take it easy today, doing stuff in our home office, rather than doing yard work or heavy stuff inside.

I hope that YOU are having a good day and staying healthy.

 

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Under the Weather

BBC.com

I’ve been under the weather for a day and a half, but am feeling mostly human now.  I’m lucky that I have a husband who stepped up and took good care of me.

Needless to say, I have been a total sloth – not accomplishing anything. I’m going to continue that for the rest of today, at least, hoping to be back 100% in another day or so.

I received a nice note from a visitor to my Etsy shop for hand-painted wooden earrings Eyecatching Earrings on Etsy

 

 

she wanted to know if I could make larger earrings. This pair is about 1″ in diameter, and she would prefer 2 to 3″.  The largest ones I could find like this were just under 2″, and I have ordered those. I have asked her her color preferences. I’ll write her again when I have some painted and listed to see if she would like a pair or more. :0)

I KNOW I’m feeling better because I found some other shapes I haven’t used and ordered THEM, as well. My juices are starting to flow…

I hope you have a nice day.

 

 

 

 

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Heart Melters

Billie-Bored Panda

“This Is Billie. She Never Understood Why I Had A Set Of Keys To Bring In The Car And She Didn’t. I Got Her A Set Of Her Own And Now She Insists On Bringing Them Anytime We Go For A Drive!”

BoredPanda

“My Dog Is 16, So I Figured It’s Time For Some Driving Lessons”

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Kids Quotes – Dreams

BoredPanda.com

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Punnies 7

Pinterest

What do you call a bee that can’t make up its mind? A maybe

The furniture store keeps calling me to come back. But all I wanted was one night stand

A cross-eyed teacher couldn’t control his pupils

What did the janitor say when he jumped out of the closet? SUPPLIES!

There was a kidnapping at school yesterday. Don’t worry, though – he woke up

My ex-wife still misses me. But her aim is starting to improve

What washes up on tiny beaches? Microwaves

The other day I tried to make a chemistry joke, but got no reaction.

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Thoughts on a Tuesday – June 23, 2020

Our forecast is ‘Downpours this morning and scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. Chance of rain 100%”

 

Jimmy Nyakora via Scene and Heard – Match Box Quotes

Other than the downpours and thunderstorms, I’m hoping for a quiet rain. I have no big projects for the day. I wanted to finish weeding my veggie garden, but it looks like that won’t be in the cards today. My husband planned to mow the lawn, but that probably won’t be happening, either. All that will be waiting for us when Mother Nature decides to cooperate.

Our DirecTV system has a nice feature where you can pause a program and it will record it for you until you want to resume watching later. This causes a ‘buffer’ to form, where you can then fast-forward through commercials. We are totally addicted to this feature.

My husband and I have a running ‘discussion’ about why the feature doesn’t always work the way he thinks it should. It will hold about 40 minutes on pause, and then it starts playing. (Hopefully, we have it muted, or else it sounds like the TV is possessed, coming on by itself and talking erupting in the living room while we are in our home office.) Either way, the buffer is filled up and the TV plays. Sometimes the buffer is retained and sometimes not. We cannot see a pattern.

It REALLY irks my husband. He is careful to set it up at night so that we have a full buffer in the morning and he is able to zip through commercials to his heart’s content.  When, for some unknown reason, gremlins have done their work and the buffer is ‘gone,’ he gets frustrated and angry. Our ‘discussions’ haven’t solved the problem. He refuses to call DirecTV to try to get an answer. And so, the ‘discussions’ continue…

We MAY have another raccoon. This would be #6 this season.

Getty Images

The sweet things won’t share, or we wouldn’t have a problem. They eat EVERY seed in EVERY feeder, and many time trash the feeder in their efforts to chow down. My husband will set our humane trap tonight and we’ll see if we capture another member of this year’s family to relocate with the others.

Foundation Pest Control

I mentioned that it MIGHT be the squirrel family we have this year. Yesterday I saw THREE squirrels at once being quite active and athletic on the feeders. That’s the first time I have seen three at one time. One was sitting in the shovel bird feeder, eating the seeds we leave there every day. A second was at the main bird feeder, hanging from his back legs as he avidly ate as much as possible using both hands to grab seeds. A third was in the gallon-sized clear bottle that sits on another feeder in our window. He was all the way inside the bottle, filling his cheeks.

Mourning Doves-Shutterstock.com

We usually have a pair of doves who sit on one of the electrical lines that cross the back of our yard. I haven’t seen them lately. I hope they are okay.

I hope that you are having a really nice day.

 

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Great Night

Pinterest

Last night was one for the record books.

We took the dogs out for their last outing at around midnight. I was good and sleepy. We set up to have the attic fan on, opening the bathroom window, the bathroom door and our bedroom door, then turning on the fan. AHHHHHH! Deliciously cool air!

At a little after 1 a.m., Abby, one of our cats, was on my stomach, having jumped up to loudly announce that she – who did not show up to go out when we went to bed – and, in fact, HID – NOW wanted to go out. I got up, went downstairs, and put her out.

A little after 2:30 a.m., I woke up as my husband was moving around. I found out that he was returning from going downstairs because of leg twitches. He had had some tea and was ready to try to sleep again.

At about 3:15 a.m., one of the doors slammed shut. (We apparently were lax in our efforts to make sure the doors were secure and wouldn’t be pulled shut by the fan. The door slamming was so loud, I was thoroughly awake. I went downstairs and read for about an hour before I was sleepy enough to try again.

At about 4:30 a.m., I had JUST dozed off when Amber, our 3-year-old, 95-pound yellow lab, barked downstairs. She didn’t bark again, so I dozed off.

At 5:16 a.m., I heard the SHRIEK of the little alarm my husband built that we put on the open window sill in the bathroom to let us know if it is raining in. It WAS. My husband was unaware of the loud shrieking, but woke up when I turned on the light to deal with it. I ended up ripping the battery out of it.

SO – all was calm from 5:18a.m. until 8:00 a.m., when our alarm went off….

I see a nap in my future sometime today.

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Filed under Challenges, quality of life

Garden

kid quotes – anonymous

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Honesty

TeePublic

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Watercolors by Z.L. Feng

Z.L. Feng – Webneel.com

 

 

Z.L. Feng – Webneel.com

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Veggie Garden is Half Done

Yesterday I spent about an hour weeding in my raised bed, square foot veggie garden. We built six 4’x4′ boxes and installed them on metal supports, so they are like tables. They are about my chest height, so I can do almost everything I need to do, from planting, feeding, weeding, and harvesting, without having to bend over double or get down on my hands and knees.

We mix up “Mel’s Mix,”  a soil alternative that is a combination of peat moss, vermiculite, and as many different kinds of compost as we can find or create.

The garden is as protected from critters as we can make it, having a high fence around the perimeter, and then chicken wire around the bottom. We have a door gate.

We fixed an irrigation system on a timer, so the veggies are watered each day for a specified time.

 

Right now I’m trying to grow yellow crookneck squash, zucchini, and sweet red onions.  I will also try some radishes soon. Yesterday I planted some celery that I started in my kitchen.

 

I got three of the six planters weeded yesterday, and will try to finish the job today. So far, the plants look happy.

 

This is one of the two celery plants. I never really thought of celery as “cute,” but I think these are. :0)

We also have the two brick planters of tomatoes. We have bright yellow blossoms and lots of small green tomatoes. We are hoping for a good crop, because fresh, sliced tomatoes from our garden is one of our favorite things.

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Impossible

Cynthia E Varnado-The Honest Kitchen

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More Wonderful Quilts

Riehl’s Quilts and Crafts-Discover Lancaster

 

Tree Of Life-Blanket Lover

 

Tucson Botanical Garden

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Yippeeeee!

picturequotes.com

Things are quiet so far today, and for that I am truly thankful.

I’m planning to head out to my garden after lunch to catch up on the weeding in my veggie planter boxes. I’m going to TRY to transplant two celery plants I started in the kitchen recently. If I have time and energy, I’ll do more weed killer spraying. This is all dependent on our weather cooperating, though.

Our forecast is for 100% chance of rain this afternoon. We had a good shower yesterday, and more is forecast for tomorrow. I should have expected all this rain. We just finished repairing our irrigation system. :0)

Yesterday I vacuumed the first floor tiled areas (kitchen, pantry, utility room, dining area, and two half-baths.) I also did PART of the carpeted first floor area yesterday, finishing it up this morning. I’m always amazed and disgusted at how MUCH dog and cat hair, plus dirt, plus ‘whatever’ I get every time. I’m lucky to have good vacuums. I refuse to vacuum more than every other day, though, so animal hair reigns here.

I was really tired when it was time to fix dinner. My husband twisted my arm :0)  and we called in and picked up fried rice for each of us. The restaurant is still on take-out only, and has simplified to offer only the medium size, so we have plenty for dinner tonight, too. That said, I’m planning to make a loaf of keto bread this afternoon.

I hope you’re having a fine day today and doing something FUN.

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed under Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds, Thoughts on a ________

Learning to Dance

Emotionally Resilient Living

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Filed under Attitude, quality of life

Fingerpainting by Iris Scott 2

Iris Scott – via Sara Barnes, MyModernMet

 

 

Iris Scott – via Sara Barnes, MyModernMet

 

 

Iris Scott – via Sara Barnes, MyModernMet

 

 

Iris Scott – via Sara Barnes, MyModernMet

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Animal Paintings by Slaveika Aladjova

Slaveika Aladjova

 

Slaveika Aladjova

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Ray of Hope

These are wave petunias.  They give me particular hope this year because I didn’t plant anything on the deck this year due to the pandemic.  These have come up from what was left behind after we cleaned out the planters last fall. They lived through the winter and are blooming on their own, despite everything that is going on in the world.

 

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Filed under Gardening, hope