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Daughter number 2 (Meg) arrived early this morning after her plane was divert due to weather. Everyone is still snoozing this morning. Daughter number 1 (Shan) called from Calif to let us know that she fell off her dirt bike and broke her collar bone! Told you she was a tom boy. No bloody fear either. She's in pain but it was a clean break and should heal up well. She still won't get rid of the bike. Grrrr.....
Meg's luggage was lost so we will run out and get her a few things this morning. Then just hang out for the most part today.
Going to take out the sad tomatoes today. Oh and SAMs club has huge mums (I mean really big) for next to nothing.
Have a great weekend everyone!!
Today is my Friday and our Daughter arrives this evening! We are taking tomorrow off and will just spend time enjoying her visit. Some friends invited us out on their boat Saturday and Sunday we have a BBQ to go to. Should be fun and Meggie is looking forward to it.
My seeds are up already! Spinach is a little behind the lettuce and radish and others but all are up and doing well. The tomatoes plants look pitiful. I think I will pull the last green tomatoes and take them out and prep that area for some more fall greens.
Was just checking weather.com and it looks like we are going to have lots of rain the weekend of the 7th when we are going camping and fishing. And something we haven't seen in a long time...high temps in the 70's!!! Fall is coming!!
The popup camper is cleaned and ready to go. Rob Dog is chomping at the bit to go fishing with me. He hasn't talked to me in three days since I put the trailer back in the garage. He is mad because we didn't hook his camper to the van and leave. Trying to convice him we are going soon but like any kid he wants to know, "Are we there yet!?!"
Friday night brought us 4 good thunderstorms and lot's of steady rain in between! Yesterday was glorious. I did a lot of cleaning up in the flower beds, then headed out to the veggie patch to plant spinach, lettuce, beans & radish seed. Put in the broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts starts too. Also discovered that something had eaten all the tops off my new little beet sprouts. :( I was not pleased. I reseeded them and will hope for the best.
The major heat we had looks to have shut down the tomotes. Still have alot of fruit but no new flowers. The cukes got a second wind and I have about a dozen more pickle size cukes growing. The third planting of beans are about 3 feet high now and starting to flower.
Wally World got in a shipment of mums and I loaded up a cart. Potted some up for the deck and will put the rest in the front bed this morning.
Daughter #2 arrives Thursday evening for the long weekend. Looking forward to being able to show her around. She was here two years ago at Christmas but there was not alot we could do at that time, that and she thought it was too cold! Should have perfect weather while she is here. Suppose to be in the low to mid 80's.
One of my co workers has two horses and I think she thought I was off my rocker when I asked her if I could have some of their horse apples. When I told her I wanted it for my compost pile the light went on. I also kept her in tomatoes, peppers and cukes all season, so I think the idea of more fresh veggies won her over. I told her I would come out to her place and even shovel, but she said she would have her hubby load me up some large garbage bags.
My compost pile is finally large enough and has begun to cook and I am so thrilled. Doesn't take much to make me happy!
The light through the trees at sunrise this morning
Sat on the front porch this afternoon for well over an hour just watching the hummer wars, butterflies and the birds. It is very over cast (still no rain to speak of). But at least it has cooled off a bit, enough to sit outside anyway.
The hummers are hording the feeders. Mostly young males splaying their tails and chasing off any that come near THEIR feeder. As I sat in the rocker the blue birds lit in the oak near the pond. ALL five of them. Mom, Dad and three kids. The crickets are abundant right now and there are scads of them in the mulch around the pond. Dad went down first and gobbled up a big fat one. One of the young came down to beg from him but I think this was a teaching day. The rest of the family came down to the pond and the fledglings began to peck around in the mulch. didn't take them long to learn that lesson. They were all finding crickets.
The wrens came to the oak and were climbing up the tree looking under the leafs. It didn't dawn on me what they were looking for until one popped over to the trunk from a branch with a big long walking stick bug in its beak. I said WOW that thing is twice as long as you are!! He didn't have a problem with it at all. Down it went like a piece of spaghetti!
Lifted out some of the pond floaters to check on the fish I haven't been able to see in a couple of months. All are doing great and growing like crazy!! They have been busy multiplying too! I have a new calico that is about 2 inches long. Only had two calicos this spring, so I guess they were happy in their new digs. Not sure how many more newbies are in there. I put the floating plants back in and we will see this fall how many we have.
Well we are suppose to have an 80 percent chance for rain today. Keeping my fingers crossed becaused I have really not watered much the last two days. Will get out this morning and wet some of the containers down real good.
My little old neighbor gave me a beautiful plant. She said it is swedish ivy, but this thing is no ivy. I will take some pix when the sun comes up and see if you all can help me figure out what this thing is.
The internet police at the office has blocked ALL but necessary websites. So I am unable to check GG in the mornings or at lunch. I am going to start carting my personal laptop to the office. I only peek in on MY time so there!!! Not like I don't do my work and 5 other peoples everyday!! Okay enough bellyaching. I know I sound bitter.
My fall beans are up and my beets are up. Too hot still for anything else and the clock is ticking. Might be all we get out of the fall garden. My cukes have a few more small ones left, but I am not seeing any new flowers and I think they are about finished up. Maters ripening all over the place and I have been living on toasted mater sandwiches for days. No problem there I love eating them that way. Though the boys will be glad when they are done. Because at least three times a week I tell them it is "fend for yourself night"! They don't eat maters like I do.
Well the dogs are up and giving me the evil eye. They want their trip to the lake and then we will come home and water, pray for rain and does anyone have a spare snake? Want to try out Angels grandfather's method for getting rain.
P.S. I posted some pix of the mystery plant in the General Discussion Forum.
Watched the weather this morning and it really bummed me out. 102 degrees all the way through next week. BooHoo!! Just hiding out today trying to keep from becoming one giant hive. Dogs and I went out to water about 6AM this morning. That done, I haven't been out of the AC since. It's a lazy napping sort of day and I think I will grab a book and join Rob and Buddy on the couch for a while.
Hubby's cousin is coming for dinner, but we are doing the easy thing and making tacos. Not much else going on. Just watching the stuff in the garden wilt in the heat and praying for fall every other minute.
I posted some pix of the pond this morning. The hyacinths are going crazy, seven blooms this morning!
We came home last night to find Robdog working the fence around the veggie patch. Something had his attention and he was not about to let it out of there. When most border collies are working their front end is low to the ground, tail down, and they don’t make a sound. Rob was in full BC crouch and strong eyeing something. I asked hubby to go make sure it was not a snake, before I would go near. Noticed one of the potted tomatoes was decimated. Don’t think snakes like tomatoes. We called Rob off and the culprit stuck his head around the raised bed, biggest ground hog I have ever seen.
Mind the veggie patch is chain link all the way round, so Rob could not get to him. I solved that problem by opening the gates to the patch and had Rob “come bye” around the bed and flush this big brown furry thing out of my garden!! Don’t think the groundhog had ever been herded like a sheep before. But it didn’t take him long to figure out that Rob was trying to push him out the gate and on to freedom. He went on his way at a good clip and I hope never to return.
Rob has taken up serious garden patrol. “Mom, that was fun and a lot bigger than those puny squirrels.” Had to give him a “That’ll Do” just to get him to come in and eat this morning, but right back out he went to take up his post by my tomatoes. GOOD DOG!! Rob herding and me grinning like a stupid idiot watching my dog do what he was meant to do.
Well, we ditched the yard and gardens this past weekend and went to Branson, saw a couple of shows. They were okay. I did enjoy a nice dinner with hubby at the Landing by the lake, but otherwise it was too hot, too many people, too much traffic and I wished we had stayed home! Okay, now I got that off my chest.
We came home Sunday afternoon to sad, hot flowers and plants. We got everything watered that evening and I went out to the veggie patch and picked a large bowl full of tomatoes, peppers and cukes. Here are a few:
With this heat I think the peppers are about done. I will take out any plants not showing flowers or fruit this weekend and get that end of the patch ready for fall. Sowed my seeds a week or so back for some of the stuff I want to put in. The rest will be starts from the nursery.
Not much else to report except the heat is on and I am following the dogs lead and hanging out on the kitchen tiles where it is cool.
Can you believe it is August already? Where has this year gone? Seems like just yesterday was early April and I was out trying to save everything from the freeze we had. Still mourning the loss of my Japanese maple, the dappled willow that has replaced it is doing grand though! Before we know it fall will be here, can you believe it? Kinda of looking forward to the change in seasons again. Seems like we went from freeze to 90+ degrees over night.
The folks are coming home for September; they have been vagabonding in their RV since February. Don’t think they will hang out long though; they have plans to be in Arizona in October. They are having a blast and enjoying the road while they still can.
Daughter number 2 is coming out from So Cal for Labor Day weekend. This will be her second trip out. Last time she came for Christmas and really didn’t like the cold. Looking forward to her visit and being able to show her around.
I order some more daylilies (stops to slap mouse hand to keep from ordering more on line). Also put in an order for some bulbs to put in this fall.
We went by the nursery last night to see if they had their fall veggie starts. They said they should be in next week. Wow, I hope that will give them enough time. The fall raised veggie patch is ready and waiting for the starts to put in.
I am eating cucumbers for breakfast lunch and dinner. Even got the boy to try them and he liked them. What a surprise that was. Ryan is autistic and getting him to try new things is really hard sometimes. I have to catch him in the right mood. Haven’t had any ripe tomatoes the last few days. But there are lots of large greenies. My plants are loaded and leaning.
Just been watering constantly with our 90+ degree heat (gosh, I am going to hate to see our water bill) and even with twice a day water my containers are beginning to look sad. I moved everything into the shade on the porch last night maybe that will help.
Mom and the baby coonies are coming every night. I have started feeding them cheap dry cat food. My animal cracker & peanut expense account was dwindling. They seem to like the cat food and so far have been no trouble. They have their snack and move on. The squirrel trough now doubles at night as a raccoon trough. Sunflower seeds during the day and cat food at night. Cheri’s menagerie is growing…
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