Thursday = Mow Day

That's right. Thursdays are Mow days. I got home this evening and the Youngest Boy had mowed most of the yard for me, which is good because it was crowded on the interstate tonight. So I just cut a few areas down he didn't do, weedeated, and cleaned everything up. Then I cruised around with the camera.

Finally starting to look nice.

The Peas are starting to flower.

Got a busy weekend planned. Tomorrow: haircut, wash truck, work on small car (fix it and sell it), and start setting up the drip emitters. Saturday Use left over mulch between the beds and finish weeding the onions and bean beds, plant the rest of the beans, spread grub killer over lawn to rid ourselves of the moles, and place more flat blocks for the trash cans. Sunday will be painting the office since it is supposed to rain. That's the plan anyway. We'll see after the weekend's over how it went. 

Watching Rehab Addict now. Pretty good show. Something that would be a good job to do. That's the type of job I'd like to have for sure. 

Weed

Dude! Or Dudette! Weed....... :)

No, not that type of weed. It the damnable Bermuda Wiregrass that invades everything around the properties in our area. If you've read any past posts you know of my hatred for it. I don't believe I have met a sane individual that likes it as well. I almost would rather have the illegal kind.

So I spent Saturday pulling weeds, pulling weeds, and pulling more weeds. I started with all of the raised beds and decided to go one by one; pulling the weeds, turning the soil over, pouring Preen all over, and installing to water line for the drip emitters. After that I installed some cheap netting between a couple of posts in two places for the peas. They were starting to grab hold of each other and I needed to stop that.

Then on to the potatoes. In my infinite wisdom I planted one row closer to the next so I couldn't get the tiller between the safely, so that meant hand- hoeing one row in each bed. After that fun it was on hands and knees pulling weeds. Everywhere. And I also got lucky and found a few fire ants to. They were so happy to see me that they climbed on and gave me a kiss. Damn things hurt. At the end of the day my back hurt too.

Sunday meant the Boys and I went to the driving range to practice (I seem to be getting worse so I may actually see the Pro for a few lessons myself) then came back for a much to do nothing day. I like days where you don't do anything. Need them every once in a while. Amy did some planting of flowers and cleaned up where the trash cans go. Looks much better around. Grass needs mowed but I am going to Thursday mow schedule. I was going to wash the truck but pollen is still floating about so that can wait. As you can see I averted two jobs with my common sense approach, the same approach I use for everything.

Some of Amy's handiwork.

The peas are now trellised.

Timer all ready to go and you can see the new spigot I put in. Now need a hose holder. 

You ever had rouge tomatoes? I swear I have some in a few of the beds. They look and smell like tomatoes. I don't know. 

Potatoes, onions and such.

Garlic is doing good too. 

And the usual end view.

I re- tilled part of the bean bed and we planted a second row of beans and filled in the first where some beans didn't sprout. 

That's a couple of the four new houses their building in our subdivision. After they finish the block foundations they'll have it framed up and under roof in about a week. They move fast. I really didn't want to see these being built. Oh well, new neighbors I guess. 

Well, sitting here watching House of Brian on TV. Good show. I like his other show he does also but it is fun watching him build his own house. Until next time, say Hey to Mr. Hand and be righteous.

Alfred Hitchcock and Such

Well, it is mating season here in the sandhills, especially for the Purple Martin. They have been everywhere; attacking the mirrors on the cars and trying to get into the house. I took these pictures a few days ago of one bird that was bound and determined to get in.

Here he is trying to open the door. 

Things have seemed to calm down now so they must be done. Wish I had built a few birdhouses since these birds love eating gnats. Oh well. 

Took a quick tour through the garden this evening. I can't till straight!

Onions getting big.

Potatoes starting to do good also. going to have to get more dirt, then top them with some straw later. 

I do know one thing; I have a hell of a lot of weeding to do this Saturday. And I got stupid and got some sweet corn seeds to plant. And I also have to plant the second and third rows of beans, AND get the peas trellised up. 

Quick post tonight. Long week and dead tired. 

Spring, Spring, Where Art Thou?

We go from cold, rainy weather to highs in the mid 80s. Spring just shot right on by for some reason. Looking at the long range forecast it might cool down some for next weekend but still, let's try to extend this out some. Please.

Did some work in the garden today and hopefully got everything off to a good start. Planted some yellow squash and eggplant. With that there are the peas (need fencing for them to climb on soon), one row of beans (next row gets planted next weekend) tomatoes (staked a few up and lost a few with the really heavy rains lately), cukes (made their appearance) the 5,000 onions, and the potatoes (finally made their appearance too.) Feels like I'm missing something though. Hmmmmm. Need to think on this.

Green Beans. 

Thought about planting corn this year just to see if I can get it to grow. I don't know if it will be worth the effort though. I also got a hose spigot hooked up to the station at the garden, installed the timer, and ran some water out of the lines. I have one line that doesn't have anything running out of it so that's on the list for next weekend too.

Still haven't figured out what I'm missing from my plantings. Hopefully by this weekend. Also got to measure out the property so I can try to get a building permit for the outbuilding. That and a dna sample is required. Pain in the a$$.

Until next time, keep the spring in your step.

Spring Is 'Achoo, Cough, Cough' Here

Yes, it has finally arrived in my little part of the world. 70 degree days (80s coming soon) and pollen everywhere. And the Lob Lolly pine tree hasn't started it's work yet. We are all coughing, hacking, and just miserable at times.

The remainder of last week went by way too fast. Got the rest of the garden started so hopefully they will grow. A few minor things I need to get done, but the main one is that I have to rig up a hose near the watering system. I got the parts today and will hopefully get them installed later this week. No pictures from there as nothing is really happening. But I do have a few to share...

Daylilies are blooming.

Cauliflower is flowering

Me and the Boys spent the entire weekend playing a big paintball game. Nuketown 2013. 

Feeling it today though. Not as young as the kids but I act like it. A lot of players and fun was had by all. 

This got a question out of my youngest; Dad, why don't we open a store and I could work there! Sure, that's what I really need to do. But it did get me thinking; we live near a course and there are four more within an hours drive, there's only one store in town that I can find and they don't really have a good reputation with the people I've talked to, and the sport seems to be growing. Maybe some research is in order. When I had my remodeling business I really did enjoy it, especially being the boss. A lot of freedom in being your own boss but it is a lot of work too. We'll see.

Off to bed as we didn't hit the lottery this weekend and work today was longer than I wanted. 

Tuesday

Not a bad day all in all. Weather did cool down some but still decent enough for outside work.

We buckled down and got the other front bed done today. After the 28 bags of mulch no less. We went the bag route this year as there's no real good location fro some near us.

D U N N, done. We also picked up a couple of trees. A big red oak tree for the back yard and a white dogwood for the front yard.

Oops. I didn't realize Amy was in the background. See, I do get help from time to time. 

I did some more work on the gardens getting them ready for plantings and realized that I may have to build a couple more raised beds. And tomorrow I will be tilling for the green beans. 

I found this a while back and I though it was funny. I will most definitely do this at some point. Sorry, I have a sad sense of humor at times. 

Weeks Worth of Work

Well it has finally arrived. My week off. It actually started this past Friday and no I haven't been sitting on my butt since then (OK, just a little), I have been working some and playing some. I have the remainder of this week to work on that My Long "To Do" list. Amy and I have purchased a great many things that need to go in the ground or be put up so we're off and running.

Friday started off slow as we slept in a little. Bubby and Squeak were home so we decided to knock out Amy's mailbox garden and get started on the front beds. Bubby didn't get his leave approved in time so we could go to WV so we decided to just stay home. As of last night however his Captain approved a leave for him that will last all week, so now I have an extra hand for the week! So after I started the mailbox garden I let the boys finish it and Amy planted it out, guarded by her attack WOF.

Saturday. Well it was a very nice day so the boys and I decided to paintball from about 9:00 am to 4:30 pm. Long day of running around the field and at the end of the day my left heel started hurting again so now I walk around scaring little children with my gait. I doesn't get me much sympathy from anyone though. I did take some pictures of the peas (going strong) and the 10,000 onions (also going strong.) a while back.

Saturday also brought the WOF's their Easter gifts as they would leave us alone about them.

Sunday. The morning started with rain so I held off doing anything until I was sure it wasn't going to do too much. Watched the prerequisite This Old House and America's Heartland TV shows and read the paper. Once I saw that it was done it was time to plan out a strawberry garden for the plants we purchased. A trip to the big box store and I was back with some more of the damn heavy blocks. I was considering cedar but there's already a lot of that out there. After a few layouts I decided on a big oval.

In the front are two blueberry plants and off to the right are two blackberry plants. There's a history with me and blackberry plants that I will explain soon. I also transplanted my Candytuft plants I started into a large white box we had and put them off to the side of the strawberries. After this I hit the front left bed (front of the house) and topped off the new plantings with some good mulch (no more cheap stuff.)

New in here was a couple Creeping Flox and a couple Rasberry Surprise Dianthus. They smell really, really good. I'm sure I looked like an idiot bending over after I was was done with my nose to the ground. I also transplanted six Shasta Daisies that I started. They're on the steps as I have to find places for them. 

Also on Sunday brought a new change of order in the kingdom of the WOFs. Ginny, being the spoiled dog  that she is could always bully Chewie as he was the new addition to the household. Think red- headed stepchild. She always finishes her bone first and then takes all of the toys and keeps them to herself. Well on this day she went after the Chewman's bone and he snapped at her. She proceeded to snap back and he then proceeded to tell her that he had enough. So what do I see this morning?

Chewie with both Easter Bobos and his bone. He doesn't let it leave his sight. And now Ginny just sulks. 

Well, the sun is out after more rain and the temps are supposed to hit 72 today before crashing to 54 tomorrow so it's off to work on the front right and side beds today. I even toyed with getting some veggies in the ground but that may wait until later in the week when it warms back up. 

Protect your bone kids.