Half Way Done

Well summer is here and now we are on the downwards slide to fall and *gasp* winter. I know it's coming and I am not looking forward to it. Weather patterns so far this year have been somewhat on the cool side for us and a lot more rain that what we usually get for this time of year. Not that I am complaining too much as I have watered only 2 days all year. So far. Forecast has a chance of rain everyday for the next 6 days. The garden and lawn seem to love it. Just keep away the downpours and we'll be alright.

Cruised the garden this afternoon and I found a few interesting things.

Dug up a red onion. Still not ready.

Romas. They have been ripening a few at a time. I will get about 4-6 every other day. 

Finally got a few cukes to grow. 

Squash is a squash. Actually getting a few off of them this year. 

Brandywine Pink. My favorite tomatoes and I have my eye on this one!

Okra bed. Slow going but it is going. 

These are the Youngest Boy tomatoes. 

Two rows of potatoes came out this afternoon. I wanted to see how they were doing and they actually started getting sprouts. Next weekend the other 4 rows come out. 

Today's harvest of potatoes. Not big but they'll do. I haven't weighed them yet and will do that tomorrow. 

Yesterday's and today's gathering of peppers, tomatoes, & green beans.

Full report of this past weeks' harvest tomorrow.

On another note we have one of those multi- purpose copiers, fax machine, printer, scanner things. Well one of those storms rolled through and cut the power off for a while. Now the main screen on the machine is pretty much illegible to us and we don't know how to turn it back. 

Do svidaniya! comrades. 

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. 

Odd

weather we've had the past few days. Cold icy rain to the point Friday morning that I wasn't even going to attempt to go to work. Saturday was just plain blah; cold and rainy all day. The kind of day that really takes a toll on someone's sanity. Today it was 65 and sunny. Sinuses have definitely been on the blink and we are not sure what the net day will bring. Go figure. I can't.

Took a tour through the garden and here's how things are progressing.

Transplanted some of the Shasty Daisies.

Peppers are still going slowly as they always seem to do. I did get some more started to make up for the dismal California Wonders. 

Tomatoes are really doing great. Can't wait to get them in the ground and I may start pawning these off on some people to take care of until planting time. I know I started them early but I need to see green things growing this time of year. It takes the bite off of the gray days of winter. At times I wished we would have moved further south, say Florida, just to have warmer temperatures and sunshine more often. 

Finally got some more solo cups so these are next for transplanting.

This is Blue Fescue grass that I tried to grow last year. It grows into a nice shade of blue grass clump and I'd love to plant this around the house. 

Here are the potato, onion, asparagus, and garlic that are going in the ground real soon.

Amy and I talked today about where she was going to plant all of her flower bulbs that she got. Up to her. I'm hoping that if this coming weekend's forecast is somewhat good I can get some dirt in here and get the beds turned over and the new ground plot ready for the above bulbs. 

On my list of things to do (hereafter to be known as LOTTDFH 'list of things to do from hell') is to get an outbuilding built to clear out the garage of some things. Well it appears that I have to do a dimension drawing for the local county building department so they can approve it as well as submitting it to the builder to make sure it meets the covenants. So this will take up my time in the near future too. 

On the vehicle front we are having the car looked at again by another adjuster but are not holding out much hope. Apparently the car we bought was a run of the mill common car that doesn't hold it's value well because there are so many of them. So we went out to see our favorite salesperson for another vehicle. His comment was "well I know I can always count on a sale once a month from you guys." Funny guy. Test drove a few and she settles on a Jeep this time. Doesn't have all of the bells and whistles but the color is nice and she feels safe in it. We got a real good deal on it so we can't complain about this one too much. Still pissed about the car. We'll see Monday what they come back with. 

WOF of the week. Where there's sunshine.....

Busy week upcoming and I'm tired. Seek your sunshine kids.

Sunday Sunday Sunday!

Ode to the Monster Truck Announcer!

Today began bright and early with walking the WOFs then the rising of The Wife. For now on we'll call her Amy. I think she tires of The Wife persona. She was slow getting out of bed but she needs to keep moving so she is doing just that. And she has started a pot of chili for this cold Sunday.

After our ritual of watching This Old House and Ask This Old House, my task will be to continue my transplanting of the tomatoes into bigger containers, maybe move some of the flowers into bigger containers, and start some more tomatoes per requests from people and start some more peppers as the other ones haven't done too well. A quick show through the plants....

Calendula

Sweet Basil

Shasta Daisy

Lavender Lady, Borage, and Oregano from front to back

Peppers. My standard California Wonder ones aren't doing too good. Got more seeds to take care of that. 

Evening Primrose and Candytuft, front to back.

Off to get all of these transplanted. 

Busy day today so off to it. Stay warm kids.