HappY Mondays!

Hey everyone, happy Monday!
Finally did some work in the garden yesterday, setting everything up for spring plantings. I weeded out all of the beds except for the strawberry bed and 2 others where the wiregrass has literally taken over so much that nothing will be able to grow in them. I have a lot of work replacing those two plus rebuilding the rest as they are all starting to fall apart. Add that to the stuff my wife wants done. Anyway after meal prepping in the morning and a short nap, here's what I did.

This is the elephant garlic that I thought was a dud purchase from Amazon.

Weeded out the volunteer onion bed. Speaking of onions, I did start some from seed but they aren't doing too well. I must be the only gardener that can't grow onions. 

Overall view of a nice, sunny day. I'll be tilling up the ground right in front of me for tomatoes this year, giving the raised beds a year off from them and cucumber and peppers. 

As I said above I have started the onions and that's it. I believe I'll start the spinach and peppers next weekend. Tomatoes, etc will have to wait until first week of March. And with the new planting season, my son's girlfriend bought herself a good- sized greenhouse that we helped put up last weekend. I finally have someone near me that gardens too. 

On the exercise front everything is going good; haven't hurt myself in a while *crossing fingers, knocking on wood.* Still meal prep

And I have an awesome gym photo here for you.

Yes, that's my feet. As I said everything is going good but mid section being a little stubborn. 

Finally WOF of the Week. Until next time. 

Harvest Monday; September 12, 2016

Yes, made it back. Been a busy few weeks around here. Put the post up from our 2nd vacation day and I put our 3rd day up this past Saturday. But we are here for Harvest Monday. All Harvest Mondays can be found at Our Happy Acres.
Did a big clean- up this weekend. I let weeds overrun all of the beds, the tomatoes died off, and the marigolds have taken over. That in itself has been the best investment. Probably $5.00 invested. I got a few bell peppers and a lot of banana peppers picked this week.

The before and after shots. Man it was a chore to get those weeds out. Hope to plant some cabbages.

Hot peppers that are certainly colorful. My wife is going to take some to work with her for one of her coworkers. I am going to use some in my salsa. Have to buy some romas at the farmers' market though. Sad day here when tomatoes run out. 

Marigolds.

I planted some turnips a few weeks ago along with some cabbage seeds but the cabbage did not start. So my idea was to plant out the bed with turnips. Good idea if I had the seed to plant. 

Well that's all I got for now. Happy Harvesting. 

2016 And Here We Go

Well let's see what 2016 has in store. I hope this year will give me a chance to lay back some and quit working all of the time. I've purchased a golf membership the last two years and used it a total of maybe 5 times? Rarely played paintball last year. Haven't gone backpacking since I don't know when. Bought a new pack 3 years ago and haven't used it once. It's nice too (it looks nice.) Heck, we didn't even go anywhere for vacation last year. Used maybe half of my vacation days last year, most at the Christmas Holidays.
After typing all of that and reading it, I do need breaks more often!
I know I haven't been posting a lot lately, been busy. That and lack of ideas too. But here's a good one.
List of things I've got going on:

• Still working on the upstairs of the house. Got the other main room and a half bath framed out. Need to do some wiring, insulation, etc. Also got to run main power up there too. I'll take some pictures for you later. We'll discuss this more....... quiet.
• We put in a pool last year. Still got to stain the deck though. 
• I also have to stain the deck on the back of the house. 
• Paint the front porch.
• Hah! Still haven't fixed my wife's bathroom ceiling! But now she wants tongue and groove wood on the ceiling (probably after seeing my sheetrock finishing skills upstairs. Hey, I can build it.) That and she bought some paint for the walls. 
• Laid out for some tile backsplash in the kitchen. Left it up to the wife to get it. So far she hasn't. 
• Work. At my job. Still do that.
• Finish some small furniture projects.
• Do some misc repairs and painting around the house. Starting to look a little rough. 

Smaller list than normal but the upstairs work entails a lot of things! Doors to cut down and install, electrical rough-ins, hvac units, carpet, etc. I keep busy. 

I injured my back December 4th and am now almost pain free. Almost wanted to get back to working out (my injury cause to begin with) but I figured I could wait a few more days and ease back into it. I've been taking steroids and muscle relaxers. Also got some pain meds but don't really affect me. My wife and I also joined a gym. She's been going and I believe is going to work with a personal training for 20 sessions. I joined for the cardio machines and a few leg machines. I have a bench, curl bar, free weights, and pull-up bar in the garage. I need to pick up some weight plates and a straight bar for the new program I'm doing. Ease back into it I say. And I have to admit I miss working out. Looking forward to get back into it. 

We cut the TV cord a few days ago. Had Directv for the time living in this house and it was nice except for a few big downpours. But with the cost going up I decided that was enough. I upgraded our internet and we have been streaming everything now. My oldest has a netflix so we've been using it and have successfully binged through Longmire (all four seasons), and have started Hell on Wheels. I signed up for a Hulu Plus free trial ($8.00 a month with commercials) and have started watching Vikings, Wings (old TV show) and currently watching Bob Ross. Yes we don't have live TV and will miss things but that's OK by me. We may get a digital antenna so my wife can watch the news in the morning. There's enough stuff out there. BTW, Longmire season five starts Septemberish.

Oh we got a cat. Not sure I told you that? 

Leia (Goes with Chewy the dog)

Took a trip through the garden Sunday during the windstorm and pulled some turnips. Cabbage still coming end but it's demise may be coming next week. Garden needs a good weeding. 

Garden is definitely going to be smaller this year. For sure. I couldn't keep up with it with everything else I had going on. Farmer's Market idea never materialized (thankfully.) I need to get some good compost (add composter to my list above) for the beds. They don't start selling manure around here until May which is after I plant. Need a source. 

Ordered some flower seeds for my wife but I don't think I'll need but a few things this year. Maybe look for some different squash and a new tomato. I've said before that I saved a lot of seeds from last year. A lot of different tomato varieties and we were given some pepper seeds in trade for some of the Solar Flare seeds. And I am definitely going to get my onions started from seed this year. I don't know why but I seem to fail at this.

Getting late and Bob is almost finished the third episode so I'm out for now. 

Happy Trees!

 

Almost Ready

I have been playing around with the new website's software and learning (albeit slowly) what I can and how to work things. I don't remember it being this hard to learn new things. Hopefully I'll have everything up and running smoothly in a few days. Small additions after that. Hardest part was settling on a theme and I'm not 100% sure on the one I picked. I'll keep looking.

Memorial Day weekend for everyone here in the USA. We certainly are thankful for what we have and try to say thanks, not just on this day but on every day that we can. Amy even decorated the yard up some. She's definitely more military- geared than I am.

It seemed like I spent most of my time working everywhere I could. I spent a lot of time working in the garden; weeding, cutting, trimming, more effing weeding, replanting (lost a tomato to something), mulching, fertilizing (10-10-10 is my choice.) I tilled around the potatoes, bush beans, and corn to weed them out some, hilled the potatoes some more, and soaked everything good. Surprisingly the corn has made an appearance and seems to be doing well.

I got the fence run between the boards for the beans to climb. But I now have Bean Beetles.

Yes I spilled the beans! Bag came open and poured out. I am too lazy to pick up all of the bean seed thinking that nothing would happen. 

I did put up fencing for these peas yesterday. 

I spent a little bit this weekend and got a daylily for my garden. Love me some daylilies. 

Even the one in the front bed just started blooming out. 

Well, a quick post at lunch. Do more later as the dogs and I will be hidden in the bedroom while The Wife hosts a party for something. 

Three Day Weekend

Nice to have a three day weekend every now and then. Memorial Day (Decoration Day) is the reason for this month's extended weekend and one we shall never forget. Honoring those that have given the ultimate sacrifice for our nation is something we should do every day. Thank You.

Started getting the green beans trained up the fence finally and did a lot of cutting and tying on the tomatoes. Uncovered the potatoes (kinda went crazy covering them up. Most stuck their head through but some didn't. Reason for doing this was to hide them from the beetles that have been attacking the plants.

Little SOBs. I can't continue spraying them every week until late summer. The only other way I know of getting rid of them is picking them off the plants and putting them in soapy water. I sprayed again today and will try to keep a good eye on them. 

Training up the beans. Some listen but most don't. Just like my kids. 

Also did some mulching in the beds to try to keep the weeds down. Already tired of pulling and pulling. 

Actually look really good. We had some left over mulch (if you can believe that) so I used it in the beds. I'll need about 5 more bags to finish off the last bed and do the paths in between them. 

WOF of the Week.

WOF and Chewman ready for bedtime. 

That's it for tonight. Not much I know but tired from workout tonight and I still need to post there. 

Buzzing Along

Well things on the homestead are buzzing right along now. I believe with the addition of maybe two more garden beds we'll finally have everything planted. I am still on the fence about sowing corn. It takes up a lot of space for no more than what you get out of it but home- grown corn tastes so good. I got the new flowering thing Amy bought planted by the garden and the two plants we bought a month ago at the nursery planted by the driveway. Weeded today (always a job to do), got the last two rows of green bean seeds sowed, pruned and tied up the tomato plants, used the old mulch from the front beds around the raised beds, and backfilled around the potatoes. Believe it or not I have vegetables being set so my bees have been around. They're buzzing around somewhere. Off to the back- breaking, knee- hurting, ant- biting tour.

Guess what I found on my potato plants today?

Gotta find a good way to get rid of these beetles before they destroy the whole crop and find my tomato plants. 

We have peas already. We didn't really notice them until yesterday. Shelling time coming up. 

We already have a sweet banana pepper. 

These are my cukes with the tomatoes running down the middle. Their leaves are browning somewhat and I am  not sure why. Last year's crop sucked so I don't want to lose this one too. Ideas?

Green beans are moving a little slowly but I did get the last two rows sowed on the right side of the picture. 

Have our first two tomatoes already. These are the Amish Paste tomatoes. 

And speaking of tomatoes here's a couple of shot of my 'rogue' tomatoes. I am not too sure what I am going to do with these. Keep them or not? Hmmmmmm........

Some more gratuitous shots.

I'll get some straw on the potatoes probably within the next week or so after I get rid of the beetles. That should keep them until they are ready to be pulled. 

Knock- out roses in front are in full bloom as is most other things.

Nice little set- up The Wife made for the back deck. 

Well, others things that have been happening. 1) I have been spying a fox that has been cruising around the property and other houses the past few nights. Not getting into anything bad but just out looking around, 2) We've been hearing a noise out of the woods starting at dusk and continues through the night until just before day break. It is a two syllable whistle with a small chirp on the end of it. I have been looking but haven't found anything yet that makes this noise. I may get a sound bite and post it here in case someone knows what it is. It's driving me nuts, 3) Had our first slithering visitor of the year. The Wife finds it and immediately demands it's death. After I find that it is a black snake, killing it wasn't one of the things I wanted to do. He wasn't in a particularly good mood this morning and didn't really want me around him. When I went after him he headed for the deck so that was it. I was going to put the body in one of the houses across the street, sort of a surprise for the drywall crew but decided the woods was the place for it. Would have been funny though. Maybe not. 

Well, sitting here eating my favorite ice cream and drinking a Dr. Pepper. Last time for this stuff for a long while as I am starting a program to get in better shape than I am now. I'm not completely out of shape as I do stay active for the most part. Just seems like things are growing in places I don't want them. Maybe I'll start another blog about this experience. Stay tuned. 

WOF of the Week. Yes we do have one. Both the pups went to the vet's office this past Friday for their spa treatment, which means toe nails done, baths (needed) shots, and general check- up. Well, it turned into a hard day for the WOF. Being up in years I have noticed she has slowed down a little. 

Poor girl. She was out by 7:00 Friday night. 

Make sure you're up to date on your shots and see you next time!