Garden Update 5 2016

The tiny plants and not so tiny plants are showing progress! I've replaced a number of peppers since I planted them originally and that is not the most happy making thing for me to think about. I tried to do the right thing and buy local and small ... and ended up with starters that were too small to go in the ground and too fragile to survive out in the actual real world. It was a lesson learned. Sweet little hipster couples trying to make a go of it, might possibly learn a little more about horticulture than buying  fancy seeds from fancy seed catalogs and then planting them and selling them once they sprout -  possibly think about getting jobs at a nursery where they might learn a little more about plant husbandry .

So three of those pepper plans perished, or just failed to thrive, one by one I bought replacements.  And one by one I bought replacements for those too. The new plants seem to be doing much better now. Lesson learned - avoid hipsters and Wally for your vegetable starters. Home Depot has been a winner for me this season. Last year I bought everything at the Farmers Market and had the worst plants and poorest harvest I ever had. I'm not sure I like the lesson there in the least! Big Boxes are bad and bad for us but they sell the higher quality garden starters? It should not be, but it is.

 From the store, very uninteresting generic variety bigger, older, better adapted.

From the Hipsters. Adorably unprepared, interesting old world variety not available from stores.

The pepper family picture

I've had significantly better luck with the tomatoes! They were only slightly larger than the peppers but they are were so much better prepared.

The original Hipster provided slicing tomatoes. The plant in the front is  Cherokee Black, a very old variety that originated in NC, it looks different because it is different. They are still smaller than the store bought varieties but they are going to be okay. And fabulous.

Store bought sauce varieties.

  

less fabulous but already producing. 

The tomato family picture, note there are three peppers in this garden.

The cages in the foreground are around my remaining celery root plants. The teeny, tiny, bitty celery root plants. One is doing really well-ish the other is just stringing me along.

I think this one is just getting my hopes up, its so small.

My squash is doing well too. I have it in two locations. 

There are three or four in the big garden, and they are perking along and I think they are going to do well. However.

These were planted at the same time in a container. They are bigger, better and absolute rock stars. I have no doubt these guys are going to do land office business. From a box.

I'm not sure its visible, but a baby squash is gestating.


I am also growing corn!

Right now they are being upstaged by the squash, but soon (I hope!) they are going to out grow the squash .I'm going to have to re-home some of them  elsewhere in the box as they get bigger.

I wasn't going to deal with those nasty, high maintenance flowers but I changed ny mind. I also explored the clearance shelves and with minimal investment, watering and a touch of  fertilizer - I got some lovely plants.

(Lantana, working, working)

(above) New Elephant ear, doing well and all ready looking after babies! My senior plant made it through the winter and is going like gangbusters. I'm so proud.

And from last year, my much searched for wild Honeysuckle! It is doing well and making its way around my door. I am hoping it climbs all the way around the door and thrives! I love the way it smells.

In honor of beautifully scented climbing vines, I added a new jasmine in the back yard.

I had to dig a deep hole! So not easy, but totally worth it.

Hopefully by next time I'll have wee babies to show you.

Back among the living

Well Hello!

 We're back! Coming to you from a fill sized screen and a proper keyboard! I'm busy get moved back in and  finding my way around my new, old place. Everything that was here is here-ish or here adjacent. I bought a back up thingy years ago when I bought the machine and finally took it out of its box just this weekend to give to the wizards who fixed my machine so they could back it up - least this nightmare happen again. God Forbid.

I don't know where my email is yet, but I'm sure to find it eventually. My files of pictures are safe, but I'm afraid that shot that didn't make it as posts made it out alive, alot did, but many did not and that makes me sad. The Cloud saved houndeds of my pictures and in a fit of anxiety, I turned on my old desk top nd discovered that everything there, including Daisy and Texs' pictures, are safe. Thank Gawd they died before I upgraded.

I lost  Windows 10, but I don't see it as a big loss, I got it because Microsoft gave it to me, and  then I didn't see a huge improvement in my life as a result, so  I'm not in a hurry to get it back. I would like to find my email though.

Friday Cats Blogging

In sickness and in hell.

Okay.Here is the deal. Sunday night my computer told me it needed a "re-start",well, the computer itself did not make this request, one if the security programs I have in it - Useless POS - wanted a re-start and I said Sure Why Not? I'm going to bed anyway, Do yo thing!

Monday morning I turn it on and Windows asks for a password and I say I don't have a password! What password! What the fuck is this at not 6am in the morning! I don't need this shit.

And so I go Google on my phone " why is my machine being such a bitch to me?" It turns out it might have something maybe to do with Windows 10 - which I've  had for awhile and this is a new problem so I doubt it.

I Think my computer  caught  a virus and I can not deal. I went to work and waited around until the office supply place opened  and I called them and told them my tale of woe and they said to stop talking because  they just couldn't  even with computer issues but the tech guy was due in at 11 and to call back and talk computer grossness with him.

I spoke with  him and he said bring it in after work  and whatever. I said cool. I brought it in after work,  and shockingly, it turns out his work day and the stores work day are not the same. He could have mentioned that but he didn't. Asshole. So I verbally abused another clerk, who I hope passes the beating on to him.

My laptop goes back to the see the wizard Tuesday.

Yard Crasher

With the vegetable garden getting more and more towards finished - its never ending this year! I'm still pleased I bought my starter plants locally, but I wish they had been started a leetle earlier and they may have been a leetle older when I got them and they may have been a leetle stronger than they turned out to be.

The tomatoes are all uniformly doing well. The remaining celery root plants are  still growing, but they were way too young when I took them home. I lost two of them early and of the two remaining only one seems to be thriving, the other just looks like it may just be humoring me.

I've bought four more pepper plants because a couple of my original plants were non-starters and I wanted more peppers anyway. I still want two more and I may get more tomatoes too.

 The vegetable gardens have been taking up a lot of my time, but I decided it was time to think about more decorative plants . The front porch is out on display and it looks not at all decorative, which is not okay. The elephant ear from last year is doing land office business and I added another younger plant because they are low maintenance and I think they're pretty. I also picked up a bleeding heart plant and made up a couple of  hanging baskets from some bedding plants and a couple more in the backyard with lantana plants. The birds and squirrels are very excited by my existing bird feeder, so I bought another one that is less squirrel friendly.

When I wasn't planting, I was mowing and trimming. Both yards look much sharper now.

Friday Cats Blogging

TGIF

I've been having problems driving ag speed on the freeway for the past year and a half, I told my doctor and she ordered an MRI. Nothing, it wasn't a tumor - Great! But  still no answer to the question. A year past and the disturbances kept happening. My doctor sent me to an ENT, I earned I have perfect hearing, but my nose is a "mess" and he gave me Flonase. My doctor also sent me to a neurologist who thought it sounded like migraines and gave me a migraine med, and he then ordered a VNG ENG test  which I took today.

It turns out it is a migraine! And migraines are treatable or at the very least lets you name the problem, which is much better than thinking you could be losing your mind. It turns out that what is happening is vestibular migraine . An actual thing! Yay!

In celebration a couple of random pictures!

A fourth house was town down on Hargett street, I'm not surprised, it should have been taking down after the storm several years ago. Its been sitting empty for years now, it is a little sad though because it was one of the last original houses on that street.

Its also been raining for days. SUcks because my basement flooded again,  positive thoughts, pretty cloud like this

And we go into Friday.

Air Horn Week 4

We went on another field trip! This week we were at the history museum ruining Pat's speech inside. We played for the longest we have yet and you can tell we have learned a lot.  The manual airhorns are the best! The other good choice is an actual, real musical instruments - trumpets, a tuba, drums, and a flute  are also good choices for noise making. They do not have to be used to make nice noises, they are also exceptional at making LOUD noises.

Here are this week's highlights

Rain

It is raining. I am watching TV and wondering how hard it has to rain before it counts as a solid.

The dog comes up and says

I want to go out

 and I say "its raining"

He seems to understand and he wanders away, probably to eat some more cat food.

I go back to my TV show

Rocket comes back

I need to go outside

I say "its still raining". SO much rain.

He sighs and goes back to chasing flies, his new hobby. Its also a good work out for days we can't walk.

He comes back.

I have to go outside

Out we go, to the carport because. I am not a monster and also I wanted to check on my tiny plants. Saddness, they were never meant to be treated like this.

It is pouring rain. Everywhere. In the backyard, in the front yard, along the side of the house. He was so sad! He just stood there and paced around and looked out to the yard and just looked crushed!  I felt so bad! He kept looking at me so beseechingly to just make it stop! normally he's pretty good about either dashing out into the weather to take care of his business or utilizing the carport. He was just not feeling it this time.

 Instead of a nice long walk, I went to Wally and he sat in the car, later we walked around the block and he finally stopped looking at me like I had made it rain on his parade.

Monday

I finally put my Christmas tree away.

I wanted to be open about it and own it, I mean, I am not proud of the tree being downstairs for months. but in my defence, it is in a bag and the bag was, for at least the last couple of months, not in the middle of the living room. I did finally move it to the bedroom, so it was not completely in the way.

Now it is completely in the attic and I got it up there all by myself!  Yay! It was not as heavy or difficult to move as I thought it was going to be and I wish I had done it a long time ago/ Now my attic is completely impassable and I hope I don't need anything immediately because it's not going to happen until Christmas!

However, what I lost in the attic I gained in the downstairs bedroom. Its back to being a bedroom! Which means that I can go back to using it as it was meant to be! No more storage locker! I got rid of of clutter, moved the dogs clunky metal crate back under the bed where it belongs - where I found something else under the bed where it did not belong.

When Little Kitty was Baby Kitty, he had some very serious lower GI problem and he some shame issues with those problem and he wanted to hide his shame... I found some of his problem.. I learned that undisturbed problem doesn't have much of an odor- However, if you disturb the problem, it is overwhelmingly odoriferous and very, very disturbing.

So.

The room looks and smells much better now. I also set the clock.

Weekend

It would take too long to tell you what all I did this weekend, a lot or I could just make it a shorter story and show you what I did this weekend.

Saturday

Ipicked up a couple of more pepper plants to replace my poor dead celery root plants. While I was at the store nursey, I decied that it was time to pretty up the place with flowers. I all ready had the baskets, I just needed something to put in them. I got a nice flowering plant that the store had stopped watering for half off. I bought two lantana plants that I hope do well. I also got a proper bird feeder so that the critters will stop running off with my bird seed. No one has touched the new one so far.

I saw a story on Bored Panda about sprucing up your fence, one of the things I figured I could do was putting bird houses on your fence. Practical bird houses are really too big and too expensive for me to use for the project, so I found wee ones at Michaels.

Those are in no order! They were born very boring white pine and then I primed them, but that wasn't really photogenic. Then I sprayed them spring colors - I am going to buy more of them , at $1 per, its not a big investment. I am however, going to pick up some brighter colors to spray them with. The pink and blue and lavender are a little baby showeresque. I painted the roofs black to butch them up a little. They were supposed to be a red color, but the can was defective! Now I know why it was on sale. If I had  paid full retail for it, I'm not taking it back because 1) $3.89 and 2) Dealing with Wally.  It just isn't worth my time or aggravation. I think they look nice  enough with the black roofs.

Saturday morning I went to the RV place I drive past every time I go to Wally . The RV place was having an open house and I decided it would be fun to go see them, it was really fun and I got a free hotdog and a couple of wings. I also found the RV I would buy if I wanted to buy an RV. I don't want or need such a thing to at this point in my life, but its nice to know that if I ever do need an RV in my life, I won't have to shop around,

Winnebago Winnie Drop

Sunday, I took Rocket for a walk to what used to be the Warehouse District and what is now The Rubble District. Rocket had a very good time.

Happy Birthday Dad!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!