Friends and Neighbors with Skills and Big Toys

What a day! First thing today, my friend and neighbor came over and showed me what I needed to do to replace some rotten spots in the sub-flooring in the upstairs bath. Well, as he was showing me he ended up doing more than I wanted him to, and it's a good thing, because when he left me on my own with specific instructions on how to cut around the flange on the commode and water pipes...
let's say I was off a tad.

He left me his jigsaw to use even though I insisted that I had one, and when I showed him mine, he smiled and said "you better just use mine". Wow! There is a big difference in the newer jigsaws!

I'll wrap up with my good neighbor fixed my sub-floor and I am very thankful to him for it. He's self admittedly anal about it being just right, and it is.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, my bush beans that I originally thought were pole beans, and my pole beans that I originally thought were bush beans are growing like crazy.
Hubby tried to do a little trellis for them, but they're outta control.
The couple that owns the Bridal Shop have been invaded by a bamboo forest. I called and asked if they would mind if I came and cut a few pieces. They said I could take all I wanted. I got into the beast with my new bow saw and went and cut 12 canes. I stuck them in the back door of the beast and brought them home hanging out of the back the 6 blocks home.
While I was on my way Hubby called and said that Dale was at the house with his JohnDeere and was flattening out the sand!
I am soooo tickled!
Everything on the house is coming together and it is looking beautiful!
No more open pit outside my door!
No more ruts to break ones leg, no more standing water in puddles up to one's knees.
We now have a level surface on which we can now order topsoil and then plant grass!
Dale and his John Deere rock! What we were doing shovel by shovel he took and scraped the entire yard with the front end loader and made it all smooth.
Smiling the entire time, he looked like a little kid playing in a big sandbox. After he was finished he said "I can't call that work"...
Boys and their Toys

The Garden is Coming Right Along!

Everything except for the okra is doing well. I planted 8 seeds and 8 plants came up. They go about 4 inches tall and one day I came out and 1 was completely gone. The next day I came out, and another was gone, and on and on. I now have 3 okra plants as of 5 o'clock this evening we shall see what we have tomorrow. I think some sort of critter is eating them as they didn't die over night they are completely gone. I should run and get more seeds as they are my all time favorite veggie. Perhaps I will place little cages around them.

Also my Lima, Green (two types) and Kidneys are all coming up very nicely too. I do believe that this same critter is ripping these legumes up as well. However, said critter must not care for legumes, or green onions. because I find bean sprouts and onions out of their planting hole laying on the ground every morning.

I have no natural wild rabbits, as the Cat population has wiped them out. I have done my best about informing my neighbors about their cats and asking them to keep them up, and they have, but I believe the damage has been done and it is too late. When I was a girl there were tons of rabbits here in the yard, but that time is gone.

This year I caught 6 cats in the trap that the county brings to me each year. They were all farral and nasty mangy looking things. The attraction to my house is something I simply don't understand.

I will be transplanting all of the pepper plants tomorrow, and am looking forward to tons of green peppers this summer, I am going to find a many recipes and possible and I will share them hear on canning as many things as possible instead of freezing them. I have such fond memories of the wonderul things my grandmother would can every season, they were so delicious and there was always something fabulous to eat.

With the prices of everthing including energy, I think that canning will be the most efficient and cheapest way of storing food, and if done without additives at home in glass jars not aluminum cans the food tastes extrordinary.

What I find so incredible during this time as opposed to the last time our boys were ate war in a variety of theaters, and our economy was doing so poorly our government encouraged us to plant what they called "Victory Gardens" . This is simply not the case this time,and as a matter of fact there is a bill in congross that will eliminate all backyard food production and limit food production, to liscened corporate farmers only. Call me paranoind if you must, but something is up! Gardening is the very first thing that we did as per God's instructions. I just don't know how well this legislation would go if in fact passed.

So Much for the Sweet Corn!

As you may have read a couple of weeks ago, I broke down and got a puppy. As you also know I am trying to grow a garden. The two don't necessarily go hand in hand.

The other day after being down at my grandddads I came home and as ususal upon arrival home I give the garden a once over to see how it is doing. But what do I find in the corn???

The Puppy of coarse and he was laying amongst a pile of torn down corn plants from the 4 rows that we had growing. My yard has tons of trees and there were corn stalks everywhere.
I screamed at the dog, I screamed at my kd, I screamed at my darling hubby. Neighbors came by to see what I was screaming about and I told them all that the dog was damned and for them to look at the terrible damage he had done.

Just at that point out of the corner of my eye I noticed something flutterng in one of my tall pines trees...it was a corn stalk!

How did the corn stalk get in the tree? Those very bad Squirrels did it! The squirrel town that lives in the parrell universe next to ours had crossed over into our realm and stolen the corn.

Poor Gunner. Poor Child. Poor Hubby. I had been so nasty to them about letting the Gunner get into the corn, and all along it was the squirrels. I couldn't believe it!

I went inside to get the camera so I could take a picture of the corn stalk in the pine tree. It took me as few minutes as I got waylay ed with my obsessive compulsive behavior. When I got back outside about 10 minutes later, the corn stalk was GONE!

They had taken the evidence so now I cannot even show you what these monsters did.

I will be borrowing the tiller from himself and transplanting some peppers that I have in spot that is a little too shady and they will be nice late peppers.

I'm also going to sow some collards and more onions, and possibly some turnips and rutabagas.

It's Time to Break Out the Ark Building Kit

Three nights in a row, and we have received over an inch of rain each night.
The Lettuces are digging it. The Radishes are splitting open. The Tomato's are hanging in there.
The Eggplants are have more flea beetles on them then I can smush. The Onions are doing OK.
The Leeks were laying on their sides today and needed propping. The Beans are poppin, and with all this rain the lawn needs a choppin.

As I was proppin the leeks today I sunk into the mud. I know our groundwater levels were dangerously low this last year, but I'm thinking they are probably OK by now.

Lets hope for a few days of dry weather, without much humidity so we can dry up.

Flea Beatles....Fiesty Little Things!

For the last week I have gone out to the garden every day to smush the little black Flea Beatles that have taken residence on the eggplants.
These little things must live in the ground and then jump back up on the plant after I leave.
Each time I go on my killing rampage, I'm able to anihalate about a dozen or so, but if I come back an hour or two later there are just as many back on them.
I have resigned myself to this being my lot in life until the eggplants come off.
Organic gardening takes much more effort than simply spraying the plant with a chemical to kill the pests.
As I'm out there squishing these damned tiny little things two or three times a day.
They are in a way easier to deal with than the cabbage worms. As the cabbage worms are the exact same color as the cabbage plant, and they look like the ribbing in the plants leaf.
I don't have a butterfly net, or else I would catch the little white butterfly's that lay the eggs that turn into the evil cabbage worm, so until I get one of those I have resigned myself to smooshing worms while I'm squishing beetles.
Oh what a glamorous life!

Sick Squash and Cukes, But Fabulous Artichokes!

I think it must be the rain, but my squash and cukes are absolutely pathetic! I'm so disgusted with them that I went out and purchased new ones today.
I have worked so hard on this garden that I just don't see the point of keeping these sickly looking things and possibly waiting too late to plant new ones and miss a great squash and cuke harvest.
Himself's Herself wants to make Lyme and Bread and Butter Pickles.
I made a couple of hundred thousand jars of them about 10 years ago and ate my last jar a couple of months ago. So I am willing to torture myself once again and make them.
Another, thing that we made all those years ago was Watermelon Rind pickles. These are made from the white part of the melon rind. They were soooo good that my daughter Raleigh entered them into the Worcester County Fair and won first prize for them.
I got the recipe from a neighbor of mine when I lived on Dividing Creek Road and decided I wanted to be an Organic Farmer.
Once I moved to town, I joined a CSA Coop in DE and had a wonderful time planting and growing sharing and eating the wonderful things that came from the garden their.
However with the price of gas these days, we are keeping the garden small and have several beds throughout the neighborhood where we are all growing something different.
Back to the squash... You know the weird thing about them is that they have blossoms on them but almost all of the leaves have died. They look mutated. I'm planting the new ones.
Meanwhile, this bottom picture is a pic of one of the Artichoke Plants, and I must say they are doing absolutely beautifully. I can't wait to harvest those babies!

Don't Wash Your Car!

The Sun was out, bright and shiny this morning and I went out to piddle in the patch.
The other week, I found some grass seed and some lime that I had left over from last spring and I had left it right in the middle of the front of the garage so that I would deal with it.
Not having my own spreader I went and visited Himself to borrow his spreader to make the make the job easier. Himself informed me that Herself would be entertaining this afternoon to use her tax stimulus grill, and that I could return the spreader when I came back later with my hubby and kid, for burgers and dogs.
I thanked him and went on my way.
Back at the Ranch...
I fill the bin with the lime first and begin the process; figure out just what setting it should be on walked every walkable square inch of my property.
As came back around to the backyard to refill the bin for round two, I see my neighbor in his backyard doing the most obnoxious thing...
He was washing his wife's van!!!!
I yelled at him "Don't Wash Your Car!!! Haven't you had enough rain yet"?
Apparently, more people than my poor neighbor have simply not had enough yet, because as I was returning Himself's spreader, and bringing goodies from our house, I could feel a fine mist on my face. As the burgers and dogs were being pulled off of the stimulus grill, the rain started down in buckets.
I hope you all are happy!

The Most Beautiful Roses I've Had...

Every year for the last ten years it seems that when the Peonies are blooming we have a storm that tears them up.
The house across the street from me has the most beautiful Peonies bed, and each year it gets wiped out.
For two years the house was empty, and during those years I would harvest a couple vases to make a fragrant arrangement. When the house was purchased a few years back I told my new neighbors about the plight of the Peonies, and that I had been harvesting them so that they would be appreciated for years. I asked if I could continue to save them from their springtime peril if they weren't going to be home, and they said yes.

So yesterday the wind as the winds are whipping and the rain is pelting I looked at my husband and said "I bet the Peonies are blooming".
Sure enough I look across the street and many of them were in full bloom, so as usual in the rain I made my way across the street to cut wet Peonies in the whipping rain.
This year my darling husband followed.
As I am cutting he is taking pictures of me, and singing the tune 'Singing in the Rain', except he changed the words to 'She's Stealing in the Rain Stealing Flowers in the Rain'. You gotta love a smart ass.
So after my bountiful harvest we made our way back home and as I approached my arbor entrance to my front walk Billy told me to turn around so he could get a picture of me with the Peonies under the arbor that has more Roses on it this year than it has ever had.
I am so glad he took the picture, because at midnight I get a call from my son who said his friend had just driven by our house and saw the arbor laying in the street!
Billy went out and tried to put it back up but the wind was blowing so hard, as he was putting it up it blew down the other way. He decided it would probably be better to wait to put it back up tomorrow when the storm is over. He gave it a valiant effort, but it may need a little more work than just re-setting it. Fortunately, the Rose bush didn't break but because the ground was sooo saturated that it just came up out of the ground in a clump.
Thank you for the Peonies D & B they are beautiful, the purple ones haven't started blooming yet, so hopefully you will get to enjoy those.

Is it Time to Build an Ark?

Good Grief! This is a lot of rain. Thank God that I made mounded rows in the garden. My neighbors garden is under water with the baby corn plants just barely poking their little stems out of the water.
I have a separate bed for my cucumbers next to the porch and it has rained so much in the last hour, that I'm feeling guilty that I'm not out there trenching an escape for the water that is flooding them.
I hope everything makes it and if it doesn't stop raining tomorrow I will be cutting in a trench.
Good Luck everybody, I hope all your green babies survive!

Baby Transplants

Today I transplanted baby plants, that I had sown too closely together. What I had thought were only two rows corn are now four.
I separated lettuces, radishes and cabbages as well.
The only thing that I have planted that I am not seeing come up is my spinach seeds. I planted them on the shady side of the garden as I know they don't like the heat, but maybe they don't like me either.
The brussel sprouts are beautiful, as are the artichokes. The artichokes are what I am really excited about. I cant wait to see them come to fruition!
My cucumbers and yellow squash aren't doing so hot! The leaves are yellowing from the ground up by the day, and I have lost two of the pickle cucumber plants. Chris gave me three more of the store bought cuckes that I planted in another bed, so hopefully these will take and stay green.
Oh the Joy!

The Pollen is Pounding My Head!

This morning I woke up to the most horrendous headache. I had a stuffy nose, scratchy throat and watery itchy eyes.
Birthday boy was sick as well. We have been taking benadryl for the last two days, but our heads feel like they're in a vice.
Oh the Joy of Spring! It is soooo beautiful yet makes me feel so awful. I always know when the wisteria are at their most beautiful I will be the biggest mess. But I do so love the wisteria!