Mixed Bag

Rick Gebhardt

I’ve only done one session of weeding in the garden and I’m already hot and tired. I’m going to rest a bit, drink a bunch of water, put on a sweatband and then go out for a 2nd session. I have finished one garden box so far.

I have a mixed bag on veggie results this time. My spinach apparently didn’t like all the changes in temperature plus the constant rain. It was already bolting, so I pulled up the plants. :0(

My head lettuce is looking pretty good, though, so I’m weeding around the plants. I’m not sure when I’m supposed to harvest this. I’ll see if I can find some information on the net.

I’m hoping that I can finish the weeding today. I would also like to start digging the Mel’s Mix out of the 2nd planter whose bottom gave up the ghost, sagged, and broke. The first ruined planter is free of the soil alternative now, but the bottom is only sagging in the second, so the soil is in there much more securely.

The concentration is weeding today and figuring out when I harvest.

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The information I found says that the lettuce will start to bolt when the daytime temperatures exceed 70 degrees. That’s NOW. When I finish weeding, I’ll look carefully at each of the plants and decide if I should harvest them. This has been a really weird spring planting.

Thoughts on a Monday 5-29-2023

Vili-pastel-Bela Tarcsay

I’m hoping that today will be a quiet day for us.

We’re not planning to do anything special today for Memorial Day. I still haven’t washed the furniture on the deck or cleaned the back porch. Priority for today is doing some weeding in the garden and seeing if there is anything I should harvest. This will probably take a few days to catch up. I’m hoping that the fertilizer I spread a few days ago will cause things to green up out there.

RTE

I wanted to share a nice description with you. I talk to my sweet SIL each day, checking in to share what’s happening. She’s been getting lots of rain. She said, “The world is refreshed.” Can you hear it saying, “Ahhhhhhhh!”? :0)

Since I’m old and getting a bit ditzy, I have note-its all over the place reminding me that because of Memorial Day, we’re NOT gathering trash today and putting it out – until TOMORROW, when we ARE. At least I USUALLY remember why I got up and went into a room….

I found a website new to me called, “Temu.com” My husband showed it to me. It’s where he found the water bowl for painters that he has ordered for me recently. They specialize in discounted items. We’re not sure of the quality yet, or if the orders will be delivered in a reasonable amount of time, but I’m impressed with the prices. They sell basically everything, and you could go down a rabbit hole trying to see all they have. I’ve ordered a couple of women’s tops. We’ll see.

I hope you enjoy your day.

Garden Update 5-21-2023

The super rainy, colder-than-usual weather has brought very mixed results thus far in my garden. In my survey a few minutes ago, the first thing was that I need to do some serious weeding in my veggie garden.

This is one of the head lettuce plants. It’s doing GREAT. I should be able to harvest very soon and give my friends a nice addition to their salads or sandwiches.

The spinach is looking ‘pale,’ not the deep green I think it should. I’m not sure if fertilizing it at this point would do any good, but I’ll try that. I’m also not sure if the paleness will affect the taste. I’ll see what information I can find.

Here’s the large tomato planter. The plants have exploded and there are lots of yellow blossoms showing. At this point, I’m not sure if I can handle the branches much, and may just need to try to contain them a bit, giving them as much support as I can.

This is the second tomato planter. You can barely see the green metal supports at the top of the plants now. I was going to try to tie the branches to the supports, but they have exploded now, so I’ll just try to do what I can to keep the plant inside the boundaries of the planter.

The bad news is that after several years now, one of the wooden bottoms to the veggie planters has given way. We knew it would happen one day, but it’s sad anyway. I hadn’t planted this planter yet, so we can leave it and decide how we’ll tackle making a new bottom for the planter, save as much of the Mel’s Mix as possible, and rebuild it.

Here is the part of the bottom that completely gave way and fell down.

To round out our tour of the yard, here is one of the healthier weeds I encountered. I’m not sure right now if I’ll pull it or celebrate its health…

And finally, here is some clematis that we have growing in a pot behind the large tomato planter. The picture doesn’t show how glorious the color is. It’s a real explosion of dark purple. Makes my heart happy.

Veggies, Tomatoes, and Flowers, Oh My!

VEGGIES

The veggies are doing great, except that they really need to have the weeds around them taken out. As soon as I feel 100%, it’s on my list.

TOMATOES

The tomato plants seem to be doing fine, too. I’m scheduled to add the worm castings fertilizer to them Thursday (I’m doing this once a month) I just made it around the yard, taking quick pictures before my energy left, but I’ll look more carefully in the next day or two.

FLOWERS

ROSES

STELLA DE ORO LILIES

Husband’s PERIWINKLES by the shop door

You can’t tell it much in this picture, but the group on the left has a slight pink cast and the ones on the right are plain white.

How Does My Garden Grow?

These photos are from yesterday. Things are going quite well so far. The plants seem to be thriving, and there are not a whole lot of weeds right now.

If you look closely, there are leaves toward the center of the plant curling up together. The ‘head’ lettuce will form in there.

My spinach leaves are being eaten by ‘something,’ but I can’t find any bugs. I’ll go ahead and spray with Eight to see if I can discourage whatever is chomping down.

The tomato plants are growing a lot each day. We’re trying to get the irrigation system for the flower planters (which includes the tomato planters) to work.

The plants are almost covering the whole surface of the planter now. I only have one plant, though, that has yellow blossoms at this point.

I haven’t planted anything else in the main square foot garden. We’re going one day at a time around here lately, so I haven’t pushed seeing what other plants are available in town.

I’ll be working to see if I can get the two timers in the well house working today. We’ll have a test run later today, though starting Wednesday of next week, we’re supposed to get a LOT of rain.

Do you have a garden this year?

Tomatoes Will Come

The tomato plants are looking healthy and are more than twice the size they were when I first planted them. They needed some rearrangement of young branches for better support, but I decided to wait a bit longer on watering them.

This shows you that the plants are now about 1/4 the way up the supports. I brought out some bamboo stakes to add to the mix for the best support possible. No blossoms on these yet.

This is the 8-foot-long planter, and the plants are thriving right now. I rearranged branches here, too. There are three small yellow blossoms on one of the plants. I’ll see what other supports I have in the garage and bring them out for next time.

Just wanted to share my joy on this one. One of the buds started to bloom! Hooray!

Garden Love 2 – Veggie Planters 4-30-2023

hayneedle.com

Thankfully, the veggie garden box plants are doing well, too. I have lettuce and spinach planted so far. If my husband feels up to it tomorrow, we may go look for something else interesting to plant.

You can see a few small weeds in the spaces around the plants, but it shouldn’t take long to take care of that.

I will also do another harvest in the next day or two. We haven’t finished eating what I gathered the first time yet. :0) I harvest the outer leaves of each of the lettuce plants for harvests, leaving the center leaves to form around the ‘head’.

The spinach is looking good, although ‘something’ is eating holes in some of the leaves. I love the fact that we can eat the leaves fresh from the garden in salads. I can also saute the leaves in olive oil, adding bacon bits for additional flavor. And, finally, I can freeze what we can’t eat right away.

If things continue as they are now, I’ll be able to take fresh lettuce and spinach to my friends soon. Such a FUN thing to be able to do.

1st Harvest – Spring 2023!

Spinach

Head Lettuce Leaves

Full Harvest – I’ll fix a ‘main meal salad’ this evening. :0)

I finished weeding the veggie boxes this morning before the harvest. This shows you the huge amount of little bitty weeds that I’ve been working on.

There is an equal amount of spinach and head lettuce plants in the garden so far. The tomato plants are in two brick planters on the other side of the house.

I have four of the six planter boxes planted so far. I’m hoping to get more plants in the coming week. Not sure what will be available, but I’m looking forward to it.

Happy Earth Day 2023

Just Energy

I’m planning to prune and weed my veggie boxes and tomatoes today. I hope your weather is such that you can enjoy being outside, too.

Happy Earth Day!

Before Another Hail Storm

FUN Lunch Bunch!

DIY Value Picture

I had to leave my husband home, since his back is still hurting a lot. He says it’s better, and he looks a bit more perky, but he still needs recovery time.

Today Lunch Bunch was especially fun. When I got to Lunch Bunch, Kay and Bud had brought a neighbor couple, Willie and Cheryl. We mainly talked gardening, and then were surprised when Patty and Linda came late! So almost the whole gang was there. The conversation was lively and fun, with a lot of laughing.

I brought home good wishes from everyone plus a bacon cheeseburger for my husband.

On the way down the driveway, I saw a package was sitting on the ground behind the trash can. (UPS has started leaving stuff down there, rather than trying to drive up our driveway.) It was the bag of Worm Castings I ordered from which I’ll make “tea” for the garden. It’s supposed to be an organic fertilizer and disease prevention for all garden plants and flowers, etc. I’ll start the process of ‘steeping’ it this weekend.

I’m going to rest a bit and then water my tomatoes and check on the main garden. We’re due for possible large hail tomorrow afternoon and evening, so I’m thinking of a method to try to protect my plants as much as possible.

I hope you’re enjoying your day.

One of Two Is Better

Great Pet Care

I’m better today, but my husband is still in pain from hurting his back. He won’t even consider my taking him to a doctor, but he IS on the heat pad in his chair, taking Tylenol, etc. I put some muscle gel on him two nights ago and I thought for a minute it was burning him. He really reacted, hurting his back more. It turned out the gel felt COLD and his back muscles clenched. I got it smoothed in and he rested reasonably comfortably. Last night he started downstairs about 3am. I came down with him to make sure he could get what he needed. We read until about 4:30 this morning and then went back up. We were both able to sleep then. I got up about a couple of hours before he did this morning.

I’m much less sore. If things are going okay around here, I’m planning to finish the weed whacking today. There isn’t much left to do. I also want to water the tomato plants and check on the lettuce and spinach plants in the main garden. I also plan to do my yoga this afternoon like a good girl. :0)

Our activities have pretty much stopped, other than trying to recover. My husband announced last night that he was discovering that “he wasn’t a teenager anymore.” I’m really sorry he had to mess himself up so badly to realize it. One day at a time.

Our weather is beautiful. The sun is shining and it’s supposed to get near 80 today. Mother Nature seems to be calming down now and I’m grateful.

I hope that you enjoy your Thursday.

Tomatoes

I found some really nice “Super Girl” tomato plants yesterday. I planted them yesterday afternoon. There are six plants in this brick planter.

Here’s a closer look at some of these.

There are 4 plants in this planter. I’m going to try to keep an eye on these and keep them as tied up as possible. They tend to be calm for awhile and then they ‘spurt’ in growth, seemingly all of a sudden spreading out over everything with the limbs too large to move without breaking them, yet really needing more support. I’ll try to do a better job of getting outside each day or so and giving them as much support as I can this year.

We also got the irrigation system controller installed on the faucet that goes to the garden. It’s set to start at 3pm today. I have a timer set so I can get out there and make sure the sprinklers are working and that the flow of water is good for watering my sweet plants well in the 10 minutes I have the controller set to now.

Later on, we’ll set the irrigation system for the yard. For now, I’ll just water the tomatoes with a hand held hose.

I’ll try to check next week to see what other plants I can add to the main garden.

We’ve started!

The New Veggies Made It!

When I was out cleaning up the mangled chair, I decided to come back, get my camera, and see if my new veggie plants were still there.

They seem to have come through the storms so far, and I’m delighted/relieved/grinning from ear to ear.

It’s COOL, though – 52 degrees right now after 80’s yesterday. Quite a change. Even with my hoodie on, I was chilly.

Things are lightening up outside now. I don’t know if the weather threat has officially passed now, but I’m hopeful.

Hope everything is good for you, too.

Discombobulated Wednesday 3-29-2023

AcidNow – Cheezburger

I’m feeling a bit “discombobulated” at the moment. I just wished a good friend, “Happy Passover” because my desk calendar was turned to the wrong page. Now that I have written and apologized for my stupidity, I’m wondering if I’ve already done anything ELSE wrong….

By the way, “discombobulated” may not be a real word, but it’s been used in my family ever since I can remember. (I just looked it up and it IS a real word – so is ‘cattywampus,’ if you’re wondering)

GrowaGoodLife.com

It’s forecast to get to 70 this afternoon here. It was too cool to be comfortable weeding yesterday, so my garden boxes remain untended. I’m hoping to rectify that today. I would love to have my garden started by the end of the weekend, assuming we aren’t blown off the Earth Friday with the forecast severe thunderstorms.

We don’t have errands today! I’m hoping to have several sessions outside during the afternoon when it warms up. I need to get the weeds out of my garden boxes plus repair some wire ‘separators’ that were broken during the last season. The irrigation system is already in good repair and just needs to be turned on and the timer installed.

I hope that wherever you are today that you are enjoying a beautiful, fun one.

Square Foot Garden – Step 1

All About Gardening

I’ve just come in from STEP 1 of prepping our square foot garden for planting.

This is the garden, minus the two brick planters on the other side of the house that we use for tomatoes. There are six 4′ x 4′ wooden planter boxes. You can see that the neon tape I strung to let the deer see there is fencing here need repair.

Here’s a view from one side.

This shows the weed barrier cloth I put in each planter box, held down by a brick in each corner. You can also see the irrigation system for these three boxes, with the pieces of hose strung together running along a piece of wood and the sprinkler in the center of each box. The six boxes are all irrigated with one timer on an agricultural faucet.

I removed the bricks and stored them in two corners of the garden, pulled the weed barrier cloths off, folded them up and stored them.

The results of the weed barrier cloth vary. This is the worst, but it’s still much better than if I hadn’t shielded the Mel’s Mix. As you can see, weeds love this soil alternative just as much, if not more, than the veggies I want to grow!

All the planter boxes were prepped the same way, and yet each is different on how many weeds were prevented.

I’m going to call this experiment a success because, though there are weeds, there aren’t NEAR as many as there were when I just left them from the fall to the spring uncovered.

My experiment with tarps wasn’t as good as this, either, because the tarps didn’t stand up well with the temperature differences, the wind, the snow and ice, etc. I had put buckets in the center of each box to try to keep water from pooling, but that had varying success. The tarps also tore and the bungee cords I used didn’t hold the tarps on as well as I had hoped.

I think that when we finish in the fall and are getting the boxes ready for the winter again, we’ll put TWO layers of the weed barrier cloth in each box.

Playing in the Dirt

This afternoon I’m planning (again) to uncover my gardening boxes in preparation for starting my spring garden. (I got snafued by the weather once and was just plain lazy after doing other things yesterday). I’m hoping that today is the day I can prep to get spring plants going. I just checked the forecast and it looks like we won’t have any freezes in the next 10 days, so maybe it’ll be safe to get things started.

I’m hoping to find several different types of lettuce, plus spinach, and sweet onions to start tomorrow. We’ll plant tomatoes, of course – in fact, we devote two brick planters to those. Otherwise, I’ll plant broccoli maybe, squash, and radish seeds. I’m thinking of playing with some herbs in the kitchen this year just for fun. I’ll plant celery bottoms from the ones I buy at the grocery store.

Everything will depend on what I can find, and I’m excited to get started now that the weather is getting more cooperative.

I’ll take some pictures to share with you.

Enjoy your day – play in the dirt!

Still COLD!

ClassroomClipart.com

It has now warmed up to 27 degrees F. here. The sun is shining, but that isn’t helping much. The forecast says, “A cold final day of winter before a spring warm up.”

I really hope the weather folks are right because I’ve had my fill of cold and am itching to play in the dirt of my garden. I’m planning to prep the garden and get some things planted next week, unless the forecast changes.

Right now I have weed barrier cloth cut to size in each of our six 4′ x 4′ wooden planters. The cloth has been held down by bricks, hoping to keep the weed growth to a minimum this year. I’ll take pics when I start prepping the boxes so you can see if it worked or not.

This is an old pic, showing when we used string to mark the planting ‘squares.’ Now I use wire because it is much more sturdy. You can see the irrigation system. We strung pieces of hose together between sprinklers in the center of each box, attached to a piece of wood that runs between 3 boxes in a row. There are two rows of planters. We have the whole thing on a timer so things are watered daily automatically.

We built the boxes in the shop, then hauled them out to the garden area. We welded angle iron together to make the supports for the boxes. We put them at my chest level so that I don’t have to bend over double or get down on my hands and knees to plant, weed, or harvest. My body really appreciates that.

The six planter boxes are surrounded by fencing to keep the deer out. We also put chicken wire around the bottom to keep rabbits and other critters out. We have a ‘door’ to close off the area. I put neon tape around the perimeter of the fence to give a heads up to the deer so they don’t run into it.

Since we live on top of a ridge line, we have no soil. Everything up here that isn’t rock was trucked in – some to be able to have a ‘yard’ around the house. All else is rock and woods.

We fill the planter boxes with “Mel’s Mix” (Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Garden) – a combination of peat moss, Vermiculite, and as many different kinds of compost as we can find or create. I use mushroom, barnyard, and cotton, plus we try to make our own.

I can’t wait to get started this year!

Sharing Some Spring

Heavy thunderstorms are on the way, but who can be down looking at blooms like these?

Hooray for March!

Unknown

My spirits have lifted. I don’t care that it’s rainy and cold, knowing that spring isn’t too far off. I’m hoping that we’ve broken the back of winter, but I know that Mother Nature can change her mind and sprinkle (or slam) us with more of the white stuff this month. I’m trying to keep positive thoughts about all of it, seeing lots of blooms around the yard – more each day.

This morning, for example, I noticed that several of our redbud trees are blooming.

A quick walk around the yard – it IS still raining a bit – shows lots of color. Here’s a forsythia.

The tulip tree didn’t lose all of its blooms.

And daffodils are showing their happy faces all around the yard.

My heart is full as I see all these sweet things blooming their little hearts out. I hope that you are seeing signs of promise and hope, too.

Enjoy your Friday.

Before the Storms

I’m afraid these will all be broken and battered after the storms, so wanted to share some of them with you.

This is our tulip tree. The photo doesn’t do it justice – it makes my heart lift just looking at all the hope and promise there.

Spring is on the Way

I’m really hoping we aren’t blown away overnight here because I would hate to miss the coming spring. I just walked around the yard a bit, taking a few pics, feeling my heart lift as I saw so many signs that winter is almost behind us.

This display is particularly heartwarming because years ago I dug up all the daffodils here and relocated them all around the yard. Little did I know that somehow you CAN’T dig them all up. They just keep coming. Isn’t that wonderful?

This is all by itself in one of the trio planters that divide our front yard from the driveway. I just LOVE the color.

Can you hear them trumpeting, “Spring is on the way!” ?

Dream

“Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle … a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl. And the anticipation nurtures our dream.” ~ Barbara Winkler

This won’t happen for awhile, but I’m enjoying dreaming about it. Each year I try to get head lettuce and then several other leaf lettuces to add variety to our salads. I also try to get spinach plants, and of course, tomato plants. Otherwise, I experiment. I grow radishes from seed, celery from cutting off the bottoms of celery I buy at the store and then replant when they sprout in water. I like to grow some sweet onions. My cauliflower and broccoli grow lots of leaves, but I haven’t had much success in growing the edible parts yet. I’ve had mixed results on squash. Maybe I’ll try some herbs on my kitchen counter this year, as well.

A little at a time, I’m thinking about what I want to start with this spring. I would love to be able to supply all of our friends with nice veggies straight from the garden.

I’m thinking about all this now because we can finally negotiate our driveway, and the ice is almost completely gone. We still have areas that could use more chain-saw work, but we’re able to drive up and down without a problem now.

I’ll get out my last planning sheets and see if I can figure out the best places to put the new spring plants. It seems funny to talk about ‘crop rotation’ in chest-high 4’x4′ wooden planters, but it’s just as important here as in humongous commercial farms.

I hope you’re enjoying a beautiful day.

3 Gardens

“From December to March, there are for many of
us three gardens:
the garden outdoors,

Visit Pasadena

the garden of pots and bowls in the house,

Vegetable Gardening Online

and the garden of the mind’s eye.”

Apartment Therapy

• Katherine S. White

“Well, Blow Me Down!”

Popeye.com

When we went for errands this morning, the wind was blowing strongly and pretty steadily. (We could even hear the wind blowing last night after we went up to bed and usually we don’t even hear STORMS.) It has continued to be gusty,winds blowing so strongly I felt I might blow away – and THAT’S a strong wind! – so I haven’t tried to work outside.

It looks like it MAY have calmed down, so I may get out there to cut our remaining rose bushes way down for the winter..

By the way, here’s OUR mailbox decoration of Popeye, one of our favorite cartoon characters. :0)

I hope you’re having a fun day.

Maybe Yard Work

eBay

I’m HOPING that our weather will warm up another 10 degrees so I don’t freeze my parts off trying to do some clean up in the yard this afternoon.

I would like to –

• finish weed whacking around the house
• clean up the frozen plants, either cutting them off and mulching, or cleaning out the planters
• cut down a bunch of the tall weed trees across the back that are blocking our view of the valley

Those are the main things. If I can get them done, I’ll be very happy about my efforts to prep for the winter. I’ll try to do SOMETHING outside each day, unless it’s just too cold.

First, lunch, and then I’ll see what I can do.

Perfect Weather for Yard Work

House Tipster

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I’ve been especially enjoying working in the yard the past few days. The weather has been perfect – sunny, but not the kind that makes you feel you’re being boiled in oil, and temperature warm, edging toward cool.

My latest outside project, cleaning out the trio of brick planters that separate our front yard from the top of our driveway, is going well. I have two of the three planters cleaned out, and am hoping to get the third planter weeded today. I’m feeling a bit of pressure now, since I read that we’re due for strong storms tomorrow afternoon and evening and I’d like to finish the clean-out before the rain.

This is what the trio planters looked like a few days ago. As you can see, they are totally overgrown, plus filled with weeds and Bermuda grass.

This is what they look like this morning. I have my work cut out for me with the third planter, but it will feel great to at least get started, if not finished with it today. I’ll wait until it’s a bit warmer to get started. (Can you believe I’m SAYING that?) :0)

I walked around the yard briefly after taking these pics and found that the flowers in the pots on the deck are providing a nice display.

It is my fervent hope that I don’t run into wasps or ants in the last planter. I may spray it with EIGHT first to see if anyone comes flying out….

Good Dog!

INTEGRIS Health

I just finished hacking the overgrown stuff on the trio of brick planters, and have finished weeding one of the three. I’m resting now.

The elements apparently caused a rope support we had rigged for wisteria vines to snap and I had to tackle the results of that today. I did a bunch, but will have to ask my husband to use the chain saw on one part. It’s sad, but the rope giving way and breaking caused kind of an avalanche of vines, some of which are really thick, to cover half of one of the planters, to impede our access to stacked fire wood, plus make it almost impossible to do any mowing or weed whacking there. I’ll prune it as little as possible and hope we can figure out another way to prop up the vines stretching from the planter across the wood pile and up into the tree beside the driveway.

This gives you an idea of what I’m trying to save. From what you can see here, the wisteria vines continue on to the left across the woodpile and up into a tree.

Snipping and Hacking

Well, the process of bringing this trio of brick planters back to some kind of plan has begun. So far, I’m feeling overwhelmed.

The first step is cutting down the overgrown stuff. I’ve filled a trash can and dumped it, and I don’t think you would notice I’ve done anything. I’m resting and drinking water now, trying to gear up for another session.

The weather is really nice for my project, but my energy is fading fast. I started out with a ratty, but warm vest on, but quickly shed it as I worked. If you’re just walking around, it still feels a bit cool, but working changes your mind fast.

I’m in a ruthless frame of mind, I find. The rose bushes in the trio of planters are not looking healthy. I’ve decided to REALLY prune them down, thinking I would rather lose them and start over at this point, rather than try to fight sad, diseased leaves and mostly bare branches. I’ll cut them WAAAY back and deal with things when I see how they do next spring.

I’m about to head out for another session. I’m concentrating on snipping things off and hacking things down today. If I can get a good start on that, I’ll feel as if I’m making progress.

Thoughts on a Halloween Monday 10-31-2022

otterhound-nickievet.worpress.com

I want to HUG this dog! And then hug him again.

I’m really hoping that we have a nice day today, particularly this afternoon. I’m going to tackle cleaning up what I call the ‘trio planters’ that run between the front yard and the top of the driveway. At this point they are completely overrun with weeds, Bermuda grass, and overgrown plants.

This is the first of the three 8 foot long brick planters. As you can see, it’s a mess. There are two more adjoining this one, creating a demarcation line between the front yard and the top of the driveway. When it’s tended, there are roses, lilies, iris, and phlox. I’ll do a bit at a time until it’s more under control.

This is the second planter, and the overgrown bush covers the third.

If the weather is cooperative, I’m planning to take my gardening stool out and get started today.

Wish me luck?

Different Beginning for a Friday 10-28-2022

Ron Magill-totallythebomb.com

I’m typing this from the puddle into which I melted after seeing this photograph. Isn’t he SWEET?

Today has been a different Friday than usual for us.

First, everyone else is gone, so no Lunch Bunch today. Hopefully, we can all be there next Friday.

Second, we have a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) in the office for our computers. It started making weird noises this morning and then a red LED light came on. We looked it up and found that that is what it does when it needs new batteries. We shut everything down. My husband opened up the UPS and found it has FOUR large heavy batteries (picture small bricks). He was able to order more, so they’re on the way, but now we don’t have our usual backup. Hopefully, nothing will interrupt our power at a bad time when we’re on our computers until we can get the new batteries into the UPS and everything plugged into it again.

Third, Since I had to shut off my computer, I decided to get some of the stuff done outside. I stored our onion harvest, and then cleaned up the elephant ear planter a bit, cutting off LOTS of dead or battered leaves.

I moved seven 40-lb. bags of soil to the three planters near the house yesterday. I got the soil spread in the long tomato planter (above) and what will be the new iris planter (below).

I’ll save the spreading of the soil in the new tomato planter for later today.

I also plan to start weeding in the trio of brick planters that run between our front yard and the driveway area. Rain starts late tonight and will continue all day tomorrow, according to the forecasts.

Happy Friday!