My last day off????

We were having a leisurely day in the park, playing Scrabble, when Teresa pulled out her secret weapon. First of all, she studies the Dictionary in her spare time. That is unfair in itself. Here she not only brought along her Scrabble word list and the terribly beat up Scrabble Dictionary, but she also printed out an enormous list of really wierd 2 and 3 letter words that supposedly were really words and acceptable to use in the game. Harrumph!

SPRING, ME and GARDENING ADVENTURES

Just to introduce my team of farmers here- Selena (in charge of cherry tomatoes) The puppy is in charge of watering.

Allen will take care of the okra and swiss chard ( I hope). Sheba will probably accidently knock everything down with that tail of hers.

And.....this is part of my new crop- guess what is growing here. I will give a hint- think BLUE!

Every now and then I get this intense desire to grow things and the weather here has been great. Well, Houston soil is quite nutrient free so anyone that is serious about growing makes "Raised Beds" and brings in some soil from somewhere else! Our area just used to be a marsh.

So, just using what I could find, today I made a raised bed with my big white poodle watching in amazement. Poodles can sit there for the longest time and just look like they are thinking-looking smart. Actually I had quite an audience as the 10 kids that live right behind us, have a fort that gives them a good view of me and my future garden. They're cute kids.

Anyway, over the years, my failed attempts at being a good citizen and making compost piles, have resulted in a series of mounds in our back yard. They are kinds cute as each spring these mounds explode in veggie surprises and I just sit back and watch the show.

So this year, I had a burst of organization energy hit me again. I am not the most organized and I love just being creative and using whatever I find at hand. To make my beds, I salvaged the bench seats from our picnic table that cushioned the fall of the oak that fell during hurricane Ike. They escaped the crush and became the sides of my new "raised"garden bed. The ends are just made of brick odds and ends. Then with my trusty shovel, I dug up various remnants of previous compost piles, discovering also lost combs, kids toys, clothes pins, bits and pieces of "whatever"- quite possibly a few things from early Houston pioneer days also. Tossing the shovels full of dirt into my bed, I saluted the veggies and fruits from years past, blending them together in my new raised bed. I am thinking they will make a wonderful growing medium.

Allen and Selena ( the kids) are busy planning what they'd like to plant . We will go buy some seeds tomorrow but what I haven't told them is- no matter what they plant, we will see a profusion of awakening little sprouts of all sorts, all seeking their opportunity to "be". They may have some idea as I brought in my first harvest of the year today- compost-grown red potatoes!

I think I am a bit nervous as I know the whole theory of "thinning" is great and necessary, but I figure, if the seed has got the gumption to get out there and grow, who am I to pull it up! We will have a garden of "strange truths!" and if goes well, maybe a few tomatillos and their friends,

Some farmer I have turned out to be!

Brother-in laws both....

Tim is a busy guy now days. At Krogers, they like him enuf that they promoted him into managers's mode. He's doing that and putting in more hours as well as being successful with the books. He likes studying somewhat but with all that in his life, he doesn't have much time for friends. He appears to have taken up a new hobby, just collecting stray dogs. As you can see, he may be terminating this activity sometime in the near future. He is exhibiting signs of frustration.

He doesn't come up this way often but he came to have dinner with his brother-in-law James, and I tagged along. Texas Road house can be a lot of fun but after catching up with lots of pictures James had stored on his computer, Tim somehow got in the midst of all the line dancing waitresses. They really put on quite a show for about 5 minutes.

Yep, there he is, trying to act invisible!

Let the good time roll!

We took a bit of time out of our daily schedule to get a bit of vigorous work out time lifting 12 lb. weights repeatedly. We were recompensed immediately but high numbers (sort of) but we all had a lot of laughs.

Always the graceful one!

James had quite a few strikes- good for a first timer!

My ball just seemed to have a mind of it's own.

All in a day's fun.

Pics for the Grandkids

Well- here are a few pictures of the crowd here. We keep busy in oh so many ways. I had a bit too much help here with the green beans. Crackers tried to do his part with checking on our homegrown bananas but he got in to tasting a bit too much and we ended up with no little baby bananas left.
Can't really say too much about the other pics........oops!

A Quest for better health

I am in to growing trees for our new home. Yes, there is a new home out there for us and when we move in, we will have a ready made orchard(limes, grapefruit,papaya, cumquat and orange) and.......blueberry bushes! My grape vines are taking off and close behind are the 5 blueberry bushes that are going to keep us all healthy! I had to hire Teresa's rabbits as I discovered their addition is the best fertilizer yet. When Teresa isn't looking, I feed them a bunch of extra goodies so I can sneak up with my shovel and cart away more stuff that has fallen underneath the pen. Their little contributions are about the size of the future berries.
I am going crazy trying to find enough big pots for these growing trees ,vines and bushes.

Nose trouble

This has got to be double trouble for this mom. These two boys will have their eyes open in a few days. She's resting up until then.