Men At Work

Is there anything better than a man at work? 

He can be in a suit and tie, scrubs and mask or jeans and a sweaty tee. 

Nothing is better than a man at work. 

Except if he's YOUR man and he's working for YOU.

Spring has hit us hard and fast this year at 500 Dollar Tomato.  So many things to do but the garden always has top priority.   We needed to expand the garden this year, hopefully for the last time.  Expansion equals physical labor and while I may have endurance and persistence on my side, what I do not have is strength.

Period.

I am, my friends, a pussy when it come to physical labor.

All these gardens, these trees, this home...none of it would be here if it wasn't for the one man in my life who listens to what I need and gives it to me.  Mostly because I ask for it and (more astonishingly) because I don't.

He does it because it he knows it's important to me and therefore important to him.  He's invested.

Happy wife?  Happy life.

So the long awaited garden expansion project happened this past weekend.  SM had already "double dug" a new strip of ground a few months ago.  This new patch of clumpy clay now needed to be tilled.

SM rented a Mantis from the local hardware store to do the job.   After lots of kicking and starts and stops due to the grass matting up, SM tamed the beast.

The next day was "move the fence" day.  What a pain in the tukus!

Thankfully the sky was overcast as SM pulled stakes, yanked fencing and pounded the stakes back into their new position.  I helped as much as I could but the simple fact of the matter is that this was man's work.

Once we were attaching the fence it became a team effort with SM stretching the fence and me tapping landscaping staples through the fencing into the cardboard and into the ground.

Have I mentioned before that there is just not enough cardboard in the world?

You can never have enough cardboard.  Or newspaper for that matter.

Monday morning found SM and I again tag-teaming with me trying to hold the newspaper on the ground in a stiff breeze while SM shoveled compost onto the new strip.  The newspaper would act as a bit of a weed and grass suppressant.

"Look at you go Frontier Girl!"  SM says encouragingly.

"Ha!  If I was born in the frontier days I'd be dead by now."  I responded.  "You'd be on your third wife.  And 14th kid.  Plenty of hands to help you on the farm."

"This is a huge-ass garden for just two people."  SM observes, shovel in hand.

"Tell me that after all the plants are up and mature."  I respond.  "And remember, you're looking at two gardens here.  One for Summer, the other one for Spring and Fall (raised beds).

I plan on buying a few loads of pine bark chips and tossing them onto the cardboard to create walkways. 

You can't believe how big it all feels now.


"You rock Squeetie Man."  I raise my hand to give him a high five, which he returns than swats me on the bottom with a "You're welcome.  Now get in there and make me some dinner."

To Live And Let Die

A few days ago we had a very light frost.  We covered what we could and let some things be.  Turns out that even a light frost can set you back.

The grapes are toast.   They had just leafed out about 10 days ago.  Too tender and we did cover them so that was a bit of a surprise!

The rest of the garden survived but we had lots of "landscaped" bushes that were stung.

Crepe myrtles must be a semi-tropical.  They were hit the hardest of all.

The fruit trees did well enough and look... 

I have peaches on my peach stick!

You Can't Fool Mother Nature

It's April 12th. 

Our last frost date is April 15th.  

3 more days to go and guess what Mamma N tossed our way?  Yep, frost and freeze warnings for last night and tonight.

It looks like a ghost town around here.

We covered up everything that we felt could get zapped.  Old sheets and towels sure come in handy don't they?  The veggies got covered of course, and the grape vines. 

The fruit trees don't have any blooms on them, just leaves, so SM thought they should be fine.

Several years ago we has a hard freeze that killed back some of the crepe myrtles.  Hopefully this won't be so bad.

Solo Yardwork

I spent Monday doing a bit more yard work. 

SM had a job to go to early so anything that would get done, would only get done if I did it.  So I pulled my motivation together and went dumpster diving for some more cardboard and got lucky and found a few.

I then went and picked up a load of compost.  My normal guy wasn't there to dump it in the pickup.  When I got home the "compost" smelled strongly of cedar cypress and manure.  Puzzled, I scooped some up and spread it.  It was definitely different stuff than what I'd been getting.  Finer and dryer.

It's full on busy season here for gardening and the guy in front of me was also getting compost.  Was it possible they were running out and "making" compost as they went  along?  Probably.  I went ahead and spread it around after laying newspaper to suppress the weeds and grass. 

I told SM later that that might be the last of the "good" compost.  We still need some more to amend the new double dig area.  SM is concerned about the acid it might add to the soil.  I shrugged.  Some organic material is better than no organic material. 

People use leaf mold, pine straw and pine mulch in their gardens all the time.  We'll see.  Fortunately it's just a thin layer on top.

One load was all I had in me.  I considered spreading some of the new cardboard around but I thought I might as well wait until SM and I could tackle repositioning the fence together.  Then I can lay the new cardboard down properly.  Instead, I hopped on the mover and mowed the grass. 

Boy, was I congested afterwards!  I'd even worn a mask!  I am SO over the allergy season.  I can't wait until it dies down and I can spray off the house and patio.  The Jeep needs a good bath inside and out too.  Waste of time to clean it up right now though.  It's covered with sticky granules of pollen.  Yuck!

Sigh...It's so beautiful outside but I can only take a few hours of it before I'm back in the house.  It's such a dud sleeping with the house closed up. 

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

I'm baaack.....(Never underestimate the power of Melatonin.  That stuff works miracles.  It's my new best friend!)

I took all day Saturday and just vegged out, you know what I mean.  Zippo, nada, nothing.  I read a book, took a nap and eyeballed my filthy house and shrugged.  It can wait.  It always does.

Easter Sunday I got a bit more motivated and cleaned the house up and made Easter dinner.  And read a book, took a nap and eyeballed my backyard and shrugged.  It can wait.  It always does @;)

But getting back to the weekend, look what we've got! 

Yep, fresh picked strawberries!  We drove through our tiny town Saturday and saw the berry was stand up!  I walked up and talked to the kid running the stand.  $12 a bucket (same as last year) and we were his first customers.  He said they'd gotten a late start picking that morning (light frost). 

I bought 2 buckets, one for us and one for my good friend Deb, who helps me with the dogs whenever SM and I have a long day at work.  Deb is the kind of neighbor who's priceless.  She keeps her eye on what's happening on the block.  All I have to do is give her a buzz and she's over at my house to let the pups out.  She came over with a bit of pound cake for SM a month ago.  I toss her some tomatoes and cucs and squash when we're in season.  I'm very lucky to have a neighbor like Deb.  We take good care of each other @;)

Gosh, it's hard to believe that we're picking strawberries already this year.  I remember last year was early but this is the earliest yet!  My favorite UPick is about a 1/2 hour up the road.  With the cost of gas it's just cheaper to buy directly from the stand. 

I still have a lot of frozen strawberries from last year.  For some reason SM and I are all about the applesauce so we haven't touched the frozen berries or cherries at all.  Since these are all going on a year old, I really need to use them up. 

Can I just thaw them out and cook them down and make preserves out of them?  Does having them in the freezer impact the pectin ratio at all?  What's been your experience?

The Seascape strawberries I planted 10 days ago are starting to develop leaves and I even found one with a bloom already!  

I'm considering planting another batch of berries this fall or next spring.  This time I'd plant a June-Bearing variety instead of the Ever-Bearing I planted this year.  I'd like to mix it up a bit and stagger the season.

What's For Dinner?

SM wandered into the kitchen the other evening around dinner time.  He heard me puttering around in there and came to investigate.  What he found was me elbow deep transplanting the tomatoes.

They were long and gangly and starting to flop over.  I didn't use the grow light this year.  Since we've had an early Spring, these starts have spent a lot of time outdoors already.  When the wind or the temperatures rose, I would just bring them back in and set them at my south facing window.

Peppers sure are slow to start aren't they?  I've got my first true leaves on the tomatoes already and some of the peppers are just now starting to pop.

I only had 2 tomatoes starts (out of 40) that didn't germinate.  Pretty good rate.  The peppers are about 50/50 right now.  I'll give them some more time to make an appearance.

What is weird is my red leaf lettuce.  I can't seem to get them to germinate.  I've sown 3 batches so far and only one made an appearance and that briefly.  They died back.  I'm trying to keep them watered but I guess the heat was too much for them.  The green leaf that I sowed in early March is going strong and we're eating from that batch.  

I think I'll try again with the red.  The long term forecast shows normal temperatures coming up.  Maybe I'll get lucky.

Drunk With Beauty

I went out into a drippy, drizzling Monday morning determined to pick some of our new young lettuce leafs that were just the perfect size for a nice salad, when I noticed that our grape vines were leafing out. 

Is it possible to get drunk on beauty?

My camera just doesn't do this justice.

All I can think of is that song...

Bottle of wine
Fruit of the vine
When ya going to let me be sober?

With that kind of beauty around me I hope to be drunk for a very long time...

Berry Change Of Plans

I had ordered our first ever strawberry plants from Nourse Farms a few weeks ago indicating the week of March 26th for our delivery.  I decided on Seascape, a day neutral that sounded like it was a pretty "climate flexible" variety.

I knew I was in trouble 2 weekends ago when I'd hoped to get the new area dug up and composted.  We'd spent so much time working on the other beds that nothing had been prepared for the strawberries that were due to arrive.  With SM in Vegas and a full work week for me I became a bit concerned about where to plant these suckers.   

No biggie.  We switch to plan B.  I figured I've got lots of existing beds to choose from.  When I got the box from Nourse last Wednesday, I opened them up.  They looked good to me.  I gave the roots a squirt and stuck them back in the fridge until I could get to them over the weekend. 

Saturday arrived with several hours of light rain showers.  Perfect!  I headed into work for a few hours with post-ops and got home about noon with the clouds breaking up and the sun peaking through.

I pulled out the box and and read the enclosed booklet.  Uh oh!  It seems I didn't do my homework.  Reading the fine print I see...Don't plant where tomatoes, potatoes and peppers have been.  (I guess there are certain pathogens in the soil that can damage the new plants.)

That's almost everywhere in my "in ground" double dug beds.  That only leaves the raised beds to put the berries in.  (Sigh.)  I really didn't want to put the berries in the raised beds because I was afraid the roots would get too hot during the Summer.  No help for it I guess.

Reading further, I see that you need to plant the roots straight down, no sideways planting or bunching (folding over) of the roots.  They recommend that you DON'T cut the roots.  Alrighty then.

I headed out to plant and pulled one of the starts out.  Crikey!  The root system on this sucker was from the tip of my fingers to my wrist.  Easily 7-8" long.  (Yes, I have mutant alien hands.  All long and skinny.)

Well, THAT works well for the raised beds.  All that nice compost and leaf mold allows for easy digging.  I would never have been able to work these into the ground and get the roots planted correctly in our clay soil.

Planting was easy enough although I did have to spread them out in 3 different beds.  I had 25 plants to put in and "By Golly" I wasn't about to loose any.  Now some of these berries are in with cucumber, squash and onions as bed partners.  A quick Internet search showed that those companions are OK.

I'm starting to feel a bit better about the raised beds for the berry plants.  They tend to be invasive anyway so it'll be easier to control them.  I also recall Leigh over at 5 Acres and a Dream having all kinds of problems with wire grass invading her strawberry beds.  I've got really aggressive Bermuda grass here in my yard.  

The raised beds are looking better and better.  Anything to make my life easier is welcome indeed.  Maybe planting the berries in the raised beds will be a blessing in disguise.  If the roots can take the heat.  We'll see.

Transference and Transformation

One of the big problems with having crappy soil is that you've got to build it up in order to get anything of value back out.  What is it they say?  Garbage in, garbage out?  But this takes time and the only short cut you can take is to buy your compost and toss it in.  

We were spreading our bulk compost the other day.  SM is in the pickup tossing it out, I'm in the garden tossing it into another pile that's closer to the bed that it will eventually end up in. 


That's the problem with bulk compost.  It's cheaper than the bagged stuff but you've got to put some effort into getting it where you want it to be.  And this garden is now "officially" too big to toss it there in just one step.

Anyhow, as we were transferring the good stuff around, we're also talking.

"You know, for $28 a load this is pretty good stuff" I say admiring the crumbly blackness of the compost.  "I mean, it's a good investment, but some people would say that's it's not necessarily a smart one."

"What do you mean not a smart one?"  SM asks.  "We've chosen to grow our own for the taste and for the health of it.  Can you put a price on that?"

"Well, you can buy organic at the store...or just be ignorant for that matter and just keep buying the same ole, same ole like we do now."  I point out.  "It's not like we're there yet.  We still buy produce and fruit at the store and I don't shop organic.  Too expensive."

"True.  I did buy those grapes from Sams the other week.  They came from Chile so who knows what kind of chemicals and crap are on them."  SM reflects.  "They were good though."

"Well, even that's a matter of opinion.  How do you know that they were all that good unless you ate some grapes that we grew here at the house and compared.  Remember the lettuce?"  I ask.

(*One of the first things we grew here was lettuce.  I still remember how good that home grown lettuce was fresh out of the garden.  We rarely eat store bought lettuce (when it's out of season) because of the taste.  Or lack of it.)

"Still, even though this hasn't been a cheap thing to do right now, I still think in the long run it'll pay us back tenfold as the years go by.  We shouldn't have to keep tossing compost into this for much longer.  All we'll need to start doing is tossing in organics for maintenance."  I pause, thinking about the future.

"How much do you think we've spent?"  SM asks.

"You don't want to know..." I say, shaking my head.  "Tally it up. Trees, bushes, compost, wood framing, fencing, seeds...This is not a cheap thing to do at all.  That's why some people might consider this a pretty stupid thing to do.  We've probably dropped at least a grand into it so far.  Can you honestly say that we've eaten a thousand dollars worth of fruit and veggies?  Of course not.  That's why it's an investment in our future.  A transformation."  I say waving my hand encompassing the whole of the backyard.

This blog is named 500 Dollar Tomato because at the time, that's the amount of project money we had to start with.  As the years go by and we keep making improvements here and there, it all adds up.  And more to be spent still.  On the radar is getting the worm towers started, buying shade cloth in anticipation of the hot, hot scorching Summer and rain barrels.

It may have started off as a 500 dollar "project" but it will eventually turn into an actual 500 dollar tomato.

How prophetic...

Beam Me Up Scottie

SM thinks that this Summer is going to be a scorcher.  He thinks we're falling back into a pattern like when we first moved here.  It's been about 14 years or so.  Do weather patterns fall into cycles?  We'll soon see.

NC was in a drought back in 98 when we first moved here and I came to understand that the dry, burnt and brittle country side was NOT the norm.  Since recovering from the drought, things seem to be pretty normal.  I don't really hear any of the locals commenting about the weather being unusual.

Except this year.  Everyone (and I do mean everyone) is talking about the early Spring.  Usually it's a slow waltz into Spring around here.  Certain trees and shrubs bloom in a certain sequence culminating in the hardwoods leafing out last. 

This year it doesn't seem to matter.  It's a mad rush to leaf out.  The holly bushes are covered in blooms and bees right now.  This usually happens in mid to late April.  I checked my blog journal from last year and my entry was April 10th for the holly's to be in bloom.  That's a good 2-3 weeks ahead of the curve.

SM noticed yesterday that our English Oak and our Crepe Myrtles are beginning to leaf out.  I felt like someone beaned me over the head...We were both shocked.

"Well, Beam me up Scottie..." I muttered to myself in amazement.

(*I know, I know...I tend to use some very interesting phrases and idioms here.  Let me digress here for just a moment.   It's my way of saying "Yeah.  I'm on board.  I agree with what you're saying."((Star Trek Geek here.)) 

What I'm trying to say is that I DO believe that Mother Nature has handed us an early Spring.  I would be very surprised if we were to get any destructively cold weather.

It's funny how much better you pay attention to the weather once you start to garden or farm.  I certainly understand our little slice of heaven much better after trying to get the land to produce something.  And I hate to waste a good opportunity.  It seems that Mamma N is prodding me saying "What are you waiting for ?" Hello...McFly?  Think!  (*another idiom we use around here) "I'm handing you the chance to start eating fresh veggies a whole month earlier than normal.  Be flexible girl."

I think that (like you) I've been very suspicious that this was a fluke.  But while I've seen the fruit trees get burned by popping out too early, I've never seen the oak tree leaf out until May.  Ever.  It's always the last to POP.

And to my way of thinking, if the Oak can come out to play than so can some of my summer veggies.  I went ahead and planted summer squash, cucumbers, loofahs and potatoes this weekend.  I'm holding out on the beans for another week or so.  I plan on planting a large patch of beans.

And if SM is right and we do get clobbered by a scorching hot Summer, at least I might be able to get a bit of a harvest in before the oven turns on.  And if Mother Nature has just handed us an early Spring than I'll reap the benefits of sowing a little early plus have a longer than normal growing season. 

Surprise, Surprise

Yesterday I had a Gomer Pile moment.





I had decided to get in the garden and weed it.  So I'm hanging upside down shuffling sideways when what do I come across?  Carrots tops!  They weren't very tall.  Could there be carrots underneath?  If there were I was pretty sure they'd be too tiny to harvest.

I'd forgotten that I'd tossed a batch of seeds here last September.  It's in one of the back "double dig" strips that we'd made last year.  I'd already harvested all the carrots from the raised bed back in January.  Those carrots pulled up easily and were sweet and yummy.  So easy, I'd made a mental note to myself to always grow carrots in the raised beds.

I tried pulling these up with a yank and broke off the tops.  The clay we call soil around here had them gripped tightly.

SM handed me the pitch fork and "Shazam"...CARROTS!  And some were pretty good sized too.  Well how about that!?!  What a treat!  I considered pulling only what I needed and letting the rest grow some more but I was concerned about the quality of the carrot if I let them be.  They've been in the ground 6 months after all.  Would these even be any good?  We rinsed one of the bigger ones off and taste tested.  It was fine so I decided to just pull the whole patch.

And here's another surprise...Look closely.

Yep, there's life in that there soil!  Worms and tiny little micro-organisms.  Seeing THAT was even better than seeing the carrots.  We must be doing something right!

I swear I heard all the birds lining up on the fence line hoping to get in where I'd dug and get some worms for breakfast.  (I tossed some cardboard over the newly dug patch when I left.)  Sorry birds...those worms are an endangered species in my garden...None for you!

I went out front and tossed them on the sidewalk leading to the front door and sprayed them off.

Then I sat there in the early morning light and trimmed off all the tops.  Back to the garden they go and now SM and I have lots of carrots to munch on of the next few weeks.

My first harvest of Spring 2012!

Shifting Priorties

Lately I feel like I'm walking on quick sand.  One step in this direction...No, that doesn't feel right.  Lets try the other way...Ooo that's better.  But then 10 steps down that road, something else comes up and has me thinking that I'd better head over in that direction.

With this "Ka-Blam" Springtime weather we're having lately, I've been feeling like I need to shift my priorities daily.  I start off alright but by the end of the day I'm scratching my head wondering just what did I get done today.

I took a few days off this week as two of my Dr's are taking some much needed vacations with their families.  So given the option of twiddling my thumbs at work or taking some PTO and busting my double-wide here at the house, I opted to take Wednesday and Friday off to try and get a handle on things around the plantation.

Wednesday started off great with a 3am hot flash and me getting up to watch some TV hoping to go back down.  But then I made the mistake of watching some TiVoed Hot in Cleveland which has got to be the funniest thing ever.  I was laughing so hard I was afraid I'd wake up SM.  I just started watching HIC this year and I tell you...Betty White kills every time.  What good writing.

After my laughfest I walked the dogs, fed them, spent a hour or so on your blogs, another hour on my blog, (these posts don't write themselves do they?) trimmed Ginnys and Caseys nails, (Poor Casey was twitching like she was being electroshocked) loaded the dishwasher, ate some breakfast and once I saw that the sun was filtering through the fog, stepped out onto the porch to survey my domain.

"It should be pretty easy pulling weeds today after that rainstorm last night." SM decrees, already assigning me my tasks for the day.  

I hate weeding.  But SM hates it even more.  So shifting the twitches that rippled down my back in anticipation of another fun filled day hanging upside down, I headed out eyeballing the beds.  As I strolled around the wet grass with the dogs zipping here and there, I noted that the lawn needed mowed.  Again.  "But I can do that this afternoon." I muttered to myself wandering over to go look at the garden.

What a mess.  But not really.  The weeds are mostly suppressed by the cardboard.  But I'll need more.  I'm finding it most effective to lay cardboard in the walkways twice a year.  It may not look pretty but it's a cheap fix if you can find it.  I went cardboard hunting on Monday and mostly struck out.  Lots of little stuff but that's just a pain.  I want the medium to large boxes.  I even went in to talk to the grocery store manager who told me that Mondays are not a good day in the world of cardboard dumpster diving.  But I was welcome to come back on Wednesday and Friday as they are better for boxes.  So add that to the list of ToDo's for today.

Some of the beds and the new double dig area needs more compost, and I wouldn't mind going and getting a load today but we had rain last night so that'll make hauling it and shoveling it harder than it needs to be.  Besides, I'd rather wait until I can coerce SM into helping with that. 

Fencing needs moved after the compost goes in.  Do I want to plant some pears?  If so I'd better get a move on.  I ordered the strawberries on Monday so those will be shipped next week.  I need to back-fill the hole that the shrub came out of last weekend. 

This is where the new strawberry bed will go.  Do rabbits eat the strawberry plants?  If so, I'll have to delay planting them until the fence is moved which means compost is the first priority. 

Actually weeding first, then cardboard, then compost... 

Oh great, the cat just puked on the carpeting.  OK...clean the carpet first, then weed, then cardboard, then compost.

Geez, can you dogs try and wipe your feet before you come in the house?  The floors all tracked up and muddy.  Might as well get out the mop and clean up the floors.  But you guys look like you could use a bath. (sigh)

OK...Lets see.  Baths first, then mop, then clean the carpets, then go out and weed...

Oh Crap!  I've got a hair appointment today.  The girl I've been with for the past year made me so blond I'm starting to feel ditsy so I'm done with her.  I'm trying a different stylist who I hope will toss in some brown "low lights" to bring me back down to earth.

OK...Let's see.  Mop the floor first, then clean the carpet, then get my hair done, then dumpster dive for cardboard while I'm out, then come home and mow the lawn...maybe I'll give the dogs a bath later.

So the floor got mopped and then I got my hair done.  I dumpster dived to find a few boxes, not much though.  Came home and cleaned the carpets.  Hopped on the mower and did our lawn and sat back and considered my neighbors yard.

Yes I have one of those neighbors.  The house right beside the garden is occupied by a Mom and her 2 adult children.  We never see them which is sorta nice but also sorta weird since you don't know really know if anyone's dead or alive.  They hire out their yard work every year but wait to hire a service until their grass is impossibly high. 

I'm concerned about this because we're having an early season.  I'm sure that tall grass will attract fleas, ticks, snakes and mice.  Last year when she did this I actually found a copperhead in my garden.  (shudder)  And had fleas for the first time in years.

So I sat and looked at her lawn.  Yes, I am THAT sort of neighbor.  A "busy-body" to be sure.  If I was going to intervene and mow it, I'd better do it soon.  That grass was already 2 feet high.

I went over and rang the bell.  Twice.  I walked around back and noted that a car was there.  (They never answer their door.)  I walked around the back yard making sure nothing would damage the mower.  I walked back around the front and noticed a neighbor across the street was out, so I went over and chatted with her.  Any news?  We discussed the yard, (I wasn't the only one concerned) she offered to help, I waved her off.  I knew if SM was home he'd tell me to leave it alone.  But I can't.  So for purely selfish reasons, I went over and mowed their yard. 

Dropping a hint?  I'm not subtle am I?

It was HIGH and on top of all THAT, I think I might have gotten poison ivy on my wrist.  (*No good deed every goes unpunished.)

So that's how my days have been.  All over the place.  Did the weeding get done? 

No.  But there's always tomorrow.

Spiffin Up

I'd noticed that our mailbox was looking pretty fugly lately.  It had to be at least 7 or 8 yrs old.  I mentioned to SM that, along with spreading some new mulch to the landscaped beds, I wanted to spiff up the mailbox area of our yard.

"Why?  All you ever get is bills in the mail.  That's nothing to celebrate."  SM points out.

"All the same, it is a reflection of the home don't ya think?"  I ask.

In our HOA free neighborhood mailboxes come in a shapes, sizes and price points.  From those boxy green plastic things to the fancy wrought iron posts and boxes, you can find it all in this neighborhood.  I didn't want to spend a lot and when SM priced mailboxes anywhere from $10 to several hundred dollars, I knew that I'd be re-purposing some things. 

We went to Walmart and bought a $10 grey metal "rural" (? what makes it rural?) mailbox.  I got out some of our beige house paint and slapped that on.  It looked better already.  What about the house numbers?  I looked up and down the street.  Some had the reflective stick on type, some had the nail into the post type.  All were hard to see.  So I decided to go big.  I took some of our house numbers as a template and used a magic marker to outline them and then painted them a deep green to stand out against the beige box. 

Meanwhile, SM pulled up the post and discovered that the bottom was rotting out so off he went to the big box store and paid $6 for a new pressure treated post.  He then salvaged some of the old cedar post to create a mount.  I painted the post the same color as our shutters.

I went out and trimmed back the Knockout Roses that were insanely out of control.  Keeping in mind that I'd like to be able to manage all this, I dug out one of the roses and all of the zebra grass. 

I had asked SM to dig out an evergreen bush in the backyard that needed to be moved in order to make way for the strawberry bed that we hope to put in soon.   I figured we'd try to salvage that bush and use it in the front yard instead.

Because the ground was heavy with wet clay, SM tackled this over 2 weekends.  He went out again yesterday and I saw him digging and straining.  "Why don't you just bring the truck back here, tie it up and yank it out."  I asked.

"I could strip it and kill it."  SM said.

"It's got to go one way or the other and you'll never be able to dig that entire root ball out and drag it around yourself.  Lets get the truck to do the heavy lifting.

Mission accomplished.  Was that ever easy!  SM then muscled the bush into the new hole he'd dug.  I gave it a good soaking and a haircut.  (We'll see what happens.)  Toss on some fresh mulch and it looks much better already.

Even KiKi seems to like it.

So while it may not be the fanciest mailbox on the planet I do think it spiff's up the front a bit.  Now if only we didn't have all those weeds in the yard.  (Although the dandelions do add a nice touch of color.)

Simple

What a mess! 

It's a hodge-podge weekend around here for sure...In my head at least. 

There is SO much to do that I feel distracted because every time I start on one thing, something else comes up and "oops" there's another thing that needs doing. 

I've started a list and boy is it getting crowded.  Everything is on it from trimming the dogs nails to looking at bathroom cabinets to cleaning the AC unit.  (Hard to believe that anyone is running their AC yet, but I've been tempted, let me tell you!)

So as distracted as I am right now, I looked up to find a moment of peace and serenity yesterday. 

The beauty of a peach blossom, framed against a pure blue sky with fluffy clouds. 

Simple. 

I could look at that tree all day.

It's a peach "stick" right now to be honest, but I know that a few years from now I just might take a moment from my busy day, lay on the ground and look up at a mass of peach blossoms against a blue sky and marvel that somehow, Spring has come once more.

Curse Of The Hoopty

Just when a girl thinks she needs to invest in a hoop house, Mother Nature comes along to show her that it just isn't needed.  But did you notice that the plastic is just pushed over, not removed?  I guess like many of you, I'm just not that sure that we won't get an April snowstorm before everything is said and done. 

Onions in front, lettuces to the right, a row of broccoli rapini, and carrots to the left.  (They are up but very tiny.)  If you look carefully all the way in the back the snow peas are up too.  Notice I have the onions and peas on opposite ends of the bed as they are NOT companions.

Damn it's hot!  83 outside and 75 inside.  Who needs hot flashes?

Bachelor Pad

SM and I love birds.  I tried having bird feeders around the backyard but not only do the seeds that fall on the ground sprout (making one more mess for me to have to clean up), it also caused Scooter to eat all the seeds he could making his digestive track a bit cranky.  So no feeders in our yard.  But we do have bird houses.

SM keeps trying to entice bluebirds to nest in one of our houses. 

Ha...Fat chance!

The sparrows always get there first.  SM had just put this new addition in and within minutes he had 5 or 6 male sparrows hanging out on top competitively jostling each other for a position.

"Hey Ladies...see my nice new digs?"

So far the ladies have come and gone and it's still a bachelor pad for now.

F-Bomb In Disguise

Now that's one big pile of...

Mulch! 

Yep, and there's a cute story I'd like to share with you regarding that huge pile of mulch.

Just down the road from where we live is a company that sells various bulk mulches and soil composts.  They bag them up and sell them to the big box stores but they also have a "drive up and load up your truck" service for us locals.  The have a front loader that scoops up the mulch and dumps it into your pickup truck for a fee.  So that's where I headed Saturday Morning thinking to spiff up the front yard this weekend.

This stuff was labeled "Pine Mulch" which looks like it's all shredded up to me.   Not nuggets, not chips.  That's what I thought we'd bought before.  I come back home, pulled the truck into the front yard and got to work. 

No sooner do I get a shovel or two of this contraband onto the front yard beds than SM sticks his head out the door and says..."Um, that's not the same stuff." 

"It's not?"  I respond, playing the stupid card.  (*I can be dumb as a box of rocks when it suits me.  Like when I make a mistake like buying the wrong kind of mulch.  I mean it's not like I can take it back.)

"No.  It's supposed to be the mini-chips.  That looks all shredded up to me."  SM observes.

"Well, does it really matter?  I'm sure it looks the same from the street." I say trying to sell it as I intentionally toss another shovelful onto the bed.

"I don't like it.  The mini's look better especially up front.  They're neater."  SM says.

I give the shovel the old heave-ho back into the pickup, bend over, sweep the mulch back together with my hands and grabbing the pile of mulch, toss it back into the pickup with an over the shoulder...

"I live only to make you happy."

Few things set SM off the way that phrase does.  And "yes" I use it to annoy him.  I freely admit it.  SM stomps back into the house as I move the truck into the back yard to use the "shredded" mulch elsewhere.

I eventually wander back into the house where SM and I start discussing something else.  After a minute or two I stick my finger back into that electrical socket and say...

"What...Don't ya like the fact that I live only to serve you?"  I tease him with a big grin on my face.

"That pisses me off when you say that."  SM responds.

"Oh yeah?  Kinda like how I hate it when you say "Yes, Dear."  I counter back. 

Now SM's got a big grin on his face cause he knows how much I HATE to hear "Yes, Dear" come out of his mouth. 

I've never heard a woman use that phrase...ever.  And yet men always seem to gravitate towards it.  Am I the only one who hates it?

"Lets call this what it is, OK?"  I ask.  "We're basically being polite by using these phrases when the simple fact of the matter is that we're saying "F-you".

"Yes, Dear...."  SM says with a grin.

(*Game, set and match to SM.)