A work project

Most of the flowers were planted

here.

And some of them were planted

here.

Pa brought out his portable

hole digger. It worked great

except when he hit a root.

We still have 36 plants

to find a spot to put

them in. I think I

need to take a

little time to figure

out where to put

them.

Pa really got ambitious

and started raking

leaves. He used a pitch

fork to load them

into the wheel barrow.

The rest of the yard

will have to wait for

another day

Work in the heat

How can I get these from here

over to here in the heat?

I think I will wait til morning.

What we do all day

We spend most of the extra time watching and feeding the birds.

Sometimes even the cat gets bored.

Our garden is getting ready to produce.

The tomatoes have little fruits on them. I can hardly wait for them to turn red.

The peaches are getting ripe.

We just have to keep the birds

away.

The Star Jasmine is in full bloom. It smells so good.

A garden at last

We finally got our garden planted yesterday, a whole month late. I stayed in the house most of the time during planting and didn't supervise. We now have a 30 foot row of zuccinni and a 30 foot row of yellow crook neck squash. Three plants of each will feed the whole neighborhood. The excuse was that there was still seed in the package and so it had to be planted.

I had 5 potatoes that had started to grow so Pa decided to plant them. He dug a nice ditch about 6 feet long to plant them in. I wonder if he was trying to feed the starving children in China since he dug the ditch so deep. I don't think the Chinese even eat potatoes.

The tomatoes are blooming and are half way up the 4 foot fence Pa is training them to grow on. Since we planted them a long time ago, I am hopine they will soon have fruit for us to eat.

Since it takes 80 days for the corn to mature, maybe we will be eating corn by August 2nd. I decided to weed the asparagas and spent a hour yesterday and another hour today pulling weeds in a 30 ft row. I finally talked Pa into getting the Mantis tiller out so I could till the dirt along side the vegetables. I was warned several times that it would jump around on the hard dirt and take out the plants. I was able to go up one side and back without a single mishap. My arms gave out so I had to quit. It was so much easier than being down on my hands and knees.

I wonder how much we will be able to harvest from this garden. It will probably get ripe just before we go to Swiss Days. I wonder how much $ we will save. We had to buy the seed and plants. I don't know how much we spent. I know it wasn't cheap. The best thing about it, fresh from the garden beats store bought any day so I am looking forward to the harvest in August. The frost won't get it until October or November. Pa did a good job with the garden and hopefully it will give us an abundance of fresh veggies.

Birthday Bash

Hamilton had a birthday bash on Friday and Saturday. Jake was practicing his BBQ skills by doing the best hamburgers I have tasted in a long time. There were lots of things to put on the sandwiches and a great big strawberry and baby spinach salad to go with it. I pigged out on dinner that night. My sandwich was so big I couldn't keep it neatly stacked.

A day well spent or a day wasted?

We left home this morning and headed to McDonalds at 9 a.m. We had our usual uneventful breakfast except the manager wanted us to buy a $150. ticket for a $2,000,000 home raffle. I couldn't pay the taxes on that kind of place so we passed on the opportunity. (a day wasted)

We had some nearly bald tires on the truck so we headed to Sam's to buy 3 new ones. Almost had a cardiac arrest when we got the bill. A few years ago I could have bought the whole tire department for that much. (a day wasted)

Our diesel was almost gone. We haven't filled the tank since we went to Death Valley in February. The service station wanted 50 cents to use my ATM card. The cheapskate that I am I ignored that request and swiped my card. No 50 cent charge was on the receipt. (a day wasted)

Pa needed some fence posts for the tomatoes so over to Lowe's. (a day wasted)

By this time waiting around all these stores was making us hungry. A few days ago, we got an email telling us to download a coupon for an UNKFC grilled dinner. Pa thought it was a joke and didn't want to go, but since I am a cheapskate, we took our coupons. We each got 2 pieces of grilled chicken, a biscuit, cole slaw, and gravy and potatoes. It was better than their usual chicken so I think that will be what we order the next time we want chicken. Sometimes it pays to be a cheapskate. ( a day well spent)

Looking back on the day, we ate breakfast, missed a chance on a $2,000,000 home, bought tires, filled the fuel tank, bought fence posts and had a fantastic free lunch so I will have to rate the day as well spent. The lunch was very good.

So many artichokes!

Last week it was Wendy's chili that we ate every day. This week it looks like it will be artichokes. They love this cool wet weather.

Look at our lovely garden.

For two weeks in a row the irrigation ditch water has gone over the top of the levee and flooded our garden area and yard. This weekend the rain ruined any plans of working up the ground. Guess we will have tomatoes and nothing else. At least they are growing out the top of the walls of water. Everytime it gets almost dry enough to do something it gets wet again. I have my mouth all set for cantaloupe, cucumbers, and corn. Oh well, maybe next week!

What happened to spring?

The orange trees are in full bloom and their perfume fills the air with a wonderful aroma. The Bottle Brush is starting to bloom and the humming birds have found it. I really thought spring was here, but now as I look outside, it is cold and starting to rain. It is supposed to really pour this afternoon. Pa is out mowing the lawn, trying to beat the heavy rain because it will be a week before all the rain is predicted to go away. What happened to the beautiful spring weather?