Update on estate sale find

Well, what do you know, another post. And it hasn't been a year since the last one. Maybe I'm on to something. One of the things that I hope to do is complete some jobs that I start and one of those was to redo the director chair that I obtained from an estate sale. It was in the last post. Here is the picture again.

At that same estate sale, my daughter saw a brand new seat and back replacement for a chair such as this. I can only assume that it was meant to be used for this actual chair. Anyway, I decided I would paint the chair and make it look nicer than it was, then use the replacement seat and back. Here is how it turned out.

 

The chair really came out nice, I think. The total price ended up being about $2. This style of chair sells on the internet for around $120 so I think we made out good. I don't plan on selling it yet, but if one of my readers really likes the PINK fabric, let me know. I will make you a deal. By the way, did I mention it was PINK!

Amazing What You Might Find

Who am I kidding? Updating my blog is like going on vacation. It happens once a year and it's fun. Actually, every time I post, I say to myself, "self, I'm going to update more frequently this time!" There I said it again. Honestly, I have lots of things I can post. It's just that it takes me a while to figure out what to write and I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and if it doesn't look just right, I get frustrated and blah, blah, blah.

Anywho, here we are again with another long after due post and this time I thought about doing something kind of weird that I have never seen before. I enjoy going to garage and estate sales and from time to time, I think I actually get really good deals on things that I can't possibly live without. So I decided that I wanted to share my finds with the world. I know you really can't wait to see all the treasures, so here goes.

I found a good estate sale today. In fact, it was so good, I'm really thinking about going back tomorrow when they will have everything 25% off! This was close to Lake Texoma and it was the estate of a deceased couple that I have decided I would have really liked to know. They seemed to take an interest in everything that I like from gardening and cooking to bee keeping and just general outdoor puttering. They had lots of books on birds and other wildlife from Texas and many tools and cooking toys. They have several out buildings, a few were in bad shape with treasures untold inside.

Anyway, following is a couple of items I found.

 I found this pith helmet right before I walked out the door and almost missed it. It is a beekeepers hat and it works perfectly with my netting that I have. As you can see, it was $2.00. This helmet is in excellent shape and appears to have been worn seldom.

We have needed some additional coffee spoons for quite some time. Even though only two of these match, I wanted to get them. There is nothing special about them and I don't really shop for spoons very often. I got all four for $1. I'm not sure that's a good deal or not, but I'm happy.

This directors chair was not really on my list, but I found it in one of the out buildings. My daughter had already found a brand new replacement seat and back for it that she was going to purchase for a chair at church that needed it. So when I saw the chair, I had to get it. Don't have a specific price on this because it was bundled with several other items. I will let you know of the total cost of the items in a moment. The chair has some mildew in areas because of it's location close to the elements, but the wood seems to be in good shape. I think the plan is to clean and paint it.

This is an excellent shovel, perfect for turning compost or cleaning chicken droppings from the coop. Again, this was bundled, so can't be specific on the price.

This was a REAL find in my opinion. Four bee supers and queen excluder. The excluder is to keep the queen from going places within the hive where you don't want her to go. There is some rusty areas on the excluder and I don't know what effect that will have on the bees. The supers are in good shape but pretty dirty. I will scrape those down and paint and they will be good as new. Again, bundled.

Now, for the above 3 items, I was able to score all of them for just $6!! That's right, $6.

If for nothing else, if I can just keep this kind of posting up, I know that I, myself will enjoy looking back at the wondrous items that I find from time to time and remember the deals and the neat people that I get to meet. I hope you enjoyed this.

See you next year!!

Hopefully, just kidding.

New Flowers for the Garden

About a month ago, we were on an outing with several members of my side of the family. This outing took us out in the country to explore what was my Great Grandfather's homestead. It was a lot of fun looking around, trying to imagine my ancestors working in the garden or plowing a field. My sister, Jeanne was walking close by and spotted what looked to be a weed of some sort. She decided to dig it up and try to keep it alive and plant it in her garden. I don't think it was so much the plant itself, but more of a reminder of the day and that she can say that the plant came from the area of our forefathers. Anyway, it was a neat idea and she actually kept the plant alive and it seems to be thriving.

So this past weekend I went on a camp out with a men's group from  my church. We went to Beaver's Bend State Park in southeastern Oklahoma. We had a good time fishing, canoeing, and even a little hiking. Along one particular hike, I spotted some interesting and pretty wildflowers along the way. I was taken back to when Jeanne dug up that plant and successfully kept it alive and transplanted it. I decided that I would like to try to do the same thing. Why not? Beaver's Bend is one of my favorite places to camp and this would be a way to remember the weekend and the State Park itself.  The one that caught my eye was a tall, single stemmed plant with small, purple flowers. When I say tall, I mean about 4 feet tall and I had no idea what it was, but what interested me was that it was growing in what appeared to be full shade. And I have a lot of shade around the yard. So I thought that if I could just keep it alive on the trip home, it might grow in my yard. I had nothing to dig with except my bare hands, but I did have a foam cup that I could put it in. So with as much strength as I could, I dug around with my fingers and got as much soil and hopefully all the root system. It actually wasn't too hard. It was growing on the side of a hill and the dirt was pretty soft around the plant.

Amazingly enough, the plant made it back to the campground, then the 2 1/2 hour trip back home. Here is what it looks like.

And I finally found out what this plant is. This is a Streptanthus maculatus ssp. obtusifolius or more commonly known as a Twistflower. It is native to Arkansas but I guess has crept into eastern Oklahoma. Yes, I know, I don't live in Arkansas or Oklahoma, but don't tell the plant that. We will see what it does if it survives my flower bed.

Look What I Invented!

Okay, not invented. Taken from the internet is more correct. But, I did build it myself.

Some might ask "what is it?" Well, it's a compost screen. I have a pretty sizable compost pile, and have had it for quite some time. My only problem is that if I keep adding to it, it never really gets 100% composted. So I was looking around on the www the other day and I saw a guy demonstrate his compost screen. It looked great so I had to try it. I purchased a little hardware cloth, used some scrap 2x4's and built what you see above. It's 24" wide and about 24" high, almost square. It fits perfectly on the wheelbarrow.

 That is the compost as it is in the pile. You will see that there are some pretty big chunks. This is about two full shovels. I didn't put any more because I'm going to have to shake the thing over the wheelbarrow and when you factor in the weight of the wood, this is about the perfect amount.

This is what it looks like. There are still a few minor chunks, but overall, this stuff is perfect. And it's all mine, straight from my compost pile!

Black gold!

I have already used it with some plants and they look happy. That screen works perfectly and if I screen too much, I just throw it back on the pile. Now I can get compost whenever I need it.

I can't believe that it's been a year since my last post. That's really inexcusable, is it not? So here it is April 21, 2012 and really lots of things have happened over the last year. Maybe I will be able to get to some of it and maybe I can keep this posting up. And I know I have probably said that every time I post after a long period of silence.

So let's pretend I've been posting all along and this is just another entry in a blog that I know you have been enjoying reading daily.


In all honesty, I do find it difficult to keep up with some regularity, but I enjoy it when I can. Today was a beautiful day and I got a lot of things done outside. It started off with a visit to the yearly plant sale at the Grayson County Master Gardener's sale in downtown Sherman. They had a great selection and the prices were really good.

This is the selection of what I got. Each one was $1 and I thought that was a good price. Most are very common for this area and are easy to grow. I have Canna Lillies, Four O'clocks, Aster's, Shasta Daisy's and a few others. I have a definite location for most of the plants and am looking forward to getting them situated in their new home.

One of the big jobs today was to clean and prepare a rather large bed on the northwest side of the house. This side gets about 4 to 5 hours of sun and in the summer, the heat can be brutal. Here is a picture of some of the construction of this bed. This construction took place about 18 months ago.

Several years ago, I created a small retaining wall at the corner of the house with block. I didn't really want to spend the money on more block, so I decided to continue the wall with railroad ties and try to make it look half decent.

Unfortunately, these are the only "in progress" pictures I could find, but you can see there was quite a big of work to be done. There is actually a pretty good slope and I had to back fill quite a bit. Just for reference, this was May of 2010.

Now fast forward to April of 2012, the raised bed has been long finished but I never put anything in it, and it became ugly and overgrown. So this year, this was one of my "to do" items. I didn't really know what I wanted to put here, then I found out that a teacher friend at school has kids who are selling plants as an FFA project. They had several different species to choose from, but what caught my eye was lantana. I have found out that these are easy to grow in our yard. And once established they are big and fill in a large bed nicely. So that's what I decided to plant.

 These two pictures are of the bed and the lantanas all in there home. There is more than I need in this bed, I think, but once I see just how much space they will ultimately take up, I will probably move some to another area of the yard.

 We have talked it over and will add some iris's in the back. They bloom early in the spring and will provide a nice bit of color before the lantanas really show off. Then, the iris's will be done for the summer. We will also put some low growing plants in the front.

Here is a nice close up of one of them.

Definately Not Cheep....er, Cheap!

It seems like I am always trying to figure out ways to make my life a little more complex and somewhat stressful. This time, I thought a perfect way of achieving this was to start raising chickens. Oh, I always have known that to a certain extent, raising chickens has time and money involved, but I know that depending on the type of person you are, really determines the level of enjoyment that you can get out of almost anything. With our nation appearing to head into the toilet on so many levels, I have heard that people are starting to simplify their lives and try to prepare themselves for a time when they might have to start living more frugally and not have the option of relying as much on things we have grown accustomed to. So my thought was to start raising chickens for eggs and possibly meat. So far, the journey hasn't been too bad. Amy and Erin have really enjoyed the little peeps and this has been a wonderful learning experience for all of us. I, for one, have really learned a lot about general construction techniques because of course, the chickens need a place to stay. I have also learned that those chickens need to lay a lot of eggs in order to make back the money that we have already invested in the project. I never thought that we would really save money in the process, but I was hoping that it would cost less than it has. That's what this post is about. I hope you enjoy the pictures of the construction process of what has become way more than what was probably necessary.

Here are four of the five new members of the Walton clan. We actually purchased 6, but one expired for no apparent reason. At the time of this picture, they are about 2 weeks old.

 Here you can see the idea that I got for a portable chicken pen. It's built out of 1/2 inch pvc pipe and chicken wire. The cost was about $25, but really worth it, because it lets them get out of their little brooding box and into the sunshine. This is not predator proof but under supervision, it has allowed our other outdoor pets to get used to the chicks without having them for lunch. In the background, you can see the start of the chicken house.

This is the start. I was able to score quite a bit of used wood from several friends and family members and that has helped with the cost. The foundation is always one of the hardest parts because you have to make it level and square.

Since the coop sits off the ground a bit, the chickens needed a ramp to get in and out of their house. Erin built this pretty much all by herself. I think she did an excellent job.

Here, you can see the little opening that the chickens will use for access. You can also see Erin's ramp in place.

The coop with some siding in place. I had to learn about rafters and cutting the "birds' mouth" in order to get the pitch right for the roof.

Here, I have installed all of the siding and the tin roof. I decided that I wanted a door tall enough for me to enter without bending down. So I cut a 6 foot door. Remember that this is for 5 chickens. I think we have room for growth.

The trim is going up. I found a pretty good deal on some fiber cement siding and decided to use that. The only problem was that it was too wide and I had to rip it. Not really that much fun when you don't own a table saw. I also own a masonry blade for my circular saw, but it was slow and VERY dusty. Erin has begun painting and you can see a little of the trim around the door has been painted. We also now have a window.

Erin painted the little chicken ramp and I think it looks very nice in place.

I found an old window at a yard sale for $1.50. Good deal, but difficult to insert and we won't be able to raise it. It's primarily for light anyway. I also built a custom door from scratch. Getting close to calling this place done. One thing I haven't added is the nesting boxes. They will go on the left side of the coop and will stick out so that we may collect the eggs from the outside instead of going inside and potentially getting our feet poopy.


That's all I have for now. I will post more when available.

My Next Chapter of Beekeeping

I knew I didn't want to give up beekeeping. After only one season and a pretty substantial monetary investment, for my pocketbook anyway, I couldn't just toss in the towel. Besides, I have learned so much and have really enjoyed watching the bees work. It's really amazing how they accomplish so many things and work so well together. So I decided to order another colony. Last year, I ordered my first colony from Dadant beekeeping supplies. There is a handful of locations all across the country and I am very lucky to have one just about an hour away in Paris, Texas. Usually, you have two choices when obtaining colonies: package bees and a nuc or nucleus colony. Package bees literally come in the U.S. Mail and you basically dump the bees into your hive with the queen in a cage. After a while the bees release the queen from the cage by eating a little candy plug and she goes right to work laying eggs. A nucleus on the other hand, is a small established colony in a small wooden box about half the size of a regular hive. That is what I ordered last year. I went and picked them up in Paris. The process of transferring the bees from a nuc is simply placing frames full of bees and brood from the nuc into your hive and you have an instant bee colony. Dadant does not sell package bees, so if I order from them, I have to get a nuc which is okay. The only problem is that you have to order them early. They have a limited number of nucs available and you have to put your name on a list. By the time I realized my bees had died, it was too late to order from Dadant, so I was out of luck. My only other choice, I thought, was to purchase a package from a reputable apiary and have them sent to me. Most apiary's don't send out package bees until sometime in May.

Then, as I was looking around on the internet, I came upon some information about building swarm traps. A swarm trap is a receptacle that you hang somewhere outside with a bait of some sort inside that lures a swarm to it. In theory, it's a relatively easy and dirt cheap way to get your own bees. At some point during the spring, a bee colony will naturally outgrow their home. When that happens, the bees will raise another queen. Then about half of the hive and queen will take flight to find a new home. That's not really something you want to happen if you already have a hive of bees because if they swarm, that means a lot less work is going to get done for a while. So you really have to expand their home for them so they don't get the urge. But in the natural world, the bees do it all the time. So a swarm leaves the hive in a big cloud and they will first find a temporary place to congregate. At this time, a bunch of bees will take off to find a more suitable permanent home. This is where the swarm trap comes in. If you have a trap and a bee happens to find it, then you just might get a whole new colony to set up shop right there in your trap. If that happens, you just transfer them into one of your empty hives and you have your own, free, bees. Yay! Well, seeing as how I like to do things on the cheap, I just had to give this a shot. After all, on warm days recently, I have seen lots of bees out among the dandelions, so I feel pretty

certain there is a colony somewhere close by. So after some research, I built my own swarm trap. It has been hanging in it's location now for about three days. It's still a little early for a swarm, but I am patient. I really hope I catch one. I am going to build a total of four traps and put them in various locations to better my chances. I will let you know how it goes. 

Tomatoes From Seed

Well I thought I would try something new this year. I have always purchased little tomato plants and then set them out in the garden. This year, I thought I would purchase the seeds and start them myself. I have heard that it can be a little tricky growing tomatoes from seeds. I used a rotisserie chicken container as my temporary bed, put in some seed starter and planted the seeds. I then put the container in our laundry room until I just saw them poking through the starter mix. I didn't worry about the light. In fact, it was dark most of the time in there. It took about 1 week for the seeds to break the surface. Once they sprouted, I moved them to a southern facing window in our bedroom. I had read that new sprouts needed extra light time in order to become stronger. I decided to place a little clip on desk lamp next to the plants and keep it on every day for about 14 hours. I don't know if this actually helped, but the seedlings really grew well. It's been about 12 days now and it won't be long until I transplant the little plants into their own containers.

At this point, each one is about 1.5 inches high and has two little green leaves. Hopefully, they will survive the stress. After that, I have to harden them off by placing them outside for a short time everyday. We will see how it goes.

Hive Died. What Next?

So, my only bee hive died during the winter. When I discovered them, it bummed me out and I really didn't want to do anything with the hive right away, so I placed the whole thing in the shed and I just left it there for a couple of weeks. A few days ago, it was a warm day and I was out getting some things done around the yard. I decided to take the hive out and really inspect it. I set it on the ground and took out some of the frames. I looked at the couple of frames that had capped honey in them that for whatever reason, my bees didn't eat. There wasn't much and since I had no bees, I would try to harvest the little bit that was there, especially since I hadn't gotten a chance to taste any honey that the bees stored.  I took the frames inside and cut the part of the comb out that had the honey. I had read a little about a harvesting process called crush and strain. Normally, you would cut the caps off of the comb, hang the frame in a honey extractor and spin the honey out of the comb. Crush and strain, on the other hand, is a process by which you cut the comb out of a frame and place it in a shallow pan. You then crush the comb with blunt object or your hand, then let the honey strain through a very fine filter into a vessel for storage. An extractor is pretty pricey and the crush and strain method seemed like a good alternative. Since there wasn't that much, I really didn't have to crush it. As I cut it off, it basically fell apart. I put the comb and honey in a pan lined with waxed paper. I then needed something to strain the honey with. I had read about people using paint strainers or stockings. I didn't have a paint strainer, so Catherine was nice enough to let me have one of her clean stockings.
That ended up working perfectly. I stretched the stocking over a small jar, then spooned the honey and wax into the stocking. Before long, we had a little jar of yummy honey from our own bees. It was quite an accomplishment. And the honey was indeed yummy!

Update and Probably Long Post

Well, once again it's been a while since I posted and I keep saying that so from now on, I won't.  Winter is almost over here in north Texas and I'm starting to see little buds on the trees. I write this post with a little heavy heart because a few weeks ago, I discovered that my bees didn't make it through the winter. I was concerned that they wouldn't mostly because I worry too much about too many things, and that I always second guess my decisions. So when I discovered them dead, I guess I wasn't too surprised. I was really working hard on them and hoping that they would make it through. Since I'm a new bee keeper, I really don't have any firm reason's for their demise, but after closely inspecting the hive, I think I know why.

For all these months, my bees have had two deep hive bodies in which to move about and expand. If you talk to ten veteran bee keepers you may get eleven different answers to any question you may ask. And for pretty much everything I was wanting to learn about bee keeping, I would hear about so many ways to do things, I finally just picked what I thought was what I needed to do.  Ideally, you want the bees to store enough honey for them and have enough for you to take and enjoy. My bees never stored enough for me which was okay because it was the first year anyway. I was just wanting them to have enough for themselves. I was wanting to provide the bees with enough room to expand without having too much of an urge to swarm which is why I had two deep boxes. I was hoping that the bees would go between the two bodies using the frames and resources that they had saved for the winter.  As I checked the hive late into the fall, the frames were not all full, but they did look to have a sufficient amount of stored honey that would keep them fed. Bees, in order to stay warm and regulate the hive temperature during the winter, will do what's called clustering, which is basically forming a ball around the queen and move about the hive as a cluster taking advantage of the stored honey. What I think happened is that when it got really cold around here for about four days, the bees clustered in the lower body and didn't go into the upper body. When I realized they had died and opened the hive, I discovered some capped honey in the upper body. It may have not been enough for them, but I think it would have been enough to get them through the really cold spell and then I could have fed them sugar water. What I think I should have done, is removed the top box and moved any frames with honey down to the lower box. That way they would have found the honey easier and probably made it through the winter. Oh well. That's how you learn. That's enough for this post. I will post again soon with some interesting news.

Another Cool Toy I May Have to Aquire

Well, I'm back for what seems to be a million year post. Several months ago in the summer, I posted a picture on Facebook of me feeding some of our hummingbirds that visited our area. I'm sorry blog readers that I posted on Facebook and not right here. But for those who missed it, here is the picture.

It's hard to see the little guys, but they are there. It was actually easier than I thought. It only took about 5 minutes of waiting and there they were. It was quite fun.
Now, I have found something that may take this experience to the next level.

Behold, the eYe2eYe Wearable Hummingbird Feeder!

There is so much about this thing that makes it really cool. The bright colors are designed to look like red rhododendrons so as to attract the hummers to you. It looks a little strange when you look at the whole thing and I can't help to think that if the birds actually get that close to you, you may go crosseyed looking at them.

And unfortunately, because I'm not getting any younger, one of the first things I thought was if this might be able to work with my reading glasses. But realistically I will probably never have one of these because it runs about $80. Oh well. I guess I will just have to keep doing it the old fashioned way.

It's Cold Outside!

Well, not amazingly cold or anything like that. This is just the coldest morning that we have had since last March. I love this time of year. It really starts to feel like the holidays are upon us.

Growing up, I remember my mom would always quote the first couple of lines of a poem. I didn't remember exactly the words, but I did remember that it began with "the frost is on the punkin". And I guess she said it a lot because every time I wake up and it's cold outside, I think of that. It's a really nice memory I have of her. So this morning I decided to look it up. Turns out, it is a poem written by James Whitlcomb Riley. So here is the poem in its entirety. Enjoy! I can hear her saying it even now. I love this time of year.

WHEN the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then the time a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here—
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;
But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin' of the tangled leaves as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries—kindo' lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover overhead!—
O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the cellar-floor in red and yaller heaps;
And your cider-makin's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With theyr mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and sausage too!...
I don't know how to tell it—but ef such a thing could be
As the angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me—
I'd want to 'commodate 'em—all the whole-indurin' flock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

I Need to Update More

Over the past few months, there have been many gardenly things happen around here that are worth writing about. It just seems that there is not enough time to post anything. We are almost never home these days. Then when I am actually home during daylight hours, I have a difficult time accomplishing even the smallest task outside. I am actually home on Saturday for once and as I sit here and write, it is raining outside. I'm not saddened by the rain. We do really need the moisture, but I think it's a little odd that it would rain today of all days. Still, I like to be able to have the time to look out the window and watch the shower and know that I don't have to water the garden or the flower beds. That's God's job and today, well, He's working overtime.

Without making this post too long to read, I will update a little about what is going on around here outside. My bees seem to have done very well through the summer and have slowed down a lot to prepare for the long winter ahead. I don't really know that I am a successful beekeeper because I've never had any experience with bees. I just really let them do what they do and leave them alone. I didn't get to share any honey with the bees and I really wasn't expecting to. Everyone I have talked to has said that for the first year, the bees try to stock up enough food for themselves for the winter. And besides, I really didn't want to have to figure out how to extract the honey this year anyway.

This is the first year that I have planted a fall vegetable garden and I have to admit, I like it. And it seems that I am a little better at it than a spring garden. I have planted green beans, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage and lettuce. The bean seeds were a couple of years old and only about 10% of them sprouted. The lettuce and cabbage is still pretty young but look very healthy. My pepper plants are the best of all. They are really growing well, and some are almost as big as you get in the grocery store. I did, however, plant the peppers and tomatoes a little too early and I nearly lost them to some late 100 degree days. But now they seem to be happy and I have lots of blooms and fruit on the tomato vines.

My First Bees

I went to Dadant in Paris, TX and got my first colony of honey bees. The people there were really nice and helpful. I purchased a nuke of bees. That's basically a young colony in a hive about half the size of a normal hive. You have to transfer the bees and frames from the nuke to their permanent residence. The guy said he would let me transfer my bees, but I said I would like to document the occasion so I let him do it. The quality of the video isn't that great, but I'm working on it. I have a bandwidth limit every month so I have to be careful. Enjoy!

It's Been a While

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a whole year since I've posted anything. This year has been a little hectic and honestly, I haven't done much gardening this year. I do have a few projects in the works and I will share some info as well as pictures when time allows. One new thing I'm excited about is that I am taking the plunge and going to try my hand a beekeeping. I've got the hive and a place for it, but no bees as of yet. Hopefully that will come next week. I plan on picking my bees up at Dadant supply and starting the adventure. Stay tuned everyone and start checking back more often. You will see some new posts.

Temporary Detour

I would like to take this opportunity during this really hot weather to take a break from gardening and invite you to come along with us on a voyage we are calling "Destination Yellowstone - Our 2009 vacation".

Just click here and read all about our travels.

And the Sun Came Out

That title may seem a little strange, but really, for the last 15 days or more, the sun has probably been out 2 of those days. It has been an amazing time around here with all the rain. Plus with the rain, it looks like we are going to have one of those summers with higher than normal amounts of mosquitoes. Oh joy! But I'm careful not to gripe too much about the rain, because one day soon, it will stop for a very long time, I'm sure. Anyway, not too long ago, I was able to transplant some plants in a more permanent location and some of them seem to be loving it. I have 3 beds around the house and I have split the plants between those locations to see where they do the best. That may not be the best plan, but I'm still learning about our area's climate and what works best in the Texas sun. I still have several plants that I need to find a location for, but hopefully I will.

So far, the coreopsis' seem to be doing the best. They are really blooming and the colors look so cool. Actually, I guess you could say they look warm. The plants in all 3 beds seem to be blooming really well. Most sun-loving plants like these seem to want full sun all day. All the beds that these are in do not get sun all day. The picture here is a bed on the south side of the house that gets the most sun which is probably around 6 hours total. We will see what happens.

This Salvia seem to be doing well and it has a little flower on it.

The biggest thing I'm excited about is my grapes. Have you ever seen baby grapes? Well, I haven't, but now we have them. This grape vine is about 3 years old and this is the first year I have seen any fruit. It has at least 4 bunches coming in. This vine is on the west side of the house. I hope they are able to mature before anything gets them.
I hope you have enjoyed this little update. I will show more hopefully in the near future.

The Great American Road Trip

Just wanted to post some information that really doesn't have to do with gardening this time. Not everyone enjoys having music automatically playing when they visit a blog but I kind of like having it to listen to, especially when it's music I like. That being said, most of you reading this knows that we will be leaving in a little while for the great American road trip heading up to Colorado and then on to Yellowstone for a vacation. And to be honest, I can't wait! I am so ready to go, I wish we could leave tomorrow. Anyway, I decided to look for some great road trip songs. I think you know what I mean. When you hear those songs, you can actually see yourself traveling down the highway with the wind in your hair and the sun shining and not a care in the world. I decided that I would create a playlist that had some of those songs. So if you are hankerin to go on vacation somewhere, make sure you give these a listen and see if it doesn't make you want to hit the road right now.

Some more cool tech stuff I think would be fun to have.

From nest-building to rearing the young – this nest box lets you watch birds in living colour.

The integrated wireless infrared camera transmits live images to your TV screen.

Friends, children and grandchildren – all can watch when the first titmice, nuthatches or sparrows move into the nest box. Watch your feathered friends live when they start to build their nests, hatch their eggs and during the busy rearing of their offsprings. Look (and listen) as the young birds grow up and leave the box. And all this from the comfort of your own couch – and without ever disturbing the birds.

The permanently installed wireless infrared camera will transmit images and sound directly to your TV.
Safely installed in the nest box, the 26 x 27 x 60mm camera will transmit live images from the bird house day and night (range up to 100m/328ft, 368,000 pixel resolution). A tiny microphone will transmit every little chirp. Just hang by a nail from a tree, a wall or garden shed at a height of 2 to 3 metres (6 to 9ft) and align the entrance hole (35mm in diam.) to the south or east – this provides the best protection for the nest box against predators and the weather.
The receiver just has to be connected by audio cable (both included) to your television. Four channels are available to reduce interference with other radio transmitters.

For more information on this product just click here.

Garden Update

Well I figure that it's about time for a little update. I really haven't done that much in the way of garden beds or other things, but my little plants have really grown. In fact, I feel bad because I haven't put them in a permanent location yet and some of the seedlings are becoming root bound. I will have to take care of them soon. We have been very wet around here so it's been hard getting into the garden. In the last two weeks, we have received about 10 inches of rain. The plants have loved the extra water.


In this picture, you will see that our little vegetable garden is doing quite well. The lettuce is called Butter Crisp and it doesn't form heads. so we have been going out and cutting leaves as needed and it has created some weird looking lettuce trees. We have really been enjoying it.

This is one of our cauliflower plants and it's really kind of strange. If formed this little head a few weeks ago and then the head started growing again. It never really looked like the heads you get in the store so I'm not sure what it's supposed to look like when it's ready to harvest. I will just have to wait and see what happens.

This is Catherine's little flower bed we planted last year for Mother's Day. As you can see, the Lantana's are starting to take over which I kind of knew would happen. I will have to move one of the plant's before too long or increase the size of the bed.

These are my little plants still in the "temporary" pots. They need to be transplanted badly, but as you can see, they look pretty healthy and some are even blooming. Those are coreopsis plants.

This is one of the coreopsis blooms. This is called "Mardi Gras". Isn't that a neat flower?