See How My Garden Grows – Part 2 Summer Series

So, I planted my garden in March. I wanted an early start since I live in the Desert Southwest and it usually gets hot here early in the spring. As it turned out, we are still experiencing cool weather. It is almost May, and normally, we would have 90 degree weather by now. But, no it is still cool and we even had snow in the mountains the other day! Do not get me wrong, I am loving this weather, although it is not normal for us. My main concern was my garden would not thrive, but as you will see with the pics, it is doing very well.

Also, my crate, that was at first ripped away from me, but then returned to me because of several awesome ladies at work, is already reaping my planting efforts. My corn is coming up and that makes me a very happy gardener!

My only problem is Corvette thinks I did not plant enough! Ok, dude, the master plan is to plant in waves. We are just two people and since I need to learn about canning, we can only eat so much. You, Corvette, just take care of the weeds and me, juliannah will grow the veggies, thank you very much!

Anyway, here are some pics of my garden and flowers. On a side note, when we had this house built, the backyard came as is, no landscaping. Then with our hours cut at work, we were not able to financially do anything with the yard. So, I decided to let the yard evolve,  and it has. I would like to landscape it, but time will tell.

Enjoy the pics and I welcome any gardening advice. Plus, I need to learn about canning and any advice on that subject will be welcomed.

Please come back to see how my garden grows!

p.s. Grandma M, please tell me how to can the cucumbers!

Lucie, my big red dog, and the start of my garden

Starting to plant.

Me and Lucie, planting.

Garden in.

Ahh, Da Crate!

Corvette drilling holes for drainage.

Corn planted.

Garden thriving.

Scenes from my yard.

More scenes from my yard.

Love my pansies.

A rose for Genie. Our faithful Lab who lives in heaven.

Pretty daisies.

Give Me Back My Crate!

The company that I work for just bought a professional scanner because, well we scan big documents. It is quite nifty and very fast. It arrived in a huge crate that is about 4′ long and about 3′ wide and probably 2′ tall.

As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted it. Why? Because it would be perfect for a corn planter. That is me always thinking of ways to plant knew things?

Anyway, I went and asked the supervisor of the department if I could have it. He asked a couple of people and then came back and said I could have it. I was ecstatic to say the least. I went home and told Corvette and he was just as pleased. We were probably farmers in another life.

Everything was great and I was to bring it home on Thursday until I went on break and saw a sign on the door.

Buy Tickets For

Crate Raffle

WTF!!!!!!!! That baby is mine! I go and tell the receptionist that it was given to me yesterday. She says to talk to the office manager. He says people are fighting over it and this is the best way and get this no one else asked for it. Only me. Me. Me. Me.

So by now the whole office is starting to talk about The Crate. Some go and ask how many raffle tickets you can buy.(Just so you know, my friends did this in hopes of giving me The Crate.) Management decides that it would not be fair if someone bought fifty tickets and someone else could only buy one ticket. So on my last break I see this sign on the door.

Crate will be auctioned

Friday 11:oo

There was even talk of having everyone write an essay on what they plan to do with The Crate. Hmm, I think I would have an edge on that one. Don’t you think.

Anyway, I am still steaming. I will get over it, but it was mine dammit! Also, I do not know if I will participate in the auction. I can not see paying some crazy amount of money for something Corvette can build easily and rather inexpensively.

Plus, I can not bear to watch losing it to some one else.

More Wedding Pics

I just had to post this pic. It is Corvette giving away our daughter. No more words are needed.

The Wedding

Sorry I have not updated sooner. I have been busy taking care of Butterfly and getting her to and from school while Cinderella is on her honeymoon.

The wedding was awesome. Everyone looked great and Butterfly was a mini-me of Cinderella. And Cinderella was just that. The ceremony was perfect and the reception was so much fun. I enjoyed dancing with Corvette and spending time with my family and friends. My parents were the longest married couple there. 62 years and counting. My mother gave a wonderful speech about marriage and I watched my daughter dance with her father.

There are too many pictures to post here so you can go to my shutterfly page to see them. They are not in the correct order and some were taken by Tango’s uncle so I will have to wait for the professional pictures to see our family picture.

Congratulations Cinderella and Tango, and may you live happily ever after!

Feeding my Reality Show Addiction

Decorating Woes

My furniture is probably over ten years old. So I have been thinking about either replacing it or maybe covering it. It has a southwestern theme which is fine but I am kind of tired of it. I am striving for a simple decorating solution for my house. Although keeping Corvette from sitting out toy cars and machine gun shells from LCpl Honda is a challenge in itself.

I want to have a mix of Southwestern décor with a touch of modern motif. So of course, I resort to internet searches and I found a site that offers many options for my decorating dilemma. The Furniture Store has solutions for every room of the house. I really liked the selection of living room furniture.

I checked out the dinette sets because when we moved to our new house I bought a set that just does not work in our house. I want to sell it and get something that will work better in the space we have.

There is even a section for pets. I have been looking for a new affordable dog bed for Lucie for awhile now. I love my puppy but I am not willing to take out a loan for a dog bed. I found a large, plush dog bed for about $44.00. Not bad.

I am sure I will find what I am looking for. It just takes some time, but I will persevere in my quest to have my perfectly decorated home!

Planting Our Fall Garden

After a scorching summer, our garden has finally rebounded and we were able to harvest a few peppers, one lone cucumber, and a giant radish. Corvette and I have concluded that planting early spring and late fall is probably our best bet for having a more productive garden.

I decided to do a little research to see what vegetables do the best in the fall months. I came up with a list for fall planting. Snap peas and snow peas, broccoli, cabbage, collards, carrots, parships, beets, onions, lettuce, mesclun, spinach, turnips & chard to name a few. Now some of these need to be planted no later than August in order to get a good harvest. However, since I live in the Desert Southwest we do not get many hard freezes and I am hoping that if we do get cooler temperatures I can just cover the garden. Just as this summer was a learning experience with the garden, winter will be too.

I hope that by next year I will have a real good idea what to plant during warm weather and cooler weather. Now if I can just get Corvette to stop picking the vegetables before they are mature I might actually have eatable veggies! Seriously, we had green leaf lettuce that even though it was taking a bit of a beating from the heat he thought if he picked it early he would save it. Wrong. I tasted it and it had a horrible sour taste. Please Vette baby, let the garden grow!

The Lone Cucumber

Corvette and I planted a garden this year. We planted a little late and since we live in the Desert Southwest it has been pretty hot. We managed to harvest a few varieties of peppers, cherry tomatoes and radish. We planted cucumbers, bell peppers, snap beans, carrots, spinach and green leaf lettuce, none of which produced. But, now that it is cooling off a bit we seem to have a resurgent in the garden. Yes!

When we planted, I told Corvette that we have to thin things out. But, no he would not let me thin and he would not either. Soooo, we did not get a good harvest. Well I will be taking control next year. Corvette’s attitude is to plunge in no matter the cost. Ok, well that did not work out so well.

Currently we have one cucumber growing. As far as Corvette is concerned you would think we are feeding the world with ONE cucumber! Like I said I am taking control.

Sunday Brunch

Yesterday, family and friends came together and we planted Lolly’s tree. The week before, I prayed for cooler weather and that prayer was answered. I was a little worried a major storm might interrupted the planting but that did not happen. The tree was a little bigger than I expected. I have a VW bug. The tree is about 5 feet tall and it actually fit in my car. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. LCpl Honda dug the hole in the yard. Everyone arrived and we feasted on sub sandwiches and potato salad. Grandma M brought a carrot cake. Lolly loved baby carrots. Everyone took turns shoveling dirt into the hole. Then Butterfly and my friend’s daughter, Big Brown Eyes helped Lolly’s dad Tango make a well around the tree. Finally, we made a circle around Lolly’s tree and said a prayer and asked God to bless the tree.

It was a wonderful day.

After the planting, I gave everyone a picture of Lolly’s name in the sand.

I am posting our group picture, although we took many pictures that day. The rest I have chosen to keep private. I am also posting a picture of my dad, Grandpa DingDon, one of Lolly’s namesakes. No recipe today. Yesterday was simple, kind of like a picnic. Everyone knows how to make a picnic. Yes?

We love you sweet boy. Donovan. Our Lolly Pop Kid.

I had to add this drawing, done by Butterfly, Lolly’s sissy.

ps. The drawing was lying on my kitchen table today and my cat decided to walk on it. The blue background was done with pastel chalk. I just spent a whole bunch of time in my bathroom trying to wash the blue color off of my cat’s feet. Fun.

Yea, I think that is all I have to say about that…

Bacon, Bacon, Bacon

Yes, we did it. We adopted a dog. Are we crazy? Maybe, but I want a companion to accompany me on my morning walks and since our new house is one of only nine in our development we just want some extra security. Nothing against Buddy my chihuahua, but biting ankles is just not going to cut it.

So may I introduce Lucie (yes Crafty, we now have dogs with the same name!)

Lucie was rescued on May 8th and has been with a lovely woman who takes in animals that are due to walk the last mile. God bless these people.

So Lucie is so far very sweet natured and loving. She took right to us and I do believe this is going to be a great and long relationship. We are not quite sure of her age, paperwork says 1 yr 7 months. Lady said 7 months. So who knows. She is housebroken but needs to learn how to walk on a leash, sit, lay down and the usual dog stuff.

And she totally looks like the dog in Beggin Strips commercial.

Corvette said when he comes home he is going to say, “Lucie, I’m home!”

Maybe we should change Buddy’s name to Ricky. Tehe (;

Oh, the cat is in hiding.

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