Garden Update

These are just some of the many many tomatoes we have gotten. The week before we left we had a ton of tomatoes and ate BLT sandwiches two nights in a row. One night we had a tomato that filled up the whole piece of bread. One slice was that big!! Seemed while we were away though that the tomatoes overpowered the cages they were in and the cages have started to buckle. One has even broken and we aren't very sure what will happen to that plant. Lessons for next time--only one plant per cage, get square cages, and leave more room in between. We also came home to one of these nasty ass bugs I blogged about before-and it had the larvae on it-made me want to puke. I didn't-but we did capture it and tied it up in a bag. Filthy bastard!


These are some of the peppers. These are the long ones-but we also have had bell peppers as well. We have been cutting and freezing these. We had picked some of these earlier in the season before they were ready, but realized that they needed to be much longer and larger before they were just right. Unfortunately dad's peppers didn't grow, so we hope to have some to bring to them when we leave on Thursday.






While I wish I could say that this is the pumpkin that was the size of my ass, I would be lying like a very large sac o' potatoes. But we did come home to find this growing in the mulch/weed/crap pile in the side of the house. There is another tiny one next to it as well. This is where we put the pumpkin plants that we pulled from the garden. Apparently it was real good at transplanting itself. I am a bit worried since this little guy is hanging from the middle of the fence. I hope once it gets larger that is can keep itself up--and that my woofy friend doesn't think of it a a snack!



Now this, my friends, is the very large one that scared the poopies nearly out of me. It is hard to see, but it is very large. It has started to turn orange, but it is very big. I think it is growing larger and larger by the day-- (but then after the way I ate this week, so is my ass). Maybe at the end we will take a side by side comparison for all you playing along at home. Seriously, can you just imagine not having any idea this thing was lurking and then -POW-there it is?





That's all for now folks. I will keep you posted as usual. Oh, the cukes continue to grow fast and furious, but none have been edible. Very bitter and yucky so far. Maybe the ground is just not right for them this year. It is only our first shot at this after all.

Things found in the garden

When we first started with the garden, I was a bit obsessive about weeding it. Now that the tomatoes are towering over my head, I can't get in there as much as I can. The other day we finally spotted some red tomatoes, and so I plowed through.

I was in there and started to pull some weeds. Now I can't stop at just one or two, and I end up going crazy. There I am, weeding along, and then I saw this large thing in the corner of the garden. I immediately jumped and felt my heart thumping wondering what kind of critter was in the garden with me. I went around the fence to see, and lo and behold I see a ginormous pumpkin the size of a small elephant.

How the heck did I miss this ginormous thing growing in the garden. I called DP and reported that there was a pumpkin growing in the garden that was as big as my ass. I don't think she believed me until she herself spotted the thing and saw just how big it was.

So focused on the weeds that I miss this. Sheesh.

Freaky Friday

Ok, so there's nothing really freaky about today, I just needed a title, and the creative juices are quite limited these days.

I have been around. Work was busy this week, as I had 4 new referrals and a bunch of meetings. I still haven't heard from the job I interviewed at, but that is ok. The more I think about it, the more I feel it wouldn't really be a good match--though it would be great place to work for, I think they want things I don't feel comfortable delivering-like research and things I don't have any clue about. I think I know I want to at least finish pursuing my clinical license which I wouldn't be able to do there. I am staying put until something better comes around. I still have two irons in the fire as possibilities, but I am just laying low.

I have been looking into being a respite care provider for special needs kids, and I have been going through the process to to this. Last night we had our home study, which while very informal, was a little daunting. At the end, we wondered how many people would allow their kids to come stay in a lesbian household. It will be interesting to see how that all pans out.

Therapy is still going very well, but hard. I am looking forward to a break when we go away in August. Enough said about that for now. I start the group for women with PCOS tomorrow and I am looking forward to that.

Meanwhile, DP and I found a very peculiar bug on our tomatoes today, and it looked something like this. Now, I implore you to google "horn worm" and look at the disgusting pictures that come up. Just looking for this picture was enough to make me want to vomit--especially the ones that have wasp larvae on them. GAG me now. I suppose at some point we will need to go out and search for more since they seem to be eating at our tomatoes. Filthy bastards . . .


On another note, we have these beautiful flowers growing in our backyard. I shall leave you with this image--one much more pleasing to the eye . . .

Garden Update

The garden is in full bloom, and we should have enough tomatoes soon to cover everyone in the country as they recover from the salmonella outbreak. Seriously, we have a ton of tomatoes started. Take a look at the pictures and enjoy! I can't wait until we are feasting on something other than peas--though they are mighty fine peas if I must say so myself!! I didn't take more pictures of the peas, since I already had some out and not much has changed except we have lots more now. I picked about 20 of them yesterday!!

Tomatoes galore!!!

Our lone pepper--though I have seen a few babies popping out!

Green beans!!!

And finally, the pumpkin. We had to reduce down to one pumpkin plant, and this little guy seems to be doing good-and isn't taking over the garden.

How does your garden grow--Part II

Hellllllooooooo out there!! Well, today is a sunny 90 degrees in the mystery city I live in, and though it is hot, it is not humid which makes all the difference in the world. Things have been very slow work wise this week . . I did finalize and submit my application today for the job at the local university I was contacted about. It is weird to do applications online . . .don't know if anyone else thinks that's just strange. Oh well.

I wanted to give a garden update, since there is SO much going on. We have a real garden, a real live garden. I can't wait until we actually produce something edible, but until then, let me show you inside.

This is the before shot of the garden . . .

This is where we are now--though from the opposite end. At the bottom of the photo you can see that we have two massive pumpkin plants growing-thanks to our woofy friend. The one has a branch--is that what they are called?-growing past the two rows of tomato cages. I don't want to cut it, but I don't know when it will stop growing. The other day it grew like 5 inches in a day! Soon it will be out to the road! So in front of the pumpkins we have tomatoes, then peppers, then beans, and you can see the peas growing around the perimeter of the fence. Oh, and guess what??We have cucumbers!! I had to replant them since by memorial day we hadn't seen anything happening, and this time I made two mounds with three seeds each and look what I saw the other day!!! How cool is that???

Not related to the garden, but we got a new back door and storm door yesterday as well. The old one had a frame that had been pieced together and just looked bad. The door and screen both had significant gaps in the bottom and we just needed a new one. Thanks to our economic stimulus checks, we were encouraged to buy a door and have the doorway fixed as well. Very cool!!

Until next time. I think my woofy friend has something to say . . .

Weekend to remember

Memorial Day weekend was great. We had a slight change in plans, which was a bummer, but it ended up working out. Turns out DP's cousin found out two weeks ago that he wasn't going to graduate, and he overdosed and tried to kill himself last Wednesday. Needless to say there was no graduation, and we scrambled to figure out what was going to happen since he was in a hospital about 2 hours from the place we were to be staying at--and we were determined to go away.

We rearranged our plans and ended up staying in Sawyer, Michigan near Warren Dunes State Park. Here are some photos from the park . . .

Her parents were already staying there Thursday night before heading to the other location, so they extended their stay and we drove over there. It was about an 11 hour drive both ways for us, for about 1.25 days with her family. Saturday we ended up meeting up with the other cousins and family at their hotel and hanging out. It was good that most everyone could still see each other and support each other. The young lad is doing ok, and it seemed he might be released today to the care of professionals closer to home.

While there, we went on a dune ride which was so totally cool. The driver was fabulous, and had been doing this for like 24 years. You could tell he loved what he did and enjoyed the people. Here are some photos from our ride . . .

This picture was from inside the park as well, and you can see this is a huge tree that a dune has covered up. It was amazing to see, since you thought you were looking at small trees in the sand--until he told you it was a large tree that a dune had encased.

Addie stayed with my parents, and she was sick as a dog. Her intestinal system was all out of whack, and she had runny bottom, and accidents in the house. Good thing my folks love animals, or I think should would have been out on the porch. She still isn't right and has started to vomit as well. We have decided that we will just put her back on the food that she did well with, and abandon the idea that she can eat the raw food kibble. I guess her tummy just can't handle it. The vomiting is new though, and we aren't quite sure what that is about. She has an appointment with the vet on Saturday, and we got the other food today. I just want her to be well. She is such an awesome dog, and it sucks that she has had it so rough.

I think I may have mentioned also that we had a birds nest with three eggs in it. Well, the eggs have hatched, and we saw one baby and wondered what happened to the others. We looked around and didn't see anything. Upon closer inspection today I saw one of the babies dangling from the rose bush--this is where mama has nested. I am not sure what to do about dangling baby bird (which is dead), since I don't want to get that close to the nest, but now that I see it there, I keep thinking of the poor thing. The one that we see that is alive is strangely cute, but that still leaves one missing baby. Mama is very attentive to the nest. Any ideas on what to do with the baby that didn't make it??

***UPDATE*** The neighbor has reported that he sorta kinda ran over a deadish baby bird with the lawn mower tonight. He saw it too late, but it was dead, and now it is recycled back to the earth . . .I guess. He said he noticed yesterday that there were large black birds circling around and squawking. He wondered if they hadn't raided the nest. On a happier note, I looked in there today (carefully avoiding the dangling birdie) and saw the very much alive bird with his head perched on the side of the nest just looking out--it was very cute- (though I secretly hoped that he didn't know his sibling was dangling below, and if he saw, I hoped he thought it was just bungee jumping for fun!)

In other news, the beans are coming up wonderfully, and DP planted the peppers and tomatoes that we got from dad. Seems we also have two stray pumpkin plants coming up . . .

OK, gotta run, puking puppy . . .

How does your garden grow?

Like THIS!

These are the peas and they are doing wonderfully!! I finally planted the beans last week, and today we saw some sprouting and then when I came home two had burst up and out and are standing upright.

This is where our cucumbers are SUPPOSED to be . . notice there are only weeds . .

And what would a post be without pictures of Addie? I have included an action shot of her running! We are anxiously awaiting news that the new pups are born . .should be any day now. Hope you all have a great holiday weekend. We are headed up to Michigan for some family togetherness with DP's side of the family. Should be fun.

Today

Was harder than I thought. I was so determined yesterday, and it wasn't a bad day. Just confusing.

I got very close to work today and just started sobbing in the car. Don't know why really. I know I am confused about work and what I should be doing with my career, but I am not sure what the tears were about. More tears on the way to group tonight . . .just sobbing. I need to stop crying and driving . . .

Change is hard sometimes, and it means that things need to be stirred up a bit before they can come out looking different I guess.

I appreciate everyone's comments on my last post. I am glad I can be inspiring . . .I do know how hard life can be when much time is spent hating and loathing. The freedom I have now in this emerging life is almost too much to bear sometimes, but I will take that any day over the days of such struggle and pain.

In other news, it appears that we have spotted growth in the garden, which serious made me giggle today. I am so excited about the prospects of eating real home grown food. I will take a picture soon to share.

Ok, off to bed now. The eyes are soooo sleepy since the waterworks show played twice today.

The Not-So-Secret Garden

Well, the peas are in the ground. The cukes have been planted, the hosta (la vistas) have been transplanted, and the bucket o' worms has been dumped. Yes, I did say bucket of worms--200 to be exact. No, I didn't count them, but it said 200 on the bucket. Imagine having that job!!

Oh, and the tomato cages are up and put together. This gardening thing is hard work--but hopefully soooooo worth it. We still need to plant the beans, and the tomatoes and peppers when we get the from DP's dad at memorial Day. He will start them and then give them to us. What a guy!

I will post pictures soon of the before garden--well, the right in the moment garden. We didn't get before photos.

I keep waiting for something to poke through . . .DP says it's gonna be a long few weeks until something comes up.

Randomness from a personal day

I took a personal day today. The weather should be 78 degrees, and why the hell not, right??

Here I sit, waiting for the pest control people to come look at the mammoth sized bees we have in our wooden front porch--we suspect carpenter bees, and also to look at the critters that are creating neat little holes ALL OVER OUR FREAKING LAWN!!! I suspect they will tell me that it will cost us about a million dollars to rid us of our pests. Great.

I am also adjusting to the application of new bra. I realized that now that I have lost weight, and can wear some supercute things--like the dress I just bought yesterday at Target for an upcoming event . . .--well, lets just say the girls are not standing up to their full potential. Now, I am no small chested thing, and I might have, should have probably been wearing an underwire type contraption for a long time now, but they were never comfortable. Well, I have delved into another kind of underwire and am giving it a try. The girls are still lifted and separated after 10 minutes of use. I will keep you posted.

Onto other news. DP and I turned up the garden area this past weekend. Who the freaking hell knew it would be so hard to dig up grass and stuff. Well, it was and by the end of the weekend we were sorry, sore fools. My little friend and her family came over to visit and meet Addie, and little did they know they would be put to work!!

We are very excited about the prospects of sugar snap peas, cucumbers, green beans, peppers and tomatoes. We'd like to do some other things, but this is a good start for this year. The plot is about 6 feet by 16 feet--good sized. Very full of clay, but we put some peet moss and soil down. We are also composting, so hopefully once that ripens we can spread that as well. We know the peas should have been planted like a week ago, but hopefully we'll have them in by this weekend. I am really excited . . .last years tomatoes were the first thing that I ever really grew myself, so it is fun.

After all that, I went into full OCD mode with pulling weeds. I am not sure if this is a good condition to have when pulling weeds or not. I finally had to stop Sunday when I couldn't move my fingers anymore. Things are shaping up, though.

Um, I guess that's it for now. Addie goes back to the vet today for a check up, and I need to go get an eye exam and new glasses. The girls are still standing proud and tall . . .and so am I, cause when I slouch I get a rib full of wire.

Wish me luck!


**Update**
The girls stood the test of time and they were so relieved to be released from their bondage tonight. DP says she can definitely tell I have lost weight when they are where they are supposed to be. Tomorrow we will go buy some more torture devices.

Addie got a good bill of health today at the vet, and the visit cost less that $100. I was so relieved about that since this shelter dog is costing us a small fortune-->but we love her soooooo very much. We will have her hips x-rayed soon and deal with that means.