2006 Garden Update

This year's garden is almost in. I still have tomatos and peppers to plant. I'm also waiting to finish planting the bean seeds until this weekend. I read that you should add Legume Inoculant to the soil for a better yeild. It fixes nitrogen to the soil. Noone around here sells it at garden centers, so I have to head to a Southern States store down in Moundsville to get some. The layout is almost identical this year, but the planting layout has changed a good bit. No broccoli or corn this year. Lots of pumpkin and watermelon back where the corn was. Added onions and garlic, additional eggplant and cucumbers. Also this year doing pole beans, so we've got a bunch of bean teepees set-up. Our strawberries are going nuts this year, tons of flowers have set, so I'm expecting a bumper crop soon. Also a much larger area dedicated to types of lettuce and spinach.

A major change has been the addition of the soaker hose system D added. I think its about 200 feet of soaker hose set up through out the garden. Last year we had a sprinkler set up and we watered just about everything BUT the garden. This should be a LOT more effective. He did a great job - it looks wonderful and works great too!

Twins

The Season Two Finale of LOST whiped me out. So much information I can't process it all. I wish we had TiVo just for this so I could watch it again.
I don't care what people say on the forums - this is Matthew Fox. And Babba - no spoiler, but be prepared at the end of the season two finale to listen for some Portugese. ( apparently w/ an Argentinian accent)

Ohio River Sunset

This is the view of the river from our firepit up by the garden. When we win the lottery we plan on building an observation deck out overlooking this area. It's very pretty at sunset.

What?

Oh the differences in personalities! Little Ned's personality is coming out more and more. He has started to hide bones all over the property. This is something April never did. When she was a puppy she would hide bones in the dirty clothes pile, but never outside.

I took him out this morning at 5:30, and as soon as he was finished, before he walked inside, he stuck his head in some weeds, and pulled out a bone. We caught him doing it last night and watched him, just fascinated.

Morning Nap

Every morning Spoiled Boy goes out to go potty, comes in to eat, then is allowed to get in bed with D while I get ready for work. Teddy must accompany him. Everywhere. He loves that Teddy Bear.

Da Code

We went and saw the DaVinci Code last Friday. After 30 minutes of commercials and previews, it finally started. D hasn't read the book, I have, but a year ago. Which was good because I had forgotten some of the details, made it more interesting for me. I would have to say it was really enjoyable. D really liked it, thought it was very entertaining, good thriller. Jean Reno and Ian McKlellen stole the film though. Everyone who is saying the role was wrong for Tom Hanks is correct. Plus he totally overacted it. I loved the imagery and the way the movie was filmed. Killed me to see all the places I didn't get to go in London last December.

The ending was a bit weak, and they added some dialogue that to me just seemed to be pandering to the masses to keep everyone happy. It didn't fit at all and really seemed added on.

But overall I'd give 4 stars out of 5.

Post Wedding

The wedding was two weeks ago. I've been busy with work and the garden and haven't had time to catch up. We had a blast at the wedding. Felt like I was on vacation the entire time I had so much fun. Bad thing is my camera was acting up so I didn't get any good pics.

Think Happy Thoughts..

Holy cow...change the subject!

Tonight I'm flying out of Pittsburgh to Philly to meet D, who is already there for his brother's wedding. This weekend is going to be a great time! Can't wait to see everyone. I'm sure it will be a beautiful wedding, and the reception sounds very classy. The rehearsal dinner is a "Foods of Philly" theme which should be fun as well...cheesesteaks, soft pretzels, Tastey cakes! I may be forgetting a food item...not sure. Beer?

We're also trying to squeeze in putting in a garden for D's folks, I sent him out with a box of vegetable plants I had started. He drove out a few days ago. I wish we could take Little Man Ned, but he's staying with his grandparents. Who I think he will wear out.

I'm almost as excited about the weekend as I am about flying. I love airports. I have since I was little. Even if I was constant traveler, I don't think I'd get tired of it. I love the people watching.

So that's it, I may post over the weekend, but if not, I'll be getting back to you with wedding pictures.

Brief religious rant...

I just read this article on MSNBC about a woman working in a Catholic school system that lost her job because she became pregant via IVF. Apparently it is against the Catholic church's beliefs. Whoa. You'd think they'd need new members and be glad to get them. I don't know how IUI's are thought of, but I'd be curious to find out. Considering I had to go through an annulment that I wasn't too pleased about having to do - I didn't think I needed to delve into my emotions about it further, I'd dealt with it for 3 years already, I was 'good' with where I was in life, I didn't need someone else to tell me it was 'ok'....It would be really hard for me to choke down a christianing ceremony if it's for a baby the church didn't believe in the conception of.

Next...
No, I don't wanna be a Wiccan for crying out loud... but I think these two little boys got screwed. Good for the Methodist church for supporting them. If they said they were Hindu, would the same thing have happened...?

Scarlet Tanager

Last night we had a nice relaxing evening. When I got home D was just finishing up washing his car. He fixed where I smashed it, and you can barely tell. Thank god he's handy. I changed clothes and we took Ned for a walk out the power line. When we got to the end we sat down and just took it all in and hung out a bit. Really glad we did - we saw a Scarlet Tanager and a Piliated. It's only the second Tanager I've seen. The red is just so bright, much brighter than a cardinal. Everytime I take a walk my thing is I like to think I'll see one thing that is special. A flower I hadn't seen before, a toad, a turtle, a cool bird...so the Tanager was my special thing for this walk. (ps...I did not take this picture, it's from google images, I didn't have my camera with me on the walk)



Later we made lettuce wraps for dinner, and sat down to watch 'Wedding Crashers". Yeah I know...we just don't watch a lot of movies. I thought it was funny, I like both of the actors, esp Vaughn, but I didn't think it was as funny as everyone went on about. I thought "Old School" was a lot funnier. But then I also thought "Life Aquatic" was hysterical. While we were watching the movie, I went to uncross my kegs and somehow smashed my toes into the coffee table. I swear my middle toe is broken. It's a lovely maroon color, and it hurts. really. bad. But you can't really do anything for a broken toe, so I'm just milking it for as much sympathy as I can for a day. Any longer than a day and it gets old.

Tonight we're going a charity event called "The Chef's Auction". Last year I couldn't take D, but this year we got enough tickets here at work for me to take him. It's a HUGE event here in Wheelville. Every restaurant in the Ohio Valley enters to compete to win this event. Tickets are really expensive, but you get free drinks, and all the food you can eat. Gourmet, top drawer eats. One restaurant serves lobster tail each year. The food is just so good it's amazing, all the restaurants pull out all the stops for it, and even decorate their booths, because that's judged as well. You see a lot of clients and people you know at this shindig as well, so it's a good time. Looking forward to it.

This weekend we've got lots of gardening to do. I didn't even get in the garden last weekend, so that is all I'm planning for Sat and Sun.

Half Grown

Little Man is about half grown now. He weighs 10 pounds! The vet said he should start losing his puppy teeth in the next three weeks or so. His head is almost all brown. This photo was taken after we visited the farm and he met all the animals for the first time. He's looking back at them, past me. I think to make sure they weren't following. He did not enjoy it.

A Little Privacy Please if You Mind

This was actually pretty rude of me. Little Man is taking care of business. He's very shy. He has to hide behind something, or be in deep weedy cover before he feels comfortable. If he catches you looking at him, he'll stop, find a new spot and start over. So you really can't watch. Which makes it hard to figure out if he's actually 'gone' or not before you let him back inside.

The more amazing part of this is that Ned, on his own, has decided to claim the area in the woods well away from the house as his "spot to go". We never have to clean up the yard! It's great. April liked to leave land-mines. I don't think she was lazy or old. I think she just had attitude.

Look - a deer!

As soon as I took this, 3 more jumped out of nowhere and took off down the hill behind the power line.

Fiddle Heads

I told D these were "Fairy Diddles". Wrong. These are Fiddle Heads. Fairy Diddles are flying squirrels. Which we saw in our bird feeder last year. This is an entire powerline cut-thru that is filled with ferns. I love walking past this field in the summer because of the sweet smell they give off. We dug some up and planted them next to the house, and they're already coming up!

Farm Road

Just a photo of a pretty curve out on the farm road.

Brown thrasher

Every spring we have a brown thrasher that hangs out in the front corner of our property near the road. Everyday when I turn into our driveway he's in the thick woods or the forsythia bushes. I can see this area from the kitchen window, so I get to watch him a lot while I do dishes. I tried to get a better pic, but as it is I had to take this one through the window. He's very shy, always flies away when we open a door. I really like these birds as their close to Mockingbirds. We had those all around where we lived in DC, and I miss hearing them.