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Blackwater

Category: Pinkies LIfe | Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 5:11 pm

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Yesterday Dianne found out she was accepted into Blackwater. Being as she wont go without Rob and Blackwater does, from what I gather, accept the buddy system, I have a constant knot in my chest now.

What can I say or do to stop this without breaking my promise? Do I try to stop this?

Ive been reading the news online and things seem to be rapidly getting worse since they killed Al-Zawkowi (whatever his name was) and the new guy took over. I really shouldnt be watching the news, I know but I cant seem to help it.

I just wish Rob would get back and end this once and for all. The not knowing is killing me. But at the same time, I dont want to know. That will bring even more emotions to the surface.

Im restless. I cant do one thing for too long. Nothing is keeping my attention. Not my painting or gardening. If you knew me well, you would know, if those two things cant take my mind off things , then its bad. I have been fighting a headache since my sister told me. Shes happy. So I say nothing.

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Note to self

Category: New Gardener | Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 7:01 pm

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Keep snap dragon seeds and petunia seed separate when gathering seeds.

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I am sad

Category: Pinkies LIfe | Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 2:35 pm

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Rob left today to his new job as a full time service tech on an new oil rig. He will be gone 2 weeks and home a week. There will be times where he is gone for 3 weeks....thats 21 day! I miss him already and he just left this morning. :`(

I have to keep telling myself that this job will finally to the purpose for the move here to La from my much loved FL. We can get out of debt and buy a house. If all goes well within the next year and a half, we can adopt a child. We want our own house and a small nest egg before we do.

Rob will be 36 the 2nd of July and he told me last night, that he could feel time running short. I thought only women had that clock. He wants to make good money in the housing market and theres tons to be made here in La, esp New Orleans and around Mississippi. I so want it for him. I keep telling him that most adults dont get into a postion that they can make such a huge step until their early 40s. Doesnt make him any happier.

The other night, him and my little sister sat me down.... that should have been my clue something was up. Them two together in something is hardly ever a good thing for the rest of the family.

In case you didnt know, my little sister Dianne (and little brother Jonny) just came back from a year in Iraq..... Army. Well, Rob is ex Navy and him and Dianne are two peas in a pod. Anyway back to the story.

They sat me down and told me that they had both applied to a company called Black Water. If you are here in the States, youve heard of this company through the news. They prove secutiy for high ranking civilins in Iraq. Towards the beginning of the war, some of Black Waters men were killed and it was all over the news. Well, they (Black Water) are snatching up ex military personal and Diannes is a combat medic with the Army so they will grab her faster then Rob. But they are going on the buddy system so one wont go without the other.The pay is $500,000. a year. Three months in Iraq and one month home state side.

I had told Rob at the beginning of our marriage, I would never hold him back from something he wanted to do in his career. That I would put my two cents in and then support whatever decision he made. After all, its his career not mine. So what could I say, when they told me this?? They havent told anyone else in the family and everytime I talk to one of them (the other kids or mom) I feel like Im lying to them. They want to wait until they are accepted into Black Water before they tell anyone else. Moms going to be crushed. But shes the kind of mom that will understand why Dianne and ROb are doing it. Dianne is 24 and will be set for life when she got back(she a smart girl when it comes to her money).She wants to be a doctor and is now struggling to pay for school and live.

We would be completely out of debt, be able to buy the house we want, have our nest egg and be able to adopt ,all with money left over for ROb to start his own busniess and me to have money to invest.

My little brother (Diannes older brother) doesnt know because he will want to go over there to protect Dianne. She was almost kill twice (and has two purple hearts and tons of metals and awards,)while over there with the Army and now state side, there isnt anything she can do or go, that Jonny doesnt know about. Its gotten to the point that we had the house searched twice for bugs..... yeah its that bad. We are now thinking its her roommate telling Jonny so Nicole (roommate) doesnt even know about Black Water. Only me, Rob and Dianne. Well, I should say on my side of the family anyways. In the 8 yrs weve been married, Ive only met one of his sisters and he comes from a very large family.

He has told one of his sisters... I was asked to please talk Rob and Dianne out of going. That it isnt worth it. What can I do?? I cant go back on my word. Its hard tho.

Besides, after the BlackWater men were killed, the company changed their policies. Now, the militairy provides backup for the BlackWater men and women. They arent out there alone. Ive researched the company and everything to do with them that I could find.

But in the end, Im reserving my opinions about all this until they are accepted. I think him leaving today just gave me time to start thinking about all this. I wont tell him no because I beleive its my job as a wife to support his decisions when he comes to his career. Just like he supports me in my art work and my long hard climb to the top.

But for now, he is gone for two weeks and I am sad.

Last edited: Sun Jun 25, 2006 4:59 pm

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Wazit??

Category: Roses | Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:22 pm

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This is my Wazit blog. If I dont know what it is, Ill place it in this blog until I figure it out.

This pic is of what looks to be tiny yellow eggs inside the leaf walls. I noticed it because of the dicolortion of the underside of the leaf. It was purple and the closer I looked I noticed a very slight swelling in the area. I touched it and it popped open to reveal the tiny little yellow eggs.

This is what it looked like from on top of the leaf.


Underneath


The eggs between the walls of the upper and lower walls of the leaf.


I think this is butterfly eggs. Looks like it. But the eggs are hatched so I may never find out. If they are butterfly eggs, I never saw the catapillars.


This is puzzling. The white/gray is a waxy ,shiny stuff that you cant scrap off with your finger nail. It feels like wax. Its only on one rose, the Perfume Delight. Now that rose isnt growing very well. It doesnt look sick. But looking at it you would think its a healthy plant but its stunted. Its only on the stem.


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Gnome Dome Makeover

Category: Garden Personality project | Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 6:31 pm

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Whenever I mow, I have to move all my potted plants (which is many) into the middle of the yard. Well this time I wanted to spread them out so my large lot wouldnt look so bare in spots. I moved alot of the planter into new spots. I think I moved every one of the pots to a new spot. I would love comments about it, good or bad.

Keep in mind Im a renter so nothing more can go into the ground. As it is, we are talking about moving into a house (bigger) soon so everything in the ground has to be dug up and potted.

I moved the hot pink Bougianvilla to my front door for color. I moved the mini cannas and 4 O'clocks out of the corner and put the Black Magic there.


The other night I come home late at night and as I turned into the drive, my headlights caught something feeding off my pink Butterfly Bush. It looked like a hummingbird but with it so late at night and when my headlights hit it, it took off, Im wondering if it wasnt a hummingbird moth. Plus theres tons of butterflies that feed off it all day. So I moved them where I could see them from the front door. The pink one sits at the end of my row of plants next to the banana tree and the purple one now sits between my passion vine and fern tree.I added a few potted plants around the purple one to fit it in more in that area.



This is a shot from the bottom step at the front door.


The large orange pot(left) is the mini cannas.The metal thing with the black pot is an tomato stand thingie I used for my morning glorys when all my tomatos died.


To the left in the upper left corner is my wild flower bed. To the right of that is a Ipeomea (SP?) Im trying to get to climb one of the tomato stands thingies, like it climbed the fence last year. In the foreground is the orange canna. To the lower right is another morning glory with one of the stands. The rose area is in the background.


Another morning glory and orange canna. Rose area in the background.Dont mind the floding chair in the rose area....LOL I was talking to my roses!!! :D


other pics








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Two week check up on Prince Poin

Category: Royal Poinciana | Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:56 pm

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Yep its been 2 weeks to the day since he has raised his head! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCE POIN!

Heres his birthday pics...He has a new branch with 8 leaves on it!!!


Sarah is nicely shaded now!


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My bi-weekly inspection of roses

Category: Roses | Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:47 pm

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It really doesnt seem like its been two weeks since the last bi-weekly inspection. Its because Ive had a daily battle with the beetle thats been munching the roses.

But it was so I chemically (because of the beetles) sprayed the roses and tomorrow I will feed them.

Moving around the roses, everything looked good except for minor damage to some of the leaves (munched on). But when I came to my Climbing Gold Glow, something caught my eye. Its on the only two stems over 4 ft tall...the only two stems that are starting to climb.



I cut one of the stems off (the smallest)to do some investagating into find out what it was.

I first pulled off all the leaves and thorns. I was able to see the tracks better this way. It covered about 14 inchs of stem. I found the point of entry...or could be exit but the fact thats the only place where it went into the "wood" of the rose, makes me think the eggs were laid there. It went up about 6inches above the POE and about 8 below the POE.

Whatever insect it was used the area where one of the thorns had been pulled off or was torn off when I trained it to the trellis.

Point of entry.


I took a smoothed edge knife and gently scratched the area. The skin around the area where the "tunnel" was gave away easily.

Heres the "tunnels"








It doesnt appear that this "borer" fed off the rose stem. The tunnels ran to the leaf stems and every leaf stem had been chewed at the base....but just the base...... puzzling, I know.



I scraped away the tunnel hoping to find the little critter but nothing unless he is just so small I cant see him.

I then skined the rose stems in section to check the wood. Like I said before except for the POE, the wood was clean and free of tunnels. The tunnels were only skin deep.

Here you can see the POE in the one closest to the bottom of the four. Its the dark area at the top..



Heres the skin from the inside...
You can make out the tunnels.



I didnt cut the other one off. I want to see what comes of this as I havent found the insect doing this online.

Lets hope that it isnt a borer that will end up in the crown of my rose!!!!
If you happen to know what this is, please let me know!!

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Leaf Beetle on roses

Category: Roses | Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 7:43 pm

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This is a type of Leaf beetle. Because of the exetreme damage it did to my roses Ive decided to start a blog on just this critter.



Damage done to roses



If you see damage done to the rose that looks like the roses above, pull the petals off and you will see this beetle inside.

I was testing different organic treatments on my roses. The Don Juan wasnt treated and it went through the blooms in a matter of two days.

I treated all my roses with a health does of cayenne pepper spray yesterday. I get up this morning and went to check on them. Not a bug anywhere on my roses EXCEPT for this beetle. Over night , it took out the blooms on my Blue Girl, Knockout Rose (which is pest resistant), Gold MasterPeice , Cyrstal Fairy and all my mini roses. It attacks only the flowers and the results are devasting.

I grabbed a few samples of the beetle and headed to the closest pest control company. I had a good talk with one of the tecs. He said that the leaf beetle, of any sort, will destroy anything with a leaf or bloom. But this kind is just on the blooms and he says that he nor his co workers have ever seen this beetle before (he kept the samples). I told him about trying to use only organic treatments and he only shook his head. He says that the only thing that will wipe these guys (leaf beetles) is Melothion Liquid.

Sadly, I will have to chemically treat my roses.

Below is a link to leaf beetles with pics.
http://www.uga.edu/vegetable/beetles.html

The closest I could come to IDing this beetle was the Sweet Potato Flea Beetle and the Bean Leaf Beetle.

Warning! They do bite!

Last edited: Thu Jun 15, 2006 9:21 pm

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Similar kind of tree??

Category: Royal Poinciana | Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 9:42 pm

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I found this guy some weeks back. He decided to lay down roots between my Don Juan rose and my Wisteria. Because he was growing so fast and his leaves very much like my Prince Poins leaves, I thought I would let him stay.

Here is this guy. Now we have a small tree around here Ive been seeing. It looks alot like what Prince Poins will look like fully grown but not nearly as big. Instead of red flowers, it has pink. Im starting to wonder if this is a wayward seed of that. We have these little guys growing everywhere but we mow them down. They are thought of as a weed.




It behaves the same way as Prince Poins as in it curls its leaves at night. And it grows super fast.


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Couldnt wait any longer

Category: Roses | Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 9:07 pm

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I had treated some of my gardens with different types of organic treatment. Theres a few plant scattered around that I hadnt treated. My little experiments, if you will.

While I hadnt treated my Don Juan yet. Today I went out to have lookies sees and found this unknown beetle had his whole family and extended family invited over for dinner....main course? My roses. 5 Don Juan roses to be exact. So exetreme measures were in order!

The organic recipe I had been using all over the yard(grass only) I used on my roses. I will see if it works. And Ill post the results.

Please see my first trouble shooting roses blog for pics of this new enemy to my roses and the damage done. If you happen to know the name if this little guy , please, I beg you, share.



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