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A harrow-ing tale

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 10:51 pm

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Worked in a vegetable garden today. It was sooo nice sticking a shovel in the ground and feeling it agree to sink into the soil. Nothing like the rocky soil around here. So I turned over two rows, laid strong and dropped in the radish seeds. Very rewarding. I tucked in a row of onions and patted them down, and gave it all a good soaking. Then Himself came out to show me where he wanted two rows of beets put in. I should have guessed something was wrong, he was wearing a nice polo shirt. He directed me where and how deep to plant the beets, then disappeared. By the time I was chugging down the first row with the harrow, his motorcycle roared to life and sped away. No concern of mine. I turned the corner, bumping the harrow along the ground and enjoying the faint rusty squeak of the wobbly wheel. Then Herself appeared on the porch. "What are you doing?!?" I stopped, afraid I'd made a mistake, and explained that I was planting beets. A muffled oath ensued, and Herself stomped back into the house. I went back to the harrow. She reappeared moments later, and slapped a straw hat on my head, informing me that it was 82 in the shade, and she thought I WAS in the shade, weeding under a particular shrub out in the garden. Turns out I'd been Tom Sawyered, and Himself had been specifically instructed to do the task I was by now nearly finished with. Then she expressed how impressed she was with Max, who, apparently by my diligent training, had remained this whole time on the edge of the garden, never setting a paw in. It just may have been that said edge was in the shade, and said garden was NOT.


Last edited: Fri Jun 01, 2007 3:09 am

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may's winding down...

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 10:52 pm

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Short blog of the day, I'm just too tired! Went down to Mom's in Daffodil- she wanted to go for a ride so we went down to this amazing little shop hidden on the back road. They sell koi, garden art, plants, and it's also the corner grocery, all in two little buildings. A fellow Mom knows wandered in to pay his rent (he lives in a house out back of the place) and appropriately admired my pickup. Then I went and spent about 3 hours in the heat of the day running a weedeater and doing other garden work. Got home and there were 7 messages on my phone, all of which needed my Immediate Attention (yeawn). Good thing I set up dinner in the crock pot before I left, I've just got very little steam left in my tranny. Daffodil, however, ran like a trooper.

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Memorial day weekend thoughts

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 3:49 am

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OK, I'll admit it, I'm just not much into visiting the tombs of my ancestors. But Mom managed to get my Becky & I to go along to the two pioneer cemetaries to tidy up. The first was the site of my dad's mother, a McCash. I've always wanted to learn more about that side of the family, and while I was pulling weeds and brushing off moss, this tiny old lady walked over and asked how I was related- turns out she was my grandmothers cousin! Now you must understand, my grandmother died when my dad was a baby so not only did I never know her, noone spoke of her either. I wound up chatting with this dear lady for an hour, about grandma and the family. She showed me a long-hidden gravesite at the base of a tree, where my great-great grandparents were buried in the 1800's. We never knew it was there!
Then it was off to the graveyard on Mom's side- the oldest monument there is from the mid-1700's and yes, was an ancestor. Cornelia Griswold, always liked that name. I'm named for my grandmother and her grandmother- another Scot thankyouverymuch. This graveyard was fully equipped for generations who would walk from town, and the mound of earth where the outhouse stood has several very-healthy shrubs ornamenting it's top. The hand-pump wasn't working, but I'm sure it just needed a part replaced. My littlest niece was too tiny to pull the handle down even when she was hanging full-weight on it. She's my brother's daughter. Waaay back,when my brother and I finally, together, triumphed in pulling the pump handle down, and felt that rewarding gooosh of water into the bucket, was almost a rite of passage. Mind you, I'm very happy for indoor plumbing, especially since our well is 150 feet deep, but turning on a faucet could never inspire the same memory-feelings as that distinctive gooosh sound.
I got a bunch of new freebie plants, a couple of "wild" geraniums, an oak trying to grow where it ought not, a huge lot of iris rhizomes, and a sad-looking displaced fern. I'm challenging myself this year with relearning everything I used to know about propogation. I'm a complete faliure with seeds, But grafting, layering,tip cuttings, I had great success with all that back in the day.
Had my little Max into the vet for his first visit and rabies shot. The gal I'd bought him from said he was "fixed", but the vet showed me otherwise. Oops.
So I'm going to assume that the other things she told me were, um, creative embellishments, and I'll start his series of puppy shots next time I can get up to the feed store.
I think my Becky shall be too sick for school Tuesday. Though not too sick to see a matinee of Pirates of the Carribean. Oooo, what a naughty mommy I am! Hope this nausea from a medication adjustment corrects it'self by then, or seeing Davey Jones and his slimy tentacles... *shudder*

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Pheeling Philosophical

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 11:45 pm

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Should be tending my phlox and phlomas at this rate!
Anyway, don't know about anyone else, but once my fever crosses about 100.5, I get pretty loopy. So naturally, when it hit 101 this afternoon, I went out to my dear Daffodil to turn the engine over. Cranked it about a dozen times but no luck. Just when I was about to quit, DS came strolling up from school and, being the philosophical boy he is, prayed over her. Then she started right up. I informed him that holiness is rarely accompanied by such a smug smirk!!!
But ya know, in all the years I've been wanting Daffodil, one of the reasons was because I liked being able to pop open the hood & know what & where everything was. Well, all this needed tinkering has been a marvellous refresher course in engine mechanics. Dad was a heavy-equipment mechanic, and made sure I knew how to do all this myself, though I've forgotten an amazing amount of it. But a couple of years after we lost him to cancer, Mom hooked up with her old high-school sweetie, and he's been a star for showing me all this, checking the sparkplugs, how to listen for misplaced engine noises using a stick of wood, cleaning up the battery terminals, etc. Don't think I would have gotten around to relearning all this but for the mysterious engine problem that plagues Daffodil. And when she's running, man does she purrrrr!

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What I've been up to all week

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 2:16 am

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So, I've not been on the internet much this week. Except to look at old-car-parts places.
Have you ever had a "dream car"? I have. A butter-yellow 1949 pickup. I've vaccilated between wanting a Dodge, Chevy, or Ford, but no matter. A 1949 pickup has always been my dream car, since I was a teenager. Well...
A week ago Mom was tooling around town, her tiny hometown, when she saw a guy pulling a pickup off to a grassy spot, to put it up for sale. A 1949, one-owner, much-cared-for, butter yellow pickup. Sooo, having recently gotten out from under a big financial burden, and being a Mom...


Aint she purdy? Her name is Daffodil, though I've opted to not pop the 50 bucks a year to have a vanity plate, I'm going to try to find one of those self-customizable "plates" to mount beside the real one. Perfect for a gardener's truck, eh? She has a longbed, with wooden boards (so cool) which will be ideal should I ever need to transport my mower. I'm adding wood rails soon, and changing some of the silver-painted bits to white-painted. Now I can join my brother at the local car shows! He restored our dad's 1964 1/2 Mustang convertible, bought before my brother and I arrived and made our parents too broke to buy fancy cars, lol!
I've been rather surprised at the stares Daffodil gets, though I guess I shouldn't be. We broke down on the way to Bible study last night- did the two Sherrifs that passed me stop to render aid? Noooo, but the two teenagers in a 70's vintage sure did. I let them poke around under the hood and, in general, get a good look at her before I told them that my DH was on the way with jumper cables. Nice to share such an awesome car. Actually wound up having her towed (thank you, AAA!) and the old-timer who did the job said that when the call came in, he had to fend off several young guys to get the job, lol! Makes me think, why on earth would anyone want a complicated new car? Well, there's the gas mileage, but my driving is so limited these days, it's really a nonissue. I'll take her to Mom's, the feed store, grocery store, and Church. Yup, that's about my limit.
Really sore from working today, on a garden with really funky soil. It really needs to be beefed up with bunny poo, guess I'll take a bucket over next time I go.
Great weather lately, but that means the gardens need water. so back to work I go!

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warm & breezy

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 8:19 pm

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It really amazes me how so many people can find the time to post on here. Also a bit bummed that I don't have time to read all the great posts- I think my Life needs DSL!!!
Today I finished building my dog pen. Hopefully I can get pictures up here soon, it's awfully cute with a picket fence. I bought a squirrel feeder at a church sale last weekend, and mounted it to one of the support posts on my bird feeder. In another lost photo op, the silly grey squirrel was dangling outside my kitchen window today, gripping with just two toes, chowing down on my hanging suet block! I really can't see buying a bag of peanuts to fill the feeder for such a nonpicky fellow, so it's filled with cracked corn, compliments of the chicken feed barrel.
The folks I've been gardening for are away for a few days, so I get to focus on my own yard. Good thing, weekend after next we are having a swarm of people out here to meet the young missionary couple that our youth group is looking to get involved with. We are going to set up a croquet game and maybe a Mima Mini-golf Course. Lots of prep work to get the gardens looking their best! I'm hoping for a big ol' load of gravel for Mums day to put around my goldfish pond, but the trucks been acting funny.
Time until DS graduates is absolutely flying by! I'm starting to get pretty weepy about the whole "what happened to my little boy" thing. I'm about to lose my place as his Mom! I mean, I know I always will be, but it just is going to change...
I was oh-so-thrilled (not) to hear that we are currently paying the second-highest gas prices in the country. Huh?!? All the oil from Alaska comes by here, there is a oil refinery just north of here, but it's hit over 3.75 a gallon. *fume*
Meanwhile back at the ranch...
There were a half-dozen male quail having a male-bonding time out on the road. Which means the females are sitting on nests. Just the thought is heart-stoppingly cute. Quail are definitely God's idea of comic relief, with the silly "deedle" thing on their heads. Gotta love 'em.
Enough time sitting. Work and weeds are a-calling, and I need to stick post-it notes everywhere so I don't forget (again!) to spray Bordeaux on my blight-prone lilacs next fall!!!

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Couple of roller-coaster weeks

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 7:56 pm

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Yup, went to the doc for a screening, and they found something suspicious. So I got to jump through a bunch of hoops and testings, and it looks like just a fibrous mass. They are going to do a "needle biopsy" (sounds like ouch to me!) but are pretty sure it's nothing.
Alas, my tomatos are shot. They just got too wet. I have some new ones started but not the kind I wanted, couldn't find the seeds for them. Aaand, it's supposed to hit freezing tonight. Then get up to 79 by Sunday afternoon. Poor plants!
The bunnies have discovered that the big dogs are all gone, and my little guy hasn't much interest in them. So I'm getting some wild bunnies skipping around the yard. Not a problem, since most of my garden areas have chicken wire on the lower part to keep out critters. And there was a goldfinch in my oak tree just singin' his little ol' heart out this morning.
Wish I had time to read up on what everyone's up to, but there's just too much going on- DS's cap and gown arrived yesterday and I'm SO not ready for this!
Weeds are a-calling!

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And a quick word from DS

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2007 4:55 am

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Well, he's into his last night in New Orleans. His overall impression is that it's very much asleep during the day and only comes awake at night! Got to see the oldest church in the US, loved the stained glass. Wishes he could have done more, the emptyness and destruction of the worst-hit area was pretty overwhelming from what I could gather. I'm glad they had such good weather the last couple of days. And I'll be so happy to have him home again. as he launches into the last several weeks of his gradeschool life (excuse a Mommy-ish sniffle!)
Hope he can adjust back to the cold and rain back here! I'm taking the pooch up to meet him, Max will probably wiggle right out of his hide!

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Great day with DD!

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 11:48 pm

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Well this will be boring for anyone reading it but I don't want to forget what a great day I've had! I drove into town a little way, as far as my wonky eyesight would allow. Then DD and I walkeda through the rain with our big ol' umbrella, and arrived at a bus stop just ahead of the bus. This is the first time she and I have taken a bus trip together, kinda an experiment. Anyway, we rode it all around town and ended up at the downtown terminal. A very nice lady there helped me get the paperwork I needed to get DD a disabled-person's bus pass, then we walked (the rain had turned to mist now) the 5 or so blocks to the farmers market, which just reopened for the season. We got some homemade blueberry jam, a big loaf of whole-wheat sourdough from a local bakery, and some chicken/spinach sausages from the local butcher. Had bagels for lunch, and just moseyed around the farmers market together. We ran into the lady who was her developmental-preschool teacher 10 years ago, she was so happy to see Becky finally walking! (she still couldn't when she graduated preschool at 4). We picked up some big crunchy apples & walked back to the bus terminal (rain had completely stopped by now). Rode back to the car & stopped at the grocery store on the way home. When we got back and checked the mail, the Stuart Little video I'd ordered for her had arrived. Whoo, I'm ready for a nap, but what a good day! AND, the goat even stayed in!

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More on my son's trip

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:11 am

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Heard from DS again tonight, wow he sounds busy! He got the "servant of the day" award today, that's pretty cool. And they had a crawfish boil. Now, around here, we call them crawdaddies and they aren't big enough to bother eating. But apparently he came in second in how many he was able to wolf down! He's actually been sleeping pretty cold at night, due to a misunderstanding about how many bags he could take with him. But one of the guys in the group managed to round up enough blankets that he's ok now.
Some guys from Michigan (?) brought their guitars with them, so he's been like a pig in slop, playing on those in the evenings.
Looks like they will be through with all they can do to the house they've been working on by tomorrow afternoon. They might get to go see what the rest of the group is working on. Looks like it will be nice out, they might even do a bit of sightseeing. "They" being DS and the builder he's been working with. Who also happens to be the guy who came in first in the amount of crawfish devoured. Wouldn't be surprised to hear that the two of them went looking for more of those!
The weather guy is calling for rain on Friday, it'll be interesting to find out if the Friday plans work out, they want to do some cleanup work in the 9th ward. Trying to minimize the influx of rodents.
Talking of rodents, and back home, DD and I had tea at a friend's house- she lives in a log house she and her husband built when they were newlyweds. The shingles they split for the roof had to be replaced as a result of a chimney fire earlier this year. Apparently, in the 30-odd years since they built the home, mice and birds have been tucking little nests into the gaps in the shingles! Cute to think of all the lifeforms their home has been home to, but with the new metal roof, guess they'll have to find other abodes.
Didn't get anything done in the garden today, hoping to get a battery for the mower tomorrow, and maybe get some pictures snapped of the wildflowers. I did pick up three pots for my tipsy-pot to go on the front porch. But now I have a raging headache and this screen isn't helping so I'll sign off.

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