Let's Just Talk...

I've referenced fighting depression but haven't said much about anything else that's been going on with me...mostly because I don't want to come off as a whiney butt. I've also been having physical issues as well as mental and it was something I thought would be a easy fix... a gall bladder. They did every test known to man, woman, or large dog and have decided that my gall bladder still works so now the hunt begins with the liver... since the liver enzymes were up and the gall bladder was working okay it wasn't the cause of the liver enzymes being up.

So Friday I will do blood work for the internist that I see on Tuesday, the 5th, to see if the enzymes are dropping back towards normal, staying static, or hopefully not risen even higher. If they are higher the doctor is going to want to do a liver biopsy. That is scary to me because of family history. My favorite aunt died of alcoholism and my Bro is an alcoholic although he has been dry for 17 years now. Yea, Bro!!!

I'm just blocking all this out of my mind or else I will make myself crazy with worry and that does no good. So now you know the back story to my wanting to just duck and cover. I do that when I worry...even when I'm trying not to worry. It's just if my liver is messed up I don't know what that entails. No one in my family, with the exception of my aunt ever had any liver problems and she lived in California so I wasn't around to see her deterioration and the whole thought of things unknown scare me.

I will keep you all posted. This is about as much as I've bared my soul to anyone or admitted that I'm somewhat nervous and afraid. I see the doctor next Tuesday so you all can think about this right along with me until then.

I will have another post in the next day or two because I spotted a baby cucumber that I need to take photos of for the farm report.

It's Farm Report Time Again...

As you know, Tipper over at The Blind Pig And The Acorn is having another planting by the signs experiment. It's cucumbers this year in case you missed my first post.

Let's give the 'bad' day cucumbers a chance to be first for once. There are two plants that made it and are starting to grow pretty good despite being planted on the 'bad' day. I fight to keep the grass away so each time I go out I weed out a bit more. Don't want grass to get the water for the cucs now.




These are the 'good' day cucs. There are three and of the three there is one that is especially vigorous. They are sending out tendrils to climb the pickets and the plants themselves are about twice the size of the 'bad' day plants. I'm fighting the encroaching grass here also. It would help me out if we weren't having 100F. weather on a daily basis. Four of the last five days have been 100 F. or higher. That means it only cools at night to the high 70's of low 80's and since I'm one of those late sleepers it's pretty much hot and I only stay out a bit at a time.

The 'good' day plants are loading up with blooms. I'm looking forward to fresh cucumbers before long...














I found one almost bloom on one of the 'bad' day plants. It's in the center bottom third of this picture. Just to the right of the finger tip below my thumb... I won't tease anyone who doesn't see it but I will try to duplicate the photo when it is open so you can see where it is. I almost missed it and I was there, touching the plant!


For the fun of it I'm going to share pictures of some of the other stuff on our little piece of the world.





A sunflower Carol planted from seeds is just getting ready to share it's beauty with the world...














Two types of Mexican Blanket flowers. The big ones are new to us. The smaller pink ones we've grown before but the new ones are big in comparison.















This is a joyous little yellow flower in the coreopsis family.... I don't remember it's given name I just know it makes me smile... a lot.












This plumbago has proven to be just a delightful plant. It's light blue blooms seem to love the heat as long as it gets it's drink of water. We planted it close to a couple of yellow and white lantana and they look so good together. Again, please ignore the grass. We are working on it.










Here's the neighbor of the plumbago. This plant and one like it almost didn't make it through the first of the heat waves... but thankfully we were able to pour enough water to them because they are now blooming their little stems off. It's wonderful.









Last but not least for this post anyway... gotta have some red flowers here and there to brighten up my life. This lantana is such a wonderful color next to the green leaves.

I don't think I'll ever give up the fight to get back to my old self as long as I can walk out in my yard and see colors like all of these that lighten my heart.

Being in a garden is about as close as I think you can get to being next to God.

My Okie Mini-Schnauzer...

You all know how I am about my furbabies... I think they are way smarter and cuter than most people's two-legged kids. I hadn't posted anything about them, or anything else it seems - lol, in a while but one of the latest antics has inspired me...

This is my gracious and beautiful Chloe Pearl. My little lady-like old dog. She could live anywhere, a mansion or a trailer, as long as mom is there.

Then we have the younger girl pupster...








SueSue Marie... the blonde schnauzer. The girl-just-want-to-have-fun pup. Throw something for me mom... a ball, a sock, a mean kitty toy... anything mom, please, please, please I want to play... Sissy's too old and won't play anymore, not that she ever did a lot but she used to chase me sometimes but now she mostly wants to sleep on the couch next to you and I want to play and play...


Except when it's hot...


Then I want to play for about two minutes and after that...







See this vent? It's in the middle of the living room floor...

(Disregard the dirty carpet... mom is past due for running the vacuum...)

This is a wonderful, cool metal vent on the a/c/ duct...






And THIS...


THIS is me... being an Okie Mini-Schnauzer, laying frog-dog style right on top of the a/c vent.

Hey! It's in the 90's out there...A girl has to know how to cool off with pizazz and in a hurry so's I can bug mom to play, mom, let's play, but in the house, c'mon mom put up that stupid machine on your lap and play with me...



That's all for today from the Okie mini-schnauzer... Keepin' it cool!

Farm Report Time...

Once again this year Tipper over at The Blind Pig And The Acorn is having a gardening by the signs experiment. This year we are growing cucumbers.

This photo is of the good day cukes. Three of the five seeds I planted on the "good" day, May 16th, came up. Obviously the one on the right is the 'champeen' of this group so far. All the pictures in this post were taken on the 9th of June so this is about 3 weeks after they were planted.



These are the "bad" day cukes. They were planted on the barren sign of Sagittarius on the 18th of May, a couple of days after the "good" planting day.

As you can see only two of the five seeds sprouted and they are quite a bit smaller.

Of course, since it is difficult to tell size without some sort of reference, it is now time for the 'shoe' picture...




The 'bad' day cucumbers with my size 8/9 flip flop...
















The 'good' day cucumbers with my other flip flop.

Please ignore the grass creeping into the photo. I'm working on it. This ground is one of my pocket plant areas in the yard and had never been tilled for garden area so it will have to be closely watched through the growing season but that will give me something to do with my hands...

Pulling the grass.


Thanks again, Tipper, for doing your growing by the signs experiment. Besides being very interesting it is also therapeutic for me. You need to go check out what's going on over at The Blind Pig And The Acorn. Besides growing tips for the garden you can hear some great music and try out some really good recipes and reading some fun and interesting stories.

Y'all come back now, ya hear!

I'm Not Dead...

I'm just not alive but I'm working on it. I hate depression and fighting it gets more difficult as I get older.

Now that that is out of the way... I have been doing something besides vegging on FaceBook playing games. I planted a small garden...

Here are some potatoes and onions. We've already started eating on the onions, some sweet whites that I don't know the name of but they sure are good.



Baby jalapenos. I love the flavor and spiciness of jalapenos. I'm hoping that the docs figure out what is going on with my belly so that I can eat more of them without worrying about them jumping on my last pain nerve inside. I used to be able to eat them anytime, no worries, but the last six months it has been a crapshoot.








Bell peppers... one of Carol's favorite veggies. She loves green bell peppers. I like all of the bells and think all of them have very distinct flavor, the reds, yellows and orange as well the green.

We have also planted four tomato plants and Carol planted some squash and green beans in the infamous yellow tubs that we had such good luck with in the past. I went from almost three acres to play and plant on year before last to last year's large garden at my cousin's to this year.

A small garden, little what I call "pocket gardens", raised beds, and our tubs. I can't say as I mind having less space to tend as it has been very hot already in Oklahoma and it's not even legally summer yet.

These raised beds I made a couple of months ago with 2X4's that I had bought to build a picket fence around the front part of the trailer to match the one I built off the back door side of the trailer. The management said I couldn't put fence all the way around our trailer so we have a couple of raised beds. I'll be nice and not tell you what I think about that decision.

You can see a bit of the picket fence in this picture of the sunflowers that Carol planted in a little pocket garden spot. You can also see the ramp I built for Chloe to the back porch. She has been having some problems with the steps, the shorter in stride they are the harder it is for her to get up them. She is in good health still so I did for her what I hope someone will do for me someday... made her life a little easier. I do get teased for it by my family, but they love me despite my peculiarities where my pups are concerned.


One of our neighbors, when we moved into this trailer park, was a tree cutter/trimmer. We got a bunch of pine stumps and used them on the front porch side to make a little barrier to have a place to stash the shovels, rakes and hoe or to sit and take a break without being right out by the cars. We started a bit of a shade garden since the trees in our front are volunteers that were never properly ripped out or tended to. And there had to be a flamingo for me.




This small, long flower bed is on the east side of our lot. You can see the two volunteer trees and the stump and the stump barrier on the right. This area is our front and side yard. The good thing is not much area to mow and by this time next year we hopefully will have even less to mow. Carol and I are both proponents of the English style garden where all the yard is flowers and plants. Carol because she loves the flowers and me because I don't like to mow behind a push mower, power or otherwise, and the property is really not big enough for our rider.

This little plant got me to get the camera out to go on this little tour of the plantation. I didn't know that hens and chick type succulents had flower spikes with little blooms on them. This is as full open as I've seen these little blooms. I don't know if they open like a little flower or if this is the only way they grow. I figured if I hadn't seen bloom spikes like these there was probably some other gardener out there that hadn't seen anything like them either.






This other little bloomer I hadn't seen before either. It's another simple succulent that is in the same container as the previous photo. Maybe the copper from the pot gives them some type of mineral or something that encourages the little ones to bloom... who knows?.

I just know that these kind of surprises give me hope that tomorrow will be better. Sometimes the least little things give us hope that the sun will shine again inside us.



This photo is just 'cause I liked it and wanted to share.

Keep me in your prayers, okay?

Tomorrow... a farm report on this years seed trial. Thanks to Tipper at the Blind Pig and The Acorn I'm doing this year's planting by the signs. We are doing cucumbers this year and I'll be posting my first report tomorrow.