Another Ringy Dingy...Flower And Veggies...

My hens and chicks and other succulents came out strong and happy to show their colors, oh joy, oh joy. Spring is coming.

Let's burst out with all our blooms to celebrate!












Let's throw out beautiful color to welcome spring...











Fifty one days later. I've never lost hens and chicks to heat and am praying that these are not truly gone but will come back next spring.


















They look like someone tried to blowtorch them... and I guess in a sense that was true.












Sunflower turning it's face up toward the sun, celebrating...















Now... they can't even hold their heads up...















Ah, beautiful lantana. So bright and vibrant in it's color.
















This plant has thrived! It has at least doubled in size and has been blooming it's branches off.














The yellow and white lantana and the beautiful blue plumbago that so delighted me with the colors looking so good together...











These also have loved the heat. I wasn't too surprised about the lantana but the plumbago did surprise me. It looks so delicate but it must be tough as iron to have survived the heat.

I'll be getting more of both those plants next year just in case we have another hot one... but I'm praying that we don't have to go through another summer like this one in my lifetime.

I've shared with you now some of the good, the bad and the ugly. I hope your summer wasn't as tough on your garden as it was on ours. The weather forecasters think we here in Oklahoma will hit the 50 days over 100 degrees F. by Saturday, but having had a break with several rounds of storms will make the rest of the summer bearable.

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.

Farm Report… And Bad Hair Day

Yep… I promised the next bad hair I’d show you would be mine and it will but first things first.  Tipper, feel free to use any of these garden photos you’d like on Blind Pig And The Acorn.

This photo was taken on the 28th of June,  the good day squash is on the left and the bad day squash is on the right.  Just to the right of the bad day squash is okra and black eyed peas planted alternately.  The squash is still getting good sun because it gets from mid-day to late afternoon west sun so I don’t worry about it being in too much shade for good growth.

Look at all the squash starting to come on…  this is a good day plant.

Another good day squash plant.  Spud helps me out by checking for mice, gophers and snakes… This is the littlest bad day squash.  It’s hanging in there and it is very healthy, but it is probably a tenth of the size of the good day squash.

This is the other bad day squash.  It’s about half the size of the good day squash and it is setting on a bunch of baby squash.  Four out of five of the good day seeds made and only two of the bad day seeds survived from planting day until now.

Now today’s photos…

Good day on the left, bad day on the right.  The biggest bad day is about 2/3rds the size now of the bad day.

Taken from the other direction the bigger bad day squash is hanging in and producing and has filled out enough to be almost indistinguishable from the good day squash on the right and the okra and black eyed peas plants.

The littlest bad day squash is now producing but is still so small compared even to it’s companion bad day squash but it should be noted that it is a testament to the strength of it’s seed that it has survived and is now producing squash.

There’s squash!  This is the bigger of the bad day squash, the flowers are now going on to baby squash.  Another 3 or 4 days and they will be ready to go into the salad or to bake in a squash casserole or fry up in the skillet with sliced up new potatoes and onions… mmmmm, I’m almost drooling just thinking about these choices.

Good day buds…

Huge amount of babies and another testament again to the organic seeds that were donated for this experiment.

I could go on and on about the fun I’m having with the squash but I did promise bad hair.  I need to set up the scenario first, though.

The front garden from the driveway in front of the house.  Looks kind of like a jungle out there…

Okra!  And some squash and flowers on the right and behind them are the tomato vines that were featured last week. We’ve had a terrible fight with squash bugs and the squash plant there in front that is yellow is succumbing to their onslaught.  The good day/bad day squash have been able, with a little help from us, to fight off the squash bugs and remain healthy.  Very impressive since we lost two other plants besides this one.

Here ya go, folks… My bad hair day.  I was in a lot of hurt today with the storm front coming in and spent most of the day in bed sleeping because I don’t hurt when I take my drugs and sleep.  I had gotten up about ten minutes before this photo was taken and hadn’t even brushed my hair… just came out to take photos before the rain came.

My Cuz came out to do some weeding and I asked her to take photos of me in the okra so Rick could see that, yes, the good Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise, there will be a big crop of okra.  Lucky and Spud help me give you a size reference.

I really don’t have enough hair with my summer cut to look really bad, but a promise is a promise and this is the worst my hair has looked in a while.  I usually at least run a brush through it when I get up but I didn’t even do that because I wanted to get photos for my farm report before it rained.

Okay, okay… that wasn’t really fair since you can’t really see my hair. I guess if I can show y’all my butt I can show you my bad hair day so I snapped these on my web cam on my computer.

WARNING!!!  Put down any food or drink to avoid having to clean off your computer screen.  You may also want to have eye drops handy to help take the pain out of your eyes…

No, that isn’t a halo behind my head… just the sheen from the overhead light in the bedroom.  This shot and the following have not been edited…  You have been officially warned.

 

and even I cant believe that I shared with you all this glory…

Wouldn’t you just love to wake up looking this awesome!!!

I Did Not Fly Away Today…

Although there were tornados all around the area where I’m living, we were all fine.  We had some pretty heavy rain for a bit which means I didn’t have to water either of the gardens. 

Speaking of gardens, would you like a tour?

What first caught my attention after I got back from going to the “doc in the box” was the mommas and babies wandering up by the fence in the back yard.  I had to go get the camera and see if I could get some pictures to share.

Calf 2911 was the most curious about what that white-legged one eyed tall thing was… I liked her hair do. I really like that the mommas and babies are so close to the house.  When the little ones start playing it is very entertaining.

It was getting on toward supper time and several babies were nursing…

Those mamas are very patient I think.  If I had one attached to me that butted my poor little girls as hard as these bump their mamas I would probably be biting the little grubber in the bohiney.

This little shy girl was looking for mama.  All of the cattle are Limousin.   They are low fat producers, a very lean breed, but are also known for being very protective so unless absolutely necessary we keep a fence or a vehicle between us and them…

Meanwhile, to the gardens we go.

This is the backyard garden.  So far there is broccoli, cabbage, spinach, 3 squash plants that were given to me already growing in their pots, some onion and at the far end, red potatoes.

     This is our first almost ready broccoli… about the size of a soft ball.

You all know me… I have to have something for size comparison.  That bare foot wears an 8 1/2  shoe…. when I put shoes on.  This is cabbage (in the center).  Crooked neck squash to the right and spinach to the left of the cabbage.

The beginnings of the front yard garden.  There is about 4 times the space of the back yard garden.  We have planted 12 tomato plants you see here.

To the left of the tomato cages are the second batch of new potatoes that I planted about a month after the new potatoes in the back garden.  We all love new potatoes and I thought perhaps I could extend the growing season…  Far left along the fence are iris. next are onions, next is more cabbage (these are red) and broccoli then garlic and finally more of the new potatoes. Coming towards us from the cabbage are three rows of onion that were planted about 3 weeks after the row on the left.

You know that besides my foot for size I have to show the red dirt.  This was after the storms blew through and the wind picked up the dust and the rain settled it on these huge leaves.

Another red dirt on cabbage photo.

This is the bloom stem of an onion that has been out there for a year or two.  I would have taken more of this but it was starting to sprinkle again.  Gotta think of the camera, you know, because we all know I don’t melt.

Yes, my cousin Carol and I both used this thing.  Her son, Scott, my wonderful second cousin tilled both gardens up real well for us and we use this between rows to turn up weeds and grass… and,in my case, to try to trim up some. I like cookies too much.

These are part of the things that have kept me away from blogging… well, no not really… I have to keep this part of my life real.  I have been having to deal with bad depression… Several things hitting at once.  Moving out of the relationship and home that I had with Carol for over 22 years this last stretch, the anniversary of the OKC bombing that hit me so close to home that I haven’t yet gone to see the Memorial, the anniversary of my mother’s death 16 years ago that still cuts like a knife, my sister’s husband of 48 years is dying of cancer and just went on hospice last Thursday so we are expecting a call any day now.  Sis is dealing with it a whole lot better than I am for worrying about her and realizing that at age 65 I have no control over any facet  of   my life. Hallie and John losing their oldest son to suicide and Connor, his younger brother losing his sib that he looked up to so much and that brought up my memories from when my oldest sister  died very suddenly of a brain hemorrhage when I was almost 13…

And to add  the kicker, I have managed to stress myself  flat into a case of shingles. Around from my mid-section to my back and that sucks big time. I’ve never had them before but knew folks who did and wondered how grown folks could piss and moan about how painful they were.  There’s even the folk or old wives tale, whichever you prefer that if shingles go all the way around your body they kill you.  Missy, who has had shingles, and I decided today that it wasn’t really the shingles that killed you… you just would hurt so much that you wanted to die…

Got to have good news to wipe out the bad… I received my summer squash crookneck seeds from Tipper over at The Blind Pig and The Acorn and we are going to do the good planting day vs. the bad planting day.  Yep, another experiment about planting with the signs.  Aren’t you excited!  I know I am.  My conscience won’t let me get by without reporting about how the squash is doing so that gets me off games on Face Crack Book as Kim calls it and back to where I belong…  With all of you.  And I am going to make it back.  Depression bores the crap out of me.  About 2 or 3 weeks is about all I can stand of being morose and studying what I can find of my belly button so I’ll grab the bootstraps, get them on and get outside to the garden where the sunshine and growing things bring me back to the reality of how much I have missed by just laying around and studying my navel…

For those of you that have stuck around, you have my deepest appreciation.  I love you all and I apologize for dropping of the blogging world for as long as I have. I promise to try not to ever let it happen again.