I Know, I Know…

I’m late on my good day/bad day squash report.  I went out of town last Friday and didn’t get back until yesterday evening.  Bro asked me to dig up a mess of potatoes so he could cook up green beans and potatoes to take to the church tomorrow because a friend of my cousin had passed away and the funeral will be tomorrow… so I got out this morning and headed out with my camera.

The first stop was to the former playhouse where we keep the garden tools.  I opened the door and I was immediately hit behind my ear by a wasp, a yellow jacket.  It still is feeling like someone hit me with a needle full of cayenne pepper but I got the wasp spray and got my revenge and because I needed to get potatoes and take photos I grabbed my cultivator and got down to business.

First off, the potatoes…

You know me… I have to give you something for a size comparison so after I washed some of the dirt off they were ready for their photo op.  My Crocs are about the equivalent of a women’s size nine shoe.

  This shot I wanted to put in to show you how beautifully thin skinned these red potatoes are and all that was done was a light wash to get the dirt off.  Makes my mouth water just looking at these.

Now to the good day/bad day squash…

Good day squash is on the left and bad day squash is on the right.

From north looking to south now so you can see the littlest bad day squash and the bigger bad day squash on the left and the good day on the right.

This is the littlest bad day squash.  It’s hanging in there but it is way smaller than all the rest but I must tell you that even though it is tiny the leaves are looking healthy.

This is the bigger of the bad day squash.  You can see a couple of photos back how much bigger the good day squash is now.

Here is the first bloom on the good day squash.  The leaves are huge and the plants, the four good day squash that came up, are so healthy looking.  The broken stem there on the right was done when the storms came rolling through Monday night. 

Just a few more general garden shots now…

  The two rows in the middle, the left one is alternating okra and black eyed peas.  The right one is okra.  To the right of them are some squash and zucchini that were plants already when we planted them.  We’ve gotten several messes of yellow squash and while the zuchs were planted later and we haven’t gotten any off them yet there are a bunch of blooms and young zuchs going now.

We are going to be begging people to take tomatoes if they keep on like they are going.  We planted 15 plants of several varieties and the plants are full and big, almost growing together, and they have a bunch of blooms on them.

Here’s another shot where I tried to just shoot looking down between the rows.

Another view of the tomato jungle looking from north to the south.

This is the backyard garden. The plants in front are the broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower that are all on their way out.

Here is one of the cabbage that is still growing.  You kind of get the idea of size with Spud, the Jack Russell, standing there checking for mice.

This is the potato bed that I raided for potatoes earlier.  We also planted potatoes in the bigger front garden but we planted them about three weeks after we put these in and so these are the plants we’ve been raiding for the past week or two.

And to wind up this post I have to put in a picture of the yellow daylily that you can see at the back of the above photo.  It is one of the daylillies that I transported from the garden in Noble and I’m so glad to see them starting to bloom.

This is one of my favorites.  I love the clear buttery yellow and this daylily is just that… no golden yellow hues to it, just the very clean clear yellow.

This concludes the second good day/bad day squash report.  I’ll try not to be so long for the next post.  I had to put off the mimosa blooms and the bad hair post because I needed to show the good day/bad day squash report so I will try to get it posted in the next couple of days.

By the way, does anyone have a good home fix for wasp stings?  I still have this awful pain in my head…

Garden Stroll And More…

A couple of days ago I asked if you wanted to visit the garden with me… if you don’t want to do that you may want to go to the next blog on your reading list because I’ve been in the gardens with the camera.

Broccoli… I don’t have to worry about ‘W'.’ coming to dinner because we have grown some gorgeous and tasty broccoli this year.  Personally I could eat it just about every night, steamed with some butter… no sauce needed. 

Yeah I gotta get my boot in there for size and as you can see we have had a battle with squash bugs but this baby head of cauliflower grew into this…

When Bro, Cuz and me went to buy some plants this spring we got the broccoli, cauliflower and two kinds of cabbage, the green and the purple, at a farm store in Chandler, OK,  about 15 miles from where we lived.  I’ve been sooo excited with how they are all coming on because though I tried last summer where we lived we had rabbits that ate very well and I didn’t even get a taste.

My beautiful cauliflower looked big until I found these three squash hiding under the big squash leaves and, no, these are not the good day/bad day squash.  We were given 3 straight neck yellow squash plants and three crook neck yellow squash plants so these came on earlier than we expected. The green cabbages I planted in the back yard garden and have started forming the heads despite the chewed up leaves.

The purple cabbage I planted in the front garden along with half of the broccoli plants.  They, too, have started forming their heads and their leaves are chewed on but not quite as bad as the plants in the back garden.

I got down in the dirt to get this low down view of all the squash blossoms on one of the crooked neck squash plants.  See what I do to keep it real for all of you!

I love seeing how these bloom change into something that is so good to eat in so many ways.  But you all know how all the stages of growing just fascinate me.

OKRA!  Yes, Rick, you can tell your sweet bride that the good Lord willing and the weather is kind to us, no more hail please, there will be okra flying northwest along about August.

This row has okra and black eyed peas planted alternately.  The premise is the black eyed peas will climb along the okra stalks.  So I guess this will be my little experiment.

Since I have so much garden photos to show you and I don’t want to bore you to death I’ll close for now but I do want you to know that my cousin and I both use this old timey cultivator because we can get between the rows easily and break up the ground enough to try to keep ahead of the grass and weeds.  I will try to catch a photo or two of it actually in use.

Next post, besides more garden stuff, I’ll show you the mimosa trees in bloom and we will talk about a bad hair day…

Intrigued?

2nd Annual Good Day/Bad Day Garden Experiment…

This will be my first official good day/bad day garden report for 2010.  I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Tipper, over at The Blind Pig And The Acorn, had put out the call for those of us that wanted to do another experiment with planting according to the signs to get in touch with her and this year we are doing yellow crook neck squash.  She even found a company that sells organic seeds that would send her the seeds to share with those of us that wanted to play in the dirt with her.  The seeds are from Hometown Seeds and you can check out their site online at www.hometownseeds.com.   I had such fun with corn last year that I jumped at the chance to try it out and see for myself how the squash would do.

So here I go with the first report of the 2nd Annual Good Day/Bad Day Farm report.

The plan was for all of us to plant our good day seeds either on the 17th or 18th of May-the best days for planting.  The bad day seeds were to be planted on the 19th or 20th, the good Lord willing and the creeks not rising.  I was able to plant the 5 seeds for the good day squash on the 17th and I also was able to plant the bad day squash on the 19th of May although it did start sprinkling on me while I was planting the 5 bad day squash but I don’t melt and I got them in the ground.

Now for the first photos….

  To the left are the good day seeds.  4 of the 5 seeds came up.  At the top of the photo about 1/3 of the way over from the right is  the first of the bad day seeds. If I knew how to draw on my photos it would help, I know.

This is the one bad day squash that had come up.  These pictures were taken on the 25th of May.

Fast forward now to June 3rd…

Good day squash.  There are four that came up.

One bad day squash.  Notice it hasn’t put out any other leaves yet.

One of the good day squash.

Another bad day squash finally breaking through the ground.

Two more good day squash.  Quite a difference already!

How about a stroll through the rest of the garden in the next day or two?

Promise Not To Throw Rocks…

A couple of posts ago, in Life, Death and Broccoli,  I told y’all that my cousin made me some comfort food, Baked Potato Soup, and several of you wanted the recipe.  She got the recipe from one of her church friends and shared so here it is, but don’t be mad at me because you all asked for it and it is soooo good that you will soon add it to your table on a regular basis.

Linda Brown’s Baked Potato Soup

4 large baked potatoes (if you prefer red potatoes, just the equivalent size wise)

2/3 C.   Butter

2/3 C. Flour

7 C.  Milk (we use regular homogenized mil but if you are a skim or 2% or goat milk drinkers you might try it ‘your way’)

1/4 C.  Green onions

1 C. Sour cream

12 slices of bacon,  crumbled

1 1/2 C. Cheddar cheese

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

Melt butter.  Add flour and stir until smooth.  Add milk slowly and stir until thickened.  Add baked potatoes (diced) and green onions.  Simmer 10 minutes.  Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until melted.  Serve immediately.

I typed this recipe in exactly as it was written.  You can, of course, add your own twists like Cuz did with the fresh broccoli from the garden.  And I was told to be sure to tell you all that she bakes her potatoes in the microwave in one of those fabric microwave bags.  That makes for a lot cooler kitchen in the summer and quicker when you have a time concern.  As you can tell from the recipe it’s not exactly diet friendly but every now and then you need to splurge and have some stick to your ribs wonderful soup. 

If you are a potato soup fan, a connoisseur of wonderful, rich stick to your ribs soup…  you gotta try this. 

And let me know what time you’ll be planning dinner.  Ummm Good.

Ever Think About Pet’s Names?

I was reading articles on AOL this morning and one was on talking to vets about things people name their dogs and cats.  I got me to thinking about how in the world do we come up with our critters names? 

Chloe Pearl during a storm.

Chloe “frog-doggin’” as I like to call it.

Who could resist that look?  Probably part of the reason we fight her weight now… 

Back to the subject at hand.  I first saw a picture of Chloe when she was a couple of weeks old.  I had the year before lost my beloved black schnauzer, Sophie (Mae), in a freak accident.  She was only a year and a half old and I didn’t even want to think about another dog.  The fellow that we rented the space for our frames shop had a mini-schnauzer that used to play with Soph and he bred her and he and Carol were trying to talk me into a pup.  I did not even want to see the pups in real life so Carol conspired and gave him my e-mail address and Jerry sent me a picture.  Out of the litter of six pups she was the only little girl, a requirement since I took my dogs to work with me and I couldn’t take the chance of a little boy hiking his leg and peeing on the art work. 

Well, I looked at the photo and immediately told Carol that she looked like a Chloe but then dropped the subject.  About six weeks later Carol had gone to the shop to do some bookkeeping on a Saturday and she called and said Jerry was up trimming up the yard in the strip mall and had the pups and I ought to come see them.  I told her I didn’t think so and went back to working in the yard.  She called again and said I really, really think you need to come see these babies so to stop her from interrupting whatever it was I was doing I ran up to the shop.

Needless to say, from the photos, I came home with Chloe Pearl Gardner.

Several years later I decided Chloe Pearl needed a playmate.  She was tending toward being sedentary (like her mom) and some days I didn’t feel like getting out and playing so now enters SueSue Marie Gardner… or Suess as I sometimes call her or my little blond schnauzer because she can be a ding-a-ling.

Suess sleeping in close proximity to her ball was a portent of things to come.  Like her momma, when I was a baby, my favorite toy was a ball.  Look at those cute little pads on that foot up next to her face…

 This is probably my favorite bonding picture.  Me in my recliner and Chloe and SueSue curled up with me.

Suess also likes to ‘frog-dog’, here on Carol’s wheelchair ramp was one of her favorite places.

SueSues’s name came about because at the time Carol’s mother was living with us.  She had a hard time remembering Chloe’s name so I thought about it and decided to call the baby SueSue. When Carol was growing up they called her by her middle name, Sue, and I have a sister named Sue and I thought doubling the name up to SueSue would make it easier for Mom to remember. SueSue’s middle name is not only my middle name but I thought it was a fun twist on Souix Saint Marie which is in Canada and I have never been there but I heard of it years (and I’m talking many years) ago and the name stuck with me for some reason. 

So that’s how my current furbabies came by their names and while they aren’t as different as some, they aren’t just the plain old run of the mill Cutie or Cuddles or Lucky, which by the way the vet in the article said don’t ever name a dog Lucky because it rarely is.

How about it friends and neighbors… do you have pets and what are their names and is there a special reason for those names?

Share with me… it’s a good diversion from all that is going on in my life right now and inquiring minds want to know.

I promise if my girls fall out laughing I won’t tell a soul.

Death, Life and Broccoli…

I know that some people that don’t know my weird sense of humor would think that the title of my post is not very empathetic or appropriate but it was the only thing that popped into my head when I started to write this post. 

I got the call from baby brother this morning that my brother-in-law died early this morning.  Believe me when I say that it was a blessing.  If you have ever lost anyone to a terminal disease, while you don’t want to lose your loved one, the last thing you want is for them to linger on and have to deal with a lot of suffering.  I talked to my sis and she was very relieved that he was surrounded by love and family and while she knew that there would some rough times for her ahead,  she was so thankful and at peace with his passing because she didn’t want him to suffer.  Sue, my sister, has very strong belief in God and the faith that Bill is in a far better place and not suffering anymore uplifts her and gives her strength.

The life part of this post? Earlier in the week I had made an appointment to get a haircut today.  It has been rainy and unusually cool for this time of year in Oklahoma the last couple of days and will continue on for this week and I didn’t want to stir from my nice warm bed all cuddled up with my furbabies.  After my brother called to tell me about Bill I knew it would be useless to drift back to sleep.  I made some family calls and then it was time to drive to Norman to get my haircut.  Walter drove me and he, too, got his haircut, we ran some errands and came back home.  I was tired, hurting from the shingles, the fibro raising cain with me because of the weather and all I wanted to do to stretch out on the bed, take my meds and veg out for a while until I walked to the back door and looked out…

Needless to say I had to get my camera and go out to get some photos to share with you all.

The babies… I love having them where I can watch them.

The moms may not be right next to their babies but, believe me, they are ever vigilant.  They have their side of the fence and I have mine and all is right with the world.

Despite the hurting, both physical and emotional, these sights reminded me of the renewal of life.  That is part and parcel of this thing we call life…

The cycles.  We are born, we grow up, some of us marry and birth the babies that start the next cycle.  We continue to grow and to try to help the next generation learn the things they need to know to get them through the tough times, get them standing on their own two feet and if you are lucky, as Sue and Bill were during their 48 years of married life, they raised their four boys and Bill lived long enough see their grandchildren and celebrate their children’s joy at the birth of their children.  Their grandchildren had the chance to meet and get to know their grandfather and even the little ones will have some memories of their grandfather.  Their grandmother, my sister, along with their sons will keep his memory alive through the multitude of stories that Bill and his brothers and his one sister have lived and told over the years and, believe me, there is a boat load of them and there will be lots of laughter filling my sister’s home and heart again…

Oh, yes… the broccoli…

From the last post…

I picked it. 

And my cousin made her baked potato soup while we were gone to get our haircuts because she knew it is a comfort food for me, but tonight she added a twist to it… baked potato and broccoli soup.  It warmed not only my tummy but also soothed my heartache  for my sister and her family’s loss and reaffirmed that there is still a lot of good left in this life.  And some of it I helped to grow.

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.