various pictures

More pictures when Melanie came for her birthday- yes many of them are on her blog, but I decided to put some of the ones where I look cute up since it doesn't happen very often....



Dinner at Out Back-which turned out costing each of us a buck. Yay for gift certificates!!!!










Me in front of the playhouse. Too bad didn't get a picture of Melanie :(



Here is Melanie before the play started, in our original seats (not good, but then they moved us to great ones).








Here is Melanie and I on the couch talking to mom on Mother's day. We even sang a song, but probably should've practiced first :)

Melanie sharing the bounty from her garden. My zuchinni are still seedlings... (notice screwdriver for comparison)

Melanie sure helped me out a lot so I put up this cute picture again of her helping me.

Here is a before picture of the patio, plus the stray cat that I'm feeding in an atempt to keep it from stalking the bird feeders.... not working yet. (her name is nanguo-rhymes with mango means sad in chinese, the idea is stolen from Allison, but this cat really is sad...no tail)

So here is the after picture, don't know if you can tell but the gross carpet is gone. Thanks Melanie and Kate for helping with that!

Here is a picture of the lime merangue pie I made. It set up after Melanie left and was pretty good (if you like that sort of sourysweet thing).

So enough of that. Yesterday and Friday I got things pretty caught up in the garden. Kate helped by mowing the front lawn and most of the back (i got the second mower out and did the edges). I still need to 1. mulch and weed barrier around the trees and then 2. use a bio degrading mulch on the berries. 3. is expanding window gardens to include the stepping stones, and 4 is to start the flower gardens starting with the front shade one, moving to the front sunny, stump, and tree gardens. Wow that sounds like a lot of work still!

I did get the misters set up in the patio, but when I turned them on they are more like small sprinklers..... hmmmm not what I expected. I'm not sure what to do at this point and I'm rather discouraged.

Anyways I treated myself to a fancy lunch at P7-12 since I was working hard. They have really good pizza. I found that if I'm going to dine by myself I need to remember to bring something to do. Its a small restaurante and there is only so much people watching I can do before it gets awkward....

I wore myself out yesterday and still needed to get my primary lesson ready. I learn something everytime on how to do better for the next lesson. Also I tell myself to start on the lesson earlier each time, but that has yet to occur.

Today I made cornbread (a favorite lately), cut up a pineapple, and made what i call an asian stew (like american only with ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and black and rice vinigers) and served over rice and noodles. Actually turned out pretty good.


In keeping with my various picture theme, here is a picture of my garden plan... I only stuck to part of it because I kept buying extra things like tomatoes, and had extra room....

Here is a bit of my letuce. This was a couple of weeks ago. Its lots bigger now ever though I pick a small salad's worth everyday. I just eat it alfresco and its very tasty (if the leaf has lots of dirt I do wash it off, usually). I love the different kinds. The only problem is in a mix I don't know which is which and so I won't know which kind to buy next year. Since this picture I've had two more plantings in an effort to get more crops. I'm going to try and find some shade cloth to see if that helps it last longer into the hot summer.

Here is a stand for 6 pots that Angela got me from Grandma Ritchie's house. I put shade plants in it and its pretty cute out on the patio. I sure hope I can figure out those misters and make the patio really pleasant to hang out in.... its going to get really really hot in just a couple of weeks. ugghh i don't like the heat.

two sundays ago I had some friendly visitors. After I gave them a treat they thought we were best friends and went everywhere together. I think the one closest to the door is a border collie mix, I don't know what the one was in the back but they were both cute, friendly and makes me want one.

On a pretty spring evening, but kindof cold, Cathy invited me to UVU baseball. She had picked up a baby somewhere, and apparently her tallent is putting kids to sleep. I like having inside hookups. Cathy led us to a box seat which was way nice as the wind was cold.

To close, here is another mountain picture taken while headed to court in Spanish Fork a couple of weeks ago. The snow is mostly gone on the lower peaks, but there is still on the tops.

ashamed

I bought 4 extra tomato plant. ... I am ashamed. I already had a Roma, early girl, lemon boy, jet setter, pik rite, celebrity, and cherokee purple. I added to that a goliath, beefsteak, pink brandywine, and Mr. Stripey. I also got some free seeds for a trip-l-crop that I started but aren't very big yet. All in all that makes 12 varieties. believe me although it looks like a lot of varieties I did use some restraint. Do you have any idea of how many varieties there are? I figure I can try these kinds out and whichever ones I don't like I can try a different kind next.

I don't think I'm really that fat, but I probably am!- here we are planting tomatoes (the first ones I got).



You probably already saw picture on Melanie's blog but I think its cute.

I've been sick. Its been nice to not go into work, but I was pretty miserable and got behind in my yard. Thanks to Melanie for coming to visit me for her birthday! I wore her out good. This actually made me happy because I caught up on things, and it means that my yardwork is exercise, so I'm not completely sedintary.

I also got a couple more sweet peppers (bananna, and an orange bell) and another hot one (serano), bought some butternut squash (since mine from seeds are really small), another zuchini, and a pumpkin. I want a water melon but haven't found one of the "ice box" varieties. In writing this I realized I planted my zuchini over where I had planted my sugar pumpkins. OOPS. I guess I'll move the zuchini to where I have space for the water mellon and see if I can get the sugar pumpkin seeds to come up... if I can find them.

Aren't these so pretty? they are all over my yard. The blades are just starting to die. In two weeks they will be completely gone. I want to start my front shade garden but will wait until these flowers are gone so I can space things out right.

potatoes are coming up, I am covering them up a little bit at a time as they come up.

Here is the front side yard, I dug up and turned over, here is the picture of the sort of finished look. I moved two of the bushes from the side yard (they were in the way of the trash can and wheelbarrow), and the plum tree in the corner of the garden. One of the bushes is really sad, the tree and other bush looks ok. I'm still not sure what to do with the hole. I've been putting weeds, sticks, etc there as I want to fill it in, not real safe though....

The third pictures is the back side yard which is still messy, but I put down weed barrier and mulched with leaves (they are free :) I hope the grapes and bushes do ok there!

I have moved some strawberries from the old patch to the new bed, but overall most of the 50 plants made it. I'm worried about the blackberries. One is definately dead, and the others aren't doing anything. One of the saskatoon berries isn't doing anything, and a couple of berrie bushes. I accidently weed wacked one so I don't expect that one to be ok. All of the raspberries came up, but one got run over by the lawnmower so I might buy a new one. The boysenberries didn't get sent so I have to decide if I will buy something to fill the spot this year.

Here are some pretty pictures of my spring flowers that are just about gone.

These last three are just pretty. The first is a bargin buy that I got from Home Depot cause it was half dead. It sure looks pretty this year. The next is one of my pretty geraniums that overwintered, and the next is a bright yellow pansy that sits in a pot on the patio. Whoo hoo for flowers. I will post again later with a few pics from Melanie's visit and some other garden projects.

weekend planting update

Just a reminder from my primary lesson last week. The kids choose all the apples so I was left with these way better tasting minalows.

I wasn't going to put any pictures in cause there isn't really anything new, but then I went out and took some just so I could put them on here. It was snowing earlier today but not cold enough to stick! I mulched the little round bed and it looks pretty good. The plants didn't seem to mind their being dug up and put back too much last week.

Been busy in the garden as thats the place that makes me happy. With Kate's help I got some more of the walkways/trenches dug on Monday. Now its all done! It sure went a lot faster with two shovels!

That made it so I could get lots more done through the week a little at a time. I got the potatoes planted (i think that was Tuesday). I planted the onions, laid out more soaker hose, planted cabbage, planted my last three bushes, turned over all the beds, sowed some more lettuce and spinach, poked more pea seeds into the ground as they didn't come up real well, got the stump garden edging back in and weeded it, weeded the tree garden, finished the weed barrier on the herb garden and mulched it. weeded the little corner garden and mulched it, borrowed our landlord's ladder when he couldn't quite finish fixing the garage door to cut down more tree limbs (came close to killing myself only once instead of the 4-5 times last try). Cleaned and bleached all the bird feeders. It was a fun and busy week.

Whats on the agenda for this week? Get peat moss and other fertilizers into the unplanted beds and wait until its warm enough to plant those, put some edging between the lawn and old raised wooden parts, weed and edge the window gardens, decide what to do with the walkway half way finished, weedbarrier and mulch all the bushes, buy a 25' soaker hose and a 50' soaker hose, decide what to do with the extra 75' soaker hose, figure out how to do the drip system, and probably move 2-4 of the bushes in the side yard cause they aren't really going to work well there. I could move them to the other side but I really want to save that for two more grapes.... decisions, decisions, decisions.

Oh and today it looks like 2-3 of my cabbages are already bolting. HUH? its snowing outside how can they be bolting? Maybe I should see about a refund? they weren't that expensive so maybe I should just try again they did get a little dried out that first day and did go from the greenhouse to full sun exposure quickly, but still, its snowed today!

I cleaned up the garage a bit so our landlord could fix the garage door. It really needs to be straightned up but its hard when most of it isn't mine. I think I'm going to move most of the gardening mess to the shed even though I'm scared of it.

I have big plans for the back porch. I bought stuff for a drip irrigation system and part of it is little fogger/misters that I'll put up around the porch. It can make it up to 20* cooler in the space where you put those. I'm throwing out the gross carpet stuff thats there and going to paint the floor so it looks nice. My roommates said they would help. We can also re-stain or paint the wood, the roof thingy, etc to make it look nicer. I will need to start going yard selling so I can find us a cute table and chairs as that will be the coolest part of the house and it will be nice to be able to eat dinner in comfort and be able to enjoy the yard.

Caught a mouse last night, but I think I better get some more traps cause I think I heard another one. I don't think this one had been hanging around all that much because I learned that its better to put out traps at the first sign rather then wait to confirm sighting. Although that did happen this time. ewwwww (didn't take a picture)

I found out that we've got a sallmonella outbreak in the birds around here, specifically the pine siskens (hence the cleaning and bleaching this weekend of the feeders). I was thinking that it was just an early set of babies that didn't know better to fly away, but it turns out they are sick. I feel bad for them, but with the ferral cat hanging around at least they get put out of their misery fast. I still need to clean up the seed mess under the feeders and keep them cleaner then I've been doing. This picture is from last sunday, the birds were singing so cute and pretty, I couldn't catch them with my camera but it was great to sit on my front porch and listen to them. Hopefully I will have more times to do that through this year.

I'm very tired from staying up late last night from gabbing and laughing with Kate and Mama. Now that school is out hopefully we'll get to see more of Mama around, at least for the summer.

I didn't get all my inside chores done, but did clean the bathroom thoroughly. Kate straightened the front room, but I need to mop the floor in there and the kitchen. hopefully i'll fit it in this week.

Mom and Angela came through two weeks ago and I forgot to say how fun it was to have them even for a short time. I feel bad I didn't cook dinner for them but ended up doing a later home visit. Hey guys next time you come through I will try to think ahead and have something in the crockpot!

I made a creamy sausage and cheesy brocoli potato soup with homemade bread. It turned out pretty good. Won't be too many days left for warm meals like that so I need to get it in while I can.

I need to blog about the "tea party" I went to on tax day, so I'll hopefully get that done this week. I'll close with some pretty mountain pictures I've taken with my silly phone camera the last month or so. I love the mountains with snow on them, especially fresh stuff. I wish I could better capture the colors and dramatic contrasts in the mountains and sky. Today the sun and lake and clouds and snow on the close mountains and misty mountains behind the lake was took my breath away. I'm lucky to live in a beautiful place!

Do you see the double rainbow? didn't work so good for the camera but it was beautiful!