September 18, 2010

 

I thought  this was cute.  I have been donating to Best Friends Animal Society the past several years, so I always get their magazine.  I threw it up on the back of the sofa so I could read one evening, and Harriett laid her head on it for a little nap.  I thought that was pretty adorable.  It’s her version of a “thumbs up” for BFAS. If you aren’t familiar with their organization, they are a large no-kill animal shelter in Utah.  They have all kinds of animals – dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, birds, etc.  You name it, they’ve probably got it.  I think it’s a worthy cause.  Even if you don’t need a charity to support, please take a moment to visit their site to see the wonderful work the do.  They took in the dogs confiscated from Michael Vick’s home and have rehabilitated many of them and found them homes!  They rescued and relocated hundreds of animals abandoned in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – that’s how I first became familiar with Best Friends.  Good people.

Today is a beautiful day! September 18, 2010

 

I haven’t been very bloggy lately…..my apologies to anyone who cares. lol…..

Today is a beautiful day.  A little hot, but not too bad. It’s really the first day in a couple of months that I have been able to get outside and do any yardwork.  My yard is starting to perk up again – it’s has been hell trying to keep everything alive this miserable summer.  I don’t even know how many days we have had over the 100 degree mark – but it’s alot.  My water bill is killing me!

I am extending my sidewalk today.  I laid a pavestone sidewalk about two or three years ago, but only one row wide.  It occurred to me quite some time ago that I needed to extend it, because the perennials in the flowerbed to the west of it (next to the garage) reach out towards the sun and grow over the sidewalk. So, I have to wade through Russian Sage every time I want to go to the garage!  Not a very pleasant journey, or a very pleasant smell to have on oneself!  This is quite a chore.  I’m surprised I feel well enough to do this project today, but I do.  I had a massage yesterday.  I wonder if that has anything to do with my agility today.  Just two days ago I woke up so sore all over I could hardly move, sit down, or anything. Plus I had a nasty headache, had to go to work, and had to go to school that evening and take a bloody test.  I hope I did well on that one. It was easier than I expected.  It was a Botany lab test.  The lecture test two days earlier was a bitch.  Can’t wait to see what I got on that one.  I thought this class would be easy since I am a gardener and know quite a bit about plants.  That is why I chose Plant Biology over Human Biology. Jeez.  Hopefully I’m doing better than I think.  I’m glad I formed a study group for that class, that’s all I can say.  Science was never my forte.  It was actually my lowest score on the ACT, I do believe.

Okay, back to my project.  I am on a small break to catch the OU-Air Force score and back outside.  Sooners are on top at halftime, 10-3! BOOMER SOONER!  I’m not really a sports fan, but my friends know I like OU football and last year  was kind of getting into the OKC Thunder games during the playoffs.  That’s some good stuff, man!

What if? June 30, 2010

What if you could get a second chance?  For what would you use your second chance?  Is there something major you would redo, or a lot of small things?  Is there one HUGE thing that would most likely automatically erase a bunch of other mistakes that you most likely would not have made if you hadn’t made the first?  Just curious.  I reflect upon my life quite a bit, especially in the past several years, and this is something I was thinking about recently.  If you got a do-over, would the outcome be different because you did this thing/things differently?  I’m quite certain I know…..

Smile……and be happy !! June 17, 2010

A little surprise I got from a sunflower seed one of my visitors dropped in the back flowerbed. Pretty, huh!

Strange Happenings At My Place June 3, 2010

I am seriously considering putting in a garden cam. I need something. I have seen this bird cams that you can buy (not cheaply, either!) and sit by a nest and it’s activated by movement. Well, I need something that I can put in front of my tomato plants to see who is picking my tomatoes! I have placed a number of “barriers”, fencing no less, around my tomato plants that are in the flowerbed. I figure I can pretty much kiss any possible patio tomatoes goodbye. I have lost the one and only tomato from one of those plants already!

Well, I had two tomatoes that were growing pretty well, still green though, and they disappeared in the past few days. I checked the ground around them….no evidence of dog activity. I would assume that Lucy or Boris got them, but I can’t figure out how they got into that bed without disturbing anything else! Would a squirrel pick tomatoes? I doubt it, but I guess it could be possible. Also, I can’t imagine what kind of critter could make it in the yard and past Boris. Remember the dead oppossum I came home to lying next to his toy? Jeez! What a hunter. Anyway, I’m now considering getting some bird netting to put around my tomato plants. What a nuisance. I want some homegrown tomatoes, man!

Oh, one more mystery happened in my yard last week. I went to fill up one of my bird feeders in the back of the yard. I was wondering where the base went! It was gone, but was there the night before. This base fits onto the bottom of my Droll Yankees feeder and it attaches with a plug screw. The plug screws into the base of the feeder and is larger than the base (where the birds can perch and eat) so there is NO feasible way it can become unattached unless the plug is unscrewed. Well, the plug was still in there and the base was lying six feet away in the grass! Weird. I told my mom that someone came in there and took the base off and screwed the plug back in. LOL. I must have a ghost. THAT I cannot blame on Boris.

Well, keep your fingers crossed that I can get some beautiful and delicious tomatoes this year! I have 9 plants, 5 of which are in the flowerbed. I think the flowerbed plants are my best bet. I’ll keep you posted!

Woe is me… May 24, 2010

Check this out:

These guys look really sweet and innocent, no? Ha! Sweet, sometimes. Innocent? Pretty much never. Here’s what it’s like in my world -

March 13 – I HAVE SPRING FEVER! I can’t take this anymore. I have to start my gardening and yard cleanup. Go to Lowe’s, buy top soil to fill in the craters I have discovered. I don’t remember how many bags I purchased, but I know it will be one of many non-stop trips throughout the season. Good thing Lowe’s is 1/2 mile from my house. I’m sure the people in the garden center, who see me often, wonder what the hell I am doing with all this dirt. I have to be their best dirt customer.

March 21 – It’s snowing AGAIN. $%)*^%!!!!! I notice a pool of blood on top of the snow, five dove feathers and a bunch of grain from it’s craw. Poor dove. Who murders a sweet, innocent dove??? How rude.

March 26 – our FINAL snow of the year is over and melted. Clean up the yard. Trip to Lowe’s to buy 6 more 40# bags of top soil to fill in Lucy/Boris potholes AGAIN.. someone has dug up all the fescue I had sprouting in the previously fenced-off portions of grass which remained safe all winter. Bastards.

April 2 -Good Friday. Not so good – another trip to Lowe’s to purchase 4 – 6 more bags of top soil. New holes have appeared in ADDITION to the original holes which I thought I had filled in. WHERE DOES ALL THIS DIRT GO? I know it doesn’t evaporate.

April 16 – recovering from my second week with strep throat and bronchitis. Not much energy for yard work. I can barely muster the energy to mow my yard. Screw the holes. I don’t care.

April 24. I’m still not over this junk I contracted. I am on my second round of steroids in addition to antibiotics. Yardwork? Yeah, right.

May 8 – I am on my THIRD round of antibiotics and yet another steroid pack. Irritable? Who me? Never. LOL. Sick or not, I have no time to rest. Off to Lowe’s I go to buy 6 more bags of dirt. OH YEAH. I fill in 10 potholes in my back yard. GRRRRRRRR…………

May 11 – I peek outside the back door after dark to discover Lucy gingerly digging UNDER the wire I have placed over my repair job. She appears to be eating the dirt. WTH?????

May 14- I am FINALLY well. Yipee! I take a nice, relaxing trip to the countryside in Iowa to visit my cousins. NO DOGS. Double- Yipee!

May 17 – I am home in one piece. I think my time-released muscle relaxers are making me doze off periodically. Not a good drive. I’m lucky I didn’t have a head-on collision with a semi on I-35. EEK. NO time to assess yard damage. I’m tired.

May 22 – OMG, someone has left me a present on the back porch. A dead female downy woodpecker. Thank you! Just what I wanted.

May 23 (a.m.) – Off to Lowe’s I go to buy 6 more bags of dirt. Six is the magic number. I fill in who knows how many tiny holes just big enough to potentially turn my ankle in plus four large areas I know I have filled in about nine times now. AND IT IS ONLY MAY.

May 23 (p.m.) – Mom and I go nursery shopping and I bring home more tomato plants to add to the five I have planted already (in pots on the patio). Last weekend Boris ran over my tomato plant that had sixteen blossoms on it while he was trying to play fetch with my dad. Goodbye tomatoes. Today I bring home four large tomato plants that already have tomatoes on them. Lucy picks one large green tomato off before I can even get them into the back yard. I AM SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING MURDER.

So, today I have worked my tail off in my yard from 7:30 a.m. until almost 10:00 p.m. I planted my new Magnolia tree to replace the one that just died. Lucy is eating the dirt, or the root fragments, or whatever out of the basin around the tree. No wonder she has a huge tumor hanging off her side. It’s probably a hernia full of dirt. Who knows. I have dug up two Elderberry bushes that seem to be anchored to the core of the earth. I make another trip to Lowe’s (they should give me a frequent flyer card!) to buy NINE MORE bags of dirt. I use four to fill in one of the craters from the largest Elderberry, two to fill in yet more holes that I just filled in this morning, and save the remainder for impending pothole maintenance. The former home of the largest Elderberry bush is where I plant my largest tomato plants, laden with tomatoes (that Lucy didn’t get to pick yet). I configure an elaborate barrier around the tomatoes made of the 3 foot tall garden fencing that I use around my flowerbeds, which doesn’t keep my lovelies out. They just jump over. Well, Boris does and Lucy will walk through when Boris happens to knock part of the fencing open. I am wondering at what time tomorrow will they jump in there, smashing my basil which is planted in front of the tomatoes, and pick my tomatoes. Maybe I can make the wager with Otis. If he wins the bet, I could let him outside. He is fascinated with trying to get out, but the last time I actually let him out in the yard he acted bewildered and didn’t know what to do with himself. Otis is not an outdoorsy kind of guy. He needs to lounge inside and just look pretty.

So, anyone who knows me knows how much I love my pets. And they also know how much I love my yard and that gardening is my hobby and that I have spent countless hours and thousands of dollars turning my yard into the haven I envisioned when I bought my house. This yard looked barren and depressing when I moved in. I have a neighbor who brings her company over to look at my gardens. What a compliment! I really don’t know what to do about Lucy and Boris. They have always dug a little, and I have purposely left them a large hole next to the garage where it is just shaded enough for them to dig in the cool dirt and take a nap in the shade. I also leave them a pool to lay in at their leisure in the summertime. This massive destructive behavior has really just come to a head. It’s getting worse all the time! Lucy is 12 and Boris is 8. Old dogs, new tricks? Maybe. Boredom? Who knows. They seemingly weren’t bored before, so why now? I don’t get it. People say to give them more attention, but I don’t want to when they act like this! I need Cesar Milan, the Dog Whisperer. Hey may be my only hope.

So, if anyone can get me in touch with Mr. Milan, you will be my best friend forever. Thank you!

Lovin’ God’s Creatures April 1, 2010

I tried to make a new friend the other day. I say “TRY” because though I am quite positive I saved his life, I’m pretty sure I was perceived as nothing but a threat. At least at first.

I went out back and saw a tiny squirrel foraging for seeds in my garden. It saw me and ran. Quickly Boris snatched him up and the squirrel began screeching. I ordered Boris to release him and he did, so I picked up the little guy. He was screaming bloody murder and bit me on my finger! I cannot imagine what a bite from an adult squirrel would feel like. All I could see were two tiny bottom teeth and his jaws were as strong as a vice. I held him for a while and stroked his little head gently. I finally let him down because I knew he was extremely uncomfortable and wanted to get away. I wondered where he went so quickly, and then when I went into my bathroom I saw through the window that he was climbing up the side of my house! I had taken him to the front porch, so I think when he tried to go to the back yard he must have spotted Boris once again and was trying to figure out where to go. He finally climbed all the way up my house, next to the bathroom window, up under the eave. It wasn’t very difficult to open the window and snatch him up. He must have thought he was for sure doomed.

So, I placed the little guy in a towel and took him outside. He curled up in a little ball in my lap and let me pet him for quite a while. He kept repositioning himself and when he would curl up, he would hide his head under his tail and peek out. It was so adorable! Finally I decided he needed to go home (wherever that was!). I saw what looked like a sibling crawling around on my tree in the back corner of the yard. So, I took him to the tree and let him loose. He crawled up and nestled himself in a little crevice on a large branch for the rest of the evening! I’m not sure where he went, but maybe he will come visit me again some day. That was such a cool experience getting to hold a little squirrel! Definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity.

visitor of the day March 26, 2010

I love feeding the birds. I can’t wait to see who comes to my yard next. I finally have wrens this year. I may have spotted one last year once or twice, but I think I have a pair now. Yipee! I hope they set up home in one of my birdhouses :0) Someone is building a nest in one of them, I’m just not sure who yet.

This feeder has a mixture of tree nuts I purchased at Wild Birds Unlimited. I love that place. Even if you don’t buy anything, it’s fun to go in and look around.

Carolina Wren dining on mixed nuts

since feeling is first March 19, 2010

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all the flowers. Don’t cry
- the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids’ flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph

and death i think is no parenthesis

~ee cummings

One of my friendly visitors…… March 16, 2010

Redbellied Woodpecker

I make sure to keep plenty of mixed nuts and suet in supply for these beauties!