Soggy Sunday

Needless to say, I got no planting down outside today or any other outside work. It has been raining, albeit a nice, light rain, all day! I put a garbage can out by the corner of the front porch because we need our gutters fixed. This is what it collected between noon and now (it's about 6:30 p.m.):


I think it is something like an 18 gal. garbage can, but it could be bigger, I'm not sure. Either way, that's a lot of water.


On a brighter note, here are some pictures of my flowers, or at least a few of them. They always look better and greener in the rain! My irises were beautiful this year. On the side of the house, there are large clumps of yellow and purple ones. They REALLY bloomed.

And here is just one of my roses. Look at all the blooms! It's going to be beautiful this year! Makes me want to go out and get more roses. All of mine seem to be doing pretty well this year. Even the minis are healthy and budding like crazy!





Okay, so I wasn't able to do any planting, so I went to the Farmer's Market and picked up some fresh asparagus. They had lots of fresh produce and lots of bedding plants. Then I went looking for the eggplant plants, but none of them looked very good. I did end up with a grape tomato plant and some jalapeno peppers. I'll have to check again later this week. Since I had to be inside, I got my laundry done, canned some more rhubarb sauce, made a pound cake (I needed something to try out the rhubarb sauce!), and read some of my book.

I also cooked for a change--I haven't made a meal for several weeks. Since I had my asparagus, I decided to make a decent supper. I grilled a small steak, made garlic-asiago mashed potatoes, and asparagus. Yumm! I could only eat about 1/2 of it, but it was awesome! So now back to my book.

I hope you had a good a day and as productive as I did! Have a great week!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

There are not enough hours in the day or weekend. Today there is just a constant light rain--actually somewhere between a mist and a rain, but enough to keep me from doing the outdoor work I wanted to get done. I'm not majorly complaining because we can always use the rain, and in a month I'll be wishing we had some, but I still have a lot of things to get done outside.

I did get my tomatoes planted yesterday (yea!!!!!). I have one little chocolate pepper plant to put out and some green beans to plant. And I kind of want to put out a couple of eggplants. I'll have to see how wet it is out there. I may still be able to do it today if I hurry up. Maybe I'll even take a minute and go to the Farmer's Market. I think the Sunday one has started.

Then this afternoon, if it's still raining, I think I'll can some rhubarb sauce and finish my laundry. Then there's the book for my book club that I still have to finish (or at least get close!). Well, stop writing about it and go get it done.

Have a great day everyone!

Ya Gotta Love Weekends!

So what are weekends to homeowners? Why fix-it times, of course! That's what this weekend is. I had a great Friday night with some friends. Lots of good conversation, some pizza and a couple of beers--oh and some trivia contest that went downhill fast!!!!!

Now it's Saturday morning and I was up bright and early (yeah, well didn't actually sleep much so getting up wasn't hard!). Got out around 7 and dug up the sprinkler line--

Yeah, I know...what a mess!! Then I went to Reams Sprinklers and told them I needed to fix my line and what do I do? Ha! Apparently they get this a lot! Anyway, they were great about explaining what to do and giving me the parts I needed (I was smart enough to take pictures and have something to go by). I came home and cut out the bad parts and replaced what I needed. Tested it out and it didn't leak, so Woo Hoo!!!!!!!



This is the finished product:


It'll take a little time for the dirt to settle and the grass to meld back in, but it'll happen.


Now onto the next project!!!!

A Week in Michigan

I had a very nice week in Michigan! As part of my work, we spent this last week at a Tribal Gathering in Petoski, MI. I met lots of nice people and learned a lot too! We flew into Traverse City and then drove into Petoski. On our way back, we got to do a little sightseeing. We went to a couple of wineries and then had dinner at a brewery. Hmmmm, do I see a pattern here? Here are some pictures of us:

This was the view outside my hotel window in Petoski.













Here is most of our crew (sans me--I was taking the picture) and a couple of our federal friends having supper at a pizza place downtown.













And here is the whole MCWIC group at a winery during our "off duty" sightseeing time:



It was a great week and we did a lot of good work. This is an amazing team and I'm really proud to be a part of it!

Another beautiful day!!!

This day was absolutely straight from heaven. Yeah, I know, they all are, but this one was especially nice. In fact, the whole weekend has been beautiful. I got a few more things planted today and got the lawn mowed. I tried cleaning out the window well, but I don't think that's the problem with the window leaking--I think I'm going to have to caulk and seal around the window well. Yep, yet another weekend! My list for next weekend is getting much, much longer!

I was really hoping that I could get some pictures of my handiwork and let you see it, but I think I need to mulch first and get some flowering plants planted so that there is some color. Maybe next weekend!

I got most of my laundry done and now I have to pack. Did I mention that I've been up since 3:30 a.m.? Yeah, I don't get it either. I think I miss my doggie. I'm not used to being here alone and I worry about him even though I know that Heather will take good care of him. It's not easy for us oldies to adapt to something different! On the other hand, thank heavens he has Heather. He'd really be lost if he were here alone for a whole week!

Have a great week!

Busy Weekend

I got another wonderful opportunity to spend time with my grandchildren this last week. I went to Grand Island on Thursday night to stay with them while Heather was in Washington, D.C. for work and Fred was at the Fire Station. We had lots of fun. Wyatt is a rambunctious almost 3 year old and Bella is a 1 1/2 year old "on the move" little doll. We played and danced and sang and watched videos. On Saturday when I left, Wyatt asked to go with me. Granted, Grandma was so tired, that taking a 3 y/0 with her didn't sound like a good idea, but the fact that he asked, just warmed my heart!

Shakespeare stayed with Heather this time as I am headed out of town for a few days. Last night was surprisingly tough for me without him. It's amazing how used you get to the company of a pet. He won't even come to me anymore because he's afraid if he gets too close I'll put medicine in his ears, but he still follows me everywhere.

So when I got home yesterday, I watered the front yard because my new grass was getting very dry. (Guess I should have mowed first!). I didn't get to mow because the grass was wet. Duh! So that will happen today. I did discover, however, that I have a break in my underground sprinkler line so next weekend I'll be working at fixing that as well as repairing one of the sprinkler heads. I really wanted to get my garden planted, but that will not happen until next weekend either! So what else did I get done? Got some more plants moved, some new perennials planted, some weeds removed and some of the back yard cleaned up. Then I picked some rhubarb and canned three small jars of rhubarb sauce.

Okay, I know it seems like a waste canning such a small amount (these are 1/2 pint jars) but I didn't want the rhubarb to go to waste. If I have time next weekend I'll can some more and maybe some larger jars of Rhubarb pie filling. This sauce is delicious and can be used on cake, ice cream, pancakes, etc. And since it's canned in a water bath canner, it's easy to do even just a little. Yummmmmmm!