Shades of Ireland

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Long night

Insomnia------- again! About once a month, I have one of those nights where it doen't matter how tired I am, I just cannot sleep. It is a real bummer because I have alot things to do tomorrow. On top of that, I am not one of those women who manages to be cheerful at all costs. When I'm tired, I am cranky---- at best. Pity my family.......

I am wondering if this is a side effect of impending menopaus. Now that I think about it, I did not have a single sip of Diet Pepsi today. I freely admit to being an addict. Wonder if this is withdrawel????

I could clean house, fold clothes or even peel potatoes to be canned tomorrow. Nah....... Beans and potatoes will be there in the morning with or without me.

Ice cream is calling me........

Sunday, July 3, 2011

New Garden

I admit it. I take a great deal of pride in my garden. Neil calls it my "Happy Place".  Last year there just was not time or energy to establish a new garden area. The move and all the different things that we had to do to get started here was overwhelming. Plus I was sick with that tick fever stuff. So-- I decided to take a year off from gardening. Yeah. RIGHT.
Of course, I didn't do the rational thing. I tried to sneak in a few raised beds.

This spring, we did a total do-over. I ended up moving two of the three old raised beds. Here is what it looked like when I started.



Good help is really hard to find these days....... Anyway, I decided that the raised beds were too close together so we straightened them out and made the paths wider. We also either put down that black weed barrier or cardboard and then mulched it with wheat straw.



I just gave up on having chickens at the house. They just lured in the varmints and the dogs barked all night. I moved the pens and the bantams over to the barn and we are all much happier.


It very quickly became obvious that my dogs were really enjoying having a nice soft place to bury their treasures and to lounge around on. At night, the deer roamed through the yard and enjoyed having a snack provided. We used cattle panels to enclose it and then had to go back and add a layer of chicken wire around the bottom to keep out the marauding hordes of rabbits.



I ran out of money and dirt to build more raised beds so we went with a large area of conventional row type garden. I had been tempted to sell my tiller but I am glad now that I kept it.


This is what it looked like this morning. I haven't gotten the whole thing mulched but I like it so much that I plan to work on getting the rest done.......... soon. In my spare time....



Left to right : Crowder peas in rows, raised bed of sweet potatoes and some kind of vine that I planted and forgot, young pepper plants, monster tomato plants. 


Rows of green beans that are keeping me pretty darn busy. I do have a soaker hose irrigating all of the rows. I fiddled around and let the plants in the raised beds get too big. Now I can't get the soaker hose in there with out doing alot of damage. I water all that stuff by hand which does marvelous things for my blood pressure and gives me something to do as the sun is rising.  
   
We are really watching these guys. I can't wait for my first BLT of the season.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Still No Computer

I have been pushed for time and money this summer so I haven't repaired the crashed computer or bought a new one. I borrow the kids or Neils when I can get a chance.
It has been miserably hot and dry for the last week or so. We try to get our work done early in the morning and late in the evening to avoid the worst of the heat. It just seems to me that we waste the entire day dragging around inside. I've read nearly everything in the house and have decided that this has GOT to stop. Starting Monday, we are going to have a full schedule of "inside" things to do------ cleaning and school. Boring but at least productive.

I had one of those "moments" a little while ago that just feel the need to write down somewhere. Bear with me...... LOL! I am in and interesting transition time in my life. Sometimes it is a great thing and other times it leaves me terribly sad. Like it or not, things are changing......

My oldest son, Charlie, works the night shift as a corrections officer. He is working his way into his lifelong dream of being in law enforcement. Ever since he was a very little guy, he has dreamed and pretended of being the " good guy". He wore a cowboy hat and a holster set nearly every waking moment. When Neil's uncle ran for sheriff, they gave him a plastic badge/campaigne button to wear. He wore it for many years........

This afternoon, he leaned in the doorway to my room to say goodbye before leaving for work. I cannot describe how I felt seeing my first born baby boy standing there in a black tee shirt with his buzzed off haircut, bad boy sunglasses, his badged unform shirt in one hand and his gunbelt draped over his shoulder...... It struck me how handsome and grown he is.

This is for real. Have Mercy!!!!  Growing old is not for sissies!!!!