Tag: gardening

Day #40 – Sprucin’ It Up

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I had a few things on my to-do list today that I wasn’t exactly looking forward to but they needed to get done. I needed to mow first and because it was 79 degrees at 9 am this morning the morning glories were still open. Unfortunately the humidity was at 73.

I knew I needed to start laying the pavers. First I needed to paint them. I would have loved to do a bright color, but the only paint I had enough of was the warm cinnamon. That works.

Next I had to lay them out and dig out the rest of the grass and dirt to try and get them as level as I could.

This took quite a while, but it was so satisfying when it was finally finished.

I brought some rocks from the backyard to the front to just add that little touch to the all gravel part.

Nothing ever grows in the small pots I have hanging by our front door. Since we’ve had some good luck with wandering Jew I decided to try them there.

While I was planting those I noticed our house numbers were looking a bit faded. Since our house is old I didn’t want to completely take them off because who knows If I could even get them back on so I just used a black sharpie.

So much better.

The last thing I had on my list was to pull out the dying cucumber vine, stake up the tomatoes and plant the pumpkins sprouts and marigold seeds.

See the little cat on the left? That’s Monkey and every time I’m pulling weeds or planting anything, mainly when I’m a sweaty mess, she has to come and rub all over me.

I hope the cloches keep the pumpkin sprouts safe until they are bigger. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Day #36 – Unexpected Project

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I actually slept in until 9:30. It was much needed because lately I’ve only been getting about 5 hours sleep a night. Donny had been up for a while and was outside starting to bring all of our bulk pickup trash to the curb. We’ve just been piling it up in the back because it took 2 weeks to get a time slot. It’s tomorrow and we didn’t want to have it out for two weeks because that annoys our neighbors. While he did that I decided to weed the front beds. That didn’t take long so I started on the edge of the patio because it had gotten so weedy. Donny suggested putting pavers and I thought that was a fabulous idea. We needed to go get some gravel for this strip around the front stoop. When I started digging up the weeds so I could put the pavers down I noticed that there was SO much gravel under the weeds and dirt. I started separating the gravel by hand, but that was taking forever so I got out a colander and started sifting. 100 degree weather be damned.

Next thing I know I have been out there for almost 5 hours. One thing about me is I love rocks. LOVE them! Ever since I was a little kid and my family and I went to Concan to go camping and I filled the trunk with river rocks. So many that my parents had to remove so many of them because we had no room for our stuff. I’m only about halfway through but I filled 3 buckets with the rocks and have another big bucket full of beautiful sifted dirt.

Luckily I was at a stopping point when this started blowing through. The wind was wicked.

It came out of nowhere. I mean stuff was BLOWING around. Donny and I stood outside for a while watch the clouds swirl around. All of that and it probably only rained about 20 drops.

If anyone ever wonders why Donny doesn’t really help me do my weird projects it’s because he hates being hot and sweaty, where I love it. I would rather be outside than inside any day. But, he went to the grocery because he said since I was doing all of this he was going to make dinner. He did not disappoint.

P.S.

We asked all of the neighbors if they had any bulk items they needed to throw away and if they did, just add them to the pile.

It was unfortunately the dog abusers haven’t been home all day so I didn’t get to ask them, but they need to call and make their own appointment because if I look out my side bedroom window I’m greeted by this.

Maybe I’ll see if they’re home in the morning.

Day #14 – Hard Day’s Work

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I love a hard day’s work. I sleep better. I feel like I have accomplished what I set out to do. It’s just a good feeling. This morning I got back to work on the windows. I had to sand them to make sure I didn’t have a lot of loose paint. I don’t love painting, but I do love the results.

I didn’t tape off the other windows. This was my last one and my hand was so tired I didn’t think I could free hand it as well.

It’s amazing what a difference a little paint can make. I still need to scrape off the old paint on part of the window, but the new paint hadn’t dried yet.

While I was outside painting Donny was cutting back the Morning Glory and he also cut the giant sunflower off.

Once you remove the outer cover you will find all of the sunflower seeds.

I’ll use them to plant more next year.

By this time I was a sweaty mess so I went inside to cut up a watermelon. The chickens love when I do this because they also get a treat.

I didn’t want to stay inside because I was already sweaty. I cleaned out the grill and started weeding the garden. I found aphids. I cannot stand those bugs so I sprayed them with Thieves and dumped out morning coffee grounds where I saw the little rascals. I don’t know if that will work, but they didn’t seem to like it at all.

My poor hydrangea was not happy in the pot we had her in so I decided to try and save her by planting her in the ground. I hope she lives. She is getting new growth since we moved her out of the direct sunlight, but she still wasn’t thriving. We’ll see how she does in the front.

I have a plan for the planter she was in. It has a trellis because Jasmine was originally planted there but it died during the winter.

I finally hung up our flags. I think they are perfect for Summer.

We had to run to Walmart when Donny got home and although they did not have pumpkin seeds, I did find this poor unloved plant for $5. Let’s see if I can nurse it back to health.

Two completely random things that happened today. I found that Walmart makes gallon sized tea bags. I make tea almost everyday and these are going to make it so much easier.

I’ve also never had a cat that likes to watch TV. We had the soccer game on and as soon as she saw what it was she climbed her little butt right up to the screen and tried to get the ball.

My thoughts and prayers are still with the people affected by the floods in the Hill Country. I heard that Kerrville and Hunt are being evacuated due to more rain coming. It’s such a devastation situation.

Day #3

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For some reason I woke up again at 5 am. Hannah was also awake so we decided to go for an early morning walk. The weather was perfect. The rain had cooled everything off and it was cloudy so we didn’t even feel like it was the end of June.

We stopped at the creek and actually saw a cool looking snake. We only walked 2.5 miles but it was enough to energize me for the rest of the day.

Today I decided that I would clean the patio. The city is finished with the road work and the walls, corners and floors were a dusty, cobwebby, dead bugs mess.

Our house will never be perfect. It was built in 1961. The patio (it’s actually a carport but works better as a patio) needs a new coat of paint, but it’s not on my “I really need to do this” list. It took a lot of brushing and going up and down the step ladder what seemed like a million times, but I got it done. I vacuumed the rugs, wiped down all of the furniture and Hannah did her summer chalk art.

It was great to not be in direct sunlight for this project. It was still hot and humid though. I think I found my sweet spot of how long I can work outside and then still have enough stamina to get the things done inside that I need to do.

This was just the cleaning day. I still have lights (the ones on the table and in the laundry basket) that we need to put out.

I still have plants that need to go out also. The jack o’lantern bucket is for our cat Monkey to drink out of. She’s very picky, only likes certain things and that’s one of them. Another storm was blowing in when I took this.

The sun hits our yard in such a strange was that I’m always moving plants around so they don’t burn up.

I’m not fond of the metal shelves and would love to find a wooden cabinet so everything isn’t all out there, but for right now this works, even if it isn’t very pretty.

By 4 I realized that I had only had some granola for breakfast. If you go to Aldi these chip/crackers are so good, especially with hummus. I used the Yuka app to scan in the barcode to see if they were healthy and they both got good ratings.

The kitten wanted to go outside because the other cats were out there. We can’t just let her out yet so I remembered we had this harness when we were taking care of the baby possum. She didn’t fight it too badly.

I am really enjoying the “do something to improve your life by 1%” daily challenge. Did I really want to brush down and clean every surface today? Not really, but I’m so glad that I did because it just makes me happy to get it done. It makes sitting outside so much more peaceful without looking at the dust and dead bugs hanging from the ceiling. I love the space especially at night.

You don’t need a fancy house to have a cozy, happy life. You just need to make it a place that you love to be.

P.S.

Donny brought home this cool Tshirt for me. He ran to Schlotzky’s to get one of his salespeople a sandwich and asked if the sold them because the workers were wearing them. The owner was there and he just gave him one. I think it’s a pretty cool shirt.

Day #2 – Side Garden

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I accidentally woke up at 5 am. I made coffee and waited for the sun to come up.

When I went to let the chickens out I noticed our Morning Glories are blooming.

Since this is day 2 of day 100 doing what needs to be done to make my life better, I started weeding the front beds. We have 2 gardens. We consider the one in the front mine and the side one Donny’s although they are my plants in it.

Donny has been busy, busy, busy at work. That means long hours and getting home every day after 7. So I felt it was up to me to get the side gardens in shape. Plus I googled when to plant pumpkins in our zone and we need to have them in the ground by July. I have no idea where we are going to plant them because they take a LOT of room. This is what I started with.

Such a weedy mess.

After almost 4 hours this was the result.

I twisted dragged the hydrangeas to the front because they were burning up where they were. I moved all of the random sunflowers Donny planted, some of my avocados and plants that didn’t have a home where the hydrangeas were.

I weeded the enclosed garden, but once plants start bearing vegetables they get big and take over. I feel like I accomplished so much today that wasn’t on my normal to-do list. That side garden is looking so much better. There’s still a lot of work to be done in both the front and back, but I feel if I can work on it everyday it will get done.

There was no rain in the forecast at all so I was surprised when the dark clouds blew in and it started pouring. I’m glad it did because it cooled everything off and filled up our rain barrel. I’d used quite a bit of the water in the gardens.

Because I cannot get over how patient O’Malley is with Ruth:

She’s a little stinker.

Let’s see what Day 3 brings.

Day #1

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I saw two videos that really made me think. In the first one a man says “If you stop effing around for 100 days and everything you know that you needed to do you did, just think how much ahead you’d be”. Then I saw another video where a woman was explaining that if you just did 1% more every day just think how much everything would improve. I completely agree with both of them. I always have things on my to-do list that I either just don’t feel like doing or I don’t make time to actually do them. So, today is Day #1 of me getting my shit done and improving all parts of my life every day. It might not be something big, it could actually be quite small, but an improvement is and improvement.

Today was an outside day. I started calling them this when I was doing my funeral directing/embalming apprenticeship at a funeral home in a small central Texas town. Every single Wednesday I had to mow, weed eat, blow off the grass and leaves and mow that path on the land behind the funeral home. It was hard work, but as an apprentice you always had to do the not so fun jobs. This is what I always think of when it’s an outside day.

Well, I mowed, which is a normal thing for me to do every week, but today I cleared off some brush that Donny had cut down. I also got to work on the chicken coop’s Johnson grass and weed problem. Y’all, it was HOT. I had to use my pick axe to get to the roots. Some I couldn’t get to due to the board skirting so I had to use scissors to cut them down as far as I could.

This was the mess I was wrangling. It doesn’t look that bad in the picture, but the weeds were taller than I am. I finally got through them after a whole lot of sweat equity.

Our coop is made of recycled materials. It has 3 stories in the back and a small run in the front. They are really only in it at night.

It has a latching door, but we fortify it with the screen and boards so that the night critters can’t get in.

The fence line plants are growing back and the chickens are enjoying all of the shade.

We are finally getting cucumbers. The ones I have bought from Aldi have all been so bitter. I’m happy to say that these are so good and not bitter at all. Last night I made a salad with cucumbers, tomato and red onion. Delicious.

When I finished all of the outside work that I was going to do for the day, the weather said that the “feels like” was 102. I could actually wring my shirt out.

I could not wait to jump in the shower. Did I mention that I’m allergic to Johnson grass? Ugh

One of the highlights of the day is that the construction crew is officially finished with our street work. They also did something I’ve never seen before. Because they had to dig up a lot of our yard, they brought a big truck and were spraying grass seed.

Ours was growing back pretty well, but hey, I’ll take it.

Garden Growth

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We did not do a big garden this year. I got the seeds started late, but I am proud to say that everything I am growing is from seeds. Not a big flex to anyone who gardens, but it is for me because I’ve never been able to do that before. Everything I’ve ever tried to start from seeds, except the cantaloupe last year, has died.

This squash is in the enclosed garden. It should be ready in a few days. I’m embarrassed to say that this garden is half empty. We do have tomatoes, tomatillos (they came up from the crop last year) and cucumbers. I finally got around to weeding this area last week because it was a mess.

This is the before.

And the after.

I do love my little front bed, but it doesn’t get as much sun as I would like. The cucumbers are starting to flower along with the tomato plants so that’s encouraging.

Donny planted this butterfly plant a few years ago and this year it has really taken off. I can’t wait for the hot pink flowers to really open up.

I have always bought a basil plant every year. This year I decided to try seeds and they are actually growing.

We even have a corn stalk. A piece of corn from the bird feeder must have fallen down and sprouted. I thought it was funny so I just left it to grow.

Our hostas that did not do very well last year, and we even thought they had died off, are going crazy.

I decided to plant some avocado seeds and I guess now I have a mini orchard.

We had some sunflower seeds that we had harvested from one of our giant sunflowers a couple of years ago. Donny planted them in the backyard and they are doing their thing.

I’m still trying to work on the back corner, but we’ve just been getting so much rain lately, I haven’t had the chance. I did make a little bell wreath for the patio on one of those rainy days.

So that’s the outside update. Fingers crossed that everything grows.

Months ago Jackson asked me to get these two cat pictures from a thrift store. I loved them so it was a yes. Last night we realized that they reminded us of Queso and Bailey so I guess it’s like a little tribute to two of the best fur babies there ever were.

Holey Hell

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Medical stuffLeave a comment

Monday started off great. I got the front yard mowed. We had grabbed some honeysuckle off our trail 2 years ago and this year it has finally vined.

Some of the plants are growing back from where the neighbor butchered it bald. We still have plans for our cozy corner, but rain is heading our way for the next few days so all of that will have to wait.

Then, while I was mowing the backyard, my foot slid into the infamous hole. I had marked it with a faucet cover the last time I mowed, but apparently it had fallen in. This is what the hole looked like.

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I KNEW it was there, but in the heat of mowing, I completely forgot about it. It’s about 14″ deep and my foot slid down pointed and I jammed my whole foot.

After falling to the ground and yelling some not so nice words, I kept mowing. It hurt. Bad. That, however, didn’t stop me from going on to my next project which is our shed. That poor thing was chipping and the wood needs tending too. I got our some wood screws and tightened the panels.

Next I sanded and scraped the loose paint off. Everything looks better with a tan so I used the brown storm coat paint I already had.

By this time my foot was killing me so I only got the front done. I have more plans for it but had to stop for the day. My foot was swelling and bruising. I iced it that night but it couldn’t sleep well because of the pressure the covers put on it. The next morning we were concerned that I might have fractured it so off I went AGAIN to the bougie ER.

After the x-ray it was determined that it was just a really bad sprain so they sent me home with this beauty.

It actually does help stabilize my foot, but I am so ready to be fully functional again. Rain is supposed to let up by Saturday so I’m planning on at least finishing the paint on the shed. Fingers crossed.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

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I am extremely late this year starting my seeds. Will they sprout? There is no telling. I don’t know why I was putting it off, but yesterday I began the task of getting them all done.

I have no room in the house so I put in the enclosed garden.

After this was taken I went out into the shed and found trays to put them in so that I can keep them moist.

I had picked up some garlic at the Asian Market last week and it had already started sprouting so I decided to go ahead and plant those.

I didn’t get all of them planted so they are sitting with damp paper towels on them in a pie plate. I did manage to get 8 of them done.

I cut up our celery for the week and decided to plant the “celery butt”. I can’t wait to see if it will grow. I did it last year and it did grow but it got too hot and it died. Hopefully I’ll have better luck this year.

I also planted the white part of some green onions. I have a lot of luck with those. They grow fast and you can just snip off the green part to use in cooking. I didn’t take a pic of those. I just forgot.

I was pleased to see that our hosta is coming back in full force. I swear it grows at least an inch a day.

The plant we got when we got the Hosta is coming in. It’s a bit of a slower grower but, I’ll take it, because at least it’s coming back.

We still have the construction going on. They are actually moving quickly, but it’s a mess. They are digging on the opposite side and our side will be next.

I keep telling myself it’s for the greater good.

The Lawn Mower Saga

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

I have mentioned before how we were loaning our lawn mower to Jimmy because his broke and he walks around mowing lawns in the neighborhoods around our house. Almost daily during the summer he would knock on our door asking to borrow our mower. We thought it was a little weird when he started coming back the beginning of January to borrow it again. We were leaving our lawn dormant until the weather started heating up again and Jimmy would ask time and time again if we wanted him to mow our yard.

Anyway, Donny went to get the mower out of the shed so he could mow inside our greenhouse. He came in and asked me where the mower was. I told him Jimmy borrowed it about a week ago. He normally just puts it back in the shed when he’s finished. A couple of days later Jimmy knocked on our door and told me that he had it at his friend’s house and it was “taken”. Hannah and I were walking out the door because she was late for work so I couldn’t talk to him very long, but he told me that he would buy us a new one. I was not a happy camper and I’m pretty sure he waited so long to tell me because he sold it.

A few weeks ago I saw him walking down the side street by my house PUSHING A LAWN MOWER! By the time I had run into the house to tell the kids I was going to find him, grab my keys, he was GONE. I drove around looking for him, but he must have seen me and took off.

I saw him about a week after that cutting through the neighbor’s house two doors down and across the street. I tried to find him again with no luck.

My landlords called me to find out how the plumbers did and I told them that I was sorry that our yard was not mowed and then told them why. It turns out they know Jimmy and said that he’s homeless. He had lied and said that he lived with his mother. He had been staying at this homeless camp and with some unsavory people a few streets over. My landlord said that if she sees him she’s going to text me so I can find out just what happened.

It sucks when you think you are doing a good thing by helping someone and they completely screw you over.

Anyway, Tuesday we got a delivery.

I loved out old mower. It was a better one than this one, but we don’t have an extra $600 dollars to buy another Troy-bilt. This one cost half that and it’s going to take some getting used to because it has rear wheel propulsion instead of front and it’s so fast. It’s like walking a great Dane that isn’t leash trained. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

Here’s the before of our poor lawn.

We have so much work to do on it this Spring. It used to be beautiful St. Augustine. Not so much anymore.

It does look a lot better after I mowed.

And after being sick for almost 2 weeks I’m finally feeling like myself. I had enough energy to deep clean the house and that in itself makes me feel so much better. I love to open up the curtains and let the natural light in.