In Memory of Meme

Said goodbye, turned around
And you were gone, gone, gone
Faded into the setting sun,
Slipped away
But I won’t cry
Cause I know I’ll never be lonely
For you are the stars to me,
You are the light I follow

I’ll See you again, oh
This is not where it ends
I will carry you with me, oh
Till I see you again

I can hear those echoes in the wind at night
Calling me back in time
Back to you
In a place far away
Where the water meets the sky
The thought of it makes me smile
You are my tomorrow

I’ll See you again, oh
This is not where it ends
I will carry you with me, oh
Till I see you again

Sometimes I feel my heart is breaking
But I stay strong and I hold on cause I know
I’ll see you again, oh
This is not where it ends
I will carry you with me, yeah yeah

I’ll See you again, oh
This is not where it ends
I will carry you with me, oh
Till I see you again
Till I see you again,
Till I see you again,
Said goodbye turned around
And you were gone, gone, gone.

"See You Again" Song and Lyrics by Carrie Underwood 

Boring day today

Today was a rather blah day. It was raining (surprise surprise) again and really cold. High 50's low 60's. I am hoping it doesn't do anything to my warm weather loving veggies. I haven't seen it this cool this far into June. I know I shouldn't be complaining. I mean we are actually having a spring for once. But I long for the 80's, low humidity so that my joints don't freak out.

Yesterday we had a downpour and we had this beautiful rainbow after. It was huge!

Double Rainbow. It was right outside our little strip mall. I had to go to Kohl's for shoes for Matt and I. 

I love how bright it was. Look at all the colors!

So, today, nothing really got done. I didn't go out and check on my gardens. I did my food shopping for the little bits that I needed and the normal dish washing and picking up.

I started painting my bathroom. I'll do another post on that later. Tomorrow I get my new washer and dryer and they go in the bathroom. It needed a new color badly. The previous owners never even finished painting one of the walls. It was really horrible. Now I am in the mood to paint the hall and maybe even my kitchen. LOL.

I have found many new blogs that I have been enjoying recently. So, here is a little shout out to those blogs. Hope you enjoy them as much as I have.


Rocky Oak Homestead

The Rehomesteaders

Down to Earth

Thy Hand Hath Provided

5 Acres and a Dream

Oklahoma Transient

How does my garden grow?

Even though we have been getting tons of rain the past couple of weeks (a little over 6 inches so far with more to come), my garden seems to be doing well. I added straw to pretty much all the beds (if a plant hasn't come up yet, I haven't put the straw down yet). The beds tend to dry up fast, so the straw helps keep in the moisture. Although we don't have that problem currently.

My snap peas have flowers all over them now. The plants also stand about 4 feet tall now. I swear they just sprouted up like crazy this last week. We had a few days of 90's, but once it went back down to the 60's and 70's, the peas went nuts growing. They really hate hot weather.

My tomatoes are still small, but they have gotten much bigger since I planted them. My basil has grow a bunch too. I thought I was going to loose the plant, but my dad helped to bring it back. I also got some garlic chives from my neighbor.

I lost a lot of onions to some little meal worm looking worm, but the ones that have survived, are growing great. If anyone knows of the little worm I am talking about, I would love to know the name of it.

My little baby corn coming up. This is my first year trying this. It was not part of my plans initially to try it, but my dad said to give it a go. They have been growing pretty fast so far.

I have two different kinds of cucumbers, summer squash, zucchini and potatoes coming up as well. I also have some butternut squash and half of my bush beans planted, but they haven't sprouted yet. I am hoping the rain and cool weather haven't done anything to the seeds.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Andrea hit us up here in New Hampshire this past Friday through Saturday afternoon. We got 4 1/2 inches of rain. We are suppose to get another 2 inches of rain tonight into tomorrow. I know I shouldn't be complaining about all the rain. At least we have it.

Our backyard has a low spot near our corn bed which is now a little lake. Hope the corn likes water. LOL. When I put my feet in the puddles, they disappear. In the spring time we have a really big "lake" in the yard. We even had ducks swimming in it. So funny the first time I saw it.

The little stream at the back of our yard is really full. Normally it has hardly any water in it. Now it is really up there and really moving down towards the pipe to take it under the street. The kids need to finish clearing all the twigs and crap out of it so it doesn't go over the banks.

I took it easy this past weekend, for once. I am always pushing myself to do things that I knew I was able to do before the RA and Fibro. I always pay for it the following days though. One would thing I learned my lesson by now, but nope. I am super stubborn.

Flower Garden that my Dad made

Last week, my dad came down to spend some time with my family. He kept me busy for sure. I was so wore out and sore by the time it was time for him to head home. While he was here, he designed and made me two flower gardens and 3 window boxes, which are on my deck railings and not under a window.

Looking up at the window box. Matt's favorite flower is marigolds, I love anything purple and pink.

The blooms on some of the marigolds are huge. This is my hand next to the biggest one. It is the size of my palm.

On to my flower beds by dad.

Picking the perfect spot. This is by my deck and you can see this spot from the street.

Dad edging out the bed. He pulled up all the grass after. We found out that I have lots of clay soil. Good thing I have been working on my raised beds for the veggies, so we had plenty of compost left over for him to use in the flower beds.

Half of the bed with the grass removed. Dad finally took a break after this and had Matt help him finish it up. I kept asking dad to take it easy. It was a little vacation for him after all. Last thing I need is him to drop dead while playing in my yard. 

 

Planting some petunias. He also planted the lilies that he had sent me awhile ago and found some Bee Balm, which he divided into two. That is the center piece of the garden.

Dad also surprised me by making this little garden next to my shed. Makes that eyesore a lot better to look at. He took the Hosta that I have tried to kill for the last 4 years. Dad said if anyone can kill Hosta, they better give up gardening. Guess I am good, cause I could never kill it. He also found my Strawberry pot and a heart shaped trellis that Steve bought at a yard sale. I actually have two of them.

After dad went home, I added a few more things to both flower beds.

I hung a planter inside the heart and planted some purple petunias in it. I also planted some pretty pink flowers in the strawberry pot. I forget what kind they are. Then I added some fake (yes fake) sunflowers to the window box. The box is not big enough to have real plants in it, that's why the fake flowers.

For this big bed, I just added the heart trellis, the hanging planter in the heart, with more purple petunias and a small flag off to the side. The heart trellis is between the Bee Balm and behind a lily. 

So, these are the little flower gardens that my dad did up for me, with a little touch by me. Hope you like them.

Garden Journal

I've been meaning to make one of these for years, but never seemed to get around to it. I know what I wanted in my journal, but wanted sheets already made. Some day I will figure out how to make my own printables.

A quick search through Google gave me a ton of links. I chose the pages from Terroir Seeds. They had pretty much everything I wanted as a free PDF file. You can also buy it as a bound printed book for a reasonable price. I didn't use all the pages in the book, but I did print most of them.

Here is a list of what I have in my journal and where to find them:

First thing is a planting calendar that you can find at Sprout Robot. Of course when I used this in February to plan my garden, it was all free. Now they have a limited free plan and two other pay plans. I checked out the limited free plan, and it is fine for me. All you do is put in your zip code and it pulls up a list of what you should plant and when. This year we had snow until around the end of March (some areas got snow into May!), so I had to change a few things and had to warm the beds up a little.

The next thing is some guidelines for seed germination that you can get at Terroir Seeds. It has a nice little temperature chart for seed germination.

Then I have a nice companion planting chart. I have never tried this, so doing this is kind of an experiment. When I mentioned to my dad that I was doing companion planting, he said that he hasn't herd anyone mention it in over 20 years. But he also said it works. He knows what he is talking about when it comes to plants and gardening. He has been doing it since he was a teen and studied it in school.

My garden planning page is next. I have it right next to my companion chart to make things easier. This picture was done before I changed my plans. it is now two pages long so that I can fit the rest of the bed at the bottom of this page and the three new beds that we built this past week.

Up next is lists for transplants and planting directly in the ground. I can keep track of when I planted the seed or plant, when harvested as well as other things.

Then there are several pages for me to jot down the daily weather observations.

Next there is a page to keep track of any pests and disease that might attack your garden. I have seen both in the past (tomato horn worms are pretty cool looking).

The rest of the journal has lined pages for each veggie and herb planted. Here I will be able to make more notes and include pictures of the plants and info from the seed packets.

I am hoping to continue the journal for many years to help me with my garden and to improve my harvests.

Monthly Plans for June

Food

• Strawberries
• Strawberry Shortcake
• Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream
• Homemade Strawberry Jam
• Peas
• Broccoli
• Sun Tea

Garden

• Plant remainder of the seeds and seedings
• Plant window boxes
• Plant hanging pots
• Welcome fairies into the garden
• Clean and fill bird feeders

Nature

• Longer days, shorter nights
• Full Strawberry Moon
• Dragonflies
• Butterflies
• Fireflies
• Bees
• Birds singing daily
• Frogs chirping nightly
• Smells of fresh cut grass

Fun Holidays

• National Dairy Month
• National Rose Month
• National Safety Month
• National Fishing Week
• Flag Day
• Father's Day
• Midsummer

Family Fun

• Strawberry picking
• Fishing
• Picnics at the park
• Have a campfire
• Toast marshmallows and make smores
• Walks on the beach
• Collect shells
• Make fairy and gnome houses