Compulsive Pastime

My yard inspiration has now become an addiction. Every Tuesday, (my day off), at the very LEAST I mow and water the lawn. Thursday, finds me planting Wednesday's free flowers. So much to do and so little time... Mornings and evenings have either myself or Aunt Judy watering.

And my addiction isn't contained to the Home Ranch. Driven by this new compulsion, I not only got veggies for the garden at the Hill, I kept them alive in my back porch, for WEEKS and delivered them alive and healthy! Of course Mom and Dad were taking too long getting them into the ground causing me to have visions of dried up, neglected plants.  Finally, distraught, I took it upon myself to plant them with the Little Girls.

It was fun, although the girls despaired over the cherry tomatoes, and were confused why in the world I got so many different types of peppers. I took the leftovers. (These, and wild growth, might be the only plants we have in our garden if my experiments with seeds keep failing...) I'm interested to see how things grow, particularly Heidi's strawberries. They were looking a little peckish, but we'll see. Either way, she picked them out and planted them herself.

As to my success rate at keeping plants alive, we'll, it's been mostly good, if I buy pregrown plants. (The seed thing is really not working. I don't know if it's my patience level or what). I have learned some lessons though, like don't keep plants in a closed car on an 80-90 degree day. Especially if they're a tad dry to begin with. And watering the snot out of them later to make up for it doesn't work either.

For the record, this bed now has more flowers in it.

Anyway, yard work is, work. So to make life easier I decided to put in a drip line, how hard can it be? It's actually shockingly simple. I put it together, and it worked. Water flowed. Which was my problem. Flowed, not dripped; I had half a dozen mini Old Faithfuls going off in the flower bed. Those were my 1/2 gallon per hour drippers for the little flowers, meanwhile the 2 gallon per hour drippers on the roses are, dripping, very slowly and steadily. Houston we have a problem.


After consulting the All Knowing Man With the Beard, I discovered I need a water pressure suppressor. To test this theory I got some pressure regulated drippers. Sho' 'nouf, he was right. So now the hunt is on to find the right "thang".

Watering for Rain

It had been a dry winter. Not a lot of rain, so Daddy rented a sprinkler system to make sure the ground wouldn’t be bone dry by the time it came to planting. About a week after he was done the rains came. Buckets of it; almost two inches in as many days, with thunder, lightning and hail. 


Daddy said he was feelin’ real good until it rained; He says it shows God’s got a sense of humor. He was able to laugh as he said it. We got off lucky. The almond farmers weren’t so lucky. Some got hit real bad, depending on where the thunderstorms stuck.

There ain't nothin' anyone could do, but wait, pray and see what's gonna happen next.

Must be Spring

Water's in the canal. It's supposed to rain tonight, but summer's comin'.

The other night I was driving home, the moon was full and glistening off hotbed plastic making it look like water. It was AWESOME! It looked kinda like this......Only brighter and shinier.

Wish you could have been there to see it.

Weekend Warrior

I took this from my brother's Facebook Wall. Even though I wasn't in it, it's awesome, check it out!


"The little sisters wanted to make a short film so one afternoon and a little help from the big brothers and here it is for your enjoyment. Comments and Sharing is encouraged."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlc0TFfdzKE