Life

I haven't blogged in a LONG time. It seems life gets busy, and you don't always have time for a blog entry. Twitter is good for those times, I have a twitter account now. In the last week I have spent 3 days at the hospital. My dad is diabetic, and he developed cellulitus (spelling?) and went to the hospital ER on Sunday, then on Monday he had to go back for a follow up Thursday he started seeing things from the pain killers they gave him. I took Friday off so I could do Spring planting, and ended up spending the entire day and most of the evening at the hospital. He checked in to the ER on Friday, and ended up in the Geriatric Psych unit. I visited him twice yesterday, and will again today. They're evaluating all his medication, doing a full round of tests, and trying to see if they can get him back to normal. He is still seeing things, and having issues.

I did plant my Good Friday pole beans, but on Saturday along with some onion sets. I'll have to plant the rest of the garden vegetables here and there as I just don't have a lot of time. I've got to manage dad's bills and accounts as well as my own until they decide what needs to be done and that won't be anytime soon.

Back to the drawing board

So much to do, so little time.

I have two Pelican Viper Kayaks for sale, their Sit-On-Top Kayaks. I will take $300 for them both (includes paddles, an extra skeg, and some extra parts), or $160 each. They're light blue, and lots of fun. I've gotten a canoe though to replace them, and need the space in the garage. :-) I'll also be listing them on craigslist btw.

I need to finish the garden, and will need to start my tomato plants soon. Likely going to plant my new dwarf trees this weekend and cover them with plastic.

I am back to drawing. I drew a bookmark for myself today with my new prismacolor markers. I had 13 from college, which dried out, and I had a few other art markers which suffered the same fate. So I replaced them with a 48 set that I would have died for in college. It didn't include ANY gray markers though, so I will have to get some of those, some vellum, and some other supplies (like a decent eraser). I also need to locate my sharpies, I have a big set of thick and fine line ones. While not as good as the prismacolors, they are versatile for some projects.

I'm planning to do some watercolor illustration as well, just have to do some preliminary sketches of what I have been thinking of.

My dad's health is continuing to decline, he needs prayers. I am very heartsick and worried about him. I am hoping for the best. But he said today he is having vision problems, and experiencing dizziness. He won't go to the doctor, and his next appointment is next month. I have to help him with his taxes this weekend. So I am going to talk to him about trying to move that up.

I also need to get serious about my diet again, and to begin exercising. My Achilles is healed and I am regaining strength in the leg, I just need to walk the dogs some and ride my bicycle to get it back up to par and shed all the weight I gained since last years back and Achilles injuries.

Oh, and my webhost fixed the issues. :-)

Posting in the wind...

I haven't posted an entry in a while. This will be SHORT.

• Considering redoing the blog, new template, focusing on my art and perhaps selling drawings, paintings, etc... if I decide to.
• Am wanting to trade my kayaks for an aluminum alloy canoe
• Still working on getting the garden ready for spring
• Love the warm weather we've been having
• Watching gas prices stabilize as the economy tanks
• Depressed by all the layoffs in Arkansas by Target, Walmart, Alltel, Molex, etc... you name it, it's very sad to see jobs leaving the area so quickly and so many of my friends being out of work
• Deleted my MySpace profile, focusing on Facebook for Social and LinkedIn for professional
• Frankly got tired of the lame layouts on MySpace, and like the consistent interface on Facebook more
• Filed my taxes and got my refunds back already

That's about it. I'll try and post more often, these lulls seem to happen when I get super busy, and that's how things have been for the last few months.

Blogging about the Garden

Time for an update. Winter has hit quicker than I thought. I've been scrambling to knock my holiday shopping out.

I still have work to do in the garden. Since I do not anticipate getting a greenhouse in the next couple of years I am going to un-tier the planting beds, and move one closer.. and take the top tiers to increase my planting area as separate beds. I still have to finish the beds on the side of the house. That means I need to take the trailer and load up another load of compost.

The wind blew one of my older rain barrels off it's pedestal and it was brittle from age so it cracked. I am going to have to get a new one in the spring. It and the section I saved off an older barrel though will be cut into four inch rings. Since the orchard has a few years to go before it's mature, I am going to put in six mounds between the trees and plant cantaloupe and watermelons in the spring.

I'm going to finish my dwarf orchard out with another Cherry Tree, a Bartlett pear, and a blue plum tree. I've also got a raspberry and a dewberry bush which will go in the garden. So if they all survive and do well I should have plenty of fruit someday. :-) These trees and shrubs are came in from Tennessee right before the cold freeze. So I potted them (they're twigs) and have them in the kitchen in the breakfast nook for nursing through the winter.

The holly tree I made cuttings from a week ago is still alive. The cuttings seem to be ok so far. There are some more plants I want from my grandma/dad's house but it'll be the spring before I'll do it now. There were freezing temps for three days, and my dogs water had ice for the last few days.

Update

A few weeks back I started riding to work again. I joined an adult kickball team, the Repeat Offenders, part of the Little Rock Kickball Association. I've gained about twenty pounds since I injured my back, some of it has been poor eating and the other limited mobility. My back had been feeling pretty good, and I was looking forward to Kickball, being able to ride my bike again, and all of that and then I injured my ankle. So over this weekend I've had it with a compression bandage on it, and the swelling is finally gone for the moment. It swelled up pretty bad yesterday when I mowed, and edged the yard but it's better today. I went grocery shopping, and will be planning my meals out now and working to drop the weight. If I am diligent, it'll take me 2 or 3 months to drop it, less if I can motivate myself to do some paddling at Lake Willastein. I want to get back to riding my bike, and riding my motorcycles. I think this week my ankle will be back up to the motorcycles. My dad is doing somewhat better, he's lost a lot of water on his legs thanks to the prescriptions the doctors have him on... and hopefully he'll continue to improve.

Tired, but can't sleep.

Haven't posted in a while. Quick summary of random thoughts:

• New patio furniture (on clearance!)
• Patio storage box (on clearance!) for the patio furniture cushions.
• Bought dogfood/Dog bones. Gotta submit this great photo for the Milkbones Model Dog contest I have!
• Had an excellent weekend.
• Miss our intern at work who was so awesome (Good luck Rebecca, you're gonna go places!).
• Dad got his A/C fixed, and they upped his meds dosage again.
• Need to clean the house (seriously).
• Need to mow (we had over 3 inches of rain last week).
• Been riding the bikes. Vulcan is fixed.
• Lastly... Going to bed.

Hot Weather

The Vulcan is still in the shop. I have been riding the Buell this week. I rode for 5 or 6 hours last Sunday, just getting back in the groove of riding. I rode to work on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It's HOT! I did lunchtime rides each day despite the heat. I filled the bike up twice to the tune of $6.00.

I've been thinking about having a place to garden, things like Tomatos, Peppers, etc... so I decided I'd build some raised beds. I was going to use either railroad ties, or landscape timbers. I thought of building a traditional landscape timber bed, with rebar, having to drill holes, etc... but I cam across a gardening blog where they used pressure treated 2 x 6's and landscape timbers with lag bolts to build 6" raised beds. I did an assessment of how much pressure treated 2 x 6's I had. I had two 10' long boards, and a bunch of 24" pieces. So I got 16 landscape timbers, lagged them into two 5' x 8' beds, and then made two 2' x 8' beds which I sat on top of the larger beds.

The photo is photoshopped to show what they'll look like filled with soil. I am gonna have to go get a trailer load of free compost from the city trash collection area and fill them next. I think they turned out pretty nice though. I left plenty of space to mow in between and all around them.

Hey-ya!

Got my yard mowed, trimmed a holly tree/hedge (I'm so putting Christmas lights on that this December!) in my flowerbed, planted my two new hydrangeas, festuca grass, and hostas (eBurgess sent me 8 to replace the 3 that never came up! How cool is that!). Oh, and I planted the Royal Empress trees! It's hot out there today! I'm gonna try and stay out of that heat! I appreciate all the prayers for my dad! :-) Hope you're all having a great weekend.

Dinner

I forgot I ate yesterday, I told a friend I hadn't eaten since Monday afternoon. Oh well. Tonight I had canned spinach (yum), cottage cheese, and a chicken breast I cooked until it was crunchy in the microwave. I'd love a Kit-Kat, but I need to watch my figure (hah).

eBurgess.com is SLOWLY replenishing my plants which died. They even sent me some Hydrangeas! Wow. BIG ones too. I've got the Hydrangeas in the kitchen, they're getting water. The six Festuca grass plants they sent are also being watered. So are the two Royal Empress trees. The chicks and hens are gonna have to be moved I am afraid because I am planting BOTH empress trees in the front yard in the front bed. They sent me a notice that the new fruit trees will come next Spring. Which will put them a year off the same cycle as the other trees, which BTW are doing good.

I ordered some cologne, I'm running out of Lacoste - Red in Play or something like that. Not that I will be using it anytime soon I guess! Oh well.

Independence Day 2008

Well, I cleaned the bird cages today... and hung up my flag for Independence Day.

The weather has already gotten hot, so I've been using my drip hose this week on my hostas and hedges to water them. There was rain today, but it didn't last very long and it didn't even register on the rain gauges I have.

I've been using a heating pad on my back this week along with an improvised cold pack (a 1 quart milk jug with a screw on lid, half filled with ice and water) to alternate hot and cold on my lower back.

I'm supposed to go look at scooters tomorrow with a friend, and spend the day hanging out. There's a fireworks display at Lake Willastein at 9:30 tomorrow night. Most everyone I know is spending the weekend out at the lake on their boats.

Nature and the Staycation

Saturday I found a lovely, big, beautiful butterfly in my garage when I came home.

I'd gone by the Murphy Oil gas station, and bought 17 gallons of gas (in my cans) and filled the truck up for $3.69 a gallon. The station just opened, they are promising to sell gas for 20 cents cheaper than anywhere else. We'll see how long that lasts! :-) The other stations around here have already been forced to drop their prices from $4.05 a gallon to $3.77 and $3.75 to try and compete. That's awesome. Imagine if other stations and gas producers got into that spirit and started a price war versus the collusion they all seem to have in pricing their gas with only a one to two cent difference.

The butterfly was happy to crawl onto my hand, and I took the butterfly to the front porch and placed it on the bench. I didn't want it getting trapped in the garage and dying.

I'm off this week, it's a Staycation for me. Resting my back, and just relaxing for a change. It's kind of nice actually. Today I got up, went to the bank, checked my mail, did some grocery shopping at the new Wal-mart Neighborhood Market (it so does not look like the old Harvest Foods). I wonder if the Neighborhood market is going to be like Wal-mart. (Sorry Amy! :-) I do like shopping at Wal-mart and Sam's Club!) Nothing ever seems to be on sale in the grocery department at Walmart, whereas at Kroger there are always sales. Sliced cheese never varies in price at Walmart, versus Kroger where they always have specials. Maybe Wal-mart doesn't think they need to run specials. I dunno. The neighborhood market was definitely VERY nice. I liked being able to buy Pollenta so close to home. Dinner tonight, if I have dinner might be Pollenta, some Kimchi, and some chicken and spinach sausage. It's getting late, and I'm not really hungry.

The weeping willow died above the line where the label from the nursery was. I'm still waiting in eBurgess to make good on their warranty, and send me replacement plants for the ones which died. I trimmed off the top of the willow. The bottoms have already grown new branches, and it's really healthy. I transplanted it into the yard well away from the house, and the entire pot (HUGE POT) was full of roots from it. I watered it after I got it into the ground and added some plant fertilizer stakes for what must have been forty five minutes. I also took cuttings from some plants in the neighborhood and my hibiscuses and used rooting hormone on them and then planted them (so we'll see if they do well). All of the plants out back, the four fruit trees and the four hibiscuses, the weeping willow, and one other all got 2.5 gallons of rainwater a piece from the rain barrels. We only got a 1/4" of rain when it rained this weekend. Not enough.

Weekend Retrospective

  Yesterday I mowed the backyard, used my string trimmer to trim around the house, fence, backyard, trailers, shed and plants. I also trimmed behind the privets, and mowed behind the fence. I took a photo as the hibiscuses/Rose of Sharon hedges are starting to bloom.

This morning I had intended to ride my motorcycle to Church, and meet a friend for coffee. Well, I was late getting ready because I'm having major back pain today and I wanted to wear contacts. Try putting your contacts in while your back is killing you! Augh. I rode over to Church, but I was fifteen minutes late, so I rode over to the new park on the river that is in Maumelle. I took a photo with my camera phone. It's really pretty. Then my coffee date got cancelled. The new helmet is vented better than any helmet I've ever seen. I had great airflow. I wore sunglasses with my contacts and the helmet. I ate lunch at Taco Bueno (hah), some families came in and every one of the kids was pointing at my bike (I rode the Buell).

Because of the back pain I went to Walmart later in the day and got my prescriptions filled. While waiting for them to be filled I bought some extra combs so I can keep one in the truck, and each of the bikes.. picked out a few t-shirts and some button up shirts for summer wear. I also got some stick on heat pads for back pain (wearing one now as I write this, the heat from it is VERY intense. I like!).

I checked out the automotive section. They have these beanie motorcycle helmets from Bell. They're called the Bandito. Wal-mart is selling a bunch of motorcycle stuff, including tire wet for motorcycles. It says it won't cause slip, etc... but then it cautions not to get on the tread, use on grips or seats. This is probably just the same stuff for a car, but packaged for a motorcycle. Not a good idea. They also had mothers motorcycle polish, and a bunch of accessories for bikes and ATV's.

Plants & Gas Prices

I have six Hibiscus/Rose of Sharon hedges. All of them survived their first summer last year. Two on the side of the house appear to be doing well, but one in the backyard has gone nuts. It's four or five times the size of the others, and is growing like crazy. I watered them all tonight with water from my rain barrels. I can't put more than a 1/4 of a bucket of water in a 5 gallon bucket because of my back, so it took a while to water them and the fruit trees. I mailed off my mailing label and a request for a new apple tree, new nectarine, and replacements for the other plants which have died. We'll see if eBurgess.com makes good on their warranty in 3 or 4 weeks.

Gas prices have stabilized at around $3.91 a gallon for regular. I haven't paid more than $3.69 for gas in several weeks but my back injury and having to drive the truck instead of riding will run through the last 5 gallons of fuel I have from the gas being below that price this week. I hope my back and the weather will allow me to ride the bikes soon. My new helmet should be on the way already, so maybe this will all coincide.

Roundup

I didn't sleep well last night, I was suffering from allergies. I got up today, was supposed to meet some friends from lunch but my head felt solid from all of the sinus congestion. I took some Benadryl, I gotta quit taking that. Twice this week it has had me dazed and confused. I spent one day at work working through things, but felt like I was in a stupor from the medicine. Either suffer with the allergies, or the medicine. I'm gonna try Tylenol for Allergies next time I go to the store. I decided to wash my bedsheets, laundry. I went out and moved the rain barrels to the garage and installed a new tap on one and did some repair work on it. Then I made a new one from a new barrel. I took them around back set them up. So free water for the plants. I also put down cardboard as mulch on my four surviving fruit trees. eBurgess has yet to respond to my inquiry about replacement plants. I cleaned the birdcages, fed the dogs, vacuumed the house and then went out and mowed and weeded the front yard. I also mowed the backyard, and behind the fence. I just fixed dinner, but I'm waiting about 10 minutes for it to cool before eating. Gas was $3.79 the last time I checked.

$3.68 a gallon!

Mowed my yard (front and back) this weekend, used the weedeater out back, and my new electric grass shears in the hard to reach places.

Gonna cost me $4.00 to fill up the 1 gallon can next time! Augh!

Gardening

I mowed my yard today (thank the lord it wasn't raining when I got home). Front yard anyway. :-) I also trimmed the front hedges. They had a TON of new growth that got trimmed back. I brought them back to round little hedges. If I let them grow like they'd like to they'd take up the whole flower bed! Now they just look sad. They'll recover though. I just don't know how I want them to grow yet. I need to put out some weed killer, and remulch the Royal Empress tree in the front yard. The Hydrangeas aren't doing so well, so far only a couple have leaves. One seems to be flourishing, the other three not so much. Four of my six fruit trees have leaves, my hibiscus are doing alright, and the privets are going mad! :-) The weeping willow in the pot is also doing really well. I am hoping once the weather warms up the cherry and the nectarine will bud out. It's raining tonight, so I expect I'll have to mow again this weekend! :-) Backyard needs mowing again anyway.

Hedges, Clouds, Chores

I had the day off, so I am putting in a few blog entries.

I'm still waiting for my Royal Empresses to do anything. Four of my six fruit trees have leaves, and I am waiting for two to leaf out. My hedges in the flowerbed have gone nuts along with the festuca grass (which is going to seed) and I am gonna need to trim them this weekend! We're having tornado warnings and t-storms all day today so I am sure the plants will love the rain.

I am waiting to get out and go to the store to pick up some toiletries, a case of diet coke, some yogurt, and basic groceries. It'll be this evening most likely since I am waiting for my new hats to show up.

I took my original hat boxes, and put my fall/winter fedoras away. I scrubbed and washed the trash cans and waste baskets from around the house, and vacuumed. Now it's time to go fold and put away the laundry!

Oh, gasoline, it's $3.45 a gallon right now. I rode my bike once this week, and am going to be watching the weather from now on because I need to ride it as it costs me $1.00 to $1.50 roundtrip depending on whether it's the Buell or the Vulcan... and to drive it's $3.45 now for the trip roundtrip in the truck.

Sniffles

I'm sniffling right now due to the pollen. I mowed the yard - front, back, and behind the fence today. I also edged the driveway and the front walking path. It was sprinkling as I was doing it, but it never really rained enough to get things soaked. It's supposed to rain today though. My privet hedges are still growing, flowering out with leaves and my pyrocanthus hedge is covered in tiny white blooms. I'm hoping for good growth out of them and the rose of sharon hedges this year. Four of my six fruit trees have leaves on them. I'm going to try shedded paper mulch around them this next week, we'll see how that goes. I bought $15.00 worth of supplies to fix my rain barrels, new taps (again), PVC threaded adapters to go inside, PVC cement, and construction adhesive. I'm got one completely new barrel, and I need to turn it into one, and then fix one of the barrels using plastic from the one which I am going to retire. I'm gonna cut the bottom out, and cut it into two pieces and use them as composters.

I got my grandmother's old Magnavox stereo yesterday. Sitting on the turn table was a 45, Chicago. :-) Talk about taking me back. I used to love Chicago. The music always seemed dreamy and romantic to me. Songs about love, love lost, those kinds of things. I took the back off of the stereo, vaccumed it out, dusted it, and then wiped the whole thing down with Honda Spray Cleaner and Polish (it's what I had on hand). I then wiped the tubes off, cleaned the electrics inside, and plugged it in. It worked like a charm. It has such a rich sound since it has tubes, and I never realized the speakers inside were so BIG. I reinstalled the back and the sound was even warmer. It looks almost like new, except it's from an era 50 years in the past. It picked up KLove really well. I'll need help hauling it into the house, and I've got a spot set aside for it where I can plug it in and listen to it. It'll give me a place to put all my old records. The only thing I need for it to be perfect is I need to get a needle for the stylus and wipe it down with some furniture polish. I'll post a photo when I get it in the house.

Spring?

My plants seem to be doing okay.

My privet hedges are all green and growing already. About half my hostas have emerged from the mulch. One of my fruit trees has leaves on it already. The Rose of Sharon hedges are all getting leaves, and the Weeping Willows which I am growing as a container plant have greened out and are growing new branches. The two Royal Empress trees have yet to show signs of life though. Still waiting to see how they emerge/grow.

I put down two bags of weed and feed in the last couple of weeks (one on Friday before the rain), scalped the front yard and bagged the thatch and then used a rake to take up the dead grass clippings which had accumulated from last year. My yard is starting to green up slowly. We'll see how it does this year.

A friend of mine bought me some chicks and hens and I am watering those, and trying to figure out where to plant them. They're really cool and my grandma used to love those.

Spring Planting Completed

I planted

• 24 - Festuca Grass plugs (I replaced 3 or 4 which died, and filled in the gaps.)
• 4 - Regal Blue Hostas
• 16 - Handful of Hosta (a mixed selection of Hostas)

I also hooked up the drip hose, and watered them all with that and have it in the bed and put my water hose back out with a spray nozzle.

I fertilized the front yard with weed and feed. So I'm ready for some rain too! :-)