Mother's Day

was awesome!

I got to sleep in until 7:30. After I made my coffee and sat down at the computer desk I found a card from Hubbs and the boys. The card had an actual hand written note! And there was a stack of cash in it too. The note said "I was going to buy you some flowers but here is the cash instead. I will keep both the kids so you can go shopping alone".

So when Hubbs got out of bed I took Bobblehead with me to look at plants at Walmart. Bobblehead came with me because Monk Man kicked him. Nice, I know. Sometimes I feel like I am trying to raise the spawn of Satan.

Anyway, I found some of the prettiest flowers at Walmart. I almost didn't even bother stopping because of the shitty selection they had when I went last weekend to look for veggies. I ended up spending too much money (as always) but I got 7 different types of flowers, 8 bags of potting soil and 2 of the coolest rolling buckets I have ever seen.

I spent almost all afternoon in the yard. Now I just have to figure out where to put all those pots full of flowers.

**sob** My Squash

I spent an hour pulling up all my damn squash plants last night.

I had gotten home around 5ish and went outside to pull some weeds and see if there were any new squash. I hadn't been out to look in a week because of the massive amount of rain we have gotten lately.

I got the weeds pulled and started lifting up the squash plant leafs and reaching around, moving the mess around so I could get to the squash. I happened to glance at the underside of a leaf and saw a bunch of egg clusters on it. I pulled the leaf off and started checking the rest of the leafs for more eggs.

Every single leaf had eggs on it. And then I started noticing the squash beetles. I bet I saw 5 of those nasty ass little things at first glance.

Grooooossssss. I don't do well with bugs anymore.

Monk Man was kneeling in the grass looking for bugs with me (of course). I told him to run and bring the big trash can over to me. I was in my Birks so I ran inside to get a real pair of shoes on. My dumb ass know better than to try to garden in sandals but knowing and doing are 2 different things.

That's it! The squash was fun while it lasted. Those damn things were going in the garbage if it took me all night.

So Monk Man finally got the trash can over to me, after we played 20 questions about why I needed it.

I grabbed ahold of a big set of leafs and pulled. And pulled. Finally the plant came out of the dirt. It was COVERED with the squash beetles.

Yep. Pulling out the plants was a good idea because THEN I saw a freaking Black Widow spider crawling around in the dirt. I dropped the f-bomb and squealed Eeewwww like a little girl. I am sure my neighbors were quite entertained watching me swear like a sailor and jump around the back yard flapping my arms in disgust.

Spanky had taught me (burned into my brain) at a very young age to squish ANY Black Widow spider I came across because they would bite me and whatever body part that spider bit would have to be cut off. I am pretty sure that isn't really true but his story worked. I don't screw around with spiders.

Now, all 12 of my squash plants are in the dumpster and the spiders are killed (hopefully).

When I was finished, I had the worse case of heebie jeebies ever. I was convinced that the bugs were hiding in my clothes and in my hair. I was covered in dirt from head to toe. Being the overly concerned mommy that I am, I made Monk Man strip down so I could check him for bugs. Yes, right there in the middle of the back yard.

The other plants that were around the squash seem to be unaffected by the bugs so that is a good thing. The carrots are tall and bushy. The peppers are getting big. The onions are pungent. Not a bug to be found this morning.

My Compost Bins

I finally got around to taking the pictures off my camera.

Drumroll please......Soooo exciting.

Here are the 2 Compost bins that a guy at work gave me. Please ignore the weeds that are taking over. The weed cutting is Hubb's job and he is still gone.






Yes, one is already full. I have no clue what I am doing. All I know is that everything can go in it except meat, dairy and fish. And it has to stay sorta wet and hot and I have to mix it up once in a while.

I never thought I would be so excited about garbage!

Trash Can Potatoes-Update

I went to the back yard to check on my Trash Can Potatoes last night. Big mistake. Why? Monk Man knocked the bucket over and dumped all the dirt into the grass. So being the curious cat I am, I dug through the dirt to see if anything had happened.

Nothing happened. Not a single root from the potatoes I put in the bucket.

Note to self: Store bought potatoes do not work. Buy seed potatoes or tubers.

So I am going to order some tubers from Burpee today. I will update some more when the tubers arrive. I might even post some pictures of what the hell tubers look like.
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I just checked Burpee and the tubers are not available at this time. So much for that idea. Shit.

Next idea? My boss is really close friends with a potato farmer somewhere back east. The next time he calls I am going to ask him to send me some seed potatoes.

Problem solved. Hopefully.

Corn

I got my corn dug up and re-planted the right way. Monk Man and I ended up going to the local plant store and we bought more corn.

So now I have 4 sets of 6-8 groups of corn. It is too dark tonight to take a decent picture. But if I remember in the morning, I will post a few.
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So far, I have planted tomatoes, watermelons, bell peppers, Anaheim peppers, jalapenos, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, corn and green beans.

I have this vision of what is going to happen this fall. I am going to be running around the neighborhood trying to get rid of all these veggies because I KNOW I planted more than what my little family is going to eat and more than I am going to be able to can.

Still nothing on my Trash Can Potatoes.

Ugh, I hate weekends

I really, really, really hate weekends. I ended up having a 4 day weekend since CC had plans to go to the lake. So I was off Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Looking back, I actually had a decent weekend. No major fights, no catastrophes and no natural disasters at my house. Any weekend (let alone a long weekend) that doesn't end with threats of divorce is pretty good to me.

Friday and Saturday's weather was so shitty (contrary to my weather forecast it was cold) that I didn't hardly get out of my pajamas.

Sunday and Monday were actually pretty nice. I got my tomatoes re-planted. I went out to see the veggies on Sunday morning and discovered that the dogs had squished and broken some tomato plants since they like to pick on the dog next door. I also got some weeds pulled.

Didn't get a chance to do any blogging, but no surprise there. I promise that I will finish some of my older, unpublished posts this week.

Whats for dinner tonight?

This is what is for dinner:

Salmon Filet with Mango Cilantro Salsa:
4 6-ounce portions salmon filet

Mango Cilantro Salsa:
1 ripe mango, peeled and ½-inch diced
¼ cup chopped scallion, green part only
¼ cup diced red bell pepper
1 tablespoon finely diced fresh jalapeno
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

Bake salmon fillet at 400ºF for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the salmon. For Mango Cilantro Salsa, lightly toss all ingredients in bowl. Chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour for flavors to meld. Serve salsa as an accompaniment to salmon. Mango Cilantro Salsa also goes nicely with grilled meat or chicken.
Yield: 4 servings

Of course I am doing it lazy-style with canned jalapeno, jarred garlic, and lime juice from a bottle. But I am going to use the cilantro from my herb garden. We are also having a veggie-stir fry with it.

And even though we went grocery shopping a few days ago and spent almost $200, Hubbs is still going to the store because I can not plan ahead. Got to work on that!

Another Trash Can Potato Update

Hubbs drilled holes in the bottom of the bucket for me. I was using a hammer and a nail (unsuccessfully) since I am not exactly power tool competent. Anyway, he heard me, felt sorry enough for me to make the holes for me. Thank you dear.

I filled the bucket with 3 inches of potting soil and cut up my potato (eyes pointing up). The potatoes were dried enough today not to rot so I put them on top of the potting soil. I covered the potatoes with another couple of inches of potting soil and watered it really well.

In the thread that inspired me, a mommy mentioned that store bought potatoes could possibly carry disease and should not be used. So before I feed these home-grown-from-store-bought potatoes to the family, I will do some research on that. This is just an experiment to see if it would work.

Hopefully in the next few days I will have some green things (keep your fingers crossed that they will be a leaf or two instead of something gross) growing in the bucket to show you all!

Trash Can Potatoes-Update

Ok, just got off the phone with Hubbs. He laughed at me when I told him about my new project. LoL. Ass.

So this is what he talked me into doing.....Instead of buying a big trash can, I am using one of the gazillion 5-gallon buckets we have laying around. THEN, if that works well, I will upgrade to a trash can. (snort, that sounds funny in my head. I can see why he was laughing at me.)

Wish me luck. Look for some pictures in the next day or so!

Trash Can Potatoes

On the new babycenter, there was a post in one of the groups I am in. It was about growing potatoes in a trash can. Volunteers were asked for so of course I volunteered to try it. (Like I don't have enough projects going on.)

In theory, this is what you do:
Drill holes in the bottom of a 33-gallon trash can. Put a few inches of soil in the bottom. Throw your potatoes in and cover them up with a few more inches of soil. As the potatoes grow leaves, keep covering them up with the soil until the trash can is full. Supposedly, the whole trash can will be full of new potatoes. And when the leaves die down, you harvest.

So.....anybody else want to try this with me?

I love playing in the dirt!

We had a very busy Sunday. We went to the plant store and bought $50 worth of veggies and flowers. The whole trunk area of the HHR was full. I planted seeds a few weeks ago but I got impatient. Big shock there. And Monk Man kept pulling the little plants out of the ground.

Oh holy hell this sunburn hurts. I am already peeling. Tomorrow is going to be craptastic.

So the first time in a couple of years, we have a garden again. Yay!

So here are some pictures. Please ignore the dog shit. That is Hub's job. He is slacking. And excuse the mis-spellings. The spell check on this thing makes my images go poof.

Tomatos



Tomatos



Tomatos



Tomatos



Colombines



SnapDragons



Blue Daisys



See the bee?



All the flowers together



Another View



All the Veggies Together



Another View



The Herbs



The Herbs again



Anahiem Peppers



Squash



Cucumbers



Corn



More Tomatos



Tomatos



Tomatos



Some Fire looking flowers



Some purple flowers that are supposed to smell like vanilla



Giranium



And here is the before...









Not pictured are the Watermelon. I dont know where those pictures disapeared to. Stupid Photobucket.

We use soooo many canned tomatos so I am going to have my grandma or MIL teach me how to can veggies to add to my pantry. I wanted some other veggies but the store did not have them out. I will keep looking though. Even if I spend another $50, I will be saving money. Fresh food from the grocery store is damn expensive. I think that is part of the reason that we dont eat much fresh food. That and I dont know how to cook.