Ramblings on a Monday Morning

This morning I wake up at 5 am, 5:20, 5:45, 6:05...I finally get out of bed at 7 when Andy flipped on the light. CRAP! I'm up LATE AGAIN! I hate waking up and the sun isn't up yet. It's nearly impossible to drag my butt out from the covers and get the day started. And if I didn't have kids coming at 7:30, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get up... Well, I'd get up to get Andy's coffee and lunch ready for the day, but then I'd go back to bed lol.

Today I've still got a buttload of homework to do because I decided after reading a million blogs last night that a Tyler Perry movie sounded much more fun than schoolwork. Dummy!

Nish came back from her dad's last night and I had a long talk with her about her friend who ran away earlier in the week, and also about her being a knucklehead at school and not turning in her work. Her teachers love her, and she's a bright girl... she's just not turning in a few assignments in EVERY class and her grades are showing it. So we've developed a plan with the teachers to communicate via email each week and give me a progress report. We are also going to get a signature from each of them every single day in her agenda stating what she needs to turn in and such, and if anything is late. At the end of the day she has to report to Shelley and if there is a signature missing, she gets after school detention. If there are 3 or more signatures missing, she gets to stay until 6pm. Sounds awful I know, but after a couple days of forgetting to get it done, she'll get the point.

My sister emailed me her itinerary too! I'm soooo very excited! To be so far apart, we really are close. She and her man are coming in May for Memorial Day. She was just going to Texas to introduce her man to our granny, but we decided being stuck in Mayberry for five days would be entirely too much for her. She's going to fly into OKC Thursday night. We'll go to the dart tournament that Friday night and Saturday morning Andy, me, my sissy and her man will all jump in the mini and head to Mayberry. I'm always excited to see my moma and granny, but it's especially fun when my sissy is there! Then Sunday night or Monday morning we'll head back to OKC, BBQ on Monday, and then I'll take her to the airport Tuesday night. This is the first time her man will see my life in Okieland too. I'm so excited.....and I just can't hide it....

Meteorologists

get big money for lying to me. I don't appreciate that. In the least. Friday night we were looking at Crotchety Ole Man Winter's last (hopefully the last) big fight with the Spring Fairy. He was supposed to come swooping in and leave me with a foot of snow Friday night and Saturday all day. Pffft!

This is what we got:



Don't get me wrong. I'm not bitching. I'm actually excited that it didn't come in near as hard as it was supposed to, especially since we were at the bar throwing darts Friday night.

So Saturday was a "hung over day" and Sunday I took some pics of my babies by the slider door to make note of some progress.

Snow on the ground and my bush beans decide today is the day to give a first bloomie. I couldn't be more proud! My very first real bloomie!



Then we have the contender beans that seem to be exploding out of their tiny pellet apartments. These guys seriously are HUGE, especially considering their seeds were only planted on March 15!




I didn't really take many pics this weekend, considering most everything looks just like it did a few days ago when I posted. I did notice that my maters have gotten a smidge bigger, and I'm excited about that. The one's I've been on craigslist for sale are HUGE and I thought my babies were just short bus riders or something, but they might pick up and actually grow like normal soon (fingers crossed).

While Andy and I were out and about on Saturday we went to this little Mexican restaurant that just opened. He swore by the name of it and I am always game to try out some new burritos lol. Well, they had one of those games in there where you insert an outrageous amount of coins for an enormous claw to come down and you aim it at whatever stuffed animal you think you can grab. I suck at this game and never end up with a toy. This machine pissed me off. Well, Andy put in his pocket full of coins and on the FIRST grab he wins me a PRIZE! Go baby go!

One problem... he picks up the one thing I am terrified of! A flippin flying, stinging thing!

Thursday Shmursday!

Mother Nature isn't my friend right now. This broad has allowed a snow storm to hit! What kind of crap is that??? We are supposed to get 6" to a foot tomorrow and Saturday! Blah!

So... why am I here again? Oh yeah, to talk about my gardening experience right? Pffft! This is a tad overwhelming today. I'm not sure if things in my personal life are getting to me, I'm just so excited to get this stuff out of my diningroom and into the beds, or if I'm even doing this right... but something is off kilter today.

I did take some pics this morning of my babies... let's see if I can get in a better mood by writing about my beauties!



Here are some corn surrounded by my zucchini. He seems to be thriving well and looks pretty happy to me.



I think this bad boy is getting ready to bloom. Several of the squash in this container are just growing like crazy, and I think I read somewhere that I should move them to a darker room to stunt them a bit until I can get them outside if they continue to grow like this.





There are two of the contender bush beans that I planted after I lost most of my other variety of bush beans with the "food" catastrophe. They look funny to me. That one is busting through the soil like he's King Kong! I certainly don't remember the others being that big and fiesty looking! LOL But on a positive note, they seem to be doing just fine... whatever I'm doing is working lol.



My po po maters. They are big beef, but they don't look very big and beefy. I added that stupid food to them, but scraped it out the best I could, hoping to save them after I figured out they were going to shrivel and DIE! They don't seem to be dying, but they aren't growing either. I'm trying to keep the soil not too wet, b/c I've read that they don't like to be overwatered. Maybe if I cut my temp-houses down so that the sun reaches the soil better they will have a better chance of survival. These are the only maters I have left... since I managed to kill all of the cherry maters :(


I'm thinking I'm going to have to find some friends on this blogspot dealy-whopper to help me out here. I need help... advise... or maybe just reassurance...

Tuesday Blues...

So I did a big boo-boo. I'm chanting "I'm just a beginner, this is just an experiment" over and over today so I don't feel like a murderer.

Andy and I went to Wally World Sunday evening so I could get more peat pellets, and our youngest is turning 3 this week so we needed to get some stuff for his party. Well, we stumble across the "Make It Grow" section. We couldn't pass it up. We've managed to steer clear of these horrible chemicals since the beginning, knowing that whatever we are doing at home appears to be working b/c all of our babies are healthy and growing like they should (except the flippin leggy ones, but I fixed that lol). Anyway... we see some Pennington Tomato & Vegetable plant food and decide it's ok to buy it. The big reason was that it was only $2.72 and we figured if it didn't work, we'd only wasted a few bucks. What we didn't figure into the equation is what if this kills my babies! GRRRRRRRRR!

The directions are clear on the box. Mix 2 tablespoons per plant into the soil and water real good. I thought that was a bit much for my babies, so I did about 1/2 tablespoon, mixed it into the top soil of my paper sack condos and watered real good. Lucky for me... I didn't put that toxic "food" on all of my babies. I figured I would see how they like it first and then go hog wild with the rest of them in a week if they did well.

HOLY CRAP! The next morning I'm looking at my babies and it's like their stems are shrinking! Being the google-whore, I jump on the computer and see what the hell I did. I look up Pennington and didn't really find anything. Then I start going through gardening forums and low and behold, you aren't supposed to let this (or any) "food" (or toxic waste) touch the damn plant. Shit shit shit! Why doesn't it say that on the flippin box?!?!?! Oh boy, the website of these people is seriously going to get some feedback from THIS customer! So I get out a spoon and try to dig out as much of this stuff as I can without snapping my little tender babies right in half. All I could do from this point was wait.

So this morning I jump out of bed, eyelids still half glued together with boogers and slobber still on my face, and run to the kitchen, praying I saved some of them. I can tell you this much, if that so-called "food" hadn't killed them already, my breath would have taken care of it. Looks like the damage was done for the most part. Some of them seem like they might survive, but I'm not that hopeful. The rest of them I've moved out of my tubs and decided to just start over. Crapity crap crap!!!

This is what I killed so far... Hopefully this is all of them!



I'm just a beginner... this is just an experiment...

I'm just a beginner... this is just an experiment...

Monday Update

Ok so I'm happy to say Andy got the top-soil... we had to get 2 tons because I want one more bed, plus there is apparently a hole the size of the grand canyon near the fence that Andy wants to fill in.

So... here's what a ton of dirt looks like lol





I guess I thought it would be a lot more. Hmph!

And here's my lovely Andy with our new, way over priced wheel barrow, shoveling dirt and wheeling it back to the beds lol. Poor guy, I know that was a pain in the butt!



And the final product...



My beautiful beds where my little seedlings will think they are in a mansion! I'm so excited! I can't wait to get them out there.

The seedlings are looking good. I've moved the rest of them from their peat pellet apartments to their paper sack condos. I started another round of a few seeds last night, and I'll hopefully get some more done today.

Now my big job is to mark off the beds. I was thinking about yarn and some thumb tacks, but I think I'm just going to use the fishing wire we have here. I've been saving every friggin plastic container (especially the pepsi 2 liter bottles) so I can use them for watering too. I have no idea how the hell I'm going to get holes in the lids of these bottles, being that we have no drill, but I think I'll leave that project up to Andy lol.

And this week I've got to take a head count and see plot everything on a graph so I know everything will have a home. I think Andy is going to build another bed for me, and we have enough top-soil left to fill it... my big concern is getting all this counting done first to see if I even need it. Hell, I already know I'm going to have him build it lol.

So far this inexpensive project has turned into about $400. But... next year I won't have to buy the beds, wheel barrow, rakes, shovel, etc., etc., etc. LOL let me not get ahead of myself and see if anything actually produces fruit. That'll be the real indicator as to whether there will even BE a NEXT YEAR!

Tuesday Update!

So this weekend wasn't exactly how we planned it. We went to the top-soil place, and apparently there wasn't a foreman there so they couldn't fire up the loader... That's crap. They are open from 8a-1p on Saturday's specifically for homeowners to be able to pick up what they need... and they don't have a friggin foreman available? Whatever. So Andy worked a deal out with the owner of the facility and it taking a day off work this week to get it at a discounted price plus fishing privileges at the lake on this property lol. Nice work!

So while I was off running errands on Saturday, he put together all but one side of the raised beds and layed them out where I wanted them. They are not as wide as I thought they would be, but that's ok, it makes it easier for me to reach the middle lol. I think they are about 4' in width and still 10' in length. We have plenty of room for a couple more beds too, which is nice, because the footage that I lost in my lack-of-measuring abilities will be made up in another raised bed.



Hopefully Wednesday, with the Gardening Gods and Mother Nature willing, we will be able to get that ton of top-soil and get it in the beds - and add an additional one or two beds as well.

I've been tending to my babies in the kitchen and I'm a little confused here. It appears a couple of my bush beans are becoming quite "leggy". I've heard the expression over and never really knew what folks meant. I'm assuming it's when these guys get too tall with few leaves. I've got that one a few of my babies, but I'm trying to limit light and water to stunt them a bit. I hope I don't screw this up. UGH!

Anyway, here's some updated pics on my little babies!



The "sweater rack" I've moved in to the kitchen with my babies in their papersack condos. They all seem to be surviving their transplants and thriving pretty good!



Close-up of my squashlings. I've noticed a few "true leaves" on a few of the plants!



Cornlings are doing great! I've got to remember to get another set of these suckers going so this whole succesion gardening thing works lol. Hell, I'll be lucky if I get an ear of corn at all and I'm already planning my next round LOL.

Andy can't get the truck to the backyard so he's going to have to get out the hand-dandy wheel barrow and go to town with it. I'll be directing traffic. I'll be the foreman.

On a side note... buying the tools necessary for this adventure of mine (that was supposed to be an inexpensive hobby) has been a true test of Andy's love lol. When we bought the wheel barrow, and believe me I looked on Craigslist for a cheapy, I couldn't believe the cost of that thing. It's a bucket on wheels for Pete's sake. Why in the world would it cost $79??? And that wasn't even the top of the line fancy schmancy one! My only requirement was that it have 2 wheels because I'm not an acrobat and I fall down a lot. I'm not exactly like one of the top heavy women who wobble and teeter. I'm more of a bottom heavy type of gal with weak ankles who constantly bumps into stuff and eventually lands on her a$$. Granted, there's plenty of cushion back there to break the fall, but it's a fall none-the-less. So I figured 2 wheels would at least help in some way.

Well, time to tend to the babies (the real ones, not the plants). More updates to come...

Half-way done...

So the paper sack condos are looking good!



Here's the tomatos... haven't done the cherry tomatoes yet. I'm thinking I'm going to only do half of what I've got on them, they are said to produce A LOT!



Here's the corn and squash. I think there might even be an okra or two in there. They all seem to be liking their new home!



Apparently another sunflower has peeked his head above ground in here. I think I should find a new place for these guys and get them out of the garlic pot lol.

I've still got a ton more to do, and there are some seedlings that aren't ready to be moved yet (according to my expert opinion yanno) so I've got some time.

I did get the sweater rack out of the garage and that's what the tomatoes are sitting on now. I put it right in front of the slider door to give them whatever light the March sun has to offer. I'm kinda concerned though, I don't want them to get too dang big before mid-April when they get to move into their mansion in the backyard. That's still more than a month away.

Mooooovin on Up!

In the process of moving my seedlings from their pellet apartments to their newspaper and paper sack condos. This is definitely a chore. We bought some gardening mix and regular soil in bags and I'm mixing them 1:2. Hopefully they will still stay healthy and continue to grow.

Every day something else has sprouted or grown beyond it's little pellet. I'll take some pics when I have everything in order and add them later. I'm getting this metal rack that I used to store my sweaters and such on in the apt and moving that to the kitchen. That should allow me some more room to keep my babies without intruding on the already over-planted greenhouse look-a-like kitchen I've got going now. We are having a hard time finding a spot at the kitchen table to eat supper lol!

Got confirmation on the poop load too. It's apparently cow manure, and from what I've read, it's best to add that to the garden in the fall because of the nitrogen. I also read that we should get the "old poop" and that if I mix it in the bed, make sure to wait at least 2-3 weeks prior to planting. If we gets the beds together this weekend, I'll have plenty of time. Can't put anything outside until after April 15 anyway (lol if I can wait that long being the nonconformist that I am) so hopefully the timing won't be an issue. I'll just have to make sure we don't go crazy with the poop.

The only thing that really hasn't sprouted yet is the second round of green beans that I've started, but they've still got a few days yet before I expect to see anything. I'll panic later lol.

This weekend is supposed to be beautiful, so hopefully we'll be able to get the beds together and I'll feel like we are really moving forward!

HOLY COW POOP!

I never, in my wildest dreams (and I've had some doozies), thought I'd be excited at the thought of Andy going to pick up a truckload of cow poop. Apparently, he works with a lady who said if he drove to her land, he could have all the poop he wanted. How thoughtful LOL!

And... my latest sprouts this morning are the zucchini, yellow squash, green beans and radishes. A couple more big beefs (next time I'll pick a different tomato) have sprouted as well too. It's like overnight they all just decide "Ok my turn!" LOL. The babies are poking their heads out of their little pellet homes as we speak. I'll get some pics when they are a little further out. Awww, my babies are coming alive! I'm so proud! I was worried about the bush beans. I think a few of the seeds rotted so I'm sure I lost a few of those. A positive note on that though is that I planted way too many for the first "session", so I'll start more of those in another week, and then again in 2 more weeks. I should have a steady flow of bush beans during harvest time.

Tuesday Update!

Well, we decided to hold off for a week on getting the beds built b/c of the freeze last weekend. Not that I thought it would have anything to do with the top-soil, b/c it's supposed to be screened and all that jazz... mostly because we didn't want to go outside and freeze our butts off. So the plan is set for this weekend to buy a ton of top-soil, get the beds on the ground and fill them!

In the meantime, my babies in the house have just been growing and growing!

The demon corn has sprouted roots out the bottom of my pellets. I'm afraid I'm going to have to replant them in something bigger prior to moving them outside. I'm thinking about doing the newspaper rolls I read about so I can keep them pretty contained until it's warm enough to get them in their permanent home.



Then we've got the brussel sprouts that I've been thinning to try and keep them in order. I don't think they are going to do very well in a spring/summer crop because of our weather here, but I'm giving it a try. If it doesn't work, I've still got the winter crop to work with.

The tomatoes are doing well still too. I've moved a few of the cherry tomatoes to another butter tub so they have a bit more room. I have no idea what to do with the rest other newspaper roll them when they get too big for their peat pellets.



Then we have the garlic with the sunflower in the middle. The sunflower is creepy looking, and I'm going to have to move him again, but I needed a place to stick him for the moment. I can smell the garlic YUM!



So far, the biggest mistake that I can see that I've made is planting too many seeds per pellet. I just didn't think that all of those little boogers were actually going to sprout! So now I've got to kill my babies and thin them. I guess it's better to have too many rather than too few... or none at all. Lesson learned!