Yard, Gardens, Birds and Critters

I know it's just a dumb tomato, but darn it, I wanted to see it grow and bare fruit! I guess it would have made me feel good that I saved the tomato and it became two tomatoes. But, Alas, it wasn't meant to be! I had all my bird seed to refill the feeders. The birds are in a feeding frenzy. Finishing off the 5 x 6 block and the round donut block in just over a day, plus the mixed seed in the platform feeder gone in a day. The platform feeder had help with Chipmunks taking a good majority of the seed! I turned around to look at the one bird feeder to see if I needed to refill it and saw the tomato leaves all over the soil of the planter!  I said "oh no" and started crying! I was so darned upset! Again, it's crazy, silly, dumb and other adjectives I can't think of, to stand there and blubber on the deck over a tomato.  Because I am who I am, I calmly walked into the house and went and got my camera. I took pictures for the documentation of the experiment gone ...

Too much to do! Not much sleep last night! You know, it was one of "those" nights!  I managed to get some laundry started and even did some dusting before I laid back down to see if I could get a couple of more hours of sleep.  Finally off to the gardens and picked the last of the corn.  Picked a few tomatoes and checked to see if the Butternut squash was ready, Nope, not according to the videos I watched earlier.  Patience! Grabbed the tiller and tilled where I dug up the potatoes.  Except where the Zinnias are, couldn't till there very well at all. The squash is getting lots of blooms and hopefully they produce. We have enough pollinator flowers to draw in the pollinators. I went through and marked all the pretty Zinnias I'd like to try and get seed from.  Then watered. While doing that, I noticed I actually have some green peppers growing. At least one plant is putting on fruit!  Hopefully it will rain at the gardens.  Supposed to rain but...

I had these ambitious visions of digging two rows of potatoes and digging up and taking off remaining ears from the corn and making corn stalk decorations.  Do you know how far I got? Barely had the energy to do the two rows of potatoes.  Now, you have to factor in that I am 74 1/2 years old and the temperature was in the 80's and climbing and the two rows were 25 feet each!  After 15 minutes or so, I had to go sit and drink some water. Then back at it! Another 20 minutes later, sit a spell and drink more water.  For once, I am glad I brought two bottles of water with me, instead of the one I normally bring! I pulled up the cauliflower and broccoli and weeded that area and piled all the weeds and potato vines all in a pile.  By the time I got finished I was dripping wet and totally exhausted!  The first row I dug was almost a full 5 gallon bucket. The second row, maybe 1/3 a bucket.  I told my gardening buddy, no more flowers so close to the potatoes....

Anything is possible! Planter on the deck with Straight-necked Squash growing when the cabbages were all torn up and eaten up.  I just planted something else. Doesn't hurt to try! DON'T THROW IT AWAY! LET IT GROW! THAT'S MY NEW MOTTO! On June 18th the tomato was destroyed. Broken off by a critter!  The pepper plant was my own fault. Leaned over to try and fix the tomato (lost cause) and broke off the pepper. First I took the top of the tomato and shoved it in the soil. No special treatment. Took off one leaf and shoved it in to the top portion. The bottom part I was going to pull up but then decided to leave it just to see if it would grow and possibly bare fruit. this was all that was left of the tomato  on 6-18-2018 6-21 where there was a little new growth The top pushed into the ground on 6-18-2018 Now the pepper I didn't have much hope for.  First of all the chipmunk came through the holes on the cage I put around it. Th...

What's so great about gardening? Don't you know you can buy a jar of pickles cheaper than you can do yourself? That's the type of question you hear. Or, it's so much easier going to the store and picking up a can of corn. Yes, I guess it is! But you know, I still like to garden and do you know why? The satisfaction of doing it yourself.  I am out of the air-conditioning and in the sun and fresh air. Do I get hot, you bet! I sweat and I don't mean the Southern "Glisten". I sweat!  My clothes get filthy! I hurt lots of times when I finish. Today, I dug some potatoes to see how they were doing. I smiled as there were 10 potatoes on one plant. I picked some tomatoes. I grinned a lot because I got fresh corn. I saw birds flying around and bees and the beautiful butterflies. I had my camera and got some good pictures, I hoped!  What more could you ask for? I really can't explain it. I feel like I know what's going into my meals. I don't have to...

My neighbor called me on the phone. "There's a deer in your yard by the pine tree." "Oh, maybe drinking from your pond."  I dropped the phone, grabbed my camera and ran to the door. Then very, very quietly, I opened it up, tiptoed out on the deck and saw the doe. I couldn't get a decent shot through the branches of two trees and the fence. She saw me and moved off.  I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and there, coming down from the bird feeder was a Chipmunk.  I guess they don't like the smell of mothballs on my deck!  I manged to get two pictures before he took off.  Then in flew a Blue Jay. They are usually in an out so quick I don't get good pictures but this time I got two.  Earlier, I was watering. Then the rain came so I went to turn off the water. On the handle was the strangest looking insect.  Black lacy wings, black body and the head had almost a brown tone to it.  I got a couple of pictures. Time for Google.  I found a ...

Some of you know about my kitchen window.  I love my kitchen window and take many, many pictures through the glass and screen.  Not too bad of pictures.  The other day there were sparrows on this circular feeder I have.  They got into a great big argument. One was being a big bully for sure.  There was enough room for them all but that one Sparrow did not want to share. Then there was the feeder closest to the window. The Finches were on it. first the male then two females came in and shoved him off. He came back and fought his way to the middle of the other two. You can just barely see the red color on the top of his head. I think these are all House Finches. Then the big girl came. There was actually a bird that was going to argue with it for the suet.  That little bird did not win!  Love watching the Pileated Woodpecker.  He was on the suet twice yesterday. Good photo opportunity.  I quit making pickles to grab the camera. LOL! All ...

I have mom's Bread & Butter Pickle recipe, that I have had, and made, for years. Because I didn't have many cucumbers, I decided to cut the recipe in half. Thinking I would have enough for that.  I am not a math person!  Trying to figure out what 1/2 of 1/2 Tablespoon is, almost did me in!!!!. I went on line and it sounded wrong. I worked on paper doing fractions and it just didn't seem right! I finally put a number down and hoped for the best.  Too bad I wasn't paying attention to the rest of the recipe.  I had enough cucumbers, onion and pepper for the recipe. No problem.  Had the spices too! No problem.  Had the recipe in hand. No problem. Yep, there was a problem. I didn't realize what I did until I was telling Jim about the recipe and the problem I had figuring out the 1/2 of 1/2 Tablespoon. When I did the recipe, the original is on the left and all the 1/2 portions on the right.  When I got to sugar, yep, my eyes went to the original. I thoug...