Mixed Results

I harvested the corn today. As you can see it is pretty pitiful. The pop corn did better than the sweet corn. It would turn out that my corn started making ears when the rain stopped. Moral of that story, start corn earlier. In fact, I should have started everything earlier. Next year, I am going to do a little math and try to plant backwards. Start from the the point that the drought usually begins and count backward the number of days each particular plant needs in order to produce fruit. Sort of like working with the last freeze date but backwards. Maybe that way the plants can produce fruit before the water runs out. So if the corn needs 70 days, then I need to plant it in the middle of April. I will have to go back and look, but I am pretty sure it was late May before I planted it this year. My tomatoes are suffering from the same fate. There have only been two tomatoes so far, though the yellow pear is still setting fruit. I will be fall before they begin again. I only plant indeterminate tomatoes.

I am still going to plant more corn this summer and give it one more shot. Maybe, we will get more rain. I will just grow the popcorn, not the sweet corn.

In other Debbi's Garden news, IT RAINED. We have had about half a inch so far. My rain barrel has rainwater in it. One-half inch of rain equals about half a barrel of water. I am pretty excited.

It Rained

I woke up this morning to a pair or royally ticked off cats. They decided to sleep on the deck last night and it rained on them. As soon as I opened the door they high tailed it into the house complaining the whole time. Well, they didn't really high tail it, they don't have tails, more like high nubbed it.

It was not enough rain to make much of a difference. Most likely, all it will accomplish is making it more humid this afternoon. Of course, I washed a rug yesterday and left it out overnight to dry. Yep, it's wet.

There is a slight chance for more rain this morning and over the next couple of days. Wish us luck.

Milestones

I started this blog back in November of 2007. I was so serious in the beginning. The first post was on propagating roses. I intended to blog about gardening and then the content took on a life of its own, and here I am blogging about gardening, kids, food, and anything else that I find interesting.

This little blog of mine is about to reach a couple of milestones. I am within 300 points of becoming a guru on Blotanical. The cool thing about that is I get to pick 40 more blogs to add to my favorites list. Lately, I have stumbled upon a lot of great new blogs and a few older blogs that have just come to my attention.

Also, according to my site meter, I should reach 10,000 visitors in the next ten days or so. While this may seem like nothing to some of you with hundreds of visits every day, to me it is mind blowing. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that many people would have any interest in what I have to say. The site meter has also revealed that people visit here from all over the world. This is just amazing to me.

Through this site, I have been able to keep family members up on what is going on with our little family, which was my intention to begin with. I have also reconnected to a long lost cousin. She began reading this blog after getting in touch with one of my sisters. I saw her on the sitemeter, who else could be reading from Pampa, Texas.

Possibly the best thing that has come from this activity, is meeting such a great group of fellow bloggers. Most of the blogs I read and bloggers who come here and read mine are garden bloggers. There are a handful that I found through other links. My sister also has a mommy blog and a craft blog. I try to visit the blogs on my links frequently to see what everyone has to say. I consider many of these bloggers dear friends.

I love reading and responding to comments. There has been very little trouble with spam and I have never had an ugly or hateful comment. Occasionally, though, the comments do take on a life of their own. Gardening Injuries comes to mind. Some of the commentors (I know, not a word) had some pretty gnarly injuries.

All in all, this has been a great experience and I have really enjoyed myself. I can't wait to see what the future holds for my little blog.

It's so Hot....

The devil went home until it cools off.
Chickens are laying fried eggs
You discover that the car seat belt buckle is now a branding iron

The heat makes me feel about as sexy as socks on a chicken.
Hope this does not reignite the stock wars.

102 degrees with a heat index of 104. It is not a dry heat. I feel like I am living in a vegetable steamer basket. How hot is it where you are?

Mulch Monkeys

The Monkeys and a neighbor boy helped me spread some cedar mulch today. They were not quite as enthusiastic about it as they were about deconstructing a compost pile, but they got the job done. I am sure the 100+ degree temperature did not help motivate them.

Inevitably, someone asked why we are doing this. So I got another chance to teach. Here are a few reasons to use mulch.

1. Mulch keeps the soil cool and moist. This helps conserve water.

2. Mulch discourages weeds.

3. Mulch is is more attractive than bare soil.

4. Using bark mulch is a great way to recycle.

5. As it breaks down, mulch adds organic matter to the soil.

6. Worms like mulch.

Apparently, Trixie did not think much of us invading "her" garden and interrupting a nap.

Scattergories Meme

I found this little meme at Christie's blog handcramp crafts.

The monkeys are being boring and it is hot so I don't want to take garden pictures or go find something garden related to blog about. Since life is not to interesting, I think today is a good day to play.

It is called SCATTERGORIES …it’s harder than it looks! Erase my answers, enter yours and post it on to your blog. Let me know when you have done it and I will come check it out!

Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things. Nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial.You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME? Deb
4 LETTER WORD: Dork
VEHICLE: Dodge
TV SHOW: Dateline
CITY: Dallas
BOY NAME: Doug
GIRL NAME: Darla
OCCUPATION: Dog Catcher
SOMETHING YOU WEAR: Dungarees
FOOD: Doughnut
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: Drain
REASON FOR BEING LATE: ? Dawdling.
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: Durn

Here is something extra. Manly Man smashed a stinkbug on his face this evening. Pretty funny.

Silly Garden Art

VP over at Veg Plotting shared a tour of her garden whimsies today. Yesterday there was an adorable picture of a snail.

She inspired me to share another picture of Senor Werm. Someday someone will teach me how to use this keyboard and I will be able to make the little squiggle over the n. Anyway, we want to see your garden whimsies. That's right, we want pictures of funny little statues or art pieces you keep in the garden. Leave me a comment and I will link your post. If no one plays, I will have to lurk and link. Don't make me lurk.

Players

Cinj has a cute gazing ball holding frog over at Cinj's chat room.

Anna has a bunny planter over at Woody and Herbaceous. Well, on second look, she pretty much has bunnys everywhere.

Perrenial Garden Lover has a really cool Scarecrow and turtles and a bird bath

Brenda at the Brenda Blog has a whole bunch of cute garden art. I particularly like the beetle

While it is not silly or garden art, Momo Falis has beautiful pictures of Hocking Hills and some cool pathways. It's my blog and I will link what I want to.

Crafty Gardener went all out for this challenge over at The Gardener Side. There is even a slide show. Check it out.

Karen over at Artist's Garden has a cartoon that made me smile.

Karen at Home Free, has dressed up some rocks in some very cute knitwear.

Tina at in the garden has bowling balls

The Lurking List

Weed Wackin Wenches have a darling picture of Diva Dog

Joy at Gardenjoy4me has a darling bunch of bench warmers

Beneficial Insects - Content Warning

Look what Middle Monkey found in the front yard this morning. Excuse the blurry picture. That sucker was fast.

We do not spray for bugs in our garden. We like to let nature take care of everything whenever possible. I am always on the lookout for beneficial insects. Lady bugs and their weird looking offspring do a great job on aphids. Assassin bugs look pretty scary and eat anything they can get their proboscis into.

Our favorite killer bugs are praying mantids. All praying mantis are praying mantids, but not all praying mantis are praying mantids. It's a species thing. Anyway, these creatures will eat anything even each other. A baby mantid's first meal may be his brother. I feel very sorry for the male mantids. If they don't make the jump to the females back just perfectly for mating, they are dinner. Even if they do, she is still going to eat his head during the act and then the rest of him after she gets the needed genetic material. Just thought you should know.

I have a compost update. The pile stayed over 140 degrees for four days. Today it started dropping and currently is at 135. It still a hot pile. When it drops below 130 it will be considered active. Once it cools off to the 80's it is ready to turn and start the whole process over again. We have compost success and I am very happy.

Neighbor's Front Yard

This is pretty,

but is it too much?

Bog Update

Here is my plant list for the bog.
Saurrus cernus - Lizards tail #3 1 gallon plants
Equisetum hyemale - Horsetail reed #3 1 gallon plants
Salvia uliginose - Bog Sage #3 1 gallon plants
Miscanthus sinensis "strictus" Zebra grass #1 3 gallon plant (variety is very important on this one)
Phalaris aruninacea - Ribbon Grass #2 3 gallon plants
Vallisneria americaa - Water celery #3 1 gallon plants
Crinum Americanum -Bog lilly #4 1 gallon plants
Houttuynia cordata - Camerleon plant #4 1 gallon plants
Juncus effusus spiralus - Corkscrew rush #2 1 gallon plants
Iris
Umbrella sedge

Carnivorous plants
Sarracenia alta - Texas pitcher plant #6 1 gallon plants
Drosera capillaris - Pink sundew #10 4" plants
Drosera bevifolia - Red sundew #10 4" plants

I need one more native Texas carnivorous plant. Any suggestions?

Everything Was Fine Until the Bomb Squad Showed up.

Our master gardener association is building demonstration gardens at one of the county courthouses. Here is the hole for the bog garden.

Here is the 3000 gallon rainwater harvesting tank that will provide water to the bog garden and other plantings. Underneath the cedar is a giant green plastic tank. Much prettier with the wood trim, don't you think?

Today we had trustees from the county come help us lay some flagstone and return some of the dirt to the bog. We were about half way through laying the flagstone when a secretary came out of the building yelling that we need to evacuate. There had been a bomb threat. We didn't take it too seriously, but we did take a short lunch break. When we returned the bomb squad had showed up with bomb sniffing German shepherds and everything. The courthouse staff was still unable to return to the building. So our work day was cut short. I never considered gardening a life threatening activity until today. Probably just a prank, but still.

ARRRGGH Stupid Thermometer

Remember me trying to get my compost pile hot.(that was an unfortunate sentence, but I am leaving it). Remember all the work all the worry all the unanswered questions. I tried and tried and tried to get my compost pile to heat up. I babied it. I gave it everything a compost pile could ever desire to become a hot working pile. There was much nashing of teeth. I was determined to dominate the compost pile and I failed over and over again. Or so I thought.

Yesterday I added two bags of frozen food scraps saved for me by my loving Mamala. I cleaned out all the stuff from under the rabbit hutch and added it to the pile. Then I put about a four inch layer of fresh green stuff, mostly some overgrown garlic chives that I weeded out. Then I watered the dooey out of the whole mess. This morning, the pile felt warm. Temp read 90 degrees. Hmmm. Later, I began to smell the slight scent of ammonia, pretty definite sign of a hot pile. Temperature reads 95, really? I pull out the thermometer. I feels hot, really hot. Go inside, get a food thermometer out of the kitchen. Stick it in the pile. It is only about eight inches long. This thermometer zooms up to 140 degrees. The other thermometer, my high dollar compost thermometer, has been wrong all along. Stupid thermometer.

12 Compost Tips

We are dedicated to composting here at Aunt Debbi's Garden. Everything that can be composted is composted. We even compost some things that we are warned against, such as cooking oil. After a discussion with a cousin-in-law about her stinky compost pile, I came up with a list of suggestions to have a great compost pile to make that wonderful garden black gold.

1. Ask friends and family who do not compost to save their food scraps for you. They can be stored in the freezer until you are able to pick them up. This keeps them from rotting and has the added benefit of breaking down vegetable cell walls, which speeds up the decomposing process.
2. Place your compost pile where you can share it with a neighbor. We have ours on the back fence and the neighbors are welcome to toss things into it.
3. If you are the analytical type and would like to do the math here is your link
4. If you are the more laid back creative type and believe in just "letting compost happen" here is your link.
5. Keep the pile damp. A dry compost pile breaks down slooooww.
6. Consider making a compost screen. Mine is made of 1x3 inch ply wood made into a frame with 1/4 inch screen stapled to it. The screened compost is awesome.
7. Add some red wriggler worms and let them make you compost extra rich and wonderful.
8. Shredded paper can be added to compost. It is also great bedding for a worm bin.
9. If you have a lot of food scraps and very little brown material, simply add a little soil to cover the food scraps. This helps eliminate any possible stink.
10. Used screened compost as a soil amendment and to enrich potting soil.
11. Use rough compost as a nutritious mulch.
12. There will be bugs. Do not be afraid of the bugs. They are there to help make you compost.
13. Remember little boys love to tear stuff up. Let them turn your compost for you. They are good at it.
14. Make compost tea. Add a few cups of compost to a bucket of water. Let it sit and use it to water you plants. They will thank you.

Here is a short list of possible compost ingredients

1. grass clippings.
2. Leaves
3. Vegetable and fruit food scraps.
4. Egg shells
5. Coffee grounds.
6. Tea bags.
7. Shredded paper
8. Paper plates
9. Weeds
10. Dead container plants
11. Any plant material cleaned up from the landscape that is not diseased.
12. Wood chips.
13. Manure. We add rabbit poo, which is the very best poo.
14. Old or spoiled vegetable animal feed such as hay, alfalfa, and rabbit pellets.
15. What every you muck out of a horses stall or barn.

What do you compost?

Baby Pictures

I would like to introduce my babies

First, a cute little pumpkin baby. Yes, the mystery vines were correctly identified as pumpkins.

Next baby popcorn. These should be yummy.

Finally, Baby bunnies. These two will need homes soon.

Rain Gardens

Here is a nice post on rain gardens by Growing Roots in L.A. This might help explain some of my post yesterday. Rain gardens are another way of protecting our rivers from polution from storm water run off while restoring ground water. As soon as our MG rain garden is complete, I will post pictures.

To Cure a Rant: Do Something

This week our master gardener group hosted a three day rainwater harvesting specialist training course. I helped. Mostly I put out food and talked about plants I like, but I was there if they needed me.

The course leader was a man who lives very near the Texas hill country. The water source for his home is rainwater. That's right rain water and only rain water. The average rainfall in that area is less than 30 inches. Pretty impressive system, I think.

Our educators and speakers believe in acting as stewards of our land. They spoke of the unique position we find ourselves in today. Most of us do not live off of the land. Therefore, we do not have to exploit it in order to survive. We are in an enviable place. We can care for the land - really care for it by restoring native plants, returning water to our aquifers, and replenish the soil. We can do it one little bit of land at a time.

I came away from this week feeling empowered. I watched this small group of gardeners walk out of this course hauling off their bright shiny new rain barrels with plans to plant rain gardens. These few people now have the knowledge to help prevent storm water run off and return some of that water to our precious ground water.

We rant and rave about how nobody is doing anything and our environment is going to hell in a hand basket. Well, today I watched a few people, myself included, go out into the world with a little knowledge that can make a difference. And so it begins.

Ponytail Trap

I love this blog. This girl is seriously funny. She has caused me to share that, occasionally, I have slammed my ponytail in a sliding glass door. A ponytail is a young woman's hairdo. I am really too old to wear a ponytail on my head, yet I do. About once a week, I walk through the back door, shut said door, and get yanked back by my scalp. Most of my hair is outside while my body, all of it, is inside. Ouch and humiliation.

Lemon Verbena Pound Cake

I like to bake bread. I have my own sour dough yeast growing in the fridge. Very rarely do I bake cakes or cookies. Last night, I needed to make a cake for a rainwater specialist training course our master gardener group is hosting. Do I do get a box cake? NOOO. I have to use something out of the garden. Here is how I did it with the help of a couple of monkeys. As a reward they have their own cake to eat.

Lemon Verbena Pound Cake

3 cups sugar
1 cup butter
6 eggs separated
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp lemon extract
1 cup lemon verbena chopped fine
3 tsp vanilla

Cream the sugar and butter. (Middle Monkey's job)
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks, but not dry. (Teenage Monkey's Job. He could not believe what an egg white will do).
Add the egg yolks, lemon extract, vanilla, lemon verbena, and milk to the creamed sugar and butter.
Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder together and add to the wet ingredients and mix.
Gently fold in the egg whites.
Poor the batter into a bunt pan and bake at 350 until a tooth pick comes out clean.
Cool and wrangle the cake out of the bunt pan (good luck).
Drizzle with lemon glaze.

Lemon Glaze
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 2 tablespoons lemon juice.

Now a note on lemon verbena.

Lemon verbena smells awesome. It has the best lemon scent of any herb I have ever grown. I like lemon scented herbs; lemon balm, lemon basil, and lemon thyme. I even grow a Logan's hardy lemon tree. We have never had a lemon off of the lemon tree. Lemon verbena tops them all.

GBBD July 2008

We are in the hot dry part of summer here in North Texas.

The ground is dry and the plants are waiting for rain.

Blooms this time of year are the tough bunch, the tried and true, the natives.

Here is the Texas Star hibiscus. Just the flower this time. No silliness

Grandpa Ott's morning glory comes up from seed every year. It begins to bloom in July and keeps on until late fall.

These are the very first Turk's cap blooms. A little pitiful, but give it a chance. Come September this baby will put on a show with a nekid lady. Sorry, silly came out.

Thanks again to Carol of May Dreams Garden for hosting Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

Gardening Injury

I don't like to water my perennial borders. The plants need to be tough to make it around here. This means plants that can live on very little extra water, so I rely on native and adapted plants. There are no ferns, no hydrangea, no hostas, or any other water hungry plants in my perennial beds. At this time of year these plantings look pretty pitiful. I have really let them go and the weeds were pretty bad. The ground was so dry that I had to turn on the water hose, soak the ground, and then pull the weeds. It is a pretty effective weeding method, water hose in one hand, weed with the other. It is also pretty fast, the weeds just come right out.

So anyway, I was watering and weeding and watering and weeding and then it happened. I pulled up hard on a particularly stubborn weed, the weed came free, and my elbow went right up into my most thorny rosebush. I ended up with several rose thorns in my upper arm. One especially big one right in the softest part right above my elbow. OwwWWWwwww.

Got any weeding techniques to share?
Any gardening related injuries?

Camping Exhaustion

After a lot of acting like this.

We all feel like this

Salsa: Another Vegetable Massacre

I was going to simply post a recipe, but thought I picture would be better

Tomato, onion, jalapeno peppers, chili pequino, garlic, lime, Worcestershire sauce, sea salt, cilantro (dry this time).

Can't keep the teenage monkey out of it.

The Next Survivor Series

My sister sent me this. I thought you might enjoy it.

THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks. Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes. There is no fast food. Each man must work a full time job, take care of his 3 kids, keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, and complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of 'pretend' bills with not enough money. In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week. Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send cards out on time. Each man must also take each child to a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment .

He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Urgent Care and one 'emergency' run to Wal Mart at 10:00 p.m. to pick up poster board for a school project that is due the next day. He must also make cookies or cupcakes for a social function. Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times. The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done. The men must shave their legs, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep fingernails manicured and eyebrows groomed.

They must find an hour every day to attend an exercise class of some kind, or at least work out on the treadmill at home. During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure bleeding from somewhere in their groin area, severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties. They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.

They will be solely responsible for feeding all pets and cleaning up after them.

They will need to read a book and then pray with the children each night and in the morning, feed them, dress them, brush their teeth, comb their hair and fix their lunches by 7:00 am. A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor's name. Also the child's weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labor, each child's favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up. The kids vote them off the island based on performance. The last man wins only if...he still has enoug h energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment's notice. The winner gets to play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years eventually earning the right To be called Mother!

Opps

Sorry, y'all. I have been going on and on about my three sisters plantings. I was so happy with my first group of five that I planted two more. The first groups have popcorn, red noodle beans, and heirloom squash varieties. The popcorn varieties are strawberry and calico. The squash varieties are straight and crook necked yellow squash, and three types of zucchini include the cute little Ronde de Nice.

In the two new plantings, I planted sweet corn, more squash varieties to be determined and regular green yard long beans. Another pumpkin vine showed up and it gets to stay as well.

My popcorn is beginning to put out tassels. This prompted me to do some research. So after the fact, I go look up how to grow, harvest, and store popcorn. Step 1 pick your varieties with this warning "Don’t plant popcorn and sweet corn near one another, as they will both suffer if their is cross pollination." CRAP. I can only hope that the popcorn is finished with the pollination thing before the sweet corn starts it. I still have so much to learn.

Here is the article from gardenguides.com. There are some good popcorn recipes. That's right folks, popcorn recipes.

Have you made any gardening mistakes this year? Do you have popcorn recipes to share?

Wild Pumpkins Have Invaded My Garden

There are two mystery vines growing in our garden. I thought they were muskmelon and left them because they are so easy to grow. Well, the vines didn't look quite right. The leaves were too big for melon and the vines were too thick. Then one of the monkeys touched the a vine and said it had stickers. They did have spiny vines, not really stickers, but definitely prickly. There were plenty of male flowers, but I had not seen any fruit yet. The things are about eight feet long and I have had to train the vines to keep them out of the pathways. I finally found a female flower and I think we have pumpkins. I have never successfully grown a pumpkin, so we will have to see what happens. Once again, my garden has gone wild. I don't have the heart to pull them out. They are going to get huge and my garden is tiny. Wish me luck.

Oh, btw, we don't spray here. If a bug has to be disposed of it is done by hand. We prefer to let biodiversity balance the bug situation. Wisdom of the Trowel has an awesome beneficial bug post. Check it out.

Ronde de Nice Squash

I picked my first squash today. Here is a picture of a little baby Ronde de Nice zucchini. Isn't it cute? I think I am going to bake it with a tomato, Parmesan cheese, and garlic.

This is the first year we have grown squash, beans, and corn together in the three sisters style. It is working out fantastic. I stink at growing corn and the squash bugs usually get my plants after just a few fruits are picked. Not so this year, the corn is gorgeous, the squash bugs are confused, and the beans are doing great as usual.

We have to leave the corn in after it produces because it is supporting the beans. This fall, after everything is done, we will pull them out and make a scarecrow from the cornstalks.

Idalou Texas

Somebody from Idalou, Texas read my blog today. I don't know who you are, but I am naming the white bunny after your town. I love my site meter. One time someone showed up from Katmandu, too cool.

ARRRG...CLICK BEETLE!!!!!!!!!

It has been a critter filled day here at Aunt Debbi's Garden.

The temperature is below 90 so out into the garden I go. The chore list includes weeding, spreading compost, and killing weeds in the pathways with boiling water. Smells a lot like cooking spinach. Why would anyone every cook perfectly good spinach and make it into a green gooey mess? It is so lovely as a salad.

The first visitor we noticed was a giant swallowtail butterfly. It was sipping nectar from the zinnias. We check the lemon tree to see if it had laid any eggs. Instead of a bird poo looking caterpillar, all we found was actual bird poo on the lemon. Too bad, maybe later

The next visitor was a two lined skink. It was not actually a visitor. Baby Monkey kidnapped it from a neighbors house and brought it home. I made him release it in the garden after the poor things tail fell off.


I came back into the house to put the pot back on the stove to boil when I noticed something large and dark on my shoulder. It moved when I tried to brush it off. I asked Middle Monkey to identify it. He starts screaming, "It's a giant cockroach." I find myself dancing around the kitchen screaming, "GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!!!!" He runs for a towel yelling, "This may hurt." Not sure what he was planing on doing. About the time he took a swipe at it with the towel I hear a loud click. Praise the Lord it was not a giant cockroach. It was a black and white click beetle. We played with it for a little while and let it go on the deck.

On further research I find that the click beetles larva eat corn plants. Hmmm, maybe we should have let it go someplace else.

Happy 4th

High Noon at Aunt Debbi's Garden the Spagetti War Begins

Will it be "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly?

Click the question for more fun.

The Sock Situation is Not Over

Remember the great sock debate? Rember the poll?. Well the four of us who thought it was important remember it. OFB was out voted and socks are here to stay. Well, The manic gardener had this too funny post today. This is exactly what happens when garden bloggers get in a tiff. Shame on all of us ;)

June Block of the Month and a Bunny

The June block of the month is the baskets on the left. The top block is a completer my mom had to finish for me because I had a fit and fell in it. I was threatening to quit making the completer blocks. She felt bad for getting me into this mess and is trying to help me. On the right is the first block (actually circle) for my niece's wedding quilt. The colors are too dark in this picture. The fabrics are burgundy and plum prints in the dark rings with gold and plum floral prints in the light ring.

Here is a gratuitous "aw look at the baby bunny picture." Isn't she cute, I mean the rabbit, but the girl cousin is cute too.

On a Lighter Note

The very sweet Cindy at Cinj's Chat Room honored me with the Arte y Pico award. Below is the explanation I copied from her post, because you know I am too lazy to rewrite it and I would probably get it wrong anyway.

"Ana explains the thought behind her award. “This prize has arisen from the daily visits that I dedicate to many blogs which nourish me and enrich me with creativity. In them I see dedication, creativity, care, comradeship, but mainly, art, much art.”

I am very pleased and a bit confused. I never thought this blog qualified as art, unless "crazy middle aged woman tries to herd monkeys" counts as art. Maybe it is a craft. Is it a craft?

Anyway, here are the rules and instructions.

Please be so kind to accept this award. You can keep it to yourself or pass it on, that's up to you of course. But there are some rules if you decide to pass on the award to remarkable blogs you feel are worthy of the award.

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award through creativity, design, interesting material and also contributes to the blogger community no matter of language.

2. Each award should have the name of the author with a link to their blog.

3. Award winners have to post the award with the name and link to the blog of the person who gave them the award.

4.Please include a link to the Arte Y Pico blog so that everyone will know where the award came from.

5. Show these rules.

Here are the blogs I picked and why

My sister at In Stitches because I love to watch and see her spread her creative wings.

Weed Whackin Wenches because their photos are beautiful and sometimes they crack me up.

Garden Life a beautiful Japanese garden blog. Can't read what he is writing, but the pictures are awesome.

Ourfriendben, Silence, and Poor Richard at Poor Richard's Almanac for great writing and good recipes

Finally, Givinya De Elba at Killing a Fly with a Ukulele is Probably the Wrong Thing To Do because she is seriously funny and her brother wrote me a poem.

Okay, I wasn't finished and I am going to cheat. Actually, I am going to swipe a nominee from my sister. Sorry Sis, you only get four. I also want to pick Dee at Red Dirt Ramblings. Her blog is beautiful and she can actually focus on gardening. She also gave me blogging advice in the beginning. I am still open to your mentoring Dee.

Thanks again Cindy. You are the best.

WARNING

I was not going to do this, but on further thought, it seems important.

My youngest was taking a reading course this summer. It is not exactly summer school. In summer school, I assume there is a goal. In summer reading camp, we all stay the same and don't get dumber. Sorry, I am a little unhappy with summer reading camp.

This morning, was the last day of "Summer Reading Camp." I was folding laundry and putting away dishes while I waited for the boy to walk home. The school is right across the street from our home. I can see the front door from my back deck.

We have a German shepherd dog. You may know Abby. If not, don't get in our yard or she will eat you. I hear her go crazy at about 11:45 am and go to check it out.

We have a solar blocking flim on some of our windows. The windows outside my kitchen are treated this way. During the day, we can see out, but you cannot see in.

As I look outside, with the door closed, I see an young white male. He is clean cut, wearing slacks and a white shirt. Next to him is my nine-year-old son. I have never seen this man in my life. I will the German shepherd to jump over the fence and eat the stranger. The dog does not do her job because the boy is friendly to the stanger.

It turns out this is a teacher at our school. When I opened the door he did not introduce himself. He said something to the effect of, "teacherschoolrainbarrel." Apparently, he talked my youngest son into showing him our new rain barrel.

We live in a little town. DO NOT EVER LET YOUR GAURD DOWN. I don't know this man and he crossed the line. Why didn't he knock on the door. Why didn't he introduce himself. What the hell was he doing on my deck. My kids are overprotected and need to have a lesson in stranger danger.

PAY ATTENTION. I ALMOST DIDN'T

A New Low: I Have Resorted to Sprinklers

It is hot. Very very hot. There has been no rain. I put in a rain barrel and the rain stopped the next day.

We have broken all of the watering rules. Do not water at midday: Had to, the plants were keeling over. Water deep not shallow: Did not have enough time, somebody needed to go to a soccer game. Mulch to retain moisture: I can't find time to do the dishes and laundry much less spread more mulch.

I love to water my garden by hand. Today I gave up. I set up the sprinkler, set the timer, and went back inside to finish some insane quilt project I committed to back in January.

Would someone like to come babysit the Monkey's so I can try to catch up?

Cricket chirps!!!!!!!!

Durn.