Fifteen Books

I got razed a little on twitter yesterday for being a library lady and asking for book suggestions. Then I ran across this meme. So here we go

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your 15 picks, and tag people in the note - upper right hand side).

The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
The Time Travelers Wife - Audry Niffengger
The Shack - William P. Young
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
A tree Grows in Brooklyn - Beth Smith
A movable Feast - Ernest Hemingway
Cider House Rules - John Irving
Terms of Endearment - Larry mcMurtrey
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Lisa See
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
The Robber Bride - Margaret Atwood
Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - David Wroblewski
Garden Primer - Barbara Dramrosch

I would like to add one thing. I have read or would read other books by any of these authors. They were just the first fifteen that popped into my mind.

I am not tagging anyone, if you want to play do. I would love to know what books you loved or were moved by in some way.

Have a great weekend.

Debbi

The End of the Purple Hull Pea Era

I picked my first handful of purple hull peas today. There is nothing prettier than the color of a purple hull pea pod. Sadly, unless I get a much bigger garden, this will be my last year of purple hull peas. Next year, I will plant my new favorite pea- lady cream peas. Now I love black eyed peas, but lady cream peas put them to shame. While the pea pod of the lady cream pea is pretty boring, the flavor of the pea is wonderful.

So it is so long to purple hull peas
A moment of silence please

(feel free to add to that silly poemlette)

Cool Stuff

A few weeks ago I received three items to review from Starline Promotional Products The items were a water bottle, a rubber tape measure and a gardening stool/bag. I was totally excited that some company thought I was worthy of reviewing their products. After all, I frequently lose my Felcos.

The water bottle and the tape measure totally disappeared within 24 hours. Manly has the tape measure and Baby Monkey took the water bottle. I assume they are very nice because they will not give them back.

They tried to take the garden stool/bag, but I fought them off. Manly thought it would make a nice fishing chair and Baby Monkey just wanted it. But it is mine, all mine. The bag snaps to the stool and it's handles make carrying straps for the stool. The bag has pockets for tools and stuff. One word though, don't leave it out in the rain. That bag holds water. Really, I love this thing. The picture above is the stool sitting in the next area I need to weed (obviously).

Do It Yourself Rain Barrel

Okay, here are the two rain barrels. The first one was made by Manly. He used a jigsaw to cut the top opening for the water to come into the barrel. It was made the same shape as the down spout diverter (that brown tube) . He used a pvc tap and drilled the hole for it slightly smaller than the tap itself. Then he screwed it in and sealed it with silicone. I messed the seal up and resealed it with Gorilla Glue. It has never leaked again. This one does not have an overflow. You should drill an overflow hole at the top on one side to allow the excess water to flow out. This one just bubbles out the top and doesn't seem to be a problem. The gutters that feed this barrel are fitted with gutter guards.

Make sure you have either gutter guards or some kind of screen to keep out dirt and debris. The last picture shows the one gallon container with a screen cut out and fitted into the bottom. As you can see it works just fine keeping stuff out. The gutters feeding the second barrel are not covered with gutter guards so it needs some sort of filter. I have seen other barrels that have an open top that is covered with screen. That works fine too.

The second barrel was actually put together by our master gardener rainwater harvesting specialists. I think there is a coupling behind the water tap. It also has the overflow hole.

I am equally happy with each barrel. There are lots and lots of videos that explain this in a lot more detail than I have here. Rather than getting all technical and doing math (which I would get wrong), I suggest you google "make your own rain barrel" and pick a video to watch.

Remember though, this does not have to be all complicated. A barrel with a tap, gutters and a way to keep out mosquitoes is all you need. If you can use a drill, you can do this. They can be dressed up with pickets or 1x1 cedar boards.

Rain Water Harvesting Has Become Necessary

We live in a small town in north central Texas. This little town was grossly mismanaged for many years. They were breaking all kinds of water and waste water laws. When they got caught, guess who had to pay to fix it. That's right the humble citizens of the little town. We are mostly middle middle class. No one is wealthy. This last month our water bill went up 45% and the sewage fees went up 85%. Now my family is able to absorb this ridiculous cost, but what about the elderly? What about those who have lost jobs? Seriously, they are kicking the people while they are down.

I have installed two rain barrels this year. I have about a 185 gallon per rain event capacity and plan on adding another three barrels for another 190 gallons soon. I have been doing this to be good to the planet and good to my plants. Now, I am seeing that this may be much much more important than all that. It may be a matter of being able to continuing to garden during dry times. Between rain water harvesting, gray water reuse and a seriously heavy layer of mulch over everything, I have managed not to increase out water use over the summer months. Even with these measures, our water bill was $55 higher than last month.

The question now is how to get this message out to the others in my community?

Night Blooms

 
 
 
I can't believe I have not posted since Tuesday, but this has been a busy week. We took the Monkeys to Great Wolf Lodge and totally enjoyed outselves. The Monkeys are big enough now that they can do most things by themselves with us just hanging out and watching over them. They had a blast in the indoor water park and we had a nice time riding a few rides with them and hanging out in the hot tub between. We loved it. This trip was a gift from Mamala and it was wonderful.

We made it back and found that my Angels' Trumpets are blooming. The first picture was taken just as the sun started going down. The second was just before dark. The last, unfortunately fuzzy, picture was taken just after dark. I wish you could smell the wonderful scent.

Y'all have a nice weekend.

Morning Glories

 
 
 
 

I have always loved morning glories. My first garden was at our home in Mesquite, Texas. It was off in a little corner of the yard. My Dad put up a fence to keep out the Great Danes and my multitude of siblings. I tended that little garden for about seven years during middle school, high school and my freshman year of college. I grew squash, okra, tomatoes and Heavily Blue Morning Glories. The morning glories were planted against the fence. Next to the fence was my Dad's prized peach tree. Guess where the morning glories went? That's right, straight up into the peach tree. Dad wasn't happy, but Mom wouldn't let him pull them out because it was "pretty."

One day, Magillacutty, the giant and quite mentally challenged, Great Dane got inside of the garden fence and had a party by himself. I weighed maybe 90 pounds. He weighed more that 110. Guess how long it took me to wrestle him out of that little garden? The squash was destroyed, but the morning glories survived.

A few years ago, I introduced another invasive vine into my current garden. Thankfully, it has a predator- butterflies. Every summer, the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars chew down my giant passion vine. This morning, I was surrounded by clouds of these orange beauties. I would like to say that the butterflies will move on and I can clean up that passion vine, but we still had caterpillars at Christmas time last year.

Do not bring seeds of wild morning glories into your garden, no matter how pretty they are. They will be with you for the rest of your life strangling your other flowers and covering up your prized antique rose bushes.