Gardening Computer Game

 

My lovely sister bought me this computer game for Christmas. I thought it was cute and that I would enjoy it. Well, hell, the stupid thing is crack to plant addicts. I loaded it up last night and started growing plants. When you turn of the game, the plants keep growing, or not. When I loaded it this morning, my plants were dead because they didn't have enough water and they were infested with bugs. So I used most of my money on bug spray for dead plants. Then I had to buy new seeds, because I didn't save my seeds. Down to $35 I spent all day rebuilding my nursery and saving money. I know have over $200 again and healthy plants. There is a silver lining to this new obsession, you have to give the plants time to grow. After each planting, pruning, pollinating, and selling session, there is a period of time where nothing is going on. This produces time with nothing to do on the computer. I cleaned house, gave my potted plants worm castings, and potted up five snap dragons. I acheived more in my house and yard today than I have in the past week. Now, I just wish the internet had a time out feature or I had the self control to stay off of it.

I am probably going to love this game during the cold nasty days when I cannot actually garden.

Weeding Carrots ARRRRGGGG

Weedy Carrot Bed

 

Gratuitous picture of Tisha

 

It looks like the Monkeys put too much hay in the bunny hutch

 

Weeding Carrots is a job, a really bad job. Hen bit, chickweed, and volunteer lettuce have invaded my carrot bed. It is very hard to remove the weeds without pulling up carrot seedlings. This led to a very frustrating afternoon. I hope I didn't pull up to many baby carrots. I even resorted to an Internet search on "how to weed carrots." There was no miracle carrot weeding technique, just as there is no miracle weight loss pill. Still, you can't blame a girl for trying. I did come across this little gem of information, "Soil disturbance caused by cultivation exposes locked up organic material and minerals to oxygen, water, and microorganisms for decomposition." So weeding helps our plants in two ways; removing the competing plants and releasing nutrients. That explains why a newly weeded bed performs so much better. So now I have a different perspective on weeding. Even if the beds are not perfectly cultivated, the work done, however imperfectly, will improve the crop. I no longer feel the pressure from Perfect Weeding Aspiration Syndrome (PWAS). What a relief.

Do you suffer from a syndrome related to an unrealistic gardening goal? If so, please tell.

Beautiful Unnatural Winter Evening

 

 

 

Today was windy but warm and nice. This evening the temperatures were in the 70's and I was able to sit on our deck after dinner. The picture are of our very nice patio umbrella. The lights are solar powered. The plants were brought out of the house this afternoon. They look a little ratty. Tomorrow they will get new potting soil and a haircut.

Tonight, we are supposed to have thunderstorm and tomorrow night the temperatures are supposed to drop into the 30's. We are very thankful for such a nice day today.

If you are still snowed in, please don't hate me because my weather is beautiful.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself, but take heart as I will be whining about the cold/wet again tomorrow.

Visit From the Little Christmas Birdie

 

 

We had a very nice Christmas. The two sisters who are out of town were missed very much. There were great gifts, good food, and only minor melt downs. Mostly just the toddlers melted down, but I did have one little fit. Sorry.

At the end of the night we had a little visitor. He flew in while a sister-in-law as leaving. Turns out they fly towards light. He was on the tree. Then he flew to another little tree that had lights. He was totally disoriented until we turned off all of the lights in the room and left the porch light on. He was then able to make his way safely outside. This was a little touch and go as Snickers, sister’s crazy kitten, already caught one bird that flew into the house. We needed to get him out of there before the kitten killed again.

I have no idea what kind of bird this is. Can anyone tell?

I Think They are Trying to Give Santa a Heart Attack

 

I sent the boys to bed. When I went to turn out the lights in the living room, I found the cookies and milk they left for Santa. Do you think that is enough milk to clog Santa's arteries? That plate of cookies, is it over kill? Is the Grinch video appropriate?

Merry Monkey Christmas

 

The Monkeys want to wish all our blogging buddies a very merry Christmas.

Rainy Day Monkey Business

 

 

 

 

Have you ever been stuck in the house with four kids, two cats, three fish, and an obsessive compulsive German shepherd? I thought not, that would only happen in my life.

I have nieces #2 and #3. They are out of school for the holidays, but their mom and dad must work. So they are visiting us. Normally, this is not an issue. They usually play in the yard for a while, play inside for a while and generally keep themselves busy.

Today it is really too cold and too wet to play outside. Did that stop them? NOOOO. Instead they went outside and took the dog with them. They saw that the top of the water garden had frozen over and felt sorry for the fish. They broke the ice, scooped out the fish, and brought them inside in a mixing bowl. Then they let Abby back inside after she ran around the yard and got as muddy as possible. Guess what she did when she got inside, just guess...she rolled around on my newly shampooed carpet. Nice.

After getting the fish out of the house and the dog in her kennel, I discovered that someone had caught the bathroom curtain on fire with a candle. I am pretty sure it happened last night, but still.

Finally, they all settled down to playing games and making a Christmas card for their Aunt who has to return to New Mexico tomorrow.

This is only the second day of Christmas break. There are still twelve days left. Will the house get burned down? Will I go completely crazy? Will the animals end up running the household and raising my children? Stay tuned.