Critter Misbehavior

Have you ever heard someone say, derisively,"Get a job." Well, be a stay at home mom for a few years and watch what happens when you return to work. The humans will do their best. They will demonstrate the ability to feed themselves and produce clean clothes. The fur balls, on the other hand, have a different spin on the departure of the stay at home mom. Abby, Internet Police Dog, became ill the first day I was away from home more than three hours. Yep, she made a big stinky mess in three out of five rooms of our home. Unfortunately, the bunnies had a bad day too(sob). Tisha, the original Manx, held on by her claws to the back of my chair. She ran off the German shepherd, tried to bite me, and had a fit when Manly Man removed her from the room. I do not intend to be a stay at home pet mommy. Seriously.

Christmas Meme

I bootlegged a Christmas Meme, because I am lame today and just felt like doing a meme. So here goes.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper because Manly Man wraps all the presents and I get to eat bonbons.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial and artificially white.

3. When do you put up the tree? Day after Thanksgiving

4. When do you take the tree down? January 2nd

5. Do you like eggnog? Yep and Our Friend Ben has a great recipe.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? This is hard. Mom always made every Christmas so special. I did really love a pair of tennis shoes I received in 6th grade.

7 . Hardest person to buy for? Dad.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Monkeys.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? I have three.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? What are the cards you speak of?

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Clothes two sizes too big.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Not the Jim Carey movie, but the old TV special.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever Manly Man makes me.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas ? Ham, broccoli, cheese casserole, stuffing, deviled eggs. I gained five pounds just typing that.

16. Lights on the tree? blue and clear.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Silent Night. I also want that Crazy Christmas CD.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen… Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen… and Rudolph, of course. Don't cheat do it yourself.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? One on Christmas Eve the rest Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Insane shoppers and bad traffic.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I love all of my cobalt blue ornaments. Manly Man, mom and sisters have all given these to me.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Ham.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Wellies and Dr. Seuss videos - Horton Hatches the Egg, Horton Hears a Who, and The Lorax. Oh yea, peace and goodwill towards men.

I don't tag anymore, so if you want to play just copy, paste, and fill in your own answers. If you do play, leave me a comment so I can check out your answers and link you up.

If anybody comes up with a Christmas Gardening Meme, I would love to see it.

Little Furry White Heartbreak

 

We lost a bunny tonight. It was one of the three borne last last spring. I went out to feed them after work and found him. He was gone. How am I going to tell the boys? It just seems awful to have this happen at this time of year. Normally, there would be a funny story about my misidentification of his gender, but not tonight. This was the sweetest of the babies. He loved to be held and stroked.

Goodbye Snowball.

How I Avoided an Avalanche of Random Crap

 

 

If you are sick of hearing southerners whine about the cold weather, you might want to click out of here fast. Above are a couple of pictures of my little water garden with ice covering most of the surface. Manly Man broke the ice this morning and repositioned the air hose. I like the picture of the bubble and the leaf caught in the ice. The fish are hanging out on the bottom ticked off.

I did not go outside in this mess. There is ice on the roads and the schools are closed down. We simply cannot function if there is anything frozen on the road. Lots of Texan's drive trucks. Trucks do not have enough weight in the back end (unlike Aunt Debbi) and they tend to slide around. We like to stay inside and off the roads when the weather is like this.

So what does a wimpy Texas gardener do when there is a little bit of frozen stuff on the ground. She stays inside and cleans up the catch all room. "What is a catch all room?" you ask. It is the room that contains the washer and drier, laundry baskets and hampers, my sewing nook, filing cabinets, school supplies, books, TV, computer, desk, large piece of multi use exercise equipment, other exercise accouterments, a big container of garden club paraphernalia, another bookshelf, dog kennel, animal feed, and all kinds of junk the family has just off loaded into this room.

This is the room where I spend most of my time. I do laundry, sew, blog, and watch TV in this scitzophrenic room. I do not watch much TV in the living room because there is way too much testosterone in there and I don't want to watch hockey or Survivor Man.

I have not really sorted through all the crap in this room in about a year. It was beginning to feel like all the stuff was going to create an avalanche and crush me to death. After a few hours, I am about a third of the way through the mess and feeling a little safer.

How do you fill your time when you cannot garden?

December 2008 GBBD

 

It was so cold today that I only could stay outside long enough to find one blooming plant for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day hosted by Carol of May Dreams Garden. This picture was taken at 9:00 o'clock tonight in freezing cold temperatures. I had to come back in as my fingers were hurting. Thanks for hosting this great event Carol.

As some of you may know, I started a new job last week. It is a position as a library clerk at a tiny local library. I don't feel comfortable blogging about the people that use the library. Let's just say it is very interesting and I love it. As I use the library myself, I will post about the books.

If you live here in the cold cold areas of the U.S. how are you staying warm?

Windy Weather Wisdom

It was extremely windy here today. My face feels burned and my lips are chapped. The temperature, however, was wonderful. It was impossible for me to stay inside. I just had to get out into the garden. Here are a few observations regarding things you might not want to do in the garden during a windstorm.

1. Sift compost, unless you like compost up your nose and in your hair.
2. Scatter seeds. Pretty sure those seeds are in the county just east of here.
3. Prune roses. Ouch!!!!!
4. Underestimate the hair tangling abilities of high wind on long curly hair. Ouch!!!!
5. Use a leaf blower. This is absolutely pointless.
6. Forget to close the door to the rabbit hutch. Well, this is always a nono, but bunny chasing in high wind is just wrong.
7. Leave the backdoor open. Kitchen full of leaves, not nice.
8. Water into the wind. Yes, yes, nice and wet.
9. Pick up blown over potted plants over and over and over. Just give up already until the wind is gone.
10. Spread blood mean and bone meal on newly made beds. I am pretty sure that blood meal up the nose is not a good thing.

Maybe I should have flown a kite.

Hope you had a great day.

Salmon Queen Scabiosa Seed Trial

 

I received my seeds from Jodi of In the Garden This afternoon. I am very excited. She sent good direction for starting the seeds and a list of questions for reporting our findings. This will be the first time I participate in a seed trial. I have tested roses for the Earthkind project.

I need to quit blogging and send Jodi an email to let her know that the seeds are here.

In the above picture I made my first attempt at adding text over a photo. Still learning here people. Obviously, the font needed to be larger. Maybe next time it will be legible.