I'm a bit upset--but only a little.

So I had decided to take a little vacation. A long weekend really and before I made my plans I asked my evening co-workers if they had requested any of those days already with the boss. They said "no" so I went ahead, put my card in for the time off and made my plans--which was to meet up with some friends and go backpacking.

Well, when the new schedule got made up, I did not get all the days I requested. I asked why. Turns out one of the co-workers I asked HAD put in for one of the days. Well COL! (Cuss out loud). I had been willing to chose different dates should I had know but since no one fessed up, I had went ahead and made the plans with my friends....plans that can't be changed because of permits, etc. SO now because I am off by one day I cannot go :(. Which made me a bit mad. All someone had to say was they wanted those days and I would of chosen different ones but since I'm the lowest on the totem if someone else wanted the days they got them instead of me.

So now I will have only 4 days off, and nowhere to go.

Well, then I got to thinking. I could go ahead and take a road trip and camp along the way, all by my lonesome self which would actually cost way more money then my original plan was (and getting campsites without pre-reserving them over a weekend is iffy). OR I could go ahead and take that money I would of used for something I've been wanting a long time. I told Wonder Husband what I thought and asked his thoughts on the matter. He did not seem distraught at the idea. "What ever you want, wife." (I love those words, BTW) "But can we not eat them this time?" And in addition to this thing I want I could also get a lot done in the garden and maybe even start some fall stuff which I really should be doing anyway.

So now I'm not so upset anymore, even though I was looking forward to my mini vacation which I needed very badly.

So what is this "thing?"

A nice well made rabbit hutch. Sure I could "try" to build one myself. Lets just gloss over the fact that I'm terrible at following directions and have never built something from scratch before. I would need to buy the tools, (and store those tools somewhere where they will likely never get used again), the raw materials, etc, etc, and find the time to build something that doesn't fall to pieces with the first tiny windstorm here. Lets ignore also my strange ability to get injured during the most mundane of tasks too.(try breaking over 20 bones in your life and not be a bit skeptical about your clumsiness)  OK, so I'm the one that wants to be "more self reliant" in life here. You would think I would set my butt down and try to figure out how to do this myself. But sometimes I have to take shortcuts as I do work-40-60 hour weeks, on top of trying to can everything, garden, walk the dogs, feed all the critters, etc, etc, etc. you have to understand that sometimes time IS costly and it would cost me less just to buy the darn thing at this point in my life. Maybe someday I will have time to devote to doing such things on my own but at this point, no way. And so, I will buy one. Heck, I had the money set aside anyway and this will help provide free weed removal and fertilizer for my garden too.

We are thinking Rex bunnies are what we want. But Mike wants the standard size. I think they eat way too much just for a "pet" rabbit, something we are not going to butcher to our freezer and that mini-Rex's would be better for us, feed and grain wise. We have time to decide though. I'll get the hutch and everything for it first. And as for having a run for them, I have a very large wire bottom dog crate that would work great as a daytime grazing cage for the bunnies (I want 2 of them) that I can move around and where they can get some outside cage time so there will be no need to buy one for them. I can cover that with a tarp to shade them or keep them dry easily enough.

What do you think of my new plan??? I can't wait for Friday to get here!

Accountability Sunday #2

It's been a somewhat unproductive week for me with preserving fruit and vegetables. However, I did get quite a bit more then expected in the garden done. I finally got around to harvesting all the onions and cleaning out that garden row. What a mess that was. I had only intended to pull the onions but once I'd done that I couldn't stop and cleaned up the weeds and things too.

My garden bed of shame is also now so much less shameful. There actually wasn't too many weeds in this one and it mainly needed  deadheading and cleaning up a little. I finally got the suckers tagged that I will dig up this winter as bare roots. The ones with white yarn are the white flowering suckers, multicolored yarn are the red. Come winter, I will cut the roses down to the ground. It keeps them nice and bushy growing. A thorny job though....

So my NEXT bed of shame was this one which I was supposed to do this new week. looks like this- Horrifying, isn't it?

There is a nice mix of out of control weeds--crab grass, yellow flowered spiky leaved things, and LOTS of garlic chives. DO NOT let your garlic chives go to seed. You've been warned.

BUT....I was ambitious this day, my one day off of work this weekend so now it looks like this:

Not only did I clean out all those weeds (though I'm sure the garlic chives will be back with a vengeance REAL soon) but I found a home for some of the perennials I had potted up. I have my blueberries in this bed but they are doing very poorly so they may not even make it through the winter. I plan to try to move them to the veggie garden when they go dormant this year so the plants I just homed there can have it all to themselves.

Of course it needs to be mulched, but I have nothing to mulch with right now and I am not going to buy mulch. I hope to scrounge up some grass clippings from neighbors for free. BTW, that dirt used to be a terrible clay. But a few years of adding mulch and compost has solved that problem well enough.

Today's harvest included several more zucchinis and some carrots that I had for dinner. I swear I'm going to turn orange from all these tomatoes and carrots I've been eating although I don't care much for the flavor of the multi colored carrots....I will not be planting them again. However since I did grow them I feel that I cannot let them go to waste. They are somewhat more palatable cooked. At least Jack the dog doesn't mind chewing on them.

So how did my week of no eating out span? I did pretty good, except I did break down on Thursday and bought a diet pop and a little snack bag of BBQ chips. And on Friday I broke down completely and had a meal from the cafeteria at work, even though I HAD brought something. But I had done so much better then ever before and I will keep trying to bring my lunch to work instead of buying it.

Now I have to think of another "greener" challenge to do this week and I think it will have to do with driving since so much of my ecological footprint has to do with how much I drive. Sure I have a pretty low emissions car but I do drive a LOT, over 300 miles a week just back and forth to work-not counting errands and drives to the parks. This week I am going to drive the speed limit and no faster then that on my commutes. Now, this will likely get a lot of people MAD as hornets on the borman--there's some crazy drivers out there! even when I'm going 10 or 15 over the posted limit you usually have some Jerk ridding on your tail shinning brights into your mirrors blinding you. Then when they go around, they are going at least 30 more miles over the speed limit and cutting off cars left and right. Will i survive??? It's a good thing I have a short work week this week.

Accountability Day #1

It's Sunday and time to see how I've done this week.

First I did end up taking care of my bed of shame:

Doesn't it look so much better now? I had chosen the first one to be an easy one as the weather was hot and humid and my time was limited.

Here is the bed that I will tackle this week:

This weekend I also harvested elderberries, tomatoes, onions, and a cucumber. I turned the berries into Jam (if it manages to set, syrup if it didn't LOL.) I turned the tomatoes into salsa and canned it.

This week's green goal: bring my lunch from home everyday.

The weekend is almost here...

Oh boy, I have so much to do in the next three days! It's INSANITY, and certainly a bit of panic and running around in circles. On top of my normal chores that I do everyday and work, here are the things I hope to get done:

Friday- I have lots of preweekend errands to run before work. I have to drop the computer off for repairs. I have to get more canning stuff like jars. I have to pick all the tomatoes that have decided to ripen all at once, along with elderberries and more rose hips. I will not have time to process them before work. I have to run to the P.O. and mail off bills after getting money orders for said bills from the bank. UGH. IF I have time I will get my canning supplies while I am near walmart. I DO have to get some shredded zucchini into the freezer that I have in the fridge. I have my baggies now.

Saturday- I plan on going to the Porter County Fair. I have no idea how long that will take, it may be an all day thing for me so I have nothing else planned to do that day. Mike had to work the whole weekend so I will be going by myself. I think the exhibits would bore him anyway. I hope to get home in time to work in the garden a bit before the sun goes down.

Sunday- I will be working furiously in the kitchen. I want to make salsa for canning. This means I will have to buy some hot peppers from the farm down the lane. I did not get any planted this year. I've been so utterly disorganized. Not that I eat hot peppers, that's Mike's thing to do. I can't stand hot. I'll be making salsa for HIM. Also I will be making jelly if I have enough elderberries, or enough rose hips yet. If not, they will be just juiced and frozen until I can make my jelly.

Going off on a tangent here, why is it when someone finds out you can they automatically think you are going to give them some of your hard earned canned goods? FOR FREE to boot. Someone asked if I was busy and if I could do a favor for them and I mentioned that NO, I would be too busy canning. The next words out of their mouth was to ask for some. HUH!!! I think NOT. These are for MY pantry in the winter. I don't want to be selfish of course, but I work hard to grow my food and then spend hours prepping and canning it I do not want to just give it away. I am willing to bend over backwards most times to help folks out but this I draw the line. Especially if they are someone who are perfectly capable of having their own garden and making their own food and are far more well off then I am. If they choose not to garden, they can buy their food from the stores. I would rather not buy food from the stores therefore I garden. It's a choice I made. I only wish I had more time to garden more and more space to do it in. And never mention to anyone that you have a sewing machine and can sew. People get SO pushy wanting you to do favors for them like hemming. For FREE. They downright seem to expect it. I have barely enough time to take of what I need to do at this point in my life without adding other peoples to-do's to my list. And fresh bread. Lord, if someone finds out you make your own bread, the requests start coming in. I don't have enough hours in the day to make bread from myself most days.

But I digress....getting back to the topic at hand. Sunday. Yes. That will also be the start of my self imposed "spending diet". It's my accountability day as well and I haven't even tended to my garden bed of shame so I best fit it in somewhere, maybe Saturday after the fair. I am sad to say I am going to have to BUY mulch, unless I can get some half rotten compost from the pile which needs to be turned anyway. I would hate to have to buy mulch when I'm used to getting it for free BUT I really need to get my weeds under control or next year will be worse.

So that is the preweekend report. I will not be able to log on from home for a couple days most likely.

Just throwing some ideas out there.

So I haven't been exactly as sustainable as I would like to be. OK, I haven't been very green at all, truth be told. My footprint is pretty big. Not as big as some, but I'm sure its big. So I am going to put myself ON A DIET, so to speak. So starting next Sunday, I will begin. I will begin with no more eating out! By that I don't mean the once or twice a year we go out to a sit down place to eat. I mean no more buying food at the work cafeteria or on the run. I will have to plan ahead and keep snacks for those long hours at work when I am on call to avoid hitting the vending machines too. No more buying water or pop and coffee either. I have perfectly good water bottles in my hiking gear, I need to use those instead. No more buying magazine from the newsstand at work. I have PLENTY to read and re-read for a while. I will do this for a week and see how it works out.

Why not start now? Well, Sunday just seems like a good day to start. Why not? Sundays always seems like a fresh start kind of day to me. Besides, if I start my 'diet' now, I won't be able to go the the Porter County Fair on Saturday. WOHOO! The fair!

Here are some good things I have done so far this week! I rescued some things that were going to the trash at work as they are remodeling here. I saved a wall mail holder as my Mike  is always sticking mail and bills in annoying ;) places. It was black and in good shape. I could not see letting that go to the landfill. And even if it had been scratched up I would of painted it. Now it is on the wall at home by Mikes "office" and he is quite pleased with it. I also rescued some big wire baskets that could be used for all manner of things. They are very sturdy. I haven't decided WHAT I am going to use them fore. I'm thinking on using them to store canned goods in them, or keeping my potted plants on the patio in them (to keep them off the ground so ants don't build nests in them) or for storing crafts....So many possibilities.....

But I am on the lookout of a good old desk right now. Preferably free from someones garbage pile, that is in repairable condition or even great condition. Mike's computer desk has no handy drawers to keep papers and envelopes in or other important necessities tidy. Just something simple with drawers. Eventually I will find one, I just have to be patient. With my dogs, who LOVE nothing better then to get their paws on things they can shred all over the house, everything has to be safely tucked away out of reach somewhere so it helps to have drawers. If I don't find one soon roadside, I'll try to find one at a thrift store.

My one day off for the week.

Being as it is my one day off from work and Sunday, my accountability day, I had plenty to keep my hands full. First and foremost was dealing with the giant scary zucchinis. There were so many of them, and they were so big I could not carry them all inside, I had to take several armful loads. Luckily I was able to trick  convince my neighbor to take some off my hands. Still, I have more then I know what to do with so tonight they will be our dinner, at least the smallest one will be, as a zucchini boat. Another I shredded up for bread and freezing, yet another will be cubed and dehydrated, and one will be going to work with Mike to trick  give to someone there as Mike likes to "brag about his wife's garden" and I know how much those folks make in pay there and they could use any free vegetables. I used to work there, that's how I know!

Next was dealing with my rose hips. I had planted my rugosa rose seeds a few years back because I had heard how healthy and wonderful the hips were. So now I had a bunch of hips but not quite enough yet to make Jelly as they do not ripen all at once. So I picked what I could this morning, cut off the ends, washed and boiled them until I could squeeze the juice from them. I only got about a cup and a half and put it in a jar to freeze for the time being. I've never made jelly before so this should be a good learning experience. I have made jam once, strawberry jam that never set right.

I picked some tomatoes too, the first of the year. And boy did I have a bunch of them. Reliable early girls and the new to me black cherries. They are very pretty. As my pantry is a bit bare right now, I could not make a BLT with them until I went to the store so I went to K-mart as they were having a 4 days sale and I intended to spend no more then 20 on food items. I spent 19.27 in fact (we are a bit short on funds until my pay day) and got makings for biscuits, eggs, bacon, a seedless watermelon (I splurged there), garlic bread from teh bakery clearance rack, potatoes, and 12 packs of ramen noodles, 1 lb ground beef, and some shredded cheese for my zucchini boats. I should be able to survive the week easily with that and what I have remaining in my pantry.

I came home and made my biscuits and some bacon and sliced tomatoes for lunch. The first tomato of the year is a near orgasmic experience. They were good, and the terrible wife that I am made Mike eat some biscuit BLTs too for his lunch. Horrible horrible wife making her husband eat veggies. *big grin* He complains but he will eat what ever I hand him. That's OK though, I will reward him with more zucchini muffins which he has ordered me to make. *another big grin*

After lunch, I got busy turning the rose hips into juice. I read how on the Internet. The computer is actually a useful time waster sometimes. When that was boiling, I shredded zucchini but realized Mike had used the last baggies up so I could not put them in the freezer yet. He will pick me some up tomorrow so for now they are in the fridge.

For dinner, I am making the boats, using GARLIC and TOMATOES and of course ZUCCHINI from the garden, with watermelon for desert and after all that I will make some zuc muffins which don't take long to mix up at all.

And before I forget, I did promise to start posting and cleaning up my *garden of shame*. Here is the first one, I chose a small one as my week is going to be a busy one.

Accountability

Hello, it's been a while since i've blogged. I call this the summer 'bug' where thoughts are more outside and I spend a lot less time blogging. But here's the deal. I just read a new blog post about accountaiblity here: Thrifty And Green. Go check it out. Using a blog as accountability is a great idea.

So in the spirit of accountability, I am going to try my darndest to post a real blog post once a week (if not more when I feel like it). I don't want to be a burnt out blogger though so once a week is plenty.

For now, there are lots of things I really need to be held accountable for. Please feel free to YELL at me for getting behind in things. ;)

1) the garden update. It's a ungodly mess right now. Weeds everywhere, taller then me. I need to get things pulled, turned over, composted, replanted, etc. I need to make myself WATER everyday, at least the pots. We've had hellish heat for weeks now. This has got to be the worst summer ever in the history of this area. In all truthfulness, I had been promised a couple loads of free mulch from the housing association....but that never came. I was going to use that to smother weeds with and since it never came, I never weeded. OOPS. So I am going to go bed by bed when I get a free moment and try to get one done a week. I know my beds are not big, but my time especially this time of year is very limited. I work so many hours at the hospital, then there is taking care of the critters, running errands, house cleaning chores, and of course taking walks in the woods and the occasional skinny dip at the river when no one is about.

2) Harvesting. I have done some harvesting but don't go looking at my zucchini plants please. You will be shocked by the monsters within. I really NEED to do something with them.
When I finally started harvesting my lettuce, they were too bitter, they were wasted. I've harvested and eaten zucs, I made beet pickles, eaten raspberries, blueberries and apricots. My first tomatoes are ripening as I type. I will not let them go to waste this year! And I have a bumper crop or elderberries just starting to show color. I plan on making jelly with them. I can't wait!

3) Going green. Shame on me. Where to even begin?? I'm really going to have to come up with a plan of action.

So starting TOMORROW. Sundays will be Accountability Day. (I usually have Sundays off of work). I will chose a garden bed to work on (and post a horrifying picture that will make you hide in your mother's bed under the covers), do something with my harvest, and try to attempt something that will green up our lives. Even if I cannot get on the Internet on Sundays, I will sit down with pen and paper and record what I am doing to keep myself on track. Sundays will be the day I try to get my week's baking in, canning, and meal planning as well.

Our Storms.

I'm a weather fanatic. I find it both scary and fascinating living here. When I can. I will share some of our wild weather.

BREAKING NEWS!

6/23/10

We had quite the bumpy ride this evening. I was at work, but could see the sky go from clear blue to midnight green in a matter of minutes. Then the area sirens were going off, like crazy. The storm was on top of us. Torrential rain, tornadoes, etc. I had to shelter here, as did my co-worker. I warned Mike on the phone he needed to find shelter. He took shelter with the 3 dogs in a bike tunnel as the storm hit porter...

I couldn't get a hold of him when the storm had passed. I feared the worst. Finally after an excruciating amount of time, we got a hold of each other. The trailer is fine but there is no power at all. This is a very dangerous storm. Work is flooded at the ground level. Streets are flooded. Trees down everywhere from what I hear. Going home tonight might be perilous. You likely won't hear from me tomorrow if the power is out.

Take care, stay safe out there, and lots of love.

6/5/10

Our first tornado box of the year....
Or is it the second one? I can't remember. All I know is it's looking nasty. It's not in my county yet but it's in the county where I'm at work right now. They called a code "grey" which means it may be a long night.

6/18/10

This is really the second wave of storm that has come through, and we are past the worst of it in my area. We had 75 mph wind gusts and there are tree debris everywhere. A good friend and co-worker of mine had tree branches break her windows.

This week's happenings.

Work, work, and more work. I've been very busy at work this week so I haven't much felt like gardening even though I did get my new Eastern White Pine planted into the garden. The soil there is horrible so I hope it does OK. I mulched it well and put a wire cage around it to keep any critters from having it for lunch.

We had some bad storms come through again, luckily nothing was damaged in the garden. Just an empty pot was blown around. I think the apple tree is big enough now that it helps shield the patio from those strong winds that used to steal anything not tied down and send it to the next county.

Jack is doing well after his neutering. I don't think he even realizes he's missing his...um...parts. He still tries to get his jolly on with Brandi dog.

I sold another lemon balm and I have an order for 6 divisions of stella d oro day lilies. I'll have to dig them up on Thursday.

I'm still waiting on my free bark mulch......I really really need it. I'm beginning to lose hope that it will ever arrive.

Weeded a bunch today, but still have so much weeding to do. I weeded the memorial bed and around the new rose bush that had a bunch of lambs quarters, poppies and other weeds come up like crazy and take over. I'm trying to get the weeds before they go to seed, some have started blooming. I toss the bodies of my enemies into the compost pile--removing any flowers and seed heads which get tossed, or any really invasive roots which gets tossed in the garbage too. I can't risk that in my compost, I have enough weeds, thanks.

The lettuce I've grown this year is really bitter. Too bitter for me. I'm wondering if cooking it will make it taste any better. Even the types that are usually mild are bitter. I'm thinking it is all the heat we've been having.

I'm loving the baby carrots though, I try to stay out of them but they make lovely snacks so I do not know if many will make it to adult hood. I will buy more packs of seeds for that kind next year, the rainbow carrots.

Tomatoes have grown a bunch, nearly as tall as me now but the only one with any fruits on them yet is the early girls and they are no where near ripe yet.

The beets are ready for harvesting. I want to pickle some as I think they taste best that way. Otherwise they taste like dirt to me but I may roast a few in the oven.

I need to plant my free pepper plants I got from the nursery the other day and I need to plant some beans, another hill of squash and some chard.

I need to dead head everything as well.......

Mr. Puppy Jack Cheese, getting neutered.

And waiting for the phone call to pick him up is almost as hard as leaving the vet without him was.

See, jack isn't just a DOG. And truth be told, I'm more of a cat and bird person then a dog person. Dogs, I mostly just tolerate, even though I have 3 dogs. But like I said, Jack isn't any old dog. I needed Jack just as much as he needed me.

My Jack loved me from the first day, after I risked my hands pulling him from that filthy little cage, covered in poo and piss and full of infections, scared of his own shadow.

I was in a deep depression. Things were feeling hopeless.

Jack gave me courage. Jack gave me love and devotion. He worships unconditionally the ground I walk on and I him. We two had this bond instantly. He didn't know how to be a puppy, how to have fun. He had no confidence. It was the most wonderful thing to see him blossom and grow. We learned together.

He waits for me every night to get home from work. He is the most loyal hiking partner ever. He protects me. He tells me when I need a play break. He brings me toys. He falls asleep in my arms every night. He knows when I need comforting.

And I'm scared to death something might happen to him in his surgery.


UPDATE: Jack is through with surgery and I should be able to go get home after 3!!!

Week Highlights

• Poor Jack, my favorite dog of all time is having surgery Friday. Nothing "major", he is being neutered but I still worry of course.
• Today I made a few bucks selling plants, and everything I make is going to squirreled away carefully for the most part. Today I sold the shasta daisy (and I have an order for more of them to be started), the bee balm (more to be started as well), a few dozen mix sized hens and chicks and 2 lemon balms. Not too bad at all, eh?
• The Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup...just in case you live in a cave. That's big news for my wonderful husband Crazy Mike. The last time they won was way before Mike or I was born. I never knew anything about hockey but learned so that I could have something in common with Mike.
• The Sparkle strawberries are slowing down now. But the Berries Galore is starting to ripen.
• Sour Cherries are ripening.
• I saw my first Japanese Beetle. I think I am going to try trapping them this year. They are very very bad in my garden and will chew everything to nubs. They are a couple weeks early this year.

Note To Self

Next time, stake all tall flowers before the wind comes along and breaks them at the ground for me....


I lost a very tall lily today that was loaded down with about 30 buds on it, one of my favorites. The stem broke of with the roots. I only hope that more sill sprout up and all is not lost.

Just Chilling

I hope everyone had a fun or at least productive long weekend. Here is the latest update of my world.

On Friday I took the new pup, Millie, to the vet for de-worming and vaccinations. Her previous owner had gotten her the first set of vaccinations way back in March but never followed up with the rest and though she'd been tested positive for worms they had not treated that either. The poor baby was chock full of roundworms which we had dealt with on Friday. Because of this we did not take her out to start rabbit training with a kind fellow who offered to help train with his dogs as we did not want anyone catching round worms from Millie.

The weather was hot and humid again so I did not get as much yard work done as I wanted on either of the days. I am also waiting for two loads of mulch for the garden and so that has delayed me somewhat.

Saturday wonderful husband and I went thrift store shopping after we got the grocery shopping done. For less then $12 we got 6 pairs of shorts for husband, a cute bell for Millie's collar, curtains for all the windows (A big one for the huge window and another I cut down to fit the other windows), a pair of scrub pants for me (brand new!) and a couple cute decorative tins for the kitchen. Dear husband is really getting into the thriftier mood now. I hope that trend continues.

Sunday, hot again but I had picked lots and lots of strawberries. I made waffles and topped them with strawberries as a treat, then shared a lot of berries with my neighbor who brought me a Siberian iris division which I have in a pot for now until I get it planted. I also pulled some large green onions to share with her. I had to drag out the hose to water the desperately dry garden. I try to hold off as long as possible but EVERYTHING was bad.

Monday, hot and humid again. I did some weeding in the garden and had to water again. I washed my car. 10 minutes later I watched a storm blow in. Hubby came out to see and we quickly affirmed our plan of escape and seeking shelter should it get really bad. The dark clouds rushed in, huge gusts of chilled wind that felt really good rushed down as the wall cloud neared and moved quickly over us. Neighbors all came out of their trailers gazing up at the cloud to make sure no funnels could be seen. There are no shelters here and trailers are death sentences if a twister comes through. The sudden wind blew around garbage cans, patio umbrellas and made an impressive show.  The wind died down shortly after but was followed by thunder and heavy bursts of rain which the thirsty garden rejoiced in.

Today was thick fog this morning. I did not sleep well. I watched a move called The Road before I went to bed which was thoroughly depressing. I almost felt like jumping a cliff after that movie and of course it gave me uneasy nightmares. Its a good movie, but I don't recommend it. If I had known how depressing it was I would of passed on watching it.

A day in the life...

So I haven't posted in a few days. That happens sometimes with me. It gets overwhelming trying to keep up with everything but I do tend to stay away from the computer on the weekends. Well here is a synopsis of what I have been up to. Thursday afternoon dear husband brought home this little girl who's name is Millie. I told him no all week but here she is anyway. Once I saw her and got to know her a little I could no longer say no. She is a tri-color beagle that is 5 months old (born 1-5-10). I can tell she was really loved before she came to be with us. Unlike the other two dogs she doesn't seem to have suffered any trauma and lacks the "issues" our other dogs have---which, if I may speak frankly is actually very nice. Don't get me wrong, I love my other dogs, it's just nice not to have to pup for a change that hasn't come to us with damage, both physical, behavioral and psychological.

Millie is very very sweet. She is most defiantly a puppy, and has her shenanigans, but they are normal puppy behaviors. She has a wonderful and pleasant personality. Loves to play, loves to cuddle and already has everyone wrapped around her little paw. I am going to start rabbit training with ASAP.

Friday it absolutely rained all day. I stayed inside and did housework. I wanted to dig my hostas Friday as it was my one day off from work but the rain and thunder (and not to mention one adorable new puppy) kept me busy inside rather then outside. It's a shame it was so rainy, as that would of been the perfect day to work outside otherwise.

Saturday I had to go to work. It was too wet and soggy to work outside in the morning. There was a very thick fog. Dear husband went to work in the morning, but was home before I left so the new pup and the dogs did not have to be home alone. I was on call all night long after my shift.

Sunday I slept in until 7, which is pretty late for me. My inner clock...and the dogs....usually keep me from getting my 8 hours in. I'm used to it though. I got up, made a hearty breakfast of oatmeal with cinnamon and bananas added to it then went outside to dig my hostas.

I must of underestimated the heat and humidity and overestimated my tolerance for it. I got some of the hostas dug. I really had to pry them out and saw them apart. Most of my hostas are 4-5 in width at the bases, so they are huge. Also they are in a heavy clay soil that was wet. It was not easy work and after a while I felt sick, dizzy and ready to vomit. I dug just enough up for a good start and went in. I tried my best to cool off and just couldn't for the longest time. The heat index with the humidity was over 100 degrees.

Monday has been even hotter, if you can believe that for May. Weather here in Indiana has been wacky this spring. Today we broke heat records. In 1921 the record high was 93 degrees. Today, we broke that by 2 degrees. Add 70% humidity and that makes it tough to work outside.

On a bright note, I sold 7 hostas--all the ones I had dug up- 1 white edged, 3 big greens, 2 big yellow edged, and 1 Blue Angel and made $23 and I have an order for more, which I will dig up next weekend when it is (hopefully) cooler.

Trying My Hand At Something New.

Over the weekend I wanted to try my hand at doing something new. A while back I'd bought myself a little booklet on making home crochet and home knit dish clothes. I tried my hand at it this weekend and made my first ever crochet dishcloth. I did pretty good, though it's not perfect and I had to pull it out several times until I understood what the pattern was trying to tell me. Reading a crochet pattern is like reading another language to me. So this first one was not perfect but it works and I had to give it a go with a few dishes. I love how it scrubs. So I had a little yarn leftover from making the first and I used that to practice, practice and practice the stitches I had learned---V stitch and Shell stitch until i have them down pat now. When I get through making myself a whole set of them I can start making them to sell and barter with or to give as gifts. Who wouldn't want one of these? They are very sturdy and I can make them in any color I want. And on top of that, it really did not take that long to make. I'm sure the next one will be faster as I know the stitches now.

I LOVE teaching myself new skills.

Other then the stitching, my weekend was filled with running errands and working in the garden getting it weeded and more things potted up for future plant sales. I found some fun things while I was weeding--the best were seedling liatris and seedling daylilies. I couldn't believe my luck. I love how nature makes propagation so easy sometimes. So I potted up the seedlings I could find into 3.5 inch pots with potting soil. Where they were they were getting shaded out by big daylillies. The daylily seedlings will probably look like stella d oros, but they may have crossed with other daylilies so who knows. The liatris are purple native ones I winter sowed a few years ago and planted around my native tulip poplar. I let them go to seed for the birds, not that I've seen birds eating them. Seems the wind decided to deposit some of those seeds in a favorable enough location for germination.

I also split up a giant lemon balm plant and put several large pieces in gallon, 1.5 gallon, and 3 gallon pots. Boy do those things have root systems. No wonder it's so hardy and impossible to kill. I moved one on over to my herb garden for myself and I KNOW more will come up in the spot I dug it up from.

I've started digging up shasta daisy divisions as well but I'm running out of containers so had to get creative using cut plastic milk cartons.

I planted another old pair of shoes with Sempervivum 'Emerald Empress' and noticed ants have moved into my tire planter rock garden where I grow my hens and chicks. They are not doing any real harm that I can see and though I have an ant phobia I will leave them be and just use big ol gloves when harvesting hens and chicks.

When I mentioned that I was getting plants ready for a plant sale at work, I had several co-workers jump up and ask for hostas. So I agreed to split the hostas and sell them. This is something that would give anyone nightmares and something I keep meaning to do but keep putting off every year. I have gigantic hostas. One plant is over 5 feet wide and devouring it's neighbors and has obliterated the little path completely. It started innocently enough a few years ago with 3 leaves.....If that weren't bad enough, the dirt they are planted in is always dry and rock hard and a difficult spot for digging. I plan to attack it on Friday, my day off for the week as I work the weekend so I'm sure I will have my hands full indeed and will be getting my exercise in. I'll be selling them chunks of Hosta (mixed kinds) for $3, and chunks of the Blue Angel hosta for $5. I am not selling any of my seed grown ones yet. I want them to get a lot more size on them though I think the yellowed leaved one is "mini" as it gets no larger then a dinner plate in full summer.

Other then all that, I did not do too much during the weekend.

Cataloging my Garden.

Can you tell I am cataloging what I have in my garden? I am trying to make it easy for myself to be able to look up anything that I've planted here. I want to try to get everything eventually photographed through the seasons so that I can better plan my gardens from year to year to see what works, what's worth propagating and selling and what's worth tossing into the compost. I intend to use this blog not only as a sounding board for my ideas, but as a place to make notes about my garden and life. I plan to keep track of what I do with my plants and how I use them. And maybe someone can learn from my notes as well.

Anyway, I am starting with the current season and will update each page as something worth of noting catches my eye. In my old blog I started new pages for every day but I think if I just update the "iris" or the "strawberry" or whatever page to keep everything in one easy click to find it will be SO much easier for me and probably others to go looking for information on a certain plant. So if I make a million and one new posts at first, don't fret. It will slow down eventually as I re-use posts. I'll change the date on each one as I update a subject so that the new information can be seen.

What is my purpose?

I used to author another blog but I grew tired of it. The blog had run it's course for a good 5 years. So why start anew? I don't know except that I was suffering from a lack of motivation and direction. Plus, the old blog had become huge and unwieldy. Trying to find old posts or information I wanted to look over again was next to impossible. But A new blog is like opening a brand spanking new sketch pad to the very first blank page. A blank page is full of exciting possibilities just waiting to be given shape, form and texture.

My old tired and now retired blog had started with the intention of tackling head on the American Dream-specifically my vision of it- that became more of an eclectic day to day wandering thing that eventually tapered off to basically just photos and few words. Photos are dandy but without a story with them what's the point of even blogging? But the blog I suppose had served it's purpose to show me that the American Dream is just that, a dream. What I blogged about was LIFE. And life is far bigger then me or anyone passing through reading this blog and it's very real. Life will often hit you head on right in the face if you are not watching where you are going or it can wither away slowly or it can even be ripped away from someone violently in seconds...All the while the American dream you keep grasping for but it alludes you, it lures you on but do you ever reach the destination you've dreamed of? Can you ever reach it? I think not. We all evolve everyday and so the dream ever evolves as well.

I was a lonely transplant to Indiana when I started the old blog. I felt like an alien invader, lost, plopped into a strange and mystifying culture and landscape. In a way, the old blog helped me to feel more connected to Indiana and this new life. What started out as an American dream quickly became a case of American survivor. And so as an American survivor, I wonder day to day if my job will disappear, hope that I can get the bills paid on time each month, and I do what I can to enjoy what I have even if that means living in a trailer park, just surviving.

Once upon a time I thought that one needed to seek out the real America. Take a long walk across the country, perhaps. You hear stories of folks who do this once in a while. I listened to Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens and other songwriters that sang of the real folk's struggles and experiences. But really, how far do you need to walk to see and experience the spirit of America? The spirit of America is in every home, and every American...no matter the economic standing they should find themselves in. But it's especially noticeable in these uncertain economic times which will either break someone or build their character in surprising ways.

So that is what my new blog will focus on. Just life. Life around here as I enjoy the little things and keep my eyes open so that I miss none of it. I will talk about my garden. I will talk about the woods. I will talk about the struggles of my neighbors and my town. I will offer plants and crafts for sale or barter that I've raised or created with my own blood, sweat and tears in hopes of maybe helping to make ends meet, or at least to partially fund my plant addiction with. But most importantly I am talking about my story.

Welcome to just a single-wide trailer, one of many, in an Indiana town.