Saturday, December 13, 2014

Say Hello to Griffin!

We have a new member of the pack/clowder, Griffin!

Checking out the living area

At home in the kitchen,

On Dakota's old chair.
He's thirteen, seems to be in very good health.  He has a bald patch on his lower back, where he scraped the hair off crawling under the fence to get out.

I 'rescued' him from a woman who has to move, and her new home won't allow dogs.  He's a bit homesick, I think, for his buddy, Charley.  He and Suzu sort of pass each other in the night.  No aggression, no visible bonding.

He ignores Baxter, and I haven't seen any attempts at interaction w/ Nadia.

He's on the floor by my feet as I type this.

I need to get him to the vet, and find an obedience class to join, so he and I can get some structured time together.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Buy a Nun a Book Day...

...is approaching.  I'm consulting my nunnish sources, but all the evidence points to Real Soon - September 17.  Once again, I will be sending books to the good sisters who taught me in my callow youth.


It's a nice way to say "Thanks"!

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Long Time, No Garden

Last time a posted about the garden was late June.  Things have changed.  But first, some of the fruits of my labors:


My very own canned produce.  On the left, crushed tomatoes.  On the right, not pineapple, but also crushed tomatoes.  The yellow tomato plant is going like gangbusters.  The latter is going to be used to make a chicken chili.

The kitchen garden.

The Basil is doing fine, as Basil is wont to do.

The tomatoes are not fairing so well. I do not know why.

Another view.  The Rosemary is healthy.  Unseen but also healthy are the two Oregano plants.

Front high bed.  Pumpking and tomatoes are well, as are a few of the pepper plants (hidden in the pumpkin).

 The Yellow tomatoes, and what I now believe is Honeydew melon

An almost ripe cluster of yellow tomatoes. The are meatier, and a bit less juicy, but they put up just fine. Also, a couple of Peppers hiding behind the Pumpkin.

The last Early Girl.  Some fruit is forming.

Blackberry.  I actually got eat the one that the critters didn't get.  Yummy!

The one red tomato that it still reasonably healthy and producing.
Once again, the Romas are coming in the what I'm calling "flat-bottom rot".  It isn't actually rot, but the bottom part of the fruit is flat and brown.  This has happened for the last two seasons.  One of the tomatoes from the bush directly above also had it.

Google is my friend.

In other news, I got bacon, and made bacon and tomato sandwiches.  Life is good!!



Monday, June 23, 2014

Not Good Morning Mail

This was in my in box today:
 Hi Lee, Jennie was in a car accident in Billings this evening.  She was taken to the hospital and the Cat Scan was ok.  She is really shaken up and will be sore for a while.  She thinks her car is totaled.  John and Becky went to the crash site - I think there were multiple cars and the accident was on the news.
She is staying at John and Becky's tonight-they are leaving on a trip tomorrow.  I will either fly up tomorrow or she if she can fly here to recuperate.  She was supposed to move to a new home tomorrow.
Jen will call you tomorrow-she didn't want to call you in the middle of the night.  I will keep you updated.
Love,  C
I talked with her a couple of hours ago. She is still shaken, but otherwise OK. She's probably going to be stiff & sore for a while. Her car may or may not be totaled, depending on the cost of the repairs. If John was correct, and he found a piece  of the crankshaft, that is a given.

Three cars - her, the one that hit her, and the one it bounced off of.

Apparently everyone walked away.

I wish I could get out there...

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Friday Garden, and More!

Re-screening the back door. As always with these old houses. prep takes the most time.  Witness:


Establishing shot...

Some of the gazillion stapes I still need to remove.

And structural repairs.

I imagine that the huge number of staples is a result of pulling off old screen and stapling new screen on. By the looks of it, a number of times. My plan is to tack the screen up with staples, then nail or staple on some nice trim to hold it in place

The garden:

The kitchen bed. I'm training the muskmelon and watermelon out of the bed. Plastic bags to keep grass and weeds down.


Pepper sprouts! (No, I don't remember if they're Poblano of Serrano...)

Purple Basil flowers.

Baby Blackberries!

The one intact Early Girl. She's in front of the patio, because it seemed so bare.

Tiger Lillys!

I do not know what has knocked the onion and garlic down!

Tomatoes and (I believe) muskmelon! (Compared leaf shapes at the nurseries yesterday.)

Tomato, Quince, and (I think) pumpkin.

Last, but not least, Royal Candle. Smallish, I suspect, because I moved them so close to blooming.
My return from the job interview yesterday took me near enough to York and the Big Box stores that I swung by Lowe's and Home depot, looking for Rosemary. The only ones to be had were at Home Depot. They were potted in 8' plastic pots. Asking price was $14.99.  Even if I were flush wit' cash (and I'm not) I would refuse the exorbitance.

Frugal. C 'est moi.


Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Latest Garden



Front Tall Bed

Back Tall Bed

Leaf Sprout on the Quince Stick!

First Royal Candle!

Garlic and Onions

Tiger Lilly Buds

Blackberries!

Tomato!


Friday, June 6, 2014

D-Day Friday Garden

First, to the WW II vets - thank you.

On the left, Capt. Jordan Webber, my uncle. My dad, on the right, S/Sgt George Webber
The garden:

Panorama one...

...panorama two.

seeds have started to sprout here.  Quince stick has an actual leaf!

Garlic and onions abound.

Onions, tomatoes and sprouts.

Kitchen bed with new additions.

Blackberry with blooms.

Death by capsaiciin - a Ghost Pepper.

Two new Oregano plants. That should be enough!


An Early Girl tomato.

Went to three places, and no one had any Rosemary.  Nor have I seen the Big Mama tomato, thus the Early Girl.  I'll keep looking...

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Adventures in Shopping, Mid-Week Friday Garden!

I want to move my phone service from Boost to MetroPCS.  I use the phone as my internet connection, and Boost has a 2.56 gig cutoff, after which I'm basically at the end of a string poked into a tin can.  Metro claims to offer a true, all-you-can eat service for about $15.00 more a month than I'm paying now.

Their website leads me to believe that I can use my phone on their system.  The folks at BestBuy, where I went first, told me that they couldn't transfer my phone number, because they weren't set up to do that.  The young lady at the MetroPCS store told me it couldn't be done because of phone incompatibility.  Since I was about to run out of phone, I went to Weis and got a phone card, and topped my Boost account for another month.  I figure I'll handle the whole transfer thing over the interweb next month.

Anywho, that left me some cash, so I decided to plow it into the garden.  Four bags of topsoil for the kitchen bed, and plants:

Sweet Basil (top), and Basil.  I've never seen blue basil before!

4th of July Tomato.  Supposed to have fruit in 6 - 7 weeks

Cantaloupe

Watermelon

Roma style tomato, in the front deep bed.
Onions and garlic!

Yellow Tomato

Blackberry, weeded and trimmed.