Day Three Hundred and Two

It was a sunny (but kind of cool) day today so I decided to trim my tomato plants for the winter. After totally trimming them down to stubs I found there was other stuff going on underneath them. It looks like my orange pepper plant was trying to grow and a few other things. This makes me happy because that means next year I should have a whole bunch of veges growing! Yay!

Day Two Hundred and Ninety Four

I decided to suck it up and mow the lawn today before the rain starts again. It took forever and on Rileys side there were holes that tried to trip me up and of course all the spiders and webs.

One of them got me and tried to climb into my hair. I know it was trying to burrow into my ear and into my brain... but I stopped it in time! The yard looks great except for the clippings that are everywhere...but hopefully the rain will wash it away.

On a side note, the spider webs do look cool in the morning all covered in dew with the sun shining on them; but looking pretty and getting tangled up in their web are two different things!

Day Two Hundred and Seventy Nine

I discovered that tomatoes continue to ripen even after you pick them, So I am using this contraption (I am not sure what it is called) to hold them in different ripening stages. When I pick new ones I move the older ones down a level. It is working great and I have tomatoes everyday!

Day Two Hundred and Thirty Three

I had such great plans today. After hearing my neighbor Diana working on her yard I decided I should mow my yard. After a long time of pulling on the handle and the motor starting and stalling, and starting and stalling, and getting a blister on my hand, I realized it just wasn't going to work today. I checked the gas and oil and added some oil, but it still wouldn't start. So I will give it a day to see if it wants to work tomorrow. 

I did check out Diana's plum trees while I was over there visiting and saw that she had different plums then mine. Mine are reddish colored and hers are very purple. I picked some from her yard and I need to decide what the heck to do with them. 

Day Two Hundred and Thirty Two

I am so proud of myself! A while back (I really need to keep track of time when I plant stuff for future reference) I planted a tiny little baby tomato plant.

I have been patiently watching them go from tiny little buds until one was ripe enough to pick. So pick it I did! And then I popped it in my mouth and it was gooooooood!


So now I need to figure out how I am supposed to trim this back. As you can see it has grown like mad! I also have some mint that is growing and my basil plant I keep indoors is still blooming like mad too!

Walked the four miles today :)

Day One Hundred and Ninety Four

After being bothered and distracted by the fallen tree outside my door blocking my view,  I decided to hack away at the bad parts and see what I could do about cleaning it up myself. At least clean it up enough so I could see my yard from my window!

I managed to remove the majority of the dead or dying branches and it now looks a lot better! I think it might still continue to grow even lopsided like it is. I am proud of myself for being able to do all that work my self, that just goes to show how HARDCORE I am!

Day One Hundred and Ninety Two

I have a huge blister on my hand and my body is sore... all from mowing my lawn! It took me a long time, but I finally got both sides mowed down to a more presentable length.

The grass had to be around two and a half to three feet tall and it took a lot of skill to mow it without the mower stalling out (which it did a few times) but I did it! I am just hoping we have real strong winds in the next couple of days to blow away all the grass clippings!

Speaking of strong winds, I came across three large branches that must have fallen during a previous storm that were tangled up and buried beneath the long grass, oh and a few holes Riley dug and then camouflaged with the grass in order to try and trip me! Sneaky bugger!

Day One Hundred and Seventy

Diana (next door neighbor) let me borrow her weed whacker so I could clear a path from my front door and down the steps. It was actually hard work to use the gas powered weed whacker! And to top off the fun it started raining.

Whacking weeds in the rain isn't as fun as it sounds, but I got it done and now there is a nice, cleared pathway from my door to my car and from the side door to the shed. Next step... removing all the weeds and grass I removed.

Day One Hundred and Sixty Nine

 

I decided to have another go at getting something planted at the planter near where Riley hangs out. I had a bunch of veges that i needed to plant because they were being smothered in the little pots they were in.

Hopefully this time they will survive Riley, and hopefully the grate thingie I put up will convince Riley to leave them alone!

Day One Hundred and Forty Three

Riley's destruction was pretty evident this morning and it looks like only the sunflower survived her wrath. I will have to take Susie's advice and put a barrier up around the flower box before I try planting anything else!

Day One Hundred and Forty Two

I decided to fill my barren flower boxes outside my front door with bright flowers. I got the flowers from Home Depot and plated them today. It was a beautiful day out early this afternoon and a good time to spend in the garden. 

There is a flower box on each side of my door and I was able to fill both of them up. I also got a tomato and a yell bell pepper plant so I could plant those and hopefully grown some veges! 

I left the house for a few hours this evening and when I got back ... the evil dog that lives with me had torn up and destroyed the planter on one side! I knew that would happen! Grrr.. It looks like the sunflower may have survived ( I hope so!) but it is currently pouring rain outside so I can't really tell. The dog is currently sitting on a blanket on the floor and is not allowed to leave that area. I may just have her stay there the rest of the weekend! I am pretty sure the pepper is destroyed, but the tomato plant may have survived the attack. I will find out tomorrow.

Day One Hundred and Forty One

The path from my house to the stairs was completely covered by the grass in my yard-gone-wild and I had to do something about it. As it was, I was a bit wary about walking on it because it was slippery, I couldn't see the stepping stones, and the bunnies have so overtaken my yard, I was afraid I would step on a baby one as I walked to my car. 

I first tried the lawn mower, which after pulling and pulling on the starting cord for like 20 minutes, I was finally able to start it. It turned out that the grass was just too long for the mover, so I went to Home Depot and picked up some gardening shears and that did the trick! It still needs a lot more work, but that's okay, because I have the time and now I have the tools!

Day Eighty One

Today I saw the sun shining and ventured outside. While I was out there I decided to see if I could salvage what was left of my little tomato plant seedlings thing-a-ma-jobs. I clumsily lowered my self to the ground and attempted to plant them with the tiny hand shovel I happened to find that I had left out months ago when I was playing in the yard.

Yay for me being messy and leaving things laying around! If I had been neat and organized I wouldn't have been able to make my way to the shed where the tools are kept!

I also took a great picture of the beautiful flowers that are blanketing my yard. And yes mother, I know they are weeds but they look gorgeous! :)

Day Thirty Nine

This morning as I was getting preparing my oatmeal I noticed how pretty it looks before it blends together. It is made up of: oatmeal, Fiber One cereal, goji berries, cranberries, flax seed, pumpkin seed, and brown sugar. That's wy I call it oatmeal +. Yummyyyy...


I was in a grumpy mood for some reason all day, so I stopped at the store to look at the plants. Looking at all the colors and brightness of them makes me feel better. While I was there I picked up some tomato plant seeds and decided to get a start on them since the weather has been so warm.


I also switched out the wheels on my skates so I can use them outside. I haven't skated outside with them yet, but it is good to know how easy it is to switch the wheels back and forth (It took minutes to do!). The red ones are the inside wheels and the turquoise ones are the outside wheels. And...I put new laces on my skates that match the new blue streak in my hair!

Day Thirty Seven

Today was a great day! The sun was shining and the weather was awesome so I decided to wander around the yard a bit and look at things to see if anything was blooming yet. I found one flower on the side of the house that was blooming a pretty purple color and I am hoping more spread from there.


I also took the time to replant one bush from the side of the house practically underneath Riley's ghetto doghouse to an area next to the porch that Riley calls her digging area. I then sat outside reading for a couple of hours and soaking up the sun I so dearly miss.

Next it was off to rollerskating! Ashley, Drea, and I had an awesome time and we were worn out afterward! I think we skated for about three hours! We only had a couple of falls which was pretty impressive considering there were tons of kids there and they were all over the place waving their arms and sprawling acorss the rink each time they fell (which was quite often). We also did the hokey pokey which I sang real loud to get others involved. It was fun!

We stopped at Red Robin because we were also starving! After dinner we were all groaning as we stood up as our muscles were protesting what we had put them through today.  To end the night we grabbed some coffee from Starbucks and then I headed home to relax and get the energy to take a hot bath! Hiking tomorrow!