There's Corn in that... Grass!

This is corn.  It had my complete attention today.

I did not dare get photos of the ' Before ' nightmare.  The grass was as high as most of the corn.

I found corn that I didn't even know was there - after - I pulled out all the grass - by hand - followed by hilling the rows - spreading hay for mulch - and watering.


 

Tomatoes are next.  Getting the grass and weeds out won't be near as bad.

But I hope I can get it done before the tomatoes begin turning color.

I'm absolutely filthy.

I'm suffering an infinite ( take your ' from 1 to 10 ' and shove it! ) amount of physical pain.  The motrin is almost a joke.  I get about two hours of - easing up - from the hard pain when I take it.

I am not a pleasant person right now.  And to be completely honest - I wouldn't care if that hair-lipped the Pope right now.


Obviously - I waited too long for - Somebody.

' Somebody ' - was gonna go buy some torch thingy to deal with all the weeds and grass this year.

But it had to be done.

And believe me - The thousands of grasshoppers were not about to volunteer.

So - I made sure it got done.

But I did take a short break - long enough to wake my husband up a half-hour early.

He had to go hunt for a uniform ( I had already washed and dried it ) down in the basement.  He had to take care of fixing his own supper - and fixing his lunch.

It's the first time he has ever had to do that - during all these years of having me in his life - with the exception of the period of time while I was going through training in Newark and Houston.

Here's the real pisser.  Frosted Flakes cereal is just fine for him - when he has to do the cooking.

Yesterday - I dropped all the multiple tasks I was trying to get done at 2pm - to make Chicken Alfredo for supper - before he went to work.

It's what I've been doing - every damn day he works.  Hence - the demise with the garden.

I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow.

First thing on the list - 5 boxes of Frosted Flakes.

Note to Husband:

" Your other half works a day job. "

Some other photos from today -

A baby gourd.

This is the flower that comes before the baby gourd.

One of the sunflowers.

Carlie got in trouble with Daddy.  She got hold of his sock.

Daddy has his ways of dealing with Carlie.

Daddy thinks she's hanging her head in shame.


Actually - she's just really - really - embarrassed.

" Carlie!  Gurls don't dew thangs lack thyat! "

Odd - Cute - Evil Sting

Found these little puppies on our Ornamental Kwanzan Cherry tree this evening.

They were tiny - only about 1/4" long.  And they were flat-dab devouring leaves.

Take note - in my case - I stated that they - were - tiny.  I did the right thing.

Show any children under the same roof with you right now.  Warn them - " Do not touch. "

They're called the Saddleback Caterpillar.  Stop and take the time to click here and fill your wisdom tank. 

Errands in Knoxville - Perfect Excuse!

Hubby and I headed to the other side of Knoxville, yesterday.  The far away side of Knoxville.  Really far away.  The " I wish I'd gotten a bigger fountain soda! " kind of - far away.

We went hunting for windows to install in the chicken coop.

And trust me when I say - we went hunting.  Absolutely - unreal.

Ever been to Knox Rail Salvage in Knoxville?

Oh - My - God.  And they have two ( 2 ) facilities!  The second is like some underground secret world.  You can even 'smell ' the history.

Well - actually - you can't smell everything.  The building once hosted Lay's Slaughter House.

Yeah - they cleaned up that part.

But after all that walking - hunting - and finding...

We decided we had earned a treat!

Can anybody from Knoxville guess where we are?

Here's a hint - this shot was just a tad bit too difficult from the position of laying down in a booth to get around a huge post - when you're only 4' 11" in height.

Second part of this hint - I would work for a weekend - for free - to learn how to make that pizza crust!


Third part of this hint - My youngest yard varmint would guess right off the bat.  She used to work there!

Another hint - I'll bet there are a few that wouldn't recognize this place - from this daytime shot.

I'm getting soooo excited!  I ordered Sarah's very first CD!  Sarah Pirkle is a local girl!  She lives in Walland and has the most beautiful singing voice for Bluegrass music!

Below is a sample of her music.  But - you can visit her website to listen to samples of the songs on her brand new CD.  And you can order your own copy from her website - as well!

Enjoy!

What a ' Cheep ' Day!!!

Fifteen new members added to our family today - Buff Orpington Chicks!

And the two pups - and the cat - are totally clueless.

 " Say it.  Just - say it.  I'm cute - huh!  I know! "

" Willy Wonka don't have nuthin' on this place!  Just sayin'.... "

" Back off!  It's all mine.  Every bit of it! "

" An'... Ahh can drank the whole thang! "

Check out the newspaper.  Never noticed until I saw this shot.

" That's just wrong! "





 

I can't even imagine them with feathers - yet!

Even more twisted - wondering if they're male or female.

" Who's a male?  Who's a female? "

Heck, I only hope females rule the majority in this bunch!

A Wonder Robbed?

Kit - " Sea Spirit " by Rina Kroes

Alpha - " Terry's Sand Alpha Doodle (Mama Wresh font style) " by Terry Maruca

Fonts - Arial and Wasted Collection

The larger part of time in my childhood was spent being raised down in Galveston County, Texas.  Not only that - but - four generations have - in one way or another - worked in the oil business - including myself.


What is it gonna take to get this entire country to understand - that company has NEVER had proper intentions.  They have NEVER cared about human life.  They have NEVER cared about this country - or this planet.

They never will.

What I wanna understand more than anything is this.  Our President can fire a military General for popping off at the mouth.  And believe me - I commend him on that decision and action.

Okay - fine.  He ' accepted the man's resignation ' - we all know what that means.

But - he refuses to acknowledge the behavior of this company for what it is -

Nothing less than an attack on our nation through gross negligence and total disregard for human - geographical and animal life.

You don’t see them doing this over in England.  Do ya’?  And - you don’t see ‘em doing this over in Dubai - either.

Wow.  How odd is that!

I’ve told my kids - if I were in my 20’s right now - I would have a complete hysterectomy.  There is no way I would have children.

This world does not deserve anymore innocent children.

Look at what they’ve done to my grandbaby’s future.

Leaving Green Bean Hell

I am - absolutely - exhausted.  And I have given up on a few things - one being people.

By 7:15am yesterday morning - I was out in my garden - thinning out green bean plants - harvesting them before humming them over the fence.

I had to quit at 1:15pm - to go in and rest a few minutes - before starting supper - ( I cheated - we had breakfast for supper and he went out for lunch last night ) and getting Hubby off to work.

Six ( 6 ) hours.  And this was only one of several days like this.

I had not had any breakfast.  I’d only had a half cup of coffee.  The only thing I had stopped long enough to put inside my body - Pineapple Orange Banana juice with lots of ice.  The only break I took - was to go get a kitchen towel to soak down and carry around my neck for helping to - somewhat - cool me down.

By then - I had thinned out all the plants - watered the rows deeply - harvested one row of the bushes remaining.  And the bathtub was filled with - fifteen ( 15 ) gallons of green beans.

Once I got Hubby off to work - at 4:30pm - I started in.  I got 37 packages of green beans done - by 2am this morning.

Ten ( 10 ) hours.  All by myself.

We now have a total of 86 packages of green beans in the freezer.  We still have tomatoes - corn - peppers - and a few other veggies coming.

There are - still - green beans sitting in the bathtub.  There are - still - two rows of bushes that I have not harvested.

And the freezer is plum full.  What in ‘ Green Bean Hell ’ do we do now?

Hubby had the answer this morning when he got home from work.

Since WalMart is taking so long to get our pressure canner to the Lenoir City store - we’re going to pull the remaining plants - and burn them.

We have chicks to pick up this week.  And this round of days off will not pass without the purchase of a good - used - upright freezer.

At this very moment - there are - at the very least - another 15 gallons of green beans out there.

For over a year now - I’ve tried offering to let folks from work come up here and get involved in growing food to take home - learning a few things - saving some money.

I will be damned - if I’m gonna kill myself - doing all this by myself - except for when my husband ends up losing his days off to helping me - paying for the materials - labor - and utilities - while somebody sits on their ass and expects me to send my husband to work to hand it over to them - for free.

No more Mrs. Nice Guy.

If I were about thirty years younger - I’d harvest it all up and take it to a shelter - or - foot pantry.  I might have the energy.  And God knows - I’d love to be able to do that.

But  - not - for human beings younger than me - and just as physically capable.

Green Bean Hell and Eggs

THIS GUY - is not my friend.

This guy and all his ‘ Homies ‘ I’ve been finding - shouldda taken a different road - to somebody else’s garden.

This guy - and several of his ‘ Homies ‘ - no longer exist.  Maybe now my tomatoes - pole beans and jalapeno peppers can live in peace - until I pinch 'em.

I’ve been saying that the past several days have been a trip to ‘ Green Bean Hell ’ around here.  Had I been watching them daily - once the flowers arrived - they would have taken forever to get ready for harvesting.

I planted a few extra plants this year.  And I didn’t stand around holding my breath.  They came in much earlier than expected.

I harvested - cleaned - blanched - and bagged up 13 packages - by myself - on Tuesday.

Come Wednesday - I got back out there and picked a few more in the morning - while Dwayne slept for a few hours after coming in from work.

He climbed out of bed and headed out to the garden with me - after having a half-chance to catch his bearings and wake up.

By the time we came in that evening - we walked in and discovered we were without air conditioning.

We’ve experienced several off/on/surge power outages on a daily basis over the past few days - no thanks to the insanely high temps and humidity.  And having no air conditioning - after the last few hours we'd just endured - did not leave us too pleased.

And - we had all these green beans - besides the ones crammed in the kitchen sink.  Left these in the bathtub to keep them crunchy until we could deal with them in the early morning - while it was still somewhat cool inside the house.

( See the brick?  We don't use this tub for anything but showers - and I forgot - no plug!  I stuffed plastic sandwich wrap in the drain and put the brick there to hold it down. )

We ended up rushing like crazy - getting up early Wednesday morning to get these puppies dealt with before it got way too hot - and before all the consumption of power from the temperatures started causing more of the off/on/surge power outages.  Had laundry and a few other absolutely necessary things - which also required use of electricity - that I handled in between - whenever I could.

We didn’t finish bagging green beans before having to close all the windows in the house.  We opened up the door to the basement.  Set up an Oscillating Fan down at the bottom of the stairs to shoot the cool air up to us.  LOL


The air conditioning repairmen didn’t show up until after 3:30pm. 

We got lucky.  The capacitator had gone out.  All the power problems of late are suspected as being responsible for causing that problem.  And we were running a little low on Freon.  We got off very lucky - less than $200.00!

By then - we had put 27 more bags of green beans in the chest freezer.  We took showers - loaded up the truck with supplies - drove to Louisville - and met Casey and Stacey for some night fishing.

I didn’t catch a thing.  It was after midnight by the time we got back to the dock.  We had a 45 minute drive to get back home.

Casey didn’t wanna clean the 7 Crappie - so he sent them home with us.  Dwayne found eggs in one of them while he was cleaning.

If you know anything about fish - especially Crappie - you know that there should be no eggs in June.

I dunno - between the weather we had last year - as well as TVA messing with the water levels during spawning season - it looks like the bio clocks on all the fish are just totally jacked up.

It was a shock of a surprise to us both - that would have to wait until morning for discussion.

It was already 3am.

Changing Time Around

Kit - Sentimental Journey by Lady Bug Designs at Digital Design Den

Fonts -
Mareen's Print
Learning Curve
Brock Script

It has been so insanely hot and muggy here in East Tennessee.  We're being told by local Meteorologists that we are - indeed - experiencing a Heat Wave.

In Texas - you just kinda - melt - when you walk outside during summer.  And girls know this - your hair kinda - shrivels up like cotton candy when you hit it with water.  Hair spray is a requirement down there - which is a little bit of an oxymoron in its own way - if you think about it.  You get two choices - shrivel - or - the itchy sweat.

Okay - I'll stop.  But let me say one more thing.  I found one better than Final Net, girls!  Can you say " Vavoom " ??  Yeah - I can... after handing over about $20 for a can of that magic.

Anyway - the difference with the heat we're currently having here is - ( compared to Texas ) - you feel like the air is being sucked right out of you when you step outside here.

In the meantime - I'm revamping my " To Do " lists and working all the outside stuff into the late afternoon.  And we don't step outside until we check to see if the temps have begun to drop.

Not helping with our gardening efforts - to say the very least.

Thistle Do...

Always nice when you visit an ugly spot and find something pretty taking over - even if it does have thorns!

Kit - Chamomile by Lady Bug Designs at Digital Design Den

Fonts-
BloomingGroveAltBold
CarbonType
Scriptina

Count this, Mother Nature!

I came home after grocery shopping yesterday - to this!

Sometimes - as long as it has the word ‘ bale ‘ in it - you can’t help feeling grateful.

I love walking out to the middle of the hayfield - just after it’s been cut - to get pictures - and just - look at the view for a while!

We don’t even know Terry that well.  But - this cutting showed a lot about him.

He’s got some family-raised smarts.  He likes a challenge.  He knows how to network.  And he’s all about taking care of business.

He didn’t get to square bale.  But it’s more than obvious - his qualities as a person carried him through avoiding loss - period.

And he says the next cutting will look even better.

Yep - Mother Nature and all her buckets of rain failed to get the best of him!

This was a partial bale.  Dwayne rolled it up to the RV pad for us to use in the garden and with our chickens.  Terry says this partial bale - alone - would equal about 8 square bales.

Wonder if I could turn it over sideways - climb up on it - and walk it around the yard - kinda like log rolling.

With my luck - the thing would just turn into a giant lint brush.  And with two dogs - there is no telling what it would pick up.

At Times

You know - parenting can be such a - pain in the butt - at times.

You do all you can to keep them happy - content - comfortable.




But - it just never happens.

They’re just not always happy - enough.

Not comfortable enough.





But the hardest part of the disappointment comes when you blow the grocery money on things they need - and/or want.

And they just can’t be happy enough to use it properly - like this.

Nooooo….  They have to - “ tweak it “ - like - this.




But sometimes - if you pay close attention - you can always find that tiny moment when you gain retribution.




I like to call it blackmail.

And I gain mine in such forms as this.

“ Ohhhh, Carlie…. There are times when you can be soooo Lady-Like ! “




Thank God - she doesn't sling slobber like Ree Drummond's Charlie!

" Not your fault, Ree.  Trust me - it was pure fluke on my part.  Maybe we can swap sometime - to give each of us a break. "

Beyond Control

We were not supposed to receive any rain until - today.  I checked with the weather meteorologists on every local network station we have here in the Knoxville area.  They were all in agreement.  They were adamant.

Everybody around here - all the farmers - anyone with a few acres to grow hay for a couple of livestock - just - everybody - has been sweating bullets.  We haven’t been able to get pockets of time long enough for being able to cut hay - safely enough to keep it from rotting.

Rain - thunderstorms - all the precipitation has been a negative issue around here when it comes to timing.

Of course - the positive - especially when it comes to hay - is the fact that we had all that rain last year.  It was amazing to see the difference that made in the health and texture of our hay field this year.  I could see all the legumes and other grasses growing in the mounds like nobody’s business - and unlike last year.  And this happened in a field that wasn’t fertilized.

Encouragement from all the weather reports brought Terry to the house on Monday - after working his other full-time job.  Finally - all signs showed cutting the hay would make it just in time - just under the wire.  After cutting - he’d be back on Wednesday to get it all baled before the rain was to arrive - on Thursday.

Terry didn’t make it to the house on Thursday to bale all that hay.  He never had a chance in Hell.  While he was at work - at his other full-time job - buckets and buckets of cats ’n dogs ‘n fat babies began dumping on us before 12noon - and stayed throughout the best part of the day.

At this moment - I’m not sure what we’ll find out today.