Hey, Y'all! I've lost 5 lbs.!

Woke up this morning just whooped. We worked our butts off yesterday. There’s no way of getting around the fact that there is just always something to do around here. A lot of folks exist with that one. Having a place like this only compounds that fact ten-fold. I headed out the door yesterday morning around 8am. I gave it up around 3pm – after Dwayne came out to put his foot down. We get the worst heat around that time of day. He was aware of something I’d completely forgotten. I hadn’t had anything to eat! I had a glass of orange juice – about a half a cup of coffee – and loaded up with iced tea during the rest of the day. Those who know me well enough know one thing. For me to only have a half a cup of coffee during an entire day – you know it’s hot and miserable! So I became the submissive wife and obeyed. Yeah – right! LOL Naww… I went inside and had one of my favorite treats with another big glass of iced tea. If the heat is pissing you off – you should try my little treat. I buy the store brand of yogurt with different fruits. I get the kind that are already blended. I don’t recommend just throwing them in the freezer in the same packaging. Anybody know what happens with a plastic gallon jug full of water that’s put into the freezer? Yeah – trust me. You don’t want the mess. Ball Manufacturing now makes a plastic container with a lid for freezing. Great investment for freezing sauces and other liquids – not to mention being a good size for little kids to drink from! I just dump the yogurt into one of those and throw ‘em in the freezer. It’s perfect for when you’re so hot and you’re hungry – but anything you think about seems too heavy on your stomach. We got a lot done yesterday. Had to face that dreaded moment of gardening – the first deep watering. Dragging 300 feet of hose around is no easy task. But everything in the garden just had this slumpy – poopy appearance. And I had even spent a couple hours spray watering the evening before. Dwayne has been fighting with the grass. We have this stuff up here that just stays soaked forever. The ground will be dry. But this grass will stay wet until late in the afternoon in 90* temps. And it's thicker than San Augustine. It took a total of three days. And we never let it get over four inches. I'm just not into the snakes moving in - ya' know? He set the mower level to 3. Went over it all the second time around at 2. And he got NINE wheelbarrows full raked and piled - just out of the side yard. I'm gonna hit it, again on Tuesday, while he's at work. Maybe if we keep going at it - the Bermuda seed we threw will kick in and the established Bermuda will kick butt! We had to wait until Dwayne had a day off before driving three large metal posts into the ground. The tomatoes had over-grown their wooden stakes and things were caving inward. I managed to get one row half-way cleaned up the next day. Got forced inside by the mucky weather. We’ve had air quality warnings going on for the past week now. Friday was a really bad one. Come yesterday morning – the plants were still too wet from the spray watering the evening before to mess with. While I waited for the sun to dry those puppies I filled up the sprayer with grass/weed killer. Managed to get the rock barrier at the drive – all around the underside of the back porch and one side of the house – and most of the barn. I ran out of chemical and needed to get back to the garden and start in on the tomatoes. Dwayne came out and finished the spraying. He finished the far side of the barn and then – I hear the mower start up. I hear him take off to the hay pasture. Wasn’t too long before I realized the mower was sitting with the engine idling for some reason. Went to check on him and – just laughed! He rode the mower while he was spraying all around the fence of the hay pasture. Then he came back to one corner and left the mower running while he went down and sprayed an area in the back corner of the front pasture. I would imagine some other something with four wheels will be on the list after we get the tractor – Gator – golf cart – something! Don’t know why but as soon as I realized what Dwayne was doing – I thought of the guy that went to jail for driving drunk when he headed to buy more beer on his tractor mower! My tomatoes were a nightmare. I had to do some serious sacrificing. And let me tell you something about messing with tomatoes. Those things can mess you up worse than grass stains. My hands went from green to black. Getting that stuff off is no easy task. I finally broke out the scratch pad and the Barkeeper’s Friend. They don’t make Bon-Ami anymore. Even after scrubbing and a shower – my hands look like absolute Hell this morning! Remember me showing this to you last time? Well… look what we found this morning! I’ll keep taking more photos as it comes along so you can see how cool it is to watch ‘em grow! Now – I haven’t staked this one. So – let’s see how macho this one comes out! I picked our first handful of green beans this morning! Looks like my zucchini squash are happy, again. Have a handful of those coming along. And same goes for the yellow hook-neck. And just look at the Butternut Squash! It’s become impossible to get inside and count. Those puppies are going nuts. The plants have taken over the two rows of carrots on each side. They’ve gone into the corn. And now they’re threatening the tomatoes and even moving into the green beans! They keep spreading – they keep producing. Who am I to kill a good thing?! I guess there better be a lot of jet mechanics that like Butternut Squash! I don't even know how to describe this mess! I could go to any side of these plants and get the same picture. They're just - EVERYWHERE! There's more than two dozen - and more coming! They're already averaging about 9 inches long - 6 inches at the base and 4 to 5 inches at the neck. Just like Bambi - they're beginning to lose their stripes and turn that pretty orange-tan color! Tried to get a picture of a baby. Almost fell into the whole mess. LOL but the flower in this shot is only about 4 inches long. You see the baby squash behind it. Here's a 'Junior' and a 'toddler'. LOL That flower is huge! It spreads out the size of my hand. Right now - that 'toddler' is only about 3.5 to 4 inches long. I'm just so exicted about 'em! I've never grown these before! Tried one of the carrots this morning. Not as bitter and acidic as the rogue that ended up between rows that I tried a week ago. Very flavorful. But they still need more time to sweeten up. Dwayne and I thought twice and decided this morning not to plant okra this year. We still have fried okra packed in the freezer from last year. I wasn’t too impressed with last year’s crop – the way it grew, nor the way it came out on the plate. But then – I didn’t get to go up to The Old Mill to pick up the ground cornmeal, either. That’s just how much difference there is in the taste from the cornmeal ground at that old mill. And that’s just how spoiled I’ve become – I guess. Oh – shaddup! Well… I’m taking a lighter day today. Whatever I absolutely had to do out in the yard today has been completed by noon. I was up until 2am trying to work on my virtual farm. Finally called it quits - after the Foxfire browser crashed on me one more time - and headed to bed. Some of you may remember my childhood friend, Debbie Utley. Well, she’s Debbie Utley-Homann today! Debbie and I are addicted to a game at FaceBook called Farm Town! And don’t hold that against us. Trust me – we are in a healthy dose of company! It has been a lot of fun! Don’t think the game developers had enough confidence in how popular it would become. They’re having a lot of hell with it! Too many users – not enough servers! I’ll go for now! Time for lunch. Y’all have a great day! Ohhh.... by the way - see the little bitty blue words right below this? There's the word 'comments'. Go leave me a few words just to let me know ya' came by! Hey - go figure! Came in to do some editing on my sour grammar and guess what... it's raining cats 'n dogs 'n fat babies!