FF: 7/20/12

 What would have me up before the sun??? 

 THIS!!  New plants, and new soil!!  (I went shopping:)

  Also trying to 'play' in the dirt before THIS 

Grandboy Kale, 19 mos old

 woke up. 
Didn't happen. 
SO after grandboy, Kale, had some breakfast, we went back out to the front porch to do some 'dirty' work.  Ok, not really work, but we did get good and dirty. 

Kale models the Scheurich Sprayman aka Grandma's new toy

 Mr. Kale stayed on the porch while I re potted. 
First playing with this super cool watering can-sprayer thingy.
Kale demonstrating how NOT to use the watering can:). 
Shortly after I had to put it up, because SOMEONE was chewing on it. 
Little beaver boy.   

 Mr. Man enjoyed watching the machinery from the work site next door.  Wish this little guest house had a glass door so I could leave the wood one open and he could watch the activity all day. He is able to catch some action from a side window.  Poor tortured soul. 
 
 Then we upgraded to a dog water bowl full of water and a cup.  This lasted the longest. 

Horse herb, ???, strawberry, squash, Pigeon berry and Horehound along back

 I decided to add my new treasures to this grow pot (which is so cool).  It is a self watering pot. I brought three with me, but since the homeowner already has a garden, and all my food plants were murdered died, I don't think I will be using two of them. 

 The pooches watched from inside, until SOMEONE started pouring water on the screen door, and I had to close it.  Poor pooches.

 When we went on our road trip to Wisconsin, I saw one of these at Target, and bought it for a souvenir.  I decided it would make a nice 'salad bowl'.  (I have a smaller one with succulents back at home)  I'm going to try salad greens in the summer.  They are not recommended here in our hot weather.  We'll see-won't hurt, that's for sure:). 

Today's players:
 At the Lowe's clearance rack I found:
healthy rosemary (which I needed)

And three different verbena (which I wanted;)
We have a solid red and purple at home. 
These are hardy in our neck of the woods. 

Shampoo Ginger

 I hope these live.  They were in one of the pots hubby DID NOT water while I was away.  Shampoo Ginger. 
Mail order. 
Cha-ching.
Boo hoo.
Boo hoo. 

 Took him a while but, he finally sat in the bowl.  Fun, fun, fun!

Added: purple and lt green sweet potato, verbena, coleus, Mexican flame vine.

 Ta-Da!!  Over planted, and I don't care.  I'll be taking it home this fall and putting it in the yard, so right now it is 'intense' planting.  :)

Orchids up front

 Now to my sad sad orchids. 

 My mini Sharry baby, who bloomed so well for me this spring.  No medium left.  how long can the poor dried up thing function on nothing?  So shriveled.  :(  I'm trying a new orchid 'soil'  we will see how it does. 

 My other Sharry baby.  I took a deep breath, and just ripped all the shriveled parts off.  All that was left was these three tiny babies.  :(  At our old house (before we moved to mom's) this was in my bathroom, and was thriving.  Then it got neglected and it is barely surviving. 

 Currently I'm using the bottom of a plastic cup, later I'll switch to one of those small clay pots.  *sigh*

 I put them back in the planter they sit in, used the cut off part of the red cup as a 'brace' for the orchid.  Nothing else holding it up.  *sigh*  Like I said, I hope they like the new orchid soil. 

 That stack a pot thing in back (REAL hard not to put my new flowers in it, but its only for edibles:), window box planter, and dumb cane.  Had to move that dumb cane before the sun REALLY hit it. 

 Went thru my seeds.  Can't decide what greens to plant in the salad bowl.  Other than mescalin, spinach, kale (the plant not the grandchild) beets, rocket, any suggestions?   I've got lots of spots.

New watering can, and tomato starts that go in the garden

 One more look at my new watering can.  First, its purple.  I love purple.  Second, its thick plastic.  Third, it has a SPRAYER on it!!!  Fourth, its see through!!!  Fifth, its got a nice handle for hanging. 
And sixth, its cool looking:) 
Gonna enjoy this one. 
{Silly son asked why someone would want a sprayer on their watering can!!  I have failed as a mother.;}

 Back inside everyone was frolicking on the bed.  Oh, the silliness!!

 The dumb cane (b-day present from hubs) was upgraded to this cool planter.  (Just plopped in)   But, I'm going to have to remove all that plastic wrap and ribbon, it hinders my watering skills. 
(and we don't need that hindered:). 

 Pretty birds. 

Tired baby.  He is so wore out.  Water does that for some reason.  Kale likes to suck his thumb and rub a 'silky' when he is tired.  Here he is using Reba's ear, she doesn't mind. 

Hope your Fertilizer Friday is fabulous. 

Thankful Thursday: Urrrreeeeebbbbbaaaaa

Most of the month of June, I stayed at home in East Texas (while hubs worked eight hours away). We had church clean-up for the month, so I go to stay and help my mom and daughter. Good thing I did, because when we came home from our long road trip in the first of June, I found our old basset, my hero, and hubs' bestie, in sad sad shape.

Mellow was 17 years old, and had been our baby for a LONG time. His 'mellow' approach to life inspires me. This blog is named after my Mellow's attitude. He raised many a child, mine, foster kids, kids I babysat, and lastly the grands.
He was (almost) always very very mellow.
Dear Mellow Yellow, Mellywelly, Smellywelly, Mell, Mellownatar, Melly and on and on. 

Very camera shy Mellow, and Reba 12/10

Melly had quit eating, and drinking, and could barely move.
No AAARRRRRRRROOOOOOOOing.
None at all.  
I decided it was time to honor our (his and my) agreement.
He would go with dignity. (he couldn't even get up to pee)
My very sweet daughter took him in to the vet and held his paw while he passed. 
She sang "Mellow Yellow" to him, and brought his sweet lovingly wrapped body back to me, so that I could bury him in mom's yard.
I'm glad I was there, I'm glad everything went so smoothly.
I'm glad my hubs didn't have to make this choice, or see how bad our boy was.
I'm SO glad my sweet daughter did what I don't think I could have.

Rest In Peace, 
Run Free Our Dear Mellow Jo Santana. 

Your memory will live on.

Forever.

Reba 1/2012

This left his widow alone.  Reba, at seven, has never been alone.  Her whole life, she has always been right by Melly's side.  During the last month of his life, she lay by him, washing his head, and cried.  And cried and cried.  When my daughter took Mell to the vet, she stopped crying, and hasn't since. 
We didn't want to leave her alone, so we decided to try her on the 'road tripping' we are doing, with LadyBelle and LilDog.
Of course, she is not a FULL house dog, and a BAD traveller, but what the hey!

Reba, LadyBelle, LilDog 7/12

We drove eight hours here, and she barfed very little.
As you can see she caught on to the 'guest house' life fast. 

Camper hounds, Reba, LadyBelle, LilDog 7/12

Then we drove five hours to the 'camper' and she did even better.
Ms. Reba has never been to the camper before, but, here too, she caught on quick.
(Middle picture are basset eyes in the dark)

Sunset 7/12

The sunset at the lake our camper is at was AWESOME!!
And there was much romping on the part of the pooches.
Gonna have to try taking the girls to the actual water and see what they do.

In the actual camper, I saw this mess, what the hey?
Further inspection showed it to be a
SNAKE SKIN!!!!!!
EEEEEEEKKKKKKKK!!!!!
Hopefully hubs is right, that it's a rat snake, and it woke up, shed, realized there is no more mice in the camper (thanks to hubs poisoning:) and it moved on.  Oh, I hope it moved on...*shudder*

West Texas Critters 7/12

Then we drove five hours back to West Texas.
I actually remembered my camera on our weekly drive around the ranch.
These are regular sights, axis (orange) deer, white tail deer, jack rabbits.
Not pictured (yet) are antelope, porcupine, rattle snakes, skunk, fox, and more.
Then we made the drive eight hours back home.  East Texas. 

Grandboy Kale 7/12

We picked up this fella, granddarling Kale, and brought him, hubs, myself, son DJ, AND the three dogs back. 
Reba didn't barf once.  Go Reba!!

Brown nosier...LilDog 7/12

LilDog is always entertaining, and one loves to find scraps and bury them. 
This time in the sand.  Silly dog. 
Thanks to LilDog being SO house trained, she has set the potty schedule for first Lady and now Reba.  Thank you my little dog.

Reba, LadyBelle 7/12

Reba is looking shinier, and hasn't been such a food hog.
 I think we have figured out the carsickness issue.

Reba, LadyBelle, LilDog 7/12

Reba & LadyBelle 7/12

Gangster Reba 7/12

 She is actually playing some.  She has done real well with the house breaking, and is very tolerant of Kale. How thankful I am she was there for our Mellow. And the joy she brings hubby. What a wonderful dog family we have. I am thankful for the 'doggy' people hubs is working for. And, of course, I'm very thankful I got to go home for the weekend, see three of my kiddos, two of my kid-in-laws, and four of my awesome grandkiddos:).


Reba says: enjoy the moment.


Dear Reba has always lived 'in the moment'.

Did You Hear Dat?

Reba-7yrs.  LadyBelle-2yrs.

Bassets, Reba and LadyBelle keep us safe...and entertained:).

BT: 6/5/12

Thought I'd post some pics of the newish garden here:
First these are the home-owners babies I get to keep an eye on (aka e-n-j-o-y:) while the hubs is rebuilding her house.  We repotted a couple of onsite rose bushes, so we will see how they do. 

I can see these from the front porch of our guest house, and I do enjoy them.  Pretty pots too:).

This is the 'shabby-chic' garden  in the back of our guest house:).  I think it was her Nana's spot.  The homeowner's have had this place for over 150 years, I love the view of the hill country.  Currently the edging is just propped up.  Notice hubs rock ditch?  This really is a construction site:)

The fellas decided they needed to move her Nana's flowerbed, so I suggested the flower go in the spot Mrs.H (homeowner) had just cleared in the garden.  Easy right?

Little did I know that she had not only cleared, BUT had planted!!  Luckily the little plants had popped up leaves or I would have dug them up when planting the re-located flower plants!!

She has asparagus, beans, winter squash and Nana's flowers (Iris, mum, lilies, etc), on the left; zucchini, summer squash, in back right: and peppers and tomatoes on the right front.  One grape tomato plant is in the process of taking over the world.  It has a large tomato cage in its near future.  The soil here is so different, ours at home is sandy loam with clay or iron-ore under it.  Here it is either dried out or muckly and limestone is about a foot deep. 

These are my grow-pots from home.  I didn't know Mrs.H had planted a garden to share.  The beans and squash and cucumber are doing great.  I moved them off the front porch to get more sun, I just have to remember the sprinkler doesn't water them like they need.

Besties, Basset: Ladybelle, and Chimix: LilDog chillxin in style..

I waited too late this morning to get those flowers in the garden, got hot fast, and I tell you I felt like my girls here...one tired puppy!!  I'm going to wait til after supper to go hoe some more, and hopefully get the hubs to make me that large tomato cage!!
Blooming Tuesday