So much for the day's "To Do" list!

Well, that 30% chance of rain last night turned into about 2 inches dumped on my yard and garden. Which nixes any and all chances of getting anything done in either place today. Weeding and (more--its a nearly every day item on "The List") mowing were on the agenda...but we're restricted to the routine animal care, and indoor chores. Nothing huge, just more of the usual "homekeeping" (seriously, y'all don't want to know about the cleaning of ceiling fans, the range hood/vent, and the constant removal of one or more of the three year olds from the kitchen counters, do you?).

I do have a few decorating 'items' on the list for today, at least, preliminaries. Some I've already taken care of, others, well, they are longer term, more 'involved' projects. We'll see how they turn out and the reception that they get around here from TPTB... ;-).

Even though today is a federal holiday, El Husbando is having to work...at least he will be making holiday pay...kind of stinks, though, with him being a vet, but, we'll deal. We've missed holidays before, birthdays, Christmas, etc. Not fun, not desireable, but it is "life"....

I do hope that you all are having a great Memorial day...

More later (hopefully with some garden and house photos)

ARGH....and the garden is growing...

Well, sorry for the extended blogging break there. My shoulder has really been acting up...apparently, the nerves in my back/shoulder don't care for a stand alone mouse, rather than the integrated one I had with the laptop (still needs a power supply and some other minor repairs). I have had this problem before, but not in years (coincidentally, it stopped about the time I got my first laptop. Hm, wonder if there is some connection???). It kicked up as soon as I started using DH's pc (and stand alone mouse). And it gets aggravated by vibrations (ie, lawn mowing with a push mower, distance driving, etc). So I've been in pretty much a constant state of low-grade pain during the days, and higher level agony at night.

It makes sleeping difficult. Fortunately, the only thing that lets me sleep is a muscle relaxer...ugh. I hate taking pills, but my back/shoulder 'pinging' all night doesn't allow for restful sleep, not at all...

So I've been trying to limit my time online, as well as my time with the mower/doing yard work. Tonight we're going to do some work in the garden, and more tomorrow morning while it is still cool. It has been close to 90, so between heat and humidity, doing anything out of doors after about noon is downright uncomfy...

But, the heat and humidity are good for the garden, which is going great guns now. I've got one complete and total FAILURE...my two rows of heirloom Hutterite Soup beans. Not ONE bean came up. Had *no* problem with any of the other beans, so I am not sure what the problem is...if it is soil/moisture/depth of planting...regardless, we will be planting something else in those spots...Gotta have *something growing there.

The tomatoes are popping blossoms out every which way...the peppers are limping along (totally unimpressed with them this year, unfortunately), the potatoes started to have a minor problem with the beetles like they did last year, but we caught it early enough, we hope. Sprinkled them with some Viper powder (good stuff!), and that tends to put them off of the potatoes.

My lettuce and spinach (planted late) are just now really coming up, and there's not much of either of them showing their heads. Not sure why, but that's the way it is. LOADS of carrots and onions allllll over the place. Corn is doing well, too...we're planting some "Lazy Housewife" climbing beans and squash/zucchini around them this weekend. We're also planting some more cukes, pumpkins, and melons, and hilling the potatoes. God willing the timing works out...

El Husbando has to work on Monday (which, him being a vet, really stinks), but at least he gets holiday pay...gotta try and find the bright side, right?

I lucked out at some garage/yard sales, lately, and scooped up some good deals for the children and the house. Hopefully, I'll have somethings to photograph and put up here. Most of them are low-cost, but trying to keep the costs down and the projects moving along...y'all know how *that* is, I'm sure...

We're working on some raised beds for perennial herbs and asparagus, as well, but those are long running outdoor projects...lots of scavenged material going into building those, let me tell you!

The birthday party went well, and there was much rejoicing over the wonderful books and delicious cake (a lemon-raspberry concoction she requests every year). Just finished the last piece of cake yesterday, as a matter of fact.

I do hope you all are preparing for a productive, wonderfully restful weekend...

I'll be posting more as time/my shoulder permit...

Back again! And a contest!

We've had a week of rain, and then, last night, we got slammed with a nasty storm. Fortunately, once again, the worst of it went around us (not by much, though, to the south it was a matter of less than 15 miles). But I am not going to complain. I did get all of the mowing that didn't get done before the week-long rain fest hit, taken care of...just in time to get rained on last night. We're suppppposed to have another week or so of good sunny hot weather, so that will dry this up pretty quickly. I hope! I need to get around the garden with the mower, as well as weed that out very well...not to mention, finish mowing the backyard. 2 acres of yard takes a looong time with a push mower, that is for sure...

This weekend, we have the last of the children's birthdays. We do the "pick your dinner, pick your dessert" for birthdays around here. We're having hotdogs, macaroni and cheese, nacho cheese doritoes, and mountain dew. With a lemonade layer cake, with raspberry jam filling, with lemon frosting. Wish me luck. LOL.

Hopefully, we will have enough dry weather today and tomorrow, that I will be able to get to the yard 'stuff', and then move on...I have so much to get done around here, it isn't funny. It's that old saying, There are three things--time, money, energy. You generally only have two. And it is never the same, lol.

Right now, I've got time and energy, but no money. In another week, I'll have money, but no time OR energy. LOL Maybe the energy, we'll see. But I can almost promise I won't have the time, what with getting caught up outside...

In better news, speech therapy seems to be working for the boys, so thank goodness, we actually are getting some words out of them. YAY! They did just turn 3. It'd be nice to get more than NO out of them every now and again...

And, for all of you ladies who like a contest, my good friend Rebecca, over at Shoved to Them (www.shovedtothem.blogspot.com) is having a contest from now through next Wednesday (May 26th). An $80 gift card to an online retailer is nothing to sneeze at folks! Annnnnd you can get two entries if you publicly follow her, AND if you blog about the contest...nothing unusual there...

ANYWAY, folks, head on over to Shoved to Them, and give the contest a go. If you win, let me know. No, no "finders fee", just a comfortable sense of satisfaction knowing that someone went there and won that (even if it wasn't me! :-) ).

I do hope you are all doing well...I'm trying to keep up with the blogs as weather and circumstances permit, but you all know how that goes...

BBL!

I'm sorry...so sorry...

For the extended hiatus from blogging...life sometimes smacks you upside the back of the head (think of SA Gibbs on NCIS)...

We've had four birthdays, a wedding anniversary, a death in the family, a washing machine failure/repair, a septic system we thought was going to need $1100 worth of repairs (only needed $50), the usual stresses and strains, putting in garden bed after garden bed (we've got about 3400+ sq ft of garden, maybe more), new chicks (more coming)....

Yeah. And on top of all of that, EL Husbando's job has reverted to its much less liked, shift hours and that has meant much familial upheaval hereabouts.

In any case, I am sorry for the long break between posts, but I hope to remedy that. :-)

At the moment, the children and I are playing a waiting game with the weather. It rained hard Sunday and Monday, and so the yard and garden are neither one good places for us right now. As I mentioned above, in my "mea culpa" above, we have put in a garden again this year. So far, we're a bit more than halfway planted...the rest is going to beans and maybe another row of potatoes...but nothing exciting.

We have tomatoes, peppers (Sweet, bell, and hot), corn, beans (two kinds thus far), pumpkins, watermelons, cucumbers, spinach, lettuce, onions, carrots, potatoes...We're planning on putting in some more beans, squash and zucchini, another small row of potatoes, and some more cucumbers, pumpkins, and watermelons in succession plantings. Maybe even an annual herb bed...but we'll see...

Right now, of course, we're waiting on the ground to dry enough to walk on, much less work! We do walk around it and take peaks to see what is working and what isn't, but for now, all we can do is look.

We got 37 meat birds in mid-April, and so now they are right about a month old. Our broody hen hatched out a single baby again this time, who has already been named Pepperoni (the children call it Peeperoni, in tribute to its older sister, Peep, who is about to become a full fledged hen any time now).

We've also got some turkey poults and more ducklings on order for the middle of June...whew...

It should be an interesting summer, to say the least!

Inside the house, not much has been done, what with all of the goings-on (and nice weather) outside. However, I've hatched a couple of smaller projects which will be good for days like this one, when I need "something" to do that doesn't require me being outside. Blech.

My computer died late in March, and I've just now gotten on to El Husbando's and decided to make a blog post to fill you all in on things here...

Hopefully, I will be able to be a more regular correspondant than I have been of late....do pray we can fix the computer soon...I'd much prefer to be using an integrated mouse instead of the free standing one with this pc...makes my shoulder hurt rather badly...

Thanks for hanging in there..back soon!