Anybody Home??

Nope.  I'm not.

Well, technically, yes, but we've been having another few of those days (you know, where its sunny and 80 with a threat treat of thunderstorms?), and I've been BUSY BUSY BUSY outside!  So busy, that its the end of my week and I've got 43 activity points stored up in WW (if that means anything to you; to me, it means chocolate icecream).  So busy that if I had gone missing, you should be on the lookout for my forearms or back, because I'm pretty sure they're going to kill me tomorrow.

And what have I been doing?

Well, I took this:

Sad, empty garden beds from last year...

and turned them into this:

Happy, (ful)filled garden beds from this year!

*warning: the rest of this post might make you feel as tired as I do*

The happy/sad aspects of the pictures could be contributed to the fact that the one above was taken during a rain storm, and the lower one was taken in 80 degrees and sun, but I prefer to think that the garden is, in fact, happier now.



Oh, and you see that plot-o-land??

plot-o-land

Not to brag, but I tilled that up, with a spade and my bare gloved hands.  It took me 3 hours yesterday and then another 1 1/2 hrs today.  I realized, about 2 hours in yesterday, that I had "bitten off more than I could chew".  But, rather than heed good advice and "spit it out", I decided to do that thing where you hid your mouth behind a napkin so no one can see you chew with your mouth open, just to get the work done.  Did I carry that metaphor far enough??  I sure hope so.

Anyhow, I worked from about 5:30-8:30 last night, tilling that up, and breaking bits-o-earth apart with my hands, cuase I've got some stubborn, hard clay right there.  At least, I did, before I broke it up and shredded it and showed it who's boss.  I don't know if its any good, as far as soil goes; guess we'll find out.  Last year (the first year of the garden) we tried an experiment where we planted most of the peppers in the raised bed (and enhanced soil), and a few stragglers in the earth beside the house.  The earth peppers performed better, in that they didn't get all diseased and fail to produce at all, but rather produced proficiently, especially after I quit watering them to death.  So I'm hopeful about the plot-o-land's soil quality.

And what did I put in this dirt, you ask?

Tomatoes (2 heirloom, 1 hybrid, 1 roma)

Peppers (3 bell, 1 sweet, 2 hot)

Lettuce (red leaf, butter-something, & spinach)

  and also some garlic, onions, scallions, and a basil plant.  I'm so ready for making lasagna!

When that was all done, I went to the insides of the home.  I baked a chicken, shredded it, and prepared the White Lasagna I planned from last week.  Its delicious.

And I had 4 overly-ripe bananas, so I made these brown-sugar banana mini-muffins and ate 3 :

And then I took the chicken carcass and boiled it with miscelanny vegetable parts (carrot, celery, onion) that I've been saving in a ziploc bag in the freezer, and made chicken stock.

It looked like this:

chicken stock fixin's

And I did some dishes, and I ... well, I think the rest of the time I watched television.

Hopefully that makes us friends again.

And in case you were wondering, while I was working outside, it would have been nice to have a good, wonderful, obedient dog at my side.  It really would have.  But instead, Dukie was simply an observer.

Because, you see, he's reached that bad/awkward/terrible stage in doggie years where he's adolescent-ish and no longer feels the need to come when called or stop when commanded.  And I want to get a shock collar and buzz him and buzz him and buzz him.  So I don't have one, because thats probably not healthy.  I'll wait till I've got a better grip on my temper before I get one of those trainer collars.  And I'm going to keep him on a pretty tight leash (metaphorically and literally) for now.

Ready for my day of rest, 

TFW