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Showing posts from 2012

We're back

Yes its been a few weeks, and I've been gone out of town, out of the country.  And much has changed in that time. Yesterday the weather was in the low 80's, today we probably won't hit 60.  It's 3:30 in the afternoon and only 57 degrees outside. The tree leaves are changing, at least for those trees that can change.  The nights have cooled down too - last night got down to 47. So we have had a definite weather change. Now for the good news.  We had a neighbor's son water the outside plants while we were away.  We lost nothing.  Everything has survived.  Not only has everything survived, the outdoor tomato plant has two tomatoes, kind of large tomatoes ripening on it.  It does need some support but that's okay.  I had watered my few indoor plants well when we left.  They all survived well too.  Admittedly my dish garden needed water, there were just a couple of dropping plants in it, but not many and nothing was even close to dying.  So all in all, I think it
Weird weather.  It has definitely cooled down.  The past couple of weeks have been nice weather, with occasional rain thrown in for good measure.  Its been foggy, can't-see-across-the-street mornings followed by cloudy overcast days.  And then we get a good old foggy but warm morning followed by warm muggy overcast day.  Go figure.  But the good news is the plants are loving it. We are still having bachelor parties some days in the back yard.  Actually some days it just looks like parties in the back yard.  We have deer just coming in, some close to the house as if they don't care we are inside.  And they are once again eating plants they are not supposed to like - the wax myrtle and the cypress.  But it feels nice outside, and much better then those triple digit days.  So all in all its doing nice outside. They've pretty much finished the garage.  Bill and Pat have started moving stuff into it.  Bill even put up the blinds on the windows and installed the door locks on
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What a change in weather.  We spent Friday evening, pretty much all day Saturday, and early part of today Sunday cloudy and with some rain.  I say some rain since we didn't get a lot.  But most of it was short periods so the rain soaked in, it didn't just run off. Today, Sunday we went out to  Fredricksburg Roundup.  Its about energy - such as geothermal, solar, and some water collection.  It didn't have as many exhibitors as its had before, but it was interesting.  One thing I will say, it has good food.  This place called Navajo Grill had brought in a portable wood burning pizza stove.  I had a Margarhita (sp?) pizza. It was pretty good. Today when we got back we set up the automatic watering for the green house.  We leave on our trip Oct. 31 so we needed to get that all set up.  Its nice now that the heat is down a bit, 70-80's during the day, plants are growing again.  So we'll need that watering system up and running while we're gone.  Haven't figur
Vegas was great!!  We did shopping, went to see a show, gambled a bit, we had a blast.  I enjoyed it immensely!  I want to do it again, maybe in February or March, or at least some time early next year. The weather has been cooling down, at least for this area its cooling down.  The days have been high 80's and low 90's.  The nights are low 70's, even a few high 60's.  The other day we even had fog in the morning.  Granted, it burned off quickly but it was a definite change. The deer have been coming out in droves.  There's another new fawn, still with spots.  Its so much smaller then the rest of the young ones.  And we've been seeing the bucks with antlers.  Not what I would call large antlers, and not large males.  But they've got antlers growing out of their heads.  Sometimes it looks like a bachelor party in the back yard. But those lovely deer are eating my things again.  I had a small gardenia plant, it had been a house plant but I repotted it an
What a difference a day makes.  Yesterday the temperature hit 100, today it is noon and we are just barely 80 degrees outside.  We will not come close to yesterday's heat.  And tonight they are saying the lows are going down into the 60's.  I won't call it a cold front, though I suppose technically that may be accurate.  But it is definitely a cooling trend.  And the nice thing is the 10 day forecast  shows the weather staying this cool.  We'll still hit the 90's but more along 90-91-92, not 99 or 100.  We have a breeze too and it feels nice outside. Well tomorrow I leave for Vegas!  I'm getting excited.  I'm all packed, printed out my boarding pass, getting some cleaning done.  Bill is not really looking forward to my being gone, but he has enough work here to keep him busy.  I don't think he'll really notice my absence too much.  He'll survive. I went to Home Depot the other day.  They had mint plants.  I've been looking for mint all su
We're goin' to Vegas Baby!!  A friend and I are going to Las Vegas week after next for a shopping trip.  I haven't been to Vegas in a few years.  I'm getting excited! I even got tickets for a show. OHHHHHHmy.  This will be fun.  And the really fun part - no husbands, no kids.  Now how's that for fun?!
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I feel bad.  I think I killed a frog/toad today.  I was watering the plants.  One plant, in a pot, was sitting in another pot so it could get a good soaking.  Unfortunately I didn't realize there was something in the bottom, picked up the pot and dropped it back into the outside pot.  Later I went to check the pot, to drain the excess water.  And there was a frog/toad, not moving. I didn't mean to do it.  I know we have these frog/toad around the property.  I often find them in pots or under pots.  I just never know where or where I will find them.
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My husband is having way too much fun.  I mean just too much fun.
WOWWWEEEE!  Its noon and only 75 degrees.  We got a little bit a rain last night - 0.11 inch.  Let's hope we can keep some of this cool weather going!!  Cool weather, a bit a rain - life is good and the plants are happy.
Go figure, the weather has been hot but plants are starting to pick up. My peppers have new leaves and my tomatoes are getting green. So I stuck a few seeds in the ground and we will see what happens. I put in some tomato seeds from a tomato I had and I put in a bean seed - don't remember off hand what kind of bean. But its still hot, and we still have a growing season to deal with. I also put some more herb seeds in pots. We'll see how those do too. We also broke down and put up bird netting around some pots of mine. I figure if they start to flourish, or at least grow then I probably had a problem with them being eaten, but they are otherwise okay. Now for the eating part. If something actually manages to lift the frame and get underneath to the plants, its not a deer. I'm hoping its just deer, then the netting would keep it out. But we'll wait and see if that's all it is or not. I don't know. I'm pretty sure we have a raccoon, but I'm not
The weather is not getting any better. It is hot, high 90's to low 100's. The nights are only getting down to about 75. Its tough to sitting or be outside just because of the heat. The plants are not thriving, but at least they are not dying. A few have died, but most are just staying the same. I have a yellow pear tomato plant with one tomato. But that poor tomato has yet to ripen. I think it may be just the heat.  I have actually pulled a couple of the dead plants out of their pots. I had a tomato plant that was just a stalk so I pulled that out. I also pulled some of the parsley plants. They probably needed to be pulled sooner. But I have pulled the poor parsley stalks and put in new parsley seeds. Now the interesting thing - my basil seeds are doing well and growing. Not only that, the basil growing outside the greenhouse has not been eaten by the deer. Go figure.  The deer have been eating the geraniums, most of the potted plants - dahlias, day lilies,
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Well, its now the beginning of August, not going to plant anything new for a while. This is usually the hottest time of the year so its not a good time to plant. In the front: Yellow Lantana seems to grow well and the deer and other critters don't seem to eat it. They tasted it when it was first planted, but have not bothered it since. Now the Confetti Lantana is another story. They is on the same watering system as the yellow lantana but is not fairing quite as well. I have noticed that it does occasionally get munched on. Even though the Confetti lantana should get bigger then the yellow, I think if it can survive the summer, make it to fall and really set some good roots it might stand a better chance to making it and growing bigger. Right now I think its new shoots are getting eaten. Marigold and Zinnias: These guys are having a tough time. The deer seem to have stopped eating the marigolds. But the problem is they are still getting stepped on. The zinnias are

Its been a while

Yes its been a while since I've last posted. And my how things have changed. We have sold our house in Bellevue, WA, moved out of the house in San Antonio, TX (pretty much moved out), and we have built and moved into a house in Austin, TX. The house in San Antonio still has some of our things in it. But we have decided we need more room in the Austin house before we can move the rest of the San Antonio items. So we are going to build a "new garage" in which to house the stuff. You may ask yourself, "why not just get rid of the extra stuff?". Well, we can't just get rid of that extra stuff. Its stuff that must be kept, so we are going to build a spare garage in which to put it. So that is the basics of what has changed so dramatically in my life. Now for the blog info. Since the house is on a large lot, almost 2 acres, and we have deer and other critters wandering naturally around, I am having some trouble with plants. As in they are being eaten