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Author: October

  • I know why Elmer Fudd hated rabbits

    Earlier this week I noticed that my tomato plants were looking a little sad.  They were really wilting.  It has been over 100 almost every day in June, so I assumed I was just not watering enough.  I decided that maybe I needed to water twice a day.

    That did not do anything to help the cause.

    Friday morning I decided that I really needed to figure out what was going on.  I pulled out the Miracle grow and some insect repellent.  Whatever it was, I was determined to get to the bottom of it.

    The bottom of it was the problem!

    The rabbits ate right through the tomato plant stems!  Oh, I was so mad!  I finally had a good garden going…between the birds and the rabbits…this meant war.

    I had put up bird netting, but it had come off of the back fence so the birds were getting in and eating the tomatoes.  I tried to get the bird netting sealed around the bottom the best I could until I could make something more permanent.

    Wade went and got me pvc pipe so I could build a better structure to hold up the netting.  Friday evening I cut all the pieces and got it ready to put in the garden.

    Saturday morning proved to be even more disappointing.  More tomato plants were ruined… chewed right through the bottom of the stem.  The funny thing was, they were still in the cages and so the rabbits couldn’t even get to the fruit.  I set up the bird netting with the structure I built.  It was sealed all the way to the bottom.  There was no way the birds or rabbits were getting in…at least I thought.

    to be continued…

  • Learning New Things

    This morning the weather man told us to get a bunch of movies and just stay inside…it is too hot to do anything!  Crazy me…I decided to go roller blading this morning and it was already 83 at 6:30am!  Yuck!

    So we followed directions and stayed inside.  I taught Sydney how to make a lanyard…something I learned in 1st grade at Girl Scout camp.  I have to say, she did better than my 5th graders when I taught them!  I only had to show her 3 times before she had the hang of it.

    Stacey, not wanting to be outdone, showed me she knew how to tie her shoes.  Mind you…she just turned 4 last week.  I am a FIRM believer in getting them tie shoes until they figure it out.  No velcro in this house!  It is a HUGE PAIN to constantly be tying toddler shoes, but now both of my girls learned at 4 how to do it.  🙂

  • Gardening

    I have mentioned before that every year I plant a garden.

    I am not a good gardener.

    In fact, to put it mildly, I suck at it.

    But someday, I will get the hang of it.

    This is my garden this year.

     

    I tried to think about how things have grown in the past and plant accordingly.  My tomatoes can usually take over the world and get taller than the fence, so I put them in the back.  My cucumbers were so small last year (first year for those) so I thought I would put them in front of the tomatoes.  I also planted some jalapenos on the end where it gets the most sun.

    Of course…things are growing differently this year.  But that is par for me.  Nothing can ever be the same.  It is now June and I still only have blooms on the tomatoes and cucumbers.  When the fruit finally starts growing, I am not sure what we are going to do with it all! I caged the cucumbers this year, and they are taller than the tomatoes.  Is that normal?  oh well….

    And here is the corn we decided to plant:

    Yes, we have the ugly electrical box in our HUGE yard.  Since it is only about 12 feet to our house, this nice 4 foot area takes up 1/3 of the yard.  Not to mention they are finally working on the construction of the house next door, so they dug up part of my corn.  But it was an experiment so I was not terribly upset.

    Corn is weird.

    It starts with the strings (not sure of the technical name).  Then the corn starts growing.

    Weird.

    Then there is our carrots.  This year I planted them in a planter.  We have some friendly rabbits that keep getting in the yard.

    And our herbs.  I planted these 2 years ago thinking my DH would use them when he cooks.  He never came out and picked them.  So they died.  I replanted them last year.  Same thing.  They died.  I refused to plant them this year and they all grew back.  I think it is a sign.

  • Best Banana Bread (Laura’s Banana Bread)

    I think my mom got this recipe from a person named Laura.  It is pretty old…but it is the best bread!

    1/2 cup oleo (butter…not margarine)

    1 cup sugar

    2 eggs

    2 cups flour sifted with 1 teaspoon baking soda

    1 cup chopped pecans (I use chocolate chips instead)

    3 large bananas mashed

    Blend oleo and sugar well.  Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Add the flour mixture. Stir in bananas and nuts.

    Pour into buttered and floured (or sugared) loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for 45minutes-1 hour.  (Depending on the oven it might only be 35 minutes.  The edges will get brown before the center is done.  The center will rise and crack…to see if it is done, stick a toothpick into a colored crack.  If it is clean, it is done.)