Chicken Dinner

I was thinking about letting the chickens out for the day since they have been couped up for quite some time now. But when I looked out the back door I noticed something odd about the chicken pen. A closer inspection of the situation made me decide to leave the chickens in the chicken coup for the day. sitting on top of the chicken pen was a hawk. I quess the hawk was trying to figure out how to get to them for dinner.

Sunday, we took it easy. We ate left over pizza after church. Then just watched a movie. Gracie was being snuggly. Later today we will be going back to our church to participate in their Trunk or Treat Tailgating Party. We went last year and it was lots of fun.

Saturday evening sunset.

Dog Show Weekend

Marianne and I had a fabulous weekend doing the dog show and making a weekend get away out of it. One of the dogs in our class was a no show so there were only dogs in our class. Saturday's course was pretty bad, but Charlie and I managed to get an 84 and a second place ribbon, giving Charlie is second leg. Sunday's course was much more "user friendly", but Charlie was got a burst of silly puppiness. He did manage to get an 86, with 3rd place, earning his 3rd leg for his Rally Novice Title. GO CHARLIE!! We are very proud!!. Charlie won't even be 2 years old until Jan. 11th and he already has a title. Gracie kicked butt today in the Rally ring, earning the blue ribbon with a score of 97!! Way to go Marianne and Gracie!! So Gracie now has 2 legs towards her title.

We had a great stay at the Comfort Inn on Laurens Road in Greenville, SC. I would recommend this hotel to all. They even had a shower that was better than home...you know that had to be good!

Charlie had his first visit to Petsmart today and found the store to be very exciting! He was especially facinated with the aquariums. I think Charlie likes going shopping.

Charle and Gracie shared their cheeseburger after the dog show.

We had dinner at Tim and Mickie's place Saturday evening. It was delicious. Charlie loves Tim, but Tim's cat does not love Charlie, or Gracie!

Of course we have ribbons and new toys. Charlie was more concerned with getting dinner than having his picture taken with his ribbons. He was very tired tonight. I took his picture with all the ribbons he has earned, then he got up, and took his elephant, and went to bed.

Other important events....Marianne's 15th birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARIANNE! You are one special girl!!!

Crepe Myrtles

Believe it or not, the crepe myrtles are blooming in spite of the draught. After the year we had last year, I wasn't even sure they were still alive. I was pretty surprised when they started blooming. I have been feeling rather lazy the last few days and have not done much of anything. I trimmed a couple of the trees, but that is about it. The garden needs weeding, but the ground is so hard, and cracking, that you can't pull the weeds out anyway. Still no rain.

One Project Done

The generator is very heavy and it was really hard for me to pull it out of the garage and start it up, to keep it running right. So I built a frame with wheels so I can get it in and out of the garage much, much easier. Marianne helped me lift the generator into the frame. The wheels even have brakes on them. That way the generator won't come along when I am pulling the start cord.

Horse Trailer - Sold, Pastures - Dead

This is where the horse trailer used to be. The horse trailer sold this week. I had a lot of response about it once I put it on Craiglist in Greenville. I was glad that it sold since I have no way to pull it, but it made me sad, too.

Marianne and I went berry picking at Hardy Berry Farms Friday evening and we got rained out. I was excited because it was finally raining, but when we got home, it had not rained at our house (we are about 3 miles from Hardy Berry Farms). We have not had any rain now in over a month. As you can see, the pastures are in very bad condition. The drought is killing my garden too, even though I have been watering it every few days. It just doesn't do the same as rain.

The Pool Is Up

First, I must say thank you for letting all of us invade your glorious home in Kentucky. The porch is awesome! I know you will get endless hours of enjoyment from it. The first item on the agenda once we got home was putting up the pool. So we have a pool now. It still needs a tad more water in it, but it does have about 22 hours worth of water in it now. I just had to take the hose back to the garden side of the house. The lack of rain is taking its toll on my garden and the pastures are all brown. But the pool is great! Marianne braved the cold water the first day the pool was up. Marianne and her friend Norma both went swimming when the water was way too cold for me. Today was the first day I got in the pool. Charlie even got to go for a swim too. Gracie didn't actually swim, she just relaxed and floated. It was very refreshing for all of us. I'm sure there is not any dog hair in the pool now. Getting Charlie in and out of the pool was interesting, but worth it. He loved it. Now that there is no pool in the shed, I guess I'll have to start bringing in the hay. At least I can jump in the pool after stacking the hay this year.

Old and New Things

The garden is growing like crazy. I am now looking for people to share with. Marianne and I have squash, collards, and salad coming out of our ears now. By the time grandma gets here we will be up to our ears in green beans, too. So I have been doing a Lot of cleaning and cleaning out of things, heading towards a yard sale. We all know how much I hate yard sales, so I making Mickie do it. Might as well put her to work! I have completely cleaned out the kitchen cabinets, rearranged stuff, and cleaned everything, top to bottom. The next "clean out" spot is my closet, ugh! I have also done a lot of weeding and week- eating, but that's not much fun either. However, in my adventures of cleaning out the kitchen cabinets I came across and old fish bowl. It was still in the old packing paper from the move up here from Florida...so it's really old. I figured the only logical thing to do would be to put it in the yard sale, but then I changed my mind and put a couple of Betas in it. I'm glad I decided to do that. I am really enjoying them. The female is blue with vertical stripes and the male is blue with red fin tips. They seem to like each other and are doing fine, so far. I haven't named them yet, so I am open to suggestions.

More Yummy

Marianne and I had a delicious salad with dinner. Everything in the salad was from the garden except for the carrot and the tomatoe: lettuce, zucchini, summer squash, and daikon radish, picked fresh! (My tomatoes are doing great, but are not ready just yet.) Some of the summer and zucchini squash went in the salad the rest went on the grill with the salmon. It was all very delicious!!

Today was my first official day of summer break. It was a good day. Not much excitement, but it was good. I did have to kill another snake today, 3rd one this year. I quess that was a little excitement, but not really the good kind. I spent about 2 hours or so mowing this morning, but quit when it got too hot out. I'll work on it some more tomorrow. Marianne and I went into town and ran some errands. It was terribly hot out so we had to go to Rita's for some Ice Custard Happiness while we were in town. After dinner I went out and pulled some weeds in the garden. I think they grow faster than anything else, but I'm making progress.

Spinach Salad from the Garden!

After a very long day at work today (one more day to go) I am Very Happy to announce our first meal that included fresh spinach from the garden. As you can see I fixed a Delicious spinach salad from the garden, topped with fresh strawberries and a sprinkling of chopped walnuts. I ate my salad with some Newman's Own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette. Yeah, that made my day! We also had chicken off the grill with some cactus dust. It was very good too.

The tomatoes are coming along nicely.

The daikon radishes are really growing. I don't know how to tell when they are ready. I guess you just pull it out and see. The 3rd row back is the sweet potatoes....another experimental project.

We had 3 hens that have been nesting. One of the hens hatched 2 eggs. Then a snake got in there and ate every single one of the other eggs that were due to hatch this week from the other 2 hens....Lousy snake!! Sometime between yesterday evening and this evening one of the 2 baby chicks has vanished. We can only speculate that it got out of the chicken pen and something ate it. When these little tiny chicks are still so small, they can walk right through the bitty wire. It's been a rough year for the chickens.

Time To Brag

Yesterday was Awards Day at Southwood Middle School. Marianne received certificates for Honor Roll and Academic Achievement. But then she also was awarded to plaque given by community groups, such as Kiwanis. She got one plaque for having the highest average of all the atheletes at Southwood. The other plaque was for having the highest average in the whole School!!! WOO - HOO, go Marianne !!!!! You go girl!!! Marianne, You Rock!!! That's my girl!!

Looks Like a Garden

The garden is starting to look like a garden. Since we took off to have some fun in Kentucky, the weeds have gotten a bit of a head start on us. But we will get them soon. The green beans (on the right side of the garden) are really coming along nicely.

The lettuce is still surviving, but little. I 'm not really sure how to grow lettuce.

We have summer squash (not Marianne's choice) that is about 3 inches long. There are 4 of them on the plant.

The spinach is also still growing. I am excited about the spinach. It was a total flop last time and I Love spinach.

There are 3 tomatoes on the tomatoe plant and lots of blooms. The grape tomatoe plant also has a bunch of tiny little baby tomatoes growing.

Last, but not least, the collards!! I have a picture of the biggest one and the littlest one...notice they are green, not brown. So they have survived the drive from Kentucky and the whole shock of being transplanted. Thank you Lisa and Jim. I am anticipating some delicious collards now.