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.

Going Green

I am very happy to report that we now have green things growing in the garden. The green beans and cowpeas are sprouting. Some of them are even 2 inches tall. We are hoping for some spinach. It bombed last time, but I Love spinach!! So I thought I would give it another try.

The tomatoe plant has baby tomatoes on it. Even the acorn squash is just starting to break through the clay. We also have eggplant, okra, grape tomatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, summer squash, zucchini, canteloupe, and the potential for onions, carrots, and daikon radishes.

Work has been really, really awful this year!! I really need to win the lottery...oh yeah, I don't buy tickets. Rats! I'll have to keep working. With all the pay cuts and my property taxes going up this year....it has been rough. They are essentially going to be paying us about what we were making in 2006 for the next school (2009-2010). As if anyone could afford to live on that now. So I have taken a part-time position (adjunct) at Tri-County Tech for the next school year. So I will be there on Monday and Wednesday nights in the fall. Less than a month of school left. I can't wait for summer!!! I need it more than the kids do!!!

Making Slow Progress

Well, the garden is coming along...slowly. I think I am a full month behind schedule now. But I have not given up. I have finally gotten the rows done, but do not have the area for the canteloupe and squash ready yet. I am hoping to be able to work on it again tomorrow. Today was church...awesome! Then I fixed lunch/dinner and put it in the oven. I worked on the garden while it was in the oven. Marianne took it out and set the table. Of course there was 6 loads of laundry that got done...clean, but not folded yet. Charlie is fresh and clean. He got a bath today. That was done in between lunch, laundry, and working in the garden. Charlie is feeling better than he has in months!! I am glad that the surgery went well and that he is feeling so good now. He is back to acting silly and playing, which he hadn't done in a long time.

Spring Break Doings

Since I had to break the bank to pay for Charlie's surgery, I figured I might as well get the water line to the back pasture put in. No more dragging 150 of water hoses back and forth across the yard...hooray!! It was long overdue, but kept getting "put on the back burner" because it was not really a necessity. A contractor that goes to our church put in in for us...for half the the cost of the other lowest estimate that I had gotten from others. So that was certainly a blessing.

I also have the beginnings of a garden. Now that we are coming out of the draught, it chooses to rain on the weekends so the garden is behind schedule. I will have to update you on the garden as I get more done. The saddest thing about spring break is that is ends and they make you go back to work.

We had a nice Easter Sunday. We all went to Tucker's for Sunday Brunch after church. It was really nice. We got the waitress to take our picture.

Charlie has recovered very well from his surgery and is doing great! We are all very thankful. He is also at a near perfect wight of 74 pounds. He is feeling great and seems to be much happier now. We are much happier with the way he smells. : )

Charlie's Pain in the Butt

This week did not turn out how it was expected to. We are on spring break here! Charlie had to go to the specialist in Greenville concerning his anal scent gland issues, which had gotten way out of control. I really should not provide too much detail because Charlie might get embarrassed. Or everyone else would just be totally grossed out. Probably the second of those two. Anyway, due to the condition of those glands, it became immediately necessary to remove them. So Charlie had surgery yesterday afternoon. The top butt doctor was at a conference in Ashville,
but returned to Greenville to perform the surgery. So Charlie has a bad haircut now and a sore bottom. He seems to be doing okay otherwise. We are following doctors orders to the best of our ability and are hopeful that he will make a full recovery. He is currently on two weeks bed rest...so we had to hide his ball from him.