cat on a cold fish pond

It's been really cold here. And when I say cold, I mean it has been close to freezing at night for most of the week, and not much warmer during the day. Oh yeah, we get sun, but that doesn't necessarily make it warm. Now, I must admit, for us, it's not so bad, considering this is Florida, but we aren't used to such cold weather so early in the season. Our garden has faired fairly well (can I say that without sounding redundant?), without much loss to vegetation. The cats have stayed indoors most evenings and even in the morning after they have been fed. The fish pond I covered with some wool blankets. These are army blankets, so you know they are heavy duty. Nate put some 2 x 4's over the pond, then we put blankets over the 2 x 4's. I'd rather not have my fish freeze to death. Poor things. It's tough enough taking a cold shower, can you imagine living in it constantly? No, I say.  I've been feeding the fish, so I've seen them and know they are there. Wolfie here, likes to drink out of the fish pond. I think she's trying to eat their food. (She loves to eat, we call her our fat girl.) See how it looks like she has no feet? And she almost matches with the blankets!

hurricanes and breezes

scary hurricanes
I am not thrilled with hurricanes. Anyone who was here and lived through the 2004 hurricanes will agree with me that these things are no fun. This picture is pretty intimidating, but I am glad of the outlook. They are forecasted not to come anywhere close to us! Yippee! The good thing about these guys, is that they are bringing a lot of breeze and cooler weather our way. It was actually tolerable outside yesterday evening! I didn't sweat at all standing still! It was a beautiful thing! I was told this will be with us all week! yay!

here's what we started with...

We started the day after Earth Day this year with just 2 garden boxes. I thought that was all we were going to start with and try, since this is our first time growing a garden. Our local landfill has free compost, so we shoveled a bunch in the back of Nate's truck and used it for garden soil. So far, it has proven to be very good. Nate added some vermiculite to it, which seems to help also. I've used the free compost for years in my yard in starting new plants. Can't beat free! The cats were very curious as to what we were doing, and Scotty helped dig up some of the weeds. Actually, he made himself a nice, soft, cool dirt spot to lay in while were were getting rid of weeds and grass to make room for the boxes. I like to say he helped, as he did dig out some weeds. I just don't think he knew what was going on.

Next to the 2 boxes is our compost bin. We have since moved it to make room for the other boxes. We have another rotating compost bin that we are in the process of putting together. The one we currently have is ok. I guess it's just not composting as fast as I would like it. We do have quite a lot of worms in the current compost box, which I am happy about. They are some pretty big suckers too! Nate says we should grow worms and sell them. That's another idea for another day. We'll get around to it.