spool down end of year time

This is Rogue. She lives with us, well, actually, she lets us live here, we just share the house with her. She and her sister, Wolfie, let us live here. Rogue is the prissy girl, but a tough ass prissy girl as she is the one that does most of the killing of rats around here. She is very soft, has beautiful color, and walks like a princess. She does, really. She likes to be looked at and adored, not so much touched and petted. Only petted when she says so, as most cats go. 

Wolfie on the other hand, is queenie of the house. She doesn't do much killing, although she has, I just don't think she likes to get her paws dirty too much. She, unlike her sister, LOVES to be petted. You start petting her and she goes into auto purr. No kidding. And it gets so loud too! Then if you dare take your hand away, she reaches for it. Yeah, she doesn't want you to stop petting her. She does run outside from time to time, and I have seen her climb a tree or two, so she is not totally devoid of animal instincts, she just thinks she's queen of the house. She really doesn't like her brother bothering her.

This is Moses. He's our foster turned adopted cat. You can tell from this picture that he only has 3 legs. He's missing his back right leg. He gets along just fine without it. He is one fast cat! He's a little over a year now and LOVES to be outside. He is always looking for lizards and squirrels and birds and rats. He's caught a rat too. I am very proud of him. He has come a long way since he has been with us. He is my baby boy. 

We are spooling down to the end of year here. This time of year I start to wind down, relax, and look forward to having some time off. I clean out the closets, the attic, start raking the leaves (since mowing season is over until June next year), brushing the kittens and dog, and clean out the psyche too. Getting rid of things that don't serve me, whether that's physical or mental. It's all good and I feel refreshed and ready for whatever the new year brings. 

staving off the rain....

So far we have staved off the rain today. I was hoping for some, for the plants sake, but I was also doing laundry and hanging it outside, and I didn't want to do the clothes grab if it started to rain suddenly.

Today I finished the last of my homework for my degree. It feels good to be done, but it still hasn't totally hit me yet that I have a degree. It'll take some time. I have been enjoying the 'weekend off' of homework, so to speak. I got up early today and rode my bike to yoga class. It helps keep me centered, and it so good for the body. The ride home was good too, as it was overcast and there was just enough breeze to make it easy to ride home, and a pleasure to have the breeze.

The tomatoes are still producing and we have a few for salad for dinner tonight. The heat has taken a toll on most of the rest of the plants, not to mention us and the animals as well. We're all very tired. Tomorrow we sleep in!

Tomorrow is do-nothing-stay-in-my-pajamas-and-don't-leave-the-house-until-I-need-to-take-Scotty-to-the-park day. I'm very much looking forward to it. Of course, I'll check on the vegetables when I get up, as it's still kind of cool then. Tolerable, I should say.

I found this flower on one of our plants, and for the life of me, I can't remember which one. That's what I get for hesitating in storing these photos. All I can say is, it's pretty.

bounty from the garden

I'm thrilled to report we have A LOT of yellow pear tomatoes! and some red big boy tomatoes too! Look!

A couple of the red tomatoes looked ready to burst, but they still looked good. I've had a few of the yellow ones for lunch. It's great to be able to go in the backyard and pick some food for lunch. 

Scotty was guarding the yard for me while I was picking...

and the watermelons are starting to take over the yard...

I can't wait to see how they turn out! The red of the tomatoes looks beautiful against the green of the plants...

I'm having some of these with my salad for dinner. Can't wait!

The passion vines are in full bloom too. These are so pretty. I've cut some flowers on the vine and set them on top of the water in the fish pond. They last for a few days like that and look very pretty.

I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July holiday and are well rested and still have all their limbs, fingers, and toes. Happy gardening!

the day after 4th of July

You'd think that after having a long weekend, one wouldn't need an extra day to recover, but we do. So today is catch up day. Time to relax, get some housework, and yardwork, done, spend some quality time with the dog and cats, and work on some homework. Only 2 more weeks and I am a graduate! YES! Which leaves me more time to work on the garden. I am ready to go!

If you are lucky enough to get one, enjoy your extra day off!

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.