Moses

Moses has been growing by leaps and bounds lately, and I'm not talking physically. He has overcome his fear of the kitchen (go figure, since there is food there) and all the noises that go along with it. He has become comfortable enough around us that he sometimes gets underfoot and we end up stepping on him. (quite by accident of course!) He loves to sit in the front yard under the trees and tall shrubs and look for lizards. He even came across a frog one day. He saw it hop away and I told him "you probably shouldn't lick that" and sure enough as soon as I said that, he pulled back and shook his head, like 'that tastes awful!'

another way I know he's comfortable here is by how he relaxes around us. I don't think he has any bones. 

He's over a year old now and we've had him for 10 months. He is my little boy, my cute little orange kitten!

summer harvest is over

yep, all the tomatoes we had are done growing, the watermelons have died off, the corn was eaten by something but us, and our basil is on its way back. (I ate a lot of that. good stuff!) so now we are going to till up the beds we have left and get ready for planting our fall harvest. We'll keep one box for herbs, Nate has his beans growing, and we are going to make some covers for the boxes as the kittens have been having fun wreaking havoc in the garden beds, so we are trying to come up with a way to keep them out of there, as opposed to keeping them in the house all day.

this is a mouse from months ago. the rat she caught was twice the size of this rodent. 

speaking of being in the house, we came home today to a dead rat in the living room. yeah. kinda yucky since it was missing half of its head. that we found down the hall. At least they are helping keep the yard rodent free. fierce kittens we have.

Orlandoweekly.com - NEWS+FEATURES: Clucking around

Our local indie paper recently published an article about some rogue residents of Orlando keeping chickens in their backyard. Chickens, mind you, not roosters. Neither one is legal in the city, and the city of St. Cloud, cow town as it has been called, has actually voted to keep a ban in place from 1989 which makes chicken keeping illegal. We have some neighbors that have roosters in their yards as I hear them crowing in the morning. It makes me no never mind, I think it's great, and kind of funny too. But unfortunately there are some stuck up types around that don't think chickens should be kept as pets. This article talks a little differently about that. I think it's time we revisit chicken keeping also. 

Orlandoweekly.com - NEWS+FEATURES: Clucking around

Wolfie

she looks so serious here

rosemary

we have lots of rosemary growing. I say lots, but it's not like it's taking over our whole yard or anything, but I think for us, it's a lot. I'm not exactly sure what to use it for. It's very aromatic, it looks like a small pine tree to me. I understand it goes in many Mediterranean dishes. I'm not one for lamb or pork, so that doesn't suit me. I thought maybe I could use it as an air freshener of some kind, but in reading over what I've found, I think not. Rosemary has a history of being used in wedding ceremonies and in love potions. It's a strong herb, so it may have been used in wedding ceremonies hundreds of years ago as something more pleasingly aromatic than the people getting married. And I mean that in a good way. Nevertheless, I shall find something good to come out of this, if only to use it as an herb in Nate's bathroom after he's been 'reading' in there for awhile. 

we have another watermelon!

I just noticed this little guy the other day. yay! I am happily surprised that they are doing so well. The other one that resembles the shape of a squash, is still there and growing too. I'm keeping an eye on them both.

Finally RAIN!

Yay! we finally had some big rain today! When I first moved here to Florida, I had never seen such big rain! It seems to take up the whole sky when it rains here! and it's not like a little drizzle for days either. It rains A LOT in a relatively short amount of time, and then it's gone. The thunder and lightning sure make for a big show and can be very scary sometimes. The yard and the plants are very grateful for the rain. As am I. It helps to cool us all down, which we desperately need. It was in the 90's again today. The white tent looking thing in the garden has sweet potatoes growing in it. Nate decided he had had enough with all the damn bugs and made a cover for one of our planters, and they look pretty good in there. They are coming along nicely and don't look burnt or have leaves full of holes. that's one thing about Florida, too many weird funky damn bugs and not enough cold to kill them off. 

rain, rain, where is the rain?

This is usually our rainy season, through most of the summer, notwithstanding hurricane season. We have not had much rain at all this month, maybe 2 days worth which is very unusual. This can create many problems.

1. We need rain for our garden. (duh)
2. The rain helps to cool the outside temperature. It has been in the 90's, with the heat index of 100's lately. we need the rain for cooling purposes. 
3. The rain helps to stave off brush fires. If we don't get some rain soon, there is a threat of fires. We had a big run in with this about 10 years ago. We didn't get any rain through all of July, and not until August sometime. It caused quite a bit of problems. 

Now needless to say, we don't want so much rain that it floods, or that we get rain from hurricanes, but some rain would be nice. I am hoping the rain gods are listening. 

Full Moon planting

I've known for some time that the moon affects the earth as well as our bodies. Since we've just had a full moon, I thought I'd check out what this is all about. I found 2 books that have all sorts of information on the moon phases and what they mean as far as when to plant. 

I've never heard of this one, but it includes all kinds of information on gardening, the weather, and moon phases. The almanac for all seasons, they say. The website is very simple, and there's no way to order online. We have to go old school and send a check! I wonder if I still have some....

The Farmers Almanac I remember from back in the day. My dad had a copy of this every year. There's information on astronomy, astrology, gardening, husbandry (no, not that kind), even sports. To think, they were talking about astronomy and astrology back in 1792! I think that's kind of cool. We're all connected you know, and the more we know, the better off we will all be. I think I'll get one of each almanac for Nate. Well, for both of us really. I always liked reading the farmers almanac. Such interesting stuff!

sorry looking corn

I don't know what happened to the corn, but it looks pretty sorry. I'm not sure if it's the heat, the soil, or bugs, or a combination of all 3, but they didn't even come close. Nate is sorely disappointed. He was looking forward to corn, as he likes it so much. I take consolation in the fact that we got so many tomatoes.

I keep telling him it's our first garden, and we really did plant too late in the season, so we should be happy with what we got. I'm excited about the fall vegetables! I'm not used to having a garden in the fall. In Ohio, by now, the plants have gone through their life cycle and we are preparing to till up the garden to put it to bed for the winter.

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.

the FINAL final

I took my Major Field Test in Business this evening. I printed out the results. Come to find out...

I'm average.

My delusions of grandeur are officially squashed.

I'll sleep better tonight without the pressure.