Wow - i can again access my blog

Well folks, looks like i'm back in business on this here blog. woohoo!

A lot has happened but since i didn't take notes, it may be a while before i share it all. :-)

A friend stopped by about two weeks ago with a gift for my dogs. She has a dog who is smaller than my 60 and 80 pounders. The gift was a toy that Bella didn't like or maybe it was that she just didn't play with it. It's a rubber ball about the size of a soccer ball. Esther absolutely loves soccer balls. This one squeaks. Esther absolutely loves soft squeaky balls. This one has places where she can bite it, hold on, run with it and shake it. I had no idea how she'd respond to that aspect of it. I gave it to her and she LOVED it. :-) Still does.

I then had to I run off to Bible study.

When i came home, i was happily stunned to see that not only did Esther LOVE the new toy, but Buddy was playing with it just as vigorously has Esther had been. I hadn't found a long lasting dog toy that Buddy liked. I've had Buddy for three years. You'd think i'd have found something that lasts more than a day that he liked to play with, but noooo. I was ecstatic. I think i was happier than Buddy was.

The end (of my blog) may be coming

K, I've been told that this week is when they will be tightening the network security at work. So if you don't hear from me except on weekends, please don't be surprised. Of course, how consistent have I been so far with my updates???

end of my blog? I hope not...

I've been informed that changes are coming to my workplace. They are going to be locking down the network even more. I'm not surprised at all. Well, that's not entirely true. I'm surprised it took them this long. Anyway, there is a good chance that i won't be able to update my blog as often. Yes, it's true, my current work is such that i really do have enough free time here to occasionally update my blog. I'll try to keep you posted as to when this fateful day will happen.

Corn, frost, the end of the garden mostly

This is the first cob of corn i picked from my garden. I picked it last Saturday. The edible portion was just shy of four inches long. But it was fun to eat it knowing it came from my garden. Especially since i'd heard i probably wouldn't get any at all. I've picked about twelve cobs so far. All of them smaller than this one, but oh so cute!

Monday i pulled up all of the warm weather plants - tomatoes (no! say it isn't so!), peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, beans, and watermelon (only had flowers, not even the tiniest melon). The tomatoes plants are in the garage. I'm hoping to get a few more ripe or at least pink tomatoes from them. We'll see. That leaves the corn, leeks, kohlrabi, beets and lettuce. For the most part, the gardening season at my home is over. so sad. :-)

The reason i pulled up the plants is because there was a prediction of a hard freeze for this week. It hit Wednesday night. What is a hard freeze? Thirty-two degrees. Ouch. I woke up Thursday morning to frost on the grass. Keep in mind, i didn't go outside til about 9:30am and there was still frost on the grass!

Ever kissed a llama?

I went to a friend's farm for the first time a few weeks ago to pick up some eggs. I knew she had llamas. I didn't know about Carlton. Carlton is a pack llama. He's big. He's sturdy. He doesn't have as nice of hair as the "fiber" llamas. Dale warned me that Carlton tends to be a bit pushy. I walked up to the fence and suddenly had a llama in my face - LITERALLY. :-) He also wasn't too happy about me scratching Mutt's nose. Carlton would move his very long body between me and Mutt whenever i reached through to scratch Mutt's nose. By the way, Mutt is a sheep. There's another sheep there named Jeff. I didn't meet him. I could only view him from afar. Seems he's not as partial to having his nose scratched as Mutt is.

I have a green pepper!!!

I have a green pepper! It's smaller than my thumb, but who's counting? Well, it might be the size of my thumb by tomorrow. I'll have to check. :-)

My garden is doing really well

My garden is doing really well considering that it's a not a very good year for growing vegetables. We have had a very cool summer. July was the coldest July on record for this area. In spite of that i had a lot of cucumbers and green beans. I had a few zucchini. In fact, i was surprised at how few i had. The corn, which i didn't expect to get anything from has six ears on it, out of twenty-five stalks that's not bad, imho. The tomatoes didn't start to turn color til August. That is totally unheard of; they should have been red or yellow in July. The peppers have failed to produce. I think it's because the tomatoes are literally over-shadowing them. The kohlrabi is doing well. I haven't picked the leeks yet. I'm hoping they will bulk up. And the watermelon. Well, yeah. I have flowers. I actually expected even less from the watermelon than i did the corn and so I'm not surprised that all i have is flowers.

My lettuce was super. No, this picture isn't of lettuce. I forgot to take a picture of it. This is my corn starting to tassel.

I planted way too many lettuce seeds in two window boxes that i put up on a plant stand on the east side of my front porch. I had purchased a mesclun mix, so i grew lots of different colors and styles. I had to remember to water them frequently. I also had to thin them which i really didn't want to do because they looked so pretty. One of the lettuces tastes a bit like pork to me. Tho I'd been told it is in the horseradish family. I want to know which one it is, so i can grow more of it next year.

Esther likes both cucumbers and green beans. She found a way into the garden even tho i have a very flimsy fence around it. I've really enjoyed letting the dogs run in the backyard first thing while i check out the garden and pick some green beans or a cuke. Then on our walk I'll give Esther the green beans or part of the cuke as her treat for sitting at the corners before we cross.

The first time she found her way in the garden i had been running between the garage and the front of the house. When i came back into the backyard there was Esther standing in the middle of the garden with a small cucumber in her mouth. I was so angry i didn't even think to take a picture til later and by then it was too late, the adorable moment had passed. I should have known that Esther would find another opportunity to get in the garden when i had my back turned. In this picture she is in the corner where the kohlrabi are. She hasn't tried a kohlrabi yet, tho i suspect she'll like them because she really likes broccoli. No, no broccoli in the garden this year. She's actually trying to figure out how to get out now that she's been caught in the act. This time i had to open the fence for her to get out. :-)