My Poor Garden

As you will shortly see, the following pictures will show how badly my gardening experience is going up here.  I'm not even counting the fact that my dad is pulling the biggest, ripest, most successful crop of tomatoes he's had in history!  I've hardly just put mine in the ground.  But it doesn't matter.

The wind, the dog, the cat, the wind...they are all my enemies when it comes to my garden.



I have planted a few Lantana plants and so far two out of three are hanging on.

Hardly hanging in there.

Here's my hope.  I'm hoping it has a will to live.

 Here's an example one of my enemies.  The wind...it blows much.  It blows hard.  It blows nonstop!  As a matter of fact, I can hear it slamming against my window right now as I am writing.  It blows stinging sand at your feet and grit in your mouth. 

It kills my pepper plants.

 It kills my tomato plants.

 My one tomato plant that may have a chance.  That is if I can keep the dang Cat from thinking the garden is a litter box.  Hence the pine cones.  A woman told me it helps to keep the cats out.  I also sprinkled Tabasco sauce all over the garden which seemed to help but when I water or it rains, it goes away.  Sigh!

 This is one of my tomato plants that did not survive the wind.  I planted a few in different places just in case they didn't like where they were.  This one was in a container.  First one to die.

Morning glory I think.  I had a ton of it come up last year except I didn't know what it was so I kept pulling it up thinking it was a weed (which I guess it could technically be considered that because apparently NOTHING kills it).  So it's either Morning glory or a weed.  It's pretty much the only thing I can grow so I hate to pull it up.

 This is one of my bigger problems.  This was actually one of the pepper plants that was withstanding the wind.  Maybe it's because it has so many holes, the wind blows through the leaves instead of whipping them around.

Aha!  This may be one of my biggest problems!  GRASSHOPPERS!!!!  Last year they stripped everything.  Even our bushes.  And they just continue to get bigger and eat more.

 And then there's this matter.  Dang Cat!!!  Doesn't matter how many times I swat him with my flip flop he has no respect for my boundaries!!!

Or this guys boundaries!!!!

As you can see, our grass has no problem growing.  Much to the boy's dismay!!  Heehee!

Lotza Meatza and Incredibly Sweet Moments

So along with the crazy, busy-ness of the end of the school year crud going on...I have volunteered to cook 60 lbs of brisket this weekend for the upcoming Band Banquet.  I actually didn't volunteer to cook 60 lbs.  I thought it would be like 20 to 40 lbs.  That is all I have to say about that! 

I celebrated Mother's Day with all four of my babies and my sweet husband.  It was nearly perfect.  I missed my own mother terribly.  It was compounded by the fact that my siblings and grandmother got  together to celebrate the incredible job (if I do say so myself) that my mother (and father) did and to appreciate the fact that we (and she) survived four teenagers (which I can say I appreciate more so now that I currently HAVE four teenagers) without me. 

I am homesick now more than I've ever been.

I'm very excited about my daughter coming home from college for the summer.  She will be here while she goes next semester also.  My heart sings!   I get her a little longer...

I just fussed at my son (who has Dyslexia) to "put the book away and finish it tomorrow--I'm not kidding Mister"!!!  He argued that he was not at a stopping point and had only 10 pages to go and can we please get the second book because he is going to be done with this one?  I fussed a little more at him and told him to finish it tomorrow---LAST WARNING!...but did so with a secret smile on my face.  I am so proud of him my heart can hardly contain it!

My youngest son begs me to take steroids (jokingly--sorta) because he hates that he is so skinny and small.  I repeatedly tell him in no time he will be taller and bigger than all of his brothers and father.  Secretly, I relish the fact that he is still my little boy for a little while longer.

So I'm off to sleep so I can dream about marinating slabs of beef while my open window allows a cool, soft breeze to fill my room with the smell of outside.  The crickets are softly sing me to sleep... 

And I love living in the country.