Glad That's Over With!

I'm not a big celebrator to begin with, and I'm sure not proud of the way people are being kept in confinement the border.  I watched a news clip yesterday of some of those places, and no matter how one feels about immigration, it is a disgrace to keep children and adults confined in such horrible conditions.  I felt sadness at the holiday knowing how brutally the country can treat immigrant children - it's certainly nothing to be proud of.

I can't say I like fireworks, but they are a given at certain times of the year.  I was surprised that Rocky didn't seem to be as bothered  as some dogs are.  He was curious, obviously didn't like the noise, confused, and just wanted it to be done with.

I am thrilled every time I look at my garden and see the number of squash blossoms.  Even one of the zuchini plants  has a blossom this morning.  I've been watching youtube videos showing innovative ways to cook squash.

 And of course the tomatoes:

I've tried to grow basic herbs from seed at least twice this summer - basil, sage, and parsley.  I've never had anything even sprout, so I think I will just buy some herbs at the grocery and try to root them myself.  I am probably not patient enough as I understand that herb seeds take a long time to sprout.

We are in for a heat wave over the coming days and weeks.  This is the worst of living in Sacramento, when most of the grass turns a golden brown (thus the name "The Golden State") and the heat is so intense it becomes difficult to breathe.  Even Rocky doesn't want to go outside for more than a few minutes at a time.

I'd better get on with my day.  I hope you all have a good day today and a great weekend coming up.

My garden in the morning

I took some photos this morning.  The sun was behind me and I apologize for any shadows.

I took photos of my tomato plants, yellow squash, and zucchini.  I am terribly impatient to see some fruit on the latter two, and for the tomatos to turn red.  I'm hoping to get the rest of the plots rototilled and want to start a fall garden next month.  Click on photos to enlarge them.

Tomatos, a row of yellow squash, and a row of zuchinni:

 Squash:

And the zuchinni:

I realize that every time I  type the word "zuchinni" I spell it differently.  I really should look it up :-)

I planted a few other types of seeds but this is what came up, which is why I'd like to start a fall garden next month while hopefully harvesting the tomatos and squash.  Other rows in the garden contain plants I removed from the main row while thinning them; some of them transplanted well are are growing quickly, whereas others look puny. 

I hope I don't bore you too much with my garden and my dog, but those are the two things that bring me joy.  At least the dog brings me joy when he isn't invading my garden.  I've tried spreading some eggshells and coffee grounds around a couple of plants to see how it affects them, and I catch Rocky  eating the shells and the coffee grounds!

All of my adult life I've loved having house plants, but couldn't really deal with them when I lived and traveled in an RV,  I bought two plants as I mentioned in a previous post, and have been wanting to get a few more.  I think to avoid the hot California sun, many buildings are placed so as to not get the full sun shining in most of the doors and windows - at least my mobile home was placed that way, and I notice my new place doesn't get a big blast of sunlight.  Maybe the experienced gardeners out there could tell me if it's hopeless to nurture plants that need "full sun", or if they will grow in a well lit room but with no direct rays of sunlight.

I'm having a lazy morning - at 10am I'm still in pj's!  There is so much I should be doing, but it will wait.

I've rambled on long enough so I will wish you all a good day wherever you are.  See you again soon.  

Tomorrow is July!

It's hard to believe that half the year is over.  We've had some very nice weather lately, but it's sure to get hotter and more uncomfortable.

Jeannie and I shopped at Target and Costco yesterday, and of course I always bring a treat or two home for Rocky.  He's so good about going into his crate when I leave, which I don't do very often, but he seems to be maturing a lot lately.  Here are a couple of photos of Rocky with his new basketball (small size, as you can see).  Now I need a hoop, and might just get one soon so when the kids come over they can play  basketball with him.

I think maybe he is trying to play soccer with the ball. 

My garden is coming along nicely, but I'm impatient and want to see some squash and zucchini on the plants!  I picked several cherry tomatos and a couple of regular sized ones yesterday, and they are so tasty.

I've decided to turn on the a/c now (at 12:30pm).  I really can do without it except for a few hours in late afternoon, but I may as well get it going and cooled down rather than have it use the electricity to cool a very warm house.

See you later, and  have a good week ahead.

Yard clean-up day

Since we can call the city where I live and request a special trash pickup, my daughter arranged for a pick up today of yard waste - the former tenants left a huge bin of tree limbs and pieces of wood, plus they had stacked various wood along  the fence line.  The landlady and her brother came over with Donald, and the three of them took all that junk out to the street and piled it neatly for pickup tomorrow.  It is a huge pile!  After a couple of hours' work, Carmen and her brother left, and Donald started trimming the big apple tree in the back corner.  It looks so much better now - I picked up a lot of the small green apples to put in the trash, but the yard still has a lot of them plus there are probably hundreds of them on the tree ready to fall.  I've already picked up several garbage bags full of apples and set them out for pickup every week.

I showed Carmen the boards in the fence that are loose where Rocky can breach it to go visiting, and she said she had planned to replace the fence on that side of the lot, which will be a relief.

I think she was very impressed with my garden.  It does look good, if I do say so myself.  It wears me out just maintaining and watering it, and I sure hope I get a decent amount of vegetables.  I know there are things I would do differently if I was planting today, but this is a trial and error learning experience for me.  I hope I have the stamina to do it bigger and better next year, plus I have planting fall crops to look forward to.

Ara is back home in Missouri and has been sending me photos of her garden that she is working on.  I bought so many heirloom and organic seeds this year and shared a lot of them with her.  Hopefully, we can collect seeds at the end of the growing season and save them over te winter until planting next spring.

The weather wasn't as hot today, and I think it might be even a bit cooler tomorrow.  I didn't need to turn on the air until after 1pm.  I think I mentioned in a previous post that I don't need to leave the a/c on constantly.  There is absolutely no humidity here, or very little of it, and it gets chilly overnight and stays cool until Noon on most days.  Of all of California I think I'd rather live in Sacramento than any other area of the state.   

Rocky is wanting to go out so I'll just say bye for today.

Looks more like "home" now

Jeannie spent the day with me yesterday, and first took me to Home Depot's garden department.  I bought two hanging plants for the living room.  The woman at the register told me I shouldn't transplant them for 2 weeks, but to leave them in the original pots.  As you can see I put the original pots with plants, right into the pots that I bought for them and will replant them in 2 weeks.  This shows one of the pots as well as the photos over the mantle.  Having pictures up makes it finally look like home.  Incidentally, where the dog's crate is in the corner of the living room, is where the recliner will go.  It matches the couch, and I sure wish I didn't have to keep it covered but it's a favorite napping place for Rocky!  (Not sure when the recliner will be delivered but Beck's Furniture assures me it won't be long now.)  (Click on a photo to enlarge it.)

 This is my dining table with a beautiful cross stitch over it.  The cross stitch was done by my daughter-in-law, Sandy, from New York.  She also makes the best fried rice, ever!

I am having difficulties with posting photos, so I think I will stop for now and go ahead and publish what I've already written.  Maybe by tomorrow I can figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I wish everyone a good week ahead.

Turned Over a New Leaf!

That's what my dog has done.  Is he finally maturing a little?  I love it now when he comes as soon as I call, no matter what he is doing.  His behavior has improved so much in such a short time and I'm not certain what happened!  It is a welcome change.

Today was beautiful here, and I didn't even turn the a/c on although I run the ceiling fan in the living room.  There was about a half hour when it became a little warm, but it was late in the afternoon and I know the temperature goes down as soon as the sun starts to drop.  

I was having some dizzy spells and when I mentioned it to my daughter she reminded me that the cardiologist told me to drink more water the last time it happened.  I didn't even remember that I have had these episodes before, and the extra water I drank today helped greatly.   I have about 5 thermos bottles of cold water in the fridge, and always have one of them out that I'm drinking from, but I guess I'm not getting enough.   

My garden looks better every day, and tomorrow I'm going to thin the row of zuchini plants, hoping I can transplant them to a new row.  It may or may not work, but the plants are really looking healthy now.  I need to try to remember to save eggshells and spread them around the plants.   There are so many things I would love to do with the yard, garden, etc., but I just don't have the energy.  The yard itself is in terrible shape and I can't do much to improve it on my own.  I need to have a gardener come in and get it started, but I have to remind myself that I'm renting and don't own the place.  There are some loose fence boards that I was thinking I should replace, but then I remembered - hey, that is the landlady's responsibility.   I will try to maintain everything to the best of my ability, but as far as fixing things like the fence - nope.  That fence has been deteriorating for a long time, but I have to worry about Rocky wandering across when he hears kids playing. 

I sure miss my granddaughter, Ara.  She arrived safely back home yesterday.  Life is a series of "welcomings" and "see ya laters".

So that's it for tonight.  I'm going to try to turn in earlier than I usually do, as Rocky wakes me up pretty early in the morning.

The heat is getting me!

I'm not happy with the weather at all, but it could be worse.  It's so hot that Rocky doesn't even want to go outside.  We just came in from checking out the backyard, where I turned the sprinklers on.  Steve set them up yesterday and as they moved around in an arc, they kept getting Rocky and me wet!  I finally brought him indoors when he decided to make war on the sprinkler!  He is getting to be so good about coming when called - he's working hard on his behavior and I am very pleased.

My plants are looking really good, but I can't decide whether to use a trellis for the squash plants to grow vertical, or to thin out the plants and let them sprawl.

I sold my house in NC about 10 years ago and went on the road pulling a 34' trailer.  For the first two years I found volunteer jobs at various national parks, and since I have always loved visiting the national parks on my cross country trips, I have dozens of t shirts that I've accumulated.  Today I decided that enough is enough - I got all the t-shirts out and selected approximately 20+ to donate, and 10 to keep.   (That's not counting the ones that are in the laundry basket!) They filled a brown paper grocery bag!  I now want to figure out what to get rid of next - I just have too much stuff and too many clothes.  I have nothing dressy to wear if I should need it, but jeans, shorts, capris, t-shirts, etc. are filling the drawers and closets.  I've been watching some youtubes of people who decided to become minimalist, and that appeals to me because I will never go back to my former life style.  And if I need something to wear for a special occasion, I can simply go buy it.

I got rid of a lot of my possessions to be able to live in a 34' 5th wheel trailer, so I know I can survive with much less than I have right now.   I may start thinning out the kitchen utensils and items in that category that I don't use anymore.

If any readers have experience in cutting down on possessions and clothing in order to live a more minimalist lifestyle, I'd be interested in your comments and suggestions.