WOW... May is nearly over

Here it is the 26th of May already... POOF and it will be gone. I guess I need to catch up on here again. So much for daily blogging like I used to... really need to get back on the stick.

Ok where to start? I find if I check my camera I will find the prompts I need to write about every time. So lets go...

May 7th we were wrapping things up and I took a few photos to remember the work we had gotten done and to share that Greg has taken an interest in gardening and has planted nearly the entire garden in vegetables. So far he has peanuts and watermelon growing out there. I really miss the garden so very much. Now that I am home full time once again I could be out there every morning. AH well life has taken us on another path for now. Hopefully one day we will have a new home and a new garden to work.

 Of course Bernadette was happy we had come down. Amelia and Bernadette always love a freshly mowed lawn.

Totally Random here... I found a punk wig for Greg's mannequin at a thrift store so she is no longer bald... for less than $2 .

On May 10th Scott and I took a walk along a portion of the Swamp Rabbit Trail in Travelers Rest. It is a GORGEOUS walkway and could easily be our replacement for our beloved Cayce Riverwalk up here. I am really hoping we can find a new home in Travelers Rest as it is so beautiful up there and that is where Scott father grew up. It holds a lot of special memories for Scott. The Real Estate is quite expensive up there though so we will see if we can fins something that we can afford that fits our needs/wants.

 A ghost bike to remind people to watch for Cyclist.

 Scott noticed this carving in the rock from 1935. Most of it was unreadable from weather ware.

 Flowers from the wildflower garden along the walkway, Dianthus and daisy's both begin with "D".

May 11th - was our 32nd Wedding Anniversary and Scott surprised me with a dozen red roses.

Tippy just "chillin~" with Mom... he is quite the spoiled little wretch.

I guess I will close this post here as it is already quite photo heavy and I know that some folks have a hard time with lots of photos loading. I will write another post to finish out May next week. I hope everyone is having a lovely Spring on this side of the World and settling into Fall on the other. 

Take care and love each other always.

2011 Fall Garden Planning

Our garden has pretty much FRIED in the sun the past few weeks so our focus has turned to a Fall garden and I've visited the Clemson Extension site for planting guidelines for Central South Carolina. This is what I found out for July-August
July 10-20th - Tomatoes
July 15-20th - Beans/Pole Lima
July 15 - 25th - Peppers
July 15-30th - Potatoes, Irish
July 15th - August 15th - Collards
July 20th- 30th - Beans - Pole and Lima
July 20th - August 15th - Broccoli
July 25th - August 10th - Cabbage, Cauliflower and Rutabaga's

August 1 - 10th - Cucumbers
August 1 - 15th - Squash, Summer; carrots and Brussel Sprouts
August 1-20th - Beets
August 5th - 20th - Beans, Snap and Beans, half runner August 15th - 25th - Lettuce
August 15th - Sept. 15th - Kale
August 15 - Oct. 1 - Mustard
August 1 - Oct. 1 - Turnips

So as you can see we still have quite a bit we can plant yet and then there is September...
Sept. 1 - Oct. 25th - Radish
Sept. 15th - 20th - Onion, seeds
Sept 15th - Oct. 20th - Spinach
Sept. 15th - Nov. 15th - onion, sets
Sept. 15th - Nov. 15th - Garlic

If you live in another part of the state you should visit the Clemson Extension website to see what you can plant this Fall. HAPPY GARDENING!

A walk in the Garden and A peek into my sewing room....

First lets walk out and see whats going on in our garden...

Volunteer Butternut Squash - FIVE in just this shot and there are more on the vines.

Zinnia's exploding from the sides of the tomato plant; or so it appears that way.

Pinto and Red Dragon's Tongue Beans - Growing nicely

Volunteer - watermelon OR Cantaloupe - not sure yet

This Sunflower just goes and goes... look at all the buds still to open.

A couple Happy Dog pictures.....

Bernadette

Amelia

And now for what I'm working on in my sewing room....

I'm trying to decide which fabric to use as a border; this will be a table topper. I may do a narrow border of the dark brown and then another 3 to 4 inch border in the light color... decisions decisions... input welcome.

My Vegetable Garden and Dual Dog Walking

OK so the first picture you come to is NOT part of the Vegetable garden but it IS a really COOL mushroom that came up in our back yard. I don't know a thing about identifying edible mushrooms so this one will remaining in the yard to feed the bugs that enjoy it. It's nearly as big as a salad plate.

This next picture is of the little green beans that have sprouted in the garden. I actually planted two rows; one on either side of a row of tomato cages. I am truly hoping to have enough to put some in the freezer for later.

Next up is some amazing yellow squash blooms. I picked our first yellow squash yesterday and it will be part of a stir fry for tonights dinner. I also picked enough salad greens for Scott and I each to have a nice dinner salad for lunch. I even had a small tomato from the garden to slice up and add on top.

The Dragon's Tongue beans have sprouted and are looking quite healthy.

And the Pinto beans have also sprouted and are growing well. I wish that it would rain so that I didn't have to water the garden so much as it will make for a rather high water bill and with Scott unemployed again that could get tricky.

All in all the garden is coming along nicely. We still have one walkway to clean out and mulch with something - I wish we had some more rolled roofing or some shingles that we could lay down to keep the weeds at bay.

The large vine in the raised bed closest to the front of the next photo is the volunteer Butternut Squash and we are going to just let it run where ever it wants to go and mow around anything that comes out into the yard. It all ready has quite a few squash on the vine. It's our favorite squash so we are thrilled to pieces. And there is a TON of mustard greens that came up on their own out there that I plan to just let grow. When I first moved South in 1982 the only "green" I'd ever eaten was Spinach and it took me awhile to learn to enjoy the greens they cook down here but now I LOVE Collards, turnip and mustard greens.

You can't really tell in the pictures but we have two electric wires that run around the vegetable garden to keep the dogs out; ok... Amelia out when she was a puppy as she could empty a raised bed in mere minutes and is still a digger. The new addition (Bernadette) just acts like they are nothing and we truly believe she has springs as she can be in the garden before we even see her approach. When we fuss at her she looks so hurt and dejected... melts my heart. Can you tell Bernadette is well on her way to being a spoiled little wretch?

Here is Scott at the beginning of our walk. I took Bernadette from him as walking her is liking walking a Treble on crack and she wretches his back. She'll get used to the lead eventually; we can tell she hasn't been walked much as she also wants to jump on people we pass. Amelia was just ecstatic to be walking by the river with her "pack". Once I took Bernadette there was no taking pictures as she just wouldn't be still enough for me to focus on anything. Perhaps next time.

Surviving!

My head still feels yucky and if I'm still feeling bad by tonight I will go to the Dr tomorrow morning before I have to be to work. I'm thinking that I could be developing a sinus infection.

I'm so ready for Friday to get here.... and thankful that I will also have Sunday off this week.

Greg passed his first block test on the latest portion of his Utiliesman training. He has 16 days left to "A" school and then he will get to come home. I am so looking forward to seeing him again. I've missed him so much. He keeps talking about all the places he wants to go with us and where he wants to go out to eat when he gets home. LOL! He is just doing so well and we are so proud of him.

Last night when I got home from work Scott was out walking Amelia and I called to find out where they were so that I could walk to meet them. We met up down by the power line right away behind our house they were coming down from the community pool and I up toward it. As we walked together a gust of wind blew a cloud of pollen right into our faces. It's definitely Spring here now.... UGH pollen! No wonder our heads are all stopped up. After we got back to the house we washed our faces and hands to remove some of the pollen that had rained down upon us and went to the grocery store for dog food and odds and ends - $70 later we came home and cooked a dinner together - pork chops, steamed broccoli and cauliflower and some refried rice with onion and bell pepper. YUM! We had enough leftovers for lunches today... yeah no junk for me or Scott!

Scott cleaned out the largest of the raised beds in the garden and he plans to plant out the potatoes that have sprouted here in the house. We also bought some "fresh" seeds - peas, spinach, squash, peppers, okra and a spicy mesculen mix. Perhaps Sunday we will be able to build a couple new raised beds to replace the ones that have broken down.

I bought Greg a book called Dr BBQ's All Year Long Cookbook - by Ray Lampe. It has some absolutely delicious sounding recipes in it and since he loves to cook on the grill I thought it would make a wonderful welcome home gift. I'm thinking about putting together a whole gift basket of things for him to enjoy once he is home again.

My Mom called to say she has been laid off too. It seems to be going around these days - lay offs.