Gardening

Gardening has become such a good thing in my life.  I have always loved digging in the dirt, from the early days of mud pies.  I have always, in the spring, loved to smell the wonderful aroma of freshly plowed or dug dirt.   This flower above is "Live Forever".  When I pulled this picture up, I wondered, who's house is that?  lol  That's my new (old) house with the nice new blue trim!  I like the blue trim and I like the Live Forever! 

 

This little beauty is an annual plant.  An annual is with us just for this year.  For the summer.  This little brown eyed susan vine took off and went rampant!  It has covered the clematis and the little Olla and the shed deck!  I hope the clematis comes back next spring!  Isn't this pretty, tho, with the sun shining through the leaves and the brown-eyed blossoms looking on?

This is the "cottage garden" and that tall plant with the red flower is a hollyhock.  I knew hollyhocks as a small child.  Maybe the memories of our parents and grandparents associated with flowers and trees is what brings many people to gardens and gardening.  As a little girl, I plucked the hollyhock blossoms and buds in my grandmother's yard.  Using a bud (a flower not yet opened) for the head and a bloom for the skirt, my sisters and cousins and I made dolls of the hollyhocks, using a nail or a stick.  Come on by next summer and I'll teach you how!  Hollyhocks are bienniels.  They grow the plant one year then come back the next year to bloom.  So to get started, you need to plant hollyhock seeds two years in a row. 

Then there are trees.  I have enjoyed many trees in my time but this honeysuckle tree is my all time favorite.  I love the shape of it.  I love the blooms, in late spring, early summer with the bees thick and noisy.  I love the fact that my grandchildren can get up in that tree all by themselves (or okay, maybe with a little help from Nana).  And now I love it more with the picket fence beyond and the Nana / Papa flowerbox.  This is such a pretty setting with the God of the Garden on the left and the birdbath fountain on the right. 

Our vegetable gardens have done better this year, way better than the last several.  In the past, we have had tomato blight and hardly a tomato.  Last year we got about two peppers from several pepper plants.  This year we have 6 pepper plants and have had a bushel of peppers.  And look at the size of this one!  They are still growing and producing this 25th day of October -- a record for us.  Also, I have finally managed, in my fall garden, to grow radishes.  Himself loves, loves, loves radishes and I have not been able to grow them since we were kids in Sioux City and Hubbard.  This fall, I started planting a few every 2 or 3 weeks and we are finally harvesting some.  I and Audri are still eating cherry tomatoes and there are big, regular tomatoes starting to ripen.  There are two volunteer cucumber vines I am babying and potatoes in the compost pile.

There!  that is far more than you needed and wanted to hear about my summer and fall gardens.  If you have read to this point, you have won a prize!  Comment and I'll send you your winnings!  love, Ma



Birthday

Himself had a good 63rd birthday because I (the otherside) did not stop at a Garage Sale or Consignment Shop in honor of his birthday.  That was my present to Him and he liked it!  No card, no present, no stopping and/or buying at garage sales.  Happy Birthday!  Happy Birthday, Himself! 

and Many More!  Audri and Bella are taking cover!  They are taking cover while you huff and puff!

Heat Pump Saga

For the last several years, our heat pump has had an intermittent problem.  Ask any Quality Control inspector or  plumber or electrician and they will tell you an intermittent problem is the worst kind.  The hardest to solve!  So these last few years, Himself stewed and worried.  He checked and trouble shooted (trouble shot?).  He called this plumber.  He called that one.  He got up in the night to switch to back-up heat if the heat pump shut off.  We didn't want to give up on our heat pump because when it is running, it saves us a bunch of money. Also, it was one of the very first geo thermal units in Creston.  

Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, who built this house, had the heat pump installed by Franklin Kinkade, a pioneer in this area in geo thermal.  There are pipes that go 700 feet in the ground -- down and around -- three separate pipe systems filled with an anti-freeze solution.  As the solution of chemicals and air circulates through the ground it cools off or heats up, depending on the season.  The solution in the pipes is brought in and the heat or the coolness from the ground is "exchanged" into the house -- it either warms up in the winter or cools off in the  summer.  

In the summer it takes hot air out of the house and puts it into the ground.  In the winter, it takes the warm temperature out of the ground and brings it into the house. 

Our electric bill in the early years rarely (very very) rarely went over $100/mo.  Of course rates went up and the heat pump began to fail and the bills increased.  Sometimes the heat pump worked and sometimes it didn't.  Some nights it didn't!  There were days when Himself was sleep deprived.  It was time to do something. 

It was time for action and we called up Franklin Kinkade.  Yes, he is still around but as he is retired, we called up the guy that took over for Franklin, we called in Matt Wood and his 2 cronies, Michael Haag from Orient and Rich Egan from Creston.  (As chance would have it, Kristy and Erica went to school with Matt and Johanna went to early elementary with Michael and high school with Rich.) 

Anyway, as in a screen play, stage right.  "Enter the Plumbers". 

They came in on Monday and began demolition.  Somtimes there were two plumbers, sometimes three. 

The took out duct work and removed the old unit. 

Demolition continues!  What!  There's a hole in my ceiling?

Out with the old!  In with the New!

That trailer was full by the time they had pulled all the old duct work and the heat exchanger.  And here's the new unit, still wrapped in plastic, with the two wheel cart, above.  It took 4 strong men to push that baby up three flights of stair, each flight a little bit steeper.  But they gotter done! 

These little babies gave us all a bit of a fit.  The installation was done.  The shiny new ducts were in place.  The heat exchanger had been bullied up the stairs.  The wiring done.  The guys were gone home.  Oops!  Himself went to put the closet doors back on and these babies were HOT!  Too hot for their own good!  So here came Matt and Rich back for another 2 or 3 hours.  It got on nigh to 8:30.  After deep thought and speculation amongst the men and Himself, after an evaluation of the big bang theory and a debate about evolution vs the Bible, after trial and error, they rewired the pumps.  

They rewired the pumps and the heat pump came on, the motors purred and stayed cool and the house started warming.  Problem solved!  New Heat Pump installed!  Success!  And it has purred like a kitten for a full week!  Praise the Lord!  Himself can sleep in peace. 

And they put the Heat Pump and equipment back in an orderly fashion and vacuumed and swept and cleaned the bath tub!  And ran.  They ran like the wind and vowed not to stop down at the corner but to put as much space between Himself and themselves and possible!

What gentlemenly plumbers!  I wanted to adopt all three!  or marry them off to a daughter!  lol

PS:  the bill came today.  Whew, it wasn't as bad as we had thought.  And the rebates and tax breaks are going to make it cost effective.  And Himself can sleep in peace.  Amen. 

HOLY COW

Found this observation and "math" in the internet on my of my favorite blogs . . .

On average I cook dinner 6 days a week. Sometimes I even cook on vacation - now that's crazy!52 weeks x






40 years


equals ------ HOLY COW, that's 12,480 meals. 

I guess I've cooked a good HALF of these meals . . . but between Himself and I, we have cooked that many.  My Mama, before the days of restaurants and fast food places, cooked 3 squares a day, 7 days a week.  Okay, maybe every week or two they went somewhere for Sunday dinner but even then, my mother probably took a cake or a "covered dish". 

I've been married 40 years. 

Himself has been married 40 years. 

That's a whole bunch of meals!

October

I love this weather!  Cool nights and warm days in the 70s and even the 80s.  We had a cool spell where it was only getting up to about 60 degrees and I didn't enjoy that nearly as much as they warmer days.  Himself loves, loves, LOVES October and November and all fall weather!  It gets down to 65 degrees and I'm putting a sweatshirt on my arms.  I can wear shorts and sandels and no socks . . . but I have to keep my arms warm.  Himself doesn't need a jacket or sweatshirt until it is more like in the 55 degree range. 

This is last year, 2009.  October 23, 2009.

Wasn't it pretty? 

This year, we nowhere have this much color yet.

Last  year, Des Moines had snow on October 6 or 8 or somewhere in there, I heard on the radio.  This year, I still have cucumber vines, green peppers, tomatoes and even a few radishes, growing in the garden.  I am planning and thinking -- studying on how to build little A-frame greenhouses around these last vegetables so as to get the fruit to maturity.  I have an abundance of old windows to use now that Himself and Dana and Nick replaced each and every window in our house.  Maybe this weather will hold another month and I won't have to resort to little greenhouses?

I love the internet!  Have an idea and "google" it or use your favorite search engine, and whatever you are imagining, is already in the internet!  Well, maybe not exactly, because I was thinking about little A-Frame greenhouses and I didn't find a picture of one of those but maybe I just didn't search by the right word.  Anyway, look at these little greenhouses all made out of used, wooden windows. 

These three photographs respectfully "borrowed" from the internet but not for profit or gain. 



A Mother's Day poem

Thank you! 

 I think it has the cadence of a

Robert Lewis Stevenson poem! 

Ode to Snow

A love letter

                                                                               Love, from Maddie