Welcome to skid row

Well, Shawn has discovered the joys of crafting things.  I know what you're thinking, he's starting to Bedazzle his jeans but alas, it's woodworking.  On the upside it's a fairly cheap hobby as he's picking up skids from local businesses.  Pardon me, according to Wikipedia I shouldn't be saying skid as "a skid has no bottom deck boards."  at any rate he's made some pretty nice furniture, here's the very first piece he crafted-

Hey, get back to work!

Snazzy paint job

A friend of mine needed some furniture to officially claim the back porch space at her apartment so a few pallets, old shutters, nails and screws later she had a bench and end table.  We painted it brown and added some fancy stencils in white.

How cozy!

I'm not sure what's next on the build plan, must be something cool because there's a small mountain of pallets beside the shed.  If you're interested in your very own furniture, drop Shawn a line!

Mmmm, veggies

Vegetables grow at an alarming rate - slightly over a week has passed since the previous vegetable related post and it really is a jungle out there now.  It's really amazing what a handful of seeds will turn into.

WOAH

These pictures were taken yesterday...
I'm pretty sure the pumpkins are even bigger today.

Peppers & tomato

Onions, lima beans, green beans, purple beans

Black beans, yellow beans, lettuce, more onions

  

Huzzah!

Happy Flag Day!

Did you know that PA is the first (and only) state to celebrate Flag Day as a state holiday?  Aaah any reason for the state workers to take off, we're awesome like that.  Damn, I wish I worked for the state. 

P.S.  Today is also the day the Army celebrates its birthday - happy 237th!

Do go chase some waterfalls!

Saturday I decided to take a break from the usual yard work & took a road trip to Ricketts Glen. The 2.5 hour drive was well worth it to take in some of nature at its finest.  What's really amazing is it started to rain when I made it to the parking lot near the Falls Trail - but once you enter the forest little to no rain makes it to you.  The trees are so big and old they make a fantastic natural umbrella.  I didn't make it the whole 7 mile loop to see all the falls, hell I didn't even get half as far.  BUT I did get to see the main attraction - the 94' Ganoga Falls.  In a word, stunning.  I would highly recommend visiting this park right now - bring plenty of water, take your time, wear good shoes - the trail is clear but a little rough in some spots.  There is great access to the falls, lots of photo opportunities.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Welcome to the Jungle

Until now the only pictures of the 2012 veggie garden have been really lacking.  Mostly because it was so damn weedy it was hard to see where the real plants were.  Shawn and I were fortunate to have an assistant weeder/rock picker yesterday (who will be rewarded with lots of veggies come harvest time) and things are looking quite marvelous - see for yourself.

Hooray for veggies!

Sweet cherry peppers

Itty bitty sweet cherry peppers

Big guy jalapeno
Supposed to get up to 5"

Peperonici
*These are grown from seeds that I saved from last year's crop!

The seeds I saved for the sweet peppers did not germinate.
So, I bought some seeds and these guys are a bit behind.

Big Mama tomato!

Lima beans

Green beans

Purple beans
*Also grown from seeds saved from last year's crop

Black beans

Yellow beans

Mmm, lettuce

Onions
These are planted around the perimeter of the garden:
Rumor has it bunnies don't like them.

The 2 remaining eggplants

The rogue tomatoes!  I think/hope they are summer salsa - nice, meaty tomato.
If not, they are the supersteak hybrid.  Magic tomatoes that were growing amongst the onions.  Must have been from a tomato that fell on the ground last year & rotted.

Horseradish

Bucket-o-taters

TRIPLE rainbows you say?

Yesterday the weather beat the bejesus out of all the plants, luckily nothing is mortally wounded, just standing a bit crooked now.  Nothing a few supports can't fix.  I try not to whine too much about the rain anyway because the veggies sure do need the water and of course with rain showers there's always the hope of a rainbow.  Shawn pointed out a very faint but very wide rainbow, so of course I grabbed my camera.

Oh look, a rainbow nuglet!

A bit before 8:00 I looked out one of the living room windows to see what Forrest was staring at & saw another rainbow.  This one was much brighter and far more complete so I went outside to see.  Upon further investigation, I saw something I'd never seen before: a DOUBLE RAINBOW!

WHAT DOES IT MEAN???

Oh yes, full on!  Across the sky!  So intense!  It was so bright & vivid!  I almost cried like this guy but then I remembered it's science and not a unicorn peeing across the sky. 

Huzzah!

Happy Memorial Day!
Thanks to all the fine service men & women who have given their all, we all appreciate it so very much.

P.S.  Say hello to the unofficial start of summer!

Forrest is getting ready for swimsuit season

Roxxy says LET'S GO!

The life & times of Jack O. Lantern

Part of my gardening experiment this year was pumpkins.  I love Halloween & with that comes carving pumpkins.  I saved some seeds from the pumpkin I carved last year, determined to grow my own.  My micro pumpkin patch started off with a whopping three plants - two regular pumpkins and one Big Max.  You may recall Audrey III and how impressive she was looking at the beginning of the growing season.  As you may already know things have a tendency to change, and that's how it was with the great pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  Let's take a peek at the pictures, shall we?

July 11: pumpkin #1 lookin' good!

July 11: pumpkin #2 growing nicely.

July 11: all's well in the pumpkin patch.

All of July the pumpkin patch was cruising right along in the growth department.  Had some new blooms, but I picked them off so the plant would send more nutrients to the existing pumpkins.  Towards the end of the month the vines were not so fantastic looking but I wasn't worried as long as my pumpkins remained healthy.  At some point, Audrey III managed to cough up a pumpkin & I was pretty excited.

July 27: Pumpkin #1 looks excellent

July 27: Audrey III finally growing a pumpkin!
Hey, better late than never.

July 27: Pumpkin #2 looks fantastic!

Let me tell you, by the end of August I was doing a jig every time I went in the back yard.  These things went from seedlings growing in my bath tub to actual pumpkins and it just blows my mind.  It was killing me not to carve them mid-summer.  Another month zipped by - I finally moved the vines to mow underneath them because it was driving me insane.  A few leaves fell victim to the mower (oops) but even though the vines looked scraggly the pumpkins did wonderfully.  Except for Audrey III, who decided to just rot away and die, so I tossed the whole plant.  Seemed late in the season to be trying for a giant pumpkin anyway. I would also like to mention that there is nothing to prevent critters from feasting on these plants aside from a few marigolds.  They did a fine job repelling pests!

August 24: #1, the largest, is on the left. 
#2 waits patiently in the background.

#1

#2

You may recall around the time I was taking those pictures (end of August) there was a storm brewing along the East Coast.  Scratch that, Irene beat the Bejesus out of the East coast.  She gave us days, nay, weeks of rain.  Constant rain.  The ground gave up at some point and water just sat in puddles on every surface imaginable.  The grass grew like mad during all of this, and there was no way I could mow...  we just had to wait it out.  We got a brief pause in the rains - right before Irene hit our part of the coast.  A short calm before the storm.  Bad news on the pumpkin front: my beautiful pumpkins I'd spent all summer admiring had been laying in water & were starting to rot.  #2 was a lost cause, but #1 only had a few spots.  No actual rot of the flesh, just minor discoloration, the threat of something bad.  That one I could save.  #1 got picked & placed on the back porch.  I waited as long as I could but at some point gnats started to feast on the back & there were some tiny craters in the back of my pumpkin.  It was then I decided to carve my pumpkin before it just turned to a pile of mush.

I carved it September 27 & it just got thrown out about a week ago.  Not because I was reluctant to toss it, but because it still  looked good.  Actually, if I had been diligent about spraying it I bet it would still be nice.  The trick to preserving the jack-o-lantern you've put so much time into is soak it in a bleach solution.  Visit this site to see the results of many different preservation techniques, and you will see that bleach is the best method.  Also, the most cost effective.  You only need 1 tsp. bleach per gallon of water.  I soaked my pumpkin over night - and have a spray bottle filled with some of the solution to keep it hydrated once it goes out side.  All you have to do is soak your pumpkin (preferably for 8 hrs but I have gone as low as 3 hrs) and spray it with the solution daily.  It won't wither because you're keeping it hydrated and the bleach keeps the funk out.  If you do allow the solution to pool in the bottom of the pumpkin it will get moldy, trust me!  So regularly dump the stuff out of the bottom or carve a hole in the bottom for drainage.  Alternatively, you could slice the entire bottom off then there's no need to cut out a lid!

..::Happy Halloween::..

oOoooOoo

I just noticed I never shared this lovely lily in front of the shed that bloomed while we were on vacation.

Update: in 5 photos.

We are literally going to have 100s of peppers.
I counted the largest ones and came up with 80.
That's not including the blooms & mini-peps.

Shawn and I measured the longest vine...  15' long!

One of the many pumpkins on the biiig vine.

I still can't believe I grew these things from a seed.

The last of the lilies to bloom.