Year of the non-garden

This year we haven't really had an *official* garden at our house. It started off being more of a forced garden if you ask me. One day early this spring I saw a bunch of little mounds of various color greens sprouting up. It was all the volunteer lettuces coming up. I sort of let the garden we had the previous year get away from me and plants went to seed like crazy. And so this year, even though I hadn't planned on having a garden, well, I was forced to have one anyhow. After the lettuces showed up, I began to notice that there were tomatoes coming up as well. That's when I gave in and bought a few more tomato plants, cucumber plants and herbs. But, it was still not the *official* garden.

Well, I have not tended my garden at all well. I've let it get crazy when the weather got so hot that I couldn't stand outside without breaking into a major sweat! I watched my garden (through the window) grow among the weeds. Watched the many severe weather storms drag and pull our plants about. Some of our tomato plants were cut in half from the winds that came up! Some lost their cages and are now growing sprawled along the ground.

But even though they went through sever heat and were buffeted by strong winds and even through times of drought. It still produced. We had wonderful salads from all the volunteer lettuces that came up. We had succulent strawberries. And tart red rhubarb. We even had our first small serving of asparagus this year! And our black berries have been super yummy!

Our tomatoes have not fared as well. We've had some. But they have been struggling.

And initially the cucumbers did not do so well either. But, now that the weather has begun to cool off a bit... well, we've seen many more blooms on the plants. If I"m lucky I may be able to make a few jars of refrigerator pickles after all! Yum!

Here is an over all view of our sad & oh so neglected garden.....

Isn't it the saddest sight? I am embarrassed to show you how badly I've treated our little plot of ground. And I do feel badly because, as neglected as it's been, it still produced enough to feed myself and my honey! We've enjoyed this little non-garden this year. And I vow that I will show my appreciation by carefully over-wintering this little plot of ground and preparing it for a comfortable winter so that next year it will be well rested and truly loved and worked as it should be! Amen.

I will be linking this to Pams Garden Tuesday. And see how well others have minded their gardens!

More wedding....!

Hello all!

As usual it's been a busy week. Nothing spectacular to blog about. Just the regular stuff. Although, my in-laws and my favorite Aunt-in-law came over this weekend. And it was a very nice visit. Aunt Betty came over and saw our home for the first time! That was nice since we had stayed with her and Uncle Ernie MANY times over the years, it was nice to be able to share some loving hospitality in return!

But, I am not going to blog about this visit. Although, I may, the next time she comes for a visit!

This time it's going to be about Baby Girls wedding. We finally got the professional photo's done by, Matt Frye of One Tree Photography in Kansas City, and there were TONS of them! But I am just going to (try) and pick out a few of my favorites to share with you today. Enjoy!

Flowers from Manhattan, KS

(The ring bearer.)

Wedding party

Parsons/Ising

Level surface...

First dance.....

Mr. & Mrs. Ising

This is just a few (seriously, there were SO many more that I wanted to share) of my favorites. It was such a wonderful day full of family and fun! Thanks for visiting and letting me share our wonderful day with you all.

Where have I been?

Hello everyone!

The question is... Where have I been? The answer..... here all along.

It's been a blur of a summer. Not sure where IT went. Time seems to be moving at lightning speed these days and I feel as if I'm standing in place watching the blur of time pass me by.

I do remember cleaning. I did some intense house cleaning! Intense as in vacuuming from ceiling to floor (from picture mouldings to baseboards and everything in between!) and then wiping EVERYTHING down with a damp cloth from ceiling to floor. Cleaning air purifier filters. Changing out A/C filters. Basically trying to get rid of any cat hairs or dander so that my family members who have extreme allergies to cats won't step foot in my house and die! We have two of them. Not cats, although we do have two of them too. But, family members who are allergic to them! Happily, both of those family members were able to spend time in our house and not have too much of a reaction. But, I was exhausted! That is some intense cleaning! Well worth it, mind you! But, I would NOT do this for anyone I didn't absolutely love and adore!!!!

I've also purchased fabric to make baby quilts out of. I've gotten as far as washing the fabrics and ironing them. (Yup, I'm a pre-washer) but I haven't touched them since. I've purchased yarn as well for baby items, but... alas, haven't done anything with them either.

We've had the Sarpy County Fair already and that was a busy time. Our church has a food stand at the fairgrounds so every year we (from the church) work hard to prep chicken and other foods to sell at the fair stand. We're known for our broasted chickens and TONS of homemade pies! And we spend a week cleaning the fair stand to get it ready to open up, then man the fair stand into the evenings for four days. Then clean it again in preparation for resting until the next years fair.

Oh! I do remember actually doing something other than cleaning or working for the Fair! I made a little owl for my grandbaby! I haven't sent it yet though. It was supposed to be a birthday gift for him but it didn't get completed in time to send with his other gifts. But he will be going soon!

Isn't he cute?! I got the pattern out of the Knitsimple magazine, the Holiday 2010 edition. I had never made anything like this but the pattern is so well written that it was a breeze to make! And it went so quickly that I am considering making another one in a slightly different yarn color.

And, while I've got your attention.... notice the chair? This is another Craiglist item. Baby girl sent me the link to these chairs (there are two in two different but coordinating fabrics) to check out. And I got them! The price for them was WAAAAY too good to pass up! Thank goodness Baby girl has the same taste as I do! ;-) I LOVE them! And if you look at the chairs you'll notice.....

Sorry about the photos. It's a bad picture taking day. Dark and cloudy.

the chairs match the color of the wall. (I have not managed to get the walls repainted yet). I LOVE the bones of these chairs. Eventually, I hope to get them recovered. But they are in pretty good shape so (thankfully) there is no hurry to get them recovered yet.

And speaking of painting. I finally got the floors of our front porch re-painted. We had some of the floor boards replaced and the carpenter primed the new boards but I was supposed to paint them. Well, after nearly a year! I finally got them painted. Yay!

So, I guess I have done a few things since the last time I blogged. It just doesn't feel as if I've done enough because there are SO many more things I need to get done before the middle of next month! Like the baby quilts and baby knits! Not to mention the slipcovers! ACK! I need to get busy.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by. ;-)