SMOKE FROM THE FIRES

I'm glad we don't live closer to this fire with its massive amount of smoke.

It looks like the fire is headed to Mount Wilson. It's weird how it looks like thunder clouds but it is really smoke.

The difference that a long lens makes on your camera . . . see we aren't really that close.

A friend of mine sent these pictures to me. This is a view from Glendale Dodge.

This is a view from Hwy 134 and Glendale Blvd.

WOW What a difference a month makes

The Garden Update

The herbs are getting a little burned - its so hot outside right now. I did harvest a bunch of Rosemary, Chives and Parsley to dry.

My Cilantro didn't do so hot, I need to replace it. I think I cut too much off too soon after I planted it, but there is nothing better then cilantro on pretty much everything.

Check out my Tomatilos that I grew from seeds. I went outside to take these pictures today and actually found that I have real tomatilos growing. Yeah for me!!

Michael says that these onions are beginning to look like aliens. I need to dig some of them out and use them before they goto seed.

Ok, here is the picture that gets me. Just over a month in the ground and look at this corn. We are just a few days away from being ready to pick the corn and eat it. I checked some of the ears last night when I was watering and they are almost there. I'm so excited, I've never been able to grow corn before.

I started these beans from seeds as well and am pleasantly surprised that they grew. I probably won't eat them, I'll save them for Michael, but still I can grow things from seeds. Pretty amazing - my thumb isn't even green. Just a month ago these things were in a tiny pot and I didn't think they would grow.

The peppers are here too. I tried growing these last year in the container and they didn't do so well . . . maybe lack of water who knows. But this year there are peppers on top of peppers in these plants.

Zuchinni looks a little sad, but I have gotten 8 huge ones off of this plant and have two more to pick. I think I'm going to pluck some of the dead leaves off and see if new ones replace them. I'm so tired of making zuchinni bread, but its always soooo good.

I moved the strawberries over to where they would get a little shade in the afternoon and it has seemed to work on sweeting up the strawberries. They are still small and I would like to grow the giant ones, but maybe this plant isn't the right kind. I was hoping to be able to have alot of strawberries to make freezer jam, but I just might have to buy them and make it.

Here are the topsey turvey things that I bought. I finally got a bigger, stronger shepherds hook for them to hang from. The tomato plant didn't seem to get as big growing upside down, but at least there are some tomato's. I didn't think I was going to get any.

Here is the final product of my drying the herbs. I still have a bunch of sage and oregano to dry, but I've been lazy with school starting. I'm off to make some homemade Koren egg rolls. I'll take pictures.

Engagement

Look whose getting married!!!!!
(No it's not Baily the dog)

I got a text message on Tuesday the 4th with this picture saying they were getting ready to take the plunge. I thought they were talking about getting in the river for a nice boat ride or something. Then I get another text with this picture.



I had to do the "Joey" thing and get into the picture to see if it was what I was thinking and it was the right hand..well really the left hand, but you know what I mean. He wouldn't answer his phone for a while, but he finally called back to confirm that they are ENGAGED!!!!

Big Brother is Watching!!!

Or should I say Little Sister is watching!!!

I knew that Thalea, Byron, the boys, and Mom and Dad were all in Jackson Hole last week. I got on the site that has the web cams of the town square and thought I would watch to see if they called and said they were shopping or something fun. I forgot about it and went and did some stuff. Later on in the afternoon I was at the computer and clicked on the web cam again. I got to looking and I saw these people that looked sorta familiar. I called Thalea on the phone and the person I was watching was grabbing for her phone.

Pretty scary if you don't know there are web cams around. Now you have to be conscious about picking your nose or your butt because anybody in the world could be watching you!!! Even Little Sisters in California!!!

Garden and Stuff

I finally remembered to take pictures of my garden. I'm only a week or so late posting them so what you are seeing has now almost doubled in size. The corn husk are beginning to form and I have a couple of cucumbers that have tripled in size and the tomatoes have finally gone from blooms to the real things.








The strawberries are sour, but hopefully they will sweeten up soon and get bigger then the dime size that they are now. I think I need to move them out of the full sun and let them have a little shade during the day. So I had seen these topsy tomato thingies and thought I would give them a try. I didn't get the shepard hooks until a little later in the season that I had planned, but I finally did and wanted to document their growth. It was about 2 weeks in the watering of them that the weight of them proved to be a little too much for the skinny little shepard hooks that I got on sale.


I did get herbs planted in early spring and this is what they look like. I found a web site that shows how to dehydrate them, so the plan this week is to try and do that with the parsley, since I have a train load of it. Next will be the chives and the pineapple sage.




I have harvest 2 zucchini's already and made 4 loaves of bread - since thats the only thing good that comes out of zuccnhini's. Michael asked me why I even planted them if I wasn't going to eat them. He doesn't get how good the bread is and I figure I'm getting my veggies in with the bread!!!



On a side note here is a picture of Summer and Desmond. I finally got a decent picture of them together. He takes such good care of her.

Happy 4th of July

Ok so I blew it once again. I didn't take any pictures of the family or the best "BAB's" burgers and hot dogs that Michael grilled, or Mom's yummy potato salad. I did take a couple of pictures of the house. I did remember first thing in the morning to hang the flag out.

Now that I look at the picture, I wonder if I hung the flag wrong, but that's how Grandpa fixed the flag to hang, I always thought the tag was suppose to go in the back. I realized that I should get the rest of the outside 4th of July stuff on the door pictured so that maybe next year I'd remember what I did, not that it was very much, but ya all know I'm getting older and the brain doesn't hold that much useless information anymore.


I took the flag down just before leaving to take Grams home. Well Grandpa had put fishing weights on the bottom of the flag to keep the wind from blowing the flag all over the place. I've known this and messed with them for a very long time. But for some reason when I was folding the flag I forgot about those weights and well it hit me right in the shin bone, hurt like a mother and left a purple bruise. So I figured I sorta was in the red white and blue colors for the evening.

End of June

Wow I can't believe June has flown by. The year is half over and I don't know what happened to it all. When I was little the school year dragged on so long and now that I'm older time just flies by.

I've been lucky not to have killed off a few of the plants that Grandma left when she moved out of the house. I remember always seeing this plant / cactus growing up in Grandpa and Grandma's backyard and thinking that it just seemed an odd plant. To me, a cactus has thorns that poke you and this was just always green and didn't seem to do very much. Well guess what???


It's a night blooming Cereus and because it's night blooming I never knew that it would have such pretty blossoms.


On the night that I took the pictures, there were two flowers blooming. All in all there have been about 6 blossoms this year so far and it looks like at least one more to go.


This in Junior the cat. I caught him not realizing that someone was home. I love it when they think nobody is watching them.


And this is Desmond - aka Lil' man. He lays by my feet while I'm at the computer and bites my ankle if I accidentally kick him. You got love the orange eyes!!!