Sassy & Sweet Notes

Fidget's Growing!

Garden Update: June 27, 2013 (Part 2)

I have more garden photos to share with you. I'm happy to know that the garden posts are enjoyed. Our garden is far from perfect. Each year it has it's challenges, and this year is no different. I've learned so much from gardening in Texas, and am fairly certain that if I can have success here, I could have a successful garden just about anywhere!

We've never had much luck growing watermelon, but I wanted to try again this year. And what do you know, we have little mellons all over the place! This year I placed soaker hoses in the rows where the watermelons are planted. I think it's making all the difference in their success this year.

We are having good success with the Patty Pan squash, too. They always seem to grow well for us, and with their fun spaceship appearance, they're also fun to eat!

I'm trying a new winter squash this year - Bush Buttercup. The squash are growing beautifully! Hopefully, the plants can survive to harvest time! I've found some squash bugs out there, so hopefully they don't do the plants in.

There are watermelons planted at both ends of the garden. Little round sugar baby melons at one end, and yellow moon and stars watermelons at the other. The plants have completely taken over the walkway down the center of the garden. They are loaded with blossoms, and bees!

The MASSIVE yellow pear tomato plant has lots and LOTS of tomato clusters, just waiting to ripen! I've been enjoying the ripe ones right off the plant in the morning when I water. Fresh tomatoes for breakfast ... you bet!

This is the full yellow pear tomato plant. It's well over 6' tall, and since it's planted in the trough, I'll be dragging a ladder out to the garden when it comes time to harvest all the tomatoes towards the top! They're WAY up there!

Zucchini is growing beautifully. I picked this beauty this morning! I really love growing zucchini. Not only do I love eating zucchini, but I think the plants are amazing!

In this part of the garden are more tomato plants. There is the volunteer front and center, as well as a husky cherry red, and a couple super sweet 100's planted in large blue tubs. There are also tomato plants in the small trough you can see in the distance.

The oldest of the super sweet 100's is already loaded with young fruit. The other two plants, which I planted a bit later, are coming along nicely, but have a lot of work to do yet before they start setting clusters of tomatoes like this. I think we'll be tomato-rich, soon!

Husky Cherry Reds are a new variety for me this year. I wasn't too sure about giving them a try, but after I did a bit of reading about them online, I thought we'd give them a try. I must say, I'm really pleased with them! Their plants are not as tall and gangly as other cherry tomato variety, and in fact, really are quite "husky". They held up to our spring winds beautifully! And boy, are they ever LOADED with fruit! Clusters like this throughout the entire plant! I would certainly grow these again.

And, they were the first plants to give us ripe fruit, too! ...which I have also been enjoying for breakfast while I water the garden. These were delicious... *grin*

I mentioned in part 1 of this garden post that the volunteer tomato plant is LOADED with blossoms. I wasn't kidding. Here is just one of the branches ... and each branch looks like this. The plant has set a lot of fruit, so if it manages to set these as well, whoa, will we have some tomatoes! Not bad for a volunteer. I'm kind of interested to see how it performs so I'm not planning on topping it off. I'll just keep watering it, and see how it grows. We're supposed to have some relatively "normal" weather for a while, so growth in the garden should be interesting to watch.

I can't forget to mention the Cherokee Purple tomatoes. They have set quite a few tomatoes -- we've even had 1 ripe one that was ubber delicious! I can't wait for these babies to ripen up! YUM!!

And finally, the friends in the dill. We are up to at least 4, possibly 5, swallowtail caterpillars in the dill now. This little guy is only about 1" long. It's kind of painful to watch them as they munch on my dill, but I'm willing to share with the butterflies.

Hope you're enjoying the weekend, and the last bit of June!

Garden Update: June 27, 2013

I took a couple photos in the garden this morning. It's a jungle out there! I hope to get more photos this evening. I usually take garden photos in the evening since the light is better, so hopefully things won't be all wilted down from today's heat. These two beds in front of the chicken house are doing great! The front bed is Patty Pan squash, and a few salad slicing cucumbers in the back corner on a trellis. The back bed is three Cherokee Purple tomato plants, and three zucchini plants. These beds are always great producers, since they're protected from the southern winds by the chicken house. I have a late-planted black cherry tomato in the blue tub at the end of the raised bed. It's growing beautifully, and I can't WAIT for those little tomatoes!


The tomato plants are doing well this year. And that makes me wish I'd planted more! I have a couple of volunteer tomato plants that are completely LOADED with blooms right now. One of them is right in the front/center of this photo. There are so many blooms on the plant! I'll snap a detail photo later so you can see all the blooms ... it's crazy, really!

You can also see the pumpkin plant has started taking over the yard, and behind that you can see the cucumber bed has completely grown out into the grass as well. There's a 6' tall yellow pear tomato plant in the large aluminum trough towards the back of the garden, which is now so tall I can no longer reach the top of the plant without a ladder. It's loaded with blooms as well, so I hope this weekend's heat doesn't ruin the possibility of fruit setting.

Stay tuned for more! *grin*

In the Dill

Some insects really aren't welcome in the garden, but I'm willing to share my dill with the lovely monarch swallowtail butterfly caterpillar. (Thanks for the correction, Shala!) I spotted two of them in the dill earlier this week, when they were but little tiny things. They've really grown! The larger of the two is not quite as big as my pinky finger.

I thought it was convenient that they're facing opposite directions on their dill stem, so I didn't even have to move to get a backside, and a frontside photo!

We also have two American Painted Lady caterpillars in the dill right now, munching away. The Painted Lady's are a bit small for getting any sort of in-focus images of. I'll give them a couple days to grow -- they're about as long as lady bug larvae at this point -- and I will snap some pics when they get a bit larger.

And I keep meaning to get some new photos of the garden! It's been a month since my last update, and things have really changed! Maybe tomorrow... *grin*

High Hopes: Lots of Layers

The current High Hopes challenge topic is Lots of Layers!

Truth be told, my broken foot has put a bit of a kink in my normal routine, and things just don't get done as quickly as usual. So I pulled a card from the archives for this week's challenge. This card, which is one of my all-time favorites, uses several images: Ally Rose, Bale o' Hay, Country Stand, Daisy, Country Fresh, and Fresh Picked.

Find all the details of this week's challenge on the High Hopes blog.

 

Supplies
Stamps: High Hopes Rubber Stamps;
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Neenah, Bo Bunny

soaking

Guess what I will be doing shortly...

Now THAT'S a pickle!

...it got a little out of control in the garden...

Weighs in at 1.5 pounds.

last days of spring

Earlier this evening, we were supposed to get a nice bit of rain ... some much needed rain. But instead, we watched the storm blow right on past, missing us by mere miles, and didn't get one bit of the much needed moisture. But, I did gimp on out to the end of the driveway and snapped some nice photos!

Tomorrow is the last day of spring ... and summer around here promises nothing but hot, HOT sunshine.

Are you ready for it? I'm NOT, if you can't tell! *grin*

Surprise Baby Duck!

Earlier this week I was checking on things out at the hen house. We have a duck that has a bum foot so I like to let her sit when she wants to so she's not being pestered by the boy ducks. Seems she sat long enough to brew up a baby! I'm just glad I was out at the hen house when I was, and saw the baby when I did! It would have surely been killed by the chickens when they came into the hen house for the night. I brought it in the house until Alan and I could try to reunite it with it's mother that night.

Later that night, Alan and I tried placing the baby back with its mother but she didn't want anything to do with it. And since we've been having trouble with rat snakes in the hen house, we decided to keep it as a house baby until its large enough to be outside. Quack!

She kept me company today while I hung out on the couch with my foot up. Soo cute and such a snuggler!

Broken!

Well, well. I already posted about this on Facebook, but thought I'd mention it here since this is how we keep track of things around here.

Yesterday evening I was putting Daisy in my office so I could join Alan outside for evening chores. The door caught on her hip and sprung back towards me, catching my forward moving bare foot in the process. My big toe went under the door but the others got bent backwards in a bad way. Instant pain! I hobbled out to the couch, which is where Alan found me when he came inside to see why I hadn't joined him outside for chores. He gave me some pain meds, and put a cold pack on my foot. A couple hours later, a trip to the ER was in order.

I broke my 4th and 5th metatarsals and my pinky toe. Ouchie!

So, today I stayed off my foot. Took naps on the couch and held the baby duck. Which reminds me, I haven't mentioned the new baby duck on the blog yet! Ack! Stay tuned for that update.

Hope your weekend is going well! :)

Happy Flag Day!

And, happy FRIDAY!!

High Hopes Challenge: Summertime!

The current High Hopes challenge topic is Summertime! How fitting since the temperatures around these parts have certainly said "summertime" recently. We had our first triple digit day yesterday. Ugh!

For my project, I chose to use this adorable American Cowthic image. Cows are "summery", aren't they!? I certainly think so!

Find all the details of this week's challenge on the High Hopes blog.

 

Supplies
Stamps: American Cowthick by High Hopes Rubber Stamps; Sentiment from Party Animal by Whipper Snapper Designs
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Neenah, Bo Bunny
ShinHan Touch Twin markers: WG3, WG5, WG1, R3, R4, Y34, BR107, YR32, PB144, PB76, PB68, PB66
Die: Banners #2, Stephanie Barnard for Sizzix
Other: button, bakers twine, tracing wheel

Garden Update: June 7, 2013

I am enjoying day 2 of my 4-day weekend today. It's a gorgeous day, and I have a garden update to share!

Remember our grasshopper infestation? Sooo not fun. Disgusting, actually. We are doing what we can to keep the numbers down to something a little less horrific. We have free-ranging chickens, ducks, and guinea, and lots of wild birds coming in to eat. We have most of the area around the house and yard mowed to discourage the grasshoppers from moving between pastures and the yard/garden area. But it wasn't knocking down the population like we needed.

I'm still using organic methods in the garden -- even relocating wheelie bugs and ladybugs to the garden when I find them other places on the farm. But when the numbers of grasshoppers creep up in the tall grass and trees in and around the yard, we spray those areas with a Malathion/water mixture. It's a little more serious than we normally use on the farm, but is still a garden-safe method of control.

During the day, grasshoppers are very active and hard to control. But at night grasshoppers stop feeding and climb up out of the grass and perch themselves along the edges of the pastures on the tall grass stems, along the fence wires, on trees, and weeds. And there they sit, waiting for us to make our way around the yard wearing our headlamps, armed with a sprayer. And yes, I still have grasshoppers in the garden. But not nearly as many as I would have if we weren't able to control the population in the areas around the yard.

So how about a small garden tour!

Some of the radishes have grown a little larger than I had expected. Not a good enough look?

How about now!? THOSE are some radishes!

We've harvested our first couple of zucchini, and lots more are well on their way!

I even picked a couple of ripe cherry tomatoes yesterday evening! And they were deeeee-lish! These are Husky Cherry Reds.

Those ripe cherry tomatoes came off of this plant, which is nothing short of amazing! And it's loaded with little green tomatoes, just waiting to ripen!

This yellow pear tomato plant is also amazing -- it's HUGE, and has officially reached the top of the 4' cage around it. The plant next to it (can't remember what it is!) is doing really well too, but there just aren't a lot of flowers on either of these plants. Some flowers, but not a lot. Maybe I need to supplement with some phosphorus to encourage flowers. I use bone meal when I prep the beds for planting, but maybe adding some worm casting tea might be beneficial. Hopefully I can encourage these two to put on more flowers!

I have cucumbers growing in several areas, but this is the largest area. A full 4'x8' bed of them, and they are quickly vining out of the bed's edges. Under those leaves are a bazillion flowers! And we've even picked a couple cucumbers! I think they are enjoying not being trellised this year.

The pumpkin is doing well (for just being old seeds tossed at the edge of a zucchini bed), and the zucchini and other squash plants are looking healthy. In the blue tub at the left are some mini white cucumbers, a great little variety that is really fun to grow!

I also harvested our first patty pan squash of the season! Alan loves having them grown in the garden, so they got planted again this year. We should also have some other variety to harvest soon.

Here's some organic bug control in the garden ... ducks! Chickens can be really hard on a garden since they're really drawn to eating leaves and small tender fruits, and like to take dust baths in the soft soil -- which isn't so great for plants. But ducks and guinea are great in a garden! They are more focused on bugs! They pull them right off the stems and leaves, and the ducks also root around the edges of the garden beds where other insects like to hide during the day.

Here's little Butter-Butt, doing a bit of insect patrol.

This is a happy garden sight ... three ducks, all munching on grasshoppers! Numm-nummm-nummmmm!

It's Sunflower Season!

I am treating myself to a 4-day weekend! Yay! Since we are running low on all the basics, I made a run to the grocery store and farm supply store today. Along the way I passed two gorgeous fields of blooming sunflowers. I had to stop and snap some photos. I only had my phone with me for the photos, so you can bet Alan and I will be making a trip back down there tomorrow or Saturday so I can take the "real" camera!

Happy Thursday to you!

Lure the Best! (and Video)

Last month, Whipper Snapper released three new cling mount sets, illustrated by me! I thought I'd share a project using the new Lure the Best set, AND share a video I made showing how to prepare the Whipper Snapper cling mount sets for use.

I used several images from the set to create my card. The vest, hat, lure, sentiment, and the fun fishy border image to create the background layer. I colored the images with ShinHan Touch Twin markers, for lots of color pop.

I put together this video, sharing how to prepare your cling mount sets for use. At the end, I share this card as well. Hope you enjoy the video! As always, if you have trouble viewing the video here on the blog, you can check it out on my YouTube channel.

 

Supplies
Stamps: Lure the Best, from Whipper Snapper Designs, by me!
Ink: Memento Black, Raspberry Colorbox for Stephanie Barnard
Paper: Neenah, Paper Accents
ShinHan Touch Twin markers: YR32, Y34, R3, R4, GY175, GY48, B66, B68, BR107, BR134
Other: tracing wheel, MM brad, foam adhesive, My Favorite Things label die

High Hopes Challenge: Thank You!

The current High Hopes challenge topic is Thank You! How easy is that!? You could choose to do a teacher themed thank you card, or just a general "thanks" card for anyone will do!

Find all the details of this week's challenge on the High Hopes blog.

 

Supplies
Stamps: Teacher's Desk by High Hopes Rubber Stamps; Sentiment from The Stamps of Life
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Powdered Sugar from The Stamps of Life
Paper: Neenah, October Afternoon
ShinHan Touch Twin markers: YR24, Y34, R3, R13, GY175, BR107, BR103, CG1, CG2, BG2
Other: Scalloped Border Die by The Stamps of Life, button, bakers twine, tracing wheel

The Challenge Chicks: Here Comes the Sun!

If you're a stamper and you like challenges, or you're new to the idea of challenges and want to give participating a whirl, I invite you to participate with The Challenge Chicks! We're a small group of friends and stampers hosting monthly challenges. Won't you join us?!

Our challenge for June 2013 is being shared today!

This month's challenge is hosted by Lydia: Here Comes the Sun! Use yellow, white and orange with a bonus option of an actual image of the sun.

For my project, I chose to use a trio of patterned paper by October Afternoon to create a faux quilted background. I used my tracing wheel to create stitch patterns on the paper. The girl is one of the Farm Girl images from the October Afternoon Shape Stickers sheet. The sentiment is from one of my all-time favorite Whipper Snapper cling sets called Sunnyside Up.

Now, get yourself a good dose of inspiration and check out the rest of The Challenge Chicks projects:

Diane Zechman
Lydia Fiedler
Jeanne Streiff
Kelli Hull
Kelly Schirmer
Anna Wight (that's me!)

And finally, you'll find this month's challenge gallery on SplitCoastStampers using keyword CHXJUNE13 . We invite you to play along! Upload your project to your SplitCoastStampers gallery, add the keyword above, and your project will be automatically added to the gallery. Or join us on Facebook!

We look forward to seeing your projects!

 

Supplies
Stamp: Sunnyside Up by Whipper Snapper Designs
Ink: StazOn Black
Paper: Neenah, October Afternoon
Other: Tracing Wheel, Baker's Twine in Yellow

Seriously!?

Photos taken today. Do you think we've got a slight problem on our hands!?

Our farm, and our neighbor's farm are being invaded, BIG TIME!

I. hate. grasshoppers.

And this is just in the yard ... it's worse farther away from the house!

Time to bring out the big guns.