Housewifery: Days 3, 4, 5...

I've been getting up pretty faithfully between 9:30am and 11:30am... this probably sounds late to most of you, but since the HusBean is currently working a 3p-11p shift, we often don't go to bed until close to 3a.

Then, of course, Stinkerbell gets up around 5a, the cats want to eat breakfast around 7a and again at 9a, so I'm actually doing pretty well getting between 6-9 hours of sleep, none of it more than 2 or 3 at a time.

It is officially Spring everywhere, but here in Georgia it's really acting like it. I've been drinking my morning mug of coffee and reading on the back patio every morning and already have some pretty distinct tan lines.

On Tuesday, I had my friend Rochelle and her beautiful boxer Miss Foxy Roxy over for lunch. We enjoyed my Grandpa's Mac and Cheese recipe and Rochelle brought deviled eggs. Roxy and Buster had a GREAT time racing around the back yard.

I brought out the spring decor for the front door and got the fall/winter stuff put away.

I also started the process of sorting through all of our stuff to get rid of the things we don't ever use that have no sentimental value. For non-sentimental items, my rule is if we haven't used it/worn it in two full years, it gets retired. My plan is to have a yard sale and whatever doesn't sell will get donated to the Goodwill.

After Rochelle and Roxy left, Buster and I sacked out on the couch for a couple of hours and then I made a quick run to get some frozen yogurt at the new place in town and deliver some food to my (now former) boss.

I took a quick trip to a Ross where I found two cute sundresses... one for $9.99 that I think is super cute (HusBean said it was "hideous") and another for $14.99 that is REALLY comfortable (HusBean approved of that one).

Wednesday I followed my morning coffee/book routine with about an hour of playing the piano. Scott joined me on bass for a few songs toward the end... I was planning to play along with one of my Pandora stations, but couldn't find the appropriate cord to hook my laptop up to the boombox, so we played along with my Michael Buble playlist on my ipod instead.

Lunch was a green leaf lettuce salad and an open-faced fried green tomato sandwich. HusBean loves to cook as well and had made the tomatoes at 3:30a and left me a few. I put them on a piece of toasted sourdough with a little mayo and a slice of cheddar.

Anytime we clean house, all the miscellany gets shoved in to our bedroom and we shut the door. This means that there are huge piles of clean laundry and other household flotsam just hanging around in there to be tripped over. I started getting some of that put away yesterday, too.

According to my meal plan for this week, Stroganoff was on the menu for supper last night, and since I had made the sauce on Monday evening all I had to do was boil up some egg noodles and put a loaf of garlic bread in the oven for 10 minutes.

This morning I enjoyed my coffee outside and let the cats come out and sunbathe for awhile while I weeded and dug up rocks for my mini-rock-wall. It doesn't look like much, but last summer I planted some calla lilies there and it was quite pretty.

I'm having leftover Asparagus Pesto for lunch while blogging and catching up on facebook.

I'm hoping to make playing piano an every-day thing, and also hoping to make some more headway in the mess that is our bedroom today. I may also get through some of the stuff in the garage.

Hot-Iced-Tea

Sorry for the month-long sabbatical (better than six months, eh?)... I took a trip to Atlanta and then four days later went to the west coast for a week and then worked a 54 hour work-week and then... I slept.

Scott and I just came in from weeding the pepper garden, harvested our first home-grown habaneros and some cayenne and cowhorn peppers, and an early girl tomato.

Last night I dreamed about habanero sweet iced tea. I think I'm going to try it.

Dirt

As always, Buster is the supervisor.

After almost two straight days of rain, I woke up this morning to sun! The back yard is starting to dry out.



I went to Home Depot on the way home from church this morning - Scott has been sick with the flu the past two days, so it was a solo trip. I got two bags of "garden soil" - still experimenting with what combination is going to be best for our clay base.












I also picked up a Hosta and four part shade creepers to make a nice pot for right outside the back door.














I added some part-sun creepers in between the phlox and then interspersed the baby wildflower peat pods as they are all about 2"-3" high.




On the veggie side, I picked up some three-foot cedar log short fencing to back the lowest part of the garden, I figure we'll do another step above and back that also. I think it really tightens up the look of the whole thing.


Once it was evident that I had enough soil to extend the low section, I dug up a few more feet and planted the baby bell-pepper peat pods and the baby cayenne peat pods.








Scott took advantage of Buster holding still to get some great shots of his handsome face.

Plantings

On Tuesday I had the day off. After sleeping in I made some coffee and then headed out to Home Depot for gardening stuff and to Publix for groceries.

At Home Depot I picked up a push broom (our back porch has gathered a lot of leaves and Scott thinks he saw a Black Widow near the back door), a small rake (to get the sticks out of the way of the garden), and a few plants and some soil.


I staged where I wanted the herbs to go, since they and a pepper plant I purchased are the only things big enough to go into the ground.

I raked the dead branches and some leaves out of the way and then Scott started digging up the clay.

Buster was very interested in the whole process and we're now teaching him what he can and can't investigate (i.e. PEE on).

We had about a half bag of potting soil left, so we threw that in the hole and then spread a bag of Mushroom compost on top.

It looks a bit morbid from this angle, but I swear, we're not trying to get rid of a body!



We decided to only dig up what we had soil and compost for and we'll dig additionally once the tomato and pepper plants are big enough to go in the ground and we have more soil and compost.

I chose to put the rosemary in on the corner by the stairs, since it has the potential to be a large, pretty bush.

Since we moved the peat pot tray outside and everything but the cucumber plants have been doing great. I don't know if it was too much sun for the cucumbers or if they just outgrew their pods, so I moved them into a couple of big pots in front of the "garden" area.




I'm mostly excited about the basil plant because I LOVE pesto and it's awfully easy and cheap to make when you're growing the main ingredient yourself!

We also planted our mint, oregano and a yellow bell pepper plant.



On the "wildflower" side of the ledge I planted four creeping phlox plants. I'm hoping they'll spread nicely across the front and I'm going to plant the baby wildflowers once they're strong enough to go in the ground.



Of course, we've been having a thunderstorm for the last eight hours and there is about two inches of standing water in the lower part of the back yard at the moment, so all the new plantings could be drowned by now.

Seedlings

By my count, these little babies are about 12 days old.






We moved them outside to get some sun and keep the cats out of them.












This is where I plan to put the wildflowers.













This is where I plan to put the cukes and peppers. I'm thinking about putting the tomatoes in pots just in front of the ledge.








I've started dumping our coffee grounds in the spot to prep the area before I dig it up and add potting soil to the mix. I know, it looks really appetizing. :)

Latest Projects

With the boss on vacation the last four days, I worked the last seven straight.






A week ago last Saturday I planted the seeds I gave Scott for Valentine's Day in little peat pots.











This is them at Three Days.


Now they are outside in the sun and the Cucumbers (both varieties) are almost four inches tall.


As soon as we have a good sunny day (maybe today?) I'll start digging our garden plot so I can at least get the cukes planted.

B.Y.O.T.

One of the first things we did after arriving in Key West was buy plants. We started with a beautiful Yellow Hibiscus tree, two pink Mandevilla and two "house" plants. One house plant has been outside for the last 3 months, and the other is dead - both due to Minx thinking they were her own private salad.

A few weeks later I decided to try my hand at container gardening for actual edibles. I had purchased a tomato growing kit for $1 at Target several months before I moved, and decided it was time to try it out. The kit included a 2-inch clay pot, some soil and some seeds. My first attempt is now 4 feet high, has several flowers and even 1 baby tomato growing.

At that same time I started seeds for lettuce. They have since grown up and been eaten.

We also purchased baby plants for oregano, basil, jalapenos, early girl tomatoes, rosemary, cilantro, italian parsley and catnip. We can't use the basil and oregano fast enough, but are enjoying cooking with fresh herbs. Scott made homemade cornbread last week with one of the first jalapenos.

The picture above is the first early girl tomato and we are anxiously awaiting it's maturation!