Buzz, I say, Buzz Part 2...

I'm back. Yeah, I know, hard to believe. Another post so quickly after what seemed like forever before the last post. Now you can't get rid of me. I scoff! I scoff! No, wait. I don't scoff! I need readers. I humbly apologize. I'm sorry. I'm not worthy of your readership. I slink away now and chain myself to my computer. Bread and water is fine.

Well, then. That was odd.

ANYwho. Where was I? All that groveling got me off track.

Oh yeah, bees.

Well the fence is done. Blog post over.

Oh? You want the second part? Alright! So demanding.

You know what's really weird? I'm having this conversation at my computer as if you all are really talking to me. Freaky. I better check my meds.

Okay, when last I left you I showed you an awesome Harry James video and how to sink a post. Kind of an odd combo, huh?

Now this...



Then this...



And this...



And a sexier shot...



Okay the basic frame was now finished.

I now had to make the gate. Weeee...



Pretty straight forward. Two long pieces of cedar for the sides and 3 for the cross sections. (once again, I threw caution to the wind and sort of made this up as I went along.) I got my measurements for the size of the gate via the width and height of the opening to the bee "enclosure".

Much like how I built my now infamous clothesline, I created some "lap" joints for the gate as well.

Before...


After...



And here is the gate all fitted together... (like the dramatic lighting?)



That evening I glued and screwed the joints together.



(sorry for the miss-formating of this photo. for whatever reason Photobucket just doesn't like it. I've resized and rotated it several times and it still shows up over sized and on it's side. Hmmm, there's a joke in there somewhere. UPDATE: it appears as if it reoriented itself but now shrunk the photo! fine. it works).

The next day, on went the hardware and it was time for mounting.

Here are the hinges...



Here is the latch...



And the completed gate...



Not too bad if I say so myself. As you can see I put up the fence pickets as well.

But this is certainly not the end of the bee, fence, gate saga. Oh, yes, there is so much more. I know you are all on the edge of your seats! Look, I have to lie to myself to keep my spirits up, okay? So just humor me. I will believe that you can't wait for my next post and you just smile and nod and give me the half sane look of, "oh sure, we can't contain ourselves", before rolling your eyes. Deal?

So next week...can you guess? Part 3! I don't think anyone could have anticipated that! ;)

In the mean time, here are some fresh photos for your viewing pleasures.

Squash...(I know this is similar to a photo I posted last week, but I just love the color)



Colorful...



Daisies...



Eggplant...



Nose...



So there it is another installment of my insane mission to turn my yard into a food factory. Tune in next week as our hero finally finishes the fence and, gasp!, we actually get to see the bee hive!

Cheers!

Remember, Green is Good!

Buzzzzzzzzzzzz........Part 1

I know, I know, it's been a while.

I could snow you under with one excuse after another and frankly, what would that solve? Well, it would give me a false sense of satisfaction. :) And isn't that what life is all about? But the truth goes oh so much deeper. I like to call it writers block. But wait, Surbandweller, that's crazy talk!

I have all this stuff I wanted to write about, but it builds up to the point where I don't know where to begin.

So rather than trying to play catch up, I will clear the table, start anew and over time, drop little tidbits of stuff that I had been working on.

In the mean time, I will update you on the thing that has been occupying my life for the past several months.

No, it's not Tequila induced base jumping. Although that does sound fun. Ah-hem.

It's been this...or should I say these...

Yes, bees.

But wait, don't they, like, sting?  Well, yeah! But just like people, they won't sting you if you don't mess with them.

For the most part, they keep to themselves. I mean they're bees afterall and they sort of just tolerate us humans.

As far as hobbies go, they are pretty low maintanence.

So why have they been occupying all my time? Let's step back into the Wayback Machine, shall we?

The year is 1977. Star Wars was a big hit, people wore bell bottom pants and The Ramones (the greatest band of all time!!! Don't argue with me!!) was all the rage on the music scene. Me on the other hand, a young Suburbandweller, or Suburbanteen, if you will, saw a documentary on PBS about bees. "Gee" I said to myself, "as god as my witness, I will keep bees one day!" shaking my fist toward the sky. Actually, it was more like, "huh, that looks pretty neat".

So started the private quest to one day raise bees.

Now let's jump in the Wayforward machine many many many years later to about 1 1/2 years ago. Among the dozens of other projects I had going, I causually said to my much more significant other, "You know, I would like to raise bees". SO just rolled with it. I love that she tolerates my brief moments of insantity. Little did I know, it would turn into reality. Hmmmm, is it really a good thing when insanity turns reality?

ANYway, beside reading a few books on the subject and having a desire to raise them, I hadn't a clue. So when you don't have a clue, what do you do? Go out and buy a hive! (don't worry, the bees are sold seperately. Good thing, I probably would have killed them.) However, it was too late in the season to get a queen and the bees.

In the interviening time, Paulie, the dog with a thousand teeth, came along and my dream of raising bees wained. Awww...



We sweltered through the summer, my garden died, my fig tree died and my blueberry bush died. (and had a little snow, a very little bit of snow)

It's now Feburary of this year. I want those bees! I have to put in my order. So $125 bucks later (they better make honey!), my bees were to arrive the first week in April.

I had to get to work. There are several regs that I have to meet in order to keep bees in my back yard. A couple of which, if not met, makes raising bees a no go.

1) They have to be at least 25 feet from the nearest neighbor. No problem

2) The entrance and exit of the hive has to face a wall or fence. This way, when the bees go out to do their daily rounds, they swarm as bees do and because of the fence is placed in front of their hive exit, they will swarm upward instead of casting straight out and scaring heck out of all my neighbors. This part was problem.

I had taken down our old fence that came with the house about a year after we moved in. It was a mess and needed replacing.  Now was the time to do just that. And putting up the fence solved 3 issues 1) we needed a new fense 2) the bees needed a fence and 3) my very nice neighbors who never wave back to me when I wave to them, nor respond to me when I say hello to them; have collected a nice pile of disgarded contruction debris that looks, to be polite, not very nice. A pile which we have had to view for the past 3 years. A pile that has now been so completely overgrown with weeds and hack trees that it could be movie set for a post apocolypic film; now needs to been not seen, by me or my SO. Oh the sweet joys of suburbia!

So starts the planning, well more like making it up as I go along. :) 

Putting in the posts. At first I did the whole mixing in the wheelbarrow deal. What a colossal pain in the patoot! Until I discovered a wonderful video on Youtube about how to mix the concrete right in the hole!





This saved an enormous amount of time...and my back. And yes it works.



So the process was: dig hole 2 feet deep. Take 8 foot post and cut 1 foot off top. (why? because there is apparently a rule of thumb when it comes to digging holes for posts. You want the post hole to be at least 1/4 the height of the post. However, a 8 foot post was too tall so I lopped a foot off so they would be easier to deal with. So technically speaking, I had too much hole. Hmmm. I'll just leave that one alone). Then fill with concrete. So dig, cut, fill, dig, cut, fill, dig, cut, fill, etc...

However, while digging, cutting and filling, I had to make an enclosed area for the bees? Why, you ask? Again, I have a very curious dog who thinks nothing of putting his nose in to things that, well, he shouldn't and I didn't frankly want to have the bees in a constant state of being PO'd, so I have to put a fence around it. Weeeeeee!

And that little wonderment will be part two of this epic endevor!

In the mean time, here are some photos from the garden. :)

Flowers...







 Acorn squash...



Lemons...



Potatoes...



Tomatoes...



Coffee...



Wait what? That's not from the garden! That's a preview of a future blog!

In the mean time, remember, Green is Good!

Cheers!

The schvitz comes to an end!

Where have I been?

Right here, where else!

Okay, fine. It's been a hell of a summer. I know, I breached the no swearing ban. But actually, it's been like hell.

The heat tsunami has finally broken.

After 80 days of 100 degree heat and 40+ of those over 105!!!!!!, it's finally over.

My yard looks like Death Valley on a good day.

The garden is long since gone and I went into survival mode. Just trying to keep what plants I still have alive.

The grass, if that was what still could be defined as that, is dry dry dry straw.

Paul, the dog with a thousand teeth, running none stop, has worn much of the "grass" down to dust.

My neighbor, in typical suburban fashion, comes out after sun down and hand waters his lawn. (sprinklers are a no no. We're in stage 2 water rationing). He has the only green lawn on the block. Such a colossal waste.

Trees in my neighborhood are losing their limbs because they are drying out. At least a few times a week, I see people out cutting up split off limbs.

Last weekend was the absolute worst. 112 degrees for 2 days straight. It was like some sort of cruel grand hurrah by mother nature. "I'll show you hot!!!"

I'll give you an example of how bad we want rain. Last weekend the much more Significant Other and I went to the movies. We went to see, "The Help". (Good movie, go check it out). There was a scene were it started raining cats and dogs. The whole audience moaned with jealousy. I'm not kidding.

So finally, there appears a break on the horizon, a tropical storm in the Gulf! Yayyyyy!

The screams of joy didn't last long as the storm took one look at Texas and shrugged us off. However, while we didn't get the rain, we did get the winds! And when you combine, high temps, high winds and very dry plant life, it doesn't take much to start a fire.

At this very moment, there are no less than 7 wild fires burning around Austin. Some within the city limits.

Last night as I was hand watering my plants, I smelled smoke. That fire was just about 5 miles away.

The big one, east of here in Bastrop, is directly effecting 3 of my friends.

Two people I work with and one SO works with. One of those two people I work with, she and her husband are in the volunteer fire dept. They are currently on the front lines fighting a massive fire. The biggest of the bunch. It's burned 20K acres already and still is going strong. Many folks have lost their homes.

The person SO works with, she has a farm and raises animals. Goats, chickens, pigs, etc. She had to move the pigs to another area to get them out of harms way. The fire shifted and she believes that the farm that they were at, was overtaken. It will be a few days before she finds out for sure, but she doesn't have a good feeling. She is now asking us and a mess of others for water for her remaining animals. We are giving what we can.

So while the heat has finally abated today, the wind hasn't.  After going to a local sports/hunting store to pick up some collapsable 5 gallon jugs, I could see the plume of smoke east of town were our friends are dealing with trying to piece their lives together.

Still no rain in the forcast. Still dry as a bone.

We are experiencing the worst one year drought on record. It's never been this bad in a single year before.

In the 1950's Texas went through a 7 year drought. That one still holds the recorded record for multi-year drought.

I sincerely hope what we are experiencing isn't a harbinger of things to come.

What scares me now is when this drought finally breaks. When ground gets rock hard dry then gets inundated with water from a massive rain storm, it doesn't soak in. You would have better luck trying to saturate a piece of steel.

That's the other shoe waiting to drop.

I know, this got a bit serious, but things are getting a bit interesting.

Just letting you know, I'm still alive and yes, hope to plant something this fall. If I could plant Oxygen and Hydrogen and grow water, I would. ;)

Remember, Green is Good! But it's even better when it's actually green and not straw colored.

Cheers!

Edit: I just learned that my two friends, that are the firepeople out in Bastrop fighting the fire, lost their home. Crap.

Edit #2: The pigs are okay. :)

Edit #3: A new fire has cropped up. Not far from SuburbanGuys home. Brushfire. Hope it doesn't grow. It started from sparks thrown off the wheels of a passing train. Yeah, it's that dry. It's about 3 miles (as the crow flies) away. A co-worker who lives in that area had to evac.

Edit #4: 9/8/11 The Bastrop fire is now 35% contained. I heard that 2 more of my friends lost their homes. Austin was socked in with smoke yesterday. My friend, who is the firefigher with her husband (who lost their homes), was recounting to me some of what she experienced. She told me that all of the volunteer firefighters in the Smithville/Bastrop house lost their homes.

One image she related to me was eerie. As she  wsa driving down hwy 71 (still closed to the public), the area was all burned flat. Like a "moonscape".  Little "pocket" fires were still burning with no one working them, because the firemen were working the big one. Suddenly, she saw several of her friends Arabian horses  running free trying to find safety. Arabians and ash.

Dog Gone It!

Ugh...

Suburban Guy is tired. Not from working too hard, but from lack of enough sleep.

Why, you ask?

Here's why...



Yeah, he's cute. But he's like 10% cute and 90% teeth. It's been a full time job to keep him from gnawing my fingers and toes off. You can just see the evil in his little eyes. Speaking of which, if you track his eyeline you will notice he's not looking at the lens, but at my fingers. "Mmmmm, food".

Oh yeah, right, the garden. Yeah, that.

Ugh.

Well, I'm just going to quickly update things then offer up some picts.

My onions and garlic? Due to the extended freezes we had this winter, they were greatly stunted. The onions looked more like chives and the garlic looked more like mini-onions. I can still use both. In an ironic twist of fate, the year before last, I planted 36 wedges and got 34 bulbs. And those lasted 6 months. Here comes the irony. So this past year, planted 76 wedges, hoping to grow enough to last all year long. Well, with the freeze, the stunted garlic will amount to about...6 months worth.

Next winter I will string X-mas lights through the bed to keep them warm. I will take pretty pretty pictures.

Boy, I'm so freakin' tired, even I'm bored with my writing. No spark, no wonder, no...pazazz. I swear I will make a better effort next time to make with the funny.

First, the effort to grow my own peach tree from a seed. The effort proved...fruitless. See what I did there? Clever, huh? (Hey, give me a break, I'm doing my best with the funny making!) It never sprouted, this year, I will try one more time,  if it craps out, I'll go the pre-grown kind.

And the mystery melons? they will remain a mystery. A freeze came in and they croaked. But I was able to cut them from the vine. And here's the necropsy, wait, that's for animals, can't be an autopsy, that's for humans. Hmmm, melonopsy?...
Yeah...


Fairly good size...

And the visual macabre'...


Any ideas?

If I only had another month...

Okay, here are the updates and the picts.

To-MAH-toes...


(there are seven more to-MAH-toe plants beside this one)

And now the Mini-To-MAH-toes...


(only one other than this one)

Zukes, Sage and Basil, oh my!



I have 4 summer squash plants as well, but they aren't really all that big yet, so I will spare you the garden-porn.

My grape vine survived the winter and is actually growing. Thought my fig tree bought it, but it's very much alive and kicking. And my lemon tree...well, it's still alive, but frankly, I'm not expecting lemons this year or the next. I have to figure out what the heck is going on with that freakin' thing!

My blackberry and blueberry bushes are back and are flowering...





So there it is, my humorless blog this week.

I leave you with this amazing amazing amazing video. Did I say it was amazing? This is a phenominal artist that combines, art, nature, engineering and pure brilliance. It's a truly inspiring video. Frankly, this video is filled with clever beauty. Enjoy!

Remember, Green is Good!

HELLO...Hello...hello...

Well, frankly, right here. No, not sitting continually in front of the computer...well, not much anyway.

I was doing stuff. Honestly. Hey! Don't give me that look!

any-WAY...

It was a cold an miserable winter. I lost all kinds of things. Dead Dead Dead. The mystery mellons bought the farm.  never figured out just what they were. I'm going to go with Triffids.

Lost my aloe plant. (blush) Forgot to bring it in. And a few other odds and ends that shall go nameless.

But spring has sprung and I'm filled with vim and vinegar. What is vim anyway? You never hear people say, "get a load of that guy, he's full of vim!"

So what has been going on?

Well, aside from the colder than normal winter, a lot!

I have my spring planting in and it's already bursting out!

Sorry, no pics this week. Suburban Dweller is in the mists of acquiring a new photographic implement of death. I should have new and improved photos next week. So hang in there.

In the mean time, I put in 8 tomato plants, 2 cherry tomato plants, onions, basil, summer squash, zucchini and, for the first time, lima beans. A fav of Suburban Dwellers very Significant Other.

I replanted potatoes. So the great experiment begins again.

Lemon tree is still kicking, but still confusing to me. My grape vine is back but honestly, I don't know how. The fig tree just about croaked but that is coming back with a vengeance. The blackberry's are virtually bullet proof. "freeze? we don't feel no stinking freeze!" Blueberry is hanging in there. And just about all my flowers with the exception of a lantana have returned from the dead.

So, yes, I'm still alive and I have a few things up my sleeve for this season, so stay tuned.

Oh I do, have one photo...



This is Paulie. He's the latest addition to the Suburban Dweller's household.

He's a Rottweiler mystery mix. I was watering my plants last Friday out in front of the house, when this little guy strolled up. I thought he was my neighbor's, since he was whistling at him, but when I asked, "nope, not mine". He didn't want him either.

So I took him around back. He was filthy with fleas and just plain filthy.

Scrub scrub scrub wash wash wash. Clean Paulie.

I will give little updates on the bringing up of Paulie, the things he destroys, digs up and other wise pees on as he grows into his paws. :)

So, until next week...

Woof bark snarl, ruff, bark bark...

That's canine for...

Green is Good!

Odds and ends, catching up, a little bit of this and that...

I know, where the heck have I been?

Well, frankly, right here, but just not having a whole lot to say. So get off my back!! I'm only one person!!! Ahem, excuse the outburst, I think the pressure of blogging is getting to me. So much pressure...yawn...I think I'll have another back massage...

What was I saying?

Oh yeah, I've kicked back a little bit, resting before the next big push.  Bricking up the ground under the clothes line, putting down the first of our backyard paths and, eventually, building not one but two arbors.

But until then, I have been suffering from lack of rain. Usually we are getting buckets right now, but nothing measurable for well over a month and a half. WTF?

Once upon a time, in my primordial days, I worked in the film industry. While on set one day, out in the middle of the high Californian Desert, a few of us were talking about it being a tough shoot. (middle of summer in the upper 90's and over 100 at times) I expressed the want of rain. (that's a day ender in the film biz especially when the shoot is a fast food commercial and the stars have to give a convincing performance of how much they enjoy wolfing down near real tacos on a glorious sun kissed set)

One of my buddies told me a story about another shoot he was on. The same want of rain was rampent among the crew. One local hammer (grip), who also happened to be a Native-American, kneeled down and drew a crude version of a turtle in the dirt. He then told everyone to spit in it. They all looked at him confused. He told them, "you want rain, right? Well, spit in the turtle". The 1st AD (assistant director) got wind of this and laughed.

That inspired the rest of the crew to spit in the turtle. (AD's have a running rep of being jerks. Sorry Merle, I'm not including you in that reputation...really). Well, not 10 minutes later clouds began forming. One half hour later the shoot was called due to rain, which was now coming down in buckets. The moral of the story? Don't piss off the turtle.

What the heck am I eluding to? I've been drawing freaking turtles and clamming in them weekly and still no freakin' rain! There is some cruel joke going on here and I'M NOT IN ON IT!!!!

The monster tanks are just about empty and the back up barrels are done. I have to start using city water probably on Thursday. What's the big deal right? The big deal is, we are going through water averaging right now. That means whatever our water volume totals to during this time, that's what our water average rate per month will be for the rest of the year! This is why I used the monster tanks and the barrels. Otherwise our water bill would kill us. Sigh.

By whatever means y'all divine water, please sent it our way. (Yes, I'm pleading)

In the mean time, we have been dealing with this...


Beautiful isn't it? Yeah...well...that's after it is first, this...



A heartless eating machine. Leopard Moth Caterpillars.

Since I don't use any pesticides, natural or otherwise, I'm out there pulling these little buggers off the plants. There were, at one point, literally hundreds in my yard.  Frankly, I think we were a little lucky, we didn't get too much damage. Well, except my grape vine. Oh, the poor little thing. It's my little buddy and it got hit hard. I hope it makes it. I don't know if it will. :(

I pull these things off my plants and they act all insulted! They curl up and poop on me. ON ME!! Lousy little #$@%@#!!!

They appear to have finally tapered off. I thought that before, then they came back with a vengeance.

Now for the updates. Well, remember the mystery melons? Oddly, we got hit by a very bizarre, out of the blue, frost last Thursday. Here is the after pic of the melons...



I know, pretty grim. However...



They still live! Not only that, but still are growing. And get this...



Another type of mystery melon!! But here's the worst part; we are expecting another frost this coming Thursday evening. I will cover them up, but I fear the worst. :(

Funny thing though, while the melons suffered, my cabbage...



Shrugged it off as did my broccoli...



However, all is not well in Mudville...



That's my lettuce and those white dots? That's !#%$@#$^#R% White Fly!!!! Arggg!!!

It's all my fault, I planted a different type of lettuce than my usual type. This stuff is getting eaten alive. I couldn't fine my usual seed last month, so I had to use this stuff. Grrrrr...

However, I was able to get my hands on a packet of the good stuff, this past weekend. Oh man, really really good stuff. Wait, we are talking about lettuce right?

So I ripped out two of the four rows of the bad stuff, and put the good stuff down. I want to compare growth rates and pest effects. Frankly, due to the very unseasonably weird warm weather, many of the warm weather bugs are still around. Heck, I got bit by a mosquito tonight!  Little cretin.

We shall see...

Significant Other and I have been wanting to plant a fruit tree of some sort. We COULD just go out and buy a sapling, but what kind of fun would that be? Why do it the easy way? My middle name is: take the hard road. Hmmm, that's four middle names. Well, that's not really my middle name. It's actually Vincent, but on some planet in the universe it translates to "Take the hard road!". That has to be a very weird planet.

ANYway...

We are trying to grow a peach tree from scratch! (what is "from scratch" mean anyway?)

First eat a peach...



The Prez and I go way back...

Then take the husk...


and a hammer and crack it...



Voila!

Peach pit...



Then take a medium ball jar, put in some top soil, some compost and a bit of water. Make it moist but not soaked. Too wet and the pit will rot.

Push the pit down about 2 inches, put on the cap real tight and stick it in your refrigerator...



After about 4 weeks you should see some whispy white roots forming. At that point, put it in a pot with potting soil and lightly water. Hopefully, it will begin to grow.

Ideally, you want to begin this process in early November (zone 8).

I will keep you updated as it grows. Keep your fingers crossed.

Come the spring, your peach tree should be ready to plant.

Other than that, I planted my garlic 2 weeks ago. 72...cloves...(thanks Sis).

Half of which have already sprouted!

And I have my first...

Mutant Strawberry...kind of freaky isn't it?

Anyway, that's the latest. Just a smattering of stuff. Hopefully, after a day of bloating myself on turkey, I will be inspired to go sweat off my food baby doing yard work.

Yeeeeah....

Anyway, the hallowed season of competitive food eating is now upon us. Y'all have a wonderful giving of thanks and thanks for giving this week. Think of those who who don't have enough to eat and think of those who have too much to eat. Then think of a way in which we can make those even. :)

Green is Good.

Drive safe. 

We interrupt our regular programming...

Several weeks ago I blogged about how I made my own stevia extract.

In case you weren't around for that, or just like looking at the pretty pictures, here is a link back in time...

http://suburbandweller.blogspot.com/2010/08/i-got-your-stevia-right-here.html

Oddly, this particular post had a higher than normal number of hits than all my other rants and raves.  I had a grand total of 7 1/2 people!! 2 more than my regular views!  I don't know if I could handle such fame.

Anyway, other than the goat herder in upper volta with his wi-fi stapled to the back of his yak, the other was a company from up Seattle way.

They are Steviva.

http://www.steviva.com/

If they found my site interesting, they didn't say, I guess they were trying to be polite. :)

ANYway...

They wrote me and asked if I would review a few of their products.  Completely perplexed by this, I didn't know what else to say, but YES!

(To quote Ghostbusters, "when someone asks if you are a god, you say yes!)

In my grand moment of a momentary ego boost, the only thought that flew through my head was, "They love me! They really love me!!!" (Honestly, I have been trying to work in that movie quote for some time.)

Here are the products they sent me...



The appear to be a very socially and environmentally friendly company.

From their website:

-all plastic packaging is made from 100% recycled PET plastic.

-fleet vehicles run on alt fuels

-manufacturing and offices are powered by renewable energy sources

-all paper is recycled

and best of all...

-they give a portion of their net profits to environmental concerns.

This was enough for me to try their product. :)

I had a chance to try the Fructevia and the Stevia.

Steviva is a concentrate of stevia in powdered form.  I found this works very well as a sugar substitute.  It dissolves very well in hot tea or coffee.   In ice tea, it clumps a little bit, but with a little stirring it dissolves nicely.

It had a very nice flavor. (If you aren't accustomed to it, stevia will taste little different than sugar, but after a while you won't even notice)

The Fructevia has a very nice smooth sugary flavor due to the infusion of fructose fruit sugar.  I found this dissolved a little better in cold drinks. No problem with hot drinks.

Fructevia is used for baking and they suggest using half as much as you would normally use when using sugar for baking.  I will have to give that a shot.  I will give my findings in future blogs.

Overall, I believe these to be two very fine products.  I would suggest their use to anyone looking for a high quality sugar substitute.

Check out their site and give them a try. :)

Meanwhile, out in the garden...

I put in my garlic for the season: 77 dealies.  (Honestly, please someone tell me what each little wedge of garlic is called.  It's a little tough talking seriously about gardening with other gardeners and referring to the garlic things as "dealies". LOL)

And I think I finally put to rest the mystery behind the Mystery Plant...



(Thank you, Mr. Hand)

Looks like watermelon to me.  I took this pic yesterday.  It's already about doubled in size.  So, yeah, watermelon.

Now, the question is: will it make it to full size before our first freeze?  That is the 64 thousand dollar question.

I will post updates on the potentially ill fated watermelon.

This was a quick one.

Next week: I have no idea what I'm going to write about!!

Until then: Green is Good and sometimes very mysterious.

Cheers!