Hey! Butter butter butter, Swing! Butter!!!

6 flowers, a grape vine, several beets and a few turnips later, here I am.

Ugh. It's been a week.

First, I thinned out my beets and turnips, then replanted a few in other areas. Then, we had a massive storm. Tornado warnings, 40+ mile an hour winds, hail and lots of rain. As it swept in, in the wee hours o'the morn (2am-ish), I thought to myself, "self, those little guys I planted, should do pretty well". I said with a self satisfied grin of complete stupidity.

"Why the stupid grin?", you ask." Suburban Guy, you like are so adept at gardening, you have like green stuff growing on you".

Well, I do have green stuff growing on me, but it's not because if gardening...take that anyway you want. But I digress, ANYWAY...

So I sauntered out to the garden, all full of myself, "I am indeed the master of my domain!", I mused. "perhaps, I will grow prize winning orchids next then, if I feel like it, I will become a brain surgeon!" So, as I smuggely cast an eye upon my newly transplanted seedlings, much to my shock and surprise, they were all dead! Croaked, pushing up the daisies, taking the old dirt nap!!!

WTF???

Arrrrgggghhhhh!!!! I screamed at the sky, "Mother Nature, you are indeed a cruel mistress!!!!"

Sigh, the little guys, just couldn't take the storm. And oddly, their untimely death affected me more than I realized. It put me in a real funk for the rest of the day. Yeah, I eat them when they are all grown up and yummy, but they are my little pals when they are growing.

Wow, that's some really sick psychological stuff there. I need to see a shrink.

It reminded me of The Simpson's episode where Homer laments over the death of his pet lobster, Pinchie, but then eats it as self punishment. Enjoying eat butter soaked bite, then crying over the lost of his pet, between bites.

So, the little guys are gone. Oh well, I just replaced them will clones...new seeds. Meh. >Shrug<.

Okay, what does any of this have to do with the title of this blog, nothing. Just a really long side note that I needed to expunge from my soul.

Okay, butter. I eat it, you eat it, but do you make it? No, this won't be a little house on the prairie episode where...MA is losing her mind stirring away at the butter churn.

Laura: Ma, whatcha doin'?

Ma: losing my mind one churn at a time.

Laura: oh...um, can I go out and play?

Ma: kill me now.

That must have ended up on the editing rooms floor.

So, if you don't want to lose your mind and want to have fresh homemade butter; all you need is a ball jar w/ lid, a marble and some heavy cream.

Mr. Hand shows off the implements of death.

Fill it about 3/4 full with the heavy cream

Either put the marble in before or after, it doesn't make a difference. Just make sure everything is really clean.

Screw the lid on really tight. Put a movie in the DVD player, sit down and start shaking.

You don't need to go crazy, just a gentle figure 8 shake.

Then quite suddenly, about 20 minutes later (depends on the size of the jar and how much cream you have) you have butter.

(I know, it's a weird shape. Kind of like Elephant Man butter.)

The butter will separate from the butter milk. Pure off the butter milk into another container, then gently rinse the butter with cold water to get any remaining butter milk. It's really soft at this point and should be refrigerated right away.

The next day it will be ready for use.

The butter milk, which so many "authorities" tell us is EVIL, is actually quite yummy and if you use raw milk, like I do, it's actually really good for you. Yummmm. I mix mine with a little maple syrup. Very high in Beta-carotene. Not sure about the pasteurized stuff. So if you don't want to drink it, you can use it in making butter milk pancakes. :)

The Great Mozzarella Experiment went...okay. I'm going to try it again, hopefully with better success. I will give the do's, don't's and what to look out for, when I try again.

In the mean time, here are some quick photos.

Update on the Beets that are still alive...

Pulled the first onion...

And finally, our blackberry bushes are in bloom...

As of this writing, there are a few little "teeny" berries appearing. I just have to keep away the %$#%#%$ squirrels.

And hopefully by next writing, I will be blogging about my new water totes. They will be replacing the blue demons. http://suburbandweller.blogspot.com/2008/11/what-are-those-blue-things-part-2.html

What are totes? Stay tuned to this incredibly exciting blog and fined out. Hey! wake up!

Until next time,

Green is Good!

Couldn't hit the broad side of a...um...shed....

Once upon a time, many moons, many many moons, many many many...(enough with the moons) ago, any film I was working on that I was shooting, I would sing this song at the start of the shoot....

Don't ask me why. Maybe it was the only TV show theme I knew all the words to.

Little did I know at the time, how life would imitate art..very bad art.

As one of my many tasks I set out for myself when I started this insane endeavor, I had to move my shed.

Stunning, isn't?

My favorite part is the rust! :) So earthy!

So anyway, last Saturday, I took the #@*$ing thing apart.

Like a shed of cards, huh?

So the much more Significant Other and I, trotted over to Home Desperate to pick out spray paint.

SO: We should get all the paint now.

Me: I don't know. I think we should wait. (was getting a bad and expensive feeling)

SO: Really? Why not? This way you don't have to come all the way back here.

Me: Let's hold off.

At times, I get ideas that form in my head, but can't exactly verbalize them at the moment. I call these my caveman thoughts.

If there was a thought bubble over my head, it would read something like this, "Me think this bad. Me not know why. Me not buy. Me explain later. Me need bronto-burger."

So, we do buy a can of red, a can of white and a can of primer, to test the colors.

This is what one can of black primer covered...

The thought, "not a whole h*ll of a lot" comes to mind. Plus I was battling the wind and probably lost a good 3rd of a can to gusts.

So now with my new information, my inner caveman can now have a conversation with the inner bean counter part of me.

Caveman me: this not cover cr*p

Bean counter me: right you are, my hairy friend. In fact, it doesn't cover much at all.

Caveman me: how many bones it cost?

Bean counter taps away on giant adding machine. Rips off receipt and hands it over to Caveman me.

Caveman me: F THIS!

Bean counter me: Not very economical is it?

Caveman me: me hungry.

So after figuring out the square footage, the amount of cans I will need, I found the result would be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay expensive. Disheartened, I broke the news to my SO. She pondered for a moment and then said, "is there another way or different kind of paint?"

I had one of those coming to the mount moments. "duh, why did I not think of that myself, duh?" Daftly, I responded with, "I will check".

Lo and behold! Behr paint makes a paint and primer. So a can of "Bleached Linen" and a can of "Gerianium" later, I'm all ready to go.

(I want to give my SO a special thanks for cutting through pea soup of my brain. That was the "fog" part of my brain).

Cost of each 1 gallon can of paint: $36.95 plus tax. A gigantic cost savings. Let me say that again, A GIGANTIC COST SAVINGS. :)

So Sunday, I start paining...

And painting...

And painting...

Now that I had this stuff started, I had to move the old shed base. After unscrewing the wood floor, much to my delight, I found that the center section contained concrete. Weee...

Two weeks before, I had prepped the new area. More or less leveled it. (I knew once I moved the base into the spot, I would have to level it again.).

So I grabbed an end and pulled...and pulled...and pulled...

There it is on the right. The brown bald spot is were it used to be.

So it's now Saturday, my SO is working, however, she will have tomorrow (Sunday) off. I thought, well, when I took those walls down last week, it was pretty windy. Thus making the deconstruction a colossal exercise in patience. Trying to keep the pieces straight and not bending in the wind, proved to be quite the challenge. I'm thinking, "I will need SO's help if I'm going to get this done. I'll have to wait till Sunday".

But this being Saturday and Sunday being a WHOLE day away, I get the"itch to finish". SO is working and I need her help. And besides, I have a lot of other work to do. However, I'm just looking at the now painted walls and roof scattered around my yard and they beckon to me. build me...Build Me..BUILD ME. Ugh, I couldn't take it!! There was virtually no wind to speak of, so I thought, "what the h*ll".

Screw, screw, bolt, bolt, lose balance, smash toe, cut leg, swear a lot; I finally got it all together.

Come Sunday, with the help of my SO, we put in the last few bolts. I now give you...

Not to shabby, if I say so myself.

With some elbow grease, a bit of swearing, 70 bucks of paint, and a burning desire to get that #$%*ing done, it's finished.

I toasted it with a nice Gin & Tonic. :)

With that behind me, I will next be putting up new clotheslines right next to my little red shed. A little "T-Bar" number, which I will also blog about, much to my total of 2 1/2 readers delight.

But before then, as I mentioned in the previous post, I will be making mozzarella cheese. That should prove to be very amusing.

And as a little new feature, I will be posting bi-weekly picts of one of my beets plants growing! Wow...what a thrill...I don't know if I can contain my anticipation...please, more mind numbing photos of plants growing...

HEY! At least it isn't real time video! "Hey kids, tired of watching paint dry? Watch my plants instead! Oooo, watch them sway in the wind!"

When last we left our little friend the Beet, he was about 1/2 tall, now hold onto your hats!!

It's a whole 1 1/2 inches!!!! Oh the humanity!!

Fine. Whatever.

I will leave you with this last pick.

Remember, Green is Good!!!

My teeth are sad...

No really, they are. I have been going to the UT dental school in San Antonio for a while now getting some, shall we say, major work done. Well, there was a set back today and well, rather than protest, my teeth are just sad.

Okay, that was pathetically saccharine.

Anyway, what do my melodramatic teeth and my garden have to do with each other? I use my teeth to eat, that's what! Jeez. Yes, I'm cranky. LOL

So, after a long grueling day (12 hours, driving back and forth, experiencing complications) I'm home.

Since we have been experiencing ultra glorious weather these days, (74 high, in the 50's at night), this Suburban Dweller finds a nice respite in the garden. And after today, the garden was especially welcoming.

Things are happening.

Just 2 short weeks ago, I planted a whole mess o'stuff.

Tomatoes (tomata's to those folks from NY).These are of the heirloom variety. I know, how ultra green hip I am. (ugh)

(I rotated the pick, I swear it! photobucket just doesn't want to work with me today!!! grits teeth (ouch), shakes fist at sky)

Then the Cucumbers...

I built this neat little trellis for it. Chicken wire and green metal garden stakes. 3' x 3'

Can't beat those Beets...

(again the demon spawn also known as photobucket didn't want to work with me again)

Zucchini...

These little buggers just shot up. They were already out of the ground after a couple of days!

Turnips...

Also known as potatoes ugly cousin. But boiled and flavored with some butter and salt, man, they are yummy.

And finally...

There was a movie with Steve Martin a few years back entitled, "My Blue Heaven", he plays a Henry Hill type character who is put into the witness protection program after turning states evidence against some of his mafia friends. He has a huge DA haircut (jet black) and a blue shark skin suit. He's relocated to San Diego. He sticks like a sore thumb. He has a very heavy NY accent. Anyway, in one scene, he's grocery shopping. As he peruses the produce, much to his dismay, he exclaims, "What?? You got no Arugula???"

I got's your Arugula, right here!

Lastly, someone wanted to see my garden. Here is a late day pic...

What I listed above; is what I have planted so far is in the garden in the background. In the small gardens, is what is wrapping up from the winter. Onions, Garlic, Lettuce, Spinach and Cabbage. The broccoli and cauliflower I have let go to seed. I explained why in a previous post.

The middle garden appears as if it has weeds in it.

(photobucket hates me)

No, no my friend, that's Austrian Pea. It's a nitrogen fixer for the soil. When that gets turned under and some fresh compost is added, that bed will be ready to go. That should be around mid April. Just in time for summer squash, pumpkin and a maybe a few other goodies.

After walking among the green, my teeth are surprisingly less sad. They still have issues, don't get me wrong, but they are, for the moment, relaxed.

So there it is, my vent for today! :)

Cheers and remember Green is Good!

It's alive!! ALIVE!!

Wow, another blog entry in under 2 weeks, am I seeing straight?

WHATever.

We have finally entered the warm weather. 80 degrees today! And it's only March 14th! Ugh. That means it should be somewhere in the billions come July. weee...

Over these past few months, I would look upon my lemon tree with concern.

Me: Honey, is the lemon tree losing it's leaves?

She: Um, it seems to be a little bit, is it supposed to?

Me: (shrugs shoulders) I don't know.

We exchange concerned looks.

Several weeks go by and all of the leaves have fallen off. I'm convincing my self that this is completely normal. Secretly, I think we have a dead tree. I keep a stiff upper lip.

I google and google, but all the information I get is completely vague.

Various testimonies: Mine kept their leaves all winter! Mine is still green! Not only am I still getting lemons, but it just took the bar exam and passed!!!

These people are on crack.

Our little tree was now reduced to a sickly looking stick tree.

I'm feeling guilty at this point. Did I leave it out when it was too cold? Are the roots damaged? Why are their 8 hotdogs and only 6 buns in their various packages?

So last week, we looked rather dismayed at our now very denuded tree. I finally found a link for a "how to prune a Meyer's Lemon Tree".

We pruned and pruned. According to the how-to, we could basically take it down to a nub and the thing would grow back. Color me skeptical.

Here is what it looks like now.

Sticks in a pot. Sigh. The various "twigs" were strong and somewhat green, but I was not hopeful.

Until...

IT. IS. ALIVE!!!!

WHEW!!!

Looking at it this morning (this photo was taken yesterday), there are more of these little green guys!!

Nature, it does some very kooky crazy things!

When dealt with lemons, make lemon meringue pie!! Screw the lemon-ade.

I was hopeful, so I gazed around to my other zombie plants...

Mr. Fig

Although you can see green on this little guy, you have to remember one thing, it was kept in my garage all winter.

I had read some on line about some guy that does just that. So I took his advice and the scary thing is, while in the garage, it started to bloom!!! Hardly any water, virtually no light other than the very attractive florescent bulbs!! And still it started to grow!! Freaky.

And finally...

Our Blackberry bushes. These I thought were dead for sure. But rumors of their demise were grossly exaggerated.

Not too pretty. I would run out in the middle of the winter any time there was a threat of a frost or hard freeze, wrap them in old sheets and hope for the best. I hadn't seen much going on with them and was about to write them off when...

As Mr. Hand hi-lights, there is indeed life!!! So blackberry jam this year!! That is, of course, the #$#^$@ squirrels don't get to them first.

So once again, nature takes me to school and spanked me. "Don't worry, if you treat me right, I will repay you!" I am humbled. :)

Next up, I will be making my own Mozzarella cheese. You heard right. I will be including photos of the insane process.

And on a side note: I want to wish my friend Lisa and her very talented husband Mark, a gigantic congratulations!!!! Mark, you see, was the writer for the Academy Award winning movie, "The Cove". To quote Humphrey Bogart, "this is the stuff dreams are made of". Cheers!!!

And as always, Green is always good, and in fact it's pretty dang humbling. )

Sprunging...

My own word, much like "squoze" as in I squoze the lemons. Don't look at me that way! Fine, roll your eyes.

Anyway...

Spring has finally arrives in these here parts (like the Texan lingo?). Things are growing, lawns are turning into mini jungles and the buds on the various growing things are, well, budding.

So as such, I actually have something to write about.

The winter was an interesting one here. Granted it was nothing like the snowinsane land of the northeast (thank goodness), but we did have our freezes, and even a little bit of the white stuff from the sky. Which amounts to a "snow emergency" here. A dusting is the equal of the "snowpocalypse" back east. A little water, a little snow (not even sticking) and the city turns into a collection of inept automobile spazzes.

That aside, signs of growth abound and as such, I am getting ready for this seasons planting.

I added another large garden...

For a total square footage of 160 square feet. That's plenty!!

My mission this year is to grow as much as I possibly can.

Up to this point, I have been taking notes and trying various different types of veggies to see what grows, how well it grows and it's yield.

It will be interesting. I hope I can grow more than we can ingest. What we can't gobble, I will preserve and what we don't want to preserve (I mean, how many pickled beets can you eat??), we will gladly give away to our neighbors. Mending fences, Robert Frost and all that.

As the last of my winter garden winds down, I am in the process of saving seeds. Which I highly recommend to anyone out there to do. This time around, I'm seeing if I can save both Broccoli and Cauliflower. Which will require winnowing. What the heck is winnowing?

It's this...

It's people taking dirt and throwing it up in the air!!! Lacking the stylish head wear, I will be doing the same thing on a much smaller scale. These folks are winnowing rice, which means: separating the husks from the seed.

So I will be taking my husks of broccoli and cauliflower, crushing them slightly, then flinging them in the air!! Weee! And yes, I'm looking forward to doing this! LOL

Why go through the trouble? Why not just buy seeds, like the rest of the 35% of the earths population does? Because, wanting to be true to my want to grow only organic vegetables, this is, to borrow from Spinal Tap, going to 11. Plus, as time wears on and as the price of oil goes up, transportation of all things will become more expensive, including seeds. Saving my own, will keep me growing the things I want and like.

This coming year will be big changes for our yard, I will be 1) moving and painting our shed, 2) building a new clothes line, 3) building two arbors, 4) getting two 250 gallon water totes and maybe 4) putting in a new deck. All the while, also putting in more flowers (and replacing some that didn't make it through the winter). It's ambitious, but at least I don't have the house to worry about, it's done. Yay!

I now leave you with some photos...

That's broccoli in bloom, pretty, aren't they?

The bees are back! Hard at work and taking care of the dull stuff of pollination! Remember, every third bite of food we take is responsible because of these little dudes. Just think of what our lives would be like without them. Not pretty.

That's cauliflower about to bloom, I have no idea what the flowers will look like. I will take a pic and post it, when they do.

A blue berry bush I'm about to put in...

Sage

Mint

Chives

Lastly, some color...

Pansies for Rosies grave. :)

For those in the colder climes, you still have a few weeks to put in your spring crops, but you still can begin your starter plants from seeds and for those of us in the soon to be hotter than a frying skillet part of the country; now is the time to start planting. The last frost has come and gone.

You all take care, try and grow a little something. In a lot, a pot or a slot, every little bit helps.

Cheers and remember, Green is not only good, it's a great thing!

Rosie 1995-2009

She was my pal.

Easy as Cake! Piece of Pie!

It's been a long hot miserable summer. To quote from the movie Biloxi Blues, "Africa hot".

With that said, we were still able to actually grow something!

Oddly, with no rain I was still able to channel my Italian grandfather for his tried and true method of procuring water through draught sapping insanity!

The hose.

We ran out sometime in July and I had to resort to filling my barrels with, gasp, city water! Oh the humanity!

We are now looking into investing in two 250 gallon "tubs". They aren't as pretty as the blue demons, but they will do. Plus, they have a metal cage around them so, maybe, I'll try vining some grapes to them.

The Urbandweller is in a annoyed mood. I have a splitting headache and my, now very mixed up, dog just pooped outside, stepped in it and tracked it all over the house.

So, being the natural people we are, no caustic cleansers for us, no way, uh huh, nope, we use water and vinegar. Yes, it works actually really great , but you have to get accustomed to the vinegar smell...mix that with the flora of dog poop and you have a rather nasty...bouquet. Fortunately, it passes quickly and everything is very clean.

Cheap and clean, that's me! LOL

Okay, enough of my moaning and groaning.

Here's the "bounty" from this summer.

A little before and after action...

From this...

You get this...

A blurry sideways pic of mini squash, but you get the idea. They actually grew bigger but they were in my stomach before I could get a photo. We had a pretty good yield. Some where between 10 and 15. Not bad for not having the slightest clue as to how to grow them.

Next...

First you have this...

Then this...

And finally...

That's right, I made pumpkin pies from pumpkins I grew!!! It's been a very weird abitition of mine for a very long time. By the way, this is a Honey-Pumpkin Pie recipe. No sugar for sweet, just honey.

My pumpkin endeavor wasn't the tri-fector, but that's for next year.

The Tri-Fector is: Jack-O-Lantern, roasted seeds and a pie.

I hadn't a clue as to how to grow this guys. I yielded 3. Yes, just 3, but it was enough for two pies, a chiffon thingy and a little left over.

Interesting side note: notice that the yellow summer squash blossoms were yellowish and so is the squash and the pumpkin blossoms were orange-ish and well so were the pumpkins. Yeah, I know it's like, "thank you, Mr. Obvious", but nature is just so amazingly simple yet remarkably complex.

Moving on.

Now then. First you have this...

Then you have this...

A well lit bowl of lemons!

Our little dwarf Meyer's Lemon tree yielded about 18 lemons! Zested and squozed, we now have plenty of lemon innards to last us a good while. Sadly, I don't have photos of the blossoms. They are white will little yellow guts. And have the most unbelievable fragrance. I will make sure I post those next year.

So now, you ask, "Well, Urbandweller, that's all just fine and good, but what of that root celler? What might be the status of that?"

And I answer, "shut up...". Sigh. It beat me. That crazy hole in the ground beat me. I was digging that bad boy by hand. I got a total of 3 feet down. Didn't hit limestone, but it was taking so freaking long, that it was postponing everything else. (and killing my back) So now it's a filled hole. The hole is still there, just...filled. Get off my back.

I will continue with my plan of moving my storage shed and at some point in the future...never...I will take up the project once again.

If society collapses, then I will ask the neighbors to help and we will have a grand o'celler diggin' party! Boy, won't that be the time, huh?

Right.

I leave you with the following photo below. As a kid I would find Cicadas crystalists everywhere but never the Cicadas. I would hear them endlessly, but alas, never see them. So when this moment presented itself, I couldn't pass it up and had to save it for posterity.

Remember Green is good!!!

Cheers. :)

Worm poop, it's not just for breakfast anymore!

Calm down, I'm talking compost.

So this weekend I had to finally reap the harvest of the worms hard work. I wonder what Marx would think of that? LOL

I will be in real bad shape if they ever rise up and start a revolution. Tiny little pitchforks and torches!!! Thankfully they don't have thumbs.

ANY way, here is the basic set up:

The barrel that I used for my compost has a quick release lid, (probably should have taken a photo of that, oh well) for a nice side access to the compost.

Now, if you're like me and had been once upon a time perusing various composters on line, you will notice, the model standing next to the said composter is 1) clean 2) smiling and (most important) 3) has copious amounts of fresh clean debris free compost!

Me on the other hand is 1) filthy 2) smiling inwardly, swearing outwardly 3) I do have copious amounts of compost BUT it requires sifting.

So I thought to my self, "Self? Do these composters magically sift the contents?" Yes and no, the cheap ones don't but yet, they still have the clean smiling, spokes person with copious amounts of debris free compost aka they lie. The ones that are really expensive, not only have various stages of sifters, they also have an auger like devise within the composter that takes the raw compost material through various stages of screens so when it finally arrives a the exit, it's debris free!!! And results in a clean smiling spokes model. One little secret: not everything composts a the same rate.

So I can bet you, that at some point that clean smiling spokes model will have to get in to that high end composter and unclog the large pieces that didn't make it through.

Thus ending in a swear fest of epic proportions. That makes me warm and fuzzy inside. :)

So in other words, there is no free ride when it comes to composting. :)

With that rant behind us, let's examine my crazy set up. The photo yet again.

On the wheel barrel you will see my little sifter. Okay, time out, every-time I write "sifter", I think of two very strange events in my life: 1) ditty bop sifter (if you don't know what this is or means, don't worry, it's completely infantile and ridiculous) and 2) My brother and I, as kids, had to sift sand for the construction of our patio that my dad was putting in at our house where we grew up. One day, I had to find my brother because we had to sift sand. I found him over at one of his friend's house, I told him, "daddy, has a little game for us, it's called sift the sand". My brother groaned and rolled his eyes but for some reason two of his friends just thought that was completely hysterical. Meh, okay, that's out of the way.

Okay, so my sifter is basically 1/4" galvanized screen screwed to two 2x4's. Then placed over the wheel barrow. I shovel it on and "sift it". Basically, moving it around by hand. No smiling, nothing clean about it and the Texas sun allows for gi-normous amounts of sweating. Upon finishing though, I did have copious amounts of fresh clean smelling compost. What does fresh clean compost smell like? It smells like dirt.

If you aren't sure how that smells, go out side, squat down, plant your face in the ground and take a big inhale. Aside from the bugs up your nose, it will actually smell pretty good. And you will be over come by an ancient and mystical need to roll around in it. Uh huh, right. After the neighbors call the cops and you are release on bail, you will understand the need for subtleness.

Any WAY, plastic drop things (they are not cloth) are very handy and can be reused over and over. Place one under the opening of the barrel before you open it up. You will be very grateful for this. And you want to have an additional plastic drop thing for the large pieces that don't sift. They will eventually after they break down, but just not right now, okay? Get off my back!

After you have sifted a bunch of compost, run your hand through it. This is were I get all weepy. It's simply beautiful. It's so clean. It's nothing but pure nutrients. Get to know your soil. Know were it comes from and what's in it.

Okay, back to the photo again:

You see that big leaf "corral"? I use that for a number of things, 1) dry materials for my compost 2) mulch and 3) covering for walkways between my garden beds.

That's roughly 20 - 25 bags of leaves raked from our lawn over the period of 1 year that has decayed down to good solid mulch at the bottom.

Nature is an amazing machine; it oils, lubricates and replaces all its parts if you allow it to. We just have to work with it and let it do its job.

On a side note: I planted pumpkins and summer squash about 1 week ago. On the seed package directions it stated that they would show seedlings in 2 weeks. These little guys wait for no one, they are already over 3 inches tall through the mulch!

Well, that's it for today.

Remember, Green is Good!

Cheers.