Catching Up

Whew! Man, what a busy couple weeks it's been! I'm pretty well wiped out and so happy it's Friday! Of course we have a horse show tomorrow so I don't get to sleep in as much as I would like, but a couple hours is better then nothin'!

Here's a few little tidbits about what I've been up to...

I've commenced the all out WAR on the weeds at my house. I'm DETERMINED to get them under control this year! I think this war may be the death of me though. Holy cow do we have weeds! And I think they are all super charged.

Wow. Just, wow.

I haven't gotten any real pictures of our jungle over here yet, I will have to do that one of these days. It's scary and they are EVERY WHERE!!! I took a little walk around the property tonight and pretty much couldn't go into the bottom half because the grass was up to my shoulders and intertwined with thistles and sticker bushes and nettles and all sorts of viney crap that I didn't feel like fighting with.

This is one of the weeds that is taking over our fenclines.




It was pretty for all of about 4 days while it had these cute little fuschia colored blooms on it. Now, it's just 2-4 foot long vines that have very strong roots and are rather difficult to pull up. They also seem to be rather invasive.

But then, everything seems to be invasive right now!

The war on weeds is going to take some time. We've already broken down and ended up having to spray the nice lush green areas that are supposed to be gravel. We're hoping if we're really on top of it this year, spray the hell out of everything and kill it all good and dead, then hopefully we can be a little more environmentally and critter friendly in the coming years and just maintain it. That's the plan anyways. I have a feeling the weeds didn't get the memo though.

That has pretty much been my life lately. Weed, weed, weed and weed some more. There is lots of cleaning up and just general maintenance and catching up to do around the yard too. Since we didn't do a whole lot with it last year and it had been empty for a while when we moved in, there is just lots and lots of catching up to do.

We'll get there eventually. I know it's not going to happen over night.

Anyways, on to happier subjects!

All of the hanging pots and planters that I did are alive and thriving! YAY! You don't even know what a relief this is to me! I spent some dough on getting those all put together and I was very afraid I was just wasting my time and money because I tend to have a not so green thumb. In fact, lately, I've taken to calling it my black thumb of death.

This is one of the pots that sit in the corners of the porch. It was dusk when I took this so the tall flowers in the back (no clue what they are called, sorry!) were closed for the evening, but they are still looking pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself!

Here we have one of the hanging baskets. Check out how big everything has gotten! Just in the last week or so the petunias have exploded and started to bloom. I have to smile every time I pull in my driveway and see the baskets because they are just so pretty! Which, of course, was the whole reason for doing them!


Next up we have one of my absolute favorite parts of this time of year...

Is there anything better then a cleaned up, ready to eat bowl of fresh off the farm local strawberries?!?

Ok, so maybe the raspberries from my garden are even better, but I do love me some strawberries!!! I'm lucky to have one of the best fruit stands around right by my work so it's super duper easy to swing in and get a box of berries. The stand finally opened this week and I was so happy to have a box riding shot gun on my way home tonight!

I love having fresh strawberries! I like eating them plain, and probably end up eating about a pint of them just while cleaning up the half flat. I love strawberry soup, it's so good over ice cream or pound cake or just with cream. I love strawberry daquiris and margaritas. I love freezing strawberries and having them on hand for later. My favorite pie EVER is fresh strawberry pie. Mmm MMM! My sister makes one of the best cakes I've ever had with fresh strawberry slices and bavarian cream in the middle of a white cake. Atleast I think that's what it is.

So strawberries are here, summer has begun! :)

Other then that I've been working, trying to ride my horse as much as I can, which is working out to be about twice a week: when I work buffalo and when I have drill practice. Three times a week if I have a cutting show. I've also been trying to kick this very time consuming habit I've been rather obsessive about lately. I can't stop reading. Like, really, I think I have a problem. I had been reading a book here and there last year, probably averaging like 1 every few months. And then I got sucked into Twilight, which lead to the rest of the series. Twice. Then the Host, then the 8 books of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. With a few other random books thrown in in between. I just finished the latest BDB book last night and told myself I need to do some other stuff for a while. Just hold off on starting another book for a bit. But man, I'm jonesin'. It hasn't even been 24 hours and I feel lost not having a book to read! It's bad.

I'll take reading over watching tv any day of the week. I love reading. Trouble is, if a book is any good at all, I'm rather obsessive about finishing it as fast as I possibly can. Which means I'm picking it up any chance I have. Usually instead of doing something productive like weeding or dishes. It's been rather problematic lately since the days are long and the sun is out and the weeds are growing like...well, weeds. I have other things I need to be doing, but all I want to do is curl up with my book. It doesn't work so well. So I told myself that since I'm finished with the BDB series as far as it's gone so far that I'll just hold off on starting another book for a little while so I can get some stuff done around the house, maybe cook a meal or two, ride my horse a bit on my own, take some pictures, heck maybe even blog a bit and say hi to the boyfriend, see if he still remembers what I look like when I'm not buried behind a book.

I just didn't realize it would be quite this difficult. I wonder if I can quit cold turkey. Is there a support group for people like me? A 12 step plan?

Anywho, hopefully if I can stick to it I can actually get caught up on the blogs I read and blog a bit more often myself. We'll have to wait and see!

Hope you all are getting to enjoy some sun and summery stuff!