They Lived!

I actually had some sunflowers that came up this year! Wohoo! Last year I planted 3 packets of seeds and not one single one came up. I did start these inside first and then transplanted them to the flower bed. In late July or so. I was just slightly behind. Gardening and yard work isn't generally very high on my priority list.

I took this picture at the end of September. They didn't get very tall or big, and the dogs took a few out, but they bloomed so I'm happy! :)

Macro Monday

Last week my mom brought over a beautiful bouquet of flowers when she came for the family reunion that we hosted. I always get excited when I have a bouquet of flowers because I looooove getting macro shots of them! Here's a few of my faves, all straight out of the camera, save for a little cropping...

Happy Monday everyone!

Macro Monday

Here are some macro shots that I took this week.

First up, the hated thistle bloom. I think I may dislike these more then the bastard dandelions.


These are my Bachelor Buttons that actually came up. I grew these from seed, can you believe that?!? There was a row of tall sunflowers planted behind them and a row of short, bushy sunflowers planted in front of them, but 5 stalks of bachelor buttons is all that came up from 4 packets of seeds. Love it! Not.

This little buzzy guy was just chillin on the flower posing for me.

I'm really happy that atleast some of these Bachelor Buttons came up though. The packet of seeds had some sentimental value. It was in a little springy gift basket type thing that I got as my trophy the last reining show that I won. :-) I was really happy to see some come up!


Then when I was out watering I noticed this little guy soakin up some of the cool, fresh water. He had a prime spot, hanging out under the leaves in the nice cool, damp soil.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Monday!

Macro Monday

Ed from Sunday Stills has included a Macro Monday now. I'm more then happy to jump on that bandwagon! Even though I joined Sunday Stills to try to branch out, broaden my horizons, etc. etc. I'm still very partial to macro!

I was at my parents house last weekend and a trip up there just isn't complete without me taking a trip through my mom's gardens with my camera. Here are my fave shots of the day...

My Gray-ish GreenThumb

Well, I've said before that I don't really have a green thumb. I've called it my black thumb of death before because I can kill just about anything. I had a much longer record of killing things then keeping them alive. But this year, that is starting to change! YAY! So I'm considering my Black Thumb of Death more a Gray-ish Green Thumb. I'm still killing plenty of things, but I actually have just as many, if not more, things staying alive and thriving this year.

First up ~ the raspberries in the garden. They came with the house and are super duper low maintenance, they grew totally on their own last year, so they hardly count. I would like to think that all the weeding and rearranging and tlc I've given them this year is helping them produce more then they did last year though. They are really going to town so far this year so I'm thinking that may be the case. The first of the berries are allllllmost ready! Wohoo!

Next up ~ What is this I see? It's a little tomato starting to form! So cute!

Next ~ we have the Bachelor Buttons that I planted as seeds. They survived the last couple frosts (in May!) and are growing quickly. There is supposed to be a row of tall sunflowers behind them and shorter bushy sunflowers in front of them, but I don't see any of them coming up. I'm bummed about the sunflowers, but at least the Bachelor Buttons are coming up!



Here we have take #3 on the porch pot. Chey managed to get the purple leafy plant out of one of the pots and destroy it so I had to find something to replace it. Again. This is the same type of flower that was in there originally, just a different color. Next to it is a pretty vinca vine that I intended to use some where else, but ran out of room so I stuck it in there. So far so good on try #3. Hopefully they stick around, I kinda like these ones. Trying not to get too attached though, just in case.

The hanging baskets are still going strong, lookin' good and getting HUGE!

This whiskey barrel pot is in front of our garage and also up on a stump because Chey loves playing in it. I was passing my new fave nursery last weekend and decided to stop in to see if anything inspired me to try out in the whiskey barrel. I have been hesitating to plant anything in it because I didn't want to waste the time and money on it if Chey was just going to dig it up. She seemed to be leaving it alone up on the stump and there were some really pretty flowers that I was totally diggin' at the nursery so I decided to just bite the bullet and give it a try. Again, so far so good on it. Fingers crossed!



It's not the most color coordinated barrel ever, but it's colorful and pretty and I like it. I already had some bright red, white, purple and blue in there, but everything that caught my eye at the nursery was pink, orange and burgundy. It works! I can't wait til it fills in better and really gets going!

This is my favorite flower in there. Again, no clue what it's called, but it's very pretty. It's almost iridescent with oranges, yellows and pinks. I love it! The photo doesn't do it justice, of course. I want a room in my house those colors!

So my gardening skills are slowly improving. I'm not going to consider the curse of the Black Thumb of Death lifted quite yet though.

And of course we have Cheyanne. She was helping me take pictures of everything. I just love this picture! She looks like she's winking at me conspiratorially. Funny stuff! In reality, her eye was bothering her and she wouldn't open it.


Can you see all the sticky balls on her chest? It's ridiculous! They are like little velcro balls that stick every where on her! She's not so happy about me brushing them out all the time either. I hate the sticky balls!

Hope everyone had a wonderful week! I've got more updates to come, just need to find the time to get them all on here!

All Is Forgiven

Well, it didn't take me long to forgive Chey. Less then 24 hours actually. By the time I left work yesterday I couldn't wait to get home and give her some love. On my way home I got some more plants to fill in the gaping holes in the pots and informed the boyfriend of my new plan that he needed to help me with. As soon as I told him what I was thinking he jumped on board and said he had just the thing. He had set it aside, saving it for some higher purpose, which this just happened to be.

This is my new plan...

I had the boyfriend cut off these stumps from a tree we took down last year when we cleared the property. He had saved it aside because it was cedar and most of the rest of the trees were maple and cotton wood which he cut up for firewood. They look kinda cute and woodsy on the porch and will hopefully get the pots up high enough that Chey won't bother them again. I hope!!! If she does decide to bother them again, they will fall and really be toast!

I also tried to piece together plants to recreate the pot that I had before the one got completely demolished. I'm all about being matchy-matchy and balance. I didn't totally nail it, but I think I got it close enough that once it fills in it should look just fine.

Of course I couldn't find the big pretty flower that had originally been in there. I was bummed because I was rather fond of it but I was on a mission to get them filled in and be done with the whole messy business so I could totally get over it and I didn't look terribly long and hard.

I did find this strange leafy plant though...

I don't remember what it's called at the moment (of course! I cannot retain plant names to save my life), but it's got these odd bright purple leaves.

I'm still trying to decide just how exactly I feel about it. I'm not totally in love with it, but I think it will be pretty once it fills in a bit. Luckily (I'm trying to be positive here!) Chey pulled the big plants out of both of the pots so that part is balanced at least.

So here's to hoping this new plan of mine works!

Oh, and the big bonus to all of this...the cedar smells sooooooo good!!!

Dog For Sale!

New owner must not take any pride in their yard or have any attachment to their flowers, especially tulips and potted plants.

I can hardly even talk about this. I certainly can't even look at my dog right now. She is SO on my shit list right now. Being cute isn't even helping her with this one.

Remember these pots that I planted on my deck? The ones that I blogged about just a couple days ago? These big, beautiful pots that I was so proud of myself for not killing?

Well, Cheyanne helped me out with that...

Notice the big, tall, beautiful and thriving flower in the back is missing? Look at the next picture up, then come back to this one. Ya, totally massacred. Pieces of it all over the lawn. Still, the rest of this one fared pretty well.

This one on the other hand...

Not so much. Take a look at how the mini petunias in front were draping over the side so perfectly in the very top picture. Not any more! This pot was toast.

And keep in mind this was after we cleaned up and salvaged what we could, hunting down anything with roots left on the lawn, and put them back together. This was not what they looked like when we found them.

Cute isn't going to help her on this one. I don't think anything short of shitting solid gold bars would help me not be mad at her right now.

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!

Good Food, Good Friends and Hanging Baskets

I have a couple of good girlfriends that I get together with every so often. Sometimes it's just because Pioneer Woman posted a new recipe that we have to try, but we also get together to do crafty projects and figure out some tasty something or other to make for dinner.

About a month ago I had the brilliant idea of doing hanging baskets when the weather permitted. Well, the weather finally permitted yesterday and we had a blast. I grilled up some of my "Patchesburgers", my top secret recipe for the best burgers ever. Ok, totally kidding. It's super easy (bbq sauce, garlic powder, pepper, Johnnys) and they are tasty, but I'm not sure they are the best ever. I got a little creative this time around and tossed in some blue cheese (Mmmm...blue cheese!) and grilled some onions for the top. I also decided to give Pastor Ryan's Monkey Bread a try. Jrosie brought her now famous Stuffed 'Shrooms. Oh. My. Goodness. If you haven't tried them yet, go do it. NOW. Even if you don't like mushrooms. They are heaven in a baking dish. I stuffed myself on them. And then some more with my burgers and one of the super delicious 'Ritas that my bff Sarah brought over. I'll have to share that recipe with you guys some time. Hands down, best margaritas ever.

So after dinner, we rolled our stuffed selves out to the yard to play in the dirt for a bit. I had fun with two rounds at different stores picking out plants and I found some really cute, reasonably priced hanging pots at Home Depot. I ended up having way more of everything then I actually needed, but that's ok. I would always rather have too much stuff and have to return some then not have enough and not be able to finish. This is my mess...



Miss Sarah went to a nearby nursery and had a way better selection of plants and was Speedy Gonzales putting her hanging basket and box together. These are hers (minus the pink flower in the front, that's mine). See the box in the top left? Isn't it the cutest ever?! Both of her baskets turned out really nice!
On a side note: isn't that a cute shirt she has on?!? I love it. It has a bit of a yoke and snaps Henley style down the front. Very cute!

Jrosey was all ambitious and also made quick work of her FOUR baskets! She also was able to hit a nursery on the way over and got some very nice looking plants. She had a great variety and her baskets ended up really great! I can't wait to see them hanging around her house, I'm sure they'll look awesome!

Eventually I stopped taking pictures and got back to work. These are my pots hanging on my porch. I got some not so big and healthy, from the grocery store and Home Depot plants and am hoping they fill out quite a bit. There are a few trailing varieties in there that should grow and hang over the sides eventually, so hopefully it will look much more impressive before too long. I just have to remember to water them.

I only used about half of the plants that I purchased in those baskets so I decided to go find some big pots for the corners of the porch to plant the rest of them in. I have big, very fun plans for the porch, but it's another "Someday" project. It has nice lighting and a ceiling fan but I would like to get some nice patio furniture and an outdoor area rug and some more flowers and make it a great outdoor living space for summer. Someday. For now, I'll settle for a couple hanging baskets and pots in the corners.

I found pots tonight and put them together and I like the way they are looking so far, but I don't have pictures yet. I will get some of my much more homey looking porch when everything gets established and starts filling in and looking a bit better.

So it was a very fun night. The Monkey Bread was heavenly, everything else was super duper tasty. I love my hanging baskets and my perked up porch! It was a fabulous night with great friends! I can't wait to do it again.

What's next girls?!?

Apple Blossums

I was all excited when I got home tonight because a big rain cloud had just passed over my house and it was sunny. I knew my apple tree would be in bloom and I wanted to get out and take some pictures of it, but I was super excited that I'd have some rain drops and sun in there too!

And yes, yes I am a total nerd and get excited about taking pictures. Really excited.

Anywho, here's the tree with the barn and hitching post behind it.

These are some of my fave pics from my photo shoot with the tree...

Alrighty, that is all for now.