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Recent Entries to this Blog
Preparing for Hurricane Irene
Posted: 28 Aug 2011 Posted: 20 Aug 2011 Posted: 20 Aug 2011 Posted: 08 Aug 2011 Posted: 07 Aug 2011 All Entries |
gardenmama's Blog
Preparing for Hurricane Irene
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 8:23 am Hurricane Irene is barreling up the East Coast, she is HUGE! In order for me to handle the uncertainty of the impending storm I got busy on Thursday. I decided not to be one of those people who didn't take it seriously and one that got what she knew she would need for her family. I printed out my list and off to Walmart I went. On thursday morning Walmart was already low on water, batteries and flashlights. I picked up a couple of new flashlights that took AA batteries and C. I couldn't find D batteries anywhere! ( and that has been the #1 post on my facebook page, no one could find them anywhere. I think it is because newwer flashlights are LED and take a smaller battery since they use less power) I picked up the basics, water, bread, snack foods, soups etc. I also picked up a propane lantern. They are expecting it could be 5 days with out power. So I think we are okay with food and water. Once home I charged up out MP3 players, they all have radio capability. Each of us has one so we should be good there. I collected all the emergency supplies and put then in 2 places. Our sun porch has the paper good and camping cooking supplies. The dining room table is emergency supply central: flashlights, candles, matches MP 3 players and chocolate. YES chocolate. REALLY WE WILL NEED THIS! I also have lots of books, crayons, drawing materials and word puzzles. We will need to keep our brains busy. 
The wine is gone. My husband and I needed to relax tonight...might need the harder stuff on Sunday. [IMG]http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll230 On Friday and saturday we spend time loading up our garage with the large items that could blow around and do damage. We tipped over the swing set and laid down the tin men in the grass. We braced what ever couldn't fit in the garage against the fence around the yard. I have put our gas grill in the garage for cooking. The cars are packed out of the reach of any tree that might fall. 
My husband is most worried about injuries and property damage. We have some trees that could do damage to the house and the inlaw unit. We plan to stay most of our time in the living room and dining room. That is the side of the house away from the trees. We will be camping out Sunday night in the living room in case trees come down. 
The two bath tubs are filled with water, so is the washing machine. I have filled all large cooking pots with water as well as 7 pitchers and every water bottle, beach bucket I can find. We have a 55 gallon rain barrel filling up and a bucket ready to catch all over flow. We have several more buckets we fill as well. Saturday afternoon I was thinking about what to make for dinner...then I remembered I had several beef tenderloin steaks in the freezer. Mother nature is not going to ruin these steaks...so we had homemade fries, grilled filet mignon, cucumber and tomato salad and fresh biscuits. It was perfect! 
I was up at 2:30 this morning, the minute the rain started...I couldn't get back to sleep. So here I am blogging. It helps to get it all out. The worry for all my family and friends spread from NC to Maine. All we can do is prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Everyone be safe, be smart and take care. Last edited: Sun Aug 28, 2011 8:25 am This blog entry has been viewed 369 times
Finally a good picking!
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 7:57 pm The garden is finally producing. Today, in order to save the tomatoes from slugs and other insects I picked some green and slightly ripe tomatoes. I will ripen them up on the porch. The string beans are growing and I also picked basil and another HUGE eggplant. 
My husband has been busy the past few weeks. He loves to work with wood and has been working on a 3D T-REX puzzle. He finished it today! He plans to make a Mammouth and Brontosaurus! 
This blog entry has been viewed 335 times
Well we finally got some rain.....
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 12:37 am But along with the 5 inches of rain this week we got lots and lots of SLUGS! And they are not lazy! They are climbing up tomato plants to get to the slowly ripening tomatoes, climbing up bee balm! I HATE slugs. I wonder where my lovely red bellied snake has gone? The garter snakes need to show themselves as well. They need to eat all these destructive, gross creatures! 
They love to eat hosta! All 9 of my plants are being munched away! 
This slug is over 3 inches long! We almost stepped on him! 
This blog entry has been viewed 319 times
Logan turned 8! Where did the time go?
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 2:01 pm My son Logan turned 8 on July 31st. On the 30th we had a large family party for him. A few of his school friends were able to come. The past 3 years he has wanted a party at the beach. But things have changed! Logan still loves the beach but over the past year he has slowly moved away from being a Thomas the Tank lover to being COMPLETELY obsessed with the Dukes of Hazzard and the General Lee. (mommy is not thrilled by this, I had to live through this when I was young and my brother was obsessed with that show and car!) So A Dukes of Hazzard party it would be. But of course there isn't party decorations so we had to do that ourselves...Confederate Flags were hung..orange and blue streamers...Instead of pin the tail on the donkey I made a game of Pin the 01 on the General Lee and my mother in law made a General Lee pinata...and then of course the CAKE! Those of you that have read my blog entries from the past know I LOVE TO COOK! And now I have a WORKING oven I am baking more than ever! So I decided if we were going to do this party we would do it right. I set out and MADE a cake that resembled the General Lee! Home made cake, carved like the car and decorated. It took over 4 hours but I pulled it off! If was so worth it to see how happy Logan was and how much everyone enjoyed the party! 
We had a fabulous day! How times fly. This blog entry has been viewed 1582 times
Snakes in the garden.
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 1:18 am Hello again. Two blogs in 1 night! So I mentioned snakes in the garden. At the beginning of June we were moving and emptying some tires that we were not using. My husband was doing the tipping of the tires. And we had garter snakes! There was small male garter snake in the first tire we tipped over. He was fast...I screamed and ran off. Then I decided that pictures were needed. I had Logan run in the house and get the camera. 
No snakes in the second tire but when we got to the 3rd tire a huge, slow female garter popped out. She was brownish, had recently shed her ski and was very slow. Upton research it said females are sluggish so that they can use most of their energy to birth live young. They will on average give birth to 50 babies and as many as 98! Yep...that is a lot of LIVE young! 
Then as we were tipping the 4th tire out came another fast male that slithered off. 
And then a snake I had never seen before. At first glace it looked like a pile of red slugs..but then it moved slowly away. I researched it afterwards and it was called the Red Bellied snake. They are slug specialists. It was only about 12 inches long and very shy. 
We have been keep tabs on the snakes this summer. The female seems to have moved to the neighbors yard and look up residence in an old motorcycle. One of the males is still living in the garden. He makes himself known from time to time. You can hear him slithering on the black plastic. This was a unit for Logan for home school science. It is so easy to find science units to cover. Science is everywhere! This blog entry has been viewed 1658 times
Hello everyone..I missed the Stew.
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 11:21 pm Hello all. It has been a while. I don't know why but a change was needed and I spent more time on facebook. I have planted a smaller garden then normal this year and my son is planting his own as well This past year was a very stressful year for our son, who just turned 8. A lot of bullying at school, a very stern teacher and other stressors that lead to severe migraines and other behavioral problems. In April we decided it was time to home school him. He is thrilled and so are we. He is such a loving and caring child who LOVES learning. But as we have found out...School and learning have very little in common.Since the end of school there have been NO MIGRAINE headaches and he hasn't been grinding his teeth. He is turning back into the happy loving child he used to be. Our major science project is the garden. He has planted 8 tires with tomatoes, string beans, eggplant, zucchini, marigolds and cukes. The garden went in several weeks late due to flooding and horrible rains here in Vermont. WE got over 12 inches of rain in MAY! Logans garden tires are producing everything but cukes. They got a late start and it was very very hot too. We have have 4 zucchini of his plants and his tomatoes are doing well. AND there are 3 eggplants growing! He loves helping in the garden, though the smelly fish emulsion feeding he doesn't like much! 
Another science project brought on by the garden was a unit on garter snakes. I HATE snakes and this year there were several snakes that were in the garden on a regular basis. So needless to say..I don't run away screaming like a little girl anymore...I know they eat the bugs and the spiders and slugs. So they are helping...they just stay out of my way and I don't reach into any of the tires! My garden is going okay. Since planting late and the beans getting drowned and eaten by some bug..they are slow to come but they are starting to get flowers on them. So hopefully we will have string beans in the next few weeks. We have lots of tomatoes of all kinds...only the sungold cherries have started to ripen. Today I have all the tomato plants a good trimming and now we should start to see some ripen. No caterpillars we found! Since we started the recycle tire garden we have not got a single one of those tomato hook worms! 
The blackberry bushes are loaded with large plump berries. We are having a bumper crop this year. I picked 2 gallons the other night and another gallon tonight! 
The flower beds are doing very well. The glads have opened this week with the August heat and are gorgeous. The zinnias that Logan planted are so pretty as well. And this year the morning glories started all by themselves from the seeds of last year. 
I will try to blog more. I am also blogging Logan's home schooling experiences as well. Enjoy everyone and Happy gardening! This blog entry has been viewed 1652 times
What a strange week of weather we have had....
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 4:08 pm We have seen all sorts of weather this week in Vermont from HUGE winter storm that dumped up to 2 feet of snow in Northern Vermont, to pouring rain, wind and summer like days. This picture is of the first daffodil of the season. I took it last Saturday afternoon, the 24th of April. 
The spring garden...daffodils and tulips waiting to open. Taken Saturday April 24th. 
We had a gorgeous weekend, the 24th and 25th. Summer like weather, sunny skies and a nice breezes....then Tuesday night the 27th it started....THE SNOW....it started snowing in the afternoon and snowed all night and all day Wednesday.... Tues Night the 27th 
Wednesday Morning April 28th 
Before the snow turned to rain in the late afternoon on Wednesday we had over 10 inches of heavy wet snow. TOOOOOO went for snow balls and snowmen. I took the following pictures of my poor tulips in the afternoon when it was still snowing. This picture is being published in several newspapers this week. 
All the snow we had was gone by Thursday afternoon. It rained all night on Wednesday and the sun came out on Thursday. AND by Friday it was near 70. This weekend we are back to hot and humid summer like temps. It is near 80 today. The sun is out and feel like any lovely summer day. I have been in the recycled tire garden this morning. i pulled all the weeds from under and in the tires....went to our local garden center and bought all the new peat, compost and other dirts and plan to spend the afternoon replenishing the tires. It still is too early to put anything in the ground, except for the peas which I planted over 3 weeks ago and are doing well. So heading out soon to get down and dirty in the garden. I hope everyone is well out there is stewie land. This blog entry has been viewed 669 times
Spring weather was here...and winter is returning!
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 2:54 pm Last week was absolutely gorgeous. Sunny skies and temp's kissing 70! Yes I knew it was a bit early but all the snow melted, crocus were coming up and the ground was dry. Out came the flip flops and capris. It was so nice for a week. Then it happened. Cold weather started coming back. It snowed last night and stayed in some areas. And by friday the high will be 27 F! and Friday night kissing 0! I want summer so badly!!! well at this point I would settle for spring like 50's and 60's again! 
This blog entry has been viewed 392 times
Winter came..better late than never....I guess
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:54 pm Well we have managed to not get a single flake of some of the largest snow storms to hit the North East this winter...UNTIL NOW! I woke to up 8 inches of heavy packed snow and it came down all day long. We got over 16 inches of snow with more expected over the next few days, mixed with rain and wind. Here are a few pictures from the day. 
(logan helping clear the driveway) 
(logan loves to help) 
(the mail boxes are there somewhere) 
(over a foot of snow on the car) 
(logan sitting on top of a snow bank) This blog entry has been viewed 374 times
Day Four of planting and seedings are starting to emerge.
Category: Michele's Garden | Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 10:56 pm Good day all. I have been anxiously awaiting this day. Something is growing! I have 3 seedlings that have emerged from the peat pellet. It just makes me day a bit brighter and this part of winter less hard to deal with. 
(day 4 at 4:30 pm 3 seedlings have emerged!!!) This winter has been harder on me for some reason. Maybe the lack of snow has something to do with it. The snow we have now is hard as ice from rain we got a few weeks ago. Too dangerous to sled on, can't make anything with it and it is now all dingy and dirty. When the seedling emerge it reminds me that it is almost over..winter will soon be leaving us and Spring coming back. I can't wait until day light savings time starts in a few weeks. Light longer at night is sooo needed. Once that happens we can go out for walks after dinner and when the yard melts we can play ball after dinner again. I am so looking forward to that again. This year we are all getting bikes and will be biking on the snowmobile trails on our road. That will be great. Hope everyone is well out there is stew land. This blog entry has been viewed 344 times
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