Wednesday, July 23

Yellow wildflowers

The view as I was leaving the house this morning. I have no idea what kind of flowers these are. Ok, I know because we have a nursery I SHOULD know EVERY PLANT, but I don't lol!! I do enjoy their beauty though. I love the little burgundy ring around the center too. God is such an amazing artist.
These also close up at night, such an interesting little beauty that must be tough as nails cause they get no water and we drive our quad over them!

As you can see the smoke is not nearly as bad today! YIPEE
More on our camping trip later

Tuesday, July 22

Camping Weekend

While I was packing up the Motorhome, things were moving along like clockwork until I found 3, let me repeat 3 stinking wasp nests right around the door to the motorhome!
EWWWW....oh my I truly do not like bugs of any kind and really not the kind that stings! I got out the wasp spray and gave them each a good dousing. But I could only do one at a time because the wasps came out a swarming! YIKES I am sure it would have been quite a show to watch as I ran like a crazy woman from the little buggers!

Here we are headed down the road on our Camping weekend, with the view of Mt Thielsen. The sky was so clear and blue it was wonderful to see blue sky again after all the Smoke we have been dealing with in the valley!!
Down a side road past the Diamond Lake turn off , (how's this for a guided tour of our ENTIRE TRIP!)loland there is the sign for Poole Creek Campground. Sorry it is so blurry but moving thru the window that is as good as I could get! lol

The park was almost empty because they had a problem with Algae earlier in the week but had since let some water out of the dam (where the algae was) so it was completely fine. I think people were still worried that it was bad but it was never even a real issue. Lucky for us because we had the pick of the campground.We were thrilled to get site #2 which is our favorite cause you have such a great view of part of the lake.Since they had let some water out it make for nice large sandy beaches too! Here we are just enjoying the sun and the lake, relaxing! WONDERFUL!! I had to merge these two photos since there was nobody to take a photo of us together so don't look to closely! lol Besides I can't believe I am posting a photo of me in my swim suit! YIKES
Ok I am sure that is overload for today, I will post more later! :)

Thursday, July 17

Our Smokey Valley

This is what our view normally looks like, I took this around the beginning of May. This is what we have been looking at and breathing since the end of June. From all the fires in California, I can't imagine what is must be like to be even closer!

This does not even do it justice, the sun was glowing ORANGE, totally crazy!
I am looking forward to another camping weekend and getting out of the smoke for a bit!

Tuesday, July 15

It is finally final

Yesterday was Paul's birthday but we all celebrated it on Sunday evening with dinner and family out on the deck. I will post photos later.

We spent a large chunk of the day in Court again for Justin's divorce and Custody case. Yes it was supposed to be final the beginning of March but his ex decided not to sign the papers. She wanted some changes that were not agreed on during the hearing. But after setting thru the entire morning session, our lawyer had 5 other cases and said she would not be available until 2pm. Even though our lawyer told the other lawyer this, the other lawyer still wanted to put us on the morning schedule. Weird!!
So we rush home to change at lunch time and head to the Nursery for a lunch bbq with the gang for Paul's birthday. Then back home to change back into court clothes and back to the courthouse.
We luckily were the 1st ones on the schedule and it only took maybe 5 minutes. The judge said this should have been brought up in the 1st hearing and he saw no evidence to change anything. So our son is now officially divorced.
WOW this is not something I EVER thought I would be Happy about! 1st I never thought I would be in this spot and 2nd I NEVER thought I would celebrate it. But I am glad to have it over and everything down in writing. WHEW what a LONG drawn out thing.

So Justin will always remember when his divorce was final, on his DAD'S BIRTHDAY!
I could not post without a photo or two of the little cutie! She is such a tough little twerp, one who loves to play in the dirt and yet such a girly girl too!! She LOVES shoes, I mean she LOVES them and jewelry too. She is always asking to put on my shoes and walk around in them.
What is it that takes us from such cute little kid feet, to the ones we end up with! lol I guess it is all the years of WALKING ON THEM ha ha She had my shoes on then she wanted Auntie's shoes next.Auntie is telling her she has to keep her toes together so she can keep her shoes on.Success!! Notice all the shoes in the background, yep she had them all on at one time or another. :)Tomorrow I will post about the smoke in the valley, wow it has been bad and it is supposed to get worse this weekend!

Monday, July 7

2008 Garden

Finally I am back! WHEW now to catch up!
Here is Justin rototilling the ground for our corn patch. We really need a bigger tiller but we have so dang many rocks. I figure each year it will be a little bit better. Ok, well we ended up renting a tiller because the little one we have just bounced around on top of the ground! lol Notice how Fleeta is watching Justin, I swear if we let her out she would follow Justin around like a puppy!
I Planted 6 rows of corn so we ended up with 50-60 stalks, I am hoping for better success than last year! Isn't my garden helper a cutie :)
We planted 8 tomatoes this year, crazy I know but I wanted to try some different varieties.a Goliath that Harold Simons gave us
a sweet 100 Cherry tomato
a Sungold cherry tomatoes (these are so sweet they are like Garden Candy)!! I circled the ones that are almost ripe, they really are a golden color and oh so yummy!Heritage tomatoes:
Brandywine, does anyone else think this tomato plant is odd looking? The leaves do not even look like a tomato plant.
Now this is a normal tomato leaf!Black Russian
Purple Cherokee
Green Zebra I don't remember how many peppers total but these are the varieties
Banana Peppers - Serrano - Thai Hot - Habanero - Jalapeno - Cayenne
a couple of pumpkins
3 burp less cucumbers
2 Lemon Cucumbers
3 or 4 Cantaloupe
3 or 4 watermelon
1 Honeydew

1 Delicata Squash because I was talking with a customer who said I would love this squash, so I told him I would plant it and let him know! lol Something is chewing on it and that totally ticks me off! We just sprayed with Dr Earth (all natural) So I hope that will take care of the nibbling. Plus we needed to spray for the cucumber beetles cause they are thick this year.
Edited to Add: To my GREAT disappointment my Delicata Squash turned out to be a zucchini and I DO NOT LIKE ZUCCHINI!! I double checked the label and it says Delicata, so I am hoping this was a freak mistake by the grower and I truly hope no one else got the wrong squash from the nursery!! YIKES bad enough for me to be disappointed but for someone else to, that would be awful. We did plant a bunch in the nursery garden so if anyone else got the wrong squash at least they can have a couple of the right ones!!
I think we should have a BUMPER CROP THIS YEAR !!
This was the corn patch this morning, it is almost up to my waist!
Who is ready for some fresh produce??
Well besides this little muncher, she loves fresh fruit and fresh veggies!