Catching Up

Pity the poor neglected blog.

In the month since I've last posted...

Tessa has taken a couple of steps. Tentatively. She's growing and eating and crawling and getting a will of her own. She may not be one just yet but dag nabbit, she wants a spoon to hold when she eats and maybe take a stab or two at getting some mashed taters into her mouth! It's hard to believe that she turns one in just two weeks!

I wrote and recorded a quick song, "The Boy Who Liked Zombies" and have had an amazing THREE LISTENS on MP3.COM (one each from my wife and kids). It's good to be the king. Up next is a quick ditty about Tessa done in the Rembrandts style (acoustic guitar and two vocals) called "Don't Fall Off the Bed". I'll make millions for sure!

School is almost out so it's time to plan some kind of summer vacation. Spain? South America? Indiana?

The garden is in. Once again almost nothing I tried to start from seed has taken. I think basil is the only one and even then the batch I tried in March fizzled but the seeds I started a month ago are going strong. Well, I also used seeds for turnips and fancy lettuce plus the usual beans. Okay, so a FEW things have taken off but not tomatos or peppers. I sowed the fancy lettuce seeds in a clean cat box filled with pottig soil and a few drainage holes custom drilled. YUM!

I bought a nine pack of peppers so we'll soon be buried. In fact two of the plants already have wee little flower buds. I'm trying a lot of container gardening this year so I've got three of 'em in big pots and four more in the ground. Four tomato plants... or is it five? I told myself I'd not plant so many this year but they are difficult to resist. Lyndi brought home a plant from 4-H but I didn't know which kind it was. I bought an heirloom and a big producer. And then had to buy a Mr. Stripey just for fun. And then Brooke wanted cherry tomatos. So I guess that makes five.
As for the beans, I'm trying my hand at pole beans as well as the usual bush beans. But for some reason about half of my bush beans didn't come up. Sure, the seeds are two or three years old but still... Lowes was out of green beans so I brought home some wax beans. Turns our the Mrs. isn't fond of wax beans. Scott's fortunately had some bush beans so they've gone in. If it all comes up we'll be swimming in beans! Yeah!

Also new this year is an attempt at cucumbers, butternut squash, stevia, rosemary, and chives. Oh, I put some peas in two long window boxes with a wire trellis behind them. They're flowering all over the place and bearing thin pods that will hopefully soon fill with peas.

The carrots have not fared so well. I'll try again closer to the fall.

In the bad news department our aged cat of umpteen years has disappeared. Then we had a garage fill of kittens! Well, three kittens and a mom cat and a dad cat who come around now and then. And then they were gone. Did the mother cat chase away our aged cat or did he just crawl off somewhere to die? I smell another song coming on!

More in a month...