Garden Progress

So far so good! On Tuesday I had from the time I woke up until about noon to go outside and play in the dirt. After sweating my hiney off for an hour-ish, the Big Guy came out to help!  : )

He pounded the 8ft 1x2's into the ground for me so I could hang the netting for the pole beans. We fixed the netting across the open area to use as a gate of sorts to keep the dogs out of the garden and so we can take it down entirely when we need to get things to the very back (like the branches that fall so we can take them back to the burn pile).

We added lots of compost to one of the middle beds for the tomatoes. After I turned it a bit using a pitchfork, I grabbed the flat of Cherokee Purple tomatoes and started digging. The Big Guy seen me and came to help me with that too!  : )  We ended up planting 64 of them in that bed (bed #5), 2 per hole. There's also enough room on each side in that bed (they are planted in 5 rows down the middle of the bed) to plant a scattering of leaf lettuces, mustard greens or swiss chard. Yum!

After the tomatoes were done, I figured, why not, and planted the beans. : )  Since the netting is down the center of the bed, I planted on both sides. Into the ground went 10 HUGE Di Spagna Climbing Snap Beans; a bunch of Scarlet Runner Beans and a whole lot of Louisiana Purple Podded Pole Beans. 

Today, I was playing out in the rain. Managed to get 30 Dwarf Sugar Gery Snow Peas & 255 Laxton Progress Peas planted before it was raining too bad. 

Once the rain stops, I'll get out there and take some photos so you can follow all my *hard* work. : ) LOL!

Was also thinking of having another page on here to document what's been planted and keep track of everything that is harvested as well. I think it's an easy way for me to keep track of how much I can grow in my small space.

Before and After Blog Hop Thursday 10/28/10

If you could take a moment and spare 2 clicks to vote for me for the Good Mood Blogger job opening, that would be Great! I would really appreciate it.

For today's Before and After with Pixel Perfect, I decided to attempt to work on a photo of my son with hubby's cat. This cat it a royal pain!UGG! He's fixed but he still sprays on EVERYTHING! It's disgusting. He's 11 yrs old and has been doing that his entire life... 

Anyhooo, I wanted the photo in color, but I just couldn't get it to come out "right". My son (thanks to his father and his side of the family) has very dark rings under his eyes (it's an Italian thing I'm told)... No matter what I did to the photo, it still looked like he had 2 black eyes. So, I finally started playing around with it in black and white and came up with a look I finally (only kinda) liked. 

SOOC

 

 

 

 Enjoy your day! And remember to smile. :)

 

Guess What I Got Done?

NADA! 

Zip! Zilch! Zero!

I did not get a single thing done in regards to the garden today! UGGG!

With my Intro to Computer Programming class being right in the middle of the day, I really don't have a very large block of time. Oh well... Next semester is going to be even worse! I cannot register for classes until the 11th, but I took a peek at the schedules anyhow. I'm going to have to physically go to the campus 4 times a week! Yuck! Oh well. I've got to do, what I've got to do. I'm just not too keen on having to drive 30-45 minutes each way (depending on traffic and red lights) for a class that lasts 75 minutes. The class time is almost equal to the drive time... 

With that said, I'm so tossed up regarding a business... It's really not a good time of year to start anything with the holidays right around the corner. I'm a sucker for decorating over the top each and every year for Christmas. I just cannot help myself. Once I start, I just keep right on decorating. :)

Yes, I'm extremely scattered today and probably should not be typing, but here I am! LOL

Black & White Wednesday 10/27/10

If you could take a moment and spare 2 clicks to vote for me for the Good Mood Blogger job opening, that would be Great! 

Black and White Wednesdays with The Long Road to China

I was playing around in the kitchen today, taking lots of pictures of the beautifully colored produce that we have been provided with. While going through them yesterday, I came across the photo I used for today and thought of how perfect it would be in black and white! So here it is. I hope you like the edit as much as I do! :

Enjoy your day! :)

Wordless Wednesday 10/27/10

If you could take a moment and spare 2 clicks to vote for me for the Good Mood Blogger job opening, that would be Great!

And onto Wordless Wednesday.

Enjoy your day! :)

Watery Wednesday 10/27/10

If you could take a moment and spare 2 clicks to vote for me for the Good Mood Blogger job opening, that would be Great! 

 

And now for Watery Wednesday!

My photo was taken right by our home on Florida's Gulf Coast. We are given some spectacular views!

Enjoy your day! :)

LOTS of Garden Work...

If you could take a moment and spare 2 clicks to vote for me for the Good Mood Blogger job opening, that would be Great!

Oh the garden woes I have... For those of you who don't know, Florida gardening is completely bass ackwards from the rest of the world. We have to be careful with what we plant during the summer time because there are many varieties of veggies out there that cannot stand our extreme combination of high heat and high humidity. While the plants themselves may live, IF they flower in the heat, the humidity causes the pollen to be sticky and therefore the few flowers that are there, very rarely produce fruit. With that said, our main growing season is coming upon us down here very quickly!

More quickly than I care to admit...

I have managed to get some seeds started. I trayed up an entire flat (11 spaces across by 23 rows = 253 potential seedlings per tray) of Cherokee Purple Tomatoes about 3 weeks ago. They are looking good!

Good enough to plant in the garden!!! 

The problem? My garden... Let's see, to try to put this in perspective before I show you, I haven't weeded the garden area in, ummmm, let's say 3, maybe 4, MONTHS!?!

This is not a sight for the faint of heart. Or lover of all things organized and orderly. 

PST ~ There IS a reason why I have pretty silvery frames around the pictures. To hopefully distract you from the photos themselves...

YIKES!!! 

Buried in the spent plants, weeds and dead tall grasses, on the left side of the photo, in front of the green poles, there are 5 baby fruit bushes. Hmmm. I wonder which ones I planted there?... Oh, and there are about 75 strawberry plants lining that inside edge of the bricks all the way to the left to the fence line. Yup, you guessed it! They're buried under all the spend plants also. *sigh*

That tall patch of green at the bottom left of the base of the palm tree, that's my patch of Asparagus that was planted in March of this year. So, come March, we will be having our first micro harvest of fresh asparagus. YUM!

Those green posts that you may be able to see on the left side of the photo, those held up my deer fencing that I used to keep the stupid, I mean dumb, big dog out. Well, I guess she finally figured out that she can just PLOW right through it, rip it to shreds, and pull the poles out of the ground by dragging it along with her as she strolls around! UGGGG!!!

You can see one of the Bee Hives sitting back there, ready for a new bee family come spring. :)
We already have a hive, if you look at the photo below closely, you can kinda see it behind the tree and next to the pot on the left side of the photo.

All of the basil was in that first bed right in the center on the right as well as that far bed lining the fence. If you look closely, you can see the browned dried stalks that are loaded with dried seed pods ready for me to gather up and replant. There were multiple varieties of Basil: Lime, Lemon, Thai, Sweet, Lettuce Leaf, Tiny Leaf and a couple of others... DANG! It's no fun getting old and forgetful!

Thank goodness I have everything written down with a diagram of which plants were where.

Now, if I could only find it...

The bed on the right against the wall of our shop storage room, well, that started out as a compost pile. Then I got a package in the mail with sweet potato starts that I completely forgotten I ordered... So ~ guess what's in that "bed"? Yup! Sweet potatoes.
They did wonderfully! Well, the vines did anyhooo. They sure were tasty. :) Yes, you can eat the leaves of a Sweet Potato vine. They are quite good! Specially tossed into a hot frying pan with a touch of olive oil and a couple heads of crushed/chopped garlic for a moment, just long enough to wilt. Then served up with a pat of butter. YUM!
Oh yea, the sweet potatoes themselves. Well, I haven't harvested them yet. I've been waiting, letting them grow bigger and fatter in the ground until we get a frost threat. ROFL!!! Hmmm, it maybe a couple of months before I can tell you how the sweet potatoes themselves are. I planted 12 starts and I'm really curious to know how well they performed.

For those of you who are wondering, the beds are a LOT deeper than they appear. They were dug down about a foot and half from the ground level. At first the beds were level with the ground. They become built up over time and I added the wood and bricks to keep the soil contained. It appears that I'm probably going to have to add another layer of wood or bricks soon. Maybe not this season, but before the next for sure.

I'm hoping to have time tomorrow to get out there (IF it's not like today was in reaching around 93*!!!) and finish pulling the spent plants in the middle bed that's in front of the asparagus bed, as well as the bed along the far back fence line so that I can add some more compost and the Cherokee Purple Tomato seedlings...

We'll see... :)

Touch Up Tuesday 10/26/10

Before I get to the Touch Up Tuesday post, please take a peek at something. The box right below this paragraph has my pic on it and says "The Good Mood Gig2 Job Search". Please take a moment, click on the link and then click on the "VOTE +" button to vote for me. You can vote once a day. It's for an actual job! One that I can do from home, around my doctors appoints, down times from being sick, kids, family and life in general. Thank you so much for your help and support! If you have any friends that are receptive, please feel free to forward the link to them as well. Thank you all again! I greatly appreciate it.  : )

 My photo for today's Touch Up Tuesday is from my Mother-In-Laws garden area. I love the coloring in them, yet when they are all together, it really does not stand out. So after playing around with the photo a bit, I like it much better.

SOOC Shot

After

I hope you all enjoy your day!

Macro Monday 10/25/10

Before I get to the Macro Monday post, please take a peek at something. The box right below this paragraph has my pic on it and says "The Good Mood Gig2 Job Search". Please take a moment, click on the link and then click on the "VOTE +" button to vote for me. You can vote once a day. It's for an actual job! One that I can do from home, around my doctors appoints, down times from being sick, kids, family and life in general. Thank you so much for your help and support! If you have any friends that are receptive, please feel free to forward the link to them as well. Thank you all again! I greatly appreciate it.  : )

And now onto Macro Monday's with Lisa's Chaos.

This photo was taken a couple of days ago. I tried with all my might to grow 12 tomatillo plants out back in the garden over the summer time. Not a single one did good. I didn't get a single fruit off any of the plants... Then this volunteer plant showed up out front in a planter! I've gotten TONS of fruits off of it so far and it's still going strong.

Enjoy your day! Smile ~ it makes people wonder what you're up to. :)

Camera Critter Saturday 10/23/10

Before I get to the Camera Critter Saturday post, please take a peek at the box to the right of this post. It has my pic on it and says "The Good Mood Gig2 Job Search". Please take a moment, click on the link and then click on the "VOTE +" button to vote for me. You can vote once a day. It's for an actual job! One that I can do from home, around my doctors appoints, down times from being sick, kids, family and life in general. Thank you so much for your help and support! If you have any friends that are receptive, please feel free to forward the link to them as well. Thank you all again! I greatly appreciate it.  : )

On to Camera Critter Saturday.

Looking out the back window a couple of days ago, these little guys were flying all around all over the place! I had to go out there with the camera and snap a couple (or 30ish). This one is one of my favorite close ups.

Enjoy your day!

Eddie Bauer Friends & Family Event

Please take a moment and click to vote for me in that big box to the right of this post. Thank you!!! Remember, you can vote once per day.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this or not, but I take calls for customers calling in to place orders with Eddie Bauer. With the holidays coming up and the economy not looking too good, they are offering one heck of a deal. The opportunity to shop and save just like an Eddie Bauer employee! It's called their Friends & Family Event. On November 11th you'll receive a special promotion from Eddie Bauer: Enjoy the same discount our employees do... 30% off any purchase! The offer is good from November 12th thru 14th. In order to get this special discount, I will need your email address to give them. We have been told that the site where we enter the emails is a secure site and that your email will not be used beyond giving you this great deal.

Unfortunately, there is no webpage for me to direct you to about this event, because it is just for friends and family of employees, and not for everyone. If you have any concerns, I can forward you the email the employees received about it for you to look over.



For those of you who are interested in this promotion, you can either leave a comment with your email (that I will NOT publish, and will delete after I put your email into their system) or you can email me at MelodysMorsels@live.com.

Sky Watch Fridays 10-22-10

Before I get to the Sky Watch Friday post, please take a peek at the box under this paragraph and to the right of the post. It has my pic on it and says "The Good Mood Gig2 Job Search". Please take a moment, click on the link and then click on the "VOTE +" button to vote for me. You can vote once a day. It's for an actual job! One that I can do from home, around my doctors appoints, down times from being sick, kids, family and life in general. Thank you so much for your help and support! If you have any friends that are receptive, please feel free to forward the link to them as well. Thank you all again! I greatly appreciate it.  : )

 My photo for this weeks SkyWatch was taken less than a football field away from my front door. It's a sample of the spectacular sunsets we have the privileged to see around here. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Make sure to check out SkyWatch Fridays for more beautiful photos of the sky above us.

Enjoy your day!

Before and After Blog Hop Thursday 10/21/10

Before I get to the Before / After Blog Hop with Pixel Perfect post, please take a peek at the big box to the right of the post. It has my pic on it and says "The Good Mood Gig2 Job Search". Please take a moment, click on the link and then click on the "VOTE +" button to vote for me. It's for an actual job! One that I can do from home, around my doctors appoints, down times from being sick, kids, family and life in general. Thank you so much for your help and support! If you have any friends that are receptive, please feel free to forward the link to them as well. Thank you all again! I greatly appreciate it.  : )

Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

Okey dokey then, and onto my entry for the Before / After photo for the week hosted by Pixel Perfect.

Edited Version

This photo is a picture take of one of my sunflowers. If you look closley, you can even see a bee flying on the left side of the photo. I used a Cannon PowerShot S3IS and Photoshop CS3.

Tips and comments are always welcome. : )  Enjoy your day!

Macro Monday 10/18/10

Before I get to the Macro Monday post, please take a peek at the big box to the right of the post. It has my pic on it and says "The Good Mood Gig2 Job Search". Please take a moment, click on the link and then click on the "VOTE +" button to vote for me. It's for an actual job! One that I can do from home, around my doctors appoints, down times from being sick, kids, family and life in general. Thank you so much for your help and support! If you have any friends that are receptive, please feel free to forward the link to them as well. Thank you all again! I greatly appreciate it.  : )

Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

And now onto my Macro Monday shot with Lisa's Chaos.

While walking out back yesterday, I noticed these on the ends of the needles of what I thought was a pine tree... Hmmmm. 

Shadow Shot Sunday 10-17-10

Before I get to the Shadow Shot Sunday post, please take a peek at the big box to the right of the post. It has my pic on it and says "The Good Mood Gig2 Job Search". Please take a moment, click on the link and then click on the "VOTE +" button to vote for me. It's for an actual job! One that I can do from home, around my doctors appoints, down times from being sick, kids, family and life in general. Thank you so much for your help and support! If you have any friends that are receptive, please feel free to forward the link to them as well. Thank you all again! I greatly appreciate it.  : )

Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

My Shadow Shot Sunday for Hey Harriet was taken at a tiny  swimming area in New Port Richey, FL. I have no clue on what type of bird it is, but I really liked the bird and his shadow.

Check out lots of other wonderful shadow shots at Hey Harriet 

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The Sunday Creative ~ Spiral

Before I get to The Sunday Creative post, please take a peek at the big box to the right of the post. It has my pic on it and says "The Good Mood Gig2 Job Search". Please take a moment, click on the link and then click on the "VOTE +" button to vote for me. It's for an actual job! One that I can do from home, around my doctors appoints, down times from being sick, kids, family and life in general. Thank you so much for your help and support! If you have any friends that are receptive, please feel free to forward the link to them as well. Thank you all again! I greatly appreciate it.  : )

Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

 Yes, I know it's a bit late. But after checking Madeline Bea ~ Life Set to Words, I just had to join up for this one before it's too late. The topic for this previous week: spiral. When I read that, I just had to enter. I have the perfect photo for this that I've been trying to figure out what to do with. :)

Check out the other posts on Life Set to Words for other creative ways that people have depicted the word "spiral".

So, without wasting any more time, here's my entry.

100% Factory Free ~ Wool Scarf

Before I get to the post, please take a peek at the big box to the right of the post. It has my pic on it and says "The Good Mood Gig2 Job Search". Please take a moment, click on the link and then click on the "VOTE +" button to vote for me. It's for an actual job! One that I can do from home, around my doctors appoints, down times from being sick, kids, family and life in general. Thank you so much for your help and support! If you have any friends that are receptive, please feel free to forward the link to them as well. Thank you all again! I greatly appreciate it.  : )

Good Mood Gig from SAM-e 

Anyhooooo, onto today's subject. A very awesome lady, Nancy Chase of  Ingleside Farms is in my spotlight. She is the type of person that I'm hoping to be. The strong, self-sufficient type.

She has her farm, grows food, raises animals for multiple reasons, produces items from the things she grows and raises and sells them. I particularly love her "100% factory free" items like this wool scarf. 

Nancy is also attempting to further her self-sustainability by turning her sheep's milk into soap. Check out the story on KickStarter.

Camera Critter Saturday

Before I get to the Camera Critter Saturday, please take a peek at the big box to the right of the post. It has my pic on it and says "The Good Mood Gig2 Job Search". Please take a moment, click on the link and vote for me. It's for an actual job! One that I can do from home around my doctors appoints, down times from being sick, kids, family and life in general. Thank you so much for your help and support! If you have any friends that are receptive, please feel free to forward the link to them as well. Thank you all again! I greatly appreciate it.  : )

This is a  picture of my "baby" boy. He's 12yrs old and weighs in around 21 lbs. I've edited it to accentuate his eyes, nose and the dragonfly in the grass that he is lazily staring at. lol

 

Check out Camera Critter Saturdays for lots more pictures of critters of all types, shapes and sizes. 

Macro Fridays

Before I get to the Macro Friday, please take a peek at the big box to the right of the post. It has my pic on it and says "The Good Mood Gig2 Job Search". Please take a moment, click on the link and vote for me. It's for an actual job! One that I can do from home around my doctors appoints, down times from being sick, kids, family and life in general. Thank you so much for your help and support! If you have any friends that are receptive, please feel free to forward the link to them as well. Thank you all again! I greatly appreciate it.  : )

I was playing with the super-macro settings on the camera and actually captured the tiny white bugs on the flower bud! I'm submitting it to Blogging From Bolivia's Macro Friday. Check em out!

Here the SOOC shot so you can see the little white bugs.

 

Here's the version I was playing with in Photoshop CS3. Nothing in particular. I just like the way it turned out.

Good Mood Blogger

In deciding to take things to the next level in my attempts at getting away from my job, not only am I working on my ArtFire and Etsy shops, but I've entered into the "Good Mood Gig2". Yes, it is a paying job.

The first round is narrowed down by you, the voters. The top 20 people with the most votes will move on to the final round from which the company will decide who will get the paying position for the next 6 months.

Now, it's up to you! Please, go view my entry and vote! Thank you for all for your support.  : )


Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

Melody's Morsels Artfire

After a burst of energy last night, I did manage to get a few items up and posted on Artfire for Melody's Morsels. Stop by and say hi!

New plans...

Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to "farm" on the acre of property. Due to the economy, we are forced to rent out the mobile home and property at this time... Oh well...

On a positive note, I still have the tiny yard to garden in. Time to crunch the figures and figure out how many plants and varieties I can grow this season.

The space that I have to grow in is 32' x 20'. I practice intensive / condensed gardening and all organic. I still have 1 1/2 beds to figure out, but so far here are the totals:
     * cauliflower - 10 heads
     * cabbage - 32 heads of a Chinese variety
     * peas - 44 of a "bush" type that needs no staking
     * yard long green beans - 40
     * broccoli - 46 heads
     * Swiss chard - 61
     * peas - 83 of a climbing variety
     * lettuce - 50 bunches of a leaf variety
     * Brussels sprouts - 24
     * lettuce - 15 heads of iceburg
     * mustard greens - 44
     * spinach - 44
     * tomato - 28 cherokee purple
     * turnips
     * rutabage
     * tomatoes - 50 other plants, varieties are dependent on which seed sprouts do the best

I'm not sure at this time, what varieties of each I'm planting.

Between trying to sort out this hick-up in our growing plans, along with school and work, things have been a bit on the hectic side. Just a bit. lol

Oh, did I forget to mention Melody's Morsels? Yep, I'm also expanding my business. I'm scheduled for an upcoming arts & craft show on the 23rd in New Port Richey, the Pumpkin FEST on Main Street. Check it out! I'm just getting started on the blog, and setting up the Etsy and Artfire store, but I'm hoping to have the stores up and ready to go by the 23rd. Keep your fingers crossed!

Getting back on track

I've decided that I need to get back on track. Between not feeling good lately, work, school and life, I've been wore out! Most of the time, too wore out to sit at the computer any longer than absolutely necessary. Or take pictures!?! *GASP*

Visiting some of the blogs I normally stop by, I noticed a sign-up that I'm not going to pass up.  : )  If you are interested and want to join as well, just click on the photo link. Hope to "see" you there!

The photo topics are: * In Disguise * Crisp * Fall Colors * A Jack O' Lantern * a Shot from the Ground * a Landscape * a Fall Tradition * Books * Dining * Child/Children * Faces formed in nature * Tilt-Shift Photography * B & W with selective coloring * Bokeh * Best photo taken on Oct 23rd * Something from the Kitchen * Something Vintage * Something Creepy * Something Golden * a Self-Portrait *

I'm not sure how exactly I'm going to do this yet, but I'm going to have a give away on my blog associated with it.  : )  Here's what I'm thinking so far. I'm not posting any of the photos until the end of the month. Throughout the month, as I take shots I'm happy with, I post up a hint or two about that particular photo. At the end of the month, before I post the photos, I will be taking entries as to what you think the photos are. The person with the most correct guesses will win a prize. What? I'm not sure yet. lol! Like I said, I just thought about this.

So make sure you check back soon for the details. Or better yet, subscribe to my blog!

Thank goodness it's over!

This past week has been an absolute nightmare! While I did not end up putting in as many hours at work as I had planned, I ended up with a stomach bug. It's kinda hard to work when you're expected to be on the phone to take calls and you in the bathroom every 15-30mins... Not fun! I'm feeling much better this afternoon though. :) Yesterday I think I was awake for a total of 5, maybe 6 hours!

Time for me to get caught up on everything. My school work, while not ahead, at least I'm caught up at the moment, which is a very good thing.

My daughters prom is coming up soon. Or maybe it's homecoming. lol! I've been feeling so bad, I'm not 100% on which it is. This is what I do know, there's a big dance coming up in the middle of October. And in my sick stupor, we did manage to get to Joann's craft store while they were having their $0.99 pattern sale for all Butterick patterns. SWEET! She picked out a pattern, but there's going to be alterations made to it. We're making the white one. But not in white. The colors haven't been picked out yet. In my sick stupor, I believe she said something about a blue polka dot?!? That's exactly why we didn't get material that day.

1) she wants a BIG waist bow in front added, like this one from TROPHY Clothing out of Denver

2) she wants it just above the knee length 

3) she wants the skirt gathered and attached at random spots like this "Modern Gallica" skirt from Anthropologie

So, while I have a pattern to go by, I kinda don't. lol

Onto the garden/farm. I have not had a chance to do jack-squat! Hubby did manage to pick up a really nice ride on lawn tractor for $100. It does need a bit of work though. I went to get him for dinner the day we bought it, he looked so cute covered from head to toe in grease! He had it standing up on end working on the underside of it. I'm lucky I caught me one that actually knows how to work on things and make them to work when he's done! LOL!

I did, however, manage to start a full tray of Cherokee Purple organic heirloom tomato seeds. A full tray. That's 231 tomato seeds. Sometime this evening or tomorrow, I've got to get a full tray of Creole tomato seeds planted up as well. I'm not sure what else... I'm actually kinda debating the Creole's. I'm thinking I may go with a different variety simple because the Creole's do excellent in this horrid Florida heat and humidity that I may want to save them to start in Spring time. I don't know...

Oh, I forgot to mention, the volunteer tomatillo plant that was doing so well in the large planter out front, it kicked the bucket after almost a week with not a drop of rain... Yup, you guess it, I forgot to water it at all... Oh well. I've got to get out there and pick all those little fruits off and see if there's any in those paper husks. I'll let you know what I find.

What have you all been up to?