Overworkedjanet

 Things continue to improve in the house of OJ. My DH feels a better, although he can't explain how. He has a bit of pep, doesn't feel blah, and is interested in doing things. It's amazing how you improve when your heart gets it's own circulation going! This week is a light flurry of activity as we are going on one of our wandering vacations next week, doctor approved. Flying to the mid-west with our ever-present siblings, we will be hitting 5 states in a road trip to add to our respective maps. Once this trip is done, I've got 8 states to go, then I've done something in all 50 states! Our pinky-sworn requirement is that we've got to do something touristy in each state. I started this attempt by insisting on National or State parks, but sometimes they weren't accessible to our trip. I settled on something less lofty but interesting in each state. This trip we'll pass through a small park in Illinois to a Native American burial mound, one of many I

 Things are looking up. DH is adjusting to his new hardware and the stent has done it's job. His BP is much lower and even though he's a bit hesitant to do things, he LOOKS better! Well enough that I dragged him to a family reunion. I've never gone to this one; it's my mother's side in rural Maryland. My 3rd-great grandfather was a German stonecutter and arrived here in 1831. He helped build bridges on the C&O canal along the Potomac River on the Maryland/Virginia (West Virginia in 1863) borders. My 2nd-great grandfather was a lock tender on the canal. I met a host of 3rd and 4th cousins and had a great time. We stayed in a cabin-trailer. It had a living room/dining room combo, a bunk bed room added and a front and back porch. The kitchen, bathroom and bedroom were the trailer. I took the opportunity to stay in this and it cured my thought of getting a trailer. Not because of anything wrong, just it wasn't right enough. I found I preferred the bigger space o

 Things are looking up. Over 12 feet to be exact!  The biggest one is yellow and it's got about 6 flowers at the top. More pictures will follow as time goes by. The second tallest flowering plant is the dark reds and orange sunflower. I haven't taken a single picture that doesn't have bees. I'm very happy. Unfortunately after a week of rain and wind, the orange sunflower has leaned out over the fencing and I can now touch the flowers.  Speaking of rain, when it rains, it pours, or in this case, doesn't flow at all! We needed a sewer line replacement. DH is the job supervisor in black! The guys did a great job and were done in 5 hours. This is what was left.  The other casualty was my roses. Here they are in 2012. This guy turns 14 next month! Finally, another bit of plumbing was unclogged on Wednesday. My honey had a stent put into his heart in the "widow-maker" artery. He feels fine, but no different which may be a good thing. He's got a lot of new me

I have become a gardener extraordinaire. I've more tomatoes than I know how to eat and have given many away. Ditto with zucchini. I've  over a dozen jars of pickles. On and on. Below is something I have worked hard to grow.  I raised the first batch starting in 1980. That flower created her own batch. My how they've grown. The kids, I mean! The sunflowers, now over 10 feet tall, were easy in comparison. I got them to stand still for about 3 seconds then it was over. Some of you may remember the births of GS2 and Little Miss. GS1 starts high school this fall. I continue to have a happy summer!

 Apparently I've got a green thumb! This is my first attempt at okra and I've learned a few things about growing it. Wear gloves. This morning I keep scraping my fingernail over my palm trying to find the spiny thing embedded in it! I also did not know their potential for height and will be trimming the plants in the next few weeks as I've enough towering specimens. The fresh okra is awesome. This was my garden on July 6. Although my next photo will not show the okra growing on the far left of the garden, be assured it is now about 4 feet high. On the right, among other plants are my sunflowers. On this date they were just about 7 feet high. We had quite a violent thunderstorm last night and I had to remove one fallen sunflower and shore up the tomato plants that were leaning. The sunflowers are about 9 feet tall! They grew 2 feet in two weeks. The one that fell was about 6 feet. Boo-hoo! I've not grown them before and considering the amount of space they take up, I'

 I'm in the beginning of vegetable overload already.  My first Japanese eggplant has been harvested and I have a recipe or two I can use with the rest of my snow peas and perhaps shrimp or chicken. They call for lots of garlic and soy sauce. I have Tamari, a Japanese soy and sesame oil so it sounds like an oriental dish for my dinner! Today I picked a zucchini and there are two more in the wings that will need harvested in a few days. I've got all my jars ready to prepare pickles, now I need the right pickles to develop. Another 'Japanese' named vegetable, the slicing cucumber has turned out to be simply delicious! It's green-black and large. The skin is thin and not bitter. Even DH enjoyed it slathered in Italian dressing. I gave away green beans and snow peas to my grands. They had helped harvest and ate more off the plants than they placed in containers. I love having these kids who love raw veggies off the vine or plant. Cherry tomatoes hold no hope of ending on