Back to the Business of Living

What a time I've had trying to get in and blog! A few times this week I thought I would come in and sit down to my computer, but something would come up. Tonight it would appear I have a few minutes. Unfortunately now my mind is sort of blank! What was I thinking I'd like to write about?

How about gardening to start? My garden is not much as gardens go, but I decided to throw a few edibles in with my flowers this year. It's the only soil in my yard that has been worked enough to support life, so I poked a few bell pepper plants, some stevia, a tomato and some cilantro in among the ivy and the flowers. If all goes according to plan I might plant a few more things. I had every intention of preparing a decent sized area out in the back yard so I could plant more, but I didn't get it done. The dirt back there is so poor weeds will barely grow. It will take quite a bit of work and I just didn't get to any of it in time.

My husband is getting ready to build a patio just outside my back door, and I'm probably going to grow some things in pots out on it. The problem is that the temperatures are going to be really getting up there soon, and out here very little grows well when the real heat comes. Folks around here say that tomatoes do better in containers than they do in the ground during the heat because you can move them around and out of the worst of the heat when you need to, so here's what I'm thinking. If I plant a few more tomatoes, maybe some beans and squash in some pots out on the patio about late July or early August they will be easy to move around and protect from the sun while they are small, and by the time they get bigger the weather will cool off a bit and they might do well enough, if there are enough hours of sun left in the day, to actually produce a late season harvest. It's worth trying. Everything else I have tried met with pretty sad results. Something has to work. I've seen other people around here grow things. It can be done. I want to have something to show for this growing season.

My neighbor across the street invested a small fortune in his "garden" area. It's more of a modified green house. He made an enclosure covered with shade cloth and installed an overhead misting system and drip irrigation, and brought in load after load of mulch and potting soil and bedding mix and what have you. He has reasonable success now, but for crying out loud he aught to! For all that I'd expect State Fair Blue Ribbon quality produce! For all that I could have probably paid someone else to grow it for me! LOL! I poke fun, but I'd probably build myself something like it if I could. I just like to grow things.

I think growing things in pots on the patio will look nice. We've been in this house for fifteen years and never used the back yard because it is just a dusty, unattractive old dirt lot. Having a patio will be a great plus, but something green out on it would really help. We are probably going to put in some grass. I've always wanted grass back there. We tried several times to get some growing, but we just didn't have any luck. There are seeds, fertilizers and things on the market now that make it where you can practically grow grass on a flat rock I think, so we'll give it another go. A few nice pots, grass, maybe a flower bed and we might actually enjoy our back yard!

We're going to build a shed out back, too. I'm really excited about that! That means I can empty my storage unit and bring my stuff home! When we put the house on the market a couple of years back I took everything I didn't really need and any extra clutter and packed it to move and hauled it off to storage. The realtors all say it makes the house show better, so I really emptied it out. I figured I could live without it until the place sold and we moved, no problem. Well, then the economy did it's thing, the housing market did it's thing, blah, blah, blah... and now just over two years later... here we still sit and I miss my stuff!

It's going to be like Christmas for me going through it all! I packed my favorite things first so they'd be well packed and safe. I bought a few new things just before we started packing and they went. We packed most of our books, our wall hangings and lots of personal things. I put keepsakes away, bedding, the boys even packed away some toys! They probably out grew them by now. That makes me feel terrible. They would ask about things and I'd go rummage around and find them and dig them out for the most part, but I'm sure they still have things in there.

It will be a challenge to see if I can get everything back in the house or not. We were crowded when we started. That's part of the reason we needed to get some of the stuff out before we showed it. Over time I bought duplicates of some of the things I'd stored thinking I wouldn't need them, but it turned out that I did. I stored my winter clothes thinking we'd surely be moved before I would need them again. I have all new school supplies, art stuff, blankets, some dishes and pans. Pans! Oh yeah! I have a huge box of iron pans in storage! I love my ironware. It's almost all I use. I've acquired a cabinet full of iron since I packed my other away. I'm going to have to build a special place just for my iron I think! Something very sturdy!

My china and my flatware, my bread machine and my juicer, no telling what else is in storage over there. I have forgotten what all I had. Stuff. Just stuff. But it's my stuff and I want it back. It's likely going to be quite a job unpacking it but I'm tired of life being on hold "in case we move." I'm bringing it home. When we re-list our house to sell later on I'll deal with it, but for now I want to live in my house again amidst all of our familiar, cozy stuff (albeit crammed in like pickles in a jar)!

I'm rambling. I think head for bed and read a while.