Monday, July 29, 2013

R.I.P. My Darling Sugar 7-23-2013

“We who choose to surround ourselves
with lives even more temporary than our
own, live within a fragile circle;
easily and often breached.
Unable to accept its awful gaps,
we would still live no other way.
We cherish memory as the only
certain immortality, never fully
understanding the necessary plan.”
Irving Townsend
 







 

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Skyline and Sunrises

The skies in the mornings here are so spectacular. You add the sounds of nature and the crowing of the neighbor's roosters and you have the makings of paradise.



 
 
I just can't photograph the mornings enough.

Garden 101


The weed block is turning out to be a bit of a bust. Not to mention a pain in the butt. However, we are finally getting somewhere with our garden. The transplants, not so good, but direct planting of the beans, carrots, cucumbers and squashes is turning out to be the way to go.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

A Lot Has Been Happening At the Vining Orchard

Dogs have gotten hair cuts. Well, Rascal and Rowe-Quinn have.
 
 
We've planted trees: 1 Santa Rosa plum, 1 Methley plum, 1 Meyer lemon, 1 Key Lime, 1 Haas avocado, 1 Red Delicious apple, 1 Golden Delicious apple, 1 Brown Turkey fig, 3 Native fig, 1 Washington Navel orange and 1 Sunburst tangerine.
 
All have been watered and mulched with tender loving care and are doing very well. There are blooms on the lemon, orange, plum and lime trees. This is so fun and it answers the question I had when we bought this property, "what are we going to do with all this space?".
 
The garden, well, that hasn't been going as well as we had hoped.  Transplanting from inside to outside has proven to be a bit of a waste of time. I've had to replant the seeds directly into the soil for lettuce, squash, zucchini, and cucumbers. They just haven't done very well. It the GUMBO soil I TELL YOU!
 
I planted the majority of the asparagus outside directly into their own raised bed. But inside, I had extra seeds that I had soaked, I planted three others! Below are two coming up. I will check outside to tomorrow for those.
 


 
On a personal note, I've applied for two jobs in the last two weeks. I don't think the 1st company is going to call me. But, the I had the Texas Department of Public Safety~Drivers License Division in stitches today. As I was leaving the head of the board said "I haven't laughed like this all day!" I'm hoping that's a good sign.

Monday, March 11, 2013



Sookie

Sugar

Rowe-Quinn
 
Rascal

Sookie and Alissa

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Happy Birthday Rowe-Quinn


Rowe-Quinn came into my life at 4 months of age!
 
He is now 8 years old and just as cute. Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Planting Of The Fruit Trees

Another first on the Vining Plantation! We plan to add two apple (Gala, Red Delicious), another plum tree (for pollination purposes), and another avacodo. Avacodo trees are NOT cheap, approximately $50 each. We may even plant an Naval Orange tree too!
Lemon Tree
 Digging the hole for these trees wasn't easy! The gumbo soil (clay and black dirt) is so dense and sticky. It was quite a work out!

Tangerine Tree

Avacado Tree

Plum Tree

Friday, February 22, 2013

Sookie Antiqued

 
I didn't know I could do this with my phone! Pretty cool!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Young At Heart

Sugar never acts like an 'older' dog. She's going on 12 and you just can't tell.

Although she sleeps a little more than she use to, it's probably because her life is so full of fun!


She loves her (nearly) daily walk to the back of the property. Marking, sniffing, searching the landscape for anything she may want to chase. She's on leash though, so she can't, but that doesn't stop her from wanting.
 
 
She's just a girl that wants to be silly!



The Rainbow

The other day we had some (more) rain and I was glad to be home. One of the things that give me goose-bumps is a beautiful rainbow. Rainbows have always meant something to me. What I don't really know. They just touch me.

First I took this photo of one end.
 
 
Then the other.
 
I posted this one on Facebook and stated that perhaps I should go looking for the pot-o-gold. A friend commented, "you already have it". She's so right!
 


What's Been Happening In Rosharon


We've begun our vegetable garden! The first step was to get the plants started. So far we have 3 varieties of tomatos, some broccoli, lettuce, peppers, parsley, brussel sprouts and more.



The second step was to remove the sod in the space we needed. This is approximately 20'x30'. The soil is what is referred to as "gumbo", black soil mixed heavily with clay.

This is what that machine looks like.

 
Below is what we ended up with. It doesn't look like much now, but wait!
 
Hubby tilled it the first time without anything added to the soil. It was a workout.
 
 
This little plot needed a LOT of composted cow manure mixed in so that it could be worked with the tiller and to add nutrients to the soil for the plants.
 
 
Now we're getting there!
 
 
We have a few more steps to do before adding the plants and planting some of the root vegetables, carrots, parsnips, and more.