Brown thumb

There really is a reason why I shouldn't be allowed near growing things.  I either kill them with too much attention, or kill them with too little attention.  It's sad really because I love to grow things.  I'm just not good at it.  Which is kind of amazing considering I have sisters that could grow a rock if they wanted to.  I must have missed out on that gene.

You know those little cacti I've been growing from seeds?  I tried to drown them.  Not intentionally.  I was concerned that they weren't getting enough water because there were so many of them in that plastic pot.  They didn't seem like they were plumping out when I watered them, so I kept watering them more and more.  This week I watered them again on Thursday, and the water rose above the level of the dirt and stayed there!!  Those baby cacti were sitting in a lake!    I realized that the plastic pot had no holes in the bottom, so I bored a few through and the poor thing was still draining water into my sink on Saturday.

Yesterday was so beautiful out that I decided to "potter" around (instead of "putter").  I bought more pots and potting soil and transferred 15 of the cacti in that red plastic pot to three new pots.  I left 13 cacti in their original home.  Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they survive the transplant.  They look okay so far, but some of them didn't seem to have much root . . . or I didn't manage to take the root when I dug them up.  Luckily it seems like cacti are pretty hardy because, as I said, they looked pretty good so far.  I'll see how they do. 

I also discovered that the tall stringy succulents (which I think will grow up to be aloe - kind of hard to tell at this point) have impressive roots.  I transplanted one of those and it's roots almost circled the pot.  I thought I wouldn't get it out without uprooting everything else in the pot, so I know I broke that root somewhat.  So far it seems unfazed by that.

The other re-potting I did yesterday was one of the peach seedlings.  When I was salvaging them from the yard I didn't have enough pots so two of them ended up in the same big pot. They're growing so fast though that I didn't want to leave two of them together. Yesterday I moved one to a separate pot. It looks like it survived that move just fine.

At any rate I keep trying to grow things despite my obvious lack of skill. I really hope the cacti survive. The mini peach orchard is doing extrememly well, but then they aren't counting on me to supply their water needs. So far I've only watered them when I transplanted them. The rest they've gotten from the rain we've been having.

Addy's being very needy this morning.  She's sitting on my lap as I type this and uses her claws to let me know when I need to stop typing and supply strokes for awhile.   Both cat kids were out in the yard while I was potting stuff yesterday.  I also took the opportunity to dead-head the roses . . . or anyway start removing some of the more blown blooms.  That at least allowed that bent branch to raise up off the ground so I won't have to move it to mow today.  There are still a fair number of blooms on the red and the yellow is also blooming well.  I'll have to plant roses at my new place if there are none there.  I love roses.  Of course I'll be planting a mini orchard of peaches too, unless I can give away little peach trees to relatives. 

Rain

Yup.  It's raining today.  I mowed my lawn yesterday because they were calling for 80% chance of rain today.  They called for possibly severe storms though and it's just been a nice steady rain with misty, drippy bouts in between.  Not complaining, believe me.  I'll take the steady mild rain over the frog-chokers that wash everything down the drain.

I'm actually mowing grass now rather than just weeds when I mow, so the grass is coming up nicely.  Everything likes this wet weather, including my roses which are currently totally covered in blooms.  The blooms are so heavy they're bending one limb down.

I'm taking a break from house hunting for a few weeks. I'm pretty set on what I want now,  as far as features, size, etc.  We decided to take a break because I really want to buy in June.  Finding something now would not put me buying in June.  So we decided to start again in May. This weekend, I've been doing my usual puttering around the house . . . and cringing when I think about packing all this stuff to move.  I think I'll spend the next several weekends starting to clean out, and throw out, everything I don't plan on moving.  I'm also looking around at my early-graduate-student furniture and thinking I'm going to be purchasing a good bit of furniture for my new house.  Good thing I've gotten my credit card balances down so low right now. 

I'm also noticing that I'll have to have some repair work done on this house before I sell it, if I decide to sell it.  At the very least it needs to be painted throughout.  There are also some minor cracks showing which I'll have to have looked at.  I've had the foundation checked and been told that the foundation is fine, so just a normal amount of settling is probably making the cracks show up, but I'll have to get them looked at.

I'm cripping around the house right now because I pulled a muscle in my back this morning lifting cat litter.  Yes, yes, I know the proper way to lift things.  I just don't always use it.  And usually when I don't, I regret it, like this morning.  Hopefully it will be okay enough to exercise this afternoon.  I've been using my little exercise machines three times per week since February 1st, so I don't want to break my routine.  It's too easy to break it and not go back to doing it.  So I'm diligently exercising.  I want to be at least cardiovascularly fit before I go hiking this summer, even if my weight is too high.   The weight is another matter I'll have to work on, but that's going to require a diet change, which is more work than the exercising. 

The cat-kids are pretty lazy today.  Yesterday they were outside wandering the backyard for a bit.  This picture was from yesterday morning, before I got the grass mowed, and you can see that it needs it.  It's nice and green and growing fast.

I guess that's all today.  Laundry calls.

Blooming and growing

Have I mentioned before how much I like Spring?  Green growing things.  Flowers blooming everywhere.  This is by far my favorite time of year, even if I have to mow my lawn a lot (yes, I'll be doing that again today).  We got a lot of rain again this week, with the tornado storms that came through, so weed and grass growth is immense.  I was lucky not to be affected by any of the 11-15 tornadoes that came through Tuesday, other than to be evacuated from my office which is on an outside wall and has windows.  I was a little nervous driving home and not knowing what to expect to see, since all I knew was tornadoes had been on the ground in my city.  So many homes were damaged or destroyed completely.  Yes, I've seriously been counting my blessings this week.  

Another thing I'm grateful for is that I'm not an allergy sufferer during the Spring.  To be suffering when it's this nice outside would be a shame.  The guy in the office next to me - bless his heart!  It's a rough time of year for him.  I have a few allergies, but luckily not to growing things apparently.  I have an allergic reaction to most types of beer, some wines and some hard liquors.  Which can be a pain in the ass, but at least I'll never be an alcoholic. 

This morning I have the house opened up and the cat kids are laying inside, watching carefully for any birds that might try to encroach on their domain.  They're perfectly happy to watch from inside the house, Addy on the couch and Zoe in the doorway.  Not spoiled, those two old ladies.  Nope, not much. 

The house hunting is going fine.  I looked at 6 more houses last weekend, and 6 more yesterday.  I'm taking notes or I'd never remember what features were in what house.  Interestingly, several of the houses I've looked at are within spitting distance of the baseball and football stadiums here.  I saw one house I really liked yesterday, with lots of cool built-ins (one whole wall of built in bookcases).  But the place is 3500 square feet!  What in the world would I and two cats do with 3500 square feet of house?  It had 5 bedrooms, 3 living areas, a nice open kitchen, big yard.  Maybe someone will buy it so I won't be tempted. 

My problem really is that I want a house that I don't have to put any work into - no painting or having to replacing flooring/carpet, kitchen appliances, etc.  But realistically, I'd need to buy a new house for that to be true.  And I don't really want a new house on a tiny lot with no landscaping at all.  I kind of like the older neighborhoods with trees and a little breathing room.   So I guess right now I'll keep looking. 

 I'm going to mow my lawn as soon as the grass is dry enough.  There was seriously heavy dew this morning.   I dead-headed the roses this morning, taking off the remains of the big red blooms which bloomed before the little red ones, and the yellow blooms.  They suffered somewhat from the storms, but ragged roses was really the only affect I had (lucky!).  The little red ones are now blooming like crazy (see above), and the little peach seedlings are growing well also. I'm growing a mini peach forest.  My aloe vera are perking up also.   *happy sigh*  I love Spring! 

Sadly it doesn't look like I'll have any nesting birds this year.  I haven't seen any swallows or finches.   And I just went and looked, and startled away a female finch!  Maybe I will have nesting birds.  One of the houses I looked at yesterday had a swallow nest and swallows working on it, so it made me think that it was time for them to be returning to nest.  Since I hadn't seen either the swallows or finches at all yet, I thought maybe the business with the snake last year had made the finches decide to nest elsewhere this year.  I'm encouraged to see the little female finch.  Maybe they'll nest there again after all.

That's it for today.  Got a few things to do today before the grass dries enough for me to mow.