Accessible Gardening: #21 Practical Matters for Phsically Challenged Gardeners, 3 by Agavegirl1

Agavegirl1 wrote:
Hi guys....
I\'m back. PHEW!!! Been hopping like a Jack Rabbit. Had a lot of things to catch up on and finally have around the house. Last chore is vacuuming. God bless the husband. I have such good Karma. He scrubbed the kitchen floor for me on his hands and knees this morning! Awwwww....:D :D What a guy. He knows I\'ve been so busy this week. With me either it is everything or nothing.

Good news is I have 2 \'for real\' writing assignments/blogs and a topic related personal interview that will be audio recorded on Tuesday. YIPPEE!!! Thus the extra hours of work I wouldn\'t normally have. Wow! How would have thought my no unuttered thought-filterless brain to mouth malfunction would come in handy. So I\'ve really been dedicating time to this on the computer and in doing research so I can sound edumacated. Or is it edusamacated? Basically so I can sound like I know my nose from my toes.

Also was up at 6:30a.m. a.m. today putting shade tents back up. Previously said I had taken them down for the last bit of \'good weather\' and tolerable sun for the plants. Well that came to a screeching halt. It was in the 90s when I got up.

By 10:30 when I finished my yard and Shirley\'s (my 86 year old neighbor\'s) it was 106 degrees. Presently it is 115. Pick expletive of your choice. Despite huge sunhat and going through 8 bottles---no exaggeration, of water in those 4 hours and several \'sit downs\' I still came back inside beet red, dripping wet and smelling like a farm animal. Humidity is only at 13.2% so for me to be perspiring the way I had been must have told you a little about the heat! Took a cold shower to lower my body\'s core temp. Yes, cold showers DO have more than one purpose (*cheese grin*)

I have only three plants in the back yard that need tented and two trees that need the hose turned on them for about 10 minutes each and then I\'m done with my yard. Shirley has 4 small plants that need tented in her front yard. None of this is getting done until 6:00 or 6:30 tonight. NO WAY am I going outside again in this stuff.

Temps are going to be outrageous from here on out. 105-118 on a steady, regular and relentless march all summer until mid October. More 118-122 days predicted per month this year than we had in an entire year prior. Anyone who says global warming is a hoax needs to come visit me from now through August.

I\'ve coined summer in AZ as: June swoon, July fry, August agony, September surrender and October I\'m so over this.

So is Zoe. Princess is pouting. It isn\'t hot in the a.m. but it is \'bright\' and she is starting to get cataracts so unless the walk is before 7:00a.m. she balks literally at the door. She will happily go after 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. because of the cooler temp lower light but she\'s fussy as this is normally her \'sleepy time\' and would prefer to be left alone. Oh well she can get over it. She gets too wound up if she misses walks for more than 2 days in a row.
Hates going outside on the rocks too. Kind of funny to watch her walk. You can see her going, \"ohh, ouch, ouch, ewww, oh...\" with each step. Poor dog. Just glad she is supremely well house trained.

Winter in the N.E. part of the country??? ROFL. Uh...no thanks. Don\'t miss it, teeth chattering so hard they\'ll literally crack, frozen nose and toes, lugging two pair of shoes around because you\'re always changing from outside snow to indoor \'normal\' , shoveling snow twice a day, freezing rain, wind chill temps of -30 below zero, leaving the car run for an hour before you can get in it---and that\'s if it is garage kept! I know people who leave theirs run over night for fear it won\'t start in the a.m.!

I\'ll take 120 any day. No matter how miserable outside the sun shines. It is never gloomy and doesn\'t get dark in 4 hours. I don\'t have to shovel heat and 4 months of air-conditioning is cheaper than 6 months of heating bills. My mother says they start running the heat from mid September through mid March and have even turned it on occasionally in April. They live in N.E. Ohio. (BTW Jim I went to college in Pittsburgh. Lived there for 2 years on the South side. Right on Carson St. and 13th above an antique shop and antique doll hospital)

Everyone\'s flowers sound and look divine. Always thought I\'d have an old fashioned English cutting garden or an \'artist\'s garden\' full of the things you see in the museum. Instead I have cacti which I\'ve come to really love and enjoy the diversity of and appreciate the sculpture and architecture of 90% of the year while enjoying the flowers the other 10%. And what flowers they are. Nothing in half measure.

Speaking of flowers I have a few more cacti getting ready to bloom which is such a shock in this heat. By now most of the plants are curled up in a self defensive posture and look like you just struck them. But they\'re still popping out blooms. As soon as they\'re done---which I predict will be the next 1 day to week they will be tented for summer. I\'ll post the bloom pics tomorrow. And yes, the pics of the plants I can send cuttings of to Armagia.

All the plants will now be in hibernation for summer---lol and won\'t be making a reappearance until fall.

As for my house I got spoiled on the first one as it was new and we had it built from the ground up. This one is about 17 years old and we were stuck with the first owner\'s \'choices\' of interior colors and materials. Like my old house soooo much better but loooove living in this area so much better. Weighing all the pros and cons this was such a better move for us both all the way around. Dave is happier. I\'m happier. Zoe misses her fan club (golfers that we saw every day on our \'walk\' that knew her by name but couldn\'t tell you who I was) but she has developed her own little small admiration society here and sucks up the attention. What a Diva. She\'s fine also. Again Dave and I are very fortunate to live next door to a fabulous neighbor we can count on for anything. Bonus we also have other neighbors that actually \'talk\' to us and wave and are social. Not so at the other place although we lived there for years. Extra bonus our neighbor across the street isn\'t dragging their living room furniture out of the house, putting it on the front yard and having an 11 hour luau.

I ever tell you guys about that? Yeah...funny and not.

I know too when we get done with everything we want here in the house it will be just the way we like. Already have the tile in. Still need to paint (eye roll), do laminate flooring in the bedrooms (after looking at the carpet we have and what was under it when we ripped it up, I never want carpet again), and I want my nice blinds that match in every room and on my sliding glass door (uh...translation very expensive).

We ought to do vacation rotation amongst us. :D

Let\'s see everyone can come here for X-Mas/New Year as it is 74 degrees and sunny. We can go to Kay and Jim\'s for summer and the beach. For a glorious fall we can go to Carrie\'s.

Oh and if Kay wants to see snow we got it. About 2 or 3 hours north of me in Flagstaff and Buckeye and Surprise it snows in the winter. You can ski, sled and snowboard and then get the heck out after the weekend and come back to sunshine and 74. :D See, she\'ll be happy.

Pic 1 & 2) Dave and I celebrating X-Mas Eve 2015 at home in Casa Grande, AZ. THIS IS the reason why I tolerate 115+ temps in the summer.
Pic 3.) See any snow? Neither do I. Boots still look good though. :D
Pics 4. & 5.) Shade tents I labored over all morning. Got them all over my yard. First is open and second is closed.

Peace. Out.
TTC

Song for the day: \"How I wish it would rain\". Temptations I think