Your Other Life

What do you do when you are not gardening? Do you have a full time or part time job? Other major hobbies? Tell us about yourself.

LOL What other life?? Oh yeah, winter is almost here. I think most know about me. :) I am the mom of five girls, the oldest just turned 10. Number six is due in the spring. I also work at Target and my position there is always evolving. giggle I'm counting down the months til I can start seeds!!!

I do needlework during the winter. I like counted cross stitch, knitting, embroidery... I always have a couple projects going. I can knit without thinking. But cross stitch involves setting up with light, magnifier, and cathair free environment - not easy at my house. Now that I'm online, I am looking forward to keeping up with the forums and planning next year's garden. And, of course, there's long afternoon winter naps.

I tell myself that I sell used books online in the off-gardening season. Well, that would be more true IF I could manage to make the time to buy more books during the gardening season, LOL!

I garden all the time. When I am not outside, I am inside vegetating.

On a more serious note, I have grandious plans of attacking my grandious piano with new vigor and motivation.

I also tutor a third grader once a week through the Kid's Hope Program through our church.

Computering takes up a big chunk of my time. I play Free Cell and Hearts. (Nothing like Dl_Olds). DG and emailing BS takes up quite a bit of time.

And then there is the quality time that I spend with Mitski in my "Barkolounger."

My wife and I visit the local Y several times a week.

I also dabble in my business from which I am retired (As you probably have sensed by now.)

Thanks for asking.

Bird

When I'm not playing taxi service for my kids, cooking, or cleaning, and not here doing little chores to tidy up the PDB and GWD, I'm outside doing SOMETHING. This week it's painting louvered closet doors (a long overdue task); next week it's supposed to be rainy and cold, so probably more time in the GH fooling with the tender stuff that needs to be tucked in for the winter, and getting some lettuce seeds started (an experiment to see if I can grow some lettuce for a few more weeks.) That is, after I get everybody's wildflowers, trees and shrubs in the mail I'll be in the GH ;o)

I work all year round and garden when ever the weather permits. Our season is over here for the year. I have brought my houseplants inside and am waiting to try to start some seeds next spring. This will new to me , as I have it in my noggin that I can't grow anything from seeds. I'm going to give it another try in the spring. I paint rocks and plaques and crochet at work in the winter when we are very slow, just to pass the time. I am a dispatcher for a sand & gravel operation and unless we are hauling sand for the snow covered roads, there's not much goin on in the winter.I read alot of the postings on DG, but I'm not outgoing enough to be a frequent-poster. Lou

To save re-typing everything; I indtroduced myself in the Welcome Mat Forum and those of you who haven't seen it may catch up at http://davesgarden.com/t/402401/

Here is my update to it:

I'm not using the self-watering seed propagator as a self waterer yet and haven't started the Chives even though they have arrived.

I know have five plants instead of two and am germanating a Mimosa Tree and some Oleander in Jiffy Peat Pots in a small plastic tray in my non-active self-watering tray under my grow light on the refrigerator. They were planted on the 8th of October and have not sprouted yet. I have used a fungicide because folks here told me that Jiffy Peat Pots are prone to fungus.

Much of my time is spent on the Internet at DG and GardenPost along with attempts at pursuing some of my old interests than I no longer seem to be able to do but enjoy little bits and pieces of them.

I finally got some furniture for my living room today and after changing it around three times; I'm finally happy with it. Now I can plan my houseplants for that room, which is more of a muti-purpose conservatory, solarium, dining and living room. The room was so pleasant this afternoon that I had a nice little nap of the loveseat. :)

I tend to babble and am always afraid of boring peopple but if you're still with me I guess maybe you're not bored! lol

It will take me a long time to get my appartment really settled with all of the plants that I want.

I was going to start most of the exotic types from seed but am not sure that is a good idea with my condition and am re-thinking that. Also, I've found some sites where starter plants can be purchased a reasonable prices.

I have much too much time on my hands, enjoy interacting with folks and need lots of guidance with my plants.

DG is a wonderful site and group of people and I'm very pleased to have found you. -Rett

What a good topic! In addition to gardening, I love reading. I am a biblioholic!!! Had more eclectic tastes til I took up gardening. Now all I read are gardening books!!!! I also like crosswords, Bible study and doing jigsaws. I also like surfin' the net and talking. I will talk to anyone,anytime, anywhere about anything- I simply love to flap my gums!!! I confess I like talk radio, espec. Sean Hannity. I love listening when I'm getting ready to go to work. I also like to sight-see by car and window shop. I love to walk in our woods with my dog, Coco.I also love all kinds of music and movies. And last but not least, I LOVE spending time with my hubby b/c he is my very best friend!!!!

I am/was a receiving clerk at a local supermarket. I took a leave of absence six months ago, to take care of my sister who had a stroke. Of course, my leave has expired, so I guess I'm now unemployed.

Plus, my daughter came home to visit last month (she's been hanging around here at DG, on my subscription), bringing my 6 month old grandson, and now they've decided to stay a while! She is my only child, and he is her first, soooooo .... I'm not spoiling him, or anything like that ...... ;-)

So, when I'm not taking care of my sister, I'm learning how to be a grandmother. Occasionally, I still get out and do a little gardening ...

O - and I maintain our Church's website in my spare time.

Cheri'

I make computer chips...actually chips for a lot of different applications...printers, autos, who knows..we make a lot of them.

I also love to read, go to garage sales and collecting the stray cats that others drop off out here. Costs a fortune, but they are all checked out, neutered and given warning that I allow no fights here. I used to do a lot of different crafts, but with cats, I dont have the places to hide to keep from being 'helped'. SOOO..am in the thinking process of getting rid of all the suplies I have accumulated throughout the years and wondering (hoping) I can find a charitable organization that would like to have them.

I'm a corrections officer at the state prison. I love to read - I have to stop buying books or get a bigger house.LOL

I spend most of my summer time out in the yard and gardens grubbing in the dirt. Usually the windows are open and the tunes cranked. I bought a heated bird bath and anticipate being able to watch my feathered friends play in it this winter. I have several different types of feeders and enjoy watching the jays and squirrels duke it out for the peanuts.

I keep house for a spotted tabby 'Maytag' and a russian blue 'Sasquatch' (she has 30 toes.) I do needle work, and have solved the cat hair problem. I have no use for most of the drivel on the idiot box, but watch movies on my nights off.

I like to build stuff: birdhouses, a book case, I've torn one closet apart so far and put shelves on one side and double rods on the other; I built a potting shed but it didn't turn out too well (works though).

I work full time, teach piano in the evenings, and church pianist/organist/choir director. In my "spare time" I crochet, quilt, cook/bake, and of course clean house. We have a second home in the northern part of our state and spend as much time there as possible.

I work full time in the electronics lab of a major electronic ballast manufacturer, working on new product development. When not working, I'm grooming dogs!! We have 3 afghan hounds that we show and lure course, which takes up most weekends. If there is any time left, I try to garden!!
Deb

In the winter its wrestling season here-My older guys are done but my 6yr old is a natural at it so we will be going to wrestling again! :)
I like to paint and experiment with craft stuff!
EBAY -buying and selling this winter. Reading and studying more about DAYlilies and Iris's.
I have a new granddaughter that im really enjoying the time we get to spend with her!

Oh and watching the REDWINGS go for the CUP this yr! ;)

waiting n watching for spring!
dori

I'm a retired/disabled LPN and farmer/farmer's wife. We have 5 children, 8 1/2 grandchildren, several of which we have helped to raise and homeschool for various periods of time. Right now we have an empty nest except for a 37 year old son who is still at home for a few more weeks. Then he and his wife will live in a trailer home in the pasture.

I do part time work in a local cafe' as dishwasher, prep cook, and all around helper. Love working with food and people.My husband is a disabled/retired farmer/industial maintenance man. We both do volunteer work at Powell Gardens, a botanical garden open to the public, near K.C., MO. He does computer data entry work and I work in the greenhouses and gardens around the vistors center.

I live in our 1 acre yarden. We built 9 raised beds a few years ago and we can raise more food in 7-8 of them than we could in nearly 1/2 an acre of ground level garden. Since there aren't many people here now I'm converting some of them to permenent flower beds. One is becoming a permanent asparagus bed, another has several rhubarb in it, as well as comfrey, dill that reseeds wildly, and some baby iris rhizomes which need more time to grow before joining others in big ground level beds. Another one is a permanent herb bed. We also have about 20 large ground level flower beds all over the yard.

I really enjoy Dave's Garden and come here first thing every morning while eating breakfast and waiting for my pain meds to take effect so I can start my busy day. That's also where I ususally end my day.

For pets we have 3 mongrel dogs, 6 barn type cats, 2 female pet store rats, a strange guinea pig,(all of whom live in the house) a young male Mini Rex bunny, 9 mixed breed duck hens, 2 goose hens, a peacock & and a guinea hen(who together produced 3 mixed species young this summer), a few dozen domestic pigeons, and several banty chickens., One of the banty hens just hatched 11 babies yesterday morning and another one is sitting on a nest. We also have 2 elderly parakeets who refused to be handled and the people got tired of them so we ended up with them. We are content to let them be just birds who are beautiful and have lovely songs to sing. There is a 40 gallon aquarium in the living room with 3 Calico Fantail Goldfish, a DoJoe Loach, a Plecostomis, 2 Zebra Danio, a Black Skirted Tetra, and a blue/red male Siamese Betta.

There is rarely a dull moment around here. For TV we begin the day with Harvest Show on World Harvest TV then move on to the 700 Club. There are some other Christian shows we watch too. My husband loves the JunkYard War type shows and the home improvement shows as well as anything to do with airplanes, WWII, Civil War, etc. I just leave the room if I don't like what is one the tube. Too much else to do.

GOD bless and keep each and all of you.

My DH and I started a home-based business in 1997 in our spare time doing electronics design/manufacturing for electric model airplanes. Our fulltime jobs were both in the Aerospace business here in the KC area. He's a software engineer and I'm in marketing/customer service. I had 50+ employees at one time and was at the aerospace biz for 15 yrs and then quit to work our home-based business fulltime. It was either that or close the business and we really had hopes of working for ourselves and not all the corporate yahoos. That was in 2000. My DH joined me fulltime in our business the next year and finally last Oct. we moved out of our house into a huge new building. We're up to 12 employees now and busier than we ever were at corporate America. Who says you don't get what you ask for?

That's work....I have a 14 yr old young man and a 10 yr old DD from my 1st marriage and my DH and I had a special surprise 16months ago named Leah Nicole. She's what keeps me young these days (ok I'm only 38 but don't have the energy I did with the other 2 young'ins). When we moved our business to the new spot last October we took the baby with us as the 3 of us were home all day together that first 8 months and we couldn't bear parting from her during the work day. We finally put her in daycare this Spring and Mom & Dad are finally doing fine.

I spend a lot of time in the car commuting to our shop (30 miles away) and taking DS to fball or basketball practice/games, DD to girl scouts and all to appts.

I work a lot on the weekends doing housecleaning, shopping, the dreaded L word (laundry) and squeeze in as much gardening as I can. We usually get out to our shop a couple of weekends a month unless the weather is fabulous and Leah's pulling me to play in the gardens. We used to travel a lot to attend trade shows before Leah, but DH has been burdened with (enjoyed?) most of that since she was born. I finally got to travel earlier this month for the first time in nearly 2 years.

We have 4 dogs (HIS: 2 labs--yellow 15+ yrs, black 10+ yrs, MINE: 2 rat terrier brothers age 2). A cat-DD's and a saltwater aquarium (much neglected this year). All of my family is within 5 miles of my home and we get together monthly for bdays and holidays.

I was diagnosed right after Leah was born with psoriatic arthritis (inherited from my mom). Celebrex is a great med!!

I'm a strong Type A personality and as Root likes to say full of energy. My family has other words for it! Brenda

I am an active ponder. We have a half acre pond in our front yard that has never been landscaped so we are starting that now. We are hoping that in a couple of years we will see the fruits of our labor. We also have a 1300 gallon pond and a 4500 gallon pond plus another koi raising pond of about a third of an acre.

Got back into gardening after many years away from it so I decided to take Master Gardener as a way to refresh my memory. I am active in that organization. Also got involved in the Idaho Water Garden and Koi Society and just love the people involved with this club.

My full time job is taking care of my almost 91 year old Mom. She is still living in her own home about 5 miles from me but I spend a part of each day helping her and if I am home she calls to ask me what day it is several times a day. So far she has remembered my phone number.

I groomed dogs for 22 years and am now allergic to much of the chemicals involved with dog grooming. I raised and showed Shelties, Border Terriers, Bearded Collies for several years and did well with them and am now dabbling in Shar Pei dogs due to a friend wanting to get rid of them.

We raise hair sheep called White Dorpers. Their origin is South Africa and they are known for wonderful meat production. Also have a few boer goats which are African goats that are for meat.

Our two horses are wonderful and are the best pets. We love to spoil our only child who is now 26 years young and we hope that we can have grandchildren before tooooo many more years pass.



I am not a type A personality but I keep on keeping on despite my fibromyalgia and chronic lyme disease and osteoarthritis. Love that garden and so does my hubby of 29 years.

I work full time. I was a window covering design specialist for 25 plus years but had to find a new job when I moved back home to be near my aging parents. I am currently employed by a Security company and work as a Deputy Weigh Master for a local Lumber mill/Power plant.

When I am not working or gardening I am either at DG or wishing I was at DG. Of course I also have housework to distract me in addition to my children (grown) grandbabies and friends that all require time.

I love crafts but find little time for it these days. My dream is to someday have time and income to have a large kiln and be able to spend time sculpting in clay. I also would love to have time to write more and hope to finish 2 books I have been working on for a couple of years now.

langbr, you have mail from me! :)

Any luck with the seeds yet, Rett? I don't know for certain, but the mimosa tree seeds might sprout faster if they are scarified and soaked for a couple days.

Now that all the plants are safely tucked away for the winter, I'm working on my seed trades and bleaching plant tags. I always try to recyle them, so I've just completed the bleaching process on 2-5 gal. buckets of tags! Next I have to sort the tags to size and seal them up in gallon ziplocks. After that, I have to bleach out starter containers and inventory my seed supply. Once I know what I have for seeds, I will begin ordering from the catalogs. It seems the gardening never ends, even when I'm just getting ready for it!

Kelli thank you for asking but not luck so far. I only planted three seeds to start with just in case I messed it up. My Dysthymia is giving me trouble with confusion in trying to figure out the best way of starting different seeds.

I may try you suggestion of scarifying and soaking in a while. I havn't totally given up on the three beginners.

Afraid I'm copping out with starting everything from seed because of my confusion problem.

I ordered a coffee tree that arrived today and am very pleased with it. I'm hoping that the care of plants won't be too much for my Dysthymia because I'm really enjoying the few plants that I have and want soooo many more.