Fresh Pot of Coffee

I think time has stopped.

O well I'm out to walk the dog.

GREN, You look pretty buff already!
One or two more days and the antique house/office will be done.
I'll be taking the rest of the week off after that. Nice weather is predicted.
Glad you are around again.
Missed you on channel 10 news. Sorry. I don't watch much TV anymore.
Andy P

Don't feel bad Andy, I didn't watch to see if I got my fifteen seconds of fame, but my mom called me to see if I was ok, LOL!
No fare you get to play in the garden! : )
Yeah I am what they call buff, I'm kinda worried I wont be able to brush my own hair cuz my guns will get in the way of me bending my arms! Its a good thing I'm long and thin, if I were short and stocky that might be a real problem. Maybe having noodle arms will finally pay off! Ha Ha Ha!

Dave I'm having some hickups here too! When I post and hit send its taking a while to think about it.

Congratulations WU and Al!

Takes a while to think about & sometimes, instead of posting, says "that page can no longer be found.
Back soon. Off to read to Danny. (indian & the cupboard- excellent)

good story Dave!
Have you read Old Turtle? Its a favorite here!

Don't know Old Turtle. Who wrote it? Chapter book or picture book?
We are actually reading the Return of the Indian and the Cupboard. There are 4 or 5 "Indian in the " books. Read them all with Mary.
Along with about 12 Oz books, Chronicles of Narnia was a favorite. EB White books, all mof Harry Potter and my favorite: The Secret Garden!

Fortunately, I love children's literature.

I'll have to go find it I don't remember who wrote it. I enjoy the lesson it teaches and turtles are my favorite! I'm not sure why my kids let me read it to them so much, you would think they would get tired of it.

It's probably like the favorite movie that's watched 15 million times. My nieces did that with a few movies. I remember Samantha watched Cast Away so many times that all of us were dreaming and quoting it for weeks! She would watch it and as soon as it was over, wanted to watch it again!!!! I quickly tried to teach her the word, VARIETY.

LOL! Anita,
My daughter did that with the Little Mermaid, I thought I would never see the day when I wished she would ask me to watch it again but now she wears all black and is totaly into the goth thing, I often wonder where my sweet little girl went, I go looking for her and find this moody, dark creature, brooding in her room! Now she watches these Anime movies with names that I can't remember, and plots I can't figure out. She laughs at me all the time.
Last night she wanted me to watch a movie that she called...(sounds like)
Shitsu umigotchie??? I have no clue. I think I'll call my mom and tell her I'm sorry for all the times I thought she wasn't "cool". : )

I just came in from outside, I'm freezing and my yard is a big mudpie! Ugh!
I sure hope its nice out Easter weekend! I have an Easter egg hunt planned for the kids and was hoping for some cute pictures!

It is chilly out. I just came in to eat something. I setup my tomato sprouts in my wall-o-waters. Let's see how they do. I also had gotten my cold frame/greenhouse [ http://store.yahoo.com/nga-gardenshop/12-1202.html ] and put some of the plants that I had been keeping in the house out in it. This is all new to me, so it's a continual learning experience. I figured if I have some failures, that will be something I change next year.

Anita, Don't put the peppers in the cold frame yet!!! They HATE the cold.
Wait until the night time temps stay above 40.
I lost them one year when it got down into the 30s. Actually I didn't loose them, they were stunted and never recovered.
Cold Frame repair is on my list of 'things to do'. I salvaged an old window sash from the dumpster to replace a broken one.
Think it needs repair? It's small but big enough for my needs.
Andy P

Andy, I think it looks classic.

Before winter sowing, wall-o-waters were the only thing I did to extend the season.

It ended up being very nice today (here anyway). I had put several inches of mowed leaves on newspaper on my veggie garden and on my soon to be new garden which is very long & U shaped. Well, the leaves didn't totally breakdown. And my mantis didn't seem very effective. But, I had plants and with my usual impatience, started planting before my bed was totally prepared. No garden diagram. Just plunking plants where it "felt" right. Its amazing how often I do this kind of thing. After I've been gardening a couple of hours, I get impetuous.
Fotunately I believe in building soil from the top down, so it will eventually be fine. And the remainders of the leaves will compost in place. I can be such a knucklehead though!

I got the cold frame fixed up with the new window.
The new one was a couple of inches bigger than the old so some imaginative engineering was needed.
It'll work.
Now I have to place it in the sun and move the first flats out, tomorrow.
Andy P

Thanks Andy - I was actually going to put them in the WOW's with the tomatoes. Right now I have my coleus and asparagus fern in the starter house - it's like a little green house.

We got out on a family road trip yesterday touring southeast WI. Kids got to see the Mississippi River.

Got by this old Military Hospital.

No one seemed to notice my geography error on my previous post.

You also forgot to put the building straight....must you play with everything??

No pics of the 'ole Miss sorry, about 3/4 to a mile wide there.

Here's a tourist shot

Southwest WI??

That's correct Dave.

Lots of warm weather here.
Kids are off this week playing outside when it's dark out.

Kids are off in the town I work. Next town over, where I live,school this week. Weird.

Got any more geography trivia?

We crossed what they always call around here 'the hardest working river in the world'

I think this is more history really.

The fur trader and the missionary.

Did you cross the Wisconsin River?

Well the old house will be done by noon tomorrow.
Here is one room (office) after new windows/before I started.
Note the sliced fireplace mantel, sunken hearth and torn up ceiling.
Andy P

This is the same room today.
They moved in a week ago but they are not quite set up yet.
I didn't do any carpentry or plaster work, just clean up and paint.
Andy P

WI river I guess still has the most electric/hydroelectric plants per mile in the world I've been told. It's nice tho - good fishing still(muskies). There is an impoundment(Lake Wi) that has those goofy paddlefish in it. We see the river quite often.

Marquette and Joliet pretty much put there names on everything around here.

Very pleasant Andy. Were those some folding indoor shutter things?

Yes Al, they fit into recessed wall openings, rare.
The new owner is so pleased with the way everything came out he is going to use a large hand cut nail removed from the doorway and incorporate it into a plack for the wall. He said the contractors and my name will be mentioned on it, too.
That was a surprise.
The place really came out very well.
Ron, the contractor was amazing.
Here is another pic of that room.
Andy P

Very nice Andy - love those 'warm' colors :)

I do too. Very nice Andy.

Al - very interesting. That's another place that I 've never seen...WI...

Andy, Beautiful job! That must be very satisfying.

Al, In New England, a Muskie is a Senator who cleaned up rivers.

So where's Dena?? Still test driving the swings??? How was everyone's day? Can I order a hit on my boss? Our office is closed for Memorial Day - she schedule's me to do training that day!!!! I'm hoping that the client she scheduled me at is off that day.

Anita, I for one feel much better now that that big job is DONE!!!
Yes, I am happy with the way it all came out.
Now I can take it easy again. The rest of the week is off but with appointments almost every day. I'm not complaining, though.

Sidekick Sarah had her yearly check up today, all is well.
She is down to 41.5 pounds. The vet said it was her right weight.
She weighed 55 when I got her.

Lots of seedlings are in the cold frame, as of this morning.

Here is a pic of a Narcissus that opened today. A very old bulb, in a hard to reach corner under the Mountain Laurel.

Andy P

Anita - I don't think you'll find many people to train that day - she was just reminding you that she is in control.

My bleeding hearts which are my largest perennials I can stand and watch them grow right now.

I grew up watching Monthy Python on PBS - I can do this skit by myself
http://www.phespirit.info/montypython/oscar_wilde.htm

Nudge, nudge, Wink, wink, Say no more.

Likes games does she? he asks knowingly


I don't have a lot of early season flowers, here's what is of interest today.

Watchout Anita, Al is doing collages now.

What is the blue flower?
Andy P

I don't know - some bulb.

The seedlings I think are butterfly weed.

Blue flower - looks like a fine specimen of Iris reticulata to me :) Haven't been able to post much lately, we've been so busy - but always checking in to see what you 'guys' are up to! In addition to our usual spring chaos around here, I've been working on our website...grrr, thinking maybe now I chose the wrong person to get it up on the web - live and learn. I designed the whole thing, all he had to do was attach the proper html codes and make it work - after all the time I spent with formatting the text just the way I wanted it to look (alignment, font, etc), he's basically telling me that it MIGHT not be possible - well, is it or isn't it going to work??? We were trying to save some money by going with someone local, but now I'm wondering if we made a mistake, and he's soooo slow - it should have been up and working weeks ago! He's only got a few pages done right now and unfortunately he didn't get our most important page (our schedule of shows) his priority :( I'm at least going to post the link on my page even if it isn't done, so feel free to take a look!

Since Andy can brag about his work, just thought you'd like to know my container planting was one of the finalists in Fine Gardening's Container Contest - they have it on their website http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pages/fg_109_062.asp# (mine is on the right) or you can check it out in the latest edition of Fine Gardening. Already planning what I'm going to plant for this year's contest - one of these years I'm determined to win!
Debbie