Happy Christopher Columbus Day!

Once again it's Christopher Columbus Day! For those of you who don't know, or who don't work for the federal government, it's actually a Federal Holiday.

A Federal Holiday that's not actually linked to any expectations of parties to throw, places to go, things to buy. And very few people get the day off actually... most kids are even in school today. Even Old Navy's Christopher Columbus day sale is exclusively online (probably for people like me who are very excited about being home and not actually at Old Navy). For those interested, it's code ONEEXTRA15 for 15% off, including Fall Sale items until October 9th, Online only.

But today I woke up to bird chirping, and singing and I felt like I was Snow White or something. The sun was shining in my windows (thanks to sleeping in) and it kind of feels like Christmas.  I had leftover monkey bread this morning and it's 52 degrees outside and sunny. Which, actually is a lot like Christmas weather in Lake Charles, you know, average of high of 64 and low of 44 in December each year...

So it's Christmas weather for all I'm concerned and I haven't got a care in the world.

To do list for the day:
 - Mow the grass without sweating. It needs it.
 - Pick up pecans.
 - Spray for bugs around the perimeter of the house.
 - Workout, maybe sweating then.
 - Spray paint some frames for the soon to be gallery wall.
 - Go grocery shopping with no crowds.
 - Maybe even go to Lowe's and pick up a sample paint or two...

I have high hopes for today. It feels wonderful already. Really, birds are still chirping and sun is still shining, and dew is on the leaves...

Thank you Christopher Columbus, for a hassle-free holiday, even as controversial as some of your discoveries are or what diseases you brought to America...

I'm enjoying the day off.

Happy Christopher Columbus Day, for those of you working, and those of you not!

Freaky Friday

Happy Friday!

With it being October and all I'd like to share a scary little story. This is real, although many of the pictures are a reenactment, because, you know, in the trauma of the situation I was not thinking to grab my camera, or did I have any spare hands! But the last picture, it's real.

Here we go. So I was minding my own business and being the good girl that I am heading to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth before bed. I was by myself, remember, a man was not in the house: this is key.

So so I flipped the switch in the bathroom and I saw this...

A COCKROACH!! (Convenient that I had a fake roach at the house that I could use for this reenactment? Yes. Weird? Maybe.)

It was real, alive and much larger than this fake one. It had those long antenna things and it was all feeling around on the counter top like it couldn't see. Eww, eww, eww! I screamed. I jumped. These are NOT my favorite creatures.

So as I was freaking out and remembering that there was no man in my house I realized I would have to take care of this myself. I was NOT touching it... but I would not be able to sleep if I saw it scurry away. I would have nightmares about it crawling in my mouth as I was sleeping. I'm not kidding.

Then it started to crawl towards me. Nope, not going to happen. It crawled down the front of the cabinet and I grabbed my water cup as fast as I could and ...

I trapped it!! ...then I realized, I had trapped it, with a cup, on a cabinet door... What was I going to do with it? Was I going to sit there all night and just hold the cup? I could hear it's little legs flailing around in the cup and I was trying to think of every option. I was in my bathroom, with one hand glued to the cup... I didn't have many options. These things can FLY!

So I thought about trying to squish it with something. But it was so big, and I would have to either feel it crush under my hand if I did it with toilet paper or clean its guts up if I squished it with the trash can or something. No options there.

So I thought if I could find a piece of paper or card board I could slip it between the cup and the cabinet without the cockroach getting loose and then it would be trapped without be being trapped in the bathroom with it. No paper, other than toilet paper. No cardboard...

Other than Kyle's toothpaste box (he just got a new tube and threw away the old box). (You'll note in this fancy reenactment picture a cardboard toilet paper roll is used... you'll see why in a second).  So I ripped through the box one handed to make it as flat as I could. Still, by the way, the sound of little cockroach feet in the cup...

It was almost impossible, but it happened. And after one try and getting some kind of roach goo on the cardboard the first time, I was able to slip the cardboard under the cup without releasing the cockroach.

Then I realized I had trapped a cockroach in a cup, with a cardboard toothpaste box, and I was not about to kill it.

So I sent Kyle this text message:

I just trapped a roach to the wall with a cup... then had to figure out how to keep it trapped to the wall all while not moving my hand from the cup. It's waiting for you in the kitchen with the cup over it and the big Bible holding it down... I'm spraying for bugs tomorrow...

That's the real thing right there... that's why the toothpaste box was not available. There's a cockroach right in that thing...

But I guess big traumas call for big Bibles, lol... I just hope he doesn't escape...

Happy Friday.

Garden Update: Growing like Crazy

So the garden has kind of taken off since the summer ended. Cooler weather, lots of rain and things have really perked up. Even the onions that had shriveled up and 'died' are green as ever now and growing strong...

But most impressive are the bell peppers. The purple and the green bell peppers are huge and in great shape. Check em out:

Are they not the most beautiful things you've ever seen?! Maybe I'm a little biased, but really... have you ever seen a purple bell pepper before?

And after a good 2-3 weeks without any ripe tomatoes, we now have quite large green tomatoes growing. Should be any day now that they start turning red!

With all the rain, though, everything is growing ... even the stickers. Ouch! The yards in Lindale are full of them. These are like little killer stickers too, not like the ones I grew up with. These have thorns and hurt my fingers when I try to pull them off.

And then the poor satsuma tree. We already started it out with root rot by forgetting to put holes in the pot the first few weeks after we planted it. Then we thought we needed to water it every day.  Apparently, after the first 2 weeks, satsuma trees only need water every 2-3 weeks! Or when the soil is dry, they say you can stick your finger in the soil and if it comes out wet not to water the tree yet.

So now the pot has holes in the bottom and the pot is raised up on bricks so there's adequate drainage. I stopped watering it so often... and then it rained Friday night, Saturday all day, Sunday all day. We needed it, even all 3.69 inches on Saturday alone, but the satsuma tree didn't.

See the little leaves turning yellow and the satsumas turning yellow too? I don't think that's the satsumas ripening, I think that's a sure sign of root rot. And I still don't know if our little tree will be able to overcome it. But we still believe in him, you know, the tree that's now a real live character...

But that's the garden right now. The broccoli isn't doing much yet, and I still need to figure out when we're supposed to dig up the sweet potatoes since we planted them so late... or when we're supposed to pull up the onions...

Lots to still learn, but one thing's for sure: we ordered our new pecan crackers and they should be here very, very soon!!

Happy Fall Gardening!

Pecans are Falling!

Happy Monday! Guess what? The pecans are falling! How timely is that, you know since it's FALL... get it??

Anyways, we have that huge pecan tree outside and Kyle and I have been wondering (or meaning to Google) when we the pecans will be ready.

The time has come!

They aren't all ready yet, but a few have started falling and so we can put our fears aside. See I've heard that some people have old pecan trees that don't make pecans. And earlier in the year we found out that was not us, our tree was making some nuts.  But I've also heard that some people's pecan trees don't make good pecans, like they are all mushy or the shells are empty or the pecans catch some disease. I was worried we'd have that.

But we don't. These pecans are plentiful and looking great.

So I headed out there to pick up some of the few new pecans and well, the old pecans from last year before we lived here. We hadn't picked them up before now because we didn't seem to have a reason to. But now that the new pecans are falling it's nice to have a clean slate.  So I got out there with my handy dandy pecan picker upper.

Isn't that neat. See you just roll it on the ground and the pecans pop right through the little spring-wheel and you just keep rolling. We found this at a garage sale and I'm glad we got it; actually we have two.  Works like a charm. After about 5-10 minutes of rolling this guy, and a few 'West Nile' mosquito bites I decided to save my life and go indoors.  This was my loot.

Pretty impressive.

So I headed inside to start cracking and tasting (and throwing out the old ones from last year). And I think I'll be getting a new more efficient pecan cracker... or a lot more patience, lol.

Happy Pecan Season!! Wooo hooo! More pecans to come, I'm sure.