Reduse, Reuse, Recycle

My yard is a work in progress. No, it will never win the prize for "House Beautiful" largely because I wouldn't have a clue as how to get it there. I love the flowers I have, but they are randomly distributed wherever an empty spot opens up. I guess you could call me an opportunistic gardener.

That goes for my garden structures as well. I've been using rainwater for my gardening needs for about a year and have found that the garbage cans I bought leak. They will be put to other purposes now...maybe I can grow worms in those or store extra compost. My solution to storing watershowed up on Craigslist. The above barrel cost $10 and took about 20 minutes to modify it so as to make it workable for my needs. I felt a little like a blacksmith as I hammered out the top of the barrel to create a fitted lid and felt a good bit more respect for those people as my biceps and wrists started complaining. The top of the barrel gave itself up easily to my reciprocating saw though the steel ate the saw blades at roughly one blade to 3 barrels. Still, it's a cheap, er, a , frugal way to store water.

The potting bench functioned as a bunkbed just 2 days ago. My neighbor left the wood pieces on the curb for the garbage men to pick up and I beat them to it! It went together as if someone had cut the pieces to fit and the only cost was that of the screws I used to secure it.

I 'adopted' the pallets behind the potting bench from the side of the road. Much easier to handle than stock fencing, it also provides a little bit of a screening though I'm not too concerned about that.

I like getting my supplies for nothing. Yes, I can be a little cheap and I won't deny that. I also really like the idea of second and third uses for everything. Newspapers make great ground cover bases for my raised beds. Baling string works well for trellis netting. Manure is out there for the asking and sure beats petrochemicals for conditioning the soil for long term success and nutrient rich crops. And in just a month or so, Central Florida trees will give up their leaves and I'll start collecting them too.

Come to think of it...tomorrow is yard waste pickup day. Maybe I'll just take my little utility trailer out and see what we can come home with !

I Love Autumn!

I love the Fall. I love it when the cold fronts slide through Florida and we can pretend we actually have seasons for a few days. These are the nights when I can get out my fire pit and build a fire out of the wood I've gathered out of my yard in the past year. I've been wanting to go camping but after building my fire and roasting a few marshmallows, I'm kind of glad I get to sleep in my own soft bed.

There's something fascinating about fire and the embers it leaves behind. I can understand why early man thought it alive. I watch the embers ebb and flow, glow and fade, with a rhythm all their own. They draw me in with their dance and pull me back to a time before TV and before electric lights. To a time when nighttime conversation was how people passed the time before sleep. Fire meant connection, protection and safety. For me tonight, it means a peaceful night's rest after a very pleasant hour talking with my husband and enjoying the pleasures of times past.

Celtic Thunder

These are The Celtic Thunder!!! Rich and I went to listen to them at the UCF Arena and the show was great.

The "little guy" below is Damian, the youngest of the group. He has a great sound, a big teenie booper sound that all us old ladies love.

This is Paul, the pure Irish tenor. Wow, what a voice! You can tell he's classically trained and can hit the high notes like nobody's business. Pure and clear and lovely.

This is George, the Scot. He sings the ballads that make you cry and is the oldest of the five. He seems very fatherly, especially to Damian.

This is Keith. Keith sings a more folk flavored music. I believe he's Irish.

And this is Ryan, the Bad Boy!! He can make you believe that he is the darkest lover boy in the world...you should have her the ladies screaming for him!!!

The only bad thing about the whole concert was the temperature in the facility...it had to be over 80 degrees. Still, we had a great time and bought a couple CD's to remember a really wonderful night with.

That Time of Year

When people find out I live in Florida, one of the first things they say is, "doesn't it get hot down there?" The honest answer to that question is, you dang tootin' it does!!! From July to September, Central Florida can be miserable...hot, humid, sometimes stifling.

Ah, but the rest of the year makes it all worth it. Come October, the temperatures and humidity drop, the sky clears, the sun shines golden instead of hazy. It's gardening time!!!

There are green beans crawling up my shed with broccoli bordering it. A nice little strawberry patch beginning for a spring harvest. The very bottom picture has cucumber, eggplant and squash. And, a sample of a days' harvest.

It always amazes me how these little bitty seeds manage to take in moisture, warmth and sunlight and become these lovely plants that provide sustanance for us puny humans. I planted petunias too (picture to come soon) and the miracle magnifies. Those seeds resemble the period at the end of a sentence! How can such lovely flowers rise out of such a tiny beginning? It's a miracle I never tire of.

Visiting My Past

This is, uh, was my house when I was in elementary school. The color is about the same. The maple tree, the kind with the pink helicopter seeds, is gone but there are trees in the backyard that weren't there 40 years ago. My room was the window second from the left. I like that it's been kept up. When we moved here from Charleston, my parents bought this house...BEFORE it was built. We lived with friends for 6 months until it was finished which was fun for me because I was 8 years old. I think it was fun for my mother because Pat was her best friend. Anyway, my father would stop by the building site every night after work before he came home to critique the construction. More than once he had the carpenters redo something that wasn't up to his standards. I daresay we had the best build home on the block!!

This is Plaza Middle School formally known as Plaza Junior High. It was my privilege to attend this then state of the art school, complete with 2 college type lecture halls, 3 gymnasiums and a planetarium. The teachers expected us to live up to our environ and I think we did for the most part. The plaque below says the school opened in 1969. I attended the '71-'72 year.

This is the commons area. It hasn't changed a bit. Very dated I know, but also very comforting!

Rabbit Poo

I hit the Jackpot!!! No, not the Lottery, though I would love to win that too. No, THIS Jackpot is a little more down to earth. I found....a source....of RABBIT POOP!

Ah, rabbit poop...the ultimate in organic gardening fertilizer. High in nitrogen (part of what makes plants green) but not "hot." You can put those wonderful little pellets right next to your plants and it doesn't burn the plants at all. And PELLETS!!! It's like nature pre-packaged those little buggers just for us dirt bums. They are light weight (no more hauling tons of horse hockey) and the earthworms love them too.

So like I said, I not only found a source of rabbit poo, I found a SOURCE. This woman has 300 of the furry little poopers going at it all day and night. I filled my trailer and maybe cleaned a tenth of the area she had "under bunny." So next time I may even gather enough to cover my lawn with an inch or so...no smell, no clumping so why not? I may have the greenest weeds on the block!

Faye Part 3....the Aftermath

I told you about the rain that Faye dumped on the Florida pennisula. The 18 inches in my backyard drained fairly fast. The 3 feet of rain in other areas are slowly draining as well. And it's all draining into the St. John's River.

The news reports of flooded roads and homes shocked most of us as we usually don't receive so much precipitation in such a short period of time. My view of the river first hand humbled me more than I can say. Yes, homes were flooded, but I didn't think of the wildlife and the ecosystem as a whole. They were also devastated and nothing brought it into such focus as the plight of the marsh bunnies. In a little bitty area of 100 by 10 yards, there must have been 100 bunnies. They didn't run when we approached....they had no place elso to go. It's hard to see the bunnie but the glowing eye gives it away.

I took these pictures the end of August. My husband says the river is still flooded.