JIM
Bets been on the "For Physically Challenged Gardeners" thread at the NGA site. (I still think of it as All Things Plants.) AmargiaExp (Kay, short for the Amargia Experiment), Amarante87, Nadi, and I, still seacanepain, have been neglecting the thread. Kay and Nadi keep saying they are going to revive the thread, but complain their creative juices aren't flowing and things are so chaotic here at the moment there is nothing to write about. We are working hard, but none of what we are doing is very interesting or pretty to look at yet. Kay's building makeshift potting benches and loading them down. Nadi is mowing and digging her new pond and I am weeding and watering.
African aloe (soap aloe) is blooming. Also the privets ( Chinese and Japanese lagustrums) that we are slowly trying to rid ourselves of. I like the scent of blooming privet, but the others don't share my enthusiasm. A mourning dove nested in the waxy Japanese privet we let grow to tree size and espalier outside our west bedroom wall to cut down on the heat from the afternoon sun. I would like to spare that one from the chain saw. I will cut off the flowers and trim it back into shape as soon as Mama Dove is finished with it. Mourning Doves fledge fast.
It's been a long, cool spring. Daylilies are only now starting to flower.
AG, there is more discrimination in the workplace for someone with epilepsy then for someone with a mobility problem. That's for sure. I think you experience more discrimination in the workplace than Kay did as a blind person. She only had trouble finding a job after she was blind AND hard -of-hearing, but she did the work blind people have traditionally done since the job came into existence, audio transcription.
I keep thinking in lieu of a "real" job, I will be able to find a way to make money from home on my old cabinet makers skills or from the land. The reality is my hands shake to much to make the precise cuts a cabinet maker needs to make and the land provides only sustenance. The honeybees are my latest venture. They are easier to care for than dogs, but harvesting and processing is heavy labor. I see now why even able-bodied apiarist have assistance. I am finding ways to get around that by making smaller harvest, more frequently. There have been no "This ain't gonna work" revelations on this venture yet. It will yield minor profit. There is a lot of cheap honey coming in from overseas. Apiarist make money from renting out their hives for pollination purposes to farmers. I am not willing to endanger the health of my little ladies even if I could do that. My bee hives will be another small way to bring in a few bucks. Small, ever-changing, ever-evolving money-making ventures are the way to go, I guess. I couldn't put all my eggs in one basket even if I had the desire. ;-) Chickens that lay organic, Omega 3-rich eggs are the next thing we will try. Nadi says she will look after them. She has her proofreading and data entry work for a main income and is looking to smooth out her income flow for those times she has no contracts.
My Dad had a work at home job after he retired making cable harnesses for electronics. A job like that I could still do. I wish I could find something like that.
I had too much back pain this weekend to enjoy getting out. I'm scheduled for a transforminal epidural steroid shot tomorrow. The back surgeon said the fusion looked good. I have probably strained something and that has caused some neuropathy. The injection will get me over the hurdle and jump start the healing process.
Does that look like an amaryllis to you in the third picture I posted above, Carrie? 'Red Lion' maybe.
If a plant has a unique common name that everyone agrees on, common names are fine with me. The problem is common names overlap. Kay and I argued for years about what plant was to be called spiderlily. It didn't help that the other common names both plants had overlapped also. Surprise lily and Hurricane lily were also shared names. Then, I found out another common name for the flower I called spiderlily was naked ladies. How could I resist a CN like that. lol. It's perfectly descriptive. The bloom is delicate and there is no foliage at the time it blooms.
It does seem like cacti botanical names are more tongue twisting than the BNs of other plants. Fewer overall species probably means the CNs don't overlap as much also. The only time BNs are important to me is when I am asking for a specific plant at the nursery or looking for one online....or giving plants away. ROFL. It helps if I can tell a person what they are getting.
#21 Practical Matters for Phsically Challenged Gardeners
Hi gang,
Not ignoring you. Will get with you all later. Sigh...busy, busy, busy. Have been reading though. Glad you are all well. Looking forward to catching up.
AG
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2840/
Today's reprint, I don't have time to read this post by Jim this second. What's NGA?
NGA, I figured out. My ATP log in doesn't work, but it might be me.
Hi folks,
Hi Carrie. I don't know if Zoe is a smart dog so much as she doesn't like pain. Greyhounds. Not the smartest breed but not the stupidest either.
Sigh the garage and home repairs. I know all about it. We have a tendency to view things worse or more 'ghetto' than they actually appear simply because they are by our standards or they just grate on our nerves as something that shouldn't 'be'. Hang in there. You'll get the new garage door. It is almost May! Coming soon so will the fix. One less thing to stress over. :]
As for us I'm still bemoaning my hideous blue cheap vinyl/laminate (?) blue counter tops in the bathroom. Feel like I should salute every time I'm in the bathroom as the shower curtain is khaki and red and the rugs are red and the counter blue and the walls white! LOL Still have that nasty, nasty, nasty blue-gray carpet and those disgusting cheap metal mini blinds.
One on the front window is broken now and can no longer be raised. Somehow the string broke in it that connects the louvers together. Two of the louvers are bent and look all whackadoo. You can see this from the front sidewalk. House STILL needs painted inside. Been here a year already. Sigh....
At least on the positive we are ripping up the carpet in the hallway this weekend and laying tile there. That should only take a day or two at the most. Better yet that only leaves that grody carpet in the bedrooms. I can always close the door when company comes. That only leaves tiling the bathrooms. We will need help with that as it involves raising the toilet which means plumbing and we don't monkey with that and some very specialized round tile cuts to fit around the toilet. We'll definitely pay someone to do this small job.
Hey guys...just a though. Since we're all on ATP...still insist on calling it that myself, do we want to do our forum there or here? We bounce between the two and at times it is hard to catch up. I know Bets isn't here anymore on DG.
To be honest when my subscription is up here I'm going to leave. I like DG but it isn't the same as it used to be. The plant files stink especially for cacti, and my forums with the exception of this one is absolutely dead. The only thing I do is chat on this forum, answer the survey questions, and re-read my old Sizzling Agaves forum to see pictures and Latin names of plants so I can chat with my two cohorts from that forum who are now with me on ATP.
I don't follow any other forums as they don't apply to me because of my geographical area and plants. This is a nice website and would be great if I was a brand new member who is discovering DG for the first time, but as stands DG is just dead air for me now. :[
Also I'm not paying to renew. ATP is free and I could use the $16.00 towards a new mini blind. LOL
Also I'm thinking we can catch up with Bets somehow. That would be nice. See what that crazy and her cantankerous granny has been up to.
Yeah work. It is sad. Like I said Epilepsy is a very enigmatic and profoundly confusing and misunderstood disease even for those who have it. It is also deceptive in that for the most part we ARE able bodied but then again look what happens and can you really call us that?
Where and how do you classify us? We don't exactly fit into a convenient category or neat pigeon hole when one thinks of disabilities and the disabled or when it comes to working. Hard row to hoe and crushing emotionally, mentally and financially. But you just keep on keeping on and hope that some day the government and the 'world' will start paying attention to it the way they do to cancer, leukemia, etc. Hell even obesity is getting more attention than we are nationally. Whatever.
My friend was just being honest and I'm glad. Saves me from going and making a fool of myself and wasting my and employers time and energy.
Husband informed me that he needs computer so I gotta go. Get with you all little later.
Hugs
AG
This message was edited Apr 26, 2016 10:04 AM
Good morning/afternoon/part of the day,
I'm thinking I might not renew either. Just as a point of fact, this forum is free. It's open to all, paying or not.
But yeah, I was being very loyal, I guess mostly to the writers program. There used to be sort of a standard for the articles. Not so much any more. Writing here enables me to get Medicaid without guilt. (It's free, in MA, for "working disabled.") But do I have to be a subscriber to write? I don't know.
I first joined because I liked the feel of it so much better than any other online place. You can follow the chronology easily, or at least, when I first joined, it was easy for me to follow the discussions. You didn't have to zig back and forth to see what came after what. (I get so confused by movies, books, TV shows with lots of flash backs.) Some of the people who left, left out of loyalty to Dave Whittinger, the original Dave. That's ok, but I hadn't joined for him, I joined for myself. At that time, first Cubits and then ATP were very start-up ish. Now, ATP seems much more organized (and Cubits less necessary). By then, I was being loyal to the writers and to Terry and Mel. But now, the writers I knew are all over there, and the writers over here aren't that connected to the readership over here any more.
I am torn. I loved having "my readers," but with Disqus, I don't even have them any more! Waaah.
Hi all a quick note on what is blooming now here.
Pic1. Royal Easter Daylily
Pic2. Italian Jasmin.
pic3. Soap Aloe
Well it helps to actually put the pictures on LOL.
Hi gang! :D
My suggestion in regards to the Medicaid and MA is look before you leap. See if you can get a contributing author's job for ATP maybe :D or even a garden catalog, magazine or just a blog type of thing either for a local paper or even start your own. (You could get all those nice tax deductions too for having your own business...excuse me, I mean Ray can for HIS business. You're an employee.) If you can get a new gig, then by all means do as you please.
Like you I also joined DG for myself as it seemed a polished and well put together website that was navigable for the computer challenged such as myself. But now...
That's o.k. ATP has great plant files but I can't get into them. You have to know species and genus or at least how to spell them. Well, if I'm trying to look something up then obviously I don't know these things and I use common names. So I have a hard time with their plant files too. LOL
I have to agree the articles aren't what they used to be and a lot of them are repetitive. For S.W. gardeners it is even more frustrating because we are such a specialized/niche type of gardening. We can't grow what the majority of the country can in their yards and vice-versa. The lack of articles even before the changes always left me feeling uninspired. Don't feel bad. The ones on ATP aren't that great either. Fabulous if you grow Iris or Lilies. If you grow cacti you're kind of S.O.L.
Jim and family,
Sounds like you have been real busy and the farm is starting to produce. Good job on the bumbly bees! They're precious and we sure do need them. I've been real happy lately to see the little guys buzzing around the multitude of cacti and flowering shrub blooms.
Believe me I've thought about all kinds of ways to make money but if I get caught I go to jail, whomever goes to jail, I have to pay all my money back and I won't be eligible again for SSDI. If I earn money from painting I have to report it. Thus they 'think' I can work and will reduce my benefits accordingly or throw me off. Well golly gee if I sell 2 paintings a year for $1,500.00 then what. That isn't a month that's a year! (Down side to being an 'artist' always an unpredictable market).
If I have my husband or friends sell them saying that the paintings are theirs fine BUT then how do I explain a constant stream of checks coming in from $400-$800 each all the time as 'gifts' and going into my bank account? That's money laundering. That's also fraud.
Thought of a few other things but always the same conclusion: loss of SSDI in one form or another, fraud and having to make restitution. So I leave well enough alone. I have rotten luck. I know I would get caught. Now the once or twice job a year for cash or maybe a 'gift' at X-Mas I could do. That still would not contribute much to my income.
Glad your back is feeling o.k. and seems to be healing. That's good news. Please don't over do it and set yourself back in this regards.
And yes...Latin names for cacti are absolutely tormentive to me in both spelling and pronunciation. I try to abandon them as much as possible and use common names. The other plant nerds may not appreciate my predilection for this but I don't care. I got a life too outside of plants and learning how to spell in Latin.
Great blooms! That aloe is looking real happy.
Here's some recent blooms from a prickly pear in a public area. I thought was outstanding. Here's a Trichocereus of mine in bloom too.
Oh...and a cartoon I drew poking fun at the nerds over a lengthy discussion that ensued on our thread in regards to plant I.D. for one of my cacti. The cartoon was my response.
Peace. Out.
TTC
Thanks, Jim!
Good Morning. Or at least I'm hoping it will be.
Tiling the hallway today (laying and putting down mortar) and tomorrow (grout). Not a big job so we'll get it done quickly unlike the monster job we did previously in the kitchen and living room.
Last nigh I already ripped out the carpet (YIPPEE) there, took up the strip with the carpet tacks with a crow bar (YIPPEE) and scraped all the glue off (UGH). I also swept, swept, swept. Unbelievable the absolutely disgusting pile of dirt that was under the carpet and padding. I mean I could have started my own sandbox. I know AZ is dusty naturally and expected some but this was of epic proportions!!!
Ewwwww....gross. I thought about getting new carpeting the bedrooms as that would be the only place that would have it but after seeing the dirt I'm deciding against that. You all know what a hyper manic clean freak I am so I couldn't believe the dirt. EWWWWWW! Gross and unsanitary when you think about that being in your house and what else could be 'living' in it.
We don't wear shoes in the house. Did you know 64% of the dirt in your house is from wearing shoes in it! (Better Homes & Gardens article on cleaning). Aside from the religious Buddhist reasons and cultural norms in other countries, (Sweden, Hawaii, Asia, and India) this is all the more reason to ask people to politely MAKE people take their shoes off when they come in your home. Oh, not to mention it makes your carpet last approximately 3-5 years longer! Carpet isn't cheap folks!
The dog is inordinately well house trained. Bonus about Greyhounds as they grew up strictly with a highly regimented 'kennel/crate' training since puppyhood through their adult life until they retire and that 'training' carries over when they become pets. YIPPPEEEE on that. They're not ones to pee or poop in the house. Zoe walks to the door and puts her head on it like it's the starting gate for the race or she 'pesters' until you let her out. Since I got rid of the indoor salad bar (house plants) the doggy spit up has stopped too! Very sanitary and hygienic dog. If/when I ever get another one after her IT WILL be a Greyhound. (Also I just love them. :D)
Had Zoe for 6 years and the only 'accidents' she had in the house was 3 or 4 times in our old house and we didn't know she was having the start of renal failure the first 3. We got her to the vet quick.
The 4th time it happened (separate incident in a different year) she was sick from being bit by a spider/something in our back yard. We definitely knew something was wrong immediately from the way she looked and acted.
I don't care how much vacuuming and steam cleaning you do it carpet inevitably is going to absorb dirt not to mention at some point (10, 12 years) start looking like all carpet. Worn, gross and needing replaced. Husband agreed with me that hard surfaces are looking and sounding like a much better option.
Definitely not linoleum or tile. I think we'll do the laminate (?) flooring that looks like wood but is actually a tile/tile like softer substance(?). We'll suck up the extra cost but it will be worth it in the long run as it WON'T need to be replaced and it is easy to clean and will stay nice forever basically if you don't treat it like the floor in your garage. Little area rugs under the bed that come out a few feet on the side or a very nice 'runner' type of rug on each side. DONE!
True hardwood floors, while I'd loooove to have them are beyond our reach financially, cost way too much money, time and effort to keep nice and AZ has termites so I don't care to 'tempt' them into the house. Not to mention pet nails scraping on them and 'dents' and 'pock marcs' wood floors accumulate over time if you drop something heavy or your furniture is heavy.
Sigh...so there is my house...I finally hate carpet rant.
So what is everyone else doing in their house. Carrie, I know you were working on your hardwood floors. Doing anything else?
Jim and company got anything going on inside.
So there's my carpet rant.
Well, sounds like you made a thoughtful, wise choice. Problem with wheelchairs....there is no good choice. Carpet is gross, wheelchairs are like 10 person-years each, per wheel. I mean, I wonder how they would calculate the road tax? Anyway, harder (wood, tile) is easier because you won't have to replace it, just resand or regloss. I forget what the rejuvenating maintenance you do with tile, but there is one. We got the bathroom floor done around five years ago, now we're dong the walls to go with. (It won't go with the floor like match, but it should look better than it does now! It will be new, shiny, clean, coordinated, uniform.) Sanding floors is just another thing to do eventually.
So: garage door, bathroom tile, new screens, back yard.
Looked at a lot of pictures in the last few days and two things I keep noticing, the house was cleaner, tidier, morre organized and the yard was nicer. I take credit only for the house. The yard was the people who built the house. They put in a beautiful lawn which he apparently tended as if it were a garden. We didn't care about it or respect it, it's been torn up by wheelchairs swingsets gardens weeds bushes patios compost bins and most of all, Emma's dogs. We used it hard.
Sigh...I don't know about 'wise' necessarily as I weigh cost of laminate and figuring out how to install it versus DIY with the tile. It also has some issues especially if your floor isn't 100% level. It will pop up in places. Also if your walls aren't straight.
We've discovered both of these things as we tiled. The kitchen isn't level and there is a perceptible hump when you stand on it although barely visible to the eyes unless you scrutinize it hard which, thankfully most people don't. Also the hallway walls themselves aren't straight. We found this out cutting tile. Along the wall all the pieces are the same length and width but there's two pieces that are slightly smaller at one end and had to be cut at a very slight slanted/tapered downwards angle to fit flush against the wall or next to the other tiles. Make sense? Hard to explain without pictures. Kind of like this l_l /_l l_l l_l Again not real noticeable unless you stare hard and see that the grout line is a little thicker in one spot to accommodate.
We'd have to figure out how to accommodate for something like this with a laminate floor if we had uneven walls or floors in the bedrooms. The laminate comes in premeasured/predetermined strips. Shaving it on one side like /_l to make it fit may be problematic. What do you use to fill in that tiny gap? Can't use mortar. LOL.
I'm thinking of tiling the one bedroom/office and maybe just doing laminate on the other 2 (master and 'guest' room). I've seen houses here where the whole thing is tiled but I don't know if my husband is up for that or wants our bedroom furniture all over the living room for 2 days.
Sigh. They really do make houses like crap now days. Makes me miss our old house we had built where everything was new and perfect and just the colors and way we liked it. It was so pretty. Kept my eye on the builders too and made sure they weren't cutting corners literally or doing shoddy work. Here, this place was already 12 or so years old. Guy put the bare minimum and cheapest of everything you could in it as far as counters, carpet, skipped tile for linoleum, etc.
I think I explained we DID NOT have time to be too choosey as our house sold out from under us in 10 days and we had to get out. Pack, find a place to live and move in 10 days! Had a place in Tucson but that was a disaster. Despite how nice it looked it was so uninhabitable structurally the building inspector made the woman take it off the market. Her options were: fix it (approx. $60K of work), short sell as is, or foreclose. I heard she took it off the market. So that left us 10 days! YIKES....
Here we are. Like the neighborhood. Hated the last one and the people and it was sooo remote from civilization. Despite how perfect my house was I honestly was miserable living there and my husband didn't like it either.
Have to admit moving here has done a lot to relieve that misery and make us and others around us happier. :D Great neighbors that we like and whom like us; a yard that I have to fill up with my plants that others appreciate as well. More diversity, more open minded people. It is suburban not rural and my husband is 10 minutes closer to work.
Only problem with this place is it is 'older' and the guy was cheap so that means it is a bit of a money pit cosmetically. Bothers me in that it will still take another 2 or 3 years to whip it into shape. Sigh.
That's kind of funny about the road tax. Not sure how to translate that. Perhaps you should ask the next time you get your taxes done? Seriously. Your wheel chair is transportation and you do use it outside on public sidewalks, pavements, etc. Hey, worth a shot! Maybe you can get that deduction. :D
For you hardwood floors seem more practical. Easier to maintain since they're already there. Resanding...ugh. What a dust nightmare. I'd be going into non Epilepsy induced seizures over this and the cleaning and cleaning and cleaning! LOL
Tile just needs the grout resealed periodically and I think there is some kind of sealant you can put on the tile to keep it from staining. That isn't hard though as it is basically a wipe on type of product. Have no clue what the laminate stuff needs or if it is a dust magnet like wood in general.
Glad you took a step back and looked at the house and saw a lot of improvements and the headway that you made. :D Feels good doesn't it?
New bathroom is great and completing it even better. Garage door coming in May! Hooray, that's right around the corner. New screens I presume will be soon also.
As for the yard it sounds like it is functional rather than a show piece. Wouldn't know what to tell you in that regards except 'zones'. Maybe attack it like a mini city/village?
All the play stuff for kids/grandkids far back corner of the yard? Bushes in a row kind of like a neat hedge separating the flower and vegetable garden? Compost bin in some discrete area behind the side of the house or garage if possible? Dogs and wheelchairs are dogs and wheelchairs and need to get around everywhere. Not much you can do about that.
I know a lot of people with dogs set aside a smaller fenced in area of the yard for a 'dog run' type of thing. Dogs get walked out to that spot and turned loose in there for awhile to play and do there business rather than all over the yard.
May have a lot of stuff back there going on but neat, compartmentalized and what seems organized--at least to others (LOL) when they look at it doesn't appear so ghetto. Ever think about sketching a plan out on paper for the back yard as to how you'd like it?
Speaking of ghetto my back yard is just the opposite of the front. Cheap metal round Salvation Army patio table and folding chairs I got somewhere else. I spray painted them all the same color because I don't have $700.00 to buy real patio furniture. The stuff costs more than indoor furniture and that isn't even top grade stuff! I mean we're talking Wal-Mart's and $600.00 is very mid level for a small table and 4 chairs that are cushioned and NOT in Sunbrella fabric or including an umbrella! Good, really nice patio furniture is about $800.00 to $1500.00. I don't have money for that. Other stuff is a priority.
Only 2 raised beds in the back that I built with 2 plants in them and a pile of brick laying there beside them for over 5 months now I've never done anything with. Keep telling myself I will, I will, I will....
Two dead(?) or near dead or appears to be dead scraggly, nasty trees that neither grow nor die in each corner. Don't have the money to remove or replace them.
Only adds to my list of things that depress me around the house when I think of the carpet, blinds, living room drapes (have them but don't match the house---eye roll), need a new mattress. Ashamed to tell you how old our mattress is. Blue counter tops in the bathroom and cheap counter tops in the kitchen. UGGGGGGGGGGGGH!
But, like you I can see the progress and that makes me feel better. Little by little and I am grateful I have a nice home, in a nice neighborhood and only cosmetic as opposed to structural things need done. So I really shouldn't complain too much when I think of it. I'm just impatient and I want everything done and all at once right now. Typical human nature isn't it?
You have a great day.
AG
Song of the Day: "Anticipation" by Carly Simon. :D
See, we have no dog and most of our grandkids live in Texas, at least so far. Furniture....you're right.
One day, I think after we had been married for a few years, we had a medicaid crisis. You have to re-enroll every year, and I hadn't told them I was married (and they hadn't asked). This particular year, I had mailed in my re-enrollment info, and it actually did get lost in the mail. It rerturned to my house in the mail as "addressee unknown" or "insufficient postage" or something. It was due the next day or maybe even overdue, so we took it by hand to the Medicaid office, which was in Taunton MA, about 35 min away, Not a casual trip for me at the time.
So Ray and I drove down there. They told me/us that because of Ray's income, I was no longer eligible for Medicaid, which was a total disaster! I had Medciare forever, but my kids??? What about them? Also, Medicaid is who oays for PCAs and expensive MS shots and asthma spray! So we were REALLY upset, They told us to either get divorced or have Ray reduce his hours. It was devastating.
The reason I am describing this whole event is that THEN we went to Ikea (because we were in the neighborhood). Where we bought a set of chaises, a long table and an armchair for outside. They were beautiful and we used them hard, all summer. If we had brought them in the garage for the winter, they might have lasted, but we didn't and the winter weather got them. But I CLEARLY remember that awful feeling. knowing full well that we were just spending money to make ourselves feel better and knowing that it didn't make any sense, When you spoke of outdoor furniture I just remembered that whole event.
Ugh. What a horrible thing to say to you and your husband. I'm sure they meant it to be in a way that was suggestive of how to best 'work' the system to your benefit but still people don't think about the impact or repercussion of their words sometimes. If you guys got divorced then you would have to live elsewhere (ahem..use some one else's address as your residence, get your mail, pay rent, etc.) You could stay with Ray and have your friend 'recycle' the 'rent' money back to you BUT I think that is called money laundering and constitutes fraud? Sooo they get you coming and going. Same with Dave and I.
Completely know 100% what you mean about shopping to feel better. It is just that "F-it" mentality one gets after being whomped on financially and emotionally. Makes you feel like you have to do something nice for yourself or just for yourself for a lift or to justify the, "I won't be out on the street or any poorer for spending X amount of dollars so screw it."
I get like that too. Books, plants, bottle of wine, overpriced grocery items just because I want them and I'm tired of eating on a budget. Once in awhile clothes, manicures, makeup, things for the house even if they're impractical. Just piddling away some money to feel better even though I know I shouldn't and it is just a temporary fix. (Except the plants of course).
I can definitely identify with the outdoor furniture thing. Hard to believe I've lived in AZ 8 almost 9 years now and still don't have patio furniture but there's so many other things I honestly do need. I want patio furniture. I don't 'need' it.
Speaking of spending money to feel better and "F-it" mentality...we had to go get a new blade for the saw so we could cut the tile. Old blade finally wore out. Hey, it lasted forever and the replacement was cheap. Since we were going to be across the street from Lowe's I decided to pull a drawer out of the kitchen so I could have the wood color on me and stop in and look at the Laminate flooring for a match.
I figured I can't change the colors of my cabinets which is a medium oak. They're not the blonde color but kind of a gold-ish very pale red-gold color. Irked me because my old house had all dark mahogany to match my furniture. Now I have dark furniture and light wood. Sigh. Another reason I did the floor tile lighter beige-gold in color too. It blends better with the cabinets and my furniture looks like I did it deliberately to 'contrast' light and dark. Thank goodness mixing woods and wood colors are in style now!
But I digress. Went into Lowes and was shocked by just how nice and reasonable the stuff was. Really picked the flooring guy's brain with a multitude of questions about brands, durability, surface scratch resistance, cleaning, and how to install, cut/trim, etc.
Ultimately I was surprised to find a super high quality product I liked at an unbelievable price in the exact color with a little dark/mahogany graining in it. To do a 15' x. 18' room and two 12' x 13' rooms (guestimated on those) it gives me 582 square feet. I'd need 24 boxes of laminate at $46.00 a box for a total of $1110.24 pre tax. NOT BAD!!! All in all I figure about $1500.00 when said and done.
I could never carpet 3 rooms for that. Mid grade carpet with high grade pad plus installation and tax and labor and delivery makes carpet exponentially more expensive. Laying carpet is not something we could do ourselves like the laminate flooring.
The flooring also has the better than average padding already on the back of it so I won't need to buy that separate and it comes with a guarantee. If you understand what a limited lifetime guarantee means let me know.
Very tempting for me to open my wallet as it is quite affordable and about $1,000-$2,000.00 less than carpet. YIPPEE. Honestly $1,500.00 is about what we paid to tile the entire living room, kitchen and hall way and baths (haven't got to those yet but have everything set aside). That includes us doing the labor.
Guy said installing this stuff is easier than installing tile so again that makes it another DIY job and saves a ton of money.
Here's what I looked at if you want to see it. It is rated 4.5 stars out of 5. It is from Lowes. It is called Allen & Roth Lodge Oak Handscraped Laminate Wood Planks (4.96 in W x 4.23ft L)
I think I'm going to get it just before Fall and we can do it one room at a time during the Fall on Dave's 3 or 4 day weekends.
Keep your eyes peeled for some new patio furniture. You just may find something at IKEA again. Oh, and for what it is worth, Rustoleum makes a 'clear' spray paint product that puts a rust proof finish over things. Not sure how it would hold up in snow but know it does real well in the rain to prevent rust. I've been pleased with it and we've had the furniture for quite awhile. May need to reapply every year or so but hey, a few cans of clear 'spray paint' is a total of $20.00. Cheaper than new furniture.
When I spray painted my patio furniture I used the Rustoleum in red. Comes in every color in the rainbow and some in textures and metallics .
Have a good day.
Hugs,
AG
This message was edited Apr 29, 2016 3:23 PM
Remember this was years and years ago. Somehow somebody told me about the program for people with disabilities who WORK. So I got my medicaid back a month r two later.
Here's the unbelievable part: much much later, years and years later, I was in a Medicaid office and I said "It was HORRIBLE of you guys to tell us to get divorced!" And they said "we didn't mean you should GET divorced, you should just have TOLD us you were divorced." UNBELIEVABLE! Remember I said I forgot not to tell them we were married? f I hadn't told them, they never would have known, So here is rthe Medicaid people TELLING us to commit fraud!
Crazy isn't it? Don't you wish you had a recorder handy for these conversations. They tell you to fraud the government but then when you do and you get caught YOU'RE the criminal. Uhm...yeah. Right.
Anyway finishing up a corner of the hallway tile. Ran out of grout yesterday so had to get some more today. Should be done in a few hours. Then it is wipe, wipe, wipe, the residual dust off. Then it is dust, dust, dust and sweep the house.
Picked up a new plant and 2 pots at Lowe's today. YIPPEE. Couldn't resist since we were there for grout. An Agave funkiana. Very pretty and very vicious in terms of lateral spines on it! Small busy plant though and not a monster Agave or Century Plant that will grow a stalk. Planting it is going to be a real challenge.
As always I look for the healthiest and biggest one I can find and if it has pups that is a bonus. This one has 2 and they are both slightly more than 1/2 the size of the mother. They're ready to put up themselves. I'll put mom in one pot and the kids in the other.
Pots I found were great. They're practically giving them away. Got a huuuuuge one for 1/4th of what they normally cost. Picked up another fairly large one for about 1/3rd its normal price. Both ceramic, heavy and solid and not plastic. Won't have until Monday or Tuesday to play but I will take photos for you when I get this plant potted up. I'm putting it in the back yard. Finally something to go out there. :D
Sunday we're going out which will be nice. Kind of a date day early evening. Looking forward to it.
Talk to you soon.
AG
The system is crazy, isn't it? My essentially deaf/blind wife doesn't receive any benefits until she is 65. . Marrying me took a lot of trust on Kay's part. She lost her SSDI and medical insurance when she married me. Kay is not one of those women who is comfortable being financially dependent on her husband. She never even shared a joint bank account with her first two husbands. Our main income is my military retirement. Luckily, she is covered under my medical insurance as a military spouse. We've been talking on Facebook about the problems of living comfortably after retirement. My SIL recently sent me this link. How true!!!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1044939858878818&set=a.951699174869554.1073741855.100000884415113&type=3&theater
We've had many doctor appointments the last few days. They seem to come in clusters for us. We will go months without an appointment. Then, have four in one week.
I've been comparison shopping online for showers. Tigger's arrival put the bathroom remodel on hold. I'm back on that job. I also want to re-paint the exterior of all the buildings. I have a compressor and a sprayer. It won't be as difficult as it would have been a few years ago when I would have had to do it all by hand.
I also want to simplify the painting inside. We went a little wild with color last time we painted and I'm craving white walls again and a consistent floor color throughout. Kay insisted that we build no permanent structures here until the land was paid off. As it turned out, that was a good decision. All the structures can be moved to a new location or sold, except for what is currently my workshop. The time to sell is on the horizon and neutral colors are usually more appealing to buyers.
Plumbing and painting. Grrrr! My least favorite fix-it guy jobs.
I will build one more permanent structure soon, a bath house. I want to keep my Jacuzzi on site. If we are going to continue to work this land, I will need it. My brother got a tax write-off on his tub as a medical expense to manage chronic pain. I never thought to do that, but I do consider it a necessary medical aid like my cane or a w/c.
I have friends and family who have their spas open air on their decks, but I don't like that idea for a couple of reasons. Insects and teenagers wanting a romantic, secluded place to party. Kids around here know all the back roads and are quick to pick up on a new place to get off by themselves. Anywhere near the river is a prime spot.
....so both of you have birthdays in May? You said something in an earlier post about being a Taurus, AG. That's late April and most of May, right?
The pink wood sorrel is still blooming so it must not be as hot as it feels to me. The sorrel melts away to nothing with the coming of the heat. It is usually sparse by the first of May. I don't remember seeing the red rose/pink oxalis combination before. Putting colors together is not my strong point. Nature usually handles that reasonably well. I'm not sure how I feel about this pairing.
Wait, Jim, why did she lose SSDI (unless it was off of a different spouse). SSDI is hers; she ought to carry it with her through thick and thin. And I love Medicare, at least in Massachusetts. If she worked in the SS system, on the books, then she paid SS taxes and should be entitled to SSDI herself. I can't imagine Kay not asking the questions, though, so I'll presume she did,
But I thought that blind people got tons of benefits. Income tax benefits? Of course, you have to earn money to have not paying taxes be a benefit. I had heard the blind lobby in DC was powerful, at least compared to the crip lobby.
My birthday is on Memorial Day weekend this year; it usually ends up that way. I am not that careful of a reader, Jim, or maybe a rememberer. I can well believe that Agave said she was a Taurus, but I have no recollection of that event! Sorry. Yeah, maybe we talked about zodiac signs. I am a Gemini (end of May, most of June). Taurus would be from now to last week in May,
Agave, will those ceramic pots live outside for you? I leave my pots outside and most of them die from exposure. Inside pots last a long time. If you're looking for pots, JoAnn Fabric always has them on sale for Mothers Day. I usually get new ones then. I am not against the idea of bringing them in in the fall, but it's hard for me to ask someone else to do that for me. It's a big job.
I put in an order for Bluestone Perennials! I am debating calling them up and adding a Columbine. (I think shipping is cheaper if I do it all together.)
Good Morning
Jacuzzi as a tax deduction? Hmmm? Greyhound as a therapy dog? Maybe. Cacti and gardening as physical therapy? Hmmmm. Have to check with my Neurologist. :D He's pretty hip. Likes me too as I make him laugh.
A bath house? You're building a bath house? I will pay for you to fly first class if you get up here and build me one too! Sounds like heaven. I just imagine a tiny little Japanese style bath house close to the garden. Ahhhhhhhh. Forget the teenagers looking for a make out spot. Ever consider that yourself? (* grin*)
As for my ceramic pots they do just fine outside. Preferable over plastic. Most of them come from Mexico and are glazed also which helps. Very heavy as they are cement, stone, clay-sand-stone-concrete mix? Some kind of heavy thick solid material. Very heavy so they don't get blown over and break like clay pots. Drainage holes pre drilled into the bottom. I have a few plastic/resin ones that mimic the look of these pots but in a few years they'll crack or the 'paint' will peel from them.
Not sure if I mentioned I got a new 'smallish" Agave at the time I purchased my pots. Agave funkiana v. 'Fatal Attraction'. It maxes at 3-4 feet tops rather than turning into a monster plant like the Century Plant or Octopus type of Agaves. Really happy in that is almost half that size now and has 2 really substantial pups on the side. I'm going to put them in a separate pot. There's also 1 smaller pup. That can go in with the two siblings. Mom will have her own pot.
I'll take some photos when I get it planted. Will be an endeavor as it has particularly nasty, fish hook shaped lateral spines all along the leaves. OUCH!!! It does draw blood as I found out moving it around yesterday. :[ Grrrrr! Beautiful plant though.
Jim,
I am in agreement with Carrie in that Kay would be more than eligible for SSDI regardless of being married. If it was only being blind she may get partial as they could find a desk job or phone job for her. Many of the blind do work. Since she is hearing impaired as well as blind that obviously limits her work abilities profoundly not to mention driving and thus being able to support herself.
Like me she may have to push a bit since her body is 'physically able' more or less but her 'senses' and/or neurological interpretations and how they affect her physically and quality of life wise are not. This would profoundly limit her. Bare minimum that I could see would be partial SSDI. Most likely full SSDI.
Oh...and she's really, really, really depressed right? Ahem...hear me? SHE IS really, really, really depressed and IS seeking medical help for this right? HEAR THAT? Depression qualifies for SSDI. Oh and she's being given prescription meds for this. I said GIVEN. I didn't say she's taking them. (*cheese grin*) . But they 'help' some, but don't make much of a difference right? (ahem).
Since Wise Cactus said, I just had a seizure and don't know what I wrote above because my mind wasn't working, I'll go on to talk about that barn painting.
Sounds like quite a job painting that barn. Lots of fun though as of course I love to play with paint and any medium is good for me. Light and Heavy body acrylic on canvas is my favorite but I can do Latex semi gloss on walls and wood too. Find they both put me in an equally meditative state. Maybe it's the brush cleaner or turpentine instead? Thank goodness for spray compressors. Should make things a lot easier time wise and on your back. That has to be a relief.
Glad you got to the bathroom. I think Carrie was working on hers too. Dave and I finally got done with the hallway. Phew! Took longer than expected due to a 'Z" shape of the hall and all the cutting of odd little pieces. We still have the bathrooms to do but are not sure how to proceed as we need to raise the toilet to accommodate the tile and make a lot of curved/round cuts. Dave doesn't know how to do this. Either we'll have to hire someone or learn. YIKES.
Carrie, I think you were working on your bathroom too. How is that progressing?
Oh and I love Columbines. Get some. They're wonderful.
Birthdays. Yep, coming up. Not a big deal to me. I'm not a vampire or immortal and I'm not going to live forever so why deny my age. I've taken to telling people I'm 7 years older than I really am though instead of claiming I'm younger. :D
That way people can go, "MY GOD! What are you doing? You look fantastic for 55!!!" I said I don't deny I'm getting older. I never said I wasn't a vain, silly heifer! LOL
As for Taurus yes. I'm Taurus. So are you Jim! Taurus fall from April 19th - May 20th! Gemini starts on the 21st of May and goes through part of June. Deceptive isn't it ?
So how is everyone planning to spend their birthdays?
Have a good day.
Peace. Out.
TTC
I actually like my birthday since I started hanging out with Ray. Once, we went to the mall with the kids and Ray kept saying (in a commanding voice) "ta da! The BIRTHDAY GIRL." It was lots of fun, especially because the kids were so embarrassed. Ray just kept repeating BIRTHDAY GIRL loudly and they kept trying to act like they didn't know him. I don't remember if we bought anything. It's funny, which things turn into memories, isn't it?
Yes, you did talk about your new agave. I remember reading about the pups enviously. I don't think I could manage anything spiny though. I am loving my Amaryllis! Ray bought plastic pots for them, and they are each falling over.
Outside, the peony is growing up. My #2 daughter had adorable blond curly hair when she was little. Old ladies used to stop her to tell her she looked like Shirley Temple, and she would always answer, "I'm JUST PLAIN NANCY," in an exasperated voice. She didn't know who Shirley Temple was. So my peony is Paeonia 'Shirley Temple' ! At least I'll never forget the cultivar.
Agave, you were talking about your house not being straight? Our house is the same way. I think it was built quickly and cheaply in 1951 or 1952. The guy who had it built was a Korean War vet who had it built to accommodate his wheelchair. Based on the amount of clearance in, for instance, the bathroom, I think he must have been an amputee in a manual chair. Anyway our house has cracks where it has settled. Which is a an issue, right? We spent several thousand on the floor and now several thousand more on the walls, and it still won't be a house worth preserving. Except for the bathroom tile!
I don't think the DG site says anymore, but it's 4:00 am.
Good Morning,
Sounds like those lovely Amaryllis need heavier and perhaps wider pots. I don't know how wide yours are. When I say heavier I don't mean the type I use necessarily as they are HEAVY and made to bear the width of plants that get 4' + and weight of 50 pounds or more. Perhaps something in clay or that new 'resin' that looks like the ceramic heavy pots. Little more sturdy and able to bear the weight as the stalk and leaves get taller and the blooms make it top heavy.
That new Agave I got is a beast. Lateral spines that are just wicked and tore my arms to shreds while I tried to plant it. Put it up on ATP and got "Oh my. That's a pup factory and it is going to clump basically like a prickly pear if you don't get rid of some of them." YIKES. Despite my best tugging, pulling and sometimes not so gentle prodding with the trowel they would not release. Soooo...This morning I had to pull it out, lay it on its side and look at all the roots.
There's an umbilical cord so to speak from the mother plant which is a big, thick white root/s. It runs very long and deep not horizontal. The larger pups are attached to it with many, many, fibrous small 'normal' looking roots. The tiny, newest ones are still attached to an umbilical cord and are as described above.
What an ungodly mess! As long as I left two or three of the mother's umbilical cord roots it is fine. The rest I hacked through with a pair of scissors until they were loose enough for me to pull out. The pups are now separated. YIPPEE.
Ten of these little brats. Want one? Will only ask price of shipping. Now pups aren't a big deal because they're little and you can eyeball them as they grow and quickly tug or cut the itty-bitty offspring out as they pop up. It is when you have a mature plant like I bought (3.5 gallon) and nobody has ever done this that it becomes a major headache.
I have a whole yard and many pots full of Agaves and Aloes to 'de-pup'. They are all prolific baby making machines. I guess that is how they survive out here. Prickly pear too often look like they're in a persisted vegetative state and then POW suddenly they're a third or half size bigger in growth and pruning them becomes a must. Desert plants (Shrug).
If you would like some pups I have 10 off this monster! I'm sure if Ray helps you keep up with the regular checking of it and de-pupping immediately you'll enjoy this plant. Leather gloves a must though!
Cute story about your daughter. Not only naturally blonde but naturally curly too! Grrrrrr! I'd kill for it. Mine is poker straight, baby fine and well...ahem, naturally chestnut brown. Can't use curling iron, or rollers. Last about 3 seconds. Only a perm works. Humidity? LOL, looks like someone threw a bucket of water on my head. Take a nap? No such thing as brushing it back into place. Oh, and hairspray! In my world hair does not move! Windblown look be damned.
O.K. will pick up in a bit as Dave needs the computer.
AG
Sure I'll take a tiny agave. Water? Will it rot? It's pretty much going to be up to the PCA though, and I officially disavow any knowledge of its demise. Do you take paypal? I think ll you need is an email address. Because I do not do snail mail, I do not write checks and like that.
The root you describe sounds like a tap root--like a carrot? Lots of flowering plants have them: queen anne's lace. balloon flowers, baptisia. They are notoriously hard to divide. Sounds like you did good.
This message was edited May 4, 2016 3:03 PM
This is the fourth time I've sat down at my computer to post. Fingers crossed I finish and hit submit before any interruptions.
Whoa, TTC, your newest addition is the most vicious yet!!! (I just checked it out on NGA.) The trifoliate orange aptly named 'Flying Dragon' is the meanest looking plant we have. The Dragon bows in submission. I've always heard it said we gardeners have to be a mildly masochistic bunch to accomplish what we do. I guess that goes double for gardeners in the southwest where the plants have to arm themselves to the teeth to survive. Really though, I think you should name your newest addition The Terminator.
I'll look into Kay's financial situation again. A lot of things have changed since 2003. .
I was counting up how many people I know who were born in May. I've heard August and September have the highest percentage of births in the U.S. and I do send out the most birthday cards in those months. May has got to be up there though, if my friends and family birthday list is any indication.
The dewberries are ripe and I ate the first peach of the season yesterday. There are some consolations to the arrival of sauna summer.
Kay planted some wild cucumber seeds (Cyclanthera pedata) outside the door of my workshop. We traded for them with a DGer in the Netherlands and know little about their growth. They haven't growled at me yet, but the vines do appear aggressive. I will arm myself with pruners to defend my territory. Sheer exuberance of growth and irritating resins are how plants in the southeast survive predation. We have our share of thorns and prickles, but they can't compare to a desert climate.
Also, new to us, are the lemon cucumbers. Their vines are healthy, but growing at a more moderate rate. I have not eaten either the wild cukes or the lemon cukes. Looking forward to trying them.
I went to Lowe's yesterday to check out the shower designs they offered. I think I've found the model that will work best, but I haven't seen Home Depots offerings yet. I will look at what they and a few other venders have first.
Of course, since Kay was with me, I didn't get out of Lowe's without checking out what plants were on sale. She must have been in a red pride mood since we came home with Indian Feathers (Oenothera lindheimeri), Indian Blankets, a red verbena and Monrovia's new Super Red Flowering Quince. The last will give a real pop of color come next February.
Women are funny about their hair. Kay and Tigger are always trying to get more volume and curl into their locks while Nadi is always complaining that her hair will not lay flat and straight and she looks like she has a strawberry blond afro. I don't believe there is such a thing as a woman who is happy with their hair the way it is. lol. News Flash: The woman currently considered the most beautiful in the world is an Indian (as in New Delhi) actress. Natural blonds are darkening their hair in the name of fashion. ROFL.
Photo: Something from a wild flower mix I planted. Noid.
Hi guys,
Sorry for the lapse. Dave needed the computer and then the dust demanded my attention. Good God it is a prolific as the dandelions out here and my house isn't bad compared to the dust bowl I used to live in previously and the fact that I'm so manic about cleaning. I think it is just all the tile stuff, the constant coming in and out of the back door (cutting it, getting the grout mixed, etc.), and walking around with our shoes on that caused most of it. Also taking up the gross carpet didn't help and tis the season for small black tumbleweeds of Greyhound fur to blow around the floor. Yes, Greys shed. It is hot. They're a dog, all be it a short haired dog.
Also had to lick my wounds again as I got hives and started the itching/scratching thing and my arms opened up from the scrapes I got. I think I told you about Century Plant sap right? Poison Ivy type of reaction. Thankfully I only got a small dose. Fell asleep early and then hit the deck running again this morning.
Uh...by the time I got to your requests for pups I cringed. Had ten pups all set aside and photographed that I had tried to pawn off on others on ATP as well. No biters as they all have their own overabundance of gnarly little beasts. I was going to wait and see if you or Jim wanted some but when I went out this morning they were gone. Dave was kind enough to explain he threw them out. "I didn't think you wanted them! You went through a lot to get rid of them all and look at your arms. I just thought you hadn't got around to throwing them out so I did."
Sigh. I hate it when other people play with my toys! Grrrrrr! Anyway I'm sure this thing and every other one in my yard will sprout 10 more in another month so I'll have an overabundance to give away.
In the interim I can send you a lovely good size Aloe Vera (nice and medicinal and works good on cuts and scrapes---eye roll & grimace) and an A. sisalana pup which will grow to monstrous proportions but has NO side/marginal spines. It only grows very long, sharp lateral ones on the tips but those are easy to cut off when the plant is big enough. Also a real sun junky when big enough. Can stand my heat so I'm sure it will be more than delighted with your late spring and summer. Will have to keep it in a sun room or green house the rest of the time. Doesn't mind water either just don't over do it and soak it to death. Both of these plants looooooove humidity but not 'wet' roots. The A. sisalana pup right now might need a little light shading as it is small.
Don't worry about the PayPal thing. What does it cost to ship--- a few bucks? Won't make or break me. Enjoy. Who knows, I may you to send me something some time in return.
Yes just send me your address on the e.-mail here and I'll send them out to you. Remember, cactus-citrus-palm soil ONLY for these things and well draining pots! Regular potting soil won't cut it with Agaves, Aloes and cacti. (Learned that lesson once myself).
Rule of thumb with water better to delay watering a little bit than over water. Check soil your WHOLE index finger down. If it is dry 3/4 or more of the way, then at that point water. They have long, deep roots so although the soil is dry the first inch or two there's still plenty of moisture at root level.
I'll even toss in a piece of my crab cactus. You'll like that one. I gave Jim one and it has been growing well for him. Very easy fuss free plant with minimal spines. Located at the bottom primarily. Doesn't pup but grows more kind of like a succulent in clumps and masses. Max height is about 3 feet. Again loves sun and water but follow same rule for soil and water as above.
Jim,
I'll have to check out the mighty, might Flying Dragon and others. Since I've been away from the N.E. part of the country I no longer remember what grows there or what a lot of stuff looks like aside from the basics (tulips, roses, peonies, etc.).
Your cukes sound great! Nice of your friend to trade with you. Always fun. Lemon cukes sound most interesting. Named on the basis of color or taste? Sound yummy anyway. Those, gourds, and pumpkins and even tomatoes I know are insane when it comes to the vines and seem to be your nightmare to manage the way pups are ours.
Rub it in about the peach by the way. I'd killlllll for a peach that wasn't as hard as a brick, tasted like---I dunno and was sweet the way a peach ought to be. I think you remember my long time lament with Bets about the tomatoes out here also. Sigh. But hey....we got really spikey things that get cool flowers! Too bad I can't eat them. :[ They look yummy like candy or cake decorations. Friend described seeing flowers on a cactus as the equivalent as seeing an Easter bonnet on a construction worker. LOL
As for our thorns and spines yep pure masochism. I think we take the loony-toons award for gardeners. Heat, dust, dry, vicious plants that aren't user friendly and either reproduce like rabbits or grow at a snails pace if you're lucky and for good measure half of them grow to be the size of mini vans or two story buildings. But for some reason we just love them. :D Maybe it is the heat? After awhile I think it rattles one's brain.
Speaking of heat it is officially 100 degrees today. YIPPEE! Good times. Next two days it will drop in the 80s and we'll have tremendous wind and then the 3rd day it will be 73 and rain! All in one week. Gotta love AZ. It will then begin its ascent once again into the 80s and 90s. I think the end of May is honestly going to be it for us before we start shaking, baking, and everything starts frying and dying (including my hair). Bust out the shade tent for the plants and the sun hat and lotion for me.
You get bombarded with May birthdays I get all Fall and Winter birthdays. I am the only person I know of (aside from you and my hairdresser) born in May. I know nobody with a Summer b-day---oh, and Buddha too! :D
.
I have 4 friends, all Libras in late September to early October.
My husband, my father (when alive) and my SIL (who give a S***) are all Virgos in September.
My anniversary is in September.
My mother's anniversary is in November.
My mother's birthday is in early December (Sagittarius)
My best friend and her husband are both in late December (Capricorns)
Brother and Stepfather are the exact same day, Jan 24th (Aquarius)
MIL and FIL (eye roll) are both late Jan and early Feb (Aquarius)
Of course let's not forget X-Mas in the midst of all this!
So from September -early Feb I get hammered. Might as well say I contribute to deforestation. Been making lots of phone calls instead these days.
Let me know all how the home projects are going.
O.K. without further ado here's my beasty. Agave Funkiana v. 'Fatal Attraction' (appropriately named)!
In pot with pups when I got it,
bag or excess pup roots and 'umbilical' cords (they're are several on the plant), the pups themselves the other day (gee...thanks Dave).
Mom flying solo in her new home.
Next set of pics are a close up of my little beast's marginal spines so you can see why I was complaining about my arms!
Paradisia Magnifico in bloom this morning and with a friend that looks as though it will bloom soon also.
Perhaps another of the most vicious plants I know out here. The Ocotillo tree. For reference Dave is 6'6" tall. The spike on this thing is 3" long!
There's so many more too but won't load up on them.
And of course....guess who?
Hugs to all.
Oh Wise Cactus says, "When you get stuck by a cactus consider it a kiss. Just Agave, remember love hurts.!"
Peace. Out.
TTC
Wicked! Now you know why my complaints about the arms.
Ocotillo and thorn
My Paradisio Magnifica today! :D
Oh...and guess who. By the way even my birthday is in December!
I can wait until you grow some more pups. I just got an email from Bluestone that my order should be here by Friday. I don't know when the box I ordered will get here, but anyway we can't fill it and locate it until the garage door is fixed. Our tile project is probably going to begin Monday the 16th. Plus we are heading into the frantic month with birthdays. I can definitely wait.
O.K.
Will send you pups as soon as they pop up and they inevitably will! Thing is a baby making machine.
Pretty exciting stuff on the tile project. :D If you're like me you'll bemoan the mess and cleaning but when all of that is done you'll love the new bathroom. I just keep blinking at my tile and grinning. Can't wait to do the floors next!
Hope your box gets there soon.
Have a great day.
J.
That's the first time you've ever called yourself J. Happy dance! Yes, and I hope it gets there not too many days after the plants do.
I am nervous about the tile. Our last tile project had such mixed results. The floor came out REALLY well and the backsplash came out REALLY bad.
Yipeee!! My new teak container/box arrived the same day as some of the plants I was planning to put in it! Yay! Unfortunately, the garage door isn't going up until May 16. but I think it will work it out.
We Can Work It Out (The Beatles)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyclqo_AV2M
I like the analogy of a construction worker wearing an Easter bonnet for a blooming cactus, but my mind conjures a dapper Mafioso. lol
The bees have kept me jumping the last few days. Hive beetles got into a hive box. Grrrr! In apiary slang, getting hive beetles is aptly known as "being slimed." Italian honeybees are great housekeepers, but they can't keep up with the mess hive beetles make. The bees aren't able to evict the beetles themselves. Beetles are death for a hive, if the beekeeper doesn't step in. The only thing to do is remove the Queen and her court from the hive, clean, sterilize, set everything up anew, and set traps for the nasty vermin to keep them out in the future.
I'm feeding my little ladies supplements to make re-establishing the hive easier, but luckily this has been an unusually cool year thus far. It was an unheard of 51 last night. This means there is plenty of floral goodies for the ladies to feast on. The spring flowers are still hanging around plus the sauna summer blossoms are arriving. Nadi said our micro-climate has recently been re-classified as 8a. I didn't buy into the re-classification even though we usually run two weeks behind higher places further from the river. The land seems to be trying to live up to its new zone. We still have pansies and violas blooming and the bridal wreath spirea is still flowering.
. I think the milder weather is why the peaches are doing so well this year. Don't worry, TTC. I wouldn't do like Bet did with her tomatoes and go on about how succulent, sweet and juicy the peaches are, how the juice runs down my chin whenever I bite into one, how I'm just so tired of eating prime, organic peaches. No, I wouldn't do that because I'm not the least jealous that you have established neatness and order and it is a chaotic mess here. . ;-)
Actually, this is our first real success with growing peaches organically. I guess the peach trees heard me say I planned to cut them down because they were not producing.
Lemon cucumbers just look a little like lemons. They ripen yellow and grow to the size of a large lemon, but they are picked when they are golf ball size for best flavor. Their skin is thinner than other cukes and they don't get bitter as readily. Best of all, they are an heirloom variety that comes true from seed.
It is the olive cucumbers, I'm not sure about. They have to be picked at precisely the right time to be eaten fresh, but they make good pickles if that magic moment is missed. There is just a large seed that has to be removed. They're incredibly easy to grow and they have medicinal value for controlling cholesterol. It would be something if I could get off a drug by eating pickles. lol. The vines do grow fast, but it is a delicate looking plant. It doesn't have the big leaves I associate with something in the cucumber family.
I've made it a habit to walk the entire property every morning with my camera to make sure I don't miss a single daylily bloom. Then, I can label them again and know what is planted where.
Photo #1: DL/'Willow'
Photo #2: DL/Red ?
Photo #3: DL/Orange ?
Photo #4: Chinese lagustrum (Privet) Sigh. The honeybees like them. They may need to stay another year.
Photo #5: Poncirus japonica 'Flying Dragon' I banned this beast from its place of prominence on the south side of the main building. Kay loves the beast. She says the large thorns aren't a problem for blind people. It's those bristly, hair like thorns like on prickly pear she has a problem with. I hardily disagree. I think this critter is jealous of my place in Kay's affections. I swear it is out to get me. It is relegated to an out-of-the-way spot now and daring me to come mow beneath it.
(Jim)
Good morning all,
And happy mother's day to all those of kids, cacti, canine and cats! :D
Sorry I've been MIA for a few days. One day had a raging migraine. No seizures just a migraine that laid me out for awhile. Next day I slept. Can't sleep when your head is banging and you're hyped up on caffeine so the next day you play catch up. I get migraines on occasion. Not a big deal. Only thing that works is Excedrin Extra Strength Migraine. Only down side is it has a ton of caffeine in it (restricts blood vessels and thus blood flow eliminating migraine) but we all know caffeine is not conducive to sleep. (eye roll). So I slept the whole next day.
Yesterday had to play catch up, run errands and it was also the Kentucky Derby! YIPPEE. Love me some horse racing. Only sport I care for and watch. From May through June I'm pretty much glued to any horse race going. Not a gambler. Just love the sport.
Used to love the Greyhound races also until I found out how awful an industry that was. Subsequently I'm glad they've systematically been shutting it down.
Carrie,
I know the anxiety over the home improvement thing turning out right. It is nerve racking isn't it?
I'm amazed our tile turned out as well as it has and looks good. Not sure if it is possible or will help but what Dave and I did was just take one box of the tiles and kind of lay them out to get an idea and move them around from area to area as a 'guide'.
This was especially useful when we had to figure out how to transition one room to the next or tile the 'Z' our hallway makes and not wind up with a bunch of odd spaces or a ton of 'cut to fit' pieces.
Maybe you can kind of do this on the backsplashes before you start. Trace the tiles on cardboard or construction paper and put a few of the 'paper tiles' on the backsplash first and move them around to get the best fit and look. Beats taking a hammer and chisel to get tile off that doesn't look right and wasting materials.
Not sure if it was helpful but may be a good exercise just to calm nerves if nothing else. I have every confidence you and Ray know what you're doing and your project will turn out well. You'll be very happy! Hang in there. The garage door is only a week away. Big sigh of relief.
It is going to be a bit for me before I get the rest of this nasty carpet out of here and do the bedroom floors. Probably Fall. Still have no idea when dearest plans on getting the bathrooms done.
So where are you putting your new plants and planters?
Hi Jim and family. :D
Yep, cacti and flowers. Odd combo. I still have a few that will bloom again but not like they did previously. This is pretty much the last hurrah. Right now the Saguaro are preparing to bloom. A few already have an occasional flower open.
They are the last of the plants to produce flowers in the desert before everything goes in a brown colored sun induced state of catatonia. They'll only last until mid June. I'll definitely catch pictures of them for everyone.
Beetles.......Grrrrr! Yuck. What a mess and a lot of work they've made for you and the bumbly bees. ;[ Sounds like you came to the hive's rescue just in time. Good news in that the floral feast is still continuing and you will have it all Summer long unlike my area where we are limited to 3-4.5 months out of the whole year. Makes me wonder how bees survive here and what they live off of. Also the fleeting nature of cacti blooms makes me wonder how they manage to reproduce.
Is there a special type, variety or breed (?) of bee that is adapted specifically for the desert as opposed to the rest of the country? I saw a place that had a very tiny apiary (on the tiny side bit of grass under a row of trees between a homeowner's yard and a cemetery). It had about 3 hives. Specific types/breeds of bees never crossed my mind before until you started talking about your bees and the temperatures.
O.K.
Have to leave off here gang. I will get back with you when I get home. Time got away from me and I forgot I had a 10:30a.m. apt and then needed to swing by grocery store for a few things.
J.
The beetles in the beehive story sounds DREADFUL!!! I knew there was a reason I don't keep bees. That and all the other reasons
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Just wrote 5 paragraphs and it deleted. Grrrrrrrrrrrr!
Talk to you guys tomorrow. I'm tired and now I'm crabby.
Lots of yard work. Moving big plants. Long story.
Sigh.
Hugs to all.
J.
O.K.
Maybe some of you can figure this out because I sure can't. I'm having a conniption fit. Now I was never 'good' in math but got A's all the way through Algebra II. Suddenly went from an A student taking all advanced placement classes to having only 1 'D' on my entire high school report card and that was when I was forced to take Geometry and intro Trig my senior year.
Now story problems always gave me fits but I could do them if I racked my brain hard enough. Now I remember being taught taught me that there IS always one piece of useless information in it NOT needed to solve the problem. "Think" what the question is asking. Eliminate the unnecessary/useless piece of information then solve the problem.
I read the Huffington Post every morning. I read the political page and then the front page. Off to the side was something from England. "Read the primary school (elementary school) problem that is unsolvable to adults" Problem was presented. Answer was not. They are looking for people who can solve this and to send in the answer. Work must be presented.
NOT a contest. There is NO prize given. They just want an answer.
O.K. here's the problem:
Some people get on a train. 19 people get off the train at the first stop. 17 people get on. There are now 63 people on the train. How many people were on the train to begin with?
Here was my work:
63 (people now) -19 who got off =44 left
44+ 17 who got on = 61
NOPE does not = 63 people on the train now.
63 people now + 17 who got on = 80 on train.
80 on train - 19 who got off = 61
NOPE does not = 63 people on the train now.
63 on train + 17 who got on + 80 people
80 people now - 19 who got off = 61 people.
NOPE does not = 63 people.
About the closest I got was this.
19 people off - 17 people on = a -2
O.K. so if there is 63 people now originally there was 61, right?
WRONG. You got 2 people short because there is supposed to be 63.
The answer closest to what I can figure out is some kind of algebraic equation involving either +2 or -2. But I keep getting the same answers!!!.
63 people on train now.
19 got off. 17 got on.
Leaves a shortage of people because -19(off) - +17(on) = -2
Therefore -2 + +63 = 61
Or
+ 63 on train now + (+ 17 on) = 80 people - 19 off = 61
Now this looks good BUT if you had 61 bodies on the train PRIOR to the 19 getting off that would be 42 bodies. 42 bodies + 17 on =59 !!!! NOT 61
Conversely
we have =17 on -19 off = -2 bodies short
63 + -2 bodies (they aren't ghosts) = 65
This is not 63!!!
O.K. only way I can come up with 63 is by doing this:
63 people are left on the train and 17 got on. 63 + 17 + 80.
80 people on train - 19 who got off =61
We are still 2 people short ( 19 off -17on = -2 bodies)
Just add those 2 bodies because you feel like it and are sick and tired of this problem to the 61 people left.
61 + 2 mysterious bodies = 63
The alternative is this problem is unsolvable and/or a misprint.
-19 - +17= -2
63 people left.
You can neither add or subtract phantom non existent bodies therefore the change of people on the train was, and is 63.
&%^*#&^ Math!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Roll on floor kick scream pound head in wall!!!
AHHHHHHHHHHHH
It deleted my post again. Grrrrrrrr.
Some people get on a train. 19 people get off the train at the first stop. 17 people get on. There are now 63 people on the train. How many people were on the train to begin with?
Say X=number of people on the train to begin with.
X - 19 is the people getting of at the first stop.
X - 19 + 17 = the people getting on again.
X - 2 = net change in # of people
X -19 + 17 = 63. X (17-19)=63 X-2=63 add 2 to both sides 63 +2 = X = 65.
is 65 the answer?
IF 65 is the answer, it's very easy to get confused with the people getting off and getting on, and I started with knowing I could be easily confused. If 65 is NOT the answer....what the? I was SO careful!