Signs of Life

Although our "arctic blast" made it look like our yard was mostly dead, spring has sprung and there are signs of life all over the place.

Flowers are blooming.


Sadly, the bougainvillea has lost it's former glory. This:

has turned into this:

It is on the list to be whacked down to the ground. There is a little shoot sprouting near the base. I'm curious to see how far it will get this year.


All sorts of things are shooting up around here. Not the least of which are these:

Building has started in my neighborhood again. This was taken from my backyard through my next door neighbor's yard. Although it looks like one unless you look at them squarely at the front, this is really two separate houses. There is another one going in behind them.

I must say, I am very grateful that 3 houses are going up at once instead of one at a time. Building a house is noisy business. I'm glad it will all be over at once and not drawn out over many, many months.

Next up, edible garden-y things....

The Great Winter Storm of '09

First there was Ike and now this....


Not only do pigs fly, but it snows in Houston.

Can you believe? We had real snow - in HOUSTON!

Look at my poor bougainvillea covered in snow.


Look at the philodendrons weighed down with snow.


Look at the backyard.


Look at my silly children.


OK, some are sillier than others.

A good time was had by all. It will be 70 by Tuesday. No complaints here! That's the way I like my snow. Short and sweet.

All God's Creatures

What kind of Urban Pioneers would we be if we didn't have a few brushes with the wildlife in the area. Thanks to Princess, we get our share of close encounters of the wild kind.

This is Princess.



She is a lab mix and supposedly belongs to my daughter. She is a pretty sweet dog, but she is a whiner and I just have no tolerance for that.

She is an inner-city dog. But she is also a hunter. Not trained, of course. That hasn't stopped her instincts from taking down squirrels, birds, rats, and 2 of my chickens. This weekend she brought me this:



Dropped it right at the front door. I thought the thing was dead. But it is an opossum. I stared at it awhile and tried to decide what I was going to do with the thing and it moved ever so slightly. It was playing dead. Cool, huh?

My husband and son were out of town, so I was left to deal with an all too alive but possibly injured wild thing with teeth and claws. So I did what every red-blooded American woman would do. First, I called and yelled at my husband for not being there when there was wildlife on the porch. Then, I called my mother.

She talked me down and convinced me that he needed to be isolated for the night. If he was mortally wounded he might crawl away and die under my house. That would be even less cool. I agreed and went and got the kitty carrier.

I was glad they play dead because I was able to sort of roll him into the carrier. I gave him (her?) a bowl of water and a strawberry.

When I checked on him in the morning he had eaten his strawberry and was crawling on the cage door trying to get out. As soon as he realized I was there he quit moving. I opened the cage and took that pitiful picture. OK, so maybe he wasn't as ferocious as he looked the night before.

I called the TWRC. They are a life saver for ninnies like me who have more compassion than actual know-how. They said to bring it in and if he was OK, they would release him someplace safe. They will even e-mail me and let me know what the outcome was.

The ride over there was a...fragrant one. When I dropped him off, I commented on how stinky he was. They told me that opossums can excrete a "death scent" to enhance the whole playing dead experience. Awesome. I may have to air out the van.

And here is the little darling safe in the care of the TWRC workers.


Isn't he charming?

Live long and prosper, buddy. But please do it somewhere else.

If you are interest in learning a little more about the Virginia Opossum (That's what we have here in Texas. Go figure.), you may check it out here.

The Fall Garden

When it became evident that we probably weren't going anywhere for awhile, I decided that I would try my hand at a fall garden.

Hurricane Ike coupled with the lady next door really wanting some sun on her pool means that my trees are a bit thinner than they used to be. I actually have a decent amount of sun on the side of the driveway. That has been the biggest problem with growing something other than pecans and figs on my little patch of urban frontier: no sun.

I had the hubs build me a raised bed.



Then I took a page from the Square Foot Gardener and laid it out thus.



That will give you a pretty good idea of how big it is.

I have already planted my pole beans and fall tomato plants. There were some squash type plants that the lady at Buchanan's swore would grow now, so I am trying a cucumber, zucchini, and a yellow squash.



I planted 3 hybrid and 4 heirloom tomatoes. They are already growing. I'll keep you posted on their progress.


I also have plans for onions, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and lettuces, but they will have to wait until the weather cools a little. I may even try some sugar snap peas, but you can't plant those until December in these parts.

Any other fall garden attempts out there?

While I Was Away - 4

One of the things I tried to do this summer was complete some things that I had left hanging.

My dad gave me my grandmother's outdoor furniture. It wasn't in bad shape, but it needed cushions.

I gave it a quick spray coat of black satin paint.



Then I scored some outdoor canvas from the sale table at JoAnn's. I made some cushions for the chairs and the seat of the couch.


Now we have a lovely place to sit on the back deck - once the temperatures dip below 95 degrees. : ) I still need to make the back of the couch, but I need to get a big piece of foam first.

Over the winter I also found this pair of rockers at a garage sale. They were naked and in need of a good bath. But they were $7. Not being able to pass up a good deal, they came home with me. This summer they came to life. I stained them with a red oak stain. A couple of coats of poly later, we have a nice addition to the porch swing area.



And then there is this bench. I bought it at JoAnn's a couple of years ago. Last summer, the girl and I put it together. This summer, I stained it. It is pine and the rockers are oak. I was a little disappointed that the stain I used on the rockers didn't look right on the bench, but I think it looks nice just the same. I got the bench for about $12, so I really can't complain. And with over 500 sq. ft. of porch, we really need places to sit.


What have you been up to?

Hello.

It is June. How did that happen? I realize the last time I posted was in April, but I haven't really abandoned the blog. I'm just up in the air. Feeling a little discombobulated.

There have been several things going on and one big thing not going on. Our house has not sold yet. That has really sent me reeling. I totally thought that once it went on the market we would be out of here. That hasn't happened.

So we are weighing our options. Seeking the will of God. Waiting on His leading. Wondering what our next step is.

I covet your prayers in this situation. We will need another mind set if we are to stay here. And, of course, we need a buyer if we are to move.

So, I don't think I will begin posting again regularly until I know what we are going to do. But I could be wrong. Summer may inspire me to get back to it. Several things have happened lately that I almost posted about. As with everything, let's just wait and see.

Tuesday's Tip

Today's Tip: get to know a bee wrangler.

OK, so this may not be something you ever really need to do, but let me tell you, when you need one, it's really handy if their kids are friends with your kids and she'll run right over and take care of things. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

My daughter and I spent a good deal of this glorious day outside. We planted a few things, watered a few things, and did some reading in the grass. We retired inside to contemplate dinner. About an hour later I went outside and found this:

That is my mailbox. With a beard of bees. They all arrived in the hour we were in the house. Amazing.

Fortunately, the mail had already come, so I didn't need to disturb them to find all of the fascinating sales fliers my mailman brought me.

Enter the Bee Wrangler. I haven't known Jennifer long, but our kids are friends. I called her up and she be-bopped right over.

Can I just say, "Wow." I have never seen this process. I am bee phobic enough to be more than a little freaked out at the thought of being in a little net tent with hundreds of bees, even with the protective gear. But Jennifer is brave. Jennifer is experienced. Jennifer went right to work.

She has this cute little bee box that she hooks up to a Shop Vac looking thing. She gently sucks them up and they land into their temporary home. When she gets to the queen in the middle of all the bees, she unhooks the vacuum and holds the house in her lap. She then gets the queen on her finger and puts her in the box being careful not injure her.

The process isn't quite complete yet. She left that little box leaning up against the mailbox. There were quite a few bees that were still airborne and didn't make it into the box. She said they will land there and then quit flying after dark. She will come back by and just pick it up and take them home. She will relocate to them a new hive tomorrow.

I now know more about bee habits than I ever dreamed. It really is fascinating. But I'll leave the bee wrangling to Jennifer. I'll stick to my safe spot on the porch. : )

(Kinda) Wordless Wednesday

Scenes from a November garden in Houston.

Yes, we still have tropicals blooming.

When I pick this lemon, I will show you the size of it. My mother gave me the tree for Christmas. I can't wait to pick the solitary fruit that hangs from its limb. It is called a Ponderosa lemon and it is one big lemon.

The bouganvillea on the back fence is still blooming. You can see the leaves on the fig tree starting to brown around the edges. They will all be gone soon.

I bought a dwarf satsuma this summer. It, too, has but one lonely fruit hanging. It is almost ripe. I can't wait to see how it tastes.

This the most welcome sight though. We lost so many pecans during Ike. We have been pleasantly surprised to find there are a few pecans that weathered the storm and are ready to be picked.

How does your garden grow?

So Where Are We?

As far as the sale of the house goes, that is. I know you have wanted to ask, but were probably afraid to.

Well, as you may have guessed, we are in a one step forward, two steps back sort of situation. While we weren't going to make our September 1st deadline, I was quite confident that we would have made it in the month of September. That is, if a little thing called Ike hadn't shown up.

We are back up in gear though. We are shooting for the end of this month. Pray hard that we make it. Just today the hubs was up and down on the ladder patching up the water damage. All of that will have to be sanded and painted. The yard is looking pretty good, but we need to put out some mulch. I have started going through the kids' clothes and have bags lined up in the hall that need to go to the Salvation Army. I have been trying to complete some projects that have been left too long. You know, stuff.

One of the biggest issues right now is that Hubs is a general contractor. He is so busy right now because of hurricane repairs that there just isn't enough of him to go around. We'll get there, just not as soon as we had hoped.

I'll keep you posted. Haha. Posted! Get it? I crack myself up.

It Was Finally Our Turn!!

Yesterday, we were the blessed ones. It was our turn to have the heavy hauling guys come to our house and pick up the mounds of broken limbs in front of our house. We were so glad to see them. We brought them lemonade and cookies. We thanked them and told them how grateful we were.

I know, I know. They are getting paid and paid well to help clean up this city. But without them, well, I can't even imagine how long it would take.

My husband is a general contractor and has talked to more than a few of the people who have come to Houston for the clean-up. One man said that he would spend a month down here and double his annual income. Not too shabby.

Still. We are grateful they are here to help out. And I'm really glad to be able to see down the street when I pull out of my driveway. It's been kind of a game of chance every time you pull out into the street.

Tuesday's Tip

Today's tip: know your limits.

I have reached mine. At least, for awhile.

We are in the last few days of summer. That means a couple of things, not the least of which is a trip to the beach and some planning for next year's homeschooling.

As if that weren't enough, we have decided to put the house on the market September 1st. We have been playing around with getting the house ready to sell for...well... awhile now. But we have decided we want our farm and we want it now. Despite the reports of doom and gloom, the housing market in Houston (and our inner city neighborhood in particular) is doing well. There was even a report I read a week or so ago that had the first line of the story as, "Houston, we don't have a housing problem."

But that means that I need to spend more time cleaning out and throwing out and generally preparing us for what we hope are the hoards of people who will descend upon us with offers to buy our home for exorbitant sums of money.

I will therefore being taking a blogging break. I will probably stop in now and then. I may even run an old post or two. I will certainly be checking in on my bloggy friends. But I will be concentrating my efforts on getting things a little more under control here.

Don't forget about me. Send me notes of encouragement! And enjoy these last few days of summer.

TTFN

The Tree

Here is a sample of the decorations around the house. I will explain the tiny red stocking in a later post.

Housing Slump?

I hear there is a housing slump.

This is the view from my front porch.



Of course, you noticed the backhoe and obvious goings on at the first house. Did you notice the framing of a new house going on 2 doors down? That is another new house.

This is the view from my back fence.


The first thing you will notice is that there is no house behind my house. It was torn down to make room for a new house. Across from the lot are 2 actually under construction. The one on the left is new and almost done. The one on the right is a major redo. They have more than doubled the size of the house. There is another one to the left of the one on the left that you can't see. It is also new. And that is not counting the 5 other new houses on that block, 2 of which are actually 3 (4?) story duplexes. There used to be 8 addresses on that block. When all is said and done, there will be 15.

You see why we want to move. It is going to be as crowded here as it is in the suburbs soon!

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

We have had 2 inquiries on the house this week.

One was from a nice and very sincere lady who was driving by and really liked our house. She apparently wasn't aware of the going price for things in the neighborhood. She has already been approved for a loan - for only slightly more than the 2 bedroom next door went for this summer.

The other inquiry came in the mail. Lar talked to them and they will "get back with us". We had one of those last summer. It is probably an investor who has never put eyes on the house, but rather was trolling the tax rolls for large lots. They look for cheap old houses on large lots, tear them down, and put up as many more as the law allows. Our house isn't a tear down. I don't really expect to hear back from them.

Sign of the Times

We have a sign in our front yard. It's not a realtor's sign. It's one of Lar's from the contracting business. Every time he puts one in front of a house he's working on, he gets calls about the house. Since our house is currently still a "project", we thought we would try to stir up some interest in it. It would be nice to not have to deal with mortgage brokers or two mortgages or starving to death.

If you know anyone interested in buying a large, potentially drop dead gorgeous house in a neartown neighborhood, let us know!

My New Love

I am in love. As I am preparing to move, I am taking the opportunity to clean everything that is coming with us as thoroughly as possible. I borrowed my sister's Little Green Machine to clean the couches. Oh. My. I had never used one of these handy little devices. I have used it on everything imaginable: couches, recliner, mattresses, car carpeting. Even the things that didn't look that bad produced the vilest gunk when I vacuumed them. I will never have to borrow this honey of a machine again. I will be getting one ASAP. Thank you, Lisa, for letting me see for myself how deep my dirt really is.