Belly Button Blues...

I'm gonna come right out and say it. SUCKY WEEK! You wondered why I was gone? Why I had no update? Hmmmm?

Well, I'm gonna blame it on two things: The weather and my stupid belly button.

Rain, rain and more rain. And you gotta catch the soil at JUST the right time when it rains. You can't go out there WHILE it's raining because, well, um, it's raining. You can't go out there the day AFTER a night of rain (which, for the record, I DID try on Saturday) because it's like digging in play-do. But if you wait TOO long, the soil turns into the flower pot terra cotta.

So, it would rain. And then stay sunny all the next day, giving me hope that I'd be out to work in the garden the day AFTER, but then it would rain again and start all over.

Like I said, I tried on Saturday. It took me an HOUR to do ONE row (of mixing in the topsoil, etc. with the local soil) because every time I tried to claw the dirt with my cultivator, clay caked up in big clumps.

BUT, instead of just getting all PMS-y and calling it quits, I got out my rake and clippers. I decided I would do the yard because besides getting the vegetables ready for my family, my other goal was to make the yard (meaning the couple of acre-long stretch in front of the house between our driveway and the powerline clearing) habitable for my kids (and not snakes and ticks). I had gone out on Friday and bought an electric, rechargeable, cordless weed eater, but because everything was so damp(and, well, because I hadn't had the presence of mind on Friday to charge the weed eater), I figured I'd go ahead and tackle what I could with manual tools.

This exercise felt like a demonstration in Attention Deficit Disorder. I started out with the rake, starting at the house and working on the "lawn" until I got to the little rocky patch on the side of the house which is overgrown with brush. So, I used the clippers. Then, I went back to raking until I noticed that the leaves were getting stuck in other patches of brush. So, I got the clippers back out and then... well, then I was unstoppable. I spent the next two hours tackling the brush on one side of the house. Clipping whatever the clippers would clip. If it was too big for the clippers, it was allowed to stay, but if not, it was a goner. I was a brush-clipping machine!!!! After, like I said, a couple of hours of that, I realized that I'd need to get the brush picked UP before dusk, so I put the clippers away before I was tempted to keep going and I started piling up small piles of branches.

When I had gotten most of the big ones, I was struck by this urgency to make it look like I had done something. Because it didn't look like it. I mean, I KNEW, and my aching muscles remembered, but my eyes and mind were like, "huh?" when I turned around and it all seemed just as jungle-y as it was when I started.

So, I got out the rake and started at it. Problem was, I don't think anything but the immediate yard (the grassy part) has been raked in 30 years, so there were LAYERS and LAYERS of leaves. Every time I scraped away another layer, I found a sublayer of humus there. On the one hand, this was a huge annoyance because, all of a sudden, I had a HUGE cresting wave of leaves. I was thigh-deep in them. On the OTHER hand, humus is AWESOME for the garden. So, I vowed to make a new leaf ring right there where I was raking. Then, I put it off until the next day and went back to raking.

As I raked, I saw a little black thing squirm by my foot and into the leaves. I dove my hands in after it and discovered what I had suspected. A baby snake. I got this blurry picture of him so you can't really see that he's black-ish on top and rosy on his belly. He wanted to get away pretty badly and when I dropped him once or twice, he tried burrowing back into the leaves, but, well, I had raked the leaves. And there was no way, muddy or not, that he was going to tunnel through that clay. So, I grabbed a handful of humus and piled it on top of him to keep him warm.

About that time, I realized that I was tuckered out. My bellybutton hurt (I'm getting there) and my shoulders hurt. And my hand hurt. I was done for the day. And that was it for the weekend. I went out Sunday during the day into the garage and worked on Ryan's desk a little bit (painting the UNDERsides of it), but then retreated back to the house when it started to get all spooky windy and whatnot. The day had been shrouded in a strange drizzle so far. You couldn't see any drops FALLING but there were drops condensing on the deck and windows. Then, without much warning at all, BAM, thunderstorm and downpour. It got so bad, I started to ask myself if it might not be a bad idea to go check on the car (the Camry was parked out front). I had opened the sun roof the day I drove it home and wanted to just double check it had shut. It was fine. But then one little peak at the weather channel's forecast of hail and tornado warnings and I was back up and in the garage, cleaning out a spot for the car. It just barely fit but at least it was safe from hail damage.



So, the belly button. I'm sure I've already told you (bear with me) that the belly button incision site was sore. And then it was itchy. I noticed that it was sorta pulling away (had been since the whole truck load of dirt experience). I went to the doctor and he told me it didn't look bad at all and to come back in a week or ten days or sooner if it got worse. That was on my birthday (Wednesday--George, my builder friend, took me out for Mexican food, by the way... Flavia, you would have LOVED eating your native food, LOL! Sorry, the rest of you, inside joke.). And then, it was itchier and it reminded me of... um... that not-so-fresh feeling that chicks sometimes get. Ahem. And I'll only go so far as to say that it involves a naturally-occuring fungus, usually associated with making bread and beer? *awkward grin* So, it reminded me of that. Even though it hadn't been a week to ten days, it was absolutely, most certainly, WORSE. So, Friday morning, I called the office to see the doc again. They gave me an appointment to see his colleague.

Guy took one quick look and said exactly what I had suspected. Fungal invasion. He prescribed me a powder that would help clear it up... in TWO TO THREE WEEKS!!! Can you believe that? So, I put the powder in, stuffed my belly button with gauze and taped it all up with a big ass band-aid.

Problem with band-aids is two fold: I'm allergic to both latex and the glue they put on band-aids (or any kind of tape for that matter). So, after changing the band-aid twice or so, I had HUGE itchy welts where the band-aid had been. Alas, I'm screwed. It itches IN my belly button. It itches all AROUND my belly button. All of this itching (plus a little bit of montly hormone challenge) has made me a very cranky person.

Good thing I live here in the middle of the woods with the deer and squirrels and FLOWERS.

The plan is to keep powdering the belly button three or four times a day and trying to keep it from getting TOO sweaty. Keep it dry. As dry as one can while working in the garden and raking the damn yard. Look, I care, okay? I want it to heal and go away. But I swear to knickerbockers if I don't get my godsforsaken peas in the ground, get the trellis up, get the post holes dug for the fence and get the damn yard raked, I'm going to go INSANE. Now that the rain has let up and I gave it one sunny day (today) to dry, I'm going to be a force to be reckoned with tomorrow.

EXCEPT for that I am gonna go check out the farmer's market tomorrow. I've heard great things about it and that the Wednesday version is all organically grown stuff. I'm going to go down there and go CRAZY. I'm gonna get the names, addresses and emails of all those guys down there. I want to know where to get local/og eggs and meat and cheese and milk and maybe SEEEEEEEDS! and HONEY! I'm SO excited. I'm just PRAYING there are some peeps down there. Oughta be, dontcha think? I mean, there's not a lot that's in season now, but I have my fingers crossed.

I'm also sposed to get together with my neighbor again tomorrow. Cool!

Oh, quick very cool story. Ryan and I were coming home from school on Thursday or Friday. I was going pretty slowly because I was examining, as I do, all the BRUSH everywhere. Well, we rounded a curve and I was caught off guard by the site of two baby deer lounging in the leaves. Just lying there, looking at me. I stopped and fished around for my camera. Ryan banged on his window, "Take a picture!" But the banging scared the deer. They jumped up and started to bound away. I creeped slowly up the drive and caught them again standing there with what might have been their young mother. I got a few shots before they ran away. We played chase like this nearly all the way up the drive. Them jumping through the woods, me creeping up and taking pictures before they took off again. It was GREAT. Exhilarating. I'm somehow HONORED that they are here. Like they're freakin' unicorns or something. Like, their being here is like a stamp of approval on our land. Like, I don't know. I'm getting pretty corny, huh? Can't help it. It's how I feel. I feel like their presence is proof that this land is good. I don't care if it's silly. LOL!


Oh, yeah, and yesterday, I got a pretty good chuckle at this female cardinal who was on the deck, pecking at her own reflection in our windows, fighting with herself. I tried to get a pick but she kept flying away. Reminded me of that fish in Finding Nemo who thinks her reflection is her twin sister, Flo. LOL!


Well, there're all kinds of things I'm sure I could talk about but I can't seem to organize them either in my head or on the page enough to make them coherent for you, so I'll give it a rest. It's time for the Backyardigans now, anyway. I have to go fight with the damn stink bugs before the show starts. GRRRR!

Enjoy a few pix!

Ryan's desk project (bought the desk for $10):








First coat of paint:



Wicker bathroom furniture project (bought it for $15 at the thrift store):


First can of black didn't get far... wicker SOAKS UP spray paint, yo!:


Close-up:


Done:


(I'll show you what it looks like when I get it into the bathroom... it's still airing out).

Banana bread... it was yummy but these pix aren't that great. Sorry:





The Camry Hybrid *sigh*


My new wagon woo hoo!!


Baby snake (we figure it's either a Black Racer or a Worm Snake):




Blurry close up:


Deer pix:




Closer:


Blurry running away pic:


Far away:


Near (this is the mama):


Baby about to run away:



Out front (sorry, I don't think I ever get tired of taking pictures of flowers):




















Here's the car port I wanna buy:


And here's one of the places I wanted to put it:


Or here:


Or here:


Okie dokie. Let's hope I get good stuff done this week to give you something to read about. *crossing fingers*

DIRRRRRT!!!

With the rows desodded, I could tell immediately that I was going to have to do some amending. The soil that looked all red and lush while it was wet turned into terra cotta clumps of clay when dry. Clay is supposed to be some of the most fertile soil, but the problem is, because it's so compact, the roots can't tunnel through it unless it stays very very moist. While rich in minerals, it needs organic matter to get anything other than trees and grass to grow in it.

I could see I was gonna need some dirt.

I was tempted to just go out into the woods and harvest some humus to add the organic matter I needed, but DUDE, you know how LONG that would take for as many rows as I had? I decided to take the lazy way out and go to Lowe's.

Sam and I did this when we were living in Pennsylvania. We bought bags of topsoil to mix with our local natural soil in order to beef up the clay. So, I did that again. On acid. My first trip through, I bought ten bags of Miracle Gro Organic Choice which is made of organic materials and vegetable compost. Then, I bought twenty five 40lb bags of topsoil. Only, not all of it would fit in the Brute. I ended up having to make two trips. AND because I was too chicken to drive Brutus down to the garden, I unloaded the bags near the garage and hustled them down to the Dream Garden in Big Red. But, with every step, I swore that if I bought more dirt, I was going to drive that Brute right down to the rows.



Ryan insisted on posing in front of the pile. LOL!


And that's what I did yesterday after I got all the bags in place. I could tell that I was going to need more. So, after checking to see if Home Depot had anything interesting, I headed back to Lowe's and got 11 more bags of Miracle Gro and 15 more bags of topsoil. There was this kick ass little garden wagon for $70 that I almost bought (look, you know what a pain in the... well, EVERYWHERE, it is to push a damn 6 cubic foot wheel barrel up a hill? it's hard enough WITHOUT anything in it), but I kept hearing Sam's voice in my head telling me we didn't need it. Not right then. Not that day. (Oh, I have a feeling that I WILL have that little beauty... mainly because it was HALF PRICE compared to other garden dumping wagons... and when I imagine myself hand-repairing the driveway, I do NOT see myself lasting long doing it with Big Red.)

With Brutus loaded to the nines, I drove right down to the Dream Garden and unloaded.









Then, because it was clouding over, I got right to work. Here's what I did:

I pulled the clay soil already in the beds over to the side along the horizontal line of the rows. I then spread half of each bag of topsoil along that rut.


When I got to the end of the row, I pulled the clay OVER the topsoil and did the same to the other horizontal half of the bed, going back over and covering the topsoil with the clay.


After that, I made a CENTER rut and filled that with the Miracle Gro.




With all of it spread, I mixed and stirred in a figure eight, incorporating the different soils, the whole length of the row.

The end result:




When the first row was done, I felt an urgency (because of the impending rain) to lay down some of the cardboard I had prepared so I did that. I thought it might take two or three boxes' worth of cardboard to cover one row's walkway, but I used five on the first row and it still didn't cover every inch. The guy at Lowe's told me to call on a Monday morning and ask the delivery manager to save me whatever refrigerator boxes they might have. Well, it's too late to do it today, but I'll try again next Monday.

Anyway, so I pinned the cardboard boxes down with landscaping anchors and a rubber hammer and it actually worked pretty well. It's not as PRETTY and neat as I had hoped, but oh well.

Cardboard:








After the first two rows, I went in to take a water break (and to check on my sidekick who had chosen to stay comped in front of Nick Jr. for the afternoon) and noticed that my incision sites were a little tender. Upon further investigation, I confirmed that yes, my belly button incision was starting to pull apart. I took that as my sign to give it up for the day. I went back out, cleaned up my mess and came back in for a shower. After the shower, I peroxided, neosporined and band-aided my wound and started dinner.

Ryan got his report card on Friday. For the most part, the teacher said that he is doing really well. She said that he does still confuse some letter sounds with French. She also said that he needs to master recognizing the numbers 11-20 in English. AND, she asked that Ryan start practicing his writing in sentences. So, we did that. On Saturday, I took him to that cook bookstore (Little Givens) where they have all kinds of educational aids. I bought him a printed alphabet poster so he can practice his printing. Poor kid writes beautifully in cursive but can't print worth a hoot. I also got him a dry-erase alphabet and some markers so he can practice. I got a numbers banner that goes to 100 and a dry-erase workbook for numbers. I also got a pack of time-telling flash cards. We worked on all that stuff. Ryan's now writing out his sight words, learning to count by fives and tens, learning to tell time (at which he's actually really good) and writing his OWN sentences (with the help of "how do you spell.....?"). Yesterday, he wrote a story about being on a bus whose tired suddenly (yes, he asked how to spell "suddenly" and was very proud to have written it) popped.

Ryan on the tire swing horse in front of the bookstore:


And on the train:




After getting done with all of the dirt in the garden, Ryan and I walked around the yard taking pictures of all the signs of spring. I LOVE it, but feel a sense of bittersweetness because though these signs are GORGEOUS and healing and all, it's just another reminder that I don't have ANY seeds in the ground.

SPRING!!!












Spring "Out Front":










Ryan taking a picture of me taking a picture of him.




We see deer on a daily basis now. They seem to come through every morning around 8 and we see them bounding away as we go down the driveway. We've tried to catch them on camera but are never fast enough. Ryan LOVES seeing them. And the wonder in his voice makes me choke up with pride and relief.

Well, today is a cloudy one and there are thunderstorm warnings everywhere. That combined with my gorey belly button has convinced me to take the day off from gardening (other than maybe to start my peppers in the peat cups). I bought a wicker over-the-toilet shelf from that new thrift store and I want to paint it black to match the red-and-black Oriental/Ladybug theme I have going on in the bathroom, so I'll probably do that. Also, I bought Ryan a desk there last week. We're going to paint it a white gloss so that Ryan can draw and write all over the desk in washable markers and we can wipe it off when he's done. So, I can do that, too. PLUS, I have a library book that's due on Wednesday (my 35th birthday, by the way), so I'll probably try to finish that. It's supposed to rain today and tomorrow, but that may all be a blessing in disguise. I'll be happy if I get my peas and beans into the existing rows on Thursday and get the other rows "dirt-ed" by the end of the week.

I got my license this morning (well, I didn't GET it as it takes 10 business days to come in, but I got the administrative part done) and registered to vote. I'm impatiently waiting on my Power of Attorney form to come in so I can go sign Sam's name and bring home my hybrid. I thought Brutus was a gas hog before. You should see how much gas it took to bring home all that freakin' soil!!!

Oh, and I was thinking... MAYBE a better temporary solution to the road would be for us to buy a carport and set it up outside the outbuilding down the hill. I drove by a local carport place and they have a nice-sized carport for $600. That seems better than the $4K we'd need to even do a TEMPORARY fix on the driveway. I'll ask Sam.

OH YEAH, and I forgot to tell you about the stink bugs. Okay, so I was being all kumbaya about them. Letting them live in the house because they DIDN'T stink and while UGLY, weren't hurting anyone. THEN, I noticed the other day that they were becoming a little more emboldened. Flying and crawling closer to us or on our stuff (before, they stuck primarily to the windows and doors and lamps, sunning themselves). THEN, on Saturday night as I lie watching my Netflix movie, I felt something creepy, went to scratch and found a stinkbug crawling ON ME. Well, if you think they're ugly, let me tell you that they FEEL even worse than they look. And they SMELLLLL... It's like rotten cilantro. That's the only thing I can use to describe it. Earthy but VERY pungent. And that little sucker BIT ME, too. I read later on the internet that they don't sting or bite, but that one DID and I have the little bump to prove it. So, that pretty much ended the cease fire on the stink bugs. I spent the next couple of hours kicking their asses. I sucked a few up in the vaccuum (which I read AFTERWARDS most bug experts advise AGAINST because the smell will stay in your vacuum and attract new bugs, *eye roll*). But the rest, I smashed with my shoe and sprayed with vinegar water to cut the smell. I think I've gotten most of the ones who were already in here and I don't think more will come in now because it's warm outside and they'll wanna be out there gettin' it on and what not.

Alrighty, better get out there and get to painting/sanding. Have a good one.

Misc pix:
My birthday present to myself... Clogs!!!


The pot I'm gonna put the hook from which I'm going to hang the Waspinator:


My birthday present from SAM!!!!



SO SORRY that this post is so disjointed and random, but it was a weird funky exhausting weekend and I'm still trying to recover.