Watering - April 16, 2026

It's raining this morning, thank goodness.  Yesterday, I planted 7 more tomatoes and 6 jalapeno peppers but did not water them in, hoping the predicted rain would take care of the job today.   

One of the persistent problems that has hampered my gardening efforts has been watering.  The garden plot is over 100 feet from the nearest water faucet.  A number of years ago, I bought 200 feet of water hose and a hose cart, thinking it would solve the problem.  And it did, for one season.  The following year, when I pulled out the hose cart, the hose was still wound on the cart, but someone had cut the hose where it connects to the cart's water supply.  Strangely, no one confessed to the crime.  

I bought a new hose, thinking it would solve the problem.  When I tried to install the new nose, I discovered that the screw-on ring (from the water hose) was still on the spout, and no amount of elbow grease would loosen it.  I could not attach the new hose to the cart's waterspout.  We made do.  We continued to use the hose cart to haul the hose from the garden shed to the outdoor faucet, but it meant hand-winding the hose back onto the cart every time we watered the garden.  

Every year after that, I'd think about buying a new hose cart, but I never did.

That old cart, with 200 feet of rubber hoses, must weight 100 pounds.  Last week, when we were struggling to get water to the fire ant hills in the garden, I wrestled that *#!@ water hose back onto the reel for the last time.  The next day, I bought 200 feet of flat, lightweight hoses.  The only hose cart in the store was over $100.  Knowing that hose carts could be had for less than that, I didn't buy it and still have not shopped for one elsewhere.  

Over the weekend, it occurred to me that I could just use the hose cart from the front flower bed in our yard.

Yesterday, I un-wound the hose from that cart.  Ants had taken up lodging somewhere among the cart's moving parts.  I hosed them off and took the cart and the new hoses to the outdoor faucet at Nanny's.  It was the devil to get the new hoses screwed onto the cart's water supply, and when I turned on the faucet, intending to water the plants, water spewed around the connection so badly that no water came through the hose.  I un-did the hose and re-installed it but never could get the hose screwed on tight enough that water didn't spew.  

By this time, I'd been digging and raking and planting and fooling with water hoses for nigh on three hours.  I gave up on watering and came home, thinking I'd ask The Husband or The Grandson to have a go at it.  

Mother Nature has taken care of the problem for today.

* * * * * * * * 

Yesterday morning, before I started in the garden, I mixed up a batch of Magic Pour to fill up a mold for a cute little snail planter.  

Fooling with this stuff is a mess.  It is a 3:1 mix of powder and water.  Calculation is necessary, and it's hard to figure the right amount.  Powder goes everywhere.  I mixed up waaaayyyy too much for the mold I'd chosen; there was enough to fill the planter mold and a large jewelry mold with mixture left over.  I dripped it all over the place trying to fill the molds before the mix cured.  And when I un-molded the planter, I didn't notice that the snail's eyes were on thin "stalks," and both of its eyes broke off in the mold.  I glued them back on, but there are visible cracks where they've been re-attached.  Maybe they can be disguised with paint.

I'm going to try the snail planter again, but when all this powder is gone, I probably won't get more, not because the product is faulty (it works fine) but because I'm a natural mess-pot who has no business doing this kind of craft.  

* * * * * * * 

The woodpecker has just informed me that the bird feeder is empty.  He's out there hammering on it, hoping to knock a few more seeds out of the hopper., while the redbird waits nearby, hoping it works.

Garden (maybe) - April 13, 2026

Saturday morning, when I asked The Husband if he had a plan for the day, he said he was going to pull up last year's tomato fence and posts.  The tomato stakes are actually steel t-posts.  We drive them into the ground with the tractor bucket.  They are not easy to pull up.  I went with him to help.

We ended up checking on the tiller (no flat tires, and it fired right up) and cleaning out the garden toolshed.

It looks like we might plant a garden this year, after all.  But only a small one.

I bought three tomato plants today while I was out running errands.  If I change my mind about planting a garden, there's enough room in the yard to accommodate just 3 tomatoes.

The Grandson went to the garden this morning to load up and haul away the landscape fabric we pulled up last week.  While he was walking around, he stepped on a nest of baby rabbits.  There were 5 of them.  He thinks he didn't squish any of them.  

I guess I'll just have to plant around them.

A little of this, a little of that - April 10, 2026

My sister and my niece invited me on an outing today that included a trip to a greenhouse and breakfast.  I kind of wanted to go (greenhouses and breakfasts are two of my favorite things!), but I had some embroidery digitizing work to do for a paying customer, so I declined.  It took nearly half the day, but the digitizing work is now done.  Time to move on to something else.

Earlier this week, the delivery person brought a bucket of some stuff called "Magic Pour."  It's a powder that's mixed with water - (3:1 ratio) - and poured into molds.  It's supposed to be non-toxic and has a 30-minute cure time.  Two days ago, I pried open the bucket and mixed up a batch.  Videos I'd watched said it should have the approximate consistency of pancake batter.  My math was evidently way off, because my turned out more like clay.  I kept adding water until it turned batter-like and poured it into some cabochon molds.  It set okay.  Yesterday, I tried a larger batch.  Again, my math must have been off, for this batch turned out way too thin, more like milk.  I could've added more powder, but I was frustrated with the mess and just poured it into molds to see what would happen. Surprisingly, it set, but the pieces are not as strong as they would have been if my batter had been right.  I'll give it another shot in a few days.

This afternoon, I've been trying to make earrings, ideally two that match. 

"Two that match" is hard.  ;)

Cost of Goods Sold - April 9, 2026

This morning, I've been window-shopping (online) for wire.  

When I decided to have another go at making jewelry, I bought a few spools of wire expecting to "waste" much of it in the process of re-learning the craft.  And that's what happened; when that first round of spools was gone, there were very few finished jewelry pieces to show for it and a bucket full of twisted scraps.   When it was time to replenish the wire supply, I wrote in Sharpie on each spool the cost of the wire per foot.  It's hard to calculate the cost of a thing you had to make three times to get it right.  It turns out that the real cost of making fashion jewelry is not in the materials (unless you're brave enough to use "real" stuff), it's in the time.  

It's hard to put a numerical value on time.

* * * * * * * * 

Last evening before dinner, I reminded The Husband that we needed to deal with the fire ants at Nanny's.  I'd bought mound destroyer earlier in the week.  It was in my car, along with a watering can.  There were probably 10 good-sized mounds around the edges of the yard and in the garden.  We treated most of them last year (and the ten years before); it doesn't eliminate them; it only slows them down.

I went into the garden to survey the situation.  Last year, we'd carpeted the garden with cardboard and landscape fabric and wood chips.  It was just as we'd left it, ant mounds, weeds and all.  

I lifted a corner of some landscape fabric, and it came off in my hand.  All of the fabric was like that - rotten and mostly fused to the ground.  We pulled up what we could.  It will take a whole summer of raking to remove all the tiny bits.  If we decide to plant a garden this year, we will probably just till it into the soil.  Hate to do it, chemicals and all, but what's done is done.

Before we left, I asked Nanny if she would rather we not plant a garden this year.  She didn't much care, one way or the other, but she made it clear that she cannot be expected to help.  I silently thought, Hallelujah!  For years, I've begged her to leave the gardening to me.

Whether we plant anything or not, we've got to do some clean-up - remove the tomato fence, get rid of the cardboard, mow down the weeds.  

This looks like a job for The Grandson.

Easter dinner - April 6, 2026

Friday morning, The Husband asked, "Do we want to do Easter dinner?"

I gave him an honest answer:  "Not really."

I'd been grocery shopping on Thursday but had not bought stuff for a big Easter dinner.  In fact, I hadn't fully realized that Easter Sunday was THIS weekend.  

The Husband shrugged and said, "Okay."

Later that day, I went out to pick up a prescription, and while I was out, I decided to stop by the grocery store for a ham.  We hadn't had ham for a while.  A good-sized ham would provide breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for several days, plus we could share some with Nanny.  

Saturday morning, Nanny called to see if we wanted to do Easter dinner.  I caved, and spent the rest of the weekend cooking.  Made dressing, sweet potato dumplings, green beans with mushrooms, pasta salad, and a pineapple cream cheese pie.  Nanny committed to a corn casserole and three pies.

It was all delicious, if I do say so, myself.  ;)

But I was pissy the whole weekend.  Dinner was not my idea, and I knew who of the "we" would be doing the cooking and cleaning.  And there were other things I wanted to do.  

Dinner came off without a hitch.  We had a good crowd.  There were few left-overs.  

I baked another ham yesterday.

* * * * * * * 

Some of the ginseng I planted is coming up!  

Two of the lantanas I planted last year have come back!

It's time to turn attention to the vegetable garden.  Last year's landscape fabric and cardboard are still on the ground and needs to be taken up, regardless of whether or not I plant a garden.  I should get to that this week.  First, I'll have to deal with the two fire ant mounds in the garden.  The Husband has agreed to help me with that this evening.  I can think of a few more garden chores for him while I have his assistance.

Rudbeckia - April 2, 2026

My sister, my niece, and I share a running three-way text   The topic is mostly gardening-related.  For example, all of us intend to cut back our garden phlox when they are about yay-high, but we always forget about it until they're about ready to bloom, so we skip it.  Yesterday, I took my clippers on my afternoon walk-about and lit into my phlox - not all of them, just the ones in front.  (I'm shooting for a layered effect.)  Remarkably, I also remembered to text the others that I did it so that they would be reminded to prune theirs.

If their phlox don't get cut back this year, it ain't my fault.  😉

Today's exchange included plant offerings.  Sister has phlox to share (I declined), niece has rudbeckia.  I spoke up for the rudbeckia and picked it up on my way back from the grocery store.

Niece works hard on her yard, and it shows.  

I planted the rudbeckia the minute I finished putting the groceries away.  Put some in the "new" sunny bed, started last year when the tree collapsed and let it some light; some went at the edge of the phlox bed. There is no telling how many times I've bought and planted rudbeckia.  Not one has ever come back or made babies, that I know of (I could've pulled them up, thinking they were weeds).  Niece's rudbeckia has come back bigger and stronger than last year.  Maybe this variety can survive here.

When it was time to water the new plants, I decided to hook up the water hoses.  Last year, I made an effort to rig up enough hoses to water everything that needs watering.  Bought new hoses, and a double-barrel diverter.  The hoses where right where we'd left them last fall, still attached to the diverter.  When I finally got everything connected and turned the water on, it blew a piece off the diverter, and water spewed all over me.  I said some nasty words and turned the water off.  

I was about to get a watering can when I realized that it was sprinkling rain.  It's raining slowly now.  Looks like Mother Nature might take care of the plants today.

Wednesday, April 1, 2026

The back porch is a fine place to be this morning.  The temperature is perfect, the sun is shining, the birds are singing.  Around sunrise, I heard turkeys gobbling in the bottom behind the house.  

About the time I heard the turkeys, I heard some thrashing around in the leaves at the edge of the gulley.  I got up to look.  The light was so dim I couldn't see very well, but I believe it was Jose, the armadillo.

Jose can thank his lucky stars for my intervention a couple of weeks ago.  The Grandson came hurrying into the house and said he'd just seen the armadillo in the yard, and he asked if he could use the shotgun to off it.  I said, "Well, let's think this through."

It was 8 p.m.  The neighbors are accustomed to hearing gunfire after dark, but only after hearing distant hounds bray in pursuit of a raccoon (at which point some will think, Got 'im!).  Nanny would be dialing our number within seconds of a blast from our yard.

"Plus," I said, "I'm not sure I want Jose offed."  I told him about the fire ant nest built last summer against a stump at the edge of the yard, just down the hill from the shed under which the armadillo resides.  The day after I discovered the nest, I discovered that something had dug into it.  I poked it with a stick and didn't see ants boil out of it and concluded that Jose must've had a midnight snack.  I applauded his work.  I had intended to poison the ants but hated to do it because the stump is just up the hill from the pond where the frogs, turtles, and snakes live.

"So maybe we need to let him hang around.  I'd rather have holes than fire ants in the yard and poison in the pond."  

The Grandson whole-heartedly agreed.  Jose lives on.

But I digress.

After such a pleasant early morning, things went downhill when I tried to pay a bill electronically.  This happens EVERY MONTH, and it is NOT ME; it's the outfit's janky web site.  I'm waiting on a voice call to straighten this out.  

While waiting on that call, I accomplished a "round tuit" task.  The Husband and I have agreed that we need to replace our bathroom tub with a big shower that will accommodate old persons with physical or mental issues.  We're not there yet, but it's coming one day.  There are a million things we'd rather do than live through a renovation, and so we haven't been exactly diligent in pursuit of someone to do the work.  Today, I finally called somebody to come give us an estimate.

Go, me.  

I had planned to go to the grocery store today, and maybe scope out the garden center, but I may have talked myself out of it.  

Might make jewelry, instead.  

I got the info for the local farmers market and fall festival.  I'll have to be deciding soon whether to go for it.  As of today, my inventory is such that if I sold every single piece on display, I might make enough to pay for one hobby store trip.  Better get crackin'.