Bogieblog

I am a Rock (or a rockhead)

Stolen directly from Jay (except the results):

You Are Rock

Powerful and overbearing, you intimidate people with your presence. People know they can't push you around, and they respect that. Deep down, you are calm, confident, and unmovable. You take everything pretty seriously, and you think deeply about all aspects of your life. You tend to feel smothered by paper people. You don't mind crushing the spirit of a scissors person. When you fight, you: Use all of your strength If someone makes you mad: You're likely to throw something at them

Are You Rock, Paper, or Scissors?

Pictures from June 2007

Straight to the pictures:

This is the snake we saw a couple of weeks ago. No date stamp because I had to change the battery and didn't take the time to tell the camera to imprint with the date:

Next up is Superstition, and Iris by trade:

The varigated weigala is next, with two pictures:

Last, but not least, a Rhodie of unknown name. It started life by the fence, then was moved to between the driveways, and now resides in the shrub garden we created last year. This is the first year to get more than 1 or 2 blooms (I didn't even remember what color it was supposed to be), so apparently it is happy where it is.

Pictures from May 2007

I got a couple of rolls of film back. Unfortunately the pictures of the bear didn't come out. If you know where to look, then you can vaguely see it, but none of the bear pics are worth posting.

The Indigo Bunting picture is slightly better (and the bird is bright enough to stand out:

The Prairie Fire crab apple is just a small sapling, but it looks like it will be a georgeous bloomer when it is bigger (not that it isn't now, just too small to make a real impact):

The Thunderchild crabapple didn't bloom at all this year. I was a bit dissappointed, but frankly I was amazed either bloomed as they were abused pretty hard last summer until they were planted in the fall.

Just Geting it Out of the Way

The downstairs carpet isn't even a month old and I've already had to steam clean it. Missy got severely aggitated during a thunderstorm last week and made a mess in the den - twice - both times very runny and all over the place. Uggh!

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The door to the downstairs freezer did not shut properly a couple of weeks ago, which was not discovered for at least 24 hours. I thought everything would be fine since it kept everything at least as cold as if it was in the refrigerator. I was wrong. Now the freezer is empty - the biggest loss was all the hot peppers that I was planning to use in salsa. The second biggest loss was about $150 of meat. Fortunately the freezer wasn't full!

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With the loss of the frozen peppers, I had to buy pepper plants at Agway. I had started sweet pepper plants from seed, but saw no reason to add to the glut of hots. Of course, being so late in the season, the pickings of plants were rather slim - only cayenne peppers were available. Beggers can't be choosers though (and I do have a few peppers still in the upstairs freezer).

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Speaking of sweet peppers - the leaves are skeletons. I don't know what is eating them, but they are having  a nice meal! About every sort of nasty insect there is is in top form this summer. We have aphids on everything, whitefly, thrips, cane borers, ants (which I don't care what anyone says - they will kill plants as fast as any other bug), some sort of worms as well as curl-leaf worms, and a myriad of other things. Can't find a ladybug to save my life; usually we have plenty to help out. Spiders aren't as plentiful as last year either.

Something ate my leeks to the ground and now my onions are disappearing. I can hardly wait for the Japanese beetle invasion this year!

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Another vacuum has tried to bite the dust. I have to figure out if I can fix it since it had only a one year warrantee and it has been 15 months.

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Hey, and to complete the saga on the shelves for the pantry (which was a while ago, but I never let you know the final outcome), I never did get new shelves. The company refused to talk to me anymore. They wouldn't even contact the HD rep about my case any more. WS finally ended up making me some shelves.

Mouser

Missy seems to be the indoor mouser. I watched her catch a mouse by the downstairs door. I didn't know that was what she was doing until she came over and proudly displayed it to me, then dropped it on the carpet between the stairs and the bedroom door.

The mouse wasn't quite dead yet, but clearly had no use of its back limbs. I went upstairs to get my gardening gloves (to pick it up) and by the time I got back downstairs the mouse had crawled about 1/2 the length of the bedroom door, then succumbed to its injuries.

I guess the cats have the outside detail (mice and chipmunks - I found a dead chippie under the deck Saturday), and the dog has the inside detail. Nothing like a nice, orderly system.

Mover Overages

Last year a volunteer bleeding heart came up in between the patio and the house. I have other bleeding hearts at North side of the house (where they get shade) and at the very corner of the house (where it grows under the ferns and gets shade). This one sat smack dab out in full sun and was as happy as a lark all summer. Granted, we didn't have many really hot days (it was the spring that never ended that blended into the Fall that wouldn't quit), but most bleeding hearts that I've seen suffer horribly in full sun.

Naturally, I forgot all about it this year. When I bought my first batch of roses this spring, it was in April. I got two roses (Scentimental and Helen Hayes - strange combo I know, but that bed is reds on the left and yellows on the right) specifically for between the house and the patio, which is where I planted them. Over the last 3 weeks, the bleeding heart has grown, and grown, and grown some more. It is really stupid when a 2 year old plant gets larger than your 5 year old plants! Thsi sucker was already over two feet tall and had a spread of just under 3 feet. It was growing right in front of the two roses, completely shading them out.

It shaded them out so completely, that the leaves that had been breaking didn't get any bigger. So, on Sunday, I ripped the bleeding heart out. I broke it into 2 sections (not by choice) and placed them in pots. A third of the humongous root was still in the ground and I got that out last night. I will keep the potted plants watered and see if they live (they are looking sort of sad right now); if they live I have to decide whether to relocate them or give them away.

The 1/3 root I planted in a shade garden over by the oil tank. I'm sure it will put out growth next year. The question is, will it thrive like it did in full sun, or is it a mutant that doesn't like shade?

Oh yeah, I don't think I got all the root, so I will probably be going thru this again in another year or two - I think I see more plant give-aways in my future.

Over Abundance of Plants

While going out and about in the yard, I noticed that the Perennial Bachelor's Button and Huskers Red Penstemon have had babies all over the place; in the driveway, in the walkway underneath the fence, and in flower beds across the yard. The parent plants have been in place since 2003 and I have never had them reseed like this.

THIS.   JUST.   WILL.   NOT.   DO.

I have a plan though. Some will be dug up and placed in the shade garden at the corner of the driveway (it still needs some filling in anyway). The neighbor from across the street came over last night and I got him to agree to take some of it too. So, in my copious free time (as one b-i-l is fond of saying), I will be potting up whatever babies I don't want and sending them out to play across the street. Oh, and there are a some pinks (dianthus) and creeping phlox that have over-run into a walkway that he can have too (not critical though since they stay low).

I think the neighbor likes living across the street from us. A couple of months ago I dug up one of the pink rugosas and planted it in their yard (he's been trying to get starts to go, but I think he babies them too much so they die). He didn't even notice the plant until I mentioned it a month ago (my plan to keep him from fussing over it). Last night he said it was putting out new growth. Last year I gave him a bunch of native lilies that I dug up from by the fence. He also got the peach trees when WS yanked them out last fall (he says they bloomed and now have fruit forming).

I need to start charging him - LOL!

Mostly Gardening

It's been a long week. WS has been working extra long days and I have had pet-sitting duties (which I believe the next 2 days are the only days this month that I don't have pet-sitting). Two nights this week after regular chores, I put more coats of polyeurathane on the cabinet. I only have one more coat to go (I hope). Still have to turn the thing over and do the very bottom at least twice to protect the wood.

Last night I spent time repotting some roses. I have gotten into roses the last couple of months for some odd reason; okay, the reason isn't odd, I just don't know what that reason is - I'm going to blame the "enablers" on the Gardening forum that I frequent. I recently found out that one of the premier own-root rose suppliers, The Uncommon Rose, was going out of retail business. Naturally, I had to order some of the stuff that I don't run across anywhere else. Their plants come as slips, or slightly larger, so need to be repotted into larger pots for better continued growth (and to hold them until I can figure out where the heck I am going to put them). Here is a list of what I now have with the type in parentheses:

Armide (Alba)

Aimable Rouge (Gallica)

Green Diamonds (Miniature)

Julie Link (Moore Modern)

Marbree (Portland Damask)

Softee (Miniature)

Strawberry Swirl (Miniature)

Vanguard (the only peach colored Rugosa)

Les Sjulin (Hybrid Tea)

Red Cascade (Miniature)

Sea Foam (Modern shrub)

Table Mountain (Hybrid Tea)

I had already gotten three miniature roses from Nor'East Miniature Roses:

• Absolutely
• Dancing Flame
• Scentsational

Game Time

The Weekend pundit has an excellent explanation of New Hampshire's summer games. Sounds all too familiar!

And the Winner Is

The Iditarod has won an Emmy Award! More precicely, a documentery, Iditarod 2006: Mother Nature's Turn to Dance won. The sad part? I have the video but haven't had time to watch it - guess I really need to make the time huh?