Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

We have recently jumped on the recycling bandwagon. All of this talk of global warming has gotten to me. We now burn most of our trash instead of sending it to the landfill, we are composting leftovers (or throwing them in the field at least) and are recycling all of our glass, plastic and aluminum. I've always reused my plastic grocery bags and will be taking the extras to the store to put in their recycling bins. I urge everyone to do the same. We all need to pitch in to help save our planet.

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Friday, July 25, 2008

Meet the new addition!

We got a puppy! YAY! She's mostly black lab with a litte cocker spaniel and she's 100% adorable! We got her from The Greear family. Their male and female dog got a little *ahem* friendly awhile ago and the result was a litter of the cutest puppies I've ever seen! We really hadn't planned on taking one. Then I was over at The Greear household the other day and I couldn't resist the puppy charm. I still wasn't sold on a puppy, no matter how cute. They are, after all, a ton of work but Donna met all my protests with a logical solution. The conversation when something like this...

Donna: Are you sure you don't want a puppy? You can take one today.
Me: I don't know...they are pretty cute though.
Donna: They'll be really good dogs and Labs are great around kids.
Me: I still don't know..I need to talk to Ben.
Donna: Are you sure? (She's very persistent)
Me: Well, we don't have a kennel or anything and we can't have her in the house.
Donna: I have a kennel you can use.
Me: We don't have any dog food either.
Donna: I can give you some dog food.
Me: Ben will not be happy.
Donna: Just take it home and try it for a few days. If it doesn't work out, you can bring it back.

Yeah right! HA! So, we have an adorable puppy! Oh, and Ben wasn't mad at all!

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Monday, July 21, 2008

The fruit, or vegetables, of my labor.

When we moved to the country I was so excited to be able to plant a garden. One trip to Maine's and we had more plants than we knew what to do with. As I stared at this big patch of dirt in my backyard, I realized I had NO idea what I was doing. I've never actually had a garden of my own. So, I was sort of confused. I knew the plants had to go in the ground, but where were they suppose to go? How much room should I leave? It was all very confusing. Then I remembered, Aunt Carol..gardener professional. Well, sort of anyway. She always has the best gerdens. So, I enlisted her help to plant all these things I had bought. A few hours later we had planted 6 heads of cabbage, two rows of onions, a row of lettuce, 4 pepper plants, 4 cucumber plants and 12 (yes 12!) tomato plants. She told me to keep it watered and weeded and everything would be fine. I had my doubts. I have killed every houseplant I've ever had. So, armed with Grandpa's old hoe, I set to work taking care of my garden.

Right after we planted on 6-18-06
06-18-08

Wouldn't you know it! She was right! I have been very dilligent in taking care of my little plot of land. I've found it to be wonderfully relaxing. I went out yesterday to weave my cucumber plants in the fence and I saw a cucumber! Upon further inspection, I found tomatoes! Hooray! I've managed to grow food! Adelae had a good time inspecting the garden with me. Here are some great pictures I took yesterday.

Taken on 7-20-08
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Cucumber!
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Tomatoes!
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How much rain did we get?
How much rain did we get?

Checking out the cabbage
Cabbage!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

RIP Baby

We recently lost our big orange cat, affectionately called Baby. He became seriously ill and there was nothing we could do for him. It was such an emotional thing to do. I've had Baby since 2002, so he was a member of our family. I can remember when I brought him home. He could fit in the palm of my hand! He quickly grew into the big boy that he was. Had I known how big he would get, I would have named him Garfield! He was such a lover. Baby would always sleep with me at night, at the foot of the bed...usually on my feet. When I was sad, he would curl up with me on the couch and purr as loud as he could. I was concerned when we moved to the country since he had to become and outside cat. In true Baby fashion, he adapted with ease. He was declawed, yet still managed to kill mice and defend his territory. In fact, about a week before he became ill, he fought off a stray tom cat with outstanding success. I had stepped outside to see what the commotion was about and he came strutting right up to me. If he could talk he would have said "Did you see that? I made that cat leave. This is MY house." He will be missed. I still look for him when I go outside. He was such a good cat and can never be replaced in our hearts.

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Friday, July 4, 2008