First harvests and working hard

This first picture is of the blue lake bush green beans I picked yesterday. It is a lot. The picture doesn't show them well, but believe me there are a lot of them. Alan and I were out puttering around and I happened to look close at the plants and semi shouted, "There they are!!". Alan was a bit confused because I started moving fast up into the garden. I explained myself stating that I had seen the plants flowering but didn't know when the beans would show up and then, TA DAH!! There they were in there wonderful glory!! I plan on pickling some of them. Pickled green beans are VERY good.

I had stated before that one side of the garden was growing better than the other. I think you can see what I mean. The right side there is definitely lagging behind the left. I did, however, get more beans from the smaller plants than the larger ones. It is hard to tell but there is a compost pile up on the upper right corner. We are just waiting to see if the right side there benefits from it. We just might have to wait a bit to find that out. So far we have gotten sugar peas and kale from the garden. There is "tons" of stuff growing, we are just waiting for stuff to ripen now.

As far as hard work goes, here is a picture of our deck, well, where the deck is going to go. I used the tiller to pull out the dirt to make room for it. We are getting ready to head over to lowes to get it all set up. Hopefully we will have it within 2 weeks. The contractor guy wanted to inspect the site before they committed to building it, and was pleasantly surprised to see we had actually done the work. He said that a lot of people don't do what they say they are going to do. He is also going to loan me his small jackhammer so I can bust up the concrete stoop right outside the back door. Ok, I am off to Lowes!!

I just give up

Living in todays world just really sucks. I know things were "hard" back in the day, but damn, it just really couldn't have been as bad as it is now. I mean, what do people who make minimum wage do? How do they live? It has been a hard year, and I really HATE dwelling on it. I just keep pushing things away and focusing on other things so that the bad doesn't seem to be there, and then it just all explodes. My mom says that I am SO STRONG, I think that is a big bunch of bunk, or I could come up with solutions to problems and never really worry about them. I am really just at my wits end. So, does anyone know of a job that pays around 50,000 a year so I can pay my bills? It is just really hard to have your income cut so much and try to recover from it. Especially when there just isn't enough money.

And you know what? I really isn't "that bad". I mean all my kids are healthy and are great kids, I actually have a house to live in, for now. I have a job and friends, but the bills haven't changed since the income has and trying to juggle it all is just a bit stressful.

I think what makes me sad is something an old friend said when I went to visit in Somerset. We were talking about kids attitudes today and how in their 20's they want to live like we do in our 40's. She said, "They just don't realize that we have worked to be able to afford vacations, putting pools in, and buying cars, they want it all now!". So what makes me sad is that I am back there with the 20 somethings and can't even keep up, and it isn't just because I "want" things I can't afford. I can't afford the things I have to have!!! I just hate stepping so far back and I just can't think of anything else to do.

Like I said, I give up.

Allowing things to happen

I am not much of a landscape artist. I get an idea about how I want things to look and then I go crazy and add, add, add until I don't like it any more and then I redo it. Of course, for me it is all fun and allows me to get some exercise. I can't pass up plants when they are on sale or on clearance more specifically.

In the front of the house the roses and coriopsis are working out great. I knew once they filled in more I would get the effect I wanted, it was the waiting that was hard. I got a Nandina "Jaytee" at Lowes, and as I just researched it, it doesn't have the growth I thought it would. We have some in front of the restaurant that grow tall, this one is compact and doesn't grow tall like I had hoped. Anyway, it is pretty and adds interest all year round. I had hoped to put it in a naked corner but it won't work and I will have to find another place for it.

I had to stop and think, but now I have to make another area to plant. I have been thinking about it for a bit, but I have just the place. There is a corner up above the garden that I have planted a Redbud in and I am going to landscape that area. The Nandina will work perfectly under that tree and they can "grow up" together. The Redbud is only 5(?) years old, still pretty young as I got it as a sapling and is only about 4 feet high at the moment. What is interesting is that I have 3 that are the same age, all planted in my yard in different areas and how their growth is so different. Anyway.

What I wanted to post about was allowing things to happen. That is usually what happens with me and thankfully things end up ok. I was going to talk about how I get things because they are cool looking or I just want it, and I do it without thought as to where they should go, they just end up somewhere and it ends up working. I wanted red and yellow as my main colors, and adding the red day lilies on the other side of the front door completed my idea. Now things just need to fill in and be even more beautiful. The area between my sidewalk and the road needs some tweaking. I have just been allowing things to grow and using it as a holding ground for plants that I don't know what to do with yet. Now the idea is forming more solidly. Roses and day lilies. All kinds of both, that is what I want that area to be mostly. Easy and beautiful and colorful.

Ok, I have procrastinated enough from what I HAVE to do today - clean and organize the garage. Yuck.