Green and Growing

Yep, it's Wednesday already...

(Here's last week's update for comparison.)

sunflower #1: The bloom is pretty close to opening. Unfortunately, it's facing the street... that's not cool.


Sunflower #2: One of them opened this week, the other will be open in a couple of days. They face the street too! What's up with that?

Sunflower #1 is about 66 inches tall this week. That's how tall I am. I don't know if it continues to grow taller once it blooms, so we'll wait and see.

Oops, forgot to rotate this one... anyway, #2 is about 32 inches this week.

This week, we woke up with a "Naked Lay" in the yard!

The front pumpkin isn't doing so well. It continues to be ravaged by tiny bugs. I sprayed our organic pesticide on it, but it didn't seem to slow down the bugs at all. I continue to water it in hopes that it will fight on, and produce a pumpkin or two.

Garden box #1:Still doing quite well, even in the scorching heat of the day. The squash and cantaloupe plants seem to be as big as they're going to get. The tomato too. The corn should be getting taller, but it's not. Not quite sure why that is yet.



Last week I showed a picture of a small zucchini... well, that one turned yellow and wilted away! Bummer. But there are a couple of new ones growing. Here's the largest one thus far.

There are a LOT of yellow squashes growing. Here's the largest one. I don't think it's suppose to have the bumpy skin like that. I'm pretty sure it's suppose to be smooth. I don't know why it isn't. I'll have to do some research to try and find out what I am doing, or not doing, to cause this.

Still only have one tomato growing?! I just don't get it. I've seen a couple bees around this week, but nothing seems pollinated that I can tell. In the mean time, I'm glad to see this one still doing well and growing.

Much like the tomato, there is still only one cantaloupe growing. It's gotten huge this week; about 4 inches long. I guess the good thing about having only one, is there's no competition for water from the roots, so it should end up to be a pretty large cantaloupe when it's ripe. But I'd still like to see a few more growing soon.

Garden box#2: The corn here is growing like crazy. A couple of the bigger ones have passed up the corn from box #1. Plus, the pumpkin plant is growing nice and big, and vining out. I finally put the little cantaloupe seedling out of it's misery, and moved a pumpkin plant over in it's place (right lower corner). The roots are still trying to establish themselves. I'm sure that once they do, it will take off in growth as well.

This week, the garden received a special guest... Luis' dad. Well, really it was Kim and Luis, and Luis' parents. But it was Luis' dad that got in there and started moving dirt around, and telling me how to help the plants. He also pointed out how to help our citrus trees to grow better, and which branches to prune, etc. I haven't been able to do all the things that were pointed out yet, but now that I know what I can do, when I get a chance to, I'll be working on it. Luis and his dad did the branch pruning already, so I have ground work to do.

We'll be leaving for AZ tomorrow sometime, so I bought a "soaker" hose to put in the garden boxes to keep the watering going while we're gone. Hopefully it works out. It would be a huge bummer to come home to wilted garden boxes. Cross your fingers for us.

Monday Music 07.27.09 (only slightly tardy)

I put in this CD the other day while doing dishes. I haven't been in such a good mood while doing dishes in a long time.

Don Carlos, "Ras Portraits"

This is the first song on that CD... It's one of my favorites...

Don Carlos, "Jah Jah Hear My Plea"

Gooooood stuff!

Josh's Birthday Post

Tomorrow is Josh's birthday, but I don't think I'll have time to post one tomorrow, so I'm doing it today. In case you didn't know, Josh is my brother-in-law. He married Anna's sister Sara.


This first picture flashes us way back to Josh's early hip hop fan days. I guess he's still a fan, but now he's a middle aged office worker who can strangely defend his love for Q-tip and TCQ.

Skyler totally owning Josh as he's passed out on an overdose of A-1 steak sauce.

Very recently, Josh decided to show off his love of hens by exposing his... rooster hair cut.

Nice mustache... I didn't know he was such a big fan of... Laurel, from Laurel and Hardy.



He says he's just a fan of rainbows...

He enjoys meat.

Josh is a very interesting guy. He's pretty much a performance artist- he's trying to get a reaction, what ever reaction that may be. It takes some getting used to.

Truth be told, Josh is a funny guy to have around. He's got a sense of humor that stretches way out there. He has a unique way of looking at things that most of us don't think of right away. He's had the family rolling with laughter on many occasions.

There's no doubting his love for his family, the Padres, Ponch, and fishing.

Hope you have a fun day tomorrow Josh, and have a happy birthday.

We Had Visitors

On Monday, we had some visitors. Eva's in So. Cal. with Aidan and Arthur, and they've never been to our house before, so they came over to see it. Sara also came out with her kids, as well as Grandma (Bonnie).

Most of the kids spent the afternoon in the kiddie pools outside. It was an adventurous visit with multiple scratches and scrapes, poo covered kids and clothes (yep), and so on. All that crazy stuff aside, it was a good visit.



Dinner time! (Panda Express- our kids weren't big fans, but I sure enjoyed mine!)

Oh yeah, we met our visitors at the Bass Pro Shop in Rancho just after lunch time before they came to the house. For lunch, Anna and I and the two girls went to The Hat. Anna and I split a pastrami and wet fries, it was a good lunch. It was a fun little excursion.

Weekly Garden Update

I know you've been waiting all week for this...

Sunflower #1: Looks about 8-10 inches above the fence these days. The bloom is starting to form at the top, but I'm not sure when it'll start blooming though. There's Tegan for scale.



Sunflowers#2: Had a scare with these the other day. I must have forgotten to water them one morning, and by the evening, they were quite droopy and wilty, and I thought they were done for. I gave them plenty of water that evening and hoped for the best. Indeed, the next day they were as perky as ever. I would have been so bummed if they didn't make it. There's Jennan for scale.



Front pumpkin: Is doing quite well. Compared to the one in the back, it's smaller. I'm thinking I should hit it with some miracle grow or other fertilizer. The ones in the back have manure in the soil.

Garden box #1: A different angle than the other updates. This angle shows the cantaloupe plant much better. It's the vine plant at the bottom corner. It's spreading out quite a bit these days. Lots of blossoms. The others are doing very well too.

Here's a shot of one of the zucchini blossoms.

And our largest zucchini thus far. It's about the size of an index finger.

This is the yellow squash blooms. There aren't any squashes large enough to feature yet. Maybe next week.

Here's a close-up of the largest of the cantaloupes growing. It's about 2 1/2 inches long.

Here's a shot of some cantaloupe blossoms. There was a bee buzzing around this morning when I was watering, so that's a good sign.



Here's the largest of the tomatoes that's growing. These are Romas, and they don't get very big, so I'm sure they grow slowly. It's about an inch long.

Garden box #2: The corn is growing very well, and the pumpkin is too.

Here is a better shot of the pumpkin plants that are growing. There's the big one obviously, then there's 4 other smaller ones there too. They're behind because they weren't planted deep enough I guess. A couple weeks ago I saw some exposed seeds, and poked them down into the lower section, and they all popped up. So now, I need to find some other spots to put those, so I can grow a bunch of pumpkin plants.

The zucchini and cantaloupe plants are having a rough time. Between the bugs and the sun, they're coming along very slowly. I should probably spray some miracle grow on them to help them out.

Well, that's where we are with the gardens these days. It's been a good experience thus far.

Happy Birthday Jason!

Today is Jason's birthday, so I searched out some photos to share...


Jason with a young Jennan. This is a picture of a picture in a book of pictures that was given to us from Kristi and Jason last Christmas. It was an awesome gift. Kristi takes great pictures.


One of the all time great pictures of Liam and Jason. This was taken at Red Rock Canyon in Nevada.

I believe that that is Duncan climbing on Jason. The kids have always enjoyed having Jason around. This is in California Adventure near the bug's life area.

Now they're up in the ferris wheel at Ca. Adventure.

Jason fits right in with us.

This is from Jason and Kristi's house they had in Henderson, NV.

Jason showing off some of his improvisational skills with objects found in the desert.

There's our Jason and Kristi at Grandpa and Maggie's wedding reception.

Jason has been a great addition to the family. He's been a fun uncle for our kids to play with when we've either visited them, or they've visited us. He's a super smart guy that likes a lot of the same things I and my brothers like, and that has made him as easy person to like and have around. He's obviously then, a very patient person too, when it comes to us. He is the yin to Kristi's yang, and that's been very cool as well.

Glad to have you in the family, Jason.

Have a happy Birthday.

Monday Music 07.20.09

I skipped to the next song on the trusty ol' iPod, and this was the next song...

Radiohead, "In Limbo"


Kid A, and OK computer are two of my favorite Radiohead albums.

Friday Flashback 07.17.09

Pulled from way deep into the old picture pile, comes today's flashback photo...

Whoa!

I think this is 1999? or 2000?

It's before any dreadlocks for both Kristi and Anna.

Kyle's with Katie.

We were into pro wrestling, hence the "Hardy Boys" gesture by yours truly.

I forgot I had those very cool rasta Adidas shoes. They go quite nicely with my Bob Marley shirt. I wouldn't mind having a pair of those shoes again.

Anna's probably wearing Christmas (or other similar style) socks. (She's out grown that.)

There's actually room to sit on the whole couch.

And any other obvious changes since then...

Happy Friday! Have a good weekend.

My, How They've Grown

Well, it went by pretty fast, but it's been two weeks since the last garden/flower update. Anna must have done a great job watering, because everything grew, and grew a lot!


Here's what they looked like 2 weeks ago.



Sunflower #1: It's as tall as the fence! That means it's taller than Jennan! Crazy thing is, depending on how tall this one will get, it's not even half way done yet.


Sunflower #2: Is coming along very well. It's almost 19 inches tall.

Pumpkin:It's a little over 6 inches tall, and doing very well.

Here's where things have just about exploded! I came home, and these were all well past double in size! All but the corn have had blooms, so assuming they've been pollinated, we should start to see some vegetable growth soon.

In garden box #2, things are coming right along. The corn has done very well. The sad thing about the corn, was having to "thin" it out. Normally you pluck out some to let others grow better. One row didn't hardly have any growing, just one, and the other row had a bunch. Instead of plucking, I transplanted. I moved them around. The worry is, in moving them around, if there's too much damage to the roots, they'll just dry up and wither away. That was a couple days ago, so I can't quite tell if any are on their way out yet.

In the right corner, that's a pumpkin plant. It's doing pretty well. There's also a couple of brand new sprouts on that mound too. When they get a little bigger, I'll probably move them somewhere else so they can flourish. In the top corner is cantaloupe. The spouts there are getting chewed up by bugs, so I need to put some pesticide on them (organic, or course). Same for the left corner's zucchini sproutlings. There's also a Lima bean plant between the top and left corners that is having a rough time. I think the sun might be too much for it these days.

So yeah, things are looking good. I do still have some Sago Palms I'm trying to grow, but those will be taking a few months more till I see anything. That's if I've done everything right with them.

Btw- Looks like this is my 300th post (that's what my "dashboard" says anyway). Happy 300th post to me!

Jennan's Birthday Cont.

Because Jennan's birthday was on a Sunday, we chose to have her birthday dinner the next day. So Monday, for family night, we went to Red Robin for birthday dinner!

Here is our crew, waiting to get their eat on.

Here's Tegan trying to tickle Jennan. They're getting along really great these days.

After dinner, we came home and executed a pinata. There was no rope used to give the pinata a fighting chance. It was tied to a tree. The birthday girl got the first whacks.

Then Tegan used her brutal one handed attack to soften the pinata up a bit.

Liam felt that the head shot was his best bet to crack this elephant open.

But it was Duncan's "homerun" swinging that finally did the pinata in.

Birthdays are fundays. Next one for our family isn't till December, when Duncan will be turning 8 years old.