JoAnne's Family Traditions

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Location: Western, New York, United States

I spend most of my free time gardening, reading garden magazines, photographing the garden or baking (mostly sweets, which list chocolate as the main ingredient). I play the guitar and sing in a contemporary choir of which I have been a member for 26 years.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Coon or Skunk

I have been having a major problem with some kind of rodent in my back yard. I say back yard because he/she/it has not noticed all the plants located on the front porch yet...THANK GOD!!!

This....thing comes up on our deck, knocks over my compost bucket (now relocated in the garage), digs the dirt out of my flower pots and leaves behind it's not so small droppings (on four different occasions to be exact). It has also attacked the grease can attached to the gas grill. Yup, every night it digs up my pots and every morning I sweep it up and put it back in the pots...like clock work.

It also digs in my veggie garden. It dug most of the tomato plants I put in the very night they were planted. I had to replant most of them. I think there were two untouched. How very kind of IT! I had them all covered with milk jugs. After this very frustrating incident, I covered them with a large piece of plastic as well as the milk jugs, secured with bricks and concrete blocks. I apparently left a gap unprotected because the blasted thing got under the plastic and did another job on my tomatoes. Which I planted yet again. They are now the sorriest looking tomatoes you have ever seen. They have been undisturbed since as I have been sure to cover and secure them each and every night and beginning to look half way decent. It is now planting time and I have now have to cover everything I plant...until this critter meets an untimely demise. AND it can't be soon enough for me. Oh Yes, I will take that blasted thing out as soon as I can stay up long enough to find it's miserable, sorry butt creeping into my yard.

Now, it's getting late and time for the routine cover up.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Thought for the Day

Lord,
This day is full of promise and opportunity,
Help me to waste none of it.
This day is full of beauty and adventure,
Help me to be fully alive to it all.

Redemptorist Mission Prayer Book

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Dragon Arum


I can't believe it has been over a month since I have made a posting. Guess the full time job is keeping me very busy...or is it tired? Today I was working out in the garden and have a few garden pics to post. If you remember last year I posted pic's of the Dragon Arum that I planted, it was the first time it flowered and was quite an amazing site....and smell. The ad for this bulb did not have a pleasant aroma however I never thought it would be that bad. It attracted flies like a magnet attracts steel. Anyway, here it is so far along with a couple of other pic's. I will continue to post the progress of the Dragon Arum's growth so you can all see it. If you are interested in seeing it first hand feel free to drop in...especially when it is in bloom :-)).