Poison Ivy and other fun things.

Snort. Just typing the words "Poison Ivy" makes me itch. Or it could be that I've got a fairly good case of it going on as we speak. Or, as I write and you read. Whichever you'd rather. Nowadays it seems rare for people to drop by, write a letter, or pick up the phone. E-mail, instant messaging, and texting seem to be the preferred method. But out here, in farmhouse country, people drop by a lot. It has taken me nearly a year to become accustomed to it. I sorta like it now, as it motivates me to keep my house a wee-bit cleaner than I normally would. I said a wee-bit. Not a great deal. There is a slight (huge) difference. A friend once told me;

"If you're coming to see my house, make an appointment. If you're coming
to see me, stop by anytime."

I LOVE that. My other favorite is;

"Excuse the mess, we live here."

So a lot has been going on around here, and Hope has been spotted springing up everywhere. Along with the garden. High on the list of exciting things is; I HAVE A DIGITAL CAMERA. (yes, I spent some of the government stimulus money on a camera MADE IN CHINA, and (*gasp*) from Wal-Mart.com no less. Shame on me. So let's get on with the show, shall we?



We have started to paint the house. Out of want, yes, and more specifically, out of need. We estimate this house to have been painted last sometime in the mid-to-late eighties. With lead paint. And, with it peeling, flaking, and chipping off, it is a hazard.

Now a Before pic; (yes, I often do things backwards...get used to it.)


This was taken last July (2007) p.s. the flowering vine on the porch is called "Mandevilla" and right behind Peonies and Hydrangeas, they are my favorite.

With the over-abundance of white houses in this region of the country, we wanted something earthy, that would blend in with our tree-filled surroundings.



Here's another;


I'm loving this. Possibly more than Ed, who is doing the brunt of the work, or ALL of it. I just feed him, bring him sweet-tea, and keep Eddie from putting his hands in the wet paint, which could possibly be the hardest of all.





So, on to the next thing hovering fleetingly in my field mouse brain, is the garden, which is coming along nicely. I had really good intentions of gardening organically, but after finding 18,000 potoato beetles in the potato patch, we bought some powdery stuff that kills them. The chickens won't even eat them.





Here is a pic of the garden (where, of all places, I saw a gardener snake last week...go figure.)
Theres more of this, but I won't bore you with the details. So far Eddie has managed to pick half of the almost-ready-to-pick Sugar Snap Peas, and eaten them. I have my eye on an "8-ball" zucchini that's nearly ripe and we've pretty much exhausted the asparagus patch, seeing how that it's now reaching temperatures into the nineties, the asparagus just don't produce much. That, and that's where the gardener snake headed, so I've been pretty leery of diving in there.

What else.


Yeah, here we go again. Fieldmouseitis. It will occur to me later what I was going to write about and when it's too hot outside to putz around, I'll come back in and post about it. I'm off to examine all the Hope blossoms.