My Shameful Secret

My shameful secret is my bad grass in our patio area. We hate it!

When we first moved here, the back yard was hard packed dirt. This had been a rental house for years. The last occupants had lots of dogs.

There were some sprigs of grass on the fringes and I knew we could bring it back. SO didn't think so, but he is from the city so what does he know.

My sister who has been married for 40 yrs grew her lawn from sprigs my father would give her from our yard. It is St. Augustine grass and it develops through runners. I knew we could do the same here.

Well we did and it worked. The yard was beautiful. I also had to tell SO that you had to water the grass!

Anyway I had to move to Oklahoma and he stayed behind. A few years later he moved up with me. We hired someone to take care of the yard, cut not water. We had a drought and by the time we came back in April 2006, the grass was almost dead.

SO decided to plant a new type of grass. We are in the middle of 3 big grass farms out here. Acres and acres of the stuff. Trucks roll by with pallet loads almost every day.

We tried a Bermuda hybrid. It was nice for a while and then it fizzled out. I don't think we took care of it right and it didn't get enough sun.

We took that out and planted St Augustine again. It was beautiful for a while, but now all we have is this.

I wish we had tried to coax the old grass back like before, but SO was impatient. The rest of the yard looks nice.

I took this picture to keep a record of my efforts to save the grass. I've fed it and have been watering it. We had a lot of rain in the summer and that could have been a problem. We might have grubs; I still need to investigate that.

We'll see how it grows.

My Closet

I've been working on minimizing my possessions. I don't think I need a lot of stuff.

I went through my closet and took out every little thing that did not fit, did not like and just didn't serve any purpose any longer.

I'm down to these few shirts. There are 2 suits at the end - 1 black and 1 brown and 2 jackets - 1 black and 1 brown.

I like brown. I think my wardrobe will revolve around that color.

I recommend reading Don Aslett's book - Clutter's Last Stand. He makes a lot of sense.

Cake of the Week

Hello good people

Every week I bake a cake. I use Duncan Hines butter recipe mix and Betty Crocker frosting.

I guess I could make it from scratch, but what the heck.

I usually make a yellow cake. This one has lemon frosting. SO doesn't like chocolate, so I don't make those too often.

I bake it til it is sort of dry. I hate over moist cake.

The platter is old white milk glass with a tiny gold pattern. I paid 2 dollars for it.

We like cold cake, so we keep it in the fridge.

Yummy

More pantry pics

Here is another shot of my pantry.

I'm posting this to have a before and after record.

It is not quite "Learyized" yet.

If you have read Anne Tyler's "The Accidental Tourist" you know what I mean.

What day is it?

This is how retired life feels sometimes. We don't know what day we're on! It is such a drag having to get out of bed and if we are not careful, we could fall off the edge.

We have to keep close tabs on our schedules or else we tend to miss appointments. SO goes to the VA twice a week plus he has dental stuff coming up.

I have a ton of homework coming due. It is starting to feel like I AM a full-time student, which I guess I am since I am taking 12 hours. Three "I ams" in a row!

I like our Tues and Thursday class schedule. We get out of the house and still have 3-day weekends. It would be 4 day weekends but SO meets for group every Friday. At least I get time to study.

The boys (pets) miss our being home 24/7.

What is This?

I almost forgot what this was. When I loaded up the pics, I had to really jog my memory.

It is frozen bell peppers from my small garden. I like to plants things, but don't always eat them. Tomatoes yes, everything else, big maybe.

I threw chunks of meat on top and slow cooked the mix in the crock pot - very yummy!

SO has developed a bad case of acid reflux, so the jalapenos are off limits. And he loves them so.

I guess I will try to dry them.

I once grew a bunch of eggplant because I liked the way they looked. Thank goodness my sister loves eggplant and okra too. Almost forgot about the okra.

I'm growing some fall tomatoes. They already have flowers. I can't wait.

Do We Have Any Kool-Aid?

I like to organize things. One of my current projects is my pantry. Ignore the paneling. A previous owner paneled everything in this house and we are taking it out, painting, whatever has to be done to get it out of our sight. I want crisp white beadboard in the pantry.

The other day SO asked me "Do we have any Kool-Aid"? I had given up the stuff years ago, like maybe 30, until he got me hooked on it again. I told him to look in the pantry because I had set things up so you could tell what was inside.

I've thought of posting these pics on the door just for him, with an inventory also. Look at the stuff on this shelf, Kool-Aid and cake mix. Please note that the sugar next to it is organic and fair trade. I'm trying!