Muggy Morning Musings

Ugh, friends, this summer is moving by so swiftly! June was overtaken by graduations of nephews and friends, which brought on graduation parties and typical teenage melodrama. Also, Mildred gave birth to a small litter of adorable kittens, more on that in another post.  I have been dodging thunderstorms and insane heat waves, trying to work on the house. Since we bought the house nearly two years ago, it seems like we are still settling in. We bought the house in late summer and with all the work that needed to be done to it, we couldn't move in until October, which meant any yard work that needed to be done had to be put off until the following spring. Last year I began working on a vegetable garden, a wildflower garden, and a flower bed. It is still a work in progress. Last year, my father kindly tilled a large patch of the lawn to be our vegetable garden. The yard hadn't been tilled for a garden there before, so the grass eventually grew back and took over the garden, not leaving much space for the vegetables. This year, my dad tilled the spot again and my husband spread weed killer/blocker sheets on top of the soil before we began planting. This has made weeding the garden a breeze and the vegetables are doing great. We have peppers, tomatoes, squash, beans, cucumbers, onions, Swiss chard, beet greens, two types of romaine lettuce, mesclun mix, and buttercrunch lettuce. With all the vegetables, I will have plenty of salads and I will be able to make my own salsa!
I have also been putting a lot of work into the wildflower garden and the flower bed. I have spent a substantial amount of my summertime battling weeds. I have also been doing a lot of pruning, aside from planting new perennial plants. The roses that had been planted by the previous owners needed a lot of tlc. So I am hoping that my hard work will pay off and by next spring my garden will look fantastic!
Aside from gardening, I have also been working on minor home improvements, which is hard to do in this summer weather. Sometimes, it can either be too hot, too humid, or rainy and trying to find a happy medium is tricky. I have scraped and re-painted many of the window sills and I will need to do more at the end of summer when the weather is more forgiving. I also have plans to fix the front doorstep and clean up that door. I also want to put up gutters in September, fix the mudroom to make it cozy for holiday dinners, and get the garage cleaned up in time to store the truck in the winter months. At some point this late summer or early fall, we are putting in a woodstove. Since we are getting a stove, I have been getting wood and I need to get that stacked and stored for the winter too. Some people vacation in the summer this housewife spends her summer preparing for winter. At least I am getting a lot of fresh air and a suntan. Each night I sit down to watch some tv and all I can think is that there are never enough hours in the day! I have my fingers and toes crossed that come October, I can rest up a bit and dive into some more crafts for the holiday season. Heres to hoping! Until next time~ Toodahloo!