Sunday

We had a very productive Sunday.

First, we shampooed are carpets..... no more "gray" knees for our grandbabies.

(talk about horrifying....what a way to find out how dirty your carpets are.  LOL )

After that we worked in the yard.

This little flower bed is the only one I can never get "just right".

It's up against the house. We used to have rose bushes and shrubs, but one of our dogs chewed everything to bits. He was our son's dog and we havent' had him for quite some time, but I just can't decide what to do with this bed.  I still blame the dog.

The Handyman....figuring out how to get water to my garden  (so that I dont' have to drag a sprinkler)

I put a couple of Hens and Chicks in this planter on my patio. I have so many hens and chicks I don't know what to do.

The small garden again.  I will use the chain link fence to train my squash to go up.

It says we can do that in the "Square Foot Gardening" book.

Ta Da!!

Somethings growing!

I do have radishes coming up.

I have to get out there with my tweezer to thin them.

The Handyman has installed a "drip" system so that I don't have to hand water all my hanging pots.  But he discovered a leak. It was spraying all over!

We also have a "mister" for when it gets really  hot.

Which is only a few times a year.  We live in "northern" Nevada and we are high...about 4000 feet.

But the mister is really nice those couple of bbq's we have when it is hot.

The Handyman also had to cut down a dead cherry tree -- but I didn't get a picture of that.

This is Ginger.  Our very aggressive Hummingbird. 

She HATES for us to be out on our patio.

And that's where we like to have our supper all summer long.

We are not bothered by bugs much in Nevada, but an angry mama hummingbird?

Watch Out!

My son, the first time he went outside, came back in and said,  "a giant mosquito" was after him.

We have since come to a wary acceptance.... from the hummingbird, not my son.

She'll let us be out there, but we better not make any sudden moves.

Getting Ready for the Garden

Finally there was some good weather in Northern Nevada.

So, we began our garden.

First I planted some flowers  (I have way too many "pots" to plant, so I'm trying to but back this year)

The one tho, sits beside a garden swing.  One must have flowers beside the garden swing.

I planted a few flowers in my rock garden.... I don't want too many, but it's nice to have some color in there.

Then we made our way to the vegetable garden....

I planted herbs in this topsy-turvy way.   The Handyman will put a drip system in for me.... it's kind of self watering...the pots will drip down from the top to the bottom into each other.

This looks kind of pitiful....but we put brackets on the fence to hang our tomato plants.

More tomatoes---sharing a barrell with some volunteer lettuce.

(I'll have to take that out)

Everything looks so dry and dusty......

......hmmmm.  It's Nevada. 

The Handyman is going to put in a good watering system for the veggies.

It'll green up ...I promise.  We are't quite done... just working on getting the dirt ready and doing a bit of planting.

We end our day playing with the grandbabies.

What's Outside My Kitchen Window

A week in the life of our backyard.

What a week we've had!!

First, we thought spring was here.

I even had a daffodil.  One.  One daffodil.

It is Northern Nevada, the high desert.... I will have more daffodills the middle of May.

But for now, I am very excited to have one.

And a robin in the tree.

Robins are a sure sign of spring around here.

Believe it or not,  I can see buds on this tree!

And back to Mr. Robin.

He was having  fun looking for stuff for his nest.

On Sunday, it was so nice and warm, the Handyman couldn't help but sit out in the yard and read a magazine.

That first hint of sunshine, spring, warmth, well, we just feel the need to bask in it.

(I guess.  Can you call sitting out there with a long sleeved shirt, a gun magazine and a beer, basking?)

That was Sunday.  On Tuesday, we  had the biggest wind storm I can remember.

The nightly news said that if it had been a tropic system, it would have been considered a level 3 hurricane. We had 80 mile an hour winds.  And we lost part of our roof.  And so now yay...we get to spend our savings on a new roof.  I'm sure the insurance companies awere bombarded on Wed morning.

We drove around during our wind storm, so I could take pictures.

(oh....and I took a lot)

Fences down, trees down, dust bowls, tumbleweeds.

City Crews cleaning up the next morning.

Check out all those tumbleweeds along the fence line.

Then on Wednesday afternoon,  rain, snow and hail came.

Notice the two doves in our tree?  They are all hunkered down trying to stay warm.

It was FREEZING.

(we don't really like the doves, as they are kind of an annoying bird, but they sure were cold.  I felt kind of bad for them.)

And then later.... Wed. early evening, we had snow.

Sunday, warm sunshine.... Wed snow.

Ahhhhh....spring in Northern Nevada.

Outside my Kitchen Window.