Success!

I guess it's true what they say, the seventh time is a charm.  

Yes, someone messaged me late last night saying she wanted the kitten, and unlike the first six who'd done so but didn't follow through, she actually took him!  

In all fairness, two of the first six were in Michigan, so I probably shouldn't count them.  One of my old schoolmates had shared my post, but neglected to specify where the kitten was. 

I met them -- her, her daughter, and a handful of grandkids -- at Walmart, and they just oohed and cooed over how cute he was.  They thanked me profusely, saying they'd been looking for a kitten, and I thanked them for giving him a home, because I did not want to take that sweet baby to the pound.   I feel like a tremendous weight has been lifted off my shoulders. 

For what it's worth, there is a rescue here in town, but it is full to the brim and not taking any more animals.

Other than that, it's been a very quiet day.  I've spent most of it watching Cranford on the Roku channel.  I love period dramas, and that is one I can watch over and over again.  That being said, there really isn't much else to say, so I'll just leave you with this. 

My Viking ancestors crossed the Altantic in an open boat, using a makeshift compass. 

Today, things have come to this...

Word is, they've confiscated so much ranch from carry-ons, they could restock an H.E.B.  Oh, it's been so much fun watching them discover the real America, not the false image they've been fed by the media.  

And with that, my post for today is done.   Back to watching Cranford...

Laters.

No Market Again

I did it.  This morning, I actually got dressed and drove down to the farmer's market on the square.  Alas, I had forgotten about the BBQ cookoff they have during Thunder On Water weekend.  Oh, they still had the farmer's market, but their booths tend to get pushed off to the side.  Not only that, they had the entire street leading to the square blocked off, so I couldn't even drive down there.  

Yes, I could have driven around and parked on the South side, but I didn't want to.  I turned around and drove right back to the Lee Tartt Nature Preserve and walked the Bottomland trail.  I'd made it almost to the .8 mile marker when I saw stretched across the trail the most perfect little spider web I ever did see, with a teensy little spider sitting right in the middle.   

The web was so perfect, and the spider was so tiny I just couldn't blow through it.  And with that, my walk came to a screeching halt.   Except I still had to turn around and walk back to the car, so I didn't quite screech.  

But there is one cool thing on that trail.  You can put your phone into a bracket thing and take a photo, 

then email that photo to the address on the sign, 

and it will add it to their photo stream of that location.  Maybe if I start walking that trail more often, I can record the change of seasons.  

It wasn't that hot out yet, but it was so humid that by the time I got back to the car, I was still drenched in sweat, so I didn't do much else the rest of the day.  I had done most of the laundry yesterday, and had to set up my clothes horse in the kids' room because it was raining. 

I'd said I was going to tear into that dryer and see if I could see what the problem was, but truth is I didn't really feel like it, so I left that for another day.  Instead, I told the cat we were going to take it easy today.  I did the rest of the laundry.  I piddled in the garden a bit.  I mended the garden hose -- telling it that this was the last time and if it broke again, it was going into the trash.  I tore up some more cardboard boxes and added them to my black compost bag.  I separated the little tomato seedlings and put each one into its own cell in the tray. 

After I took the photo, I brought them inside and put them under the grow light just to give them a minute to recover from the transplant shock.  I'll put them back outside in the morning. 

In other news, I watched the episode of House Hunters last night, and they actually did show the town.  There were a couple of drone shots of the downtown area, and I could clearly see the gazebo on the square.  Somehow, they miraculously managed to hide that falling down building.  Maybe because they were so high in the air, it wasn't that noticeable.  They showed a couple of shots of the lake, and the husband was very excited about the fishing prospects here. 

The realtors showed them three houses, one of which was in the nearby town of Carrollton.  As you can imagine, I was shouting at the TV, "Oh, come on!  Don't put them in Carrollton!"  Local folks will understand.  

They chose a house in Grenada, and it's funny because I'd been looking at that very house on Zillow.  No, I'm not looking to buy another house.  I can't even afford the one I have, much less a new one.  I just like looking at houses and dreaming.  

Now for something I have done in a while -- a meme debunkeration.  This one is so stupid, I can't even believe I'm having to debunk it. 

It's common sense, really.  Ticks are everywhere, just like fleas and mosquitoes.  They don't need to be "delivered" anywhere, because they're already here.  True they crawl slower than a snail, so how do they get around?  I'll give you a hint:  They bark.  They meow.   They moo.  They neigh.  They cheep, cluck, or screech.  Yes, ticks hitch rides on animals and birds.  I can't believe I even have to say that.  

The reason we're seeing "outbreaks" is because the weather is warming up and the ticks beginning to move.  Or if you're in the south, they're already moving.   It happens every spring.   Seriously, people.  Not everything is some deep dark plot to get you.  Sometimes nature is just nature being nature.  

And finally, your humor for the day. 

I feel this to the depths of my soul.  I miss the days when you turned something on and it worked.  No app.  No account.  No signing in.  You turned it on and it just did what it was supposed to do. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to sign in to my TV so I can sign in to my Pluto account, so I can watch reruns of Digging For The Truth. 

Laters...

Sigh…Again

My new lunch box isn't waterproof.  

To be fair, the tag never said it was.  I just assumed since it was a cooler -- as in, meant to hold ice -- that it would be.  But it isn't, and the way I found out is that when I picked it up to go to the break area at lunch, I discovered that it was sitting in a literal puddle of ice melt inside my brazing table.  

That's a bummer, because I liked it otherwise.  Oh well, on to plan B.  

I do have a hard sided cooler that I think once belonged to Cody, but it doesn't have all of the little pockets and things my old lunch box had.  And yes, I do need ice out there, especially in the summer.  Today, for example, it got up to 87° in my work area, and it isn't even full on summer yet.  I'll keep the new bag, though, and maybe use it for road trips.  

Like I ever take road trips...but hey, you never know.  I could get a wild hair one of these days and just take off somewhere.

Speaking of plan B, I talked myself off of the ledge in regards to my garden hose.  I'm still going to get another mender thing and mend it, but in the meantime, I dragged my front yard hose around to the back and got my spare hose from the shed -- which had nothing wrong with it, it was just too short for my back yard -- and connected the two together. It's plenty long enough to reach my garden spot, so I'm going to use it for now.  

As for the gray hose, I rolled it up, and it will now be the spare until it breaks again.  Three strikes and it's out.    

On a similar note, my new clothes horse arrived Monday, but I didn't even take it out of the box until today.  Once I got it set up in the back yard, 

I washed my sheets and hung them up to dry in the fresh air and sunshine. 

I had to use the small clothes horse to get both sheets hung up, but that's OK.  For regular loads of laundry, it'll do just fine.  By the way, it does come with clips to hang clothes hangers on, so a lot of shirts will fit.  

In other news, the baby tomatoes are getting their first sets of true leaves.  I finally bit the bullet and started putting them outside before I leave for work so they can get a full day of sun.  

It was hard to do, but I've got to let them grow up sometime.  I'm still a bit nervous about leaving them out overnight, but that may change soon, since I have to go in at 4:00 tomorrow morning.   If I'm putting them out at 3:30 ish before I leave, I might as well leave them out all night, right? 

Oh, and this time, I used a potting mix instead of the hydroponic sponges, so when I thin them here in another week or so, I'm going to try to tease the seedlings out and re-plant them into their own cells instead of just chopping them off.   I don't know what I'm going to do with them if they all survive, but I'll figure out something.  I mean, I don't know where I'm going to plant them.  My bed has room for four right now.  If these all survive, I'll have seven --  provided no more seeds germinate.  I could end up with 12!  

The last thing I did before I ran inside into the air conditioning was to move this compost bag into the garden spot so that it would be in full sun most of the day.  

That ought to get that compost cooking.   I think I'll move my bingo tumbler composter over there too...

For your laugh of the day, it looks like Louisiana man might be giving Florida man a run for his money. 

 Seriously, who didn't see that coming? 

And finally, I finished watching Lark Rise To Candleford yesterday, and I'm not quite sure what to do with myself at the moment.   Is it weird to go through something like mourning when finishing a beloved series?

Because that's exactly what this feels like...

Every Saturday

Every Saturday, I say I'm going to get up and go to the farmer's market, and every Saturday I don't get up and go to the farmer's market...Maybe if they carried it over into the afternoon I'd go, but it ends at 11:00.  

Take yesterday morning, for example.  I wanted to get the weedeating done before it go too hot, so I did the weedeating.  I couldn't move my arms for the rest of the day, but the weedeating is done.  

Then I wanted to start a new compost pile in the black bag I emptied last week, so I tore up some cardboard for the browns, and pulled up some weeds for the greens, and got that done.  And I harvested a bunch of herbs, washed them, and hung them up to dry.  

While all of this was going on, I did a load of laundry and hung it on my clothes horse to dry.  

By the time I was finished, it was nearly 11:00 and the farmer's market was over for the week, so I just piddled around the house for the rest of the day.  And of course, you may be wondering why I'm telling you about yesterday today instead of yesterday.  Simple,  yesterday was D-Day.  It's important we remember those important dates, so I'll keep on posting about them, even though most of you skip those. 

OK, on to today.  I'm mostly rested my hands since weedeating seems to have seriously irritated my trigger finger, so much so I can't even comfortably knit.   Instead, I just watched TV.  I found a new to me show on Prime called Royal Autopsy.  A professor and forensic pathologist do an autopsy on a prosthetic body from an old English king or queen and try to determine the cause of death with the knowledge we have today.  It's pretty interesting if you're into those sorts of shows.  Unfortunately, there are only six episodes, so I've already finished bingeing it.   Now I'm re-watching Time Team, Digging For The Truth, and Lark Rise to Candleford on Prime, Pluto, and Roku Channel respectively.  

Anyway, just so this post isn't a complete waste of your time, here are some garden photos. 

My zinnia bed.

A bachelor's button.

My pepper bed.

My tomato and basil bed.

It looks like I'm going to have plenty of peppers to harvest.   Every one of my plants looks like this. 

While I was cleaning out the shed, I found this old thing.  

I'd bought it from a thrift shop ages ago, thinking I could use it as a planter.  Alas, as it has absolutely no drainage whatsoever, that didn't work out too well.  I think it was some sort of candle, since it's got what looks like wax in the bottom.  I'm going to clean it out, but I don't really know what I'm going to do with it after that.   I don't want to get rid of it, because I still like it.  I guess I'll use it for decoration or something. 

And finally, your bit of humor for the day. 

Florida never fails...

When It Rains

When it rains, it pours.  

I finished a long, tiring day of work, then ran into town to drop off the piano book in the Little Free Library and see if there was anything in there that I wanted to read.  There wasn't, so I got back into my little car and drove down to Walmart. 

My shopping done, I came home and as is my custom, started a load of laundry.  The trouble started when I put them into the dryer.  Only a short time later, the breaker tripped.  What?  

I reset the breaker and re-started the dryer.  About ten minutes later, it tripped again.  Once more, I reset the breaker and re-started the dryer.  Same thing...By that time, though, the first load of jeans was dry.  I folded them and put them away, but since I didn't know what was causing the dryer to trip, I dragged out the old clothes horse and put the second load of jeans and shorts onto it, and set it out into the sunlight.  

I started a load of shirts, then did a little Googling.  Basically, what I came up with is that my dryer is old.  The most likely culprits are either that the drum rollers and bearings are worn out, or the wiring is worn out.  I can try to replace the drum bearings and rollers and see if that helps, but I don't feel confident enough to fool with the wiring.  In the mean time, I hopped onto Amazon and ordered a larger clothes horse to use for now.   

I'm considering getting a set of full sized clothesline poles as well.  Truth is, I've wanted one for a long time, even after I do fix or replace my dryer.  I love the freshness of line dried clothes. 

By the time I did all of that, the shirts were done, so I gave the dryer one more chance.  Sure enough, about ten minutes in, the breaker tripped one last time.  I gave up, put the shirts on clothes hangers, and hung them on the shower curtain rack.   I'll save the rest of the laundry for tomorrow.  Hopefully, the shorts and jeans will be dry by then, and I can use the clothes horse for the next load.  

If all else fails, I can haul it into town and dry it at a laundry mat.  Or a laundromat, if you want to use the correct spelling.  Or washateria, if you're from Texas.  

By the way, I glanced quickly through some old blog posts to try and see when I bought that dryer, but didn't see anything.  It's probably at least 20 years old, if not more.  I honestly don't remember if I've ever had to replace my dryer.  My washer, I know I've replaced twice, but not my dryer.  If that's the case, it's 30 years old.  And if that's the case, it's time to treat myself to a new one.  Alas, that will mean that my garden expansion might have to wait a bit longer.  

Speaking of my garden, while all of this was going on, my little baby 'maters were just chillin' in the sun. 

I wish I had some way of protecting them so I could leave them outside all the time.  Once they get big enough to up-pot, I can put the little cloches over them, but for now, I'm bringing them back inside every night. 

And finally, what this day needs is a little funky music...

White boy. 

Guess Who

Guess who decided to mow after work today.  Yep, this girl. 

Why?  Well, because the grass in the front yard was getting close to knee high.  I'd done the back yard Saturday, but the front was still too mushy from the recent rains.  You know, that's what I hired the landscammer to do.  To fill in the low spots and improve the drainage so it wouldn't be like that.  We all know how that went.  

Anyway, I was looking at the forecast and saw that we were supposed to be getting more rain on Saturday, so I figured it would be best to get that chore out of the way before the yard got mushy again.   Wouldn't you know it, I checked again after I'd finished, and they've pushed the rain back to Sunday.  Oh well, at least it's done and I won't have to worry about it.  

The only problem is that now I can't see.  Because I'm allergic to grass and all...

Fortunately, it wasn't that hot out, so I got it done with only a little bit of sweating.  The weedeating will have to wait until tomorrow or Saturday, though, because I'm plumb tuckered. 

In fact, I'm so tuckered I'm going to bed.  After I practice my piano that is.  Which ought to be fun, seeing as I can't see...

Goodnight.

A Day Of Rest

Remember how yesterday I was saying I need to get used to slowing down and taking it easy?  Yep, that didn't happen today, even though it is the day of rest.  I guess when you've spent so many years with Sunday being the only day to get things done around the house, you have a hard time just resting.  

All that to say, I was up bright and early this morning out in the garden harvesting some herbs to dry.  Lemon balm, French Tarragon, Greek Oregano, and peppermint are what I got done today, even though my Greek Oregano didn't really need it.   It had all these little springs growing from the bottom, and one big, long one so I cut the long one mostly to give it a better shape.  

Yes, I broke down and put some diatomaceous earth on a few of my plants, as well.  Mostly the marigolds.  I've got one that's about down to bare twigs.  I haven't seen any signs of ladybugs for a while, and I tried to keep the earth contained, so maybe it won't hurt too many of my beneficial insects.  

On a similar note, I managed to catch a photo of a toad while I was out mowing yesterday evening.  

They're everywhere, but that's the first time I've been able to take a picture of one.  This morning, I had to rescue one from the old deer trough -- you know, the one that was leaking then suddenly stopped leaking as soon as I bought a replacement.  I don't know how it got in there, but I turned the whole thing upside down so it wouldn't happen again.   I'm thinking, if they can get inside that, surely they can get into my raised beds and eat the slugs that are there.  

The last thing I did before I started resting was to empty this old compost bag out.  

Truth is, I wasn't really that pleased with how it worked.  The black plastic was supposed to raise the temperature inside so the stuff would break down faster, but there really wasn't any way for the compost to dry out.  You don't want it completely dry, but you also don't want a soggy, muddy mess, either.  That's what I had in the bottom.  It was so heavy, I couldn't even pick up the bag to move it.  I ended up reaching into it with my hands and pulling the stuff out manually. 

Even so, I did get some pretty nice compost out of it. 

I set it over next to my other compost pile, but I really want to get one of those three bin systems going.  

For you composting muggles out there, that's a system where you have three bins...hence the name.  You put fresh stuff in one, the second has partially broken down compost, and the third is ready to use.  That way, you always have compost for your garden. 

In piano news, I finished my Faber level 1 book this morning.  Truthfully, I just kind of skimmed the last unit, but it was pretty easy stuff to learn.  I'm not going to get his level 2 book, though.  There are some things he did that I just didn't like.  I'll give you an example, way back at the beginning of the book, when you had only learned five notes, he's telling you to transpose some songs into a different key.  If you only know five notes, and not even an entire scale or what a key is, you don't need to worry about transposing.  Even Mr. Let's Play Piano Methods called him out on that one.  So, I'm going to put that book into the Little Free Library next time I go into town and let someone else enjoy it.  

And finally, this popped up in one of the veteran's groups I'm in, and I sure would love to know the story behind this sign...

 Oh, one more thing.  I fried up some bacon in that cast iron skillet and it did just fine.  

And now I have some bacon.  I wonder how a grilled bacon and cheddar sandwich would taste...

Only one way to find out!  

Laters.

Here There Be...

I'm free! Well, until Monday at least.  Yep, I took a rare spring vacation day tomorrow...no particular reason, but I still had two unscheduled days off.  Since they don't roll over, so I have to use them or lose them.  After tomorrow, I'll still have one, so I'll probably pick a random day in June or July and put it in then. 

I'm also about to max out on my ETO (Earned time off).  At the end of this month, I'll have 22 hours.  They cap those hours, so even though they do roll over, once I hit 24, I can't earn any more until I've spent some. 

Boy for someone who hates my job as much as I do, I sure have a hard time taking days off, don't I? 

You know what else?  After all of my bluster and blow, I didn't knit a single stitch yesterday.  Since I have tomorrow off and don't have to go to bed in the middle of the day, I'll be sure to rectify that tonight. 

I also went and did my weekly shopping today, so naturally my first stop was the garden center.  I'd intended to pick up three cayenne pepper plants, but the ones they had were pretty pathetic looking.  Instead, I bought a six pack which cost about the same as three individuals.  

I waited until the sun started going down before I went out and planted them in the bed. 

The three of them that fit, that is.  Plus I put two more marigolds into the bed so all of the plants will be protected -- and the bed looks more balanced this way.   I'll have to find room in some of my other beds for the rest of the cayenne plants.  I think if I pull up my onions and stagger them, I can fit them all into the same bed with my lemon balm.  I'll figure it out. 

The next thing I did was to get my zinnias all settled in to their new home in the fairy garden. 

I still need to get my fancy rocks out and make the paths and stuff, plus replace the driveway rocks in the bee pond.  By the time I got done, I was drenched in sweat, so I figured that can wait until morning, when it's cooler.   

Once I got finished, I gave everything a good watering because they took the rain out of our forecast for tonight.  Oh, we still have a chance of a scattered shower, but nothing to speak of.  They've even lowered our chance of rain for Saturday from 100% to 60%.  Thank goodness for hoses, that's all I can say. 

And here there be dragons!  As always, faithful Oberon is there to watch over it all. 

And finally, before I go watch TV and knit, I saw this in my social media feed and it absolutely cracked me up.  So much so, I had to share it with you. 

 Now, if you'll excuse me, I need a snack before I get busy knitting. 

Laters

The Old Man

I'm not sure what my deal was yesterday, but I was so tired when I got home, I went to bed shortly after 6:00.  As you may have surmised, I didn't even blog.  

I was going to tell you that we had to do a survey at work yesterday.  No big deal.  We do it every couple of years, but this time, I think they must have had my clock number flagged or something, because the website kept kicking me out.  Nobody else was having this problem.  The rest of the department was done and back out on the floor, and the next group was coming in and I'm still sitting there having to re-log in every 30 seconds.  It was probably the fifth time I got the Your log in session has expired message, I just told the HR lady, "Forget it.  I'm not even going to do it.  It's not worth it when it's all going to end up in the garbage anyway."  And I got up and walked out.  

Still waiting to see if I'm going to get fired for it, but I'm wondering about the timing of it.  Imagine giving a survey to an employee you just chastised for saying something negative, then turned around and told that same employee that her department isn't a priority to the current management team.  Did you really think I was going to say that it's all sunshine and daisies out there?  

Not only that, I'd gotten halfway to work when I realized I'd forgotten the book on my kitchen cabinet. I'd briefly thought about going home to get it, then going in to town, but you know me.  Once I'm home, I'm home, so as soon as I got home, I put the book into my car right away, so that after work today, I could take it down to the square and put it back into the LFL.  

While there, I looked through what they had in there, but didn't see anything I just had to read.  

On my way home, I stopped by the Lee Tartt Nature Preserve and walked down to the deck overlooking the swamp and sat there for a while. 

Sometimes, my soul just needs to be in a swamp. 

I could have sat there all day, but alas all too soon, it was time to come home. 

I was sure to stop and pay my respects to the Old Man Of The Swamp before I left. 

He's looking a bit bedraggled, and appeared to have some damage from the ice storm -- including a tree that is now draped across his face.  I'm sure they'll spruce him up before too long.  

Oh, and before we get too far away from the topic of books, I found another one by Nathaniel Philbrick on my Kindle that I'd bought five years ago and completely forgotten that I had.  Apparently, I'd also read part of it, but since I didn't even remember I had the book, I surely didn't remember reading any of it, so I started over. 

Now, on to more boring garden stuff.  If I'd had more energy yesterday, I was going to tell you that my peppers have definitely perked up since I planted them. 

Funny story, I'd gotten my moisture meter out and was going to give the peppers a deep watering.  I watered, and watered, and watered, and the needle never moved.  I was thinking, "Boy this dirt must have really been dry."   I watered a bit more, and that's when it hit me.  My meter was set on light, not moisture.  Yep, I was tired. 

This afternoon, I went ahead and put the stakes into place so I won't disturb the roots when it comes time that they need to be staked. 

Now for a bit of sad news.  One of my basil seedlings has died, 

and two more are struggling.  I moved these two over to where they could get some shade from the harsh afternoon sun, but honestly, I don't think they're going to make it either. 

Maybe that's why I plant so many of them.  I'll still have enough to plant with my tomatoes  provided too many more of them don't die.  By the way, I finally gave up on that fourth seed cup, since I still haven't seen any signs of life.  I pulled the hydroponic sponge out and put three more seeds directly into the dirt in the bottom of the cup.   We'll see if they do anything.  

More bad news, something has found my lemon balm and is busy chomping away at it. I gave it a good dusting of diatomaceous earth and moved the marigolds nearer to it. 

If it looks like they're helping with pest control, I might plant one or two in that bed.  At this rate, I'm going to have to buy a few more flats of marigolds.  Good thing they're one of my favorite plants. 

Along with zinnias, which are recovering quite nicely from being pinched. 

Soon, it will be time to put them into the bed.  In fact, I may do that Friday, since I've taken a day off work.  I'll also harvest my garlic, because I'm pretty sure it's ready. 

I'm not really sure, because this is the first time I have ever tried growing garlic.  I'd bought some last year, and didn't use it all.  When it started growing on my kitchen cabinet, I took a chance and planted it.  I also need to cut my onions back again.  I'll probably put that into the compost, because I've got plenty in my freezer. 

And finally, just so this post isn't a complete waste of your time, a bit of humor to end the day.  

Nice try Grace.  I don't even have DirecTV, and even if I did, I'd update things through the website.    

I thought about calling her back just to mess with her a bit, but I'm not quick enough on my feet for that.  

And for the conspiracy theorists in your life:  

I guess that's it for today.  I'm going to go get me something to eat before heading for bed.

Goodnight. 

In A Nutshell

There I was at work, just a working away.  It was almost 6:00 and I saw Cuz come over and start talking to Group Leader Shark. 

"Uh oh,"  I said.  "What have we done now?"  

Actually, I said, "What we done did now?" because in real life, I do speak in local vernacular from time to time.  But that's not relevant to this story. 

Then the morning meeting started and she chewed us up one side and down the other.  Apparently, someone got caught carrying—oh the horror— a Coca~Cola into the plant this morning.

"Do not be carrying Cokes into this plant!  And it has to be in a clear cup!  I don't care what these other departments do!  You will have a clear cup!"

And I'm thinking, "That right there is exactly what is wrong with this plant in a nutshell.  I wish she'd get this bent out of shape of this jacked up garbage we get from tubing as she does over what kind of cup I'm drinking my water out of."  

So, I go back to my stand and finish the order I’d been working on-- which is the one I'd started yesterday when the line was already down waiting on it, and I had to wait on the adapter tubes before I could even start brazing it. 

I found out this morning that they'd sent that line home early because they didn't have header assemblies.  And yet...they still didn't have the adapter tube line coming in early.  Go figure...

So, I finish that order, then go get line 3’s next order, and the parts stager tells me, “It only has two legs, but it’s next.”  I spend the next two hours waiting on adapter tubes, and the line is down waiting on me, and ... the adapter tube line is working on parts for line 4– which we are 11 hours ahead of that line, instead of line 3, which is down waiting on us. 

Make. It. Make. Sense.

Please!  

I honestly believe that if our parent company weren't propping this company up, they'd have gone out of business years ago.  The place is so poorly managed, it's a wonder it can function at all. 

Anyway, I finally got the parts I needed and brazed the order with the line's parts stager taking them out  of my hands as fast as I can braze them, and after a day like that, I said to myself, "Self, I really need to play in some dirt!" 

So I went to the store after work and bought a few more bags of garden soil.  Then I came home, filled all of the bird feeders, put the soil into my beds, came inside and took a shower -- and still made it to the TV in time for the Atremis II launch.

Because I'm multi talented like that. 

All right then... I think these two are ready to be planted. 

I'll have to see how much the soil settles after the next rain, but there's likely enough to go ahead and plant my tomatoes and banana peppers.  I'm still going to buy up a bag or two of soil at a time while they have them in stock, so I'll have some ready when I get around to getting the rest of my raised beds. Or for when my current beds need a top-up.  

While I was outside, I took photos of my herbs for your viewing pleasure.  Here is my lemon balm:

Broadleaf Sage: 

Greek Oregano: 

French Tarragon: 

And I just realized I didn't take a photo of my rosemary or mint.  Oh well...I'll get them next time. 

The last thing I did was to drag the hose around and water everything, and I also put out the bee pond, since it's so very dry. 

Yeah, we got a lot of thunder last night, but very little actual rain.  We're supposed to get some storms Saturday, so maybe we will finally get some rain.   They're saying 100% chance, so we'll see. 

And finally, this meme showed up in my socials today, and now I have to add Dracula to my reading list. 

Can you believe I've never read it?  I must rectify that as soon as I've finished the books I'm currently reading.