The Farming Den

I thought about making a new website so I can journal about what's growing in the yard and how things are coming along. But then I thought if that's my 'daily news' and most people would want to read it here instead of having to click on yet another site, I'd just keep things as is and give you some regular updates probably each week.

So this week down 'on the farm' we've been watching the seeds sprouting and watching the aphids gather and start eating the life out of them! Much to Jason's surprise, those little 'buggers' are just running rampant out there! We have some stuff to spray on them, and the other night we simply took a bottle of soapy liquid out there and sprayed too. No doubt it will be an ongoing battle, but hopefully the plants will win in the end.

On Sunday (mothers day here) Jason went out with Kristen while I rested still, and they bought some ladybugs. You release them in to your yard in the hopes that they stick around and eat the aphids. Sunday evening we let the first bag go (we have 3 bags total). There are about 1500 ladybugs in each little bag. I took some pictures, but I also tried out the video so I'm gonna see if I can post that for you first.

Radishes are coming up quickly, and they already need thinning out.

These are Scarlet Runner Beans and will grow up a trellis that Jason has made.

Kristen with 'Petey'! For some reason she's trying to name all the ladybugs!

Spreading a little 'ladybug' love!

This is the hard part....

... the down time! the feeling like an invalid cos you can't get your head off the pillow time, the wanting to get out of bed, but your body doesn't have the energy time, the knowing that your loved ones aren't being looked after the way you want time! This is the hard part!

I had my surgery 4 days ago now, and the day after I came home from the hospital I felt great. I got up and took Kristen to school, and even took myself off to the ENT for my appointment. I thought I was fine, I thought I was 'back to normal' already. But it all went down hill later that afternoon. Since then I've practically layed in bed resting my head back as much as I can, because when I get up and walk around it feels like it's going to drop right off my shoulders! It's a horrible feeling, it's annoying... and frustrating... and just about everything else you can think of when you don't want to be stuck in bed doing nothing!!!

I feel like a petulant child who can't do what she wants :-p And I feel like stomping my feet because I can't get my way. Not that anyone else is doing the things I can't mind you! that's half the reason I get so annoyed when I can't take care of things, because it doesn't get done. I know it's petty stuff, it's stuff that will wait til I get better, but I don't want it to wait.. I don't want the laundry piling up until there's nothing left in the drawers to wear! I don't want the dishes piling up in the sink because the dishwasher is still full and needs emptying! I don't want to remind someone the dog needs feeding, or the hamster needs cleaning...... I JUST WANT TO DO IT ALL!

But I can't, and so I wait. Wait to feel better, and just let my body do what it needs to do to get back to 'normal'!

It's Mother's Day tomorrow! I thought I might make it over to my inlaws but I don't think that is on the cards now. I think I will postpone the day until next week when hopefully I can celebrate more fully?

Happy Mothers Day to all. Have a blessed day with your families.

It's over....

the nasal surgery that is! Thought I'd write a quick update on here while I am now incapacitated and resting my head tonight!

I had my nasal surgery done on Tuesday morning, and everything went well. I stayed overnight at the hospital which was nice mainly for Jason so he didn't have to worry about me once I was home. My nose bled for a few hours afterwards, but nothing serious. It's just nice that he didn't have to deal with seeing all that, and the staff had me on antiobotics and fluids etc throughout the night. It was nice for me too to be honest, just letting someone look after 'you' for a change and not worrying about what's for dinner, or if Kiki has done her homework etc! I really needed the rest afterwards.

The hospital was lovely, brand new building, I had my own room, and for meals they gave you a menu and told you to just order when you wanted something... it was like room service :-) I stayed in bed all afternoon, had my meals brought to me, stayed up late watching tv, hee hee, it felt like a mini vacation! I came home yesterday afternoon, feeling a little week and a little sore in my nose, but much better than I thought I would.

This morning I managed to get up as normal, take Kristen to school, then headed off to see my ENT again at his office, because he had to remove the splints from my nose! This was what I thought was going to be the painful part, but thankfully it wasn't half as bad as I had expected. From his office I thought I would head to the grocerie store and get a bit of fresh fruit in and some other stuff. It was half way around the store that I realized I might be doing too much too soon. I just started moving slower, and it was harder to focus my head. I think it is the swelling that is causing that feeling. You just don't realize you are all swollen up there when you have no bruising to show for it.

So I get home, slowly put the groceries away, then decide to 'slowly' unload the dishwasher, then finally realize I NEED to sit down and rest!! By the time I had to head out to pick Kristen up my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool. It's steadily got worse over the afternoon, so now I've confined myself to bed, with my head layed back on the pillows and I'm typing this on the laptop.

Why do we always do too much too soon? I guess I just didn't realize I needed to take it so easy. But now I know I should.

So that's my little update for tonight. I feel ok, just overdoing things has made me a bit light heaed so I shall rest... rest... rest.

Until next time.........

Busy in the Backyard!

Yes, I know it's been forever since I updated in here, and that's partly due to the fact the weather has been so nice lately that we've started making the effort to get outside and clear up our back yard. Remember last year when Jason tried his hand at growing veggies but the organic soil we bought was no good.... well the beds just went to waste and Jason lost all interest in doing anything out there.

Until a few weeks ago. We found a local gardener on line that specialized in helping suburbia bring a little farming to thier back yards. We had his crew come out and clean up all the veggie beds for us and re-do the sprinkler system so the beds and fruit trees get watered better.

Here's a few photos of the changes so far.... this first picture is taken from the upstairs gameroom (through the closed window). You can see the beds are all full of weeds, and look, we even have fence panels that have fallen down from the high winds we had!


next picture.... here are the beds, all cleared out with mulch in between them now, so it's not so muddy to walk on out there after we've had rain. The two beds at the top right have had hay put on them, this will keep the soil moist and stop the weeds from growing up and I've already planted some tomato plants and peppers in there that I bought from the store. You can see the other bales of hay that we haven't used yet. We won't need to use them until the seeds we've planted start growing.

below is just another view of the beds....

Over the weekend Kristen and I painted some cute signs for the veggies. I told Jason I need to make it look as inviting as possible otherwise I'll lose interest in going out there!

So that's what we've been busy doing over the past couple of weekends. Yesterday we also added plants and mulch to the flower beds out back. I'll take pictures of that later this week.

Tomorrow is my pending 'nasal surgery'. I just went to the hospital this morning to get blood work taken, and I also had to have a chest xray and an EKG! Everything looks good and my surgery is at 9.30am. I'll update how I am as soon as I can, but it may not be until the end of the week. Until next time...

Nenna! I will try to update soon, promise! I have my surgery Tuesday morning, so will try to catch up with stuff tomorrow.

xxxxx

ENT update!

One thing I hadn't mentioned in my last two posts was that last week I went back to the ENT about my allergies. I wasn't due to see him until April 20th, but over a week ago my ears started blocking up again with a lot of pressure inside, and I knew it was only a matter of time before my sinus problems flared up again. To be honest they had never completely gone away, but they were bearable, until the 'ear problem'.

I've decided it's time to say 'yes' to the nasal surgery to remove the polyps and fix the deviated septum. Once this is done I stand a better chance of keeping my allergies under control. The main problem I have is the mucus always gets infected because it can't drain properly with my nose always so blocked. That is exactly what is happening again this week. Over the past few days I've had a sore dry throat which I put down to allergies yet again (but which I'm never really sure about, cos it could be a cold too?) and I'm getting more congested. Now my face and cheekbones hurt because I know I'm getting a sinus infection again.

The annoying thing is, last week the ENT gave me a 5 day course of antibiotics, and yet once again they seem to have done nothing. Nothing except keep me awake til all hours of the morning. The night before last I was still lying awake at 4.15am. I felt like I'd drank a full pot of coffee and my eyes were just wide open all night, that plus my very sore throat just made for a miserable night for me.

Last night I didn't take the antibiotic (which by the way is 750mg of Levaquin) because I really needed to get some sleep. I checked online about Levaquin and they have a website. It does mention that insomnia can be a side effect. The strange thing is I was taking this drug for a month before and it didn't affect me like this. That dose was only 500mg though, so that could be the reason why. I have one more pill to take and I'm worried about doing so if it means I'll be up all night again? I'm thinking of taking it early this morning and see if that makes a difference.

So that's the up to date stuff on me. On a lighter note I've been playing around with a new website - check out THE COOKING DEN :-)

I decided that I would keep all the recipes I share with you on one main site. That way you can see at a glance the recipes I've made whenever you want, instead of searching through my archives. This is a good thing for me too because I actually forget about half of the recipes I've tried, then I come across them a few months later and I think "oh, it's been a while since I made that" or sometimes even "ooh I totally forgot I ever made that!" Anyway, right now it's only got a couple of the recipes on it from previous posts. I'll work on getting other ones on there as soon as I can. I will mention any new updates on here and give the link out again whenever I do so. Today I plan on making some pea and ham soup with my left over Easter ham, so check the website later for an update.

Today I might also try to get more mulch for the front yard and a couple of climbing plants to put near the posts out front. That will give me pictures to share with you in a day or so :-)

Field Trip

Last Thursday Kristen had a field trip at school. This year they all went to the Austin Zoo, and surprise surprise... I decided to go with them! I didn't get to post pics last week because I got side-tracked with the easter pictures. So, here's a few photos to share with you....

Kristen's favorite part of the day was seeing the wolves! I don't know what it is about them, but they fascinate her. She comes home every week with a book from the school library all about wolves, and loves to sit and read about them.

The rest of the pics are self-explanatory