Okra

This year has been the first attempt at doing a Florida garden for us and we have learned a lot. My husband being from North Carolina has dealt with farming and he thought it would be a peace of cake. Well, we found out that gardening in Florida is very hard. We started back in February with Lima beans, corn, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cantaloupe, watermelon, and cucumbers. We had a nice variety of fruits and vegetables and big plans for rotating crops and having year round veggies.

Our garden had different plans in mind. We were so excited when the Lima beans came in and we picked a few. When I say "a few" it means just "a few". Not nearly enough to make a side dish for a family of five. But, still it was exciting to see our plants flower and grow. Our plants were growing great, we got a few cucumbers and a little bit of corn that seemed to not grow to its full potential ,yet, we ate it and it was good. Then the Florida heat hit, and it hit our garden hard.

We soon realized we were not giving it enough water and everything was dying. It was dying fast. We tried everything to save it but we ended up starting another round of planting. What a mistake!!! It was not long, before our garden was invested with beetles and little black tiny bugs. Our garden even was gathering a fungus from us watering it to close to dark. So we learned. After the defeat of our second round, we also learned not to try and grow anything in Florida during May, June, & July because the bugs will get you every time.

There is one battle we did win. Our Aunt Elaine and Uncle Fred bought us two earth boxes as gifts when we started our new endeavors of gardening. They are the coolest things. We vow to only use earth boxes from now on. Our last planting was Okra and we were very worried about loosing it because it was right next to the corn that the beetles just ravaged completely. I guess the beetles are picky about what they eat, because they did not touch the okra. We have had four batches of okra so far and it is still producing so strong. We feared we would loose it in Fay because of the winds. It did lean some after the storm was gone, but it was not long before it perked up again.

After studying some Florida gardening books and learning a little from our own failures; we are getting ready to rise to a new challenge. We plan on starting another round of planting in late September and hope that it gives us a lot of produce for the winter. We have already agreed to plant even more okra, if our other plants don't survive, we know we will be bountiful in okra. Be on the lookout for our garden shots in a few months. Well, I have to go and cook dinner. We are grilling out London broil and making some fried okra. YUMMY!!!

Our Weekend Project

This weekend we had a major project to do. We ended up with some water damage in our front office because of that darn Fay. It was nothing to major, just soaked carpets and a little water hit our bookshelves that were closest to the window. We think the wind was so strong it just caused the rain to get through the tracks on the window.

Have I told you all that I am married to the most amazing man in the whole world. Well, I am. My husband moved all the office furniture out, including two whole walls of bookshelves, ripped up soaking wet carpet, and tiled the office in just two days. By Monday evening he had the office back together. I don't think I mentioned that he had never laid tile before. It looks amazing and now I never have to worry about wet carpet again.

I am so proud of Mike, he is the type of man that knows a little about a lot of things and can usually figure things out on his own. He is my handyman in many ways.

Everything is going good so far this week. We are a little on the busy side, Mike getting caught up with his pool customers after Fay's fiasco last week and I am getting ready to start schooling the day after Labor Day. Hopefully things will start slowing down for us to breathe a little easier. Our two older kids birthdays are coming up in two weeks so we are getting ready to celebrate two very special dates.

Oh, and our house guest have not moved out yet, and have not visited our special welcome mats left out for them. We still have no clue what they are but we are guessing they are probably rats. YUK!!! Our friend Rich came over and gave a sweep of the attic and to our surprise there was no evidence of any animal activity up there. We had two mornings where there were no parties and we thought we had them but traps were empty and the next morning they were celebrating something. They are probably up there laughing at us. It reminds me of the kids movie "Mousehunt". Can they possibly be that smart? I will keep you posted.

Surviving the Storm

Well, we made it through this minor Tropical Storm named Fay. She ended up being a little tougher than expected and lingered for a very long time. No pictures to share of this event, but I am sure everyone has seen enough on the news. Even though Fay is still just North of us; today is the actual first day of a little sun peeking through the clouds. We are being promised more rain to come and I am not sure how some parts of the county can take any more of it. I am venturing out East today with Monica, to go to the mall to get tires on her car and I am sure we will see all that flooding. Hopefully we will not float away. I hope the mall is still there! I will see if I can't get some cool shots to share.

Even though we got minimal water damage in our office on the front of our house from the wind and rain we do have a major catastrophe in our life right now. I need lots of prayer from all who read this...It has been about a week now and I don't know if I can take it much longer. Every morning around 5:00 a.m. I am awoken and am unable to go back to sleep. We have guest staying in our attic and they seem to be partying it up till day break. Don't know who they are yet, but we left some welcoming mats out last night and we are hoping to meet them soon. I AM SO TIRED!!!

Ashley needs a sister

Well, I have to say I was a little surprised when my 6 year old boy came in the office the other night looking as pretty as he can be. Yes, PRETTY!!! My 11 year old daughter decided to play dress up with my youngest. Now, I am very surprised she was able to get him to participate and I really do fear that he may have enjoyed it to much.

Make up, dress, and purse in hand he was quite proud to display himself to me. I could not pass up the moment to ask him to pose for a picture, which he did with glee. I guess we should have kept the dog that Ashley use to dress up all the time (Minus the make-up) praise the Lord. Now that there is no more dog to dress I guess the next choice is naturally the younger brother.

Just thought I would share.