Thank You For Your Prayers & God Bless The Children

This storm started just outside of where my son works, it was heading directly for the area where we live, when it changed course, and hit the town about 5 minutes from our home.  We didn’t get any damage and we all are okay, thank God.  I ended up in our linen closet on the floor with our dogs while my husband and son were at work.  Thank you all for your prayers, we are safe and we have a home still planted in the ground. 

Please pray for those families who lost loved ones and have no homes. 

My heart goes out to all those little elementary school children who lost their lives inside of the school. 

The city of Moore is just devastated, our family will be going out to help families with their homes destroyed by cutting wood, locating personal property, and cleaning up. 

Tornadoes on the Ground

Folks please pray for us again, massive tornadoes on the ground.

Again in Norman, heading toward Moore and now toward Highway.  It’s massive.  Take cover!!!!!!!!!!

We Bugged Out Tornado On Top Of Us

Tornado over our house, we had 2 minutes and we bugged out.  Hit the road heading south about 45 minutes away from our home waited for all to pass.  We returned to the house, the house is standing and okay.  Some tree branches twisted, broken and fence messed up a little bit.   

Tornado on Ground - Garden - Give Away

Last night we hunkered down, had all kinds of thunderstorms and extreme winds.  The animals were very nervous, pacing the floors and panting terribly, for hours.   I was worried about Bug possibly having a heart attack; I couldn’t calm her down for anything.   The weather crew here has placed several counties under a tornado watch; the winds are starting to pick up and we’re to expect severe thunderstorms again.  I’m sending prayers to all of my friends in Arkansas, Kansas, and Northeast Oklahoma because it looks as if the weather is heading your direction. 

 ******UPDATE Large Tornado on the ground in Edmond and Luther, OK, possible F1 & 2 right now****** 

Update (2) Violent tornado possible F4 on the ground in Lincoln County area be careful folks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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My garden beds are looking washed out a bit.  Some of the seeds have drifted together with all the rain we’ve been having.  If the seeds/plants survive, I will thin them out and hope to have so type of vegetable to harvest in the next few weeks. 

 

 

 

 

I’ve also noticed the aphids have started eating at my sweet potatoes and luffa plants.  It was time to mix up my natural bug killer and spray these plants down. 

 

How are your vegetable gardens coming along?  Is the weather causing chaos in your area?

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In the next several days, I will be posting another interesting give – away.  Keep checking in to find out what I will be giving away next J

Weather - Garden Sprouting - Dog - Security Light

A beautiful day today, temperatures peaked at 88 degrees.  My broccoli, kale, golden beets, lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, collards, and wild strawberries are all sprouting (several pictures below). Several sprouts were too small to take a picture. When they’re larger, I’ll take pictures and post them to the blog.  Now my concern; temperatures are rising, will I have a successful garden with the increase in the temperatures?  How is your garden handling the change of the weather?

 

 

Arugula

Kale

Broccoli, waiting for more growth before weeding out the week sprouts
 

Blueberry plant growing this year.

My Chandler strawberries are a hit, when the family passes by and they see a ripe strawberry there’s no hope it will be there for harvest.  Here’s what was left on the vines for harvest after a few family members targeted the vines for a snack.

What is left.

Bug loves going inside the gated garden area just to be next to Mom while working in the garden. 



Bug In My Garden Areas

Bulldog Man installed a light on the end of the house over by our trucks.  The house we’re renting doesn’t have power running outside, so we selected a solar powered motion sensor light to install for extra security.

 



Enough Said!

Rated 4 Paws

Today was one of those days I pretty much stayed inside because of the weather. I’m hoping the rain didn’t wash out my garden beds.  More rain to come later this evening. While inside, I made up a shopping list and cut coupons for tomorrow’s grocery run into town. 

I made some homemade bread to go with our chicken, for dinner tonight. 

 

 

I also made a homemade peach cobbler, one of Bulldog Man’s favorite desserts.  I’ve provided the recipe below for your convenience.  Bulldog Man rates the cobbler with 4 sticky paws J 

Peach Cobbler

½ cup melted butter (place in bottom of 9X13 pan)

                                                       Batter

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2/3 cup room temperature milk

1 room temperature egg

Mix batter well, and then pour batter on top of melted butter in pan

 

Filling

1 (28 ounce) cans sliced peaches, drained (I used 28 ounces frozen peaches)

1 cup sugar

1teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

Mix filling well, then spoon over batter – DO NOT STIR!!!!

Bake 35 – 45 minutes at 350 degrees or until batter comes to the top and is golden brown.

 

Great recipe by: Suellen Anderson

Experiment - Tomatoes - Roses

Today, I took advantage of the sunshine.  I decided to throw my good pillows off the couch and into the wash machine on the hand wash cycle, and selected the extra wringer cycle.  Now I usually wash the surface of these pillows by hand.  Because the dogs decided to lounge on top of the couch, and use the pillows as their own personal pillows, I refused to wash them by hand; they needed a really good wash.  As an experiment, and keeping my fingers crossed, they went into the wash machine.  I was hoping they wouldn’t come apart in the washer.  When I pulled them out after the wash was finished, they came out in one piece.  Instead of drying them in the dryer, I placed them outside to dry on a chair and turned them constantly throughout the day.  Now they look brand new and smell nice and clean, not like dog.

 

 

 

 

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Monday, I planted my seeds in the above ground boxes and today, I have a Dad’s Sunset tomato, and a Roma tomato heirloom plant popping out of the soil. 

Dad's Sunset large orange type tomato

 

Roma tomato

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The rose bush along side of the bathroom window has started flowering.  Without exaggeration, there are over 100 buds waiting to bloom.  The landlord planted this bush, I’m not sure of the type of roses they are.  Maybe it is a Knockout rose bush?

 

 

Time To Start Planting

Finally, no snow, frost, or major storms, we have a beautiful spring day.  And now it looks as if our days of below 30 degrees are over for now. 

Some of the garden beds were made ready for planting after placing additional peat moss and compost.  Bulldog Man and I measured out each of garden beds and placed twine to make equal segments for planting.  This was completed on two boxes and the third, we just used the shovel because we really only planted 4 tomato plants in each corner of the garden box. 

I was able to plant Swiss chard, carrots, onions, golden beets, arugula, eggplant, spinach, parsnips, fennel, broccoli, atomic carrots, kale, red beets, strawberries, tomatoes (Brandy Wine, Red Cherry, Cherokee Purple, Purple Russian, and Dad’s Sweet), Albino Bullnose peppers, Sweet Chocolate Peppers, lettuce (Big Boston, Red Romaine, Winter Density), cauliflower, collards, and marigolds (a good bug deterrent).

This was just the start of my planting; I have more to plant in-ground and in pots within the next several weeks. 

One box planted tomatoes in every corner

Finished planting seeds

Seeds all planted

While I was planting seeds, Bulldog Man was making a cover with bird netting to cover my container strawberries and peppermint, to keep the birds from eating the fruit.

He also put together a steel mesh deck wagon for me and surprised me with it.  This wagon will come in handy when pulling bags of peat moss, pots or anything heavy on the property; it will hold 1,000 pounds. 

  

Have you been able to plant in your garden or has the weather prevented you from doing so?   

Best Garden Advice Is Free

I recently found this neat website called the Gardeners Supply Company that provides help with planning your garden layout; and best of all, it’s free.  The site gives you an option to plan your own garden, or you can use one of their preplanned gardens already setup.

This site also provides advice about indoor and outdoor gardening, pests, composting, landscaping, and backyard habitat. 

There is also several reference directories and encyclopedias to assist with your garden needs. 

Check it out; I think you’ll enjoy using it as a reference to better assist you with your gardening.

Gardeners Supply Company

Grrrrrrrrr...........

Another storm is working its way toward us tonight.  It is expected to hit us soon.  While in town, I took several pictures of the clouds rolling in, for several of my Blogger friends Kymber, Jambaloney, and Helga up in Canada. 

While in town today the clouds starting building.

This storm is supposed to give us heavy rain, heavy wind, thunder, lightning, hail, potential tornadoes and possible snow.  Now let me rephrase potential tornadoes because one was sighted about 1 ½ hours ago just about 2 miles from our home.  It came down out of the clouds but decided it didn’t want to touch land, thank God!!!

Since the weather is going to be crappy again, Bulldog Man and I pulled in all of our strawberry plants and hanging flower baskets to prevent them from freezing, and we covered up what was planted in the ground. 

 

Started bring plants in and bringing them in the kitchen.

 

 

I guess the next several days I will be doing chores inside the house.

 

What have you planted lately?

Join - Welcome - Thank You - I'll Be Back!!!

Welcome and thank you Joe Kidd for joining my blog please sit back and enjoy the ride.  By the way, I love the picture of the mountains on your face page.

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The garden has me busy today, I will be back to post tomorrow. 

 

******Winner Announced******

A big CONGRATULATIONS goes out to Gail !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gail was selected the winner of the KA – BAR the Hobo Outdoor Diner Set. 

The winner has been notified and has until Thursday,

May 2^nd, to respond to me with a mailing address.

If the winner does not respond by

May 2nd; I will have no choice but to select another winner.

 

Gail please e-mail me with your mailing address.

My E-mail is: SandyLivesay@gmail.com

 

Join - Welcome - Thank You - Give - Away

 

I would like to start my post today by welcoming a new blogger to my blog. 

Welcome Rachael Eliker at THE REHOMESTEADERS Blog.
Thank you for joining my blog, please sit back and enjoy the ride.

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Today is the last day to register for the KA-Bar give – away.  Please go here to register.

 

 

 

 

Pic Source: Wallpapersfreedesktop.com

Priceless

This picture was forwarded to me by my In-Laws.  I thought it was funny,  and wanted to share it with you.

Spring Is Finally Here - Gardening

The weather finally started to feel like spring without the low temperatures, winds, thunder, lightning, rain, freeze, tornadoes, and hail.  It was beautiful today, temperatures peaked around 72 degrees, the sun was out, and there was a nice breeze.  So beautiful, I spent most of the afternoon out in the garden. 

Several of the garden boxes were prepped before winter initially started.  I cleared out all the old vegetable plants, placed new compost, and covered each bed with straw.

Now that the temperatures are truly conducive to working outside, it really feels like spring, I found myself outside working on the above ground garden beds. 

I pulled out all the straw, including the areas that started growing, placed all the dry straw in a container to reuse elsewhere, and discarded the wet straw.  Then I moved to setting up my tires for potato growing.  I laid down the news papers, placed one set of tires over each newspaper, placed a layer of compost in the center of the tire, placed my potato seed pieces (regular and sweet), covered each tire center with straw, placed another tire on top of the first and then watered each since finished. In several weeks I should see potato vines poking out of the straw; at that point I will need to place more straw to cover the vine while the potatoes continue to grow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Random Spring pictures: