I need a Man!

I came to the conclusion yesterday that I need a husband. All my life I prided myself in the fact that a single woman could do anything (well, maybe just about anything, as I CAN't fix the car!). My sisters are so spoiled, and I remind them of that whenever they yell for their husbands to come and do something for them.

But yesterday, I faced the fact that I needed one of those things called a husband. You see, I was in Walmart. I pushed my cart to the Garden Center and thought while I was there, I would put a few bags of dirt in the back of the car. No use coming home with an empty back when I still needed to fill some pots. I didn't see the usual check out counter there by the exit, so I asked the guy working there by the dirt bags, "How do you do the dirt thing?" In a very crabby voice, he said, "You put the dirt in your cart and to to the check out, Mam!!!!" And he turned away and never offered to help me lift those suckers or put them in my car for me. For the very first time in my life, I wanted to call him something very nasty. I walked away feeling horrible with myself for feeling that way, mad because I had no dirt (there was no way I could lift those bags into a grocery cart and then lift them out into the car), and I sort of felt old and disabled to some degree. I just couldn't believe that this guy wouldn't help me!!!! So no dirt yesterday!

I did go to one of those "preppie" you-pick farms on Saturday and bought a grocery bag full of chicken poop. Can you believe $5.00 for a shovel full of poop????? It would be worth raising chickens just for that!!!!!! But, we wanted it so we got it!
At first, it was going to be poop tea bags to make the manure tea. But then, the whole bag got wrapped into an old tee shirt and sunk into a big bucket of water to soak and steep for a while. Last night I got a sprinking can full of that smelly stuff and gave my plants a good, healthy swig of that "gold" and said goodnight to them all. I wonder if they will all be dead this morning?????

My zucchinni squash plants are all blooming profusely. Since I have seen no bees at all, I took a Q-tip and tried the self-pollinating thing. Went around twice to each flower, hoping there were male and female flowers in the bunch and that each got pollinated right. I'll have to do it again today, as there are more flowers opening.

Today. . . . I guess I go back to Lowes for my dirt. And then I'm done til fall.

A New Start!

I can't believe that it has been a year since I finished my radiation treatments for breast cancer. Time just flies. I have been feeling so much better as time goes on --- I didn't even realize that that I WASN'T feeling that great before all of this. No big news ---- and that's a wonderful thing to me. Every six weeks I have to have the port flushed out, and every 3 months I see the oncologist. Saw him last week and everything was just fine. And so far, I've lost about 42 pounds since July (about 65 total since I began the cancer journey). I finally settled into the diet thing as I knew it just had to be. I stopped kicking and screaming and just sucked it up!

My only hard thing was trying to get back into some sort of "normal life" -- moving on -- or "finding a life" -- whatever you want to call it. It was to the point that I didn't even know what to write about here on a blog. Every day seemed a little boring and just the same old routines. . . . Until . . . .

My sister started putting in her garden a few weeks ago. At first, I thought it was something I didn't want to do. I've been there, did that, didn't work, etc., etc. Besides, I didn't really know if I had the strength to do all that was involved, as I would be starting from scratch. But then I couldn't stand it any longer. I still had my earth boxes from years ago, and thought i would just do those 5 earth boxes. How hard could it be to fill them with dirt and plant some tomatoes????

So the week of March 15th or so, I went out and bought my dirt, my tomato plants and started. . . . . . And it hasn't stopped. I'm obsessed!!!!!

I saw somewhere on the internet about these "grow bags." Have you seen them?? They come in several sizes, small ones for strawberries, etc., medium sized for tomatoes, and the large sacks for potatoes, etc. They are a plastic type material and sell for about $20.00. So. . . . one day I was in Staples, and they had their reusable shopping bags at the counter for $1.00 and I grabbed up 10 of them. Filled them with dirt, planted my peppers, eggplant, sage, cabbage, etc., in those. By the way, Joann's has really nice green ones for $1.00. I have some of those, too.

My favorite planters were these styrofoam ones that look like old whiskey barrels. I put those back into use with string beans and yellow squash. I ran out of pots.
Don't laugh, but I went out and bought a bunch of styofoam cooler chests with the lids, punched holes in the bottoms, and put those to use, too. So now I have EVERYTHING growing.

My zuchinni already has tons of blossoms, my tomatoes and peppers have blossoms, beans are started to climb and cucumbers are on their way. Winter squash is planted, and I'm stocked up on seeds for my fall garden.

Have any of you ever done the straw bale gardening????? I am so intrigued with it. You can read up on it here.

http://www.strawbalegardens.com/

I just don't know if it's worth the price of the straw bales, as you have to get new ones every year, and I'm not sure I can carry the bales!!!!!! But it would be wonderful not to have to bend when you garden!!!!

The best part of all of this is how it has made me feel. I feel now that life has moved on for me, that I am once again able to do something that I thought I couldn't. Lugging those bags of dirt isn't easy, but I did it, and just that makes me feel just great!!!! I may never get a tomato or a pepper, but it was really a good feeling to know I could at least try!