My Walkabouts...

This silly little thing is the pedometer I've been carrying in my pockets for years now.  It's part of a program through my company where you can earn rewards for certain milestones. It gives me a idea of how many steps I take in a given day.  There's a iPhone app that goes with it too and I upload my steps each night.

As of this morning I've walked (at least) 7000 steps each day for 104 straight days in a row!  All of them include at 2+ mile walk each of the 104 days, and in many cases, e.g. weekends, so many more steps from working in the yard.

It's made a noticeable difference to me - I've dropped some weight.  I feel better and I have more stamina.

Out Of This World Good!

We're having another good year for our California Wonder Peppers.

I planted just (4) plants but they have oodles and oodles of peppers on them!  We had some super BIG peppers out there, both red and green, that I picked yesterday afternoon.  Although, our tomatoes aren't the biggest, we did have several, so I picked them too.  JoAnne made the Greek rice stuffing my mom used to make and stuffed all eleven peppers and tomatoes AND THEY WERE DELICIOUS!

Already, looking forward to leftovers for tonight's dinner!

She Was A Peach!

Well hello there!

I was VERY surprised to see that this adult woodchuck got caught in my trap, HA!

This is the one that resided under the neighbors shed.  I'd often see her out there sneaking out for a snack and if I scared her off, she return to the shed and just before skootching under she'd flip me the bird, honest.

So, it was VERY bitter sweet that she fell victim to fresh peaches and a perfectly placed trap.

Here she is showing her displeasure and attempting to give me a scare with those chatter teeth.  I know better and wasn't having any of it -

I Recon So!

Not Garden Friendly, Shoo

I call them grasshoppers.  This particular fella is a Black and White Grizzly Locust.

My farmer friend will squash them whenever he has the chance.

Grasshoppers can decimate your garden. They eat around 50% of their weight every single day. No matter where they are in their life cycle, they'll chew away at both the stems and leaves of plants in your garden. If left unchecked, this damage can become severe, leaving your entire garden without leaves, unable to grow.

My chickens love grasshoppers.  Turns out they like Black and White Grizzly Locust too!

Simply The Bestest!!

I picked our first batch of Silver Queen corn the other day!  Boy-O-Boy were they delicious, my favorites by far!

There's more to pick and more coming in, so we'll have corn fresh, home grown corn coming in for a couple weeks now.

I Thought Unique But Diseased...

From what I've been able to determine some of our echinaceas, more so the Purple Coneflower but some Black-eyed Susan's too, have a disease called "Aster Yellows". 

Aster yellows is a viral-like disease caused by a phytoplasma (formerly called a mycoplasma-like organism). Insects that suck the sap of plants, especially the aster leafhopper.  There is no cure, treatment, pesticide or insecticide, to control aster yellows. That's why early diagnosis is crucial. Promptly remove any infected plants from your garden and dispose of them so no more aster leafhoppers can feed on them and spread the disease further.

Reluctantly, I've been pulled the affected plants and putting them in the trash, versus compost, to ensure they're gone so not to infect our others coneflowers.

Our Tax Dollars Hard At Work II!

Here is another example of how our Franklin tax dollars are being spent on shoddy workmanship.

The town is getting our schools ready for opening day.  There's been a bustle of activity at the elementary\middle school just down the street, bot inside and out - weeding, edging, mulching, pruning, mowing, etc., right down to fresh white paint in the parking lots.

As you've seen in previous postings, and in my opinion, the town of Franklin Ground division does a poor job in general. I could go on with example after example but why, clearly by the workmanship shown, the folks who run the town certainly are not bothered by any it.

Here is a good example below.  WHY, would you have the parking lot repainted without first properly prepping?  WHY, if you worked for the painting company, would you let your team paint over weeds?  WHY was there no one checking the work being done, especially the town and before paying for shoddy services rendered?!

Also, as you can see in a couple pictures, the parking lots actually should have the numerous cracks sealed BEFORE painting the lines and BEFORE the winter hits making a bigger issue when it freezes and thaws, freezes and thaws...

Peachy Peachy!

Our peach tree is loaded with peaches.

The tree was planted by the previous home owners, so it's over 20+ years old now.  It had some sort of fungus when we moved in and it's only gotten worse over the years, slowly killing it.  I've been pruning the dead limbs each fall for the past several years, so there's really not too much left.  The peaches are super tasty but they too have something going on with them - they have, what I'd call, rust spots on them with some oozing sap.  Although, there is a lot of fruit hanging, sadly not too much is edible.

Our last rabbit, Jack, loved this time of the year and gobbled the peaches as fast as you could put them in his cage.  Even some of the chickens we've had in the past would enjoy them but not the ones we have now.  I swear these chickens we have now are like many kids today; fussy, entitled and spoiled, and want noting to do with peaches.

So, the wild rabbits and woodchucks eat their share but all others that fall end up in the compost pile.

I've been contemplating cutting the tree down, so I can reclaim that area and possibly have a shed installed.  This fall just might the time...

Toad - Anaxyrus americanus

Here are a couple pics of  American Toads.

The first one I named Henri after the recent hurricane scare.  I caught him on the eve of the storm as I was rushing to get the lawn mowed.  He got to spend some time and have quite the photo shoot with Emilie before being released in the pool area.  Hoping he continues to keep the slugs and ants in check.

This little fella I named Splat.  I spied him on my walk the other morning, contently sitting in the road.  I firmly believe had I not happened by and spotted him, he would have fallen victim to some vehicle.  A couple quick pics and I moved him safely away from the road.

I would have brought him home but was too far from home and didn't think he'd appreciate being carried for a half hour in a sticky and sweaty palm.

Unmentionables Used To Predict GW!

There you have it, proof of global warming!  It's hard to argue with this evidence...

Blue on Blue

We have (5) Hydrangea bushes and, frustratingly, only get flowers from two of them. One of the two is flowering for a second time this season, which is unusual, for our plants anyway but of course welcome.

Although, the weather has been very hot and humid, the mornings have been beautiful.

Shhh, be Vewy Vewy Qwiet, I'm Hunting Wabbits

I thought word in the local woods here was to stay out of Stephan's garden, however, youngsters just don't want to listen.  They think they know it all, pfft

Well, this littl'n learned the hard way and got a very stern talking to!

So darn cute, I must admit.  Actually, I miss raising rabbits, they were a lot of fun.

This newbie wasn't a fan of being held but eventually calmed down and was fine.  Emilie got to hold and spend some time oohing and aahing over it. No surprise she wanted to keep it but NOPE, as much as I miss it, as stated above, I have no desire to get back into that business.

We released in the backyard, near where I caught it, with a heaty warning to stick to the clover and grass only, NO veggies or flowers.

Finders Keepers

I found this lovely Elle 925 necklace on my walk the other morning!

According to Mr. Google, it's worth about $150.00!

One Christmas present out of the way, HAHAHA.

Faces Needed...

This is how I tested a new video conference feature being released referred to as Neat Symmetry.

Neat Symmetry combines advanced AI with a high-resolution sensor to detect everyone in the meeting room, zooming in to individually pinpoint and auto frame each person, then presenting them up close on remote participants screens.

Since there are very few folks in the office I had to improvise, and these photos of characters from The Office worked pretty well.  The new technology, although still in beta, is pretty darn cool!

Listen to Burgess!

Mickey Goldmill wouldn't steer you wrong...