Planting the Garden 2014: Tomatoes & Peaches

                Dog Days already?

                 Can dogs tan? ;p

Welcome! How's YOUR weather! It's routinly hitting the 90's. Chris & I knew it was almost past time to plant our garden ASAP or forgo it two years running. 

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But first, I HAVE to show you our peach tree! It's looks like we may actually get our first handful (or more!) of peaches! Here, check it out! :)

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As a sort of Mother's Day gift Chris took me to pick out tomato plants! So, on Sunday evening (5/10/14), by twilight and head lanterns, Chris planted & trellised five plants in the garden. I planted four container style varieties also. :) Nine plants! Yes, nine! I like to go for variety-a few slicing, canning, cherry/grape tomatoes, and a color variety. Here they are:

1.) Containers:

*Husky Cherry Red" *to be replanted to a large pot ASAP.

Right to left: Bush Goliath, Patio, and Bush Early Girl. Just lacking another Biiig pot for Husky Cherry and to two trellises.

3.) Tomato Garden: 

*the cinder bloc holes get filled with flowers and herbs. :)

*Atkinson

*Early Girl

*Herloom Rutgers

*Golden Jubilee.

-- Missing from photos is our Better Boy plant. :) 

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The rest of our gardening plans are cukes -for bread & butter pickles- plus and a few of the burpless slicing variety. The last garden will go to my very favorite fresh steamed veggie- thin,stringless green beans. Sort of like French green beans. These will be vacuume packed & frozen No real photos until their trellises go up. But, here are the gardens themselves. 

Our original sf garden had given up the ghost. The wood frame will be replaced with a quick & hearty cinder bloc retaining wall. Here is a comparison. On the right is the new cinderboc style and left is original weather resistant garden:

They'll get spruced up & planted real soon!! 

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A note to all my faithful readers, I love blogging and I especially enjoy knowing people out there are reading. But, this blog is going to serve as a big of a weekly post-card from the Kennedy house. So, let's say by Tuesday evenings I will have a new post every week. Hoping to keep things short & sweet. :) 

For my side, please leave me comments! I love hearing from you. There are security measures so you won't get spam or "boted". Please? I should have the comment feature up in the next few days. :)

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And now for recent pet photos!

*I woke up to THIS one morning...

Love to All! Don't forget your sunscreen! 

Hello 2014!

Just dropping in to say we're still here! Our Holidays were very low key, not many photos or much to tell. :-) I've got a few fun things to share, but 3 am is a little early. Talk to you soon!

Our memorial ornament for Buck :)

Chris opening Christmas loot!!!

Hunter couldn't make it through Christmas. :)

We discovered that Lana is a doppelgänger for Olive, the other Reindeer! 

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0227173/ 

Ok, see y'all soon!

Deck the Halls!

The Real Reason for the Season

Merry Christmas! We've made it! It's the Christmas Season! My love & excitement haven't lessened since childhood. :) 

I'm not into marathon sale shopping ( I <3 Amazon!), crafting fests, or even much cooking or baking. Slice & bake for me please! I love enjoying hot cider or cocoa, watching my beloved Holiday movies, listening to Christmas music, and CHRISTMAS LIGHTS! 

The Galaxy of Lights is my Mecca. I love, love, LOVE! the magic and fun of the whole trail. We took Buck to the Dog Walk Night every year, but missed this year due to inclement weather (steady rain & 24 degrees...) and felt Miss Lana might not be up for the walk.

Me & Buck at the Galaxy of Lights

I must have every possible second of available Christmas! All decorations, well house lights & tree, MUST be up by Thanksgiving Day. I guess it's lucky we don't do TOO much decorating! :) So here you go!

A small tree in our bedroom. Very pretty. :)

Our (messy) mantle

"A Christmas Story" Village

A spare icicle strand fashioned into a bay window swag. 

Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree

Talking Rudolf & Clarice. See Rudolf's nose is lit? Clarice has a heart that glows also.

And the TREE!!! I love sitting in the living with just the tree lit and Christmas music playin softly. :)

View from entryway and living room

View from the kitchen & dining room

And of course there are the house lights!

I hope you & yours are looking forward to a happy Christmas Season together. :)

Settling in With Lana :)

This had been a big week for us all, with Little Miss Lana in our home. We love love love her! It's fun to see her come out of her shell and trust us more and more every day!

Well Baby Vet Visit: Monday Lana saw the vet, and aside from a case of ear mites that's a common ailment in floppy eared pups, she's a picture of health! One big shocker though! We were told Lana was about 2-2.5 yrs old, but Dr Chancellor said he's put her age at barely a year old! Wow! Our Little Miss Lana is a very accurate nickname. :) 

Potty Training: We were  told Lana May or May not be housebroken, but any big move can confuse any dog. She only had about  3 accidents and first she needed a short walk to go potty. We've advanced to going potty in the yard, but she doesn't want to be alone.

Back Yard Ambivalence!: Lana loooves playing in the yard and sniffing all around. :) But, as of now she's hesitant to be outside alone. I get it- new place, anxiety separation, etc. She just needs time and we can phase her out alone with incrementally larger time periods.

"Why no chase kitty?" "Dog! She'll kill us all!!":

It seems Lana and the cats are getting more comfortable living together. Hunter is pretty much ok with Lana, but Tigger isn't so sure. :-/ He's getting there. Last night be slept in bed with Lana being there too. Today she came down from the china cabinet for the day to his normal day long nap on the sunny bookcase. Lol. :) 

Beginner's Obedience Training Class! :D As luck would have it we got Lana into an obedience yesterday (Nov 19th)- the actual day I went in to sign up for a class in Dec 4th! For the next six weeks, Chris, Lana, and I will be at PetSmart helping Lana learn some better manners. In my opinion, people view obedience just for getting your dog to listen. But, the other half of the equation is your dog is now clear what you are asking and that cuts down on everyone's stress and confusion.

Week One:  Intro, "Sit", "Watch Me"

I'm sure you understand the sit command. :) The "watch me" was new to me. You are asking your dog to look into your eyes or at least your face. Great command for getting your dogs attention, especiallly when they're going a bit crazy!! :) In class Lana simply was too timid/insecure about the intimacy of eye contact. But, she finally would look in our eyes -not the instructors- very briefly. Before next Tues. we just have to work on those two commands! :) 

Lana's First Week Hwk: Weds- going nicely! She is showing me I need to do the same thing each time. We were practicing "sit" and I had to hold my hand position (palm open facing up, finger & thumb in a circle holding the treat) the same way of she took much more time to sit. Obedience 101 for Pet Parent: Patience, Repetition, and Consistency, Consistency, CONSISTENCY!

Very encouraged with her "Watch Me" command- a sit followed by a command to look at my eyes/face. She struggled with this in class on Tues because of insecurity, but in the calm of her home :) she's going pretty well! She makes definite eye contact & we'll work on increasing the length. 

I love getting to look into her gorgeous eyes. :) I've never seen brown eyes like hers. :) Not being gushy! They are a sort of a caramel-y light brown with a hint of red. So pretty. :) 

Fun!: It's so cute to watch Lana play. :) She really enjoys her "babies", her stuffed animal toys. They follow the beagle breed as hunting breed. :) She's got a pheasant, a rabbit, a fox, and a MIA porcupine. I guess she felt it didn't fit the criteria. :p She finds great joy in "hiding" her babies.  She just doesn't want to share I guess! She also loves small nylabones, Kong, and crazily this crackle ball cat toy with a bell. 

Cuddle Bunny!: One big benefit of the house breaking is we can trust (fingers crossed, no jinxes!) Lana can sleep in bed with all of us. :) She is such a cuddle bug! This week it seems about 2pm I've GOT to take some length of nap and of course Lil' Lana joins me too. Since my arm surgery I sleep with a pillow under by left arm for support. Today I fell asleep with Lana on the far side of the pillow and woke up with her cuddled up between the pillow and me. :) 

Silly puppy :)

This took a few weeks to post, but Lana is going great!