Vacation

Another important lesson learned.  Don't go on vacation in late August without spraying your garden for bugs.  I was not going to spray anything but while I was away some sort of flying creature that looks alot like the stinkbug took over by garden and ate almost everything.  I am glad to give back to God's creatures but I wish they had left me at least one watermelon, I am sure they were delicious.  
 But with views like these who can complain....

These are a couple of warriors that survived the battle.

Tomorrow I will be back to the daily grind.  Nothing like a week in paradise to motivate healthy eating.  I even restarted the Couch to 5K program while I was gone and should be on track for Run for Their Lives on October 20th.

How could any day be bad that starts with this?

Well friends as the garden is tilled under there will be less gardening to blog about.  I hope that you will stick around to see what other awesome things are happening in my life!

Ripe

This title was inspired by the message at Brentwood Church.  When I started this project I wanted to share my gardening experience and I have found that I want to write about more experiences because they are all interwoven.  Today's message was about choosing joy.  It really spoke to me that we have a choice to choose joy over sadness and that is really what God wants us to do.  This project has helped to me to that.  I have experienced joy though the achievements and the relationships that have been cultivated along with the plants.  When life starts to beat me down I can look at this small patch of space that used to be barren and now is producing new life and find hope.

I am winning the battle with the groundhogs on the cucumbers and might get to eat a couple before the season is over.  Anxiously awaiting the beautiful watermelons, pumpkins and cantaloupes.   As the zucchini and squash wrap up their season I am preparing for the winter by freezing pounds of zucchini.

I couldn't help but take a couple of pictures of last night's dinner.  Everything was grown in my yard.

Let the eating begin......

This is my favorite part of the garden so far.  The vegetables are plentiful and delicious.   I have been able to make meals for friends and family.  I've even given veggie baskets as birthday gifts!

Just because I am enjoying the fruits (or vegetables) of my labors the work is far from over.  I am still battling  nature and by that I mean all the animals that think I am growing food for them.  I can't figure out if it is deer or groundhogs or bugs or all of the above.  As all of you are also experiencing it has also been a very dry summer and the rain barrel has been empty.  So an unanticipated expense of a higher water bill has been an adjustment to my budget.  Don't get me wrong it has all been worth it.  I learn something new almost every week and am already laying the plans for next year.

There have been some newcomers to the party.....

watermelon

cantaloupe 

It's been amazing to watch everything start from a tiny seed and then become a plant and begin to bear fruit which also starts small and will hopefully grow enormous and delicious.   

Derecho

I'm sure some of you have been thinking ok great thanks for the vaca update but what about the garden?  Well here it is.  I don't need to say too much except that most survived Derecho the tomatoes were pretty sad and so was I being without power in my office all week (insert sarcastic comment).  After assistance from the support team (mom and dad) for allowing Yoshi and I to stay with them for a couple of days and two attempts to upright the tomato plants we all seem to be getting along just fine.  

remarkable recovery

I can't wait to eat you......

As for the couch to 5K it did not survive the Derecho.  The record setting temperatures and stress associated with temporary relocation are not conducive to new exercise program.  I haven't given up, just taken a break.  I appreciate the supportive emails and facebook message.  Keep them coming and don't hesitate to comment here too....

Florida

For those of you that know the Keely's we love to take vacations but are not good at relaxing.  It seemed fitting that I took a week of vacation and spent half of it in a car driving across the country and the other working.  Not the kind of work I do all day but more of I enjoy and what inspired me to start this gardening project.  Good old-fashion hard work.  The goal of second half of this trip was to prepare my brother's house in Pensacola for new renters.  He didn't realize he brought along a professional.  In his words, I was a machine.  We cleaned everything from floor to ceiling replacing all the light bulbs, (who steals light bulbs?) drawer pulls and fixing leaky toilets.  We even flew in our support team (Dad) from Roanoke.  After two full days of work and some help from my sister in-law's sisters husband James (again I should just stick with calling them what they are...family) and many trips to Lowes and Home Depot we were able to make the place livable again.  We even had time for a quick outing on the bay on Saturday.  I wish there were pictures of that event.  I can only say that it if were not for the quick thinking of James we might be at the bottom of that bay.
Note to others:  Don't overload an already infirm pontoon boat without the expectation of getting a little wet and maybe heading bow first into shark infested waters.

KVLN

KLVN (Keely’s Leave Vegas Now) officially began 18 June2012 with an early morning exit.  I had grand plans of taking actual pictures of Vegas in the rearview but with the amount on things loaded in the Subaru that proved to be difficult.

So instead a picture of Lake Mead

The stops along this epic journey are multipurpose so there are lots of pics from the car.  We are on a mission you know.  The following pictures were taken in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas (in that order).  I thought when I took them I would be able to tell the difference when I got to a place where I could blog about them.  The jokes on me. 

The first night after 9 hours of travel we stayed in Albuquerque New Mexico with my sister in law’s Aunt Connie.   I tried to figure out how that makes her related to me but after spending the evening with her I just settled on family.  It was nice to get out of the neon jungle of Vegas and have a home cooked meal where the volume was low enough to carry on a conversation. 

We also stopped in San Antonio to see my brothers college roommate.  I would've taken pictures of his beautiful new home but we got there late and left very early.   While in Texas we also made a stop to see a friend of mine from high school but again it was little more than a drive by so no pictures.  I will say that when I walked in the door is mom said immediately that I had not changed at all since high school.  (even after three days on the road).  It made me feel like a million bucks.  


On the final day of the first leg of our journey we traveled through much more Texas (who knew so much state could look exactly the same) and then Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and finally to Florida.  

When I started this adventure I promised myself that I would not be one of those bloggers that just quit posting or did not post on a regular schedule.  Like many things in this gardening project This is a learning experience.  I have not kept up so I am going to attempt to catch everyone up in a couple of posts and then return my previous promise.  (see second sentence)

My last post started with this view from my window of the garden and I thought it captured the growth really well.  Don't worry I am not going to spend the rest of the summer taking the same picture and posting it here over and over again.  I did however want to provide this update before my brother and I begin what he has named KLVN (pronounced Kelvin) otherwise known as Keely's Leave Vegas Now.  He will graduate from the class he has been taking there for the last 6 months next weekend.  That will be followed directly by our epic journey across the country back to our respective homes with several stops along the way to visit friends and family.  I will update as much as possible hopefully with lots of pictures for a little change of pace.  

For now here's the update on the garden.  I've learned there are somethings I am good at (or the soil in the garden) and some that I am not.  We'll start with the worst....

green pepper...should not be miniature 

another casualty of the bamboo that was growing below it

Here's the good stuff...

mint

garlic

cantaloupe

sweet potatoes

potatoes

Here's the best....

tomatoes

it's outgrowing it's trellis!

squash and zucchini 

my favorite view

Two more updates before I wrap this up.  First I have move into week three of the Couch to 5K and it is serious business and pretty painful.  If there is anyone who has completed it and has any inspiration please let me know.  Second the reason I did not post this weekend is because I joined some co-workers for Relay for Life.  Great time but I learned I am waaay to old to stay up all night.  It took me all weekend to recover.  Here is a picture of some of our team.

I'm the one in the shadow with the glowstick headband :)

Let it Rain

There was a lot of rain last week.  I don't mean it rained a couple of hours.   It rained inches and there was hail.  Luckily none of my plants were terrible damaged (perhaps traumatized ).  The picture below is from my bedroom window and I was trying to capture the rivers that were flowing in, through and around my garden. For those of you that are wondering, I am not keeping trash in the garden, it has potting soil in it.

The other excitement this week is that some creature has discovered my lettuce.  It is delicious so I understand.  Next year or this fall I will need to protect it better and also learn to thin it out.  My philosophy this year was survival of the fittest but I 'm not sure that applies in this situation. 

The two newest editions to the beds near the house are dill and basil.  I didn't grow these from seed myself.  I have learned that lesson.  Allow the professionals to start them for me.

Th rest of these pictures are just updates on progress. Speaking of progress, I have moved into week two of the Couch to 5k program and I'm still alive.  Sorry no pictures of that, it's still really scary looking.

Squash and Zucchini 

Tomatoes 

Green Bean

Sweet Potato

Lemon Cucumber 

Cantaloupe