Finaly named the fish

I recently bought 4 new fish believing that I was down to one. I thought that 3 of my fish went into the belly of a heron. I was mistaken. Only 1 of my previously purchased fish is still MIA. Now I have 7 fish. 6 of them can be seen here. Starting from the top left the white/grey one is name Skeletor, they golden one is name Midas. the orange and white under Midas is named Dixie (as in the orange Dixie cups). Just to the right of Dixie is a very spotty one named Sookie. Bottom row of fish, the one on the left that is mostly black with the bit of red on the nose is Rudolph, the last one seen here on the bottom right with the orange head and a striped body is Barbarella. The missing fish is hiding under a new shelf i put in. He is all black and named Obama. Scott picked that name out, and it has stuck. Today is rainy and about 50 degrees. i re-potted my water lilies.

After re-potting the lilies I climbed into the pond and repositioned a couple of the boulders at the bottom of the pond. then i put this large flat rock on top. That is the second time i have gone into my pond. It felt less shocking this time since the air was almost the same temp as the pond. But now i have a place for my lilies at about the right depth and the fish have a place to hide from herons on raccoons. We know that Obama likes it under there.

The blueberries by the pond are blooming.

Here is a very pretty columbine i planted a couple of days ago.

Tualatin park - camera outing

Christina Sandy and I went to the Tualatin nature park so they can get use to their cameras. I was there to give them advise and answer questions. I took some pictures too while I was there.
Christina and Sandy taking pictures of fungus.

We would have missed the hawk completely except we saw some people looking up into the trees. I had asked what they were looking at so i would be in the know too.

This was a very tiny little orchid

Extreme close up

I think the fungus looks like of like alien life forms. Don't let them suck out your brains.

I do not know what this is, but it is groovy.

Here is a nice little trillium.

Scott is going camping in the cold

Scott will have left by the time i get of of work. So i have the place to myself. I wont be idol though. I will be cleaning and gardening the whole weekend. Looks like we will have good weather for it. Woo Hoo.
This is where Scott is going to be, Howard Prairie. His brother goes up every year on opening weekend. I was with him last year and it is very beautiful. From the lake you can see several mountains. This weekend it will be too cold up there, about 20 degrees at night, so i am not going. Plus, i have a lot of things to do at home.

Tomato planting time

Tips on planting tomatoes
Always plant tomatoes deep, and on their sides.
Dig out a shallow trench. Remove the lower stems and branches off the tomatoes, leaving only the upper most top leaves. Lay the entire plant down a trench on its side and cover with soil. Leave only the top leaves showing. Don't worry if the foliage is pointing to the side, it will right itself and grow upright in a few days.

Planting tomatoes on their sides allows the entire stem that is buries to form roots, giving the plant the best foundation possible and allowing the plant greater ability to absorb nutrients and water. Plus a larger root system near the soil surface will meant that more heat will be available to the plant, producing earlier tomatoes.
I built this little hoop house over my newly planted tomatoes to protect them from frost if we happen to have any in the next week or two. It should warm up the soil a bit too to speed up fruiting.

New path and new fish

Scott marked out the new path with this pink string last night. This morning I started digging it out. But first I removed all the plants that were on the left hand side in the bed and gave that area a quick till. I think the path is now ready for Scott to put the edge boards in and fill with gravel.Tulips are up all over the back yard. I had bought a bag of 50 from Costco last fall.

Here is a little fern baby. I think they are so groovy they way they are all curled up and then unfurl.

Here are the new Koi I bought today. I believe at least 2 of the 4 I purchased last summer have gone to their final resting place - perhaps in a heron.

So far they seem to have found a decent hiding place. I will have to buy some water Hyacinth this weekend to give them more cover.

Busy 3-day weekend

The first of the rhodies to bloom. It is getting more sun than some of its neighbors.

We will start with Friday – I took the day off. Take that tax peeps. I relaxed as it was rainy outside during the morning. I repotted some tomato, melon, and herb starts. Now everything has a bigger home. Then Denise and I saw Monsters Verses Aliens – in 3D. it was a fun movie.

Stan is next to one of his favorite places to pee. My euforbia (probably spelled wrong)

Saturday I gathered yard garbage to be taken to the dump. This included 3 bags of cement, some broken cinder blocks, a couple of cement encrusted fencepost, and the rotted out flower boxes. I did this while Scott prepped a second salmon for smoking. Yes he caught another one. Then Scott hooked up the trailer and away we went - For about a block. He realized that the lights on the trailer were not working. So back home we went. I did some yard work for a bit and then went to Al’s for a little hanging basket talk they were putting on. I managed to escape with most of my money. Boy the lines were worse than Costco line. Took days to get out of there. By the time I got back Scott had fixed the trailer and off to the dump we went. Let me tell you, when a cement bag accidentally opens up, don’t breathe in. Not good. After the dump Scott and I went to our local rock store and picked up 2 yards of “garden mulch”, which is recycled yard debris. Then I vegged out the rest of the evening.

The veggie beds with their fresh load of compost.

Sunday after doing my grocery shopping I unloaded and spread all that mulch. I dashed upstairs for a quick shower then headed over to PM & Karry’s for a fun lunch and a bit of shopping. After returning home I placed a few rocks on the inside edge of the pond as we decided that the exposed pond liner is unattractive. I did a bit of fertilizing and watering and that is about it.

One of the first asparagus plants to come up. So far i see 4 coming up. Makes me nervous about the other 16. They might need to be replaced next spring. What a drag.

Thank god i am free at last

It is April 15th. Pretty much all the tax returns are done or extended. I can go back to working normal hours and having weekends off. I spent the first hour at the office just cleaning and organizing. My desk is ship shape and the top floor is vacuumed. I do like a clean work space. This afternoon we will be having our end of tax season party. I will eat snacks and have a couple of drinks then go back home to relax. I will be either taking tomorrow or Friday off.

Not much with the garden, except we had a frost yesterday. i am glad my tomato starts were under plastic. they look as though no harm befell them. This weekend should be sunny so i hope to get a lot done outside.

just for fun here is a picture of one of my hostas coming up.

Sleep deprivation

The sleep deprivation is nearing its end. Just a couple of more days. It is funny, i was going to sleep in yesterday, do my grocery shopping then go into work. But no, i wake up 1/2 hour before my alarm would have gone off if i had set it. What the hell is up with that.

So i had a leisurely breakfast, went to winco (i hate that store) because fred meyer was not open yet. then went to work. Just about done with all the tax prep. after that it will be review of work and such things as the partners want done (extensions or billing, i don't know) then party on Wednesday.

Scott was really sweet yesterday. i came home from work and he had cleaned the kitchen. it is nice to come home after working a full day and realize you can just relax. I actually squeezed in a nap before dinner.

On the home front - this is where the stairs are - Scott needs to make more steps. soon they will all be beautiful as these. Scott and i are talking about making a dump run then getting compost for the veggie and flower beds. i am just itching to work outside.

5 more days of hell and then i am free

After 9 weeks of captivity my release appears to as a golden beacon before me. This is my last Saturday of tax season. It is also the worst weekend as i will be working a full day and Sunday as well. Boo. The 15th is just a few days away.

As soon as i can i will be planting this little shrub called Rhaphilepis indica Ballerina

This pretty thing blooms in early spring with some intermittent flowering throughout the year. The foliage turns dark crimson during the winter and it is evergreen. It should grow to be about 2 feet high by 4 wide.

In another week or two i will begin selling my tomato starts. i think by then my babies will be old enough to be adopted by kind parents. I will sell them for $2 each to peeps i know and 2.50 on Craig's list. I already have some pre-sales. well i better go work

"I got one"

Scott finally caught a fish. Last weekend this nice salmon gave up the struggle was brought aboard and forced to pose for photos. He was brought home and smoked. The smoking process was a learning experience for Scott. Alterations will be made to the smoking recipe next time to improve the flavor and texture. I am not saying it was not good, as it was, but i can be improved. I hope he brings home one of this guys friends soon.

Night music or noise - you decide

One persons music is another persons noise. I happen to like the extremely loud rebits of the the tree frog that has taken to hanging in my backyard. i am guessing it is a male trying to attract the female frog to his new digs.

here is a little info about tree frogs.
As the name implies, these frogs are typically found in very tall trees or other high-growing vegetation. They do not normally descend to the ground, except to mate and spawn—but some even build foam nests on leaves and during their adult lives rarely leave the trees at all.
The back color of tree frogs is typically a vivid green, uniformly so in many species, subtly patterned in others, altogether giving an excellent camouflage depending on the particular kind of vegetation they inhabit and what predators they have to hide away from. But many tree frogs can change their color to a remarkable extent, and thus when resting on bark they are usually brownish grey.
Tree frogs are usually minuscule, as their weight has to be carried by the branches and twigs of their habitat. While some reach 10 cm (4 in) or more, they are hardly in the same size class as "grass frogs" (which ironically contain some species belonging to the "true" tree frogs, Hylidae). Typical for "tree frogs" are the well-developed discs at the finger and toe tips; the fingers and toes themselves as well as the limbs tend to be rather long, resulting in a superior grasping ability.

A beautiful spring weekend

The last two days were so beautiful I could not wait to get out and do some gardening.
That made Saturday kind of painful since I had to work until 3 pm. I stopped at the nursery on my way home and boy were they busy. People and dogs every where. This is not a dog park. Leave the furry kids at home. Anyway, I escaped without spending too much money. I brought home a few shade plants for the “back 40”.

When I finally got out in the yard I spent most of Saturday edging the back portion, and a little time cleaning my pond and planting a few plants here and there.

Sunday I transplanted most of my tomato starts from their plug pots into 4” pots. After they spend a short time there I hope to sell off the spares. Today is there first day outdoors unsupervised. I hope they don’t party and disturb the neighbors.

Scott put together a potting bench and that is where my tomatoes are currently hanging out. It will spend a little time on the back porch for easy access then it will go back behind the shop.

Today I will be attending a meeting for a almost local garden club. The West Linn garden club’s meeting will run from 7-9. I hope it is informative and fun. More on that later.