Lots of stuff

Sunday was the "anniversary" of the day Jake died. I still miss him each and every day. Seems like so long ago and yet still like yesterday. We are now into year eight. Sigh...... 

The bunnies "mowed" the grass for me. It was down one day. Started out lush and full. I had to pick it up to allow it to regrow so I can put it down again.

The grapefruit tree is putting out new leaves finally and looks like it will have a lot of blossoms this year. More blossoms mean more fruit. Will be interesting to see how well it redeems itself. 

Had to go to Yuma yesterday. I worked Sunday night until 11:30 PM and had to leave here by 6:30 AM to make my appointment on time. There was rain in the forecast, but didn't worry about it too much as I had put on brand new wiper blades recently. Well...the brand new wiper blades failed. They literally came off the arms and the one on the drivers side lost it's plastic adapter. I had to drive back in the rain with no wipers. I pulled over at one point and jury rigged the drivers blade with two band aids and a paper clip. Then I used them sparingly on the whole way back. About one wipe every mile or so. Thankfully it wasn't pouring like it did later during the night. I made it all the way back to Q with occasional wipes. Then when I hit town I turned them on for real and the passenger side wiper went.  Piece of crap. I have ordered new blades from Rock Auto, reputable, well known Bosch blades with enhanced frames. I am assuming it is the blades and not the arms since this hadn't happened before and I had driven in the rain. Will get those on as soon as they get here and I will take these back and get my money back. It made for challenging driving, and I was already tired. But I got to visit with Howard and Barbara finally. It had been at least a year since we stood face to face. Was a nice visit. But I had to cut it short because I was so tired and the rain made me nervous. It is a long drive.

The main reason I went to Yuma was to take the USPS exam. I submitted an application and this was part of the process. I passed and hope to hear from someone soon. I figure it can't be any worse than DG and pays almost double. With bennies and holidays off and NO NIGHTS.

I have a mourning dove nesting behind the shed on a pallet. I startled her on Sunday and got a good look at the nest and eggs. Checked on them this morning and they survived the rain and wind. Will have to keep an eye on them.

My gauge says we got about an inch and a half of rain. It certainly poured during the night. 

Sunday night a customer gave me a gift card to Silly Al’s  a pizza place here in town. He came in last week and had fallen and cut his hand pretty badly. I helped patch him up and off he went. Well I guess he went to the hospital the next day and ended up with stitches. So he bought me a gift card to say thank you. He didn’t have to do that, I didn’t do much except give him some ointment and some bandages. But that was nice of him.

I just ordered a leaf blower/vac/mulcher. I am tired of looking at the leaves in the yard. Some are from the grapefruit tree, but most have blown in over the fence and gotten stuck here. I am constantly sweeping them off the patio. I hadn't done much about them in the past except sweep them off the patio as they make good mulch. But there are too many now and it is making the yard look messy. Time to deal with them. I had been thinking about it for a while now and had a gift card balance that I put towards the mulcher. Since my yard is so small, I chose the less expensive corded mulcher. Maybe I won't have to sweep the patio as often if I can just suck up the leaves. They gather in certain spots. Wonder if that will run on solar.....

I need to get the fan in the garden changed over to the solar power. I also will be putting it on a timer so it will come on automatically in the morning and off at night. Soon I will be able to open the garden up. I do have a couple of baby tomatoes on one plant, but the other one just keeps putting out blossoms but no fruit. 

My plan for today is to do a little house cleaning, laundry and napping. I do have to take the garbage to the dumpster as I have been putting that off for a week now. I have three bags and some boxes that need to go. I may go see if the produce guy is out this afternoon too. Other than that it is an R&R day. I'm still tired from yesterday. Was a rough drive in both directions. 

Tomorrow I go in to work at 8 AM. He is giving me more days. Wonder how that is going to work out.

Planting flowers

This last week I planted more flowers. I got two packages of mixed annuals at work and put them in a large pot. They are called Flower Rocket. An As Seen on TV product. We'll see how they do, they got horrible reviews on Amazon. I also tossed the last of the marigold seed in the same pot. I started pansies, statice and gazanias in the starter trays.

The round pan is grass. Once that gets established, it will go on the ground for the bunnies to keep trimmed. Just thought it would be a fun thing to try. I'm sure the bunnies won't mind either. 

Both lupines are blooming. The pink one is just starting.

Now that it is warming up, I am seeing significant growth in most everything. It is in the 80's during the day in the garden so I have been opening the door and running the fan. I hope it will help things pollinate so I can get some squash and tomatoes. I will have to remove some of the plastic soon and think about adding shade cloth and get the mister set up and the watering reprogrammed. It will get hot fast.

It is slowing down a bit at work. Some days I actually get something accomplished, but it is still busy enough that it isn't much. 

I'm feeling better. Still have a cough and some congestion, but the worst of it is gone. 

Have had several salads and cooked greens from the garden. Picked some mixed greens again this week and gave them to Chad and SusAnn. Waiting for the second planting of radishes. I also planted some of the long white radishes. And the carrots are looking good. I will pull one soon to see how they are doing. I don't see any orange yet, so it will probably be a while before I get any good sized ones. 

Not much else going on here. I need to find some time and get my income taxes done. I haven't had to do that for a couple of years, and before that, I had them done. But it is back to short forms for me. Not going to pay someone if I can do them myself. Hoping for a refund since money isn't plentiful. 

I had Monday and Tuesday off, didn't do a whole lot. Back to work tonight. I do need to get some more sleep before I go to work this afternoon. I am still sleeping only two to three hours at a time and can't seem to break that cycle. I am sleeping in my recliner again too. Seems to be where I sleep the best and I did it for years in VT. 

It is finally warming up here. I have had the heat off since Sunday and wore shorts for the first time in months yesterday. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 80's. The days are getting a little longer each day too. The nights are still cool - in the 50's, but I have slept with the slider open about six inches the last couple of nights and last night I added the ceiling fan. I over heat too easily still. 

I will have to remove some of the plastic from the garden soon and pull the lights. I want to get the misters set up and will have to think about adding shade cloth soon too. It won't be long before it is over 100 degrees in there. 

Always something to do.