work in the garden

We are back at work in our garden. This year we have tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, okra and basil of all varieties!

I wanted to share a tip with you that worked very well last year, so we are repeating it. We took old newspapers and laid them out around the plants as a weed block. Then we wet them and placed mulch on top. This was very effective for weed control and had the added benefit of making the most of our watering, since we live in such a dry area. You should try it.

This year we just forked the old newspaper under ( it was mostly deteriorated) and started over.

We were told not to use the shiny print adds, by the way. Happy gardening!

New blog

Well... I guess I am a backslidden blogger and I need to repent! So I am posting an update, finally. I'm sure I need to send out a new notice because it looked like I would never blog again!

Here is the news. We have an empty nest... which is more fun than I expected. Ido not have as many activities to think about and my time is my own again. I do miss Kathryn terribly (and all my girls, for that matter!) But my sense of adventure is enjoying a new thing.

I recently started selling Mary Kay and thought I would use this forum to tell you about the products as I try them from time to time. I am really enjoying the basic skin care system... my skin looks and feels better than it has in years. Now that there are fewer steps, I am much more likely to do it! I started using the self-tanner so that I wouldn't blind anyone with my lily - white legs.. I really like it. You use it like lotion every day and receive the full effect after a week of use. It is very subtle.. which makes for less streaking and a more natural look. It also smells good. Next time you see me with bare legs... check out my "tan". :)

If you want to look on my website, here is the address:

http://www.marykay.com/loetawatts2207/default.aspx

We are getting ready to start the garden again... I am on my last container of pesto from the freezer.. so it is TIME! We have gobs of cilantro right now... if you need any, come over and get it!

I'll be more faithful and post again soon! Loeta

yoga

While the girls were home for graduation, Carissa and Kathryn decided to do some yoga. All I've got to say is... that's not natural!!!

graduation

I have been remiss in not updating you on graduation.... so sorry! Above is a picture of KJ and her friend Jessie... sad that she is leaving because Jessie doesn't graduate until next year.

Kathryn with dad and mom...

These were taken at Baccalaureate. (I learned how to spell that finally, this year!) Kathryn was one of the speakers and I was on the committee to put it all together. She and her friend Sarah also designed the program. It was awesome!

Here are my three beautiful girls. We had a wonderful weekend together with the grandparents... It was just too short!

heat wave

Well, we're definitely havin' a heat wave! At 9 pm. tonight it was still 99 degrees! I believe the high today was 107. That is the second day this month that we have broken a record for the high. I was going to finish the drip system today, but.... I don't think so! Hopefully it will cool off tomorrow.

Garden update

Well... we survived the graduation activities at the end of May. I can hardly believe that Kathryn is done with school. We had a fun time though.

Since Suzi updated on their garden, I thought I should, too. We were excited this weekend to have our first little harvest. We had broccoli, one little yellow squash, and our lettuce in a chef salad.

We had a blowout in the hose in the back yard! So, we are very motivated to get the drip system installed. We made good headway on it tonight. Thank the Lord, it rained night before last. I was about to send Jack out in the yard to do a rain dance!!!

Hope you enjoy the photos...This is one of our broccoli plants.


This is a baby japanese eggplant.

the right side...

the left side...

my purple potatoes...


the baby okra

Jack the snake catcher

I have been so busy with graduation stuff that I have sorely neglected my blog. But I had to write about this.

We heard Lowrider barking alot in the back yard this evening and discovered that he had cornered a 3 foot bull snake. We put him in the house and Jack corralled the snake with a rake and a box. Then he took it out to the alley and released it. I hope it doesn't crawl back into the yard to join us while we pull weeds!

The interesting thing to me was that, when threatened, it stood up some and then made a hissing sound that sounded somewhat like a rattle.

All in all it was a pretty cool event!