Summertime!!

We went away for 9 days to camp in Yosemite National Park and when we came back I couldn't believe how much everything grew! Here are some pictures. This is the vine house. It is covered with purple passion vine. Makes a nice shady area for the grands sand box.

The Sunflower House.

One of the sunflowers on the right looks like it wants to move away!

This picture is of the Plumbagos that I planted this spring. I want a hedge to hide my view of my neighbor. I got them from Walmart and paid $5.50 for them. They were just sticks when I planted them and they look like they tripled is size. The blue color will look great for a background for the purple Jacaranda!

Then the awesome Jacaranda. Just wish the blooms lasted longer!

The Hay Field

The hay field has been cut and now all the bales are sitting in the field!

There are over 200 bales out there.

He's picking up the bales right now!

My daughter and granddaughter-- Rachel and Kaylee

Solar Water Pump

For my birthday I also got a solar water pump for my livestock fish tank. We found an old water pump at a garage sale and I wanted to pump some water up it to look like water coming out of the pump. But we didn't have any electricty near by so I found this solar pump to do the job. It was a little pricey and I wish the pump was bigger so more water comes out. But it does the job I wanted and looks and sounds like running water.

Here's some of the goldfish in my tank. I think there is about 16 in there. The water is a little dirty cuz I'm stirring up all the gunk and cleaning in out.

Fairy Houses

For my birthday and Mother's Day my daughter-in-law Amy painted 2 of my gourds to look like fairy houses. Aren't they adorable! The top picture are the backs of the gourds and the bottom picture is the front of the gourds and the door knobs are little button and some gold sewing pins. I need to put a sealer on them then I will put them outside and they will be the beginnings of a fairy garden. Thanks Amy I love them!!

New Pictures of Vine House

A kitty cat bird house

We added some cut up logs. I would like to make these into a table and some chairs.

I put in my Pot Man that my sister and parents made for me several years ago.

I also hung up some gourds and plants in the window frames

Spring Garden Show

We went to the home and garden show this weekend and this chair caught my eye!

And I really want to make this salad table. The table and chairs are all planted in different kinds of lettuce! Maybe this would keep the rabbits from eating my salad garden!

Winter Rains

With all the rain we have been getting I thought I would post a few pictures to show how lush and green everything is.

But with all the rain comes the weeds! Somewhere in this weed mess is our propane tank! Blaine our propane guy is not going to be happy!

The Vine House

This is my lastest project. We got a sandbox and swing off of craiglist. And being in southern Calif it is so hot in the summer that I didn't want my grandchildren getting sunburned while playing. So I moved an old homemade clothesline into the garden area and covered it with wire mesh. I have a passion vine plant that just wants to cover the wire mesh. So hopefully next summer we will be able to play under the passion vine. The mini pumpkins were planted here last year and I just threw them in one place so I could put them in my compost pile. The front of the vine house has old window frames that I wired to the clothesline.

The Sunflower House

Last week I cleaned up my sunflower house and here is what it looks like in the month on January. I should of taken a "before" picture. The recent storms tore my cover off the swing and there were lots of weeds and dead sunflowers lying around!






The Granddaughters in their matching coats swinging!

Bird house gourds

I planted last year a whole packet of birdhouse gourd seed and here are the results! There's 59 of them. They look like little soldiers all lined up!

Anyone interested in doing a craft with their kids let me know--I have lots to give away!