I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Enjoyful

Hey all,

Checking in while I'm in Boston.  My temporary Aiken lodging does not include internet access so I'm getting my fix while I can.  I have managed to find a pack of wild liberals hidden amongst the hard-core gun-toting Republicans of South Carolina; we meet for subversive fascery (*new word*) and alcohol next week.  

Chicky, dammit.  The red devils are hell on wheels but can also be very effective.  I survived my bout on adriamycin with the help of strong anti-emetics.  I like your rads shirt.  Die, miserable cancer cells, die! We love you, Chick.

E

bluedahlia

E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So glad to "see" you!  Have a drink for me too.  Don't be too fasceryist!  hehehehe!

pip57

We all may be facists of one kind of another up here, but we are also fine hockey players. Yeah!

Good to see you E.  

gardengumby

Congrats on the Canadian women winning gold.  Of course, I was rooting for the US.  What a game!!!

I wish Seattle would get a hockey team. Good game to watch.

I'm starting yard planning. I want to divest us of grass.  Neither hubby or I should be mowing.  Any suggestions on the best way to rid ones yard of sod?  There's an in ground watering system I want to make sure I don't break.  I read somewhere that smothering the grass is the best way to go.

bluedahlia

bluedahlia

GG, we did it the old fashioned way...tore it up, piece by piece.

YEAH to the fascist hockey team!

....and shokked to read contradiction!

208sandy

GG - smother it with layers of newspaper - that's how I got rid of the sod in SC - worked like a charm but I did it bed by bed - depends on how large the area is.  My sister did same thing in Montreal years ago - turned her backyard into a flower and vegetable garden - actually threw herself a party and asked for cuttings - she was amazing.

IllinoisLady

Haven't read much for awhile but I knew I was something -- fascist, total Communist, and likely several other things.  I'm sure I'm all messed up....so much so I'm finding it so amusing that we are going back to full on Clinton bashing.  Wow !!! So much fear of Hillary. 

Of course, some will "buy" it, but a lot of others will just brush it away back into the  past.  It didn't fly then and for most it won't fly now.  Desperation......because Scott Walker is now on thin ice and well......the rest.  No way.  We need a viable Republican party.  I do know a couple of my Republican family members are going Liberal.  Sigh !!!!  Well, they feel they have to do something.  Whatever.

Big storm here.....wow, the mud was so deep this a.m. when I let the dogs out of the pin.  They are not that heavy and they were sinking about two or three inches.  Amazing.....then we got all that rain late this afternoon.  It always something, but boy do we need to dry out.

Jackie

Big hugs to E............enjoy the sauce later.

Bren-2007

Good Morning Gal Pals,

It's windy and raining today ... rain coming down sideways .. but the next two days are supposed to be lovely and warm!  I hope all this rain melts the snow down in my lower fields.

I am so upset with myself .. I have put 10 pounds back on.  I have been so stressed this past month or two that all I do is eat chocolate.  It took me a long time to lose all that weight, and I don't want it back!!  It's very hard to lose it a second time.

Going to spend the day going through my list of forensic Ph.D.s.  I'm glad I decided to verify each one first, as it will help me to target the ones that really look promising.  It's a hassle and takes time, but I hope it pays off.

Enjoyful ... Great to see a note from you.  When are you returning to SC?  How is Sampson doing?  Are you able to ride him down there?

Jackie ... I can relate to all that mud.  That's what we've got here too ... mud and more mud.  I've given up on washing the floors until it dries out a bit.  Tank sinks in the mud too, not quite as much as at your house, but about an inch at least, plus he weighs 98 pounds.  Hope the sun comes out this weekend for you.

Guess I better get on with my day.

hugs to all,

Bren

kayfh

Garden Gumby. I got 7 yards of really good compost top soil mix delivered.  Outlined the area I wanted to transform by digging a trench about  foot deep and a foot wide around the perimeter.  Then I laid newspaper that I had saved, asked friends and neighbours to save for a few months (my DH was worried that I had started to look like a crazy lady hoarding piles of old paper). Any coloured advertising inserts were put in the blue box for recycling.  I put it down about 10 sheets thick in an area about 6x6.  Then sprinkled them so that a wind gust wouldn't make my papers blow away.  And then shovelled about 8 inches of soil over the whole surface.  Raked, watered thoroughly and Ta Da!  A whole new area to plant. Then I planted I split a large number of perennials I already had and planted some annuals to fill in when my perennial budget got sparse.  I moved across my yard in about 6x6 foot sections until I had covered most of my grass in flower beds.  I was working full time and did not want to bite off more than I could do in a reasonable time, it took me about a month.  And the first part was starting to look good by the time the last part was dug.  I mulched the whole thing with cedar mulch and then that fall I saved all of my leaves (most people put them in brown paper bags for the city to pick up as green waste which they then compost and sell back to us) in corrals I made out of wire fencing. I did not save leaves from the black walnut trees or the Norway maples which had been affected by tar spot.  Next spring after the perennials emerged I mulched the whole thing with the slightly decomposed leaves. Looked amazing, soil richer.  I have saved our leaves ever since. 

 Lest you think I am totally mad, we live in an urban house with a 36 x 140 lot so it wasn't too daunting.  The property adjacent to us is an unopened road allowance which the city can't sell to us or our neighbours because it is also river front and it is city policy to buy river front, not sell it.  This does not stop me from gardening in the same fashion on land we do not own ( I am a garden imperialist ) because it is up to us to maintain it.  I order and spread compost each year.  2-5 yards at a time depending on health, mine and the plants.  The major work in my garden was done preBC so now it is mulching, gardening by extraction  and adding in new perennials cause I just need to.  I am so looking forward to seeing the ground which is buried in about 2 feet of snow and ice, despite the rain we are having now.

Bren-2007

Kay .. I would love to see pictures of your garden.  When we had a big garden area plowed up I would use newspapers between the rows to keep the grass from coming back.  The garden area was way to big for me to handle, so I let it go back to grass after two seasons.  It was about 80 x 30 ft.  I also saved my leaves back then .. just blew them all into the fenced area around the garden. Reading the description of your efforts is inspiring me to get busy this spring and grow more flowers.  I have a small flower bed around my pergola and amazingly, the annuals keep coming back.

Hoping for an early spring so you can see your dirt sooner!

hugs,
Bren

IllinoisLady

Sitting here wishing we could have a garden, but we are providing a big Sears tiller and some good friends of ours will let us garden on some of their land ( fairly close to us ) which they bought just for the purpose.  I'm excited about this as the last 11 years in this house have guaranteed there is not a "garden spot" due to being surrounded with over 70 trees.  I'll have to re-study just how to manage it again.  Hoping to send my hubby out and over there a lot.  He needs activities that get him outside a bit more often.

We are very cool this morning after yesterday's storms.  Heard on the news about many tornadoes in the state due to the relatively quick warm-up and general high winds carrying the rain.  Had wind gusts up to 60 mph here and that was not fun.  Went to pay a bill ( fortunately many of ours can be hand carried ) and the wind was so strong for a while I could not get the car door open.  Shouldn't have been out.....but it was a lot nicer when I started a couple of hours earlier.

Jackie

gardengumby

kay your yard/garden sounds lovely.  So you planted perrenials or whatever as soon as you did the newspaper a d mulch?  You didn't wait six months ghs or anything like that?  

bluedahlia

hahahahha!

Enjoyful

I am heading back to Aiken today so won't be posting again until I get back to Boston.  Y'all have a safe and happy two weeks.  

Bren...I haven't ridden yet since I'm missing pieces to my air vest.  I have to lay aside my pitchfork for a few hours and take care of that.

Y'all he bad now.  ;-)

bluedahlia

I have a very small yard and love to garden!  Can't wait for this terrible winter to be over.  I've ever known it to be so bad!

Anonymous

Yeah, E.

Fascery, I want some, more, more, more. Spangled Scoota Gangstas meet for fascery.  Life is Good.

Am I the only one who didn't have that much trouble with the Red Devil. Seriously, think it was the EMEND.

Chickadee - MAKE SURE THEY GIVE YOU EMEND.

rr - we must live near each other   An INCH of ice, trees look glorious, where it was plowed, ice rinks, rain heading our way, can anyone spell floods?  Damn, wish we could send this to CA.

Laughing at The Three Amigos in MX - did anyone see that funny movie.

I HONESTLY didn't know the Canadian gov was a corrupt as the USA.  My dumbness.  Sorry.  Putting head back in sand.  "CItizen's United" -LOL.  What a world...my image of Canada is still 1978 heroism, and I find it hard to shake .....the HUGE THANK YOU banner at Brookings in DC, etc.

lassie11

I don't know that the Canadian government is corrupt. The Prime Minister is single minded and unable to negotiate. I'll save you the list of things he has done that make me not love him. Unless sneaky is construed as corrupt, it seems he is sneaky - and a bit of an embarrassment on the  international stage. We'd prefer your President please.

bluedahlia

bluedahlia

I agree lassie, but we would still have a fascist in power!  I wonder if Obama would make a guest appearance on Murdoch!

208sandy

Yup, Harper is "sneaky" and of course because he's a conservative he's all for the oil industry - his riding after all is in Calgary so it's to be expected but corrupt, don't think so.  I do find it interesting though that Sunny hasn't updated "her" image of Canada since 1978.

kayfh

No, Garden Gumby.  I did not wait.  The grass was pretty much smothered.  I dug the hole deeper than eight inches (depth of soil) and slightly wider.  Threw in some soil to bring plants back up to appropriate height.  Watered well.  Any grass that emerged ( very little) was dispatched by hand pulling).  Two things to note: nature abhors a vacuum, And I don't like bare soil.  

I looked at the photos on my ipad, oh my.  I forgot (really) how nice spring, summer, and fall are here.  Winter has its moments, I do like getting out in it when it is cold and crisp and the sky is blue.  It's the periods when lighter shades of gray  interspersed with the darker shades of gray that make me long for spring.  When I figure out how to post photos on this forum, I will.  

kayfh

Our current, and hopefully former governing party (in 2015) is populated by mean spirited, controlling a..holes ( not all) who have no vision of a future that could be beautiful for our children and grandchildren.  

pip57

I am feeling very guilty down here in sunny Florida while so many back home are battling snow, ice, rain and sub zero temps.   However, my neuropathy is playing havoc with me so I am paying for it in another way.  This sun feels sooooogood on this body!  

bluedahlia

Glad you're in the sun pip!  ENJOY!

A little clarification......

bluedahlia

Has anyone read this book?

Bren-2007

Kay .. If you'd like to send the pictures to my email I'll post them for you.  My property up above where the house sits is more like Jackie's with huge chestnut, black walnut, oak, dogwoods and pear trees surrounding the house. I do have a small area along the back of the house that is populated with perennials, bulbs, hostas and tall phlox.  My daffodils are already coming up.

Blue .. I love the pictures of your garden in the back.  It's so much more manageable than what I've got going on here.  My gardens in San Diego were easier to take care of as well.

Sunny .. The movie Argo was recently on T.V.  I was young when the Americans were rescued from Iran and don't have a good memory of it. I was running amok at the time as a single mother of a 3 year-old.

hugs,

Bren

IllinoisLady

I have been very less aware of the Canadian end of politics, but that is partly I think from all the shenanigans that have gone on here which part of the time are laughable and part of the time just downright ignorant.  I will always be amazed at the pig-headedness that allows far right extreme politicians to totally ignore what 55 to 85 or 90 % of the American public says they want.  John Brown attitude if ever one could be seen. 

Jackie

IllinoisLady

IllinoisLady