Our Garden

This is how our garden started a month ago...

Below is two weeks ago....

 Below is yesterday and today!!

 Waist high or higher in spots!

 That's all with just rain and natural fertilizer (thanks Chrome!)!  He only had to start watering it this weekend because it's been really dry all week.

We've already harvested fifteen pounds of zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers as of tonight!  This is the only picture I have of it though because we've been sharing it with my parents and grandparents and he's been eating it like crazy.  I'm holding out for the watermelon, acorn squash, butternut squash and spaghetti squash!

I just made him write a list of everything he planted... here it is.

Turban Pumpkin
Golden Acorn Squash
Delicata Squash
Waltham Butternut Squash
Spaghetti Squash
Pink Banana Squash
Green Cushaw Squash
Sweet Dumpling Squash
Candy Roaster-North Georgia Squash
Seminole Pumpkin
Upper Ground Sweet Potato
Yellow of Paris Pumpkin
Amish Pie Squash
Other miscellaneous pumpkins he can't remember what he planted....
Cocozelle Zuchini
Yellow Straightneck Squash
White Pickling Cucumber
Mirabella Cucumber
Clemson Spineless Okra
Crimson Sweet Watermelon
Black Diamond Watermelon
Cherokee Purple Tomatoes
Bell Pepper (Cubanelle, Pimento and another one he can't remember - starts with an M)
Black Beauty Eggplant
Red Ripper Peas (seeds he's had for years that his grandfather gave him)
Genuine Cornfield Pole Beans
Field Corn (his grandfather's)
Stowell's Evergreen Sweet Corn
Beefsteak Tomato
Amish Paste Tomato
Windowbox Roma Tomato
Baby Bell Pepper
Sweet Potato (unknown variety he got from store bought potato that sprouted - 30 plants)
Beauregard Sweet Potato (9 plants)
Vardaman Sweet Potato (65 plants)
Virginia Baker Sweet Potato (25 plants)
White Hayman Sweet Potato (25 plants)
Purple Sugar Cane
Asparagus
Rhubarb
Horseradish
Birdhouse Gourd
Dipper Gourd
Loofah Gourd
Spinach
Garlic (his grandmother's)

Can you tell we love squash and sweet potatoes??  Just wait until you see our fall garden list!! Some of my favorites like broccoli, kale, etc.

That doesn't even count our blueberry bushes, gooseberry bush, muscadines, cherry tree, apple tree or peach tree hehe.

2016 Reading Challenge - Book Scrabble - May

I read seven books in May.  I started off strong, but then slowed down toward the end of the month.  I finished the Queen's Blade series by TC Southwell quickly and then had to take a bit of a break.  I'm not going to write about them individually because I don't want to get so detailed that I give anything away.  :)

Amazon link to author page HERE

(so I don't have to link each individual book hehe)

I wasn't going to read the two prequels to the Queen's Blade because I thought I wouldn't want to, but by the time I finished the first six books I had to read the last two.  I'm glad I did!! It filled in so much of the back story and I loved them just as much as the original series.  I'm normally not too big on prequels, but these were very accurate (a lot of times they have major discrepancies) and just as enjoyable.  I will say it again.. I LOVED this series.  It seriously has made it onto my top favorites list (along with other fantasy favorites like Wheel of Time, Sword of Truth, the Pern books, etc.).  I have no idea why I loved them so much... my husband didn't enjoy them nearly as much as I did.  I think because he's read similar stuff before, so to him the ideas in it are old.  These were different from anything I've read (main character is an assassin) so they were new and exciting to me.  I normally don't like war or politics based books and these had both, but it didn't bother me or take away from the story at all.  These were very well fleshed out and interesting, with great characters.  There were a few times when I thought things were going to get repetitive and annoying (e.g. the dancing), but they didn't.  The author managed to keep the story interesting to the very end.  To me anyway.  Opinions are subjective obviously.  :)  I'm glad I bought the whole series because I will definitely read these again.  If you're the type who gives up quickly if the beginning of the book isn't interesting, please don't give up on these too soon!! The first book starts off a bit slow, but it's worth it in the end.  If you aren't hooked by the end of the first book don't bother buying the rest of them though.  Those five books gave me 10 points (S=1, M=3, L=1, C=3 and G=2).

Amazon Link

November's Past was recommended to me by a friend.  It's about a detective that doesn't like being a detective and a murder case.  It was really good.  I like murder mysteries so it was right up my alley.  It felt a little slow paced after the Queen's Blade series, but I'm always like that after finishing a really good series (I'm one of those weirdos who feels sad that a series ends lol).  By the end of the book I was definitely interested in reading the next book (not out yet), but it didn't end on a cliffhanger so it didn't bother me to move on to something else.  It's probably because each book is a different mystery all wrapped up neatly by the end of the book (or so I assume since that's how the first one is).  I didn't guess who the killer was by the way!  Good twist at the end.  :D  This book was 1 point.

Amazon Link

I chose Zombie Fallout simply because it's a Z title that earns me ten points on the Scrabble scoring system lol.  I'm glad I did though!  This book really surprised me.  It was the first zombie book I've ever read and I actually really loved it.  It's in first person and is different because it's basically journal entries about a man and his family surviving the zombie apocalypse.  I think what makes this so different and surprising though is the humor in it!  He's very sarcastic and I love it.  :D  One thing that was annoying and hilarious all at the same time is that it never failed I would get to the gross parts of the book when I was eating!!!  Every time!  Of course that probably has something to do with eating on lunch breaks and reading while eating supper, but still the coincidence was funny.  When I was reading while not eating I wouldn't get to anything gross.  Some of the descriptions are kind of gross if you haven't guess that already.  The funny thing is I accidentally bought the second book in the series (that dang one click to buy pop up in the Kindle app is dangerous!!!) so I'm reading that now.  If I had hated the book I'd be pissed and try to get it returned, but since I enjoyed it I figured why not?  It's only a few dollars.  So look forward to the review on the second one next month.  :)

That's all for May.  That is a total of 21 points. For those of you just joining, the points are not my rating system or anything.  I'm scoring the books I read this year on the Scrabble score system below.

(1 point)-A, E, I, O, U, L, N, S, T, R
(2 points)-D, G
(3 points)-B, C, M, P
(4 points)-F, H, V, W, Y
(5 points)-K
(8 points)- J, X
(10 points)-Q, Z

I will add them up at the end of the year and see how many points I earn.  :D  I'm not scoring the individual books because to me they are either 5 star or 1 star.  I'm not very good at subjectively scoring books haha.   A book rarely falls in middle ground for me.  Until next month, happy reading!

The other new addition to the farm....

I completely forgot to tell you guys about the rock dove I rescued!  I rescued her several months ago now, I just hadn't gotten pictures yet so I never posted.  This beautiful girl was outside the place where I worked during a storm.  She even came inside.  They chased her back out and she almost got ran over by a car.  She was too weak from hunger to fly, so I was terrified she would get eaten by something or run over.  So I called my husband and he came and got her.  He was able to walk right up to her and put her in a box.  She has a leg band on, but we haven't had any luck figuring out where she came from, so we're keeping her, unless someone turns up claiming her.

She's a sweet girl, always so curious, but shy.  She likes to perch in the window of her pen and watch us.  She flies to whichever window we're closest to.  I haven't handled her at all since that first day.  She's not terrified of humans, but she is shy.

I've always loved rock doves (pigeons of any sort really), especially their coo.  It's so peaceful and sweet.  I love listening to them.  We are going to find a couple more pigeons because I don't want her to be alone.  I would rather give her to someone else than have her be alone.  Since we have a nice pen for her there's no reason not to get some more though.  There's plenty of room and I've always wanted some.  :)

Now more kitten pictures because they are too cute not to share!  They are blurry because they were moving too much and I need practice taking pictures with phones hehe.

 I he/she not the cutest kitten you've ever seen??

 A slightly better shot of mamma's gorgeous green eyes.

 I just don't even know what to say... so cute!!!!!

Check out this adorable video.  I swear you will melt at the cuteness overload.


Also I've been calling the dove Dovey.... I need name ideas because if I'm not careful that's going to stick......