Sitting at my computer, sipping coffee (with French Vanilla Coffee-mate), gazing out my window thinking of the fruit trees --

Cherry tree is all green leaves (cherries only lasted a about a two weeks, no more until next June).

Pomegranate tree is no longer full of orange blossoms, it now has fruit producing. But won't be ready until late August early September.

Lemon tree is still producing lemons. I pick them when I can and freeze the fresh squeezed lemon juice. Amazing how it produces even during the winter months.

Plum trees are producing tons of plump, juicy plums. I eat a few each day, but am "plumed-out" from last year (still have plum jelly and a couple 2-gal bags in freezer from last year).

White grapes on the arbor are doing well. I really like it since we trimmed the vines to a 30-foot section of fencing by the arbor. Still need to remove wild growing grape vines by the south fencing. Anyone want free grape vines? Contact me and you can come and dig them up. Otherwise, they are going in the green barrel. Again, still have jelly and frozen grapes from last year. Frozen grapes make neat little snacks, but one can only eat so many grapes over time…. LOL.

Concord grapes are doing marvelous!! Last fall I wove one scrawny 5-foot vine (from neighbors’ side of fence) along the fence line and now it is filling out and is producing ten times more grapes that I got last year. (I only got a couple handfuls of concords last year.)

Pecan and almond trees are a moot point. They produce lots of nuts, but the birds get to them before we can. In my opinion, they are only good for shade trees.

Looks like we will not have a garden this year; we never rented the rototiller to work up the ground. Oh well! Guess I will just keep the grass and weeds cut (mostly weeds) during the coming months and hope for a garden next year.

We now have a new batch of kittens visiting our garden area. I wanted Pepper to "chase" them away, but appearently, they are not afraid of her (at this time). They just hide under the lawn mower.

Today I cleaned out the fish tank so that I could put in on the new tank stand. I put all the guppies, and Polly, into a large salad bowl (used JUST for fish cleaning day) and put them aside until I was ready for them. I put all the plastic foliage into the dish washer, to be sure they were clean. Next I proceeded to wash the inside & outside of the tank. I put all the gravel (10#) into a strainer and kept pouring water over it until the waste water came out clean; then I scooped out a cup at a time (using a large fish net) and dunked that into boiling water for a few minutes to sterilize the gravel.

After adding the new water filter (for a 20 Gallon tank -- the small one did not work that well for me) and filling the tank with fresh water, I was ready to add the fish back into the tank. I am impatient and do not add the fish to a baggie and let them "float" in the tank to adjust them to the water change. I just scoop them out and add them immediately, so much for patience.

Polly was the first to enter the new tank; she is a Plecostomus, she was only 2" long when I first got her, now she is 6 1/2" long. After reading about them, I found they can get up to 24" long (hopefully she will not get that big, or she will be flushed)!!

I did not want to keep over 40 guppies (ranging from a few days old to my older, more fancier ones), so I picked out 3 of the fancy males (but hubby wanted me to keep 5 males in case any died). Hopefully, I have now taken care of the "unexpected" batches of fry in the future. Keeping only males should do the trick (unless they perform a miracle). Needless to say, I had hubby flush the remaining 40 plus guppies (this is a task he really hates). But I felt that since it took me 2-hours for all the cleaning and transferring, that he could help by flushing the unwanted tenants. But now I have a clean tank with a few selected fancy tailed guppies. Now to plan on some neon tetras, mollys and a couple African Dwarf Frogs.... *WEG*

I am new to blogging, so please bear with me.  I belong to a medieval group known as the SCA, learning things from 600-1600AD.  So my posting will consist of my embroidery projects, news of events, things happening in my daily life, and about my dogs (whom I treat as family). 

We recently moved to a house on an acre of property, directly across from a college (surprisingly enough it is still a quiet neighborhood).  There are only three houses centered in between apartment complexes and we are the center house.  Our backyard is divided into three sections; 1) 1/4 for a nice sized backyard, 2) 1/4 section we named our garden (have a small garden now but plan on a larger one next year) and 3) 1/2 is open with a couple of oak trees and a couple pecan trees, we call this the Back-40.

Even though we have hard wood floors, with two long haired dogs we do not have "dust bunnies", we have "dust monsters".  Even though I clean daily, these small creatures seem to hide and grow at an alarming rate, but I am keeping them in check, per say.  I am  not letting them get out of control.... *S*

Our garden is only 10'X20' this year as it was over-grown with weeds and we had to clear a section first.  But things are growing good and we are proud of it.  Since it is small we have a few corn stalks, tomato plants, cucumbers, bush beans and bell peppers.  Small, yes, but a start.

The Back-40 was completely over grown with weeds and wild pickers, all this ranged from knee high to chest high.  I have been able to mow it a little every weekend.  What I was not expecting was what was "hidden" underneath the tall weeds; wood planks, 2X4's, metal pipes, numerous bottles and beer cans (from complex on other side of back fencing), and broken branches and twigs.  So a job that should have taken me 2-3 weekends turned out to take a month and a half to complete.  Another accomplishment, now I just have a 10'X85' section to mow, then it will be completed.  I was hoping to actually let the dogs run in the back-40, but now have to water it to get a green bed and re-mow it, as there are still tons of pickers and debris that can get lodged into the dogs fur.

I have three loving companions; a pomeranian (Pepper, 7 yrs.), a dashound/terrier mix (Biscuit 2 yrs., who will be going to my son in Colorado in the next couple of months) and a keeshond (Nikki 1 yr. this month).  Nikki is my show dog, she has already gotten a Best of Oppisite Sex ribbon and has only been to a couple shows.

Life here has been interesting and we have been slowly unpacking our boxes, which we stored in the garage.  I did not think we would have any major problems yet, but I was wrong.  Seems that there is a rodent under the house, but Orkin is taking care of that problem.  This past weekend there was a clog in the drain pipes and the washer over-flowed and flooded the garage floor.  Now we really need to get to some boxes to see what damage was done.  The landlords son is due this afternoon to fix this problem, we shall see how this ends.

Life goes on.