Thankful Thursday: week of 5/16/13 in review

This week we got to go on VACATION!! To see our kiddos 15 hrs up north. We had been planning on driving up there sometime this summer, but when my SS, Aaron, called and invited us up for he and his new wife, Liz, were graduating college, we jumped at the chance!!
What a beautiful couple. SDIL, Liz, received her masters, SS, Aaron, received his doctrine, both in civil engineering. Wow. They were just too cute.

My SD, Tiffany, was there too, so we got to soak up our granddarling, 6 1/2 yr old, Audrey.  Beyond lovely.  When we see her we see her mother and smile.

Lots of picture taking.  Love these people!!

On the way there we saw some  LDS historical sites we decided to stop at on the way home.  Big smile:)

First Adam-Ondi-Ahman...

SO pretty.  And beautiful weather to be wandering around in!!



Then Far West...

This was SO awesome!!



Then Liberty Jail...

Intense.



Then a trip through hubby's grandma's home place where first we got a great start to his grandma's rose bush, and some bachelor buttons.  Next, we dug up asparagus growing in the fence row out in the country side.  

White bucket of awesomeness, Red Climbing Rose, Asparagus roots

Hubby has fond memories of picking the shoots in the spring time with his dad.
Now we'll have it for our grandbabies to pick:).


THEN we drove back to West Texas.  Home-sweet-temporary-home.
Gone only four days, but I missed my babies. 

Angel wing begonia, aloe, gold dust, and moses in cradle plants

 I'm so pleased to find my  little piece of moses-in-the-cradle has rooted.  I accidentally cut the one stem while cutting back some starts for a dear friend.  So happy it forgave me:). 

 My wee little veggie garden is loving these warm (but not hot...yet...) days. 




 My goat planter is in its spring glory...

sedums, small day lilies, local wild plants, and a powder puff bush

ahhh...spring...

Sunbathing: Reba, Lil-Dog & Molly,  Maverick, LadyBelle 5/13

And my puppies enjoy our return!

I'm  so thankful we were able to go visit Aaron and Liz and enjoy this big event with them.
So thankful Tiffany was able to bring grandgirl Audrey, and they both had time to spend with us.
I'm  thankful for the weather, the sweet hubby, and the safe drive.
I'm thankful of the church history and what others have gone through for my freedom to worship.
I'm thankful we were able to go down hubby's memory lane.  So good to enjoy his history.
Glad to come home and find everything safe and sound.
Thankful for the kiddos here that keep an eye on things for us.  
Its good to be me:).

Happy Wife=Happy Life.

Hubbers bought himself a new box trailer. He is very happy. He is modifying it with shelves for tools, electric, and a little office space. He is very very happy. The nice weather and a 'helpful' basset have allowed him to really enjoy his project. He is very very very happy. This way all his stuff will be nice and close, and safe. He is very very very very happy.

We looked at renting a camper here, where hubby is working out of town, but when it smelled so bad of cig smoke we decided to move our own camper up in June. Having my camper here and doing some projects and organization in it makes me very very happy. Having a place for hubby's stuff, that is NOT in my little camper makes me VERY VERY happy:).

My Wee Little Garden 5/2/13

Since we will be way out here in West Texas (home is eight hours EAST), I've been planning our little garden...

Maverick and LadyBelle

Wednesday right before a storm hit I looked outside to see this...

Maverick, our one year old basset pup, had PLANTED himself in my grow pot.
He is VERY lucky I hadn't planted anything in it yet!!  (Silly pup) 

Then down came the hail.  Lots and lots of wind, hail, and much needed rain.  West Texas is one dry place.  The temp dropped from 90 to 40. Brrrrrrrrr...

Next day sunny and warm.  So I finished out my little garden.
We have: basil; onion chives;  tomatoes: 1 roma, 1 slicer, 2 cherry, 2 dwf; beans: experimenting with many kinds of bush; cukes; squash: 3 bush types; greens;  and some red leaf amaranths;  and 'baby' blueberry bushes,  blackberry vines, kiwi vines, and mulberry bush.
I plan on trying to keep greens going all summer.  Hot and dry so we'll see:).
My goat planter filled with perennials,  is doing great, and, because I couldn't resist, I have a trumpet vine, and golden bells.

Molly Wolly

Sunning Lil-Dog

The pups all enjoyed the day out too.  Shame it can't stay this temp.  Hope every one has a lovely weekend. 

Someday...soon...

Someday I will have a greenhouse.

Mine will be large enough, but not humongous.  It will have vents for air and a heater for the winter.

It will have a super cool old sink and water access.

There will be shelves for stacks of pots, potting areas.

There will be a space for tools and bottles.  And room for a chair to sit and chill in.  Maybe even a radio.

And some cool stuff 'just because'.

It will be large enough for my houseplants and hub's perennial garden experiment (from when he was a teen gardening with his dad).  Someday...

 Meanwhile I'm using the home owner's cute greenhouse.  Sweet hubs took my plants in while I was staying back at mom's for the last month.  Some of the houseplants died, but everything in my grow pots look great.

Dragonwing green bean

 The home owner's plants look pretty happy too. 

 By the way, Dragon wing green beans are SO sweet!!!

 Things are rapping up at this job, and we will be moving out of our cute guest house, and away from these AWESOME trees soon.  Not many houses around here have these huge oak trees. Gonna miss these trees.

Maverick, LadyBelle, Reba

The bassets are going to miss this place too. 

 I want to go home.
East Texas home.
I want hubby there too.
BUT work is here in West Texas.
I'm glad to be back out here with him.
So I guess home is where WE are. 

WE is a nice place to be.

I have been day dreaming...

I have been day dreaming...
 Looks like when hubs finishes this job, and we leave this guesthouse, we will be bringing our camper to West Texas and living in it.
So many organizational opportunities in my little camper.
Bath room cabinets, pantry shelves, tv cabinet, at least 4 sets of small high cabinets for the walls in the bedroom and living room.
Making use of under the couch, dinette, and bunk beds.
On and on. 
I have shopped around and measured and priced.
But what occupies most of my day dreams is,
what plants am I having in the camper and where will they be?

Silly, huh?

Since no one here is interested in my BIG houseplant dreams, I will share them with you.
Da web.

half terri cotta colored plastic pot from Home Depot. 

In our little bathroom, on the wall that is too shallow for shelving, utilizing the sky light, I want this flat pot.
I'm thinking maybe some bushy and draping plants.  Its pretty good size, and I think will be easy to stabilized on the wall when not moving the camper.  And easy to take down for moving the camper.

 The nurseries here had some neat little house plants to add to my combos. 

 I think I will have a round pot and that long window box planter on the fridge by the kitchen window.  Some of these small plants will be split between the three planters.  Guess my dumb cane (white pot) will have to stay back at mom's.  And I think next time we go home I'll go ahead and plant up my camper house plants.  I have some ivies at home I want to use. 

 HIGH on my want list-this Pearls and Jade pothos and

 Swiss Cheese Philodendron.

Sedums, mini day lilies, dead mini rose in goat planter

 Because we have been going to our camper only once a month (and sometimes hubs went and not me), Donut the goat planter has been needing some TLC.  So this last trip I loaded her up and brought her to West Texas where she could get some loving. 

 Found this on clearance and thought it would jazz things up some. 

cleaned up and replanted

Donut is our mascot, and in memory of a dear goat we had and loved.
All cleaned up and ready to go again.  

Sedums, mini purple day lilies

  Due to not watering, I lost my mini purple rose, and hen's and chicks.
I'll probably replace the rose, need something with some height.
And some happy days mini yellow day lily.
I'm excited to see all this fill in, and what is hardy and what isn't. 

Meant to be

For my sweetie, and our 'meant to be'. 

FF: 8/24/12 Guesthouse, West Texas

Every feel like you are in a foreign country in your own state?
Where we are staying (while the hub works) feels so foreign from our home in East Texas.
Home is green and humid.
Here is brown and dry.
 (and thorny...SO thorny)

Phal Orchid

 I don't think I could ever live without plants.  Ever.
Mourning the (almost) death of my Sharry Baby orchid, I subcomed to Lowe's marked down orchids.   

Bad lighting. 

I'm so weak.  AND I'm hoping for some awesome dark purple blooms.  (I just love the structure, especially against the white wall.)

I moved my "kitchen window" pot from the front porch of this guest house.  The amount of shade was great, but the heat was melting some of my babies.  (Plus they can get extra loving in the bathroom.)

reclaimed metal art

I found a cute souniver . 
Meet Mr. San Angelo.
Cutie-pie.  They have neat metal works down here, and this neat little fella fits the bill.
Once upon a time I lived a year in El Paso, TX (as far west as you can go in TX).  From there to central TX.  We has lots of these horny toads.  They are almost none existent in the wild now.

Out on the front porch the stack-a-pot thing is popping with salad babies.

Homeowner's house plants look good.  (think I'm going to start me some of that var. pothos)

Add caption

In my grow pot ever thing is doing well. 

I added in this native needle leaf plant.  It blooms orange, and has a tuber root. 

Also this runner (different colored leaves and light colored bloom pods), it blooms a creamy yellow.
We see if they live and do well back home.

My horse herb is all green and fluffy.  This is ground cover for back home. 

Pigeon Berry blooming in the back (more ground cover for home).

The other grow pot has beans, and salad greens in it.  (Esperanza) yellow bells bush and fragrant floss flower in top right corner.  These, too, do well back home. 

Its hot and dry here in August here.  But not crazy hot or crazy dry like some places in the USA this summer.  Hope every one is having a wonderful Friday.