Garden Time

It's been a little while since I posted, but nothing really "exciting" has happened around here.  Well, I say that, then think back over how my cat (17 years old) fell and was unable to walk for a little while - he's now on potassium supplements that also have something in it to help his old aching joints and is doing well.  As soon as we got the cat back to acting normal, the dog was seriously ill.  It started last Tuesday, and Wednesday he wasn't able to keep his food down.  We don't know what happened or what he got into, but it was definitely something in our yard because he's now afraid to go out without one of us walking with him {sigh}.  One thing that we thought of was all the recalls on pet food....so we got rid of all the pet food and treats, even got rid of the food/water dish in case that was contaminated....he's only eating Blue products now - dry in the morning and a dry/canned mix in the evening.  He's finally returning to his normal goofy self - happy and bouncy when it's meal time, following us upstairs at bedtime, staying close to me during the day....oh, and yes, we thought of taking him to the vet, but here's a picture to show you what I'd have to try and lift into the Jeep:

Yup, HUGE chocolate lab (as in over 100lbs of goofy).....he definitely lost a bit of weight being sick, but I still couldn't lift him up.  We think that, because he spent a few days just flopped on the floor, he managed to hurt his rear legs, so we are monitoring that as well since labs are notorious for having joint problems {sigh}.

On the positive side of life, the garden is going bonkers - still no ripe tomatoes, but they are slowly starting to show up on the plants, and the corn is growing nicely....lettuce will be used in tonight's salad, collards are keeping the bugs fed (I just haven't gotten around to picking any), and the bean plants have pretty little blooms on them....not sure what is going on with the solitary pepper plant.  Here's what we have now:

We got things planted later than normal because of the odd weather that we had this year, but things still seem to be doing well.  I think that, next year, we will definitely add a soil treatment or some fertilizer to the garden beds before we plant anything, and we probably won't have anything to do with collards or peppers.  This is the 3rd year that we have had problems with our pepper plants, and I'm tired of wasting money on them.  The lettuce that will be going into tonight's salad is on the left in the 2nd picture - Oak Leaf lettuce.  Our Romaine isn't big enough for me to cut yet, but I'm thinking I might throw some of that in as well....maybe free up some space for the other heads to grow more.....

SO...that's all that's going on around here other than swim lessons for the children, trying to stay ahead of the laundry, and keeping things fairly calm (when I can).....already looking forward to a mini vacation in October just to get a break from everything....and can you believe we are only in the 3rd week of summer vacation from the public schools??!!???