Yark

Well, Ron just made himself look like a total jackass, to the police department.  More on that later. 

People tend to ask a lot of questions about the Bible handouts.  "How do you know" being a favorite.  It's like an itch that gets progressively stronger.  I just HAVE to go do it. 

I am getting an itch to do a handout, during a Gospel Rap concert.  When?  I don't know.  Where?  I don't know.  But it's coming. 

This morning, I got up realll early, went to work.  The problem with the vending machine was easily fixed, Ron had bumped a switch on the machine and accidentally turned off the blower motor.  Praise God it was so easy! 

When we came home, I heard a lot of noise out back.  I went to investigate.  My backyard touches other yards.  On the south side, I have an oak tree (love those leaves, which are blowing quite nicely into the garden bed), a Mexican Palm, and an ash tree.  The palm and ash cast a fair amount of shade across the yard.  The ash is "ours".  I like it, it's healthy and deciduous.  Not only that, it has weathered 2 hurricanes with a laugh.  It's a good tree.  When it goes, I would plant a citrus, and some other fruit tree, in it's place.  I like edible landscaping. 

It was amazing watching the oak tree during hurricane Ike.  I was, quite naturally, terrified.  It's about 50-60 feet tall.  If it fell, it could have damaged the house.  The winds blew pretty much straight from the north, then straight from the south.  I am west of the tree.  I looked out the window, it was very dark, and the tree was completely bent over, in the wind.  The eye passed, and then it went over the other way.  That house lost the roof, but the oak was fine.  I like to think maybe the compost pile nutrients helped it out. 

I was not a big fan of the palm.  Imagine my joy as I saw the tree guys trimming off all the dead palm thatch!  Yay!  I shouted "Thank you, my garden will love the extra sun!"  as I began to water my plants.  It got even better, by the end of the day it was GONE!  They cut the whole thing down!  MORE SUN!  Completely awesome. 

Even if she planted a huge sun-hog tree, it will take at least a decade to affect my garden.  I am thrilled.  They even came and got all the dead tree parts out of my yard. 

We went to Burger King.  When we came home, the tree guys were using power tools to saw the tree.  They are very hard to cut down.  My Dad actually burned out a motor on a chainsaw.  Yes, I have childhood issues with fan palms. 

The dog next door hates power tools, especially tools powered by gas motors.  A lot of frantic yipping and yelping and trying to jump over the fence and bite (!!) the chainsaw. 

People talk about dogs being smart.  I don't see it. 

Anyway, I managed to get a good nap while they went to lunch.  Bubba came and gave me a cuddle, even better.  I woke up before they came back and went out in the garden. 

"Vroom" went the powertool.  Yark!  Yark!  went the dog. 

Me?  I had the rather cynical attitude, good, wear her out now.  She will be too tired to bark tonight when I'm sleeping.  I also felt sorry for her, people were at the house, but too selfish to take her into the garage.  The poor animal is surrounded by other pets with loving owners.  She just gets a bowl of food everyday and that's it.  No love, no play, no petting.  It's probably the highlight of her day when I go out in the backyard and say "Hey, Dum-dum" when I walk by her fence. 

Ron has been talking a lot about beer today.  He wanted one last night.  He wanted one today.  He wanted me to help him buy more.  I told him no.  He made a trip to buy more tomorrow. 

He had at least a few glasses of wine.  RON called the police and demanded they send someone out to "Make them put up the dog, I hate that dog... etc."  They told him to stop ranting.  He got an attitude. 

AGH.  Hard to believe it's the same guy who helped me take the dove to the rescue place!  However, Ron made Ron look bad. 

Me?  I went out back and laid more landscape fabric to block weeds.  Then I discovered I had run the fire ants out of my mulch.  I watered  it well, added coffee grounds, and watered again.  It worked great.  I only got one bite, spreading 2 cubic feet of mulch.  Worth it.  I saved myself hours of labor. 

I have decided not to listen to the gardening books.  They say "Don't use mulch until the weather is warm".  Ha!  Tell that to my garden beds.  I used chopped ash leaves as a mulch.  I have the seedy ash.  Baby ash trees comingup all over the garden bed.  I spread the mulch on top of the leaves, so that should help.  I also have plenty of oak leaves blown off the neighbors' tree.  It's a good deal, some oak roots get into the compost pile, and I get plenty of leaves.  I'm happy. 

I'm delighted I saved all the money I would have had to spend on new mulch, plus delivery.  Now I can use my existing stuff. 

I also made some plans to put the scented plants (rosemary, lavender, and mint), in large containers, around my chair.  I can sit in the chair, rub the leaves, and enjoy the fragrance.  Nice.  Ron does not want any fragrant plants.  He worries about "bees". 

I wonder what he would have thought of the big red wasp, inspecting my tomatoes for tasty bugs to devour.  I have been stung, twice, by them, but it was my fault.  They are my little garden assasins.  I have seen them eating bad things off my plants. 

Good boys.