For Real?

If you are a bit squeamish, then this post might not be for you.

Besides my garden , I have a large pot that I usually grow tomatoes in, by my back door. I bought a lovely tomato plant this year, but with all the other flowers that I delayed planting, it started looking kind of scraggly. After I finally planted it, within a few days it started perking up quite a bit. Things were looking up and I thought that I would get some good tomatoes!

Earlier this week I noticed that some of the little tomatoes were getting eaten up. I thought that maybe there was some kind of little bug was eating them. I picked the bad ones hoping that would make things better. A few days ago I noticed that the tops of the plant were being eaten off. Oh Joy! I figured that some large animal was snacking on my tomato plant. We do have a lot of wild life around here!

Let me break here and ask really nicely that you do not laugh too hard at my expense! I try to garden, but really I have no idea what I am doing!

Anyway, about 2 days ago Matthew asked me if I saw the caterpillar that was on my tomato plant. I said no, but at the time I was busy and did not pay a whole lot of attention to him. Then yesterday he said the caterpillar was still there and asked me if I ever saw it. A little later I went out and found this creature.

See the horn!

Actually, there were three of them!

Isn't this one interesting?

I had to get on the Internet and research what these things were. So I typed in caterpillar and tomato plant and I immediately found out what it was!  It is called a Tomato Hornworm. Interesting! Then I found pictures that looked so much like mine. What are those white things on that one? After reading further I found this info here.

Because the hornworm is so large (about the size of a pinkie finger), the easiest way to get rid of him is to simply remove him from the plant and dispose of him. You may be lucky enough to attract parasitic wasps to your garden who will do the job for you. Parasitic wasps won't hurt you.

A natural predator of the tomato hornworm is a tiny beneficial insect called the braconid wasp. This wasp lays its eggs inside the hornworm. As they hatch, they eat their way out, killing the hornworm in the process. It's a bit off-putting to see this creature on your plants, but you're better off letting him be and letting the wasps do their job. Once they hatch, they'll be enough braconid wasps to keep your garden hornworm free.

OK, so I didn't follow instructions very well. First I waited for hubby to get home so he could see them for himself! He didn't seem too impressed. Then I asked him if he could remove them and squash them. After much begging some sweet talk, he did the squashing! I did not watch, but I heard that they squirted a whole bunch when squashed! Thought you really wanted to know that!

This has been a fun interesting Summer in the creature department around here!

 

Summertime and A Prayer Request

Would you please pray for my sister-in-law? She has been battling cancer for a few years now. Last night she was admitted to the hospital with swelling in her abdomen. She was told it was a tumor and then later told it was fluid and it needed to be drained. Please pray the doctors will come to agreement on what is wrong and for the right course of treatment. Also pray that God will give her a complete healing! This is my oldest brother's wife. I have known her probably since I was 10 years old. They were married when I was 12. I have always loved her and she has been like a big sister to me. She is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet.

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It is in the middle of the Summer and boy it is HOT! It has been mostly in the 90's for a few weeks now. This week it has been constantly in the 90's and now the heat index is supposed to be in the 100's. So what better place to be than the pool? Remember I shared with you that Micah won a family pass to the local pool in this post?  On Monday we finally made our way there and had a blast.

Did I mention that a family includes a Mom and a Dad and 3 kids? Yeah, that is just the beginning of our family. I am not going to complain though! I was able to put 4 kids on the pass with me, since Hubby will not be able to go very much if ever. We could buy a pass for each extra child for $25 per child, but we chose not to. I probably will be going with the 5 youngest mostly, so I will only have to pay for one. On Monday Rebekah had the day off, so she and Victoria tagged along. So, I did have to pay for 3 that day.

It is a wonderful place for the younger children because most of it is fairly shallow. Micah could walk around most of it by himself. There is a lot to do and keep you busy for quite a while. There is one place that is whirlpool. The 5 youngest spent a lot of time there. It was a bit crowded for me, so I sat in an area nearby watching them.

Anna and Sammy really enjoyed the slide. Anna tried both, but she preferred the curvy slide. Sammy stuck with the curvy slide the whole time.

Micah

Micah going down the smaller slide.

Sammy

Sammy

Anna making a splash!

Anna

 

Luke

Matthew

Luke,Rebekah, Matthew, Micah

Victoria, Sammy, and Matthew waiting for the bucket to fall!

Still waiting!

SPLASH! Yes they are under there somewhere!

We ended up going back to the pool yesterday as well. This time I just had the 5 youngest. Some of us got a little sunburn yesterday even with using sunscreen, so we are taking a break today.

Summer will be over before we know it. Around here, school starts around August 11th. The pool will only be open on the weekends after that! Bummer!

Garden news:

Well, it is official! I have a knack for growing cucumbers! Anytime I have had a garden, I have not had a lot of success with much except cucumbers! I love cucumbers and so do many of my children, so we are happy with cucumbers. Maybe I should only plant cucumbers for now on.

I went out to the garden today and found these babies. I haven't checked in about 3 days, but I was so surprised to find these. The last time I checked, I only saw cucumbers just forming.

The rest of my garden is not doing so great! The corn is tiny and starting to grow tassels. Yeah, I don't think we will get much out of that! The tomatoes only sprouted and then died! The sunflowers did pretty well last year, but this year are still growing, but do not seem to be doing great. The lettuce is so-so, and the green onions are doing pretty well. I need to try something new next year or just maybe start a cucumber farm!

 

My New Design and Snapshots Of My Garden

First, let me say a huge Thank You to my dear Hubby for all his hard work on my new design! He is one Amazing Person! I ask him if this can be done and he figures out a way to make it happen.  He is brilliant with the computer! I just wish I had better skills at designing things! We will still be tweaking a bit here and there.

Dear Hubby, Thank You from the bottom of my heart for all your hard work and your patience with me!

I Love You!

Now, on to my garden. I was wanting to take pictures of my garden every week, each week, to see what the difference was. These pictures were taken on Day 10. Now it has been 3 weeks and I have not taken any more pictures.

Please do not make fun of me! :) I am a city girl trying to live like a country girl and I am learning as I go along!

Everything is sprouting up and seem to being doing well so far. I needed to weed out some of the plants when these pictures were taken, but this has since been done. We planted extra seeds on purpose so that something would grow.

Everything was planted from seed except for the green onions, Strawberries, and Lavender. The green onions were planted from onion sets and the Strawberries and Lavender were from plants.

Corn

Another view of the corn.

Cucumbers

Sunflowers

Tomatoes

Green Onions

Lettuce

 I planted Strawberries and Lavender last year and they are supposed to come back year after year.

Strawberries

The Strawberries are a variety that are supposed to produce all Summer long. They seem to be in a rest period right now, but are starting to bloom again.

The Lavender is doing well. I probably need to move it to a flower bed though. It would be nice to have this space for more vegetables.

The hydrangeas are in full bloom. The blooms are a bit small though and they are a variety of colors. I need to look into some kind of plant food for them. I believe I have heard that there is something that helps the color be more even. If you know of anything I can feed them, let me know.

The butterfly bush is literally taking over! It has grown so huge and the blooms are huge too! Please do not tell dear hubby that I really think early next year we need to move this bush, he might think I have lost my mind! Just let that be our little secret! OK?

I really enjoy this bush! It attracts a lot of butterflies!

I do not know what these little beauties are called, but I need to find out! I planted them last year in this barrel and they came back this year looking like this! I need another plant because there is one bare spot because I planted another kind of plant in that spot and it did not come back.

And then there are the flowers that I bought this year that still have not gotten planted! I keep saying hopefully I will do it soon, but that soon never seems to happen. 

Hopefully it will be...........

 

Planting The Garden And A Haircut

Life continues as normal as it gets here at our house. Hopefully we should be done with school in the next couple of weeks.  Ahh, summer break! We are all looking forward to it.

I finally got my garden planted on Memorial Day! Now let's hope that it does well. I changed it a bit from last year. I will post pictures when things start to sprout. I bought some flowers to put in some pots and a little bit in the ground. Hopefully I will get to those tomorrow.

The excitement for this week is Anna got a big-time hair cut. It has been about 2 years since her last haircut and this is her third hair cut in her 8+ years of life. She wanted to donate it, so we found a Salon that participates with Locks of Love. We have been talking about doing this for a few weeks and I finally got my nerve up to do it! I love her long hair, but it will be easier to take care of. Since it is naturally curly it can be really fun combing it out. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Front Before

Back Before

Kim put her hair in several ponytails to cut it off.

First Snip

Almost there.

Last snip

All done!

What a cutie pie!

I started writing this post a few days ago. Since then many things have started sprouting up in my garden. I will try to get out there today and take pictures. I did not get the flowers planted into the pots yet though. Hopefully that will happen today or tomorrow.

Please remember Baby Vance in your prayers. The last update from his Grandma was things were going pretty well.

Also please keep Danielle in your prayers. Today she is to have on Amnio to see if Baby Seth's lungs are developed enough so that she can be induced. Pray for a healthy baby and delivery.