Just like Daddy

"Today I got to help Daddy with his computer."

"I'm not sure if I liked the cables or the box better."

"Today I got to play around with sports equipment with Daddy."

"Maybe I'll be into rock climbing like my Cousin Sarah."

"Today I helped Daddy with the garden."

"Mommy will have to tell you what we did though. I just taste-tested."

---

Craig got my trellis netting up today and I got my tomatoes in the beds.


It may be a bit early for the tomatoes, but the forecast is for warm weather for the next week and by then it'll be the frost-free date here. I can always protect them if need be with some straw I snagged this morning. Someone had discarded it in a common area of the neighborhood. It must have been a decoration in the fall; it's my mulch now.


I found an interesting tomato support at the store I'm going to try out this season, the 'Ultomato'. (Yeah, I know. I almost couldn't overlook the name.)


It has 3 long rebar-like supports except it's made of plastic. There are 3 sets of 3 cross bars that are all attached independently wherever they are needed. Hopefully they'll be able to support branches in exactly the right spot.


It was pretty inexpensive, but we'll see if it was money well spent.

As of today, my heritage Black Krim, planted nice and deep:


And my Roma. They're both putting out blossoms already.


But did I add enough compost and manure???

Who needs cute...

...when there's cool?

The human body is quite amazing

I've been easing back into working out and running finally. I've been so surprised by my level of muscle memory. My plan when I go out for a jog is to have 20 minutes of running until I feel like walking and then walk until I feel like running again. (With some warm-up and cool-down time on either side.)

To my surprise, I've been very comfortable jogging for a good 5 minutes. And then I walk, not because I need to, but because I feel I should so as not to over-do it. Today I even had a good 'lift' at the end. That's where I feel like I could pick up the pace and really keep going for a long time. But instead I stopped.

I'm very pleased and hope to be doing a solid 20 minutes (or more?) by the end of the month.

I've also discovered a benefit to Craig's new DirecTV: it has the FitTV channel...I get Sharon Mann again! I really love my video, but new 20 minute workouts are perfect right now.

And Big I is a good work-out partner, of course.



And water bottle-checker.

"Trees are really cannibals..."

"...Most people don't know that." -- Kirk W.

Kirk was a contractor with us at work for some time. He's a landscape architect and he and I spent many, many hours in the field working on a new park design. During the construction process, we were concerned with protecting some nice big post oaks. One good way to do that is to give them a nice wide (not too thick) layer of mulch which will protect the roots and eventually break down into some nice nutrients.

While overseeing some mulch and fencing around the said post oaks one day, we both came to the very wise realization that trees are, after all, cannibals.

My live oaks in the front yard have never had the benefit of cannibalism, er, mulch and are much the worse for wear. They certainly don't look like trees should that have been in the ground over four years. One has already been damaged at the base and probably will need to be removed in coming years.


But to help them out as best I can, Big I and I put down some newspaper and mulch to help fend off the bermuda grass. Not only did Big I supervise, he did the most important job of all: holding the blanket down.




One down. Eventually we'll make real, edged beds to go around them, but for now this will do. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the other one this week.

Busy Big I

Big I is 7 months old today and he's getting to be a big and very busy boy. He did all sorts of stuff this weekend.

On Friday, Craig upgraded to satellite tv. (To get more '"HD gloriousness" or something. Whatever.) Big I helped the installation guy and Daddy get everything put in.


Then he and Daddy spent way too much time getting all the settings and such right.



He loves the Beginner's Bible his Uncle Andy gave him for his baptism. Something about the nice colorful pictures I guess. He sat and let me read to him for quite a while.


Just a funny moment after church this morning. He and Craig worked out their own way to keep warm.


He and Brisco are good buddies too. We're lucky to have such good, kid-friendly dogs. (Actually, it's not luck. I made sure to never give them the choice to be otherwise.) Notice the look of quiet wariness in Brisco's eye, though. He may be tolerant, but he's not stupid. Good dog.


----

And on a completely unrelated note: Don't my stuffed peppers look cheerful and yummy? I just had to take a picture. They tasted good too.