I lost administrative access to my old blog some time ago. I can still write new posts as a Contributor, but I cannot update settings or make any other changes to it and have failed to break into my old Administrator account despite my best efforts, so I am cutting my losses and starting fresh.
I guess my old blog will remain out there in perpetuity, so posts prior to 2021 can still be found at My Lubbock Garden, but everything new going forward will be housed here at Emmy Girl's Garden.
Reseeding the grass in the back yard between the patio and the rock garden beds. Turned all the soil manually with with a shovel to dig out the weeds and loosen the soil.
Seeding with Scotts Turf Builder Bermudagrass (Highlander) WaterSmart Plus:
Seeded the back yard in two parts.
4/23/2021 - partly dug
5/21/2021 - first signs of sprouting on the right, left side still needs to be dug
5/26/2021 - first seeding 14 days out
6/2/2021 - 21 days (3 weeks) out from first seeding (NW quadrant is second seeding, 11 days out)
6/11/2021 - 30 days (4 weeks) out from first seeding; (NW quadrant is 20 days out); has been really hot this weeks with temps 98 - 108.
6/13/2021 - fertilized
6/16/2021 - 35 days (5 weeks) after first seeding; (NW quadrant is 25 days out); reseeding area over by flower bed in upper right where it's not growing thick enough. Seed may have washed out with some of the heavy rains.
6/23/2021 - 42 days (6 weeks) after first seeding
6/30/2021 - 49 days (7 weeks) after first seeding
7/7/2021 - 56 days (8 weeks) after first seeding
7/14/2021
MONEY SHOT! 6/20/2021 - Amazing at just the right angle!
This used to be my old fish pond. I filled it in many years ago after a snake ate my fish and the liner cracked. Since then it's been nothing in particular, but it still has the old rock border around it which was concreted in. I've grown tomatoes, watermelons, and weeds in it. It is highly visible from inside the house, and I was tired of it looking like crap, so last year I started a concentrated effort to make it look nice.
It gets full sun ALL day long. The soil holds water well, but "normal" plantings still have a tendency to wilt every afternoon in the summertime because of the intensity of the high-summer radiant heat, so I am doing it all in desert rock garden type materials.
Back when it was a fish pond:
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| 2000 |
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| 2004 |
2016 (home to a tomato plant):
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| Black Cherry heirloom tomatoes - prolific and delicious! |
2020 (even the cosmos fried last year):
2021 (so far, and granted it's been raining like crazy):
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| 'Moonshine' yarrow |
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| Purple Ice Plant |
I'm
prepping for being moved onto ERCOT by eating all meals off the grid
today - using the Kelly Kettle (practice makes perfect!).
From the Kelly Kettle website:
The first kettle dates back to the 1890's to a small farm on the shores of Lough Conn, County Mayo, Ireland, when a young Patrick Kelly (Great grand-father of the current Co. Directors), a small farmer and fisherman, developed his first kettle from Tin after a cold winter of tinkering and experimenting in a shed. The kettle worked extremely well but burned out from regular use on Lough Conn when Patrick was fishing for Trout & Salmon the following summer. After going through a number of Tin kettles, he developed the kettle in copper and this was found to be much more durable. News of his kettle spread among local anglers and it received wonderous looks from anglers visiting from the U.K.
Cool! But how does it work? I'm glad you asked!
The Kelly Kettle is essentially a double-walled chimney with the water contained within the chimney walls. Once the camp kettle is filled with water, simply start a very small fire in the base, set the kettle on the base and drop additional fuel down the chimney (natural fuels such as twigs, leaves, grass, paper, dry-animal dung, etc.). The large internal surface area of the chimney heats the water extremely fast so, very little fuel is required. The fire is all safely contained within the fire-base and the chimney of the kettle itself so, a) strong wind and rain does not interfere with the fire and b) the kettle is safe to use in many areas where open fires are not suitable. Within a matter of minutes, the water will come to a rolling boil. It really is that simple!
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| Staring down the chimney of my Kelly Kettle |
I decided on the KK as an addition to my preps after Winter Storm Uri. I'm planning on surviving an extended blackout with freeze dried food (and coffee!) but never really had a good plan for how I was going to heat the water. The KK seemed like the perfect solution - plus it allows me to do some small-scale cooking as well!
For my first
real KK meal, I made scrambled eggs! Honestly, I wasn't really expecting
it all to work as advertised, but they turned out great! Unlike with
skillet cooking, once you're cooking on this thing, you're COOKING so
I'm glad I had everything prepared in advance. (I think there's some
fancy French term for that.) I did the onions and bacon on top of the
kettle while it boiled the water, and then I added in the eggs and
finished those off on the hobo stove accessory while my coffee brewed.
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| Meal Prep |
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| Using the cooking attachment on top while boiling water for my coffee. |
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| Onions and bacon cooking |
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| Once the water was boiled, I converted to the hobo stove to scramble the eggs. |
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| Scrambled eggs with onions, bacon, and fresh cilantro from the garden! |
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| ... with coffee! |
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| My breakfast companion |
Now my equipment is nice and charry so I look legit, and that's important.
For supper, Mountain House Pad Thai Chicken (rehydrated via the Kelly Kettle!) souped up with garlic, cilantro, soy sauce, and Sriracha - quite good! It doesn't expire until 2051, but I decided to go ahead and eat it anyways!
This 16 oz. thermos works great for preparing your freeze-dried meal.
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| It has a folding spoon that stores in the top! |
Between several rounds of coffee, meals, and tea, I fired it up 5 times today and got much better at getting my fire going as the day progressed. Some people build a fire in the base first and then place the kettle on top, but what seemed to work best for me is to just place the kettle on the base first and then just shove a bunch of dry leaves and twigs down the chimney and light it from the bottom holes. This got a good fire going for me every time with less smoking.
The Kelly Kettle is awesome! Take that ERCOT!!
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| Eeck!!!! |
Growing from the root end of one I bought at the store last year. I think this picture is gorgeous!
