What I did today

All the tomatoes are in the ground and all with labeled.  I think this is the first year where I didn't lose a plant marker.  I have 5 or 6 left over plants, but not sure if I'm going to try and find a spot for them.  I really don't need to plant as many as I do.  I still have tomatoes in the freezer from last year.  Hubby came home with a truckload of garden dirt over the weekend, but it's been raining everyday here,  today it wasn't raining, so I spread some of the dirt in the raised beds.  Had to replant cucumber seeds. Three of the seedlings gone and the two that are left were chewed on.  Green beans look good, only one of those chewed down.  Picked the last bouquet of Peonies. 

Finished repotting tomatoes, eggplants and peppers and put them all on the porch. Left a few trays on the table last night, forgetting that Lucy (short for Lucifer) Cat loves to mess with plants. She trimmed the tops of some and pulled at least a half dozen out by the roots. Potted up those as unknown. An unexpected thunderstorm rolled through tonight and gave the seedlings a good watering. The porch is covered, but enough rain blows in from the sides to make the plants comfortable. 

Went today and got my Real ID. I've resigned myself to the fact that we will be flying to Colorado in August. DS has his vacation approved so the planning is on!

Came home and while waiting for the grass to be dry enough to mow, I decided to trim some low hanging branches on trees in the backyard. Re-potted all 3 Christmas cactus, the leaves on them started turning red. Never had that happen before. Hopefully that will fix them. Then trimmed and mowed the entire yard. Nice breeze. Then at 4 pm decided to give the Tri Color Willows a major haircut. Cut them down to 3 feet. In a month you'd never know I did it. They grow fast, no matter what time of year I cut them. This Fall they are going to the ground with chainsaw. No, I'm not doing it, will get brother to do it. Then next Spring I will get someone to grind the stumps out. Just getting to be too much like trees, though they are supposed to be bushes. Miss Kim lilac also outgrew her britches, way more than the 6-8' tall and wide!!! I'll leave her alone. Once the willows are gone she will have the room she wants. After I got the first bush cut down and hauled to the driveway, went back to start on the second one. Princess started barking and carrying on. Our snow removal guy was in the driveway with his truck, wanted to know if I was keeping all the brush or did I want it hauled away? LOL. Funny guy. He put it in his truck, then helped cut down the second one and hauled that away too. Refused payment. Gotta appreciate people like that!!! Said he was driving by and saw the pile and was on his way to the tree dump anyway. Told him he can have veggies later on, he jumped all over that!!

Tomorrow is big city shopping day. Been too busy this week to go.

Spent a couple of hours cleaning the kitchen and then started baking. Ended up with 36 mini loaves of banana bread in five different varieties. Thirty are for the bake sale, three for us and three for a friend's birthday. Shredded cheese and then combined it with the ground pepperoni for the rolls I'll tackle tomorrow. I am absolutely loving the $10 avocado green Kitchen-Aid mixer as I was actually ahead of the game for a change. Of course having the extra mixing bowl from the one that doesn't work made a big difference. Mom ran across a grinder attachment new in the box at a yard sale a few years ago for $10 and grabbed it because she paid several times that for hers. So now I have it and am pleased with it too.

Finally convinced kiddo to go to sleep and I got back up and wrapped all the mini loaves. Either plastic wrap is easier to handle or I've actually mastered it as it only took an hour and no cursing or wadded plastic happened.

Temperatures predicted to drop in the lower 40s so I reattached the plastic on the greenhouse and ran the cord to the heater just in case. It's already 43° and if it doesn't drop into the 30s I'll be surprised.

Since I am in a holding pattern, to planti the summer garden, due to cold night lows I have been focused on the landscape projects and dead heading flowers. Got the last lilac bush dead headed and snipped California poppies seed pods and cleaned up the spent iris blooms. The flowers gardens look refreshed. What a difference.

Heading out for my second trip to Des Moines this week. Had to take my sewing machine in for warranty work and DM is where I have to take it. It seems it did a complete 180* synchronization flip. It was doing everything backwards at start up. Grrr...... They say it's a factory thing, apparently things weren't tightened down good internally. Needle would get stuck in down position, foot feed wasn't going up and down like it should, wouldn't catch bobbin thread, threader wouldn't work. Surprised it was repaired so quickly. I think the reason for that is the guy was intrigued as he had never seen this issue before.

Anyway, meeting DS for lunch in historic Valley Junction. It's a quaint little area and very secluded from the big city atmosphere.

Steady rain all day so far.  Since it's an indoor day, I decided it's time to clean my bedroom.  Kinda dusty up there.  Went thru some of the stuff just lying around, drawers, closet.  Got 2 bags to throw out, some went into donation pile.  Went thru bathroom cabinet too.  Threw out outdated things and miracle creams that did not keep their promises.  Felt good to get rid of stuff that has been lying around.  Need to have granddaughter go thru stuffed animals piled on the kids bed.  Too many.  I guess I need a rain day to get these things done once in a while.