Words of Wisdom

My mom shared this advice with me a little while ago. It was hard to hear her, as my kids were speaking incredibly loudly to each other at the time. But I think what she said was,

Silence is golden,
but duct tape is silver.

Truer words have never been spoken.

My Other Blog

I have another blog! It has pictures of some of my favorite plants that grow well in our area. The address is www.niftyplants.blogspot.com. I know I have a lot of gardening friends that will like this!

It was late

My last post was written late at night. Sorry, it's kind of silly. I guess I carry a lot of anger toward those darn Liberals.

Bean Towers part II

Even George Washington had bean towers.

Josh and I toured Mt. Vernon this summer and spent time wandering through the beautiful gardens there. The bean towers in the vegetable garden reminded me of my bean tower at home. And that made me wonder, isn't life like a bean tower?

But you know, George wasn't living a very "green" life. Look at his towers! They are made out of tree trunks. Those trees are probably some hardwood species and are not a sustainable material like bamboo. I mean, really, is that being responsible? As much as I admire George Washington, I can't help but wonder why he didn't send away for bamboo. Which choice would leave the larger global footprint? I'll leave that for you to decide.



In reality, I think that global warming is just the latest religion of the Hollywoodites. It's a farce. We don't have enough data to know if this warming trend is just a typical phase of the earth's atmospheric cycles or not. People need to get real and stop relying on sketchy scientific interpretation of data. Just the fact that Al Gore believes in global warming makes it all the more stupid. If people believe everything "scientists" say, they should believe me. Technically, I'm a scientist. My data leads me to conclude that it was unseasonably cold this August. I was shivering at my family reunion in Sandy on August 8th. Ha. There. I've had my say.

Bean Towers

This spring I became enchanted with the idea of pole bean towers. I made one out of bamboo poles and twine. (I even used a power drill to make holes.) I then buried the ends in the garden soil and planted 6-7 Kentucky pole bean seeds at the base of each post.

Honestly, isn't that quaint? I love it. I think that everyone should have one.

El Dia de los Grasshoppers Muertos

The other day I was walking by one of my Japanese maples, and noticed that the upper leaves had been STRIPPED from the branches almost overnight.


Looking closely, I saw huge, eeeevil grasshoppers, over 12 of them, straddling the branches. Now, I'm not a big proponent of broadly spraying my yard for insects. I like to give everybody a fair chance and let Mother Nature balance things out. But, in my ANGER, I knew something HAD TO BE DONE.

I quickly hooked my hose up to a bottle of Triazicide and let her rip. I not only sprayed my Japanese maple, but all bushes and flowers in my front yard. You should have seen the number of hoppers that leapt out of those plants.

It was a freakin' circus.

They started dropping and writhing. Look at their mangled, dijointed bodies.

Deanna said we should get a bowl of ice cream and sit down on the porch to watch the show.

Some took several minutes to die.

And then...silence of the grasshoppers.

My Grandparents

I have a sweet little story to share.

I was visiting with my grandma, and she told me something that I find endearing. When my grandpa picked her up for their first date, he had a cast on his arm. I guess he had recently broken his arm and she hadn't known about it. Anyway, he said to her,

"Just because my arm is broken,
I don't want you taking advantage of me."

And she thought to herself, "Who is this character?"

She shared with me that she just kept "going" with my grandpa after that because he was always joking around. He was fun, not serious like those other boys. To this day, he still teases her and jokes around all the time.


Right now she is in a rehab center, healing her broken pelvis. He comes to sit with her for hours everyday. She is 82 and he is 88 years old. He doesn't want her to be alone, so after he leaves, someone in the family comes to sit with her during the evening. I've been so lucky as to get to sit with her for a few evenings. She is truly a "lady" in all senses of the word. She must hate being there, but she never complains.