Re: Dry December

What fun that sounds like! And I'm glad you went. Your sister is so right! I've never been to Vegas but it's definitely on my list of "must do's"
It's supposed to go down to 25 tonight so in came the Australian tree fern again. Next year it's on its own. It will be too big to drag in and out. I'm hoping my giant magnolias will keep the frost and freeze level down, but we'll see. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT" <cyndi.johnson@edwards.af.mil> 
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 6:11 PM
Subject: [CHAT] Dry December



It's not too cold at the moment, but it is a hair-raising 11% humidity.
Literally hair-raising, it's been so dry for so long you crackle with
static electricity touching almost anything. When we drove home last
night, it was like driving through fog - we live on a dirt road, and the
dust is taking a long time to settle so every car that goes by just
kicks up another cloud. I read in the paper that they got a reading of
1% (that's one percent) humidity at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena,
that's just the other side of the mountain from here. I didn't even know
that was possible. Fire season is still in effect. And at night it's
been in the low teens pretty consistently, that's a bit unusual for us.
We're having trouble watering the animals, the hoses are all frozen and
they are not thawing much during the day.
However I see there is a good chance for rain on Sunday. That's nice,
it's also my boss's Christmas party, about 100 people and do you think
there's room for them all inside? Nope.
Haven't done much gardening except watering in the greenhouse. I got my
paintbrush out so I can pollinate the lemon blossoms. Oh man it smells
good in there with those blossoms open. I'm glad I brought in the
impatiens too, they are cheap and I didn't need to, but it's nice to
have the flowers. I'll have to do quite a bit of rearranging when it
comes time to start seeds but I have a month or so to worry about it. I
did manage to get mulch on part of the lawn, the part we stripped last
summer and never replanted. It was really coming up with weeds so I
dumped about 10 wheelbarrows of spoiled hay and sheep manure, I spread
it almost a foot thick to smother the weeds underneath. I'll pull most
of that back in late spring and we can lay down sod. Wish I'd had enough
to cover all the cut part but I didn't, and I'm not going to put horse
manure on the front, not till it's well composted anyway. I've been
dumping the horse manure around the lilac bushes and the arborvitae
where the chickens live. The chickens are having a great time kicking it
all around. I've never fertilized anything out there before so we'll see
if it makes any difference, they all seem to be doing pretty well
anyway.
My front yard is hip deep in sycamore leaves. I'm sure anyone driving by
thinks our house is vacant, I haven't even managed to clear them away
from the front walk. It's dark and miserable when we get home and on the
weekend I always seem to have something better to do. For instance I got
talked into a day trip to Las Vegas last weekend with my sister, to take
in the big western crafts fair called Cowboy Christmas. I griped I was
too busy to spend a day on that. She said, what will you remember a year
from now, that you got your laundry done or you went to Vegas?  So I
went. Left at 5 in the morning and got home about midnight, long drive
but manageable. You've heard the term "rhinestone cowboy"? Let me tell
you he or she is alive and well, I've never seen so much bling in my
life. Rhinestone-encrusted belts, shirts, chaps, hats, buckles and
anything you can put on a horse (maybe not cinches). There were some
very pretty things there (without rhinestones) but I kept my list
tightly in hand and didn't spend too far over my budget.
Well...I see the office potluck has dessert leftovers...talk to you
later.

Cyndi

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE GARDENCHAT


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE GARDENCHAT
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index