Chirp. Chirp. BANG

Birds. Lots of birds. Chirp chirp twitter. Open eye. Look at clock.

Oh, why not. Stagger into semi-consciousness, guzzle caffeine, outside around 9 am. It was substantially cooler than inside the house, so it was comfortable to work in the yard for all of two hours. That's all it took to get miserably warm. I was back inside by around 11:15.

I truly am one giant freckle now.

Good News: At least two of the ant beds by the porch are just sugar ants or a family-similar harmless ant. How do I know? I felt a tickle. I looked down. My entire left calf was covered in ants, as well as my foot and shoe. Hmm. Ants. Nothing HURT. So I pissed em off and washed the whole squirming mess off with the water hose. Never took a single bite, and ants LOVE biting me.

Zucchini has now been transplanted into the garden. Yay! That left me the huge pot they were in (big enough to stuff a kid in) to transplant my largest tomato. Smaller two have now also been split into two pots.

It's amazing what another day can bring.

All of my seeds started in the last week and a half have now started to break through the ground except for my Black-eyed Susans, which have a longer germination period. Almost all of the others came up at the low end of the expected germination.

I now have: pumpkin seedlings, blackeye pea seedlings, tomato plants, radishes, green beans, okra, yellow squash, strawberries, and zucchini. One tomato plant has blooms, at least two of the zucchini look to bloom soon, and I think the strawberries have set enough to start blooming again. I pinched off all of the first blooms on them.

Blackberries aren't looking so great, and I'm not sure why. They grow like mad in the wild, but they just don't seem to like where they are. Time to do some intensive work on them. I need to get out there and trim off the sections that the hail destroyed. I do have some new shoots, so I'll just cross my fingers.

I've got a milk jug that's almost ready to be emptied so I can mix the Miracle Gro for my roses. Hopefully that will convince them to bud so I can figure out what they are.

Zinnias are all going crazy, as are the sunflowers and the tubby rat inside my shirt that's talking up a storm and giving me a bath. I think Oracle wants to go outside. (She did, and not only made the full yard inspection with me, but chattered and discussed it, too.)

The cardinals and mockingbirds are taunting me. They'll get right up close, but only if I don't have my camera.

Was thinking about the flagstone thing. We might be able to do a temporary fix, if I can get DG to help me with the heavy stuff.

There's a VERY large stone in the ground near the arbor. He's going to look at me like I'm insane. We also have a lot of flat, rectangular concrete slabs that were probably used at some time as stepping stones. Haven't collected all of them yet, so the Things and I need to go on a hunt. We DID find some concrete edging for the flower bed (tossed against the fence in the side yard, I mean, what???) that we also need to move.

It's starting to sound like I need a wheelbarrow big time. We have a wagon for the Things, but it will only hold so much.

My back, my left elbow, and my right knee are giving me fits. Despite the Vioxx, I'm back to using the cane today. I need to get some food in my stomach so I can take an aspirin or two to fight it. If I can get the breast reduction, the force placed on the arthritic knee won't be so bad.

I still have no voice. Cracked, gravelly whisper. I'm starting to get used to it. It's been at least two weeks now. I think I've fought it past the danger point of pneumonia, but I don't know how far I am into the clear, and I still gurgle when I try to breathe too deeply.

Are we having fun yet?