Tomatoes Coming Out of Our Ears

If I had to have a vegetable (or is it a fruit?) coming out of my ears, I guess I would want it to be a tomato. They are squishy.

After the varmints got into our garden, I went out and picked every ripe or near ripe tomato with big plans of making friends with the neighbors and winning points with the co-workers. While I did take many to work, and many to the in-laws, the neighbors are still waiting--and I'm still staring at these tomatoes! Now I love homegrown tomatoes about as much as anybody, but this is ridiculous (I can now understand why someone would make a movie about killer tomatoes attacking... I have had these nightmares!)

Our Backyard Garden

This spring we planted a vegetable garden in the backyard. Our yard is kind of steep so handyman Josh built a sort of raised bed. It is level to the ground on one end, and is built up a few feet on the other. It holds 12 tomato plants, many green, red, and yellow bell pepper plants, jalapeno and banana peppers, green beans, cucumber, zucchini, melons, basil and rosemary... a whole section of strawberry plants, onion.... some other stuff I'm forgetting right now but will remember shortly after this post.

About a week ago I noticed several tomatoes were on the ground, chewed up by some critter who sneaked in through the fence. Some rascal chewed through a section of the wood just wide enough to sneak through. Josh set up a live trap and the first night he caught a groundhog. The second night he caught a raccoon. The third night-- a possum. Today, another groundhog. geez. All animals were taken far out into the country and released. Personally I'd rather just wrap chicken wire around our entire yard than to deal with these animals. Oh yeah, they also got our first melon of the season at its peak of ripeness! Arrrrrggg!

This picture makes our backyard look huge! If this picture were panoramic, to the left of the picture would be our apple tree, and to the left of that, our garden. William enjoys splashing in his little pool on hot days.

Mom's Shoe

I need to keep a camera around my neck... I'm always a few seconds too late. Last night the little one was walking around wearing one of my shoes. He does this a lot. He has many funny walking styles, like tip-toe on one foot, like he's trying to do the splits while walking, stomping style walk, and walking backwards. He cracks us up!

Using a Spoon

William likes to feed himself most days; unfortunately he is very messy! This morning he enjoyed some "yo baby" whole milk yogurt. He's not a great eater, but he loves to point and whine at the yogurt whenever we open the refrigerator. He also tries to climb up into his high chair when he wants a snack. We put the food on the tray, set him in the high chair, then he starts squishing the food around, throwing most of it on the floor... spilling his milk on the tray and splashing his hands in it. Then he wants down. We are lucky that he likes food that is good for him, like broccoli, green beans, blueberries, and grilled chicken. What a funny, happy, sweet little boy we have!

The little one

some pictures of William when he was *really* little

Josh's Other Babies

Besides William, these are Josh's other babies. A Martin D2R guitar and Weber Bitterroot mandolin. He plays 'em real good.

Josh's turn

As it says on our profile our favorite music is bluegrass, and I ain't talking about this new age weirdo stuff, I'm talking about old school quick paced wonderful banjoful music. We also like other stuff pretty well, such as Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan and some other songwriter types. If you are new to bluegrass music and would like to get a taste of what I'm into, I would recommend Tony rice, and make sure to listen to the stuff he did in the seventies. I would also like to tell you, if you don't know, check out pandora.com and build your very own radio station. You can use any song title or artist to start out, I would recommend using your favorite song since some artists do things that you might not quite like. When you use a song it will choose songs for your station that closely match the style of that song. J-man OUT

josh's first time

Check this out. Sweet stuff don't you think.
This is Josh and my blogging debut. I thought maybe I should acquaint everyone with two things I hold very dear to me.
First is my 99 Dodge Ram 1500 V8 MAGNUM
It ain't the biggest made but it does everything I need it to, including pulling our 28' Salem camper.
Second is my 1982 Suzuki gs650glz
I was born in 1982
I just picked this baby up from Gary, the fella that owns the local gun shop which I frequently frequent. It is in need of some work which you might notice. This bike has been sitting without the engine for 15 years now. I have everything I need to get it running, however it is going to take some time and money. I intend to put some taller handlebars and a nice set of saddle bags on, and am also going to have a custom sissy bar put on it. My dad will make it for me, as he has been welding since 1968 with the railroad and now owns a rott iron (This is how he spells it because his mascot is his rottweiler named trick) fence company and also makes metal art and other metal things as well. He can weld anything. His current project is making a trike out of a 1981 Honda cb900f. I will keep you all updated on the project.

Still No Visitors?

It has been over an hour since my first post. Still no visitors? I am watching the counter sponsored by eHarmony.... waiting for you...... anyone out there??

Why Do I Always Have to Think of a Title?

This is my first post. I am up past 10:00. Decided to start a blog.... since everyone is doing it. I really don't know how to begin. Thought this would be a good place to store some recipes and pictures. Maybe it would be a good place to complain about things too. This is what I've learned from reading blogs. Most bloogers are witty and funny and know how to spell (that's not me!).

William will probably be the topic of many posts. He is 1 and a half. He talks but only he knows what he's saying. He is illiterate and has no job. We love him. Everybody loves William.

William was named after Willie Nelson. We call him Willie, or William, or Mr. Magoo, or Josie Wales. When he is really bad we call him things we shouldn't. Things that little kids call other little kids. He has only been really bad a few times.