Panic ! Maybe ?

At first I was not concerned when I saw the helicopter circling. The local hospital is only about a quarter mile away. We hear medic-vac choppers quite often so I glance up, sun in my eyes, glance back down and kept watering the young plants in the front flower bed.

Chris arrives home and states that chopper has a camera. Camera? I question. Then the chopper circles. I see it is the news crew from the big city. Why would the news crew be HERE? Overhead? What has Chris done now? Is there already a watering ban and I am in deep trouble? Then I see another news crew truck pass by.

I decide it is time to go in and turn on the t.v. "What is being reported from down the street?" When I worked in the city, choppers were no big thing. Just a visual reminder to avoid that area. There was a wreck, a 357 car pile up on the connector. My drive home was gonna be a pain. Maybe, I should go shopping instead.

When the news does not report live from the area, I call my Uncle. Our town is a small town. Yes, one of THOSE small towns. There are a handful of folks you can call to find out the 411 on what is happening. Uncle M is one of the few. This time, he does NOT know a thing.

Finally there is a small blip, a teaser of sorts. The long report would be on the 11:00 news.

The short report was....."A confirmed case of TYPE A unidentifiable flu" at the hospital. The local hospital, the hospital just a very short distance from our home. I also think "confirmed, unidentifiable" really means they think, but do not know.

EEEKKK!

Well this morning, word on the street passed much quicker than the news. Some of it true, some of it....not.

Yes....It is here....THAT flu. The first confirmed case in the southeast. Swine Flu, Pig Flu, Abc123 flu. CDC confirmed it, not just Rumor Mills. (You know him. He lives in every town.)

Hold on...

Just typing that made me need to wash my hands. Just whose hands have been on this mouse?

I have mixed feelings. Should I stock up on groceries, Dial soap, dust masks, and hand sanitizers? Or should I have confidence, all will be OK?

I am planning on going to the Piggly Wiggly in a bit, making sure I have everything I need for the week. I did hear that no Purell can be found in town. (Rumor told me.)

And if we really need masks.

I would fancy one of these....

Newspapers Recycled in the Garden.

For the past 5 years or so, we have been recycling our old newspapers in the Vege Garden. I saw this once on a TV show and have been using this method for weed prevention in the rows successfully ever since.

The photo above shows where I placed the newspapers down in the garden late last fall. I raked backed the leaves to reveal only a tiny bit of newspaper that remains. (The grey blobs in the middle of the pic.) This spring, I had no weeds to remove in the area of the garden where I used the newspapers under the leaf mulch.

After removing any weeds and turning the soil in the garden, with my trusty, red with pink polka dotted pitch fork. ( Which is missing a prong.)

I begin to place the newspaper down in the rows of the garden. I have since read where they news paper should be at least 5 layers deep to work well. I never count, I just start placing newspaper down, overlapping the layers as I go down the row.

If it is windy, you could take the time to wet down the newspaper before placing in the garden to keep it from blowing away to your neighbors yard.

I sometime get distracted and read things I have missed in the newspaper.

Like the names of who is winning the March madness bracket contest in the local paper.

( FYI- My pics came in 5th overall in points. Not that I like watching basketball on TV, the squeaking of the shoes gets on my nerves.)

I continue down the row, and realize it is a little crooked. That will not matter once all the veges begin to grow.

Oh....The red with pink polka dotted pitch fork? I bet you are wondering......

You see sometimes my husband uses our garden tools at his work sites. In the past, these tools have been lost, forever gone. This made me very angry, until I was painting and had left over paint and thought our garden tool handles needed painting, then thought that if I painted the garden tool handles, girly like... A man would not bring them to his work site and if he did, no other man would even think of "borrowing" such girly looking tools. So far, so good. It has worked.

I then start placing the mulch on top of the newspapers. In the past I have used pinestraw and leaves as mulch. We did not have enough leaves this year to use as mulch and we do not have a big pine trees at this house, so we had to buy (shudder) mulch. (gulp) Chris suggested wheat straw. We will see how that goes. I hate having to buy what so many people place out by the curb. I want to be the weird lady who goes around collecting other peoples leaves. The piles of leaves they place out by the street for the city to pick up and place in a land fill. People use your leaves as mulch.

Anyway...
I place the straw, haw, leaves, pinestraw, mulch on top of the newspapers.

Then I remember, I found a magnifying glass in the garden and placed it on top of the straw.
Probably not a good idea. Fires start that way. oops. Luckily, I do not know about that first hand, I just saw where that happened once on Little House on the Prairie. I was 7.

I keep going until I finish the entire garden. Or at least a good stopping point.



Then I plant my little plants.

Eggplant.



Squash.

( I also have planted okra and tomatoes.)

The newspapers will allow water to seep through while aiding in keeping weeds out of the garden making our life easier in a few months.

These newspapers are also being recycled in our yard. Not being transported to a recycling center or being placed in a landfill.

Life is good.

Now... to figure out how to pick up the neighbors leaves by the curb next fall with out being the crazy leaf collecting lady.

hummm.

Wishing our planet a
HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Happy TAX Day !

All the flowers....



Kinda....

Take the sting away...

Feel Better ?

I did not find the Prize Egg.

Or the golden egg.

I did find these eggs.

Or pieces of eggs.

I kept finding these in the Kudzu Jungle when we were trying to clean all the brush away.

As kids, we had to find all the eggs. There was no stopping the hunt until each and every egg was found.

I hope each of you had a wonderful Easter.

Taming of the Kudzu Jungle

Yard Work: Oh........ my aching arms.

For the past few weekends, when it was not raining, we have been hacking away at the privet that supports mounds of Kudzu in the back yard.

April 2008. The dead Opossum Tree is to the right.

April 2009. The Opossum Tree is to the left. Since this pic, I cleared that bit of privet to the right.

A view from the opposite direction.

April 2008.

April 2008. ( You can see where the privet is kinda dead from spraying)

April 2009. Look there is a fence. Cleared by hacking away at the privet with loppers and pulling leafless Kudzu vines.

We have gained a lot of ground in the Kudzu Jungle over the past couple of years. When we first moved in Kudzu covered at least 1/3 of the back yard.

Taken: Day 1@ ThirteenEleven. ( PO's stuff on dangerous deck.)


Each year we gain a little ground. Each year the Kudzu gains a little back. The best fighting time is now, before the Kudzu sprouts and begins the summer sprint. Then it grows a foot a day. If you only have weekends to fight the Kudzu, that gives the enemy 6 days to grow 6 feet. YIKES.

We have got to hurry.

I see little sprouts.

Blogging Blues....

I have not had much to say here lately.

Maybe it is the blogging blues.

Or maybe I've just let the birds do all the talking.

Can you hear them?