monday

Good afternoon.
I'm so glad the plant sale is over. After the hail storm, I just wanted it to go away. I fortunately did okay and sold all the plants. But it was at a very discounted price. I think I need a break from this next year. It's an awful lot of work, and I also need to let the plants regenerate.
After the sale, I cleaned the inside of the mo-ho getting it ready for our next trip, while Craig did his usual bookwork. For dinner we had pic of the chick on the grill (chicken breast, thighs, and legs). It was so good! We added baked beans and grilled potatoes.
This morning, I cleaned the Salon, since I wasn't able to do it on Sunday morning due to the sale, and after Craig got up, we had a lot of running around to do. He then did more bookwork, (estimated taxes) while I worked in the yard. Some one from my sale dropped off some yellow flag iris, and I had the perfect place to plant them. Also my potatoes are coming up nicely and you are suppose to add more dirt around them as they grow. It gives them more area to grow more potatoes I guess. So I did that.
We booked our trip to Pokagon State Park for October. One of our camping groups will be there for a chili cook off. We've got a really good recipe that I think will do good.
I then washed the entire mo-ho for the first time this year, and helped Craig mow the yard.
He is currently making dinner. Turkey burgers with avocado, onion, salsa, and turkey bacon. Add oven fries and you have a tasty meal!
Then it'll be our usual Monday evening sitcoms.
See you later!

And then it was done

Good afternoon.
Plant sale is done. 319 plants gone!
Total....$879.00
Not a bad amount at all considering the markdowns I had to do after the hail storm.
We had nearly 2 inches of rain during the night, but it quit around 5 am and no rain during the sale. Our turnout wasn't near as good as expected, and after the initial rush, I had sold $757.00 with over 80 some plants left. I went on Craig's list and advertised half off. We had a slow stream of people over the next few hours, and when I was getting down to the last 30 or so, a woman showed up and started buying everything I had left.
So, I got rid of all the plants, and still made a decent amount considering the condition of the plants. And it was all over in 4 hours. I hate sitting all day waiting for people to come and go. That's why I always price the plants to move. I'd rather make a little less, than waste my time sitting and waiting.

my pity party

Good evening.
I'm sorry for my little pity party this morning. It really knocked me down a bit. But... I'm back on my feet, and I'll be fine. I had a lot of damage and when I came home from work, I trimmed enough to fill a 5 gallon bucket. There's still a lot of leaf damage, but I'm not going to cut off every bad leaf.
My main problem is I always want my plants to look real good for an amazing price. And now....I've got a bunch of damaged plants I'm discounting. They don't look that good. I don't even want to do the sale, but of course, I've got 300 + plants sitting out there I need to get rid of. So..... I've repriced them accordingly, and will hope for the best. I've got many more large divisions than last year, so even after discounting them, I think I might still do well. We'll see.
Thanks for all the e-mails and comments.
And now, Craig is fixing me home made pizza. He has been really good support during this.
And tomorrow is the sale! So keep your fingers crossed we have a good turn out and don't get any rain!

devastation

Last evening, a severe thunderstorm blew through the area with pounding rain, gale force winds, and even hail.
It was devastating. No, I'm fine, and the house is fine, but my plants.......especially the plant sale plants......



Torn leaves, shredded leaves, broken stems.....

What the wind didn't break, the hail shredded........
Some plants totally destroyed, like this fancy fern, many others, multiple stems broken. A lot of the plants appear to be fine, I'll be able to tell better later this afternoon when I get home from work, But I'll have to price down a whole lot of them. People don't like buying broken/damaged plants. So, I'll clean up what I can, price accordingly, and hope for the best on Sunday.

But right now, I'm one unhappy little camper. And now I've got to go to work.

It's almost here!

Good evening.
I know, an unusual evening post. But I'm done working out side today, and needed to take a break. Craig is fixing dinner, ( red beans and rice, yummy!) so I have a bit of time. Work has been very busy. So I went to work this morning at 7, and left at 2 and came home and mowed the yard, and finally organized all the plants in their rows, and then put pics on all the plants. Here's a pic of everything in the sale.

The plants stretch all the way from the front of the mo-ho to the back of the garage. 319 plants, all dug out of my yard. You can see my pickup at the end. That's there to keep people from stopping by before the sale and taking anything too easily. I have it wedged right next to the mo-ho. I've never had that problem in the past, but it doesn't hurt to be extra careful! And besides, I hope to get about $1000.00 dollars form the sale!
Now all I have to do is put price tags on them which I will do after work tomorrow. So I can't wait for this to be done since it has completely consumed all my time out side of work. And has disrupted my usual postings!
Wish for no rain on Sunday, and a good turnout.
Thanks!

plant sale progress

Good morning.
With scattered rain showers through the day yesterday, we stayed mostly inside. I cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed, while Craig did laundry.
We really needed the rain since it has been unusually warm for May and we hadn't had any rain in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, although it rained on and off all day, it never came down very heavy, and so barely registered in my rain gauge. But we have a chance for more rain on Wed. and Thur. Let's just hope not next Sunday for my sale.
I also got all the pics for the sale cut, glued to plastic knives, and bagged. Here's a pic taken during the process.
Then Craig wrote the names for all the plants on other knives. This morning, I'll start putting them in all the pots.
And for our Memorial Day dinner, it was sirloin steaks on the grill with baked potatoes and corn on the cob. Yummy! If you like your potatoes nice and crispy on the outside and moist and flaky on the inside, clean and dry your potatoes, prick them a couple of times with a fork and lightly rub them with oil and a little sea salt. Bake them at 425 until fork tender.
And that's it for today's post.

Memorial Day

Good morning and a happy Memorial Day!
I've finally reached the 'I think I'm in good shape yard wise for the plant sale' point. I've got all the yard fairly weed free at the moment, all the bushes that needed trimming trimmed, and the yard is looking pretty good.
I've also finished printing the flower pics to add to the pots so people can see what they'll look like in bloom.Now, I just need to cut them, glue them to plastic knives, and insert them into ziplock baggies to protect them from watering. Craig is working on the name tags, and I've got all the price tags from last year. I also touched up the paint on the yard sale banners we put out by the road.
So today will be mostly finishing up on the pics. With one week to go until the sale, I'm in very good shape.
Craig spent most of yesterday, making home made potato salad and baked beans. He doesn't do it often, as they're a time consuming process. But boy are they good!
I then grilled chicken, and it was a tasty meal!
And I also managed to get some pics taken, and here's a few more flowers currently in bloom.
An early trumpet Daylily, and a light blue Siberian Iris.

A variety of Ranuculus, and very pale pink single Peonies.
And today we're taking it easy.

plant sale list.

Just a quickie post this morning.

I just came in from an hour of weeding. and watering. Between work, the yard, the plant sale, I've got no time for anything else. I filled the cracks in the asphalt driveway Tuesday, and plan to seal it this weekend. I'm about 80% done with the weeding, and I've printed about 70% of the pics for the plant sale. I'm on the home stretch with just over a week to go. But I'll try and check in and keep you updated.

Oh, and the spelling of the plant names may not be right, but you'll get an idea what I have to sell this year.

summer is here.

Good morning.
It looks like we're in for some great summer weather. Forecast for the entire week is to be in the mid 80's. Sounds like grillin weather to me!
We've just finished a busy week at the Salon yesterday, and came home and mowed the yard, did more weeding, and then relaxing with cocktails on the deck. The yard is looking good!
For dinner, it was home made pizza, ground beef, mushrooms on a Boboli crust. Then watched an old movie, Starship Troopers.
Today, I've got to clean the Salon, then it's shopping for flowers for the pots and veggie starters for the garden. I should have gotten them in last weekend, but we were gone. Also need to pick up driveway sealer and crack filler. Hope to seal the driveway next weekend.

And here's a couple of pics of my 300+ plants potted up for my sale on June 6th.

They completely fill the area from the mo-ho back to even around the car kaddy. Now when time permits, I need to inventory what I have, write name tags for all of them, Print pictures of them in bloom so shoppers can see what they'll look like, and then price them all.

So it looks to be a very busy weekend also.

I'll try to update later.

Friday

Good morning.
It's another busy week in the Salon, and that is good. I've also been busy in the yard. The weather is warming this week and I've been able to work in the yard in the morning before work. Wednesday, I hauled the rest of the 100 or so plants from areas in the yard up to the gravel area by the garage. I now have all 300+ by the garage. I can now use one sprinkler to water them all. Thursday morning, more weeding, and Thursday evening, more weeding. The weekend is also looking good. Rain today and tomorrow, but sunny Sunday and Monday, so I hope to get even more weeding done. I'd say I'm just over half way there.
We're also looking at another health insurance policy. Our rate is going up again in June. The policy we're looking at is only a 1000/2000 deductible/co-pay where as our current one is a 2500/5000 deductible/co-pay. The new one does not cover yearly physicals or office visits like our current one , but does cover colonoscopies. We would save about $35 per month each with the new one. Since we seldom go the doctor, I'm thinking the new one would be a better choice. And Craig had polyps at his last colonoscopy, so he is suppose to have one again next year. And me again in 4 years. They run around $1300.00. We're meeting with an agent next week to decide.
Well, that's all I've got for now.
Have a great weekend!

weekend in review

And again, another weekend over. I can't imagine only having a 2 day weekend. Our 3 day weekend goes by soo fast!

Anyway, it was another great day. potted up a few more divisions, did a crap load of weeding, and helped Craig mow the yard. I'm about 1/3 done weeding. I think this yard is getting bigger every year. ;-)

My poison ivy (or what ever it was) mess is starting to clear up. That was the worst I've ever had it and I don't even know where in the yard I picked it up. Beside that real bad spot on my forearm I had minor spots farther up the arm, on my side, my tummy, and my other arm too.

Oh well, the hazards of home ownership. :-]

On the work front, it's looking to be a real busy week. I've got just 5 slots open for the entire week. I'll probably get tons of calls. That seems to be how it works in the appointment business. Sit around one day and work your butt off the next. And I'm going in extra early today. The staff called yesterday to inform me the washing machine stopped working. So I've got a repair man coming this morning. And I also need to install those 3 batteries in the exit signs and emergency lights. I've also got 2 supply orders coming in today.

So it's time to shower and hit the road!

Back to work

Good morning.
A recap of yesterday...
I dismantled the love seat we replaced with the 2 new Pango chairs so it'll fit in the dumpster at work, and then I potted up 10 more Hosta's for my plant sale even though the temps were only in the mid 30's. It was sunny with no wind, and the gloves I wear are quite warm. And I did this all while Craig slept. Then after he got up and showered, I made us Lattes and we did our weekly shopping for groceries. Then I spent most of the rest of the day in the yard. I've now got a total of 253 plants potted up so far for the sale.
It looks to be a busy week in the Salon, which is good.
And for dinner, we had marinated baked chicken with fried potatoes and marinated broiled asparagus. And we made enough for leftovers on Thursday.
And that's all I got, it's time to get ready for work.

Tuesday

Good morning.
Yesterday turned out much better weather wise than forecasted. Instead of cloudy with a chance of rain, we had sunny skies, near 60, but with a cold north easterly wind. But I bundled up and helped Craig mow the yard, and then I dug, divided and potted up another 31 plants. I have a running total of 233, with a couple of weeks to divide and pot more. I'm sure to have a great selection for my sale.
And with less than 1/4 inch of rain from that last weather system, I've started to water the flowerbeds. I need to start weeding them, and the ground is too dry to work.
And for dinner, Craig fried up a couple of ham steaks with mashed potatoes and gravy and honey ginger carrots. very good! And we finished the evening with our Monday sitcoms.
And that's all I got for now!

Out with the old!

An update on our IKEA experience.
Here's the ratty old love seat that really had to go.


And the nice new leather Poang chairs that replaced it.

They really are very comfy, and it took a total of 20 minutes to assemble. A total of 8 screws in each one. And of course with an open frame, the room looks bigger too!

And it was another beautiful day yesterday. I dug and devided another 27 plants for a running total of 176. But I'm quickly running out of pots! I thought I had plenty, but I have just 32 large ones left. I've placed an ad on Freecycle hoping to get some more. And I'll also place a flyer at work.

I also cleaned the mo-ho, so it'll be ready for our next trip.

And now it's time to get ready for another work week.

we're back!!

Good morning.
We made it safely back from our first camping trip. We were originally scheduled to go to Proud lake recreation area. It was to open on March 26th. Well, thanks to Michigan's economy, they pushed it back to April 1st. So we had to scramble to find an alternate campground. And we did. We ended up at Detroit Greenfield campground. It actually ended up closer to the things we planned to do, although a little longer drive in the mo-ho.
Here's Craig in our campsite. The campground wasn't very busy, which is understandable since it was a bitter cold, windy weekend. But like I said, we always have a back-up itinerary, in case of bad weather. And for this trip, it meant shopping!

Our evening view....
So, Saturday morning, we headed over to IKEA! If you've never been to one and are going to be nearby, you really need to check it out. It's an enormous home furnishing store!

And we found just the things we wanted. But that's a separate post right after this one. Then after a tasty lunch at a nearby Chilli's, we went to a large Camping World store. They were having a spring 'sale'. We thought it would be fun to look at the new mo-ho's. Well, they had none. All they had were used. But we looked at a couple. One had a 3 zone living layout with 3 slides. A kitchen/couch slide, a dinette/closet slide, and a bed slide. I thought it would look small divided into 3 areas, but it really looked nicely laid out for only a 37 footer. The salesman was a real piece of work though, we discovered that the generator had been removed. He acted like he didn't know about it. They'll probably sell it to some poor soul who doesn't know what to look for and they'll be stuck paying for a new one. I have a fairly low respect for salesmen.

Anyway, with temps not even hitting 50 on Sunday, with a still cold north wind, we decided to take a short drive into downtown Detroit to, you guessed it, The Greektown Casino!

Now, you'll remember back in early January, we stayed here for Craig's birthday, and liked it well enough to come back. But this time, no expensive hotel room. Just good food, and slots, which I won at and Craig lost at, so we ended up close to breaking even. Not bad, and lot's of fun.

And we packed up Monday morning and headed back to Lansing, just in time for some decent weather to return. It got into the low 60's with calm winds and sunshine. But no trip is without an incident, and this one was no different. Craig arrived home first to move the car and truck so I could get the mo-ho in the driveway, and the truck was dead. So I parked across the street in the golf course parking lot. Put the charger on, and got enough charge in about 10 minutes to start and move the truck. Then put the charger back on for about another 30 minutes. Ever since I had that remote starter put on, I'm getting a battery drain. If I don't drive it at least once a week, the battery goes dead. I need to get around and take it back in sometime and get it fixed.

So anyway, I worked out side the rest of the afternoon, dividing and potting up another 37 plants for my big sale in June. I now have 149 so far, hopping to reach 300 before I'm done.

The new season has begun!

Ahhhh spring!

Good morning.
Another beautiful day yesterday. Our normal high should be in the mid 50's, but we hit 63 yesterday. The last several weeks have been mostly above normal. So I've taken full advantage of the weather and divided and potted up another 18 plants for a current total of 78.


And that unknown plant is getting ready to flower. Does anyone know what it is?

And here's another spring pic...
I just love this time of year with the 'rebirth' of life.

And yesterday I also started the un-winterizing of the mo-ho. Drained out the anti-freeze and mixed up a bleach solution and pumped that into the freshwater tank and then filled it with water and ran it through all the water lines. I let it sit overnight to 'sanitize' the system. Today I'll drain all that out and refill with fresh water and run that through all the lines and then we'll be ready for our first trip.

I just love spring!

a beautiful day

Good morning,
We had another beautiful day yesterday. Not 70's but upper 60's, sunny and low wind, so spent the entire day working in the yard. Besides deadheading, weeding and trimming, I managed to dig, divide, and pot up 36 plants for my big sale in June. Mostly day lilies. They are just about the only thing 'up' enough to divide. But I have nearly 50 varieties, so I found plenty to divide. Craig did his usual laundry, book work and made us a delicious Easter dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, scalloped corn, and of course deviled eggs. We almost ate them all before I thought to take a pic.
Now the only reason for the pic is for Garret and the post he did about making deviled eggs. Or should I say about making hard boiled eggs. Yes, there's a ton of different ways to boil and egg, and still, you may not get easily peel-able eggs. So long ago, Craig decided that this would be his method for making hard boiled eggs.....

Buy em that way! Now why didn't someone think of this years ago! It would have saved a lot of people much grief! Yes, look in the upper right corner, they're $2.79 for 10 eggs, but Craig says it's well worth it for not having the hassle. And you have deviled eggs in no time flat!

So that was our day, and it was great! Good weather, good food, and a productive day.

A success!

The plant sale is over!

Here's some pics from the sale. I started out with 340 plants.

Craig took this pic of cars parking across the street. There's no parking allowed on the street. See our mo-ho there too?

As Craig went to take pics of the crowd, the camera wouldn't turn on. Battery was dead. So by time he got it recharged, the sale was over. 300 plants in 40 minutes! Grand total.........$1002.00! Better than last year with fewer plants! But I did have larger divisions, so priced them a little more. But still nothing over $5.

And I'm completely exhausted form all the preparation, but it was well worth it. People gushed over the yard, and loved the selection and organization.

And here's all that's left. 33 plants. I was surprised at some of them. I'm going to plant some back in the yard, and put the rest out by the mailbox with a free sign.

I'm glad it's over. It really consumed most of my extra time.

But now the yard looks good for the summer, we have some extra gas money for the mo-ho, and we can play the rest of the season.

And I'll have more pics of the yard tomorrow.

A quickie

Just a quickie......
I've been crazy busy with the final details of the plant sale. Besides working in the Salon this week, I've arranged all the plants by Sun, part sun, and shade. I also priced all 340 plants, and have made pics of the flowers they'll have when they bloom. I then glued all the pics to stakes, and put a Ziploc bag on each one in case of rain. tomorrow, after mowing the yard, I'll put the pics on all the pots. And I'm also trying to finish up the weeding so the yard looks decent for the sale.
But here's a few more pics of whats blooming right now....

A Cranesbil in front, then Spiderwort, and a Wiegelia.
Lupine, Peony, and Rannulus.

Rhododendrons in the background with Perscaria floating in front.

And the plants for my sale arranged in rows from the ferns all the way to the truck!

Now I'm off to work!

no more frost

Good morning!
I believe the really cold weather is finally behind us. After 2 days of frost, it appears we're on the upswing. It's currently 47 out, going for a high of 72. And the long range forecast is showing above freezing for the next 2 weeks.
I'm finished with my dividing and potting. I have 340 plants for my plant sale. Not the 370 I had last year, but more than the 234 the year before. Now, I just hope people show up and buy them all! ;-)
I also planted some pots with annuals for the deck and arbor, and today am planting 3 different Peppers, and 3 different Squash. I've got the pond crystal clear, and have been spot treating the lawn for weeds. And now with the plant sale plants done, I really need to get the gardens weeded. But I have nearly 3 weeks to get them looking good.
So while Craig sleeps in, I'm off to work in the yard.