We are OK!

My phone is dead and I know I've had a few voicemails, so this will have to suffice for now...


You may have heard about our jet crash at 12:15 today, I know it's national news now.  We are ok.  Terrified for sure for a few moments, but ok.  It was close, but not close enough to affect us.  A little less than half a mile from our house, it's a fear we push to the back of our minds because if we didn't we could never live here.  The really sad news is that the jet went down into the middle of an apartment complex.  The area is so built up there I have the feeling the news will be terrible.  We happened to be on the road near the site on our way home when it happened, the ground shook like an earthquake and then explosions and dark smoke from the jet fuel.  I have lived here long enough to see this happen 3 times now, but the other two were ditched in an unpopulated area right near the airfield (even closer actually with fuselage on our street!), this one is horrifying because of where it went down.  Of course my phone was almost dead in the car and from where we were stuck in traffic it looked like the smoke was coming straight from the apt complex where a friend of mine lives, and I knew she would be home with her baby.  I texted her and prayed like I never have before I think and within a few minutes she called me - it was the complex right across the street from her, only about 50 yards or so but she was safe!!!  That's when I went from sheer panic to crying, which probably spooked the boys in the back seat who didn't realize that I was worried about anyone other than the pilots - ah, to be that young and have your parents do all your worrying for you!


Here's some photos:

that's the tail end of the F-18, it did not land in the parking lot as you might gather from the photo, there was an apartment block under it that completely disintegrated, and the front half of the jet is also disintegrated

This is what we were greeted with as we made our way to our exit...

plumes of smoke this color over our house area is never a good thing to see, since it indicates JP-5 (jet fuel) and we are right in crash zone 1, there was about an hour of tense gridlock while the freeways were shut down

an aerial photo of the complex shows how bad it was, looks actually like several buildings now that the flames have been put out

you can see how populated this area is in these photo:

The pilots are from hubby's old squadron, he wouldn't tell me over the phone who it was but I can say VFA-106 now since it's already all over the news.  This is a training squadron, where pilots come to learn the F/A-18 after they have already completed flight school and have earned their wings.  This squadron is where they go to learn how to actually land and take off on aircraft carriers.  No word on the whys or hows of the accident, although it does appear from their angle that they tried a last second effort to avoid the populated area, something that is foremost in every pilot's mind.  As of right now we are hearing that both pilots ejected, both have been recovered but we don't know anymore about where they are or their condition.  Right now everyone is focused on anyone in those apartments, and prayers are needed!  Authorities are just now being able to go door to door in the apartment area since the flames were too much earlier.  I'm worried about hubby when he gets home tonight, if he comes home... I have a feeling this will be a long day for him.  As a jet mechanic and a supervisor, he will be lost in his own head today I think, even though he had no hands on this particular aircraft, you can imagine how that might be if that was your profession.  Well, I'm off to listen to more news and try and find out if hubby will be home for dinner or not.  It's eerily quiet out there now without the constant scream of jets, air operations have obviously been shut down for the day, all we hear and see is the helicopters now.  What an emotionally exhausting day so far...

All work and no play...

That's what it's been like around here.  I'm going to do a favor for all of you and make you feel better about your own gardens, go ahead - take a good look:

Hey, you can't accuse me of never showing "the real deal"!

Doesn't that make you feel better knowing however bad your garden might look, mine is worse?!

The mess finally got cleared out this past weekend though, that's Sailor/Farmer/Husband and Finnegan spreading the mulch out that will hopefully slow the weeds down a bit.  Hubby spent the past two weekends pulling weeds and using the stirrup hoe in this area so I agreed to splurge for some mulch so his hard work might last a bit this time :)  Luckily, not too much Bermudagrass here, yet.

Finn scored big points this past weekend!  And LOOK... that's one of the artichokes in the foreground that were uncovered, woohoo!  Finally, I have successfully established the darn things.  Only 3 of them came back this year but whatever LOL.

And this... I'm over it!  They are all hardened off and spend the whole day outside, I'm having to water twice daily since they are getting dry out there, but I can't plant since the past 2 nights were down to 38º.  Today was 82º but severe thunderstorms, wind and hail expected the rest of the afternoon and evening.  They need to go out!

Speaking of being out, I am happy to report that Gordon Gecko is back from his 2 day walkabout.  We were all but sure Sprocket had gotten him but as I walked into the kitchen this morning to pack the kids' lunches there he was in the middle of the kitchen floor.  Looking at me as if saying "hey it's a big scary world out there and I'm tiny and I'm hungry, you can put me back now".

Back into the enclosure he goes (actually a she LOL)... mom it's safe to come visit again :)

Here comes the lighting, time to power down!

Things that make you go hmmm....

Nope, still not Armageddon...

...it's Trader Joe's!  Ouch, I bet this guy had a good sob when he walked out from the store!  

It's a RANGE ROVER, gulp!

The other day a new Volkswagen actually caught fire in the parking lot and a total of 5 cars burned, but this one was the only one left for several days, because the tires had melted into the pavement, yikes!

Spotted at pet supply store...what do we have here?

I'm not sure if people are feeding these to their reptiles or if they are growing them to the moth stage, but all I could think of was that this would be a nice revenge idea for the neighbor gardener that calls the police on your illegal chickens.  For $10.49 you could literally let loose a can of whoop-a$$ on their tomato garden, bahahahaha!

Now on to the serious stuff...

Have you seen this lizard?

MISSING:  1 Leopard Gecko Lizard named Gordon Gecko (any 80's Wall Street fans out there?)

*LAST SEEN sporting a CamelBak with an iPad tucked under his arm making a break for freedom Sunday night

 Seriously... there is a gecko running loose somewhere in my house - mom, do you want to come visit now?

I set up a "trap" consisting of a heat lamp on the floor and a cookie sheet decorated like Arizona, keep your fingers crossed!  I also had to "feed" the mealworms to make them appetizing and wiggly to lure the guy out of hiding, first time for me doing this, enjoy...

ewwwwww!

Strangely, I'm okay with the possibility of waking up with a 4 inch gecko next to me, who 'da thunk it? This is obviously the reason I was only given boys to raise :)

See the crazy stuff that keeps me from blogging with any regularity lately?!

I know it's not Dec 21st yet...

I'm still here :)

I've been M.I.A. for about a week now and it isn't because I didn't want to sit down and blog, I've just been crazy busy here!  Kids, school activities, church activities, after school activities, plants.....arrrrrrgh!  I've also decided to join Judy of My Freezer is Full and get zombie-ready by exercising more often.  Lucky for me zombies look to be pretty slow :)  So far the exercising has consisted of long walks with the dogs and closet cleaning.

I'm still running like crazy, Finn has a school play this evening I have to get ready for, but here's a brief look at my past week in photos:

The girls at the start of our walk:

We've been walking several miles every morning down at the beach.  We have to get our dog time in here before they are banned because of tourist season.  Stupid laws :(

I spy, with my little eye...

an egret!

The neurotic dog thinks this bridge is okay, no gaps to see the water through LOL

Our turnaround point:

HA!  Take that you ankle chasers... 3-4 miles looks like a good stopping point for a herding dog, they were down for the rest of the day!

Finn had a birthday party down the street the past weekend, a little girl in his class.  I let him go by himself, Mr. Independent :)  (Of course I could see him the whole way though!)

Now the jungle... I need an intervention as usual.

Peppers... 

Spilling onto the floor...

Check out this bargain - $20 and came with the plastic cover!

Of course it promptly fell over in the wind yesterday and smashed some of my tomatoes.

Lesson learned, I tied it to the deck railing today :)

We have had a pretty cold week, night temps in the 30's and days in the 50's curbed my hardening off for a few days, but I'm back at it again today.  I just wish the 35 mph winds would relax for awhile, but it's always so windy here.

During the cold spell I decided to clean closets and proceeded to empty them all out into a pretty good replica of Devil's Tower - then it got nice out and I didn't want to work in the house anymore.  Ugh... I need to finish that asap!

Another random post to come soon!

Bermuda, Schmuda...

I've spent the past several days pulling weeds... or shall we say this stuff!

Yes, the evilness that the residents of southern states call a lawn!  I know some of you recognize this and are shuddering now thinking about when you are going to get out there and pull it!  For those lucky enough to not know what this is, it's Bermudagrass (fescue won't grow in the summer heat here).  I pulled one chain and it went on for about 5 feet, ugh!  This is the one thing I know of down here that would cause a person to find themselves in the herbicide aisle at the big box stores buying Roundup at an off hour (so nobody would see you)!  Or maybe in line at the pharmacy waiting to fill a prescription for Xanax?  Don't worry, I haven't given in... yet.  Actually, even Monsanto can't stop this stuff, I call it bamboo grass.  Instead doping up immediately after round 5 of the fight, I made the mistake of lying down on the couch for 20 minutes only to realize that during those 20 minutes my vertebrae apparently went on strike, it took me another 5 minutes to get up with much moaning and groaning - the kids are probably looking up numbers for the nearest senior care facility :)  Know what's insane?  People PAY for rolls of this so-called turf!

And who put that there?

A willow decided to grow right in the middle of the traffic pattern!  I sat down and just stared at this for at least 5 minutes before deciding that hubby will deal with it later :)

Hmmmm..... what am I thinking about the below photo?

I have about 3 dozen tomatoes that need a home, and one big ol' Burning Bush taking up a really nice piece of real estate behind the fenced garden...  PERFECT for a separate tomato garden!  Except that's all Bermudagrass, #^%$)@#!! Maybe another action item for the hubs?  He worked 17 hours yesterday and got home at 10 pm, do you think my "list" might have something to do with it?  ")

Now for some good stuff -

Forsythia is in bloom, finally.  The wierd "reverse-effect" of our mild weather is that it's blooming really late - it normally blooms in my yard at the end of February when it's cold and icky out, I was starting to think it was dead!

The bees are very busy already.  This is my "neighbor blinding" hedge of Carolina Jessamine.  So called because I grew it on a cattle panel underneath so when I sit on my front porch I don't have to look at the neighbor's unmowed lawn and junk pile LOL

Tomatoes are ready to start hardening off whenever I can remember to do it.

Peppers

Basil is already spending the day out on the deck...

Tonight?

Chicken Pot Pie with a side of ibuprofen.

Ready or Not!

I am completely overwhelmed and swamped with non-garden stuff this week but wanted to check in - it's 87º today and I'm too busy with other stuff to even get outside!  Ugh, just as well as that's way too hot for me.  What happened to the period of nice 60º temps to do chores in without sweating?  

Ready or not, things are happening!

Put on your squinty eyes, that's lettuce!  I'm not very good with seeding this stuff, I just fling it in and thin it later :)

Spinach - but yikes it was 80 yesterday and we broke a record of 87º today, maybe Virginia is skipping spinach weather this year?

Self seeded Cilantro below, in MARCH?  LOL...

Onions peeking up...

Irises peeking up...

Fountain grass has late April growth already, time to cut them all down.  I've only gotten to this one so far, the rest are still 7 ft high and have birds nests in them - time to vacate!

Mazus is attracting the bees already.  This ground cover is AMAZING if you can get it, spreads very quickly and the little flowers look like butterflies!  Flowers last all season too...

Some herbs that wintered over this year in a pot -

After planting those 108 pansies last week...

this is what I have left... 

I'm not sure who is the villain here, but tonight I'm leaving the window down on the screen door to these deck pots so Sprocket can alert me!  I have a feeling it's the one squirrel we have that constantly is brave enough to sit on the railing and taunt the dogs.  Left flowers all over the place and just ate the stems!  Yes, I said "the one squirrel"... can you believe that they really aren't that common here?  It took me a few years to even notice that I never saw them... it was only when I DID see one that I realized I hadn't for several years!  Instead we have disgusting creatures like Nutria, Copperheads and Water Moccasins - I sure won't miss those when we move someday :)

Sorry, kids!

As soon as the school bus gets here, I'm going to hear a lot of "oh, mo-ommmmm"!

Yes, it's that time of year again.

Simple math eluded me yet again this year, or is it that I choose to ignore the amount of real estate that "only 2 little flats" morphs into? The kids' stuff just got literally kicked to the other side of their room, and I stole their Lego table, nothing they haven't dealt with before, but square footage is precious here!

I'm only half way done with repotting ...

Is there a good reason for needing at least 32 tomatoes and at least 12 jalapeno plants among all the other?

Nope.