Yesterday we decided enough was enough.  We have been so busy lately and tired from being busy that we have let our garden become a haven for insects… overgrowth… weeds and everything else that normally we would fight to control.  Not to mention that we had a baaaaaaaaad case of mosquitoes and funny enough, we wrote an article on how to control them.   Don’t laugh.

You know what was causing the influx of “mossies”…  our gigantic mosquito growing tank, AKA – swimming pool.

Yup, we did exactly what your not supposed to, let it sit and breed those lil blood suckers until I’m sure we had furnished the neighborhood with their own personal pest problem.  Geeez.  We do feel bad, we feel like idiots… really we do.  But sometimes life catches you with your pants down and then takes it upon itself to laugh and point.

We are pantsless.

Like I said in line 1… enough was enough.  We took off to Ace Hardware to grab a few things we lacked.  A new water hose, a second short water hose to drain the pool, some mosquito killer donut thingys, a new sprinkler (some big white lion of a dog ate the old one) and some organic spray for our plants.  You know… the essentials.

Armed with our tools we began working on things. 

Our beatiful 4 O’clocks had become a mess due to some invisible insects that were eating them UP!  So we made the executive decision to take them out.  They had a good run, some will come back before its freezes… you can bet that.  Next year they will be a beautiful piece of asphault… so really does it matter?  We are going to save some seeds to move to our next home and keep them going.

Next we spent time dividing & conquering – Shala was spraying mosquito killer on the yard, since some of those babies had grown into adults and were biting our asses on the regular.  I spent my time pruning things up and pulling weeds in the garden.  The garden still needs a lot of work, but is in way better shape than before.  The yard got a nice coat of mosquito killer and hopefully we will be on the backside soon.

The pool, well we are draining that a little at a time.  It is so hot in Texas, that we are debating filling it again.  We probably could use it well into October I’m sure, but then again… we have lots of things planned and it could end up just the same.  So that will have to be figured out on the fly.  Until then, we are treating the millions of larvae in the pool – hopefully we can get them before they are flying around causing chaos.

We did pull a few things yesterday, just so you know we are actually getting something out of the garden besides work…

Tags: Gardening, Pictures by James
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We often talk about the good insects and great it is to have lady bugs and praying mantises… but today, we talk about the Tomato Hornworm.  You know the one.  He is probably out there right now munching on something he shouldn’t be.

I guess it was about 2 months ago when we really started getting hit hard by them.  I remember spending afternoons out there in the heat picking them off.  Not cool.

Then I thought we had pretty much gotten a handle on things and this weekend we go out into the garden and see this fat fool sitting atop our tomato plant like he is the champion of all things wormy.

That is my fat finger you see there… trying to give you some kind of perspective on how big he is.  He obviously had made a haul so far, considering his size.  He was sleeping in the morning dew… loving life I’m sure.  Dreaming of all the tomato leaves he would eat today and all the lil black turds he would be laying on the ones he didn’t eat.

He was quickly eradicated.  I will not tell you the method.  Although, I hear soapy water does the trick… if you like the evil feeling of squishing them… guess that would work too.  I think Labs like to play with them for a while.  Whatever your flavor.

Here is one more picture of the Tomato Hornworm in all his glory…  while it lasted.

Tags: Gardening, Pictures by James
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I worked on that title for about 3 seconds… can you tell?

So this weekend was a rare weekend at home for us.  Seems like lately and in the near future we have been/will be on the go.  We have had fun and have a lot more stuff to have fun doing… but man it gets tiring.

I had borrowed my Mother’s car to go to NU4 since it got better gas mileage and since the Expedition’s A/C has been stupid for a while.  While I had it, my Mom & Stepdad took mine and had a guy look at it at the Ford house in Andrews.  Well they got it fixed, and put a new windshield in it… because I guess that is what parents do (make note of that for when I have kids with a broken A/C & cracked windshield).  I was kinda mad at first, but figured they would take my money – but they wouldn’t.  They said to “pay them when I sold it”.  I love my parents… I hope I can be a badass as they are someday.

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Tags: Funny, Health, Personal by James
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