Hosta Hats and other oddities

a few of the hostas from last year including Wheee!

Lucky to have anything come up since the squirrels love this pot. The cabbage looking plants are Bergenia just about done blooming. The pot is filled with Canna Lillies and Gladioloas.

glass sculpture for accent

Hosta wearing a hat.

So I finally got around to planting our bounty from last weeks adventure to the Hosta Farm. Now, I have a rabbit problem like most of us suburbanites and they destroy everything I put in the ground unless adequately protected. I have tried it all, sprays, powders, human hair, dog hair and the neighbors cat. Nothing seemed to do the trick.

I found some small link, coated chicken wire at the local Menards and resigned to putting a fence around everything. I got thinking and cut a 2 foot length of the 2 foot wide wire and put it over a 5 gallon bucket. I forced another bucket on top effectively creating a 'cloche'. Secured with a few bamboo stakes and voila! No more rabbit food.  For the smaller plants, I used 2 clay pots. Look Ma, no more nibbled leaves. Now if I could just keep the squirrels from digging in the pots....

Road Trip to visit friends

On Saturday we motored to Des Moines to visit Matt and Lori who recently moved back 'home' where Matt got a new assignment. While we grew close after 8 or 9 years in Omaha, we missed them a lot. Part of the weekend was a trip the Flying Frogs Hosta Farms where Brenda and I added another 5 plants to our collection of about 30 distinct varieties from over a thousand choices. So many more to go! It was a grand weekend and we had a blast. We drove back right after breakfast on Sunday and are looking forward to a visit from them next time they are in the Big 'O'.

A slow cooking week for us....

I had made a whole batch of Chili Colorado Burritos and enchiladas but none of the kids were available to eat so we froze them all for a later date. I set aside a bowl of chili for Brenda but that did not even get eaten. We have been preoccupied with the deck removal and patio installation porject. Seems to be taking longer than we expected and our daily routine is interrupted and my grill is barely accessible so I have not been cooking as usual. We are learning to cook for two now and the fridge does not seem nearly so full. Any leftovers that I plan for lunch sometimes get taken for an after work dinner if one of the kids has been doing multiple shifts. Twelve hour nights can take its toll.

Since we are still in the early stages of empty nest syndrome, I feel a little obligated to have enought for stop by company and just in case situations. They are getting less and less but for someone who loves to cook, its tough scaling back. I am definitely a large scale cooker, the bigger the better and I really love doing multiple meals at the same time. On Saturday I had made a few pizzas, the crust is really quite nice lately so I must have turned a corner, chicken wings and started the Chili Colorado for burritos. Seemed like the kitchen was a mess all day though.  Mackenzie came over after the game but wasn't hungry so we had lots to snack on for the rest of the weekend.

I did get a Natural Gas installation on the patio and converted the new grill to Natural Gas so I am excited about that part of the project. We were a little diappointed to not find patio furniture this late in the year and my search for the perfect outdoor lighting has been a bust so far but gives me something to plan for all winter.

Not quite done yet