Last year, 3 cucumber plants gave me enough cucumbers for me, my wife, and my 4 year old. We always slice them and eat them as a snack. 6 tomato plants was enough and we even shared with the neighbors. 6 jalapeño plants kept me well stocked since only I eat them. I have a 10x20 "fool's square" (someone here called it that and I loved the term) but this year I am increasing the garden by using two additional parts of my yard. Up until last year, I had one peach tree but last year I planted two apple trees, one plum tree, one nectarine and a pear. This year I am planting a cocktail tree and a strawberry tree from a catalog. Also, I already put my blackberry, blueberry, and two raspberry bushes on the ground (all from Sam's). All in all my gardening efforts should feed all four of us fine.

We installed a functional, commercial lean-to greenhouse with plexiglass panels against one ell of our house. Put in a gas fireplace and it is heated in winter and used year round. It is 12 x24 and multifunctional now. We keep it heated in winter, at one time it was used as an office for my business, and forced into use as a place to overwinter nursery stock for propagating. Since my business has been phasing down and is now phased out we simply use it now as a great buffer zone against the elements. My back door and two other household doors remain open to it year round. I have a fountain in there and hang ferns in winter. It has brick floors and is a great transition room from our outdoor activities to inside activities.......home for coat racks, boots and animals who shoot out our back door without leashes, lol. Gets a good amount of solar gain and helps our heat bills too. We have a ventilator fan at its apex to pull out heat, have a shade cloth we can use in summer, and a storm door for the outside entrance, so we can screen in summer. I can't imagine not having it now and it's a lot handier than the creaky old back porch we pulled off. It's like having both functional outdoor and indoor space added.

i lost my senior great dane girl 5 weeks ago to bone cancer. it was sudden and shocking and i still look for her. my remaining dane girl and eden were joined at the hip, pip took the loss very hard and had been grieving so much, it broke my heart. i contacted pip's breeder and one of her former co-owners and asked that they keep an eye out for any adults that any breeder friends might be considering a new home for (retired show dogs, etc.). the co-owner gave me the contact information for one of her people who had a dane boy she had been looking for just the right home for and the rest is history. meet "flighty foto my way", call name "frank". frank will be 4 years old on 5/31. he is a very sweet boy and he and pippin hit it off immediately at our meet 'n' greet friday. they do zoomies numerous times a day, sleep curled up together and are just a perfect pair. pippin is so much happier and that makes me happier. even though i miss eden terribly, i am beginning to heal now that pip is feeling better. frank is a bit on the thin side because he lived the last 4 weeks with a female dane who was going through a heat cycle and when that's going on, intact males ignore food, do a lot of pacing and fretting and routinely lose weight. he's eating like a horse so i'm confident he will gain and be back to his normal weight soon. i'm giving him a few weeks to settle in and then i'll make an appointment to have him neutered.

When I vacuum and put the kids floor pillows on the chair Her Royal Highness assumes her position: I had a post written up this morning that i forgot to post and subsequently closed the browser thinking I'd posted. Much shorter now: Replaced our worn out sofa w/ a white machine washable slipcovered one. I purposely bought it so that the dog could be on it. I throw the slips in the laundry w/ a crap load of bleach and they come out fantastically and the only thing that I haven't been able to fully get out was the gel ink stain from a pen that exploded a few weeks ago. Oh well! I have a white metalasse' throw that I put over the back of it because Poochina likes to lay on the back of the sofa and observe what goes on outside. I currently have faux leather chairs that wipe off easily and cleanly. When they are totally trashed someday I will replace w/ real leather because I know it works for my needs. I gave up heavy comforters a few yrs ago in lieu of machine washable quilts that I turn down when I'm home and the gal is following me around and when we go to work I pull it up all of the way and she sleeps up there until we come home. On her white sofa: Proving that no space is too small for her to squeeze into and cuddle w/ someone.