I made eggplant parm tonight using my own TopsyTurvy grown eggplants and tomatoes. I did add in some store bought sauce and cheese, so sue me. However it turned out awesome. So yummy! Oh and I originally fried the battered eggplant in my redi-set-go. So it was really a double seen-on-tv meal!

I have a few new sunflower varieties finally blooming! This is my favorite.

I don’t know why my photos keep getting turned sideways, but tilt your head to the left

I’m now getting lots of sunflowers. Unfortunately they are attracting a lot of bees too. Within a few days my pretty sunflowers have been torn apart by bees it seems. Grrrr! I am still hoping to grow them again next year though. Next year I’ll make sure to start a lot of seedlings inside in the spring.

I’m also finally getting some red tomatoes. I have two almost ripe, and many on the way. I only picked medium sized ones for the Topsy Turvys, so nothing too huge (like beefsteaks).

Let’s see . . . it looks like Sunday will be a fun night out on the town! I did get out last Tuesday too with some friends. We just bar hopped. As it was mid week, it was dead . . . and odd in most places. Lots of Karaoke . . . bad Karaoke! Sunday however is 80s night at a local club. Ooo Ooo! So I’ll hopefully get some good photos. It almost makes me wanna revive Twitter and Facebook.

BTW, I’m still on a break from those two social services. I get emails every other day from people wondering where my profile has gone to. It’s vanished, like David Copperfield into the Great Wall of China! I tried going back on Twitter a few times, but then read things that made me pissy and left quickly. Again, maybe one day in the future I’ll be back, we’ll see. I’m shocked I’ve made it this long actually!

So the past few days have brought the threat of severe storms. I decided to take some photos of my gardens, in case they get ravaged by mother nature.

The Zinnias have really come around out front . . . and no more evil garden muncher either!

The sunflowers need water and are drooping a bit. I hadn’t watered them much because every day it’s been looking like rain. I finally watered them today though.

My tomatoes are getting big and green, I just wish they’d turn red. I don’t want to be making fried green tomatoes for the rest of the season. The eggplants however are exploding to the point I’m having to freeze them because I’m getting more than I care to eat.

Yeah I know I was gunna post something other than garden updates I’ve been getting a lot of email and comments as to where facebook/twitter went. I’ve been taking a break from both. I’ve just been VERY stressed out, and probably will continue be for the next month as I race to get a lot of work done. So I just decided I didn’t need Twitter/Facebook around right now where it is far to easy to send out bitchfest tweets/updates. With the blog I actually have to log in, compose, then publish. However I have been neglecting the blog, not on purpose though. I’ve just been busy.

Oh I did get my brand new 26 dollar La Tar Jay bookshelf fully filled with all my games and DVDs.

P.S. Monster Mania in about 2 weeks! I’m not going to skip this one either like I did with the one in March. A good time will be had!

Taken a few days ago. I now have two flowers opened!

I had originally planned/tried to grow these all along the border/fence of the barnyard. They only seemed to take in a few areas, and others started to grow but died in our heat wave. A few days ago I finally got a flower though.

I keep meaning to post a real post. I have watched a few good movies recently I wanted to recommend, and talk about other things. Every time I start . . . I get distracted. A bigger post tomorrow, I’ll find something to talk about

So before I headed off to Virginia, I had moved all the potted flowers I worked on growing to the barnyard area so they’d be easier for John to water, everything in one place. Yeah, unfortunately some rodent creature also decided to make them into a tasty treat. Seriously? My growing plants/flowers are more appetizing than a field of growing plants and veggies? It’s like shoplifting from KayBee when Toys’R'Us is nextdoor! I was FURIOUS! So I had to cart all the pots, some giant, back out to the front yard where they first started. What sucked was the gobbler decided to choose the day after I transplanted a lot of them from the larger containers to smaller ones, to keep the larger containers from being over crowded. I’m pretty sure it’s a groundhog. So far since they’ve been out front, no real problems. I just have to see if they heal from being chomped so much. I am planning to plant stuff in the ground next year, once the ground is cleaned up and ready of course. I just decided to give some potted flowers test runs this year.

The front porch, which you can see has been stripped of ivy, and the ivy stripped the paint. Also the front bushes, the bricks I’m gunna eventually use to line the garden area then mulch.

Thanks to the heatwave, the sixth one we are on now, I basically stopped doing yard work. It was just too nasty. I figured let the heat kill all the weeds, overgrowth and crud; it will make it somewhat easier for me. I’ve sense moved my focus indoors. Most people never realize unless I show them that we actually have a second bedroom downstairs, aside from the Wonder Woman room. It however has become a storage nightmare. The Wonder Woman room is too honestly. I can make it look nice, just don’t open the drawers or look in the closet

Even opening the door to the room is a nightmare . . . . don’t because the cats like to rush in here and then it’s a bitch to get them out!

I have wanted to organize it and the other room for YEARS now. In fact I had told John over the winter we were to get things in order . . . it didn’t happen. So I went out and bought a second bookshelf. I had wanted, and blogged, about a book shelf for the living room/dining room corner for awhile. Especially during the Christmas season to put the never ending nativity on. I never got around to it, and never wanted to make the purchase. I had been eyeing a nice looking one at Le Tar Jay for a year, but then I saw the cheap 26 dollar version. 120 dollars for the exact same thing, just with molding to make it look pretty . . . or 26 dollars for the plane jane version. Hmmmmm. Yeah if I’m paying over 100 dollars for furniture then assembly should not be required! I went cheap.

John of course did not like the cheap. Ewwwww pressed wood! Ewwwww! Well the 120 dollar one was pressed wood too, just like anything from the Swedish Superstore would be. I told him he was welcome to go out and buy something nice and fancy if he wanted. He also complained that I wanted to stack it with DVDs and videogames. Currently they are separated and either on an bookshelf in the Wonder Woman room, or in several different drawers in the TV cabinet. It can be a bitch to go searching for what I want, but John’s point is “they are hidden away rather than on display, which makes us look like grown ups.”

Well first, the only people who see inside our house are my friends. They look through these same things as much as I do, so I feel they’d appreciate the organization Second, who cares what the inside looks like when the outside looks the way it has for years Third, John is the King of Clutter and has no room to talk here really, cause I know I’ve blogged about his mountain sized piles of unopened mail that cover his desk. They get so bad that I end up having to go through it all and throw out (sorry recycle) countless dollars worth of unread magazines he subscribes to. I just glanced over there right this minute and their are packages on the floor and stacks on the desk I can see. Pfffft!

I told him that I would eventually move the book case out of the living room (though I might need another for Christmas!) and into one of the other rooms. However before those rooms can be cleaned, shit needs to be put in order! I want to put the DVDs/Videogames in the living room, use the Wonder Woman Room bookshelf for actual books, and the TV cabinet for CDs (which again are ALL over this house). From there I can begin dealing with the closets and drawers (which ALSO have CDs, videogames, old computer components). I’ve bought a few plastic bins for some of this stuff. The drawers which hold a good number of my clothes are actually collapsing. I need a new set of drawers honestly and soon. The ones I’m using now? “Pressed wood furniture” from Ikea . . . that belonged to John . . . yeah . . . . grown up stuff

My eventual goals for the two rooms, probably not to be fully realized till next year cause I only work on them in spare time, are to use the cluttered room as a guest room and turn the Wonder Woman room into an office and if needed a guest room. There is a pull out couch bed in the cluttered room I’d move into there.

As for other stuff, the second boot camp begins in four weeks and runs two weeks up until the start of the fall semester, when I go back to teaching. It’s my last hurrah of getting a bunch of stuff done and in order. The jobs for fall look good, 2 classes, both the same class, both I’ve taught before. I had tooled with changing the books, but killed that idea. I have the lectures and class done as is, I don’t have the time or desire at this point to change it and all the lectures. Yeah I’ll tweak them, but I don’t have to rewrite them. Then 2 classes at least in the spring, hoping to get one more.

So Boot Camp #1 is over, ended last Friday actually. I’ve een trying to get a post out since then. A second one is in August which I fully intend on attending. I like the structured setting and being forced to just work and think Plus I like that I’m out of the house and away from distractions. This time they gave me an actual anthropology faculty member as my “writing adviser.” He was great and gave amazing feedback too. I’m hoping for the one in August that it will be close enough to the fall semester that my committee members will be on campus and can get involved. My aim is to have as close to a final draft by then as well. This thing weighs as much as I do at this point!

If you haven’t heard, the Philadelphia region, and much of the east coast, is having a little heat wave right now. As such I have not been out in the yard much. Heat and me don’t mix. I don’t melt, I just end up with migraines. I did take a day to finally chop down the rest of the weeds in front of the garden area. I took out the day lilies and real plants too. But they were so infested with weeds (and trash!) that I was over them. I told John that I am fully scrapping everything that isn’t a tree or bush, I want a blank slate and next year he can decide to plant whatever he wants (but has to upkeep it!)

My Topsy Turveys are progressing nicely. I have several flowers on the tomato plants, so I’m hoping for some fruit soon. I also added a Topsy Turvey Tree which has 2 types of eggplant and a third tomato plant. I really don’t know what I’m gunna do with all this stuff! I attempted to plant stuff in the ground, but not much is going on. I will admit I haven’t been watering the ground much though

This is the backside of the house and a window in a kitchen nook that looks out over the barn/garage/barnyard/garden area. As you can see it’s a nightmare too! With the heatwave this has become what I will probably tackle next, because it’s in the shade most of the day as is. There actually is a blocked off garden area under all that mess. You’ll notice a lot of “dead” to the left, that was my doing. The hose hookup is back there and I decided I didn’t want to walk through tick-ville to get to it. I hacked at the weeds/vines to make a path, then doused everything with weed killer My plan for this area is the same with the others . . . . everything goes! It’s like a going out of business sale, except we are getting out of the white trash business. I bought 4 bags of mulch today and after I clear it out will add that in to keep things from coming back. The leftovers I plan to use out front and on the side of the house. I’m sure I’ll need more. Luckily it’s cheap, like 4 bucks for the giant ass bags.

The front yard. Yeah . . . I told you it was all a nightmare. I actually played around here a bit this weekend till I couldn’t take it anymore cause of the heat. I pulled a lot of the Ivy down (like around the columns and porch, did a lot of weeding, then just gave up Oh I did free the flag. John has a new one that one day I’ll maybe get around to putting up too. A lot of the stuff on the side where the flag is is actually Wisteria, so I’m not allowed to touch that otherwise I’ll get beaten. Though it too has gotten out of hand (and is strangling a tree next to the house actually).

I have decided once I get the whole place looking nice, I’ll add a touch of white trash back in. Garden gnomes anyone? I just wish they still made Granny’s Fannies!

PS, yes the Christmas snowflake lights are still up. I am too chicken to climb up on a ladder to take them down. Knowing me I’d probably fall too. Unfortunately I don’t think they all work anymore after the insane winter they went through. Plus one I know is frayed, cause one of the snow flakes fell off!

So after all that yard work last weekend . . . I ended up with a nasty case of poison ivy. It had been years since I had it, and I had forgotten just how horrible it is. After a very itchy week, it’s finally drying up . . . and now I have scabs all over my arms and legs that just look lovely! Since this came about I have not really done much yard work. I’ve been going out and spraying the weeds that have tried to pop back up, and watered what I planted. I put eggplant in the ground, which may have been a mistake. They don’t look to well right now, bugs have eaten a lot of the leaves. I have since sprayed them with some garden safe bug and disease stuff. The sunflowers I put down are just now coming up, and I planted a bunch of zinnias in pots out front which are sprouting. Hoping to do a little more work sometime this coming week. I want to tackle the front of the house for a change.

My writing boot camp started last week. So far so good. There is one more week left, then another 2 week one in August I plan to sign up for. I am determined to get everything done this summer and am now delaying rewards as incentive. As of yet no January vacation has been booked. Originally I had said with the economy and until I knew what my job outlook looked like for Fall and next Spring there would be no booking. Now my job situation looks okay. However I’ve decided I’m still not booking anything. When I defend, booking that January vacation is the reward Other little things I want to buy (videogames) and big things (the new iPhone) are rewards for good progress done with chapter edits, rewrites and stuff.

That’s about all I have to say for now. Until my next check in, which hopefully will find me itch free!

Uma Thurman played the character of Poison Ivy in one of the Batman films, which is where the title of the post came from.

So yeah, I got a lot done. I had it in my mind I would get more done than I did, but I also didn’t plan to get sunburned to hell and back and end up with such sore muscles . . . but what a workout!

Above are shots of what the barnyard garden area now looks like. You can compare with some of the earlier shots in the two posts previous to this one. Where to begin? After spraying with weed killer for a few days, then going in and chopping 4 foot wilting poke weeds down, I had my work cut out for me. After I cleared everything away from the fence, I took down the old metal wire fence that was nailed to the wooded one. That was fun . . . NOT! The wooden fence , as you can see, is in need of repair if it is to stay.

The old dog house was too heavy for me to lift out, and I didn’t feel like tearing it apart at the moment. I ended up putting it in the corner where the groundhogs like to dig and make a mess. I filled in their holes first and then put it right on top. Hopefully they’ll find somewhere else to go now.

The compost bins I set up in the back, and they are full. I ended up making a large pile in the back which you can also see. Originally it was old tree branches and saplings I cut down that I was going to have hauled off, but I ended up just turning it into a compost pile with all the crap I cleared out from the garden area that I had no place to put. Hopefully it will cook down, we’ll see!

I moved the topsy-turveys into the garden along the back fence, they were out in front of the whole area, which you can see in a post below. You can also see how many saplings I had to cut down in that photo as well. I know that’s not very green, but the lack of yard upkeep has caused them to shoot up all around the house and they have to go, otherwise they’ll take down the house and garage eventually.

I ended today with tilling as much of the soil in the garden area as I could and trying to level everything out. Between the gopher holes, the giant roots of weeds I had to split and dig out, and probably old crop roots that were still down there . . . the ground is anything but level. I put down a bunch of weed preventer and am going to just let it settle for a few days. I have a few bags of organic garden soil and garden manure to eventually put down and then work in. Then I can try and plant a few things . . . though yeah it’s late in the season. I have a few plants I bought that just have to be transplanted.

The one thing still left is the weeds by the front of the fence, which are all mixed in with the over grown spider ferns (or whatever those plants are). I am gunna have to cut them down and then see how bad the weeds are. I might end up ripping them all out. Along the other two sides of the fence I put down some sunflower seeds to see what, if anything, might happen. Again, I know I’m off to a late start Really I just want to clean the yard up so that come next year we can plant and make it all look nice.

I had hopes to tackle more than the garden area this weekend, but that didn’t happen. The rock wall in first photo above used to actually be nice and full of pretty red and yellow flowers. Now ivy has overtaken the half nearest the house, and other weeds and brush the other side. The second photo is of the side of the house where they ivy has gone nuts. There actually is a cement porch under there, and at one time a stone walkway up to the terrace the rock wall creates. I tried to rake and cut the ivy out, but gave up after thirty minutes. Now I’m just soaking it with ivy and weed killer until it all dies and is easier to take out.

The weather on Sunday has cut into yard work and I ended early. It can’t decide if it wants to storm or what out, it’s just very windy and spitting some. My aching muscles need a rest anyways. TV is calling!

So I’ve added three new categories to the blog. Yard Work, House Work and Gardening. Because my regular life is so dull and blogless right now, these three things outside of work/school are all that I’m kinda doing (aside from hanging out and seeing movies with friends, which I guess I could post reviews of).

Today I bought two 120 gallon (I think?) composting bins. I figured I needed to do something with all this yard waste I was compiling, and dragging it to some dump site was not preferencial. John has a paper shredding fetish too, and we’ve just been recycling it all. Now I can add this in to the compost bins. I put them together today right before a friend came over, then we went to the movies. So I haven’t begun filling them. I’ll add photos of them to this post in the AM.

I have totally hacked away at the garden from the previous posts. Tomorrow I plan to dig up all the roots and hoe/rake the whole area clean. Then I’ll mix in some weed killer/preventer into the soil to make sure nothing comes back. The dog house I’ve flipped. It’s too heavy for me to move on my own, but so old and rotten I think I can demolish it and move it out piece by piece. Tomorrow I plan to clear out the whole garden, rake the ground smooth, and fill in all the gopher holes and stuff. Then I wanna put the bins in the corners and begin filling them. I’m not going to tear the fence down yet, but I am taking down the chicken wire that’s up along it (too hard to see in the photos). It’s just a weed enabler at this point.

My writing retreat for school begins next Monday. I’ve decided to use all day tomorrow to work in the yard. The weekend might bring storms, so I don’t know if I can do much then. I’ll begin preparing for the retreat then. When I start the retreat I know yard work will cease during the week as it’s an all day thing. I wanna clear out as much as I can before then and get these compost bins started. I’d like to move my tomatoes into the garden too for maximum sun. I’ve also got two pots of tomato seedlings I started I might be able to transfer into the ground soon, to give a good comparison to the topsy-turvey. Unfortunately it’s late in the season for planting, so I don’t know if I can start any other garden crops. Suggestions from experienced gardeners welcomed though!

Once the garden is sorted, I’ll start on the rest of the nightmare of a yard! I will have a beautiful garden again. I showed a friend photos of what it looked like years ago, she just said “WOW, what happened!”

I have a whole other post on an non-related note to make. Short version, I still have not set foot into the establishment, and it’s going on a year now. I am however doing their website once again. As I said, there is a reason/story behing it to tell.

From Left to Right First Row: The composting bins, A shot of the garden now, after rolling the doghouse out of the corner, a shot of the backside of the garden fence (the pile of twigs used to be by the fence and created a home for far too many critters, so it had to go)

From Left to Right Second Row: Two photos of the same areas above, just the after shots Oh and I guess I should have put sunblock on huh?