Passed Along Plants - Thank You!

If you have spent very much time with me you know that I love good deals, buying things cheap, and most of all, free stuff. I go to garage sales, I coupon regularly, and I happily and thankfully accept passed along items from my mom... grandma... and others....

The plants in my yard are no exception to this rule. When I first moved into the house I eagerly accepted plants from friends and family. Some have withered away but others have thrived. One thing I did not expect with these passed along plants is the happiness and memories that they bring me. These plants are so much more meaningful to me because they did not come from Home Depot and cost me $4.39 a pot. They absorbed the character of their previous home and remind me of their past owners/stories when I water/prune/weed around them.

This post is in honor and thanks to those of you who have shared with me these green vessels of life. At one point you dug a hole for them, planted them, and showered them with love. Then you decided it had gotten to big, you had to many, or you just wanted to share and you dug it out, repotted it, and passed it along to me. I thank you. There is no way I would have bought the variety of plants that I have today from Lowes.

My very first passed along plants came thanks to Hurricane Ike and Joe and his dad. In Joe's parent's neighborhood, 2 young trees were uprooted from the neighbors yard. With their (the neighbors) okay, Joe's dad loaded them up along and headed north to Conroe. At least 2 weeks before I moved in, before the water was turned on, and final papers were signed on the house I had my first two trees. One died, the other has survived to become the funny shaped tree. I cut the other tree down, attached a birdhouse to it and it became home to baby birds. I am thankful.

A couple months after moving in, my mailman told me about someone on his route that was completely redoing their yard. I got the lady's phone number and made plans to help pull out plants the following weekend. I got monkey grass, elephant ears, firebush, some shrubs, and more. Today the firebush is very popular with butterflies and hummingbirds. Speaking of the mailman, Stephen, he gave me a truckload of monkey grass, baby herbs, a tree, and little magnolia plant. Best mailman ever? I think so!

My aunt Marilyn gave me a beautiful rose bush (which by the way is the best looking thing in the yard in the springtime) and some bulbs. I love them! She also helped me pull some plants out of Kristin's yard when Kristin first moved in (Kristin gave us the ok). Marilyn's thoughtfulness is on display in each flowerbed around the house.

Dorothy Maurer gave me some bulbs the same day I picked up my baby rabbits from Doug Maurer. They are a very generous family indeed. My uncle Jimmy sent me some 1 foot tall oaks that were sprouting in his yard. All but one died but the one that lived is not taller than me! (also is this picture is the cut down tree with the bird house and the firebush).

Joe's dad pulled me a flowering vine that has truly exploded. The purple flowers look really cool too... Thank you!

Finally, my mom constantly gives me plants that have really made a huge difference in my flower beds. I love the variety I have gotten from her. Everytime I go home (to Brenham) I take a walk around the house to see what new plants can take a bit of. Thanks Mom, I love you!

There are 3 points to this story. The first is to thank you for sharing your plants with me. I love them, and I think of and appreciate you as I water them and await their blooms. The other is if you have blooms to spare I will gladly make a home for them in my yard! And finally, if you have plants to share with others share them. This passing along of a little piece of you is a gift that keeps giving and it lasts longer than the jelly of the month club.

Back to Normal

Several months ago at Aprilfest, some of you may have noticed that my very sweet, very pretty, very black and brown rottweiler had a gigantic white spot on his bottom. The white spot was paint that previously called home the freshly painted wall in the garage. My adorable Boomhauer had decide that rather than sprawling out on the cool concrete floor or soft rug in the middle of the room, it would be way more comfortable to sit with his back pushed up tight against the wall.

Hence the white spot on his behind.

While the wall was quickly mended with another coat of paint, Boomhauer's coat wasn't such an easy fix. After 3 long months, the paint is almost all gone and I am happy to report that the guy is just about back to normal.

Wedding Weekend!

This past weekend was full of wedding festivities. Friday night started out with me and the three M's (Mom, Meggo, and Marilyn) at the Brides Against Cancer Wedding Dress Event.

The event was... interesting. It started with a runway show complete with a dancing man on stage. Seriously... Check it out!

We tried on lots of dresses but neither Megan or I left with the perfect dress so the search will continue. It was a fun night and a great way to kick of the search for THE DRESS. Thanks for the fun guys!



The rest of the weekend was filled with handiwork and I've got a mean blister to prove it.

Mason jars came out along with 17 gauge wire and I got to work wrapping, twisting, and looping.

All Done!

I am still looking for bunches of these prisms so if you see some cheap (garage sale cheap) please pick them up for me. I am finding them on things like lamps, candle holders, etc.

No Cake Plate? No Problem!

After (attempting) to make a cake for Joe's big day, I realized I did not have a pretty cake plate to put the finished product on. I've seen tons of cake plates I have liked, I just have not purchased any because they take up too much space in the cabinet. I like to be able to stack things and the pedestal on the cake plate makes it hard to stack.

Something I have tons of is pretty glass plates and other dishes that catch my eye when I am at garage sales. Thankfully I was able to come up with a quick and easy fix for my lack of a cake plate.

All you need to make one of your own is: a pretty plate (that is large enough for the cake to fit on), a glass or ice cream sunday type dish (pedestal not required but its a definite plus), and a hot glue gun.

Note do not use a painted plate or glass.

Place your plate upside down.

Place your glass in the center of the plate (the bottom side). Determine how the glass fits best (it may work best upside down like mine did).

Put hot glue on the plate where the glass will go. I put it on the plate instead of the glass because my aim is not that good. If you have better faith in the sturdiness of your hands, by all means apply the glue directly to the glass.

Place the glass on the plate and push down.

Add more hot glue to any spot that looks like it may need it.

Let the glue cool, then turn the piece right-side up. Wa-la you've got a plate for a cake!

Make sure when you move this plate around that you hold the glass as well as the plate portion of the cake plate, I don't really know how strong hot glue gun glue is.

The finished product. Please do not judge my cake. It looks pretty rough!

Once you are done with your new cake plate, you can unassemble by gently pealing the glue/ glass off the plate.

Only in Conroe

This afternoon while working at the house, I was interrupted by the doorbell. I was met at the door by a lady who promptly said "Howya like livin' here?" My response - "its great... whats going on?" She then introduced herself as my "down the road" neighbor. After telling me where she lived she said she had a baby goat in the back of her truck that she needed to get rid of. FUN!

She went to the truck and pulled out the cutest goat in the world out of a dog carrier - yes a dog carrier.

The little guy was less than 2 feet tall and was on a leash.

He loved my grass. I loved the way his knees wobbled when he walked. It was a match made in heaven.

As much as I wanted to call this adorable four legged guy my own, my sensibilities kicked in and I told the lady no...

The cute guy was loaded up and carted off to the next house. I now want a goat. Maybe next year.

Arbor Day Came Through!

Recently, I got to enjoy my Arbor Day trees in a very tasty way. My peach tree produced some running down the chin juicy fruit. I got exactly 7 yummy peaches.

This is quite amazing to me because it was only a year and a half ago that I scoffed at the twigs that came in the mail when I ordered trees from Arbor Day. While my complete tree order did not survive, this tree makes the entire purchase worth it.

I did not take this picture but the trees I ordered looked exactly like this one when they came in the mail. Pretty rough right???

In fall 2009, the tree was barely taller than my 3ft garden fence (you can kind of see it behind the tub with herbs in it here) .

This spring I got pretty peach blossoms.

Almost there....

And the most lovely of all, ripe peaches!

And I must give credit to another Arbor Day tree - a red maple that is growing REALLY fast! This was one of the free trees that they sent. Its already over 6 feet tall!

Peep Peep!

About a month ago, I decided I wanted to let one of my broody hens sit on some eggs so I could have a baby chick. Charlie started sitting on them for a couple of days and then I had the bright idea to go to something called Conroe Trade Day. Conroe Trade Day takes place twice a year and it is NOT at all like Canton Trade Days. Instead of cute stuff for the home and yard, you will find all the country people out selling random animals to the other country people that show up.

On the way to church I saw Trade Days were going on and I mentioned to Joe that I really wanted to go look for some Ameraucana chicks. These are the types of hens that lay blue and green eggs. Joe just nodded (and I am sure expected me to forget about it by the time church was over). I left church with visions of green and blue eggs in my future so reminded Joe that I really wanted to "just go look". After some convincing that I just wanted to look and a promise that I would not want to get any other animals except maybe one or two chicks Joe was on board to go with me to the Trade Days.

At Trade Days there were loads of animals, country folk, and more. After winding our way through, I finally found 1 booth that was selling a type of chick that would produce the colorful eggs for the low cost of 4 for $10. How could I resist? We got all 4 (it would have cost more per chick to get only 2) and headed for our traditional after church bbq with peeping chicks in a box on the console.

Once at home, I put the chick in with Charlie (who was sitting on eggs) because Charlie was in a protected cage area. The set up was only supposed to be temporary but it ended up lasting a couple of days. By the time I got around to moving the chicks Charlie had morphed into a mother hen protecting her flock. Instead of separating mother and children, I moved the eggs to my other broody hen named Pomp.

Pomp sat on her eggs diligently in the corner of the coop. She did not leave her precious eggs for a second. Then Friday night I went to examine her eggs and saw that one had started to hatch.



I heard peeping, saw the beak and with all my willpower, put the egg back under Pomp and went inside for the night. I went back out at about 2AM anxious to find a new chick and still nothing... The next morning I woke up and went straight to the coop to find the cutest little chick in the world.

Adorable right?

Now I have never had any animal under my watch have a baby before and so this was a huge moment. I did a song a dance in the coop and ran inside to grab my camera.

Both of the mother hens are bantams (bantams are about 1/2 the size of a normal chicken) and the chicks they are raising a full size chickens. Basically the chicks are quickly going to be bigger than their mommas which is pretty funny to watch.





Now I have 5 chicks in the coop, 0 roosters that I know of (had to get rid of the 2 after they were mean to my chicks), 2 WAY protective momma hens and several other hens that are happy to teach the new arrivals the pecking order.