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IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Can you believe that it is June already? Where did the month of May go?

I know where my month of May went. I worked on two plant sales during the month and thank God that is over with! Now I can concentrate on getting some of the weeds pulled around our place. I spent most of last week finishing the final preparations for the big Master Gardener's plant sale last Saturday. I spent Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday working on it. It was a big success and we had lots of people buying plants. We had over 500 tomato plants alone which included Heritage, Cherry and Hybrid varieties. We sold out of the Cherry tomatoes and ended up with only about 75 plants that didn't sell. All of our vegetables sold, except the Swiss chard so next year we need to start more lettuce, peppers, cucumbers and zucchini. All of the annuals went and most of the perennials too. We had a lady show up that was planning on having a plant sale in a couple of weeks and she offered to take a lot of the left over plants to sell at her sale and splitting the profits with us. Such a deal!

I don't mean to make light of this next item by moving it to the second paragraph, but there's no way I could have started this week's entry - which is supposed to be lighthearted - with this: We got some frightening news this week. Our oldest daughter Lara found out that she has breast cancer. Fortunately she has been proactive in getting mammograms each year and they found a encapsulated mass about 7 centimeters in size early (stage "zero") so the cancer was caught before it spread. It is still very, very scary and we are understandably concerned. She has consulted her various doctors and plans on having surgery in July. We're not sure yet what type of surgery it will be, but until they complete all of the tests, they're preparing for anything. She and her family were here at our place over the Memorial Day Weekend so we had a good conversation about it. She has a very positive attitude and with all our support and prayers, we know that she will come through with flying colors.

On the lighter note, this week at the bird feeder we had a new visitor. It was a yellow headed blackbird which we had never seen before. It was so striking in color and very friendly. He was only here for the one day, but Dave took some pictures. We have also seen the arrival of the Cedar Waxwings that only show up to devour the heads of my Red Hot Poker plants when they come in bloom and then they are gone. I enjoy seeing them but I often wonder how do they know when those plants are just right? We also have lots and lots of squirrels. They must have had their babies a while back as the youngsters are coming to the feeders also.

And speaking of feeders, look who got himself trapped in the squirrel feeder! We've been fighting these darn pigeons for a couple of years. They swoop in and just devour everything in sight no time at all. They run all the other birds away and they're just a nuisance! Tuesday while I was at my water aerobics class, Dave walked by and found this guy in this awkward situation. He had to somehow get around two entrance holes to get into this thing. Dave made the feeder like that just so the birds WOULDN'T be able to do that, but this guy managed anyway. I know they're not that smart, so it must have just been dumb luck. We finally had to take the feeder apart to get him out of there. I hope he learned his lesson!

I finally got my vegetable garden planted over the weekend. I had the granddaughters help me put the plants and seeds in the ground. We planted tomatoes, kale, lettuce, beans and beets. Dave had cut a barrel in half so I filled the halves with dirt and put strawberries in one and cucumbers in the other. Now if I can only keep the critters out of them, we may have a small crop.

We finally got the fountain running - sort of. We bought this fountain a year and a half ago with plans to put it in the back yard where I have been developing a little space. The pump still isn't wired in permanently, but Dave wanted to see what it looked like so he got the fountain leveled up and ran an extension cord to power it up. I actually have a video, but we havent figured out how to post that on this journal yet, so this picture will have to do for now.

I am hoping for warmer weather so I can finish up with the yard work. Dave and I spread a unit of compost on the flower beds over the weekend so that felt good to get that job done and all of the compost (Dave calls it "cow-post" - now you know where it came from!) out of his trailer. I hope to get some of the weeds in the driveway sprayed once the sun comes out and the wind stops blowing. There is always a lot to do around here.

We are planning on meeting some steamboat friends of ours, Bruce and Gale from Livermore, California this Sunday evening for dinner. They are in Seaside at a convention this weekend and we want to take advantage of that to get together. Other than that, no special plans.