Doves & Cats

As you all know, I have cats, and I have doves. I have lost a few doves, but last night, I lost a dove to a cat. Fred our orange tabby had his paw caught in the cage, DH didn't think anything of it since the birds were alive. He didn't tell me about Fred's misshap. When we went out to do the evening feeding, one of the doves was missing half his beak and an eye. DH had to put the poor thing down. It was my last silky dove. Poor thing, I feel aweful now.

Cheesecake A Day

I spent all day today working on the graphics, and all night last night finding royalty free images for my new blog, Cheesecake a Day. The goal is to post a new recipe a day for all those cheesecakeoholics, and those who want a good comfort food to cry over. I hope you all like the graphics and such, I really don't care if you do, well maybe I do, but tell me later when I am less satisfied with it :) It's about 2 am in California now, so I'm going to bed now.

More Cheesecakes!

As you can tell Cheesecakes are about my favorite food. They should have their own food group like fruits and veggies, and meats do. Cheesecakes can be made as desserts, main course, appetiser, and everything in between. I just found this recipe and want to try it. I have a hard time make a kugel taste good, a cheesecake kugel will be good by default.

Cheesecake Kugel
20 servings
1½ hours 30 min prep

1 lb cottage cheese
3 8 oz containers sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
4-6 eggs, depending on how rich you like your kugel
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1lb package broad egg noodles or thin egg noodles, cooked
1/2 cup raisins
cinnamon (for topping)
sugar (for topping)

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cheese, sour cream, milk and half of the melted butter.
2. Beat the eggs together with the sugar and vanilla and add to the cheese mixture.
3. Add the cooked noodles and the raisins.
4. Turn into a large buttered pan or into two smaller ones.
5. Top with the remaining melted butter.
6. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together and sprinkle on top.
7. Bake at 350* for approximately one hour or until lightly browned.
8. May be frozen and reheated.

Cheesecake Time!

It's raining today, something that is really rare for this part of California. While the rest of the state is in a drought, this part never registers as having a shortage of rain, maybe because we never get much rain to register. While that is a problem, since our water is being pumped both north and south, and growth is gaining on us, we will be hurting for water, soon. In the mean time, I'm stuck in the house with little to do but pray for a job for my husband. I really need a cheesecake to cry over. While I'm wishing for ingredients, you can all go and buy some for the holidays.

The holidays always bring on a hankering for cheesecakes, so I'm doubly craving cheesecake. Well, why not? When is it not a good time for cheesecake? Cheesecake is to me like chocolate or ice cream is to others, it is the ultimate comfort food. Many a tear has been shed over a nice fat slice of cheesecake.

My favorite recipe is one I got from a Christmas cookbook many years ago, while still in high school. I still have the ratty tore up book just for this one recipe. It has a hint of lemon and a yogurt topping, it is about the best cheesecake, and it looks elegant even if the top cracks because of the yogurt on top covers and fills them. It is well worth the trip to the grocer for the ingredients. Another good thing is it can be mixed in the blender. You can also double the recipe and it will fill three premade graham cracker crusts.

Creamy Citrus Cheesecake
makes 8 servings

3/4 cup crushed graham crackers
2 T margarine, melted
3 eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp finely grated orange peel
1/4 cup orange juice
3 teaspoon vanilla, divided
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese softened
1 cup plain, lemon, or vanilla yogurt, divided (I use 2 cups of lemon)
2 T powdered sugar (I use 4)

1. Preheat oven to 325* F.
2. In a bowl combine graham cracker crumbs and margarine, press into bottom of 7 in springform pan, bake 6 minutes, chill.
3. In food processor or blender, combine eggs, granulated sugar, 2 tsp vanilla, peel, and juice, cut cream cheese into chunks, add to mixture and process until smooth, stir in 1/2 cup yogurt. Pour into crust.
4. Bake at 325* for 50-60 minutes or until nearly set.
5. Combine remaining yogurt, vanilla, and powdered sugar, spread over hot cheesecake,
6. Loosen side of pan, cool on wire rack, chill before serving.

* note: I use more yogurt and powdered sugar to make more topping. this helps fill in any cracks without making them noticeable*

**Try peach flavored yogurt, I have used berry, but the flavor was off, not as smooth as the lemon.*

This one really looks good, I'll have to remember to try it.

Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake

1 1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
4 tablespoons melted butter
3 envelopes gelatin
2 cups water
2 pounds cream cheese
5 eggs -- separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon orange peel
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 3/4 cups cranberries

1. Pat crumbs and butter into 10" springform.
2. Soften gelatin in water, set aside.
3. Blend cream cheese, egg yolks, vanilla, juice, peel and sugar.
4. Gradually add 1 3/4 cup of the gelatin.
5. Beat egg whites (reserve 1 T for garnish) stiff and fold into cheese mixture.
6. Refrigerate 30 - 45 minutes.
7. Cook sugar, water and cranberries until skins pop (5 minutes).
8. Add remaining gelatin, puree and refrigerate until mixture mounds.
9. Marble cream cheese and cranberry mixture in crust, refrigerate overnight.
10. GARNISH: Dip 6 whole cranberries in reserved egg white, roll in sugar and set for 1 hour.

For more than 130 cheesecake recipes and other ones as well, you can visit my newly opened forum The Grafted In Cookbook, come and share your recipes, critique others, or just come in for a cuppa.

Plant Cleaning and Bug Remedies

I thought today I'd give a few recipes for different plant ailments and such. A lot of plants have went to the garden compost because of spider mites. More plants than I ever want to admit to, so let's start there. I was using veggie wash for using on my plants with mites and surprisingly it works wonders. I read the ingredients on the bottle and all it was was lemon juice, baking soda, water, soap, and grapefruit seed extract. Other veggie washes use vinegar, but I am leery of using vinegar because it can kill plants if used too strongly.
I have a friend who recommends tobacco for mites, but it does carry diseases which kills tomatoes, so again I am leery of using it.
So without further adieu a few recipes for mites and aphids.

#1 1 tablespoon lemon juice 10 drops grapefruit seed extract 2 tablespoons low-sodium baking soda 1 cup purified water three drops Tabasco sauce and a few drops of garlic juice
Mix well in a sprayer bottle. Shake before use. Spray plants and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Rinse well.

#2 Combine 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice to 2 Tablespoons of baking soda with 1 cup of water. I put this mixture in a sprayer bottle and keep it under the sink. Spray fruits and veggies and allow them to sit for a few minutes then wipe with a towel. This also makes for a safe cleaner for counters and such.

#3 1 tablespoon lemon juice 2 tablespoons baking soda 1 cup water Put this mixture in a sprayer bottle. After spraying, let produce sit for a few minutes. Rinse well.

Now for scale. The best remedy I have found was given to me by a good friend on Garden Web. She says to add about a cap full to a quart sprayer and fill the rest with water, spray liberally and the scale is suffocated. I tried this with none of the burning which alcohol causes. I will include that recipe also since some people do not like the fishy smell.
scale/mealy bug removal:
1/2 cup rubbing alcohol/1-1/2 cup water, put in sprayer and add a couple drops of dish soap and some garlic juice. This works well but use it in a well ventilated area and do not let plant sit in sun. you can spray your plant after everything dries.

I also take plants into the shower and put them on the floor letting my shampoo drip onto the leaves, then rinse. This also helps if your plants get dusty or just need a perk.

Now to fertilizers.
A lot of times I find that my husband leaves half a pot of coffee when he goes to work. A lot of times I dilute this coffee and give it to my plants. It works he same way as peat does, but does not compact the soil as peat added to it does. Tea works in the same concept and a lot of times i will add the coffee grounds and tea bags to my potting mix.

I make my own fert sometimes which consists of 12 oz. of beer, 1/2 cup plain old household ammonia not sudsing or scented, 1 cup Epsom salts, plus 2 cups of water (making a quart or so), mixed and diluted to 1 Tbsp. (1/2 fl. oz.) in a gallon of water used every two weeks. I use this for plants which are yellowing and for my outside succulents. It gives too much of a push to some plants so I don't use it as often as nor as strong as prescribed. The lady who gave me this formula uses it on everything even her Hoyas with great results. I used nonalcoholic beer and it didn't change the carb intake any. Some people use black strap molasses in it also, but I'm leery because of the ant problem I have.

The other fertilizer I use is Eleanors VF-11 which I can't sing praises loud enough for this one. It's not a fertilizer really, but a plant food. Whatever it is it is a wonderful addition to any one's arsenal of plant potions. Well there you have it, a few of the things I use to help make my plants beautiful.

Schlum for the Holidays

More of my schlums have bloomed today. Beach Dancer is by far the most beautiful of all the Schlumbergera hybrids I've seen so far, even more pretty than Christmas Fantasy. Already people are drooling over this picture and asking for trades from her.

Cyber Dancer, not yet opened, but still a beauty. Nicole again, a better picture of her, she promises to put on a good show for the years to come.Thor Alise, The red one with Thor Ritt behind her. Frontal view of Thor Ritt.

My Inheritance

It's been over a year since my grandmother died. I really didn't expect any inheritance from her because she was a missionary pastor's wife and has live day to day most of her life. My uncle had been taking care of all their bills and such and there really wasn't much left for him or my father to inherit all said and done. We kids didn't expect anything because all belonged to my dad and uncle.
I was surprised yesterday when my mom called and said I had received a (very) small check from my uncle for my inheritance. It was just enough to pay a bill or two and get something cheap for the kids for Hanukkah/Christmas. It couldn't have come at a better time since DH has been laid off for a month and I have quit my job working for the evil bird lady. The cupboards have been empty for way too long. To celebrate our good fortune, my children were given a few dollars to buy Hanukkah/Christmas presents at the dollar store and I got an anthurium at the grocery store. Hanukkah/Christmas is still going to be tight, but at least we will have a few little things to give each other. Isn't it a beauty?


Some more plant I've bought from my inheritance, I'd like to say that my Schlums all bloomed for me stupendously this year but to be honest, not one of them bloomed, not even a bud! So I had to rescue a few from various places so I'd feel like celebrating the holidays.This is the first installment of Schlum blooms, with more to come as the days go by.

Beach Dancer, a new one for me, $4 at Trader Joe's. The best price on 4 in pots I've seen this year. I've never seen this one before. I can't wait for the bloom to finally open. Nichole, The photo does not do her justice, she looks like a pink candy cane

Stephanie, an older bloom but the colors are nice

A NOID orange I rescued from Walmart, the stems keep breaking off so I may have to repot the whole lot of them in a smaller container.

and Victoria, a white from OSH. Whites are more likely to turn pink with the cold. The smaller Victoria I bought from Trader Joe's does not have pink buds, so they must have come from different sources.

It really feels like the holidays now. I may share a few with my mom, but then again, she has her own Schlum. She doesn't need any more.

Writer In The Making

I've decided to do it, For a few years, my friend, mentioned in this blog post, has been trying to get me to write a novel. Well I have decided to go ahead and do it since she has just published her fifth book. I'm a sucker for romances, I know they aren't too healthy for the mind of a Christian, but I just want to see if I could do it. I probably won't publish it but I promised her about four years ago that I'd write a book.
It's set in 1906 in Boston. We go on the Transcontinental Railroad to California and meet our heroin a couple days before the great earthquake and fires in San Francisco. A lot of shaking happens, then back to Boston and even to New York to hear Teddy Roosevelt talk. It is a lot of research and hopefully it will be a readable story. My mother an avid Romance reader will be the final testing ground. If she likes it, then I'll know it's a success.

Penduncles!

Well, I was going to chop off some of the stems on my Hoya obovata because I was tired of the stems with no leaves drying and falling off. I decided to take the clippers to them, but what did I find as I was going at a screaming fearful plant with hedge trimmers? It had put out penduncles! I'm told if you cut off stems with penduncles it will cause to plant to not produce any more and go into shock, I prefer flowers to aesthetic vines so I'll leave the dead twigs.

It's amazing how when you tell something you'll murderize it it decides to give you something to hang onto which will completely hijack your plans. Not that I'm not happy to see penguncles, I really am, but it could stop drying from the tip up also.

I really like the sony Mavica with the floppy drive, we've had three of them of different models. My camera had died on me about a year ago, so I bought a new to me one which was an older model. The two I have now are the FD-95 and FD-91. I like the newer model better. I was researching to see if I could find a local Sony repair shop so I could get the 95 model fixed. One of the suggestions was to bang the bottom of the camera on the but of your hand. After a few whaps it started working again. I still need to clean the floppy drive, but I've gotten a few more picures out of it. I am still looking for one that will go click,click,click and not wait a few minutes between pictures. In the mean time this one is just fine.

Thanksgiving was eventful, We went to DH's friends house for dinner. On the way home we stalled because we were out of gas. Luckily we had just enough fumes to get around the corner to buy gas at a whopping $3.55! 18 cents more than across the street, however we didn't want to get stuck while crossing traffic so we paid the ransome to get home and through another day of driving.

Today is my husband's birthday all I can offer him is some coffee, I hope that's enough to satisfy him because we really don't have much of anything else. The Lord is faithful though, so it will play out to HIS advantage.

10 Herbs You Cant Live Without

I was going through some old things I'd written on my website and I'll be sharing them through the days until I no longer have writers block. Here is installment #1:

10 Herbs You Cant Live Without

Mint: Can you believe there are over 500 cultivars of this wonderful plant? Uses are medicinal, for teas, potpourris, and even baking, to name a few. With so many flavors and uses everyone should at least find one they like.

Basil: The King of Herbs. This plant guards temples, lives in England, Thailand, Japan, and definitely it is loved in America. It is a must for Italian dishes, it has even found itself in desserts.

Chives: Smaller cousin to garlic and onions, it was used to give energy to the builders of the Pyramids in Egypt. You can use it in salads, as a garnish, or anytime you need an energy rush.

Garlic: Yes, garlic is considered an herb. It was also given to the pyramids' builders. It is a great thing to take when you feel a cold coming on. Garlic is also a good antioxidant. For a toothache people would put garlic in their shoe or tied to the opposite side's wrist. Since the oils are absorbed through the skin, this makes sense. (My Husband tried it and it helped him, surprisingly enough.) It can also be taken as a natural depression fighter, and yes it works for that also.

Parsley: For all those avid garlic eaters. It is mainly used as a garnish. It's there for a reason, just one sprig will kill any bad breath you have especially garlic breath. It is used in Salsa for that and other reasons, also.

Thyme: This tiny plant can be used in anything, from desserts, to main dishes, to teas. It is also used for medicinal purposes. Thymol is a great disinfectant, also.

Rosemary: I love this plant it needs a lot of light to survive though, not a candidate for inside culture, unless you can supplement it's light. In some parts of the country it is imperative that you bring it inside in the winter. It is better to grow it as an annual in those parts. Use a sprig for a BBQ brush, or skewer for shish kabobs.

Lemon Balm: The bee herb. This is the best plant if you need pollinators in your yard. Great in teas, and cakes also. It comes in lime flavor, variegated green and gold, and all gold colors also. If you want a wonderful shine on your wood, rub some lemon balm leaves on it.

Lavender: A wonderful plant for potpourri, bath time, and also crafts. You can also cook with it. This is also an outside plant.

Hot Peppers: Yes, hot peppers, The hotter the better to fight the nasty cold bug. Have you ever wondered why the Hispanics are never sick, probably because of the hot, hot food. And all peppers are edible. Peppers, like tomatoes are also perennials if kept in good light and out of frost.

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and the herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; Psalms 104:14

Is It Time to Give Thanks or Just Shop Until You Drop

I heard on the radio today that many of the stores are opening at 4 am on Friday. Who in their right mind is going to be out at that time? I remember when I would shop on Day ofter Thanksgiving with a time schedule. Sears at 6 am, Circuit City at 7, then Kmart at 8, and all the stores in between. It was cool having 5 hours of shopping done and home at 10 am. Now that I don't have any money it seems like such a waste. Nobody ever likes their gifts, or they get put up, toys were broken by the end of Christmas Day. It's a big waste now.
Have I lost the spirit of the season? No, but I've realized it is important to find Christ in all holidays, not just the pagan one which was dubbed with his name. Yes Pagan, Michaelmas has been a holiday since before Christ himself, it is a holiday celebrating the winter solstice, celebrating the birth of Tammuz. Thus the need for ginger bread men.
So while you're out shopping for kids you only see once a year, remember it's all about Christ.

Colors Shown Could Be An Ugly Thing

Well, I'm unemployed again, and I praise the Lord for making it so before we moved. About 6 weeks ago we were contacted by DH's birth uncle, and it turns out that my husband is in fact Jewish, by birth, which once the blood work is done we could move to Israel. What were we going to do about the job we hired on as managers for a 7 year contract? Well The Lord took care of it. The bird lady started getting ugly and showing what she really was, so I started to have second thoughts. First she told me that I wouldn't be able to keep any sort of kosher, we had already decided to nill the pork and shellfish by then, so it was getting easier. Then she started to take parental liberties with my children she had no business butting into, and the last straw was when she lied to her lawyer to try and get her property manager's real estate licence. After that I knew we'd made a mistake by telling her we'd move out with her.

About three weeks or so ago, I prayed that if we were doing the wrong thing by moving with the bird lady, that the Lord stop it immediately. It wasn't half an hour later that my husband, daughter, and I were walking home in the dead of night. It's been three weeks and still she has over $1500 in wages and stuff that belongs to our family. I guess that's a small price to pay for being liberated from bondage. DH has told me to cut all ties with her so she has no reason to complain about us, well theoretically at least.

Anyway, I did get a few things out of the job. I got some doves, but Caesar, even though Cody worked his tail off to earn the bird, is not to be found in our home. The guinea pig had babies, so now we have 4 of them and the rabbits are still healthy, all are living in my plant room for the moment until I can build a coop for the doves and move the other animals to hutches. The cats are enjoying watching them and knocking down my plants in the process. We even have some strange cats hanging around, ugh!

I did get enough money to buy some beautiful plants from Grow, of which I am going to share with you all. (see below) I got a great deal on these plants, and I thank Nick for giving them to me. The crown jewel of the lot was a 5 ft Hoya obovata which cost me all of $38 with 15% off. I also got some huge epiphyllums and some other hoyas and a dischidia and a xero-something which is related to a cucumber. Maybe we should have saved our money, but it was great being able to buy things I'd not been able to in a long time.

Now to the exciting part, We got to meet my husband's birth father and some of his family. We also went to Magic Mountain and I got to go to the ESA meeting which was fun. I met people like Pat Dobbins of Epies by Pat and Mark Piette, of Epigalleria. I also met MR Beardsley, the curator of the Pentico Collection, the largest collection of Epiphyllum in the nation. I also came home with beau coup cuttings and plants from the meeting. I wish I could have visited some nurseries while in LA and SD, but it didn't work, neither did I get to meet any of my Garden Forums friends which I have been corresponding with for ages. I hope next time it will be less of a rushed trip, and we will be able to go more places while visiting with our newly found family.

Well that's what has been happening around here. We are excited to find out finally that DH is Jewish, and also grateful that the Lord stepped in and intervened in our behalf.

So here goes folks some pictures of my finds at Grow:

And a picture of a lovely I got from the ESA meeting.

Magic Mountain Here We Come

Well we've been in LA for a couple of days. DS's Shriner's appointment was a success. I just wanted to share a picture of my kids as we went to Magic Mountain. It sure was fun, even though I didn't ride on anything I lived the thrills though my children. I hate amusement parks, but we got discount tickets for our homeschool group and went.

It was nice being with other homeschoolers throughout California. I had some fun finding some cactus in the park, so I was happy to get some nice pictures of Agave americana in bloom. The hotel had only homeschooling families also, except a pair of ladies who had a bunch of alpacas. DD and I got to meet a few of the animals and pet one. It was even more interesting since the talk at the ESA meeting was on Peru and some of the slides were of alpacas.
We're off to SD to meet more of DH's family.

Things Sometimes Get Ugly

Well I think I am unemployed now, I was hoping to show Caesar to you all, but the bird lady probably won't let us have him. I know she is a shyster and a thief so I wouldn't put it past her to take my son's bird. Well anyway, this is Caesar with my son. Caesar is a double yellow head amazon. I know that she is going to break both their hearts.

Tonight she went off on a radio evangelist which is known for his family values and his books on raising children. She called the man a child beater and a man who says polygamy is allowable biblically and should be allowed legally in the US. This is not what the man stands for on any count. When DH told her to prove it, we ended up walking home.

This couldn't have come at a more opportune time for our family since we were going to move out with her in a month to the middle of nowhere to raise birds and crops. We'll see how it all plays out, but I think we'll get the shaft and she will come out smelling like roses. Her husband works for the government and doesn't know half of the unethical things she does, or maybe chooses to overlook it. Anyway he will be no help in that matter.

About a week ago we met DH's birth father which is an answer to prayer. I can't wait to meet the rest of the family. They all seem to be friendly and want to be welcoming. This is a picture of DH and his dad.

We're at home now, soon to be homeless, but hey, it could be worse right?

A New Beginning?

A couple weeks ago I started a job. So my postings will be a bit less frequent. I am now the caretaker of about 60 parrots of various sizes. Form umbrella cockatoos to militarily macaws to Rosey Bourkes and even button quail. I started this job because I have had experience with birds from working in a pet store.
A co-worker of my husband's rented a room form the lady with the parrots, and things went from there. DH started teaching her about computers and she was looking for someone to replace her old worker. I began about two weeks ago. We have since inherited a double yellow head Amazon named Caesar. This bird bonded with my 15 year old son and all he can do is call for him. DS is the only person who can handle this bird now. Caesar has a mistrust for women. When he had babies in the nest and a mate he cared for his previous owner decided to bring him back home. She got attacked by Caesar and she tried to have him euthanized. My boss served her with papers and took Caesar. I don't know what we'll do with an Amazon parrot, but it will be a learning experience for all of us.
I have also bought the most beautiful pair of white ring neck doves. They are now in her bird room with the Rosey Bourkes. Mr. Rosey is not happy at all with his house guests. I am going to be buying some more doves soon, since she wants some quick sales. She wants to keep half the flock and split the profits. I am hoping she can find me some nice green cheek/maroon bellied conures. The have been my favorite since I tried to buy one when I worked for the pet shop in Knoxville.
Yesterday, some button quail hatched and they now think my daughter is their mom, she has 4 baby quail that call to her continually. I'll be having my own aviary soon, it looks like, with quail and doves and even a mean as snot double yellow headed amazon named Caesar.
She will be moving to California Valley next month. She wants our family to move out there with her to take care of her animals and fruit trees and other things like asparagus plants. I will have to read up on small farming again. We will have rabbits and goats and guinea pigs also along with the birds. There is a bird mart on September 30th so maybe we can see if there is anything new to buy for the birds.
Yesterday I picked up a pair of blue and gold macaws, one of them got out of it's carry case while i was driving. As long as I was moving he was fine, but as soon as I stopped, he'd come towards me. Since I was on a windey back road I could not get any reception on my cell phone, so I drove the whole 15 miles back at a crawl. We made it and finally got them in their new home. The hen was almost completely bald from plucking herself. We hope to rehab her enough to work with her.
Some of the birds are nuts. Merlin, a sulfur crested cockatoo, gets in all sorts of trouble. He tries to liberate all the other birds. Lady another cockatoo, umbrella, is also nuts, she burried herself in my shirt yesterday and would not come out for about 20 minutes. Then there is Zambee an African grey which tattles on Merlin all the time, she also does all sorts of phone rings and alarms. She used to be owned by a fire station, so she has all the language to go with it also.
Well, that's my new job, I will post pictures of Caesar when I have time. He is my favorite of the birds, even though he bit the snot out of me, it just now healed enough to stop bleeding when I'm washing dishes. I can't post pics of the others, since they aren't mine, but take my word they are very beautiful birds and intelligent also.

Goodbye Peppermint Geraniums

For the last 6 years or so I have been a member of MSN groups. I just logged in after about a couple months of not visiting and I found my award winning group Peppermint Geraniums was gone. A lot of sweat and tears went into making it a website design site worth visiting. I guess I'll be working on transfering and fixing my backgrounds and other graphics on my other site Shiny Red Glass. I was using Peppermint Geraniums as a graphic storage for my other websites.
I don't have the heart to rebuild PG. I guess it's time to say goodbye to it. I'll miss the friends I've made. i still have another site there, Shiny Red Glass, which from the looks of things I'll need to revamp because most of the graphics were on Peppermint Geraniums.
One of my friends on MSN is an author now. either her forth or fifth romance novel is a best seller on Amazon. It seems like yesterday she had me proof part read part of her first book. At one time she was helping me write a romance of myself, and when I found how much time it took for her to finish the first book and the devotion she has to give her vocation, I realized I wasn't disciplined enough to do it full time. I wish her all the best, however I will never be able to write another romance story. Deborah is a lovely friend. I met her when I joined her award group DMAT Awards. I was even an assistant manager to the site for a while.

Beans and Gripes

I can't cook beans, every time I try to they turn out like rocks. I could soak them for two days and cook them for a months and still they would be rocks. Since the food has been short, I took out the last piece of beef and the pressure cooker my grandmother gave me. Beans were on the menu. Having never used a pressure cooker for fear of it exploding, I was leery of how it would work. The beans turned out OK, but I think whether they or the chili spices I used were bad. No mater how much doctoring I did the taste was still there, rotten masa flour. I made a huge batch of these beans and they were ruined by the taste, ugh! The family oohed and aahhhed about them, but none had seconds. The cats wouldn't even eat them. Needless to say, it was a disaster. I do know that the beans in the pressure cooker work though, so it could be chalked up as a learning experience.

Elise is still looking bad, one of the cuttings I was supposed to sell bit it, I don't know what's wrong with the plant, but I may have to unpot it again and cut the mush out. This time I'll leave the plants to dry a few days before repotting it. The heat is not helping any of the plants recover either.

My grandparents/landlords came to visit. I never know when they are landlords or grandparents, there is never a line drawn. They morph from one to the other at the blink of an eye. Anyway, they came by to tell us they had a car for us, but we have to wait for the paperwork before we got it. I don't know how to take this because they have never given anything without a string attached a mile long. There is a cost to it, we just have to wait and find out what, even if it were given for less than a dime, it will end up costing us a mint in troubles. I do love my grandparents, but they act like jackals all the time attacking the weaker family members at every turn, but they are who the Lord gave me as family, I should be happy I still have them. It's hard though.

They also said if we clean up hickville they'd bring a working washing machine. I come by it naturally, I was raised by pack rats of the worst kind. My grandparents came out of the depression and they never throw anything away. They always find a use for it. Our house and yard reflects being raised by them. Half of our yard is full of my uncle's junk, the other half ours. I admit we do need to clean up the yard, it does look like a bunch of yokels live here, which isn't too far from the truth.

I found a hole in the wall across from the old washing machine today, they are supposed to be bringing a new one, I can imagine the tongue lashing I'll get for that one. It was caused by part of the dryer. I know it will get better, but I don't know how worse it could get. I do know, I could be like my brother and living in a homeless shelter in Portland with his wife and son. I've been homeless before, I guess if I had to we could do it again. I pray that we find mercy soon, not that we deserve it, but it would be nice.

Custom Blogging

Not much in the line of plant stuff today, instead I've been goofing around with making my own templates for my blog. Since I don't like deleting anything I'm going to keep them and maybe somebody can use them. Who knows?

Here are a couple examples I've made in the last few days:



This was the first one I made, I've decided to try another layout, so the others followed.


I really like the transparent backgrounds with the scroll background, now I need to find the perfect one.


This is Epiphyllum "Melon Whip" I took these pictures a couple years ago. Look for this one, because I'm going to use it for a while and retire the orchid.

This is a template I made using some pictures I took of Carmel Barns in Carmel, CA.
Each of these have scroll tables, I really like the fixed background, it keeps the background in any resolution looking sharp.

The one I'm using right now is my Epiphyllum 'Padre.' It's a beauty when it blooms.
Enjoy

An update on my husband's job. I got a call just a few minutes ago and his forman said he's been called back to work and it will only be a day or so before the rest of the crew is called back. I have happy tears because we're starting to get a bit hungry in our wait. PTL The hardest part of trusting the Lord to provide is the wait. We just don't know how or when he'll provide, but not doubt that he will. Hopefully we'll be having a smoother ride for a few months.

Anniversary Surprise...

Or maybe curse? I love my husband very much, but I wish he'd get a little more creative when it comes to plant gifts. I'd drool over any orchid he'd give me, or an other kind of epiphyte, for that matter. I've even be happy with a Sansieveria or peace lily, however it seems every time he gives me a plant it's a Kalanchoe blossifeldia. It's a pretty (cheap) plant when it's in the florist's foil and sitting on the shelf at the grocery store, it even looks that way for a few months afterward, but then it goes downhill. It gets leggy, then ugly, and will never bloom again, unless you can give it all it wants. It's not a good houseplant for beginners. Yes, it does stay alive with lots of neglect, better with than without, but it will never be the pretty compact plant it started out to be.

That said, I was surprised that he bought it last night. He'd went out street witnessing with his friend and brought it home. It was a bit wilted, but it's perked up since being watered. The bottom leaves are a bit beat up from the car ride and the foil, they'll fall off eventually. I like how the flowers seem to change as they age, they are different colors, yellows, pinks, and creamy white. It's a nice plant. I'm proud of him.

While photographing for one of the gardening forums I belong to today, I took this picture. I was trying to get a close up of the spines. This is the "ghost" variegated corncob Euphorbia. I've had it for a while and I think it is one of the most stunning of my plants. I really like the way the picture came out. The large picture is a little gritty, but that happens when you turn off the flash. I'm not going to complain, this is my third Sony Mavica camera with floppy drive. The first DH ran over, the second died, and this one I bought from a lady for $50. It's an older model than the other two, but it works. I'd like to get one that has the CD reader, but maybe floppies are a bit safer in my house. With three children, I've always got scratched, cracked disks.

I got my orchid pots yesterday, just in time to repot again into more uniform pots, the cats have decided to play in my plants, so maybe the tray with insert will help protect them from knock over.

More on Pots

I have been waiting the last few days for my new orchid pots. I realized I needed some flats to put the pots in. I know Charley's Greenhouse Supply has them, but I didn't want to pay $2 each for something I know I can get at the nursery for free if I sweet talked them. However with no car, I' stuck with online buying. I looked up web flats and couldn't find them, I looked up web flats with little luck. I really needed them, so I went on a search for them. I found them, but I had to buy a case of 50-100 of them, I only need about 10 or so. I finally found them for 87 cents each sold as 1020 web flats. With shipping it comes out to about $1.25 each flat. I also found inserts for the flats, which hold the flats even better and tape plant labels. I'm happy with my findings, I hope they come soon so I can get my cuttings started. For the winter I'm going to get some seedling flats without holes to go in my shelves to protect the floor when I move them all inside.
My Epiphyllum "Elise" is not doing too well. She doesn't like the heat. I had her in a self watering pot and she was doing fine until about 6 weeks ago, then she started yellowing up the stem. I realized she was starting to mush. I re potted her into a two gallon pot, but all the new growth is slowly softening. I'm afraid I might lose her. I am waiting for payment for some cuttings I should of her on eBay. This was two weeks ago. I hope I get payment soon because the cuttings aren't looking too well. My King of Siam looked the same as Eilse a few weeks ago, but has bounced back since re-potting I'm hoping the same will happen to Elise. She's such a good bloomer and repeats her blooming throughout the year. I gave her some B1 root stimulator, hoping she'll recover any root loss from being in the self watering pot trying to escape. Somebody on the epiforums mentioned rooting her plants in Vegemite, we figured it was the B1 in it that was so beneficial. I am experimenting with B1 vitamins in my fertilizer, I bought a bottle of B1 vitamins just to add to my fertilizer. It can't hurt, since B1 is used to help root development. I heard the prenatal vitamins and aspirin helps plants develop also, aspirin did seem to help, but I'm not sure of the multivitamin.
Yesterday was my anniversary. I got a box of chocolate covered mint oreos. Wow, yippee, excellent! Can you feel the sarcasm? I bought a copy of The Holy War by Paul Bunyan and a thermos set for my husband. The boys made dinner, tuna helper and rice, yum, at least they attempted to make something nice. Tonight it's hamburger helper. I'm sick of box mixes, but they're as cheap as we can get. I guess it's going to be another rough year. We still have no car and he's been laid off for two more weeks. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the Highway 41 fire when we lost our house. Maybe that's why I've been so soppy lately. I pray that I will get out of this funk and learn whatever lesson I'm supposed to so we can move on.

Time to Repot

I have been using the last two weeks to upgrade my pots. I had many of my epiphyllums in the self watering hanging pots shown in my hoya post. I found that the soil was too moist for my epies. I was told I needed more perlite in my mix. My mix already consists of 1/3 perlite as it is. I use 1/3 potting soil, 1/3 perlite, and the rest a mix of clay cat litter and vermiculite. I also mix in the used coffee grounds from my husbands excessive coffee habit. I am now mixing it again half an half my mix with perlite. It's more white than anything else, but hopefully my plants won't rot. Another trick I learned is layer perlite in the bottom of the self watering pot then pot in the normal airy potting soil. Since perlite comes in 3.5 cf bags for $14 at OSH it's fairly cheap, but I do tend to go through it a lot.
I have since re potted all of my large plants in black gallon nursery pots. I don't think they can handle being re potted again, but this leaves about 10 empty self watering pots. I now have the problem of what to do with my cuttings. I have recycled some 4 in round pots, but they don't really fit in the flats very well. I was using plastic cups with burned holes in the bottoms, but even these were too moist and was causing rot. I was introduced to these pots when I bought some plants from Pacific Epies. I really like them, they are heavy and have lots of holes in the bottom, they come in clear and green. I bought the green ones only because I'm cheap, but I would really like to have the clear ones so I can watch the roots grow. They are made for orchids, but I'll use them for epies. I couldn't afford 1000 of them and less is not as economical. I found a lot of 100 on ebay. I bought them. With shipping and tax it comes out to about 23 cents a pot. This is better than the lot of 1000. I hope they come soon, so I can re pot my cuttings again. I also have some more epi cuttings waiting to be potted up.
There are many kinds of pots, clay, plastic, plaster, ceramic, and come in all sorts of sizes. My favorite to say is the "Long Tom," it's about 1 1/3 the height of the diameter, it's made for plants that need a lot of root room. Then there are bulb pans, which are about 1/3 the height of a regular height, for shallow roots and cactus and succulents. It can also be used as a training pot for bonsai. Standard clay pots are as high as they are wide. azalea pots are about half height, they make 3/4 height.
Now you get into orchid pots, they come in standard, 1/2 height and long toms. They come with slits in the side for root development. I have been making some orchid pots by drilling holes in the side of standard clay pots, it works well. Another favorite kind of pot is a strawberry planter, it's an urn looking thing with holes in the side to plant strawberries or herbs or even succulents.
One thing to keep in mind while planting is holes in the bottom of the pot, soil will go through them. I have found a cheap way to keep the soil confined for the first few watering's, coffee filters. Yes coffee filters, just place on over the holes in the pot and put your soil over it. You can also use a layer of newspaper, this takes a bit longer to break down though, but newspaper makes excellent compost also. why not use it to line your pots?
For more interesting information on pots and types of pots, I found this exhibit. It's quite interesting to see all this antique pottery. From cache pots to chamber pots, (not really) you'll find them on this website.

Hoya Hoe-Down

This posting is going to be a computation of my Hoyas. They are easy plants to grow if you can get the watering down right, some require more water than others.

This is one of my newest hoyas, it has a lot of potential and hopefully some beautiful blooms coming. I bought this as 5 4 in pots and stuck them in an old 8 in pot I had. I hope it fills out soon. It seems to be a slow grower, but I'm hopeful nonetheless. Hoya carnosa compacta is her name and slow growth is her game. I bought her at Hometown Nursery in Paso Robles.
Hoya shepherdii, my first ever Hoya to bloom, I bought it from Grow Nursery in Cambria as Hoya longifolia. You can tell the difference between the two by the bloom color. Longifolia has pure white blooms shepherdii has a red corona. This is a free blooming variety, which has been in bloom since about 4 months since buying it. I think this is one of my favorites so far.

I sold some plants on Ebay, this week, some epiphyllums and one of them was a cutting of what I bought as Hoya australis. I also got this plant at Grow Nursery in Cambria, I really need to get him a book on Hoyas, he uses an out of date book to ID his plants. I was told it is not an australis as I'd already suspected, but H. verticillata. It is a beautiful plant which is finally giving me new shoots. I see penduncles on all the plants in the pot, so maybe it won't be too long before I get blooms. I love the feel of it's leaves. They are ridged slightly. I hope the person who gets it is as happy with their little rooted plant as I am with my big plant.

This is my oldest Hoya I've had it for a year now. It is a shame to my growing capabilities. It was a rescue from Hometown Nursery. It had mealies and wasn't doing too well. I took it home, killed the mealies and almost killed it again this winter when it was hit by frost. I did lose some hoyas, but this one survived. It was all the Lord's doing, I would have killed it otherwise. It's not bloomed, and was recently under potted to a in pot. Hoya carnosa "Krimson Queen" is her name, aka Hoya carnosa variegata. I got a couple more hoyas from HTN. You'll meet them later.

The next on the list is Hoya kerrii. This is the slowest grower I have. It's put out all of two leaves in the year since I've had it. You can see in the picture it has splashed leaves on one stem and green on the other. I was wondering if I had two different varieties, but never got a response yet. I got this plant at Miner's Hardware in Morro Bay. They are the only hardware store I've seen with Hoyas. They tend to be hard to come by. I had a huge hanging basket of kerriis this winter, but the whole basket died in the frost. This plant I had inside. I just re potted it so it can grow on a trellis. I'm afraid I'll be old and grayer before I see it bloom though.
This is a NOID carnosa I rescued at Oceano Nursery, it also took the frost really bad. When I bought it it was a chocolate brown color from the sun. It was really beautiful. I've since grown it in less light and it's greened out a lot. I potted the green stems from my carnosa Krimson Princess in the same pot as this one, since this is a NOID I hope I can get two different colored blooms. It finally looks like a plant with the two foot stems in the pot. I was surprised to see new growth, so maybe it's recovered enough to bloom sometime next year.

Hoya carnosa "Krimson Princess" is also easy, but it keeps wanting to revert to green. I took out all the green stems and put them in with a NOID carnosa I have. I have had this plant for a few months now and with this heat it's really taking off. I feed my Hoyas Eleanor's VF-11 with each watering. I've cut back on the watering because I've found with the SW pots they really don't dry out all that much. I hope to see this one bloom within the next year or so. i cut it back a bit to compensate for the loss of the green stems, I hope this makes the pot fuller eventually. With as quickly as it's losing it's variegation I need to do something quick.

This is my newest Hoya, Hoya pubicalyx "Red Buttons." I got this one at Grow Nursery also. I have been eyeing this plant for a long time before I finally bought it. You can see where it was grown in darker conditions by the stretched stems. I'm hoping these stop elongating and new stems cover the elongated areas. I know this one is correctly ID'd because it had two tags, one hidden which said "Red Buttons" the other said Hoya species. This one is supposed to have chocolate brown maroon blooms, I can't wait. I haven' seen any penduncles, but that doesn't mean they're not there.

Well there you have it kids, my happy Hoyas. They like it outside. I'll have a mess when it's time to bring them in. This year I won't be leaving any of them outside to get frost damage. I lost two hoyas and a lot of cuttings last year, I hope to not repeat that experience again this year. I hope soon I'll have blooms on some other Hoyas, but for now the shepherdii will have to do.

Monday was my son's 15th birthday, it was fun, even though my husband was laid off and no transportation in sight, we managed to have cake and presents. He and his brother went camping in Yosemite with my mom and brother and will be back on Friday. I hope he has a good time, Monday is my anniversary, it will be 13 years. It is also the anniversary of the Highway 41 fire next week, where we lost everything to arson. People have adjusted their lives to the loss, I'm not sure 13 years is enough time to cope though. Without the Lord, I couldn't do it.

Sometimes God Whaps You in the Face..

For a couple years now it seems just before we have to pay smog on a car, it breaks down, or if I buy a large plant, our car breaks down. So I've been resorting to buying things online and on Ebay. There is one vendor of epiphyllums on ebay which I've ordered from about 20 times in the last few months. It seems when I'd get one order, it was time to send in a money order for another. This time we've been without a car for about 6 weeks. A friend of ours gave us a car, but then asked for it back. We had it for about a week before having to return it, just long enough to buy a huge hoya at Grow Nursery. I hope we get a car soon, because he called me last week and has an order of epiphyllums waiting for me to pick up. Maybe one day I'll learn.

On Saturday I was lamenting the loss of our car, and not being able to go to town, we live 30 miles from the nearest grocery store, my husband calls me outside in a frantic tizzy. I run, waddle more like it, outside to see what he's all fired up about, then he points to the wall. Right below the porch light was a cross. It was beautiful. I knew God was in control, and even if I didn't like it, he'd make sure we got food. I hope we get a car soon because our washer broke last week and we've been washing by hand. My uncle offered the use of his washer, but although he's sweet and kind, he's really weird.

My uncle has been working on a car my grandfather is giving us. He has been for the last few weeks. Apparently the only thing it needs is a new steering column. I don't know enough about cars to know for sure, but I'd assume it should take about a week max to finish. He's been working on it for a week now. I'm supposed to pick up my 9 year old daughter at the train station today. So I asked him how much longer, he said that my grandfather told him not to worry about it, I don't know what that means, but ok. Last night I went outside to check my plants one last time for the night and I smelled something akin to roses with baby powder. I looked very carefully and my Hoya shepherdii was hiding a few blooms in the recesses of it's pot. Sometimes when things are going rough, God makes sure you find little things that are enjoyable.

I just got a call from my friend's niece, apparently her grandmother died last night and my friend hasn't been told yet. She asked me to call her after she found out. What an ugly affair. I hope my friend's sisters tell her where the funeral will be. This could be her breaking point. I hope not, she loved her grandmother. I pray that God gives her the strength and need to go on.

How It All Began

I have always had a love for nature. When I was little my Great Grandmother had a huge opuntia in her front yard and Naked Lady Amaryllis next to it. Every year she would have one of her sons cut the opuntia half way down, the pads would sit in the yard until somebody decided to throw them over the back fence. Since her property backed up to the creek bed the opuntia cuttings helped prevent animals from getting her chickens. I remember her swinging those chickens by the head to break their neck so that she could boil them into stew. When she died the opuntia was cut down and never seen again. My grandparents got some of the naked lady bulbs, which I now have a few of my own from her bulbs. Since I lived with my mom in one of my grandmother's houses, I couldn't have any of the opuntia.
My grandmother has a mint plant she curses ever planting, and has never let me grow any where I'm at, so I grow my mint in pots. It's not happy, but at least I have some. I would love to release it from it's confinement unit (pot) and let it run free! However I live in one of my grandparents' rentals and must abide by their rules. I have a love for all the plants she hates. I am down to four different mints, but at one time had over 35. I have been collecting opuntias also, and have about 15 different kinds, all in pots, waiting to be release out of their confinement. I may plant their seeds just to see if they will come up.
Another bane to my grandmother is 4 o'clocks. I love these easy to grow plants, they make huge tuberous roots. I have a few dug up that I planted 15 years ago, they have fairly large roots, but I'm thinking I must have got the edge of the group, because, they could be bigger. I want to try making a caudex out of them. It will be fun to see how it works out.
None of those compare to my real love in the plant world, jungle cactus. Epiphyllums are hybrids between epiphytic cactus and land cactus, most don't even have 1/10th epiphyllum in them, but they are called epiphyllums nonetheless. Schlumbergera the Christmas or Thanksgiving cactus started appealing to me, I have 15 of them now. Rhipsalis is a smaller cousin to epies. I fell in love with this plant when I bought about 5 pots of one from the plant shop at Cal Poly SLO a few years ago. I was thinking it looked like a plant I had called Epiphyllum oxypetallum, aka Queen of the Night. Which has enormous white flowers during the night, mine traveled with me from Tennessee to California when we were coming home. It didn't survive the winter.
A local nursery had a plant that looked like my oxy. When I asked about it, it turned out to be "Padre." I bought a cutting. Then I went back and got more and more, until I had a small plant of it.

I found another nursery which had a lot of epies, I bought a few cuttings. I was on my way! One day I was researching epiphyllums to see if I could find another, low and behold I came across a forum just for epiphyllums, so I joined. I was able to expand my collection, I have an epi called "Clarabella", my great grandmother was named Clara Belle. She and her twin sister both got a letter and picture of Ronald Reagan for their 98th birthday. Anyway, I gave a cutting of it to my mom, her plant looks way better than mine and she neglects things until they die, I hope she doesn't kill this plant.
I've lost a bunch of plants this last winter, mostly epies and rhipsalis. So I started again. This spring I remembered the old "Padre" so I went to the nursery with intent on buying it for whatever she'd take. It was frost damaged really bad, She gave me the whole plant for $5! I was able to salvage one cutting off of it. Sad but it was a beautiful plant, but I got some of it anyway. I hope one day Padre will look as beautiful as it did last summer.
Two years ago I found an old picture of an epi my other great grandmother had on her porch. This started another search, I was told this plant could be "Guatemala" an older hybrid. I have searched for this plant for two years. I finally found and bought a cutting on eBay for $25. It came with other cuttings, but this was the crown jewel! I can't wait to get it planted. Last month I got a plant of "Zola" I had been looking for this one for a year, this is just as exciting. I feel that my collection is and could now be complete. I hope so, since I have over 100 different epies, and by the size of the above plant, I am going to need a huge greenhouse to confine them all. Well, that's how it began, I was drawn to cactus by my inability to have some of Grandma's opuntia, other plants because grandma hates them and because I had an amazing bloom about 7 years ago one summer evening.