Where is the rain?

I haven't had that much time to put up any posts as of late. So here is the summation of what has been going on: School, work, no rain, sleep, repeat. It is hard to find anything exciting about those things. I don't want to seem negative, but just more of the same old boring stuff I always write about in this blog......Cathrine and Anna are in school again, Anna is officially a first-grader and Cat is in kindergarten. Cathrine's' school started two weeks later than Anna's, so last week was her first week of school. They both seem to enjoy school, and for that I am glad. As for my schoolin', I can't wait until it is over. I am ready for a break. This is the first and last summer quarter I have taken, and it is has not been fun. I am nearing the end though so I am hitting it hard to finish up. After this quarter I will have but a handful of core classes left......We are in the "dog days" of summer, it is hot,it is dry, and the yard is struggling. We need rain. Hopefully the rain from the looming tropical depression will be headed our way. Fingers crossed. The leaves are falling, from lack of water, making it seem like early fall. It is August for Pete's sake. It has also been rather cool the past couple of nights with temperatures in the upper sixties, an anomaly for Georgia this time of year. Not complaining about that one.......Other than that everything is going well. Same old grind, but every one is well around here.

Rain, rain go away.....no wait...it's supposed to rain...

It has been raining...a lot. We have had over four inches in the last week at our house. It has been great. I have seen downpours that I haven't seen in years around here. It has really changed things here, even within one week. The grass is finally growing, the wilted plants are back to normal, and my mood has improved. I love to see it rain; after two years of being in a drought(of which we are still in), it is nice to see it rain. O.K. that is enough about that, I just get excited when it rains like this, hell it is raining as I write this:) I started back to school this week. Back to reality, or more of it. The classes should be a lot easier this quarter as I am taking a greenhouse class and an herbaceous perennial I.D. class. I have a lot of experience in these subjects, so they shouldn't be that bad. They will still be demanding though. Business is going well. I finished a large job this weekend that has been going on for over a month. That was a good thing. It turned out nice, I believe, and I will post some pictures of it soon. I have two more medium size jobs lined up for the coming weeks. Good times.....thats about it. Cathrine is doing well, and Anna is on vacation with here grandparents in Boston. It is an annual trip. She is having fun. These girls have had it made with all the vacations they have had this summer. I wish I had their schedule! I am glad for them, as they are at the age that all the memories start to stick. I hope they are making good ones......

I wish we were still on vacation.

I have been busy. Very busy, but who hasn't. I have posted some more pictures of our trip to Florida. Two weeks later. Between work, more work, and school I have been neglecting the Blog.......It is finals week, hell yeah. I love finals. Most of them should be easy, but they are challenging none the less. I will be very glad to finish this Spring quarter. It has been a rough one, as the classes have been running late, resulting me getting home around ten thirty or eleven. One more week. Summer quarter should be a tad easier as I am attending as a special student (I'm riding the short bus...). My instructors are allowing me to participate in class through e-mails and on line. This will be so helpful. I am close to finishing, and I have been putting off the Summer quarter for two or three years now. Going to school after working a full day with temps in the nineties, and the going to school until ten P.M. never excited me.....Speaking of the temperature it has been very hot here. It was 99 this afternoon, a good ten degrees above the average (what global warming?). It has also been on the dry side. It looks like we might be headed for another drought year. Let's hope not.....My second job has been going well, and I have a steady supply of supplemental money (to spend on the equipment that I need to do the work). Things will get better though, and I am assured I will be a millionaire in a couple of months:). Don't I wish. I should have been a doctor.......We have done some more work on the yard, and I will have some more pictures of it next week. I have refused to go out and do anything in the yard today, including taking pictures, because of this damn heat. ...I need one day off. That's it. I hope everybody has a good week.......

Vacation next week

Yup, We are going to take a vacation next week. I am looking forward to going, as we haven't taken an official vacation in a couple of years. We are going to Coco Beach, Fl. I'll be sure to take plenty of pics....I started a business last week. I have been hesitant to write about it because of any conflicts of interest with my current job, but I can't help it. My goal is not to give up my day job, but rather to supplement my income. It has been going well so far, and I am really busy during the weekends. We spent Saturday building a retaining wall, and it was tough work, and there were lots of sore muscles this morning. It will continue on for a couple more weekends, and I will post some pics as the job progresses. The last couple of weeks have been strenuous, but productive. There will be more on this later......School has been tough, and I am going to force myself to take two courses this summer. I need to get those classes out of the way. Managing all the things I have on my table as of late has been tough, but I am not complaining.....It has been raining this year (knock on wood), and the drought is not as evident this year. Thank God.....I guess it's back to mowing wet grass, and pruning bushes every week.

Whole Lotta' Nothin'

It was a quiet weekend, and I am not complaining. I enjoy the quiet weekends. I really don't have much to say, I just had the time to kill. What to write about...I don't have anything, just the same old boring stuff...Work, school, sleep. I tried to change my website around a bit, but ended up just adding a weather link instead. I knew how to edit HTML for a minute, but I forgot, not to mention it is way to complicated for a Sunday afternoon. Maybe I will change It up in a couple of weeks....This is the time of year where time just seems to pass so slowly. I think it is the fact that I will have a couple of weeks of in the middle of December. Thinking of that just makes the time go by so slowly. Oh well...The weather is the same, just like Arizona around here. It is actually quite ridiculous. There is no outdoor watering allowed. The drought seems to have the attention of everyone around here, from the media to the average suburbanite. They keep talking about running out of water; eighty days and we will be rationing water. Then I hear that the Corp of engineers is releasing 4.1 Billion gallons a day from Lake Lanier, and the Governor is suing them for releasing too much water. The politicians are arguing. That will solve a lot. This is surely a drought that I will not soon forget. It will be disastrous soon if the rain does not come, and the water restrictions are still in place. 14,000 jobs lost already for the landscaping industry in the metro area this year alone.....I actually have thirty day permit for watering my backyard, for the aeration and seeding that Hybrid Landscapes did for me (at a deeply discounted rate). I have watered a total of fifteen whole minutes in fifteen days. I'm turning soft, soon I will be petitioning for the endangered mussels. Stop the watering!.....Actually, I just don't feel like hearing the neighbors' comments. I also don't want to pay a huge water bill for some lousy fescue.......I want it to rain..... Please?.......

yeah..... for green grass

The grass is greening up. Everything else is drying up and dying because it never friggin' rains here. Oh yeah its over 100 degrees every day. I'm sick of it. It hasn't rained since we put the sod down. Uhhh, is it fall?........Here's a couple 'before and after' pictures

Fall?......No it's still summer........

I have some amazing news. It's hot here. O.K., so thats no surprise. It is August. It is the south. It has definitely been hotter than average, with highs over 100 for four days or so. Brutal. Add to the equation that it has not rained in two weeks or so and you have the perfect formula for crappy days. It is very hard to keep up with the plants, especially the water loving ones, when it is hot. Then there is the sod, or should I call it grass now. Three or more inches of water a week, sometimes four waterings a day, and it is still not all that it wants. It is definitely an uphill battle, but it is greening up and rooting. I would take a picture of it, but that would require that I go outside.........I have been feeling good as of late, knock on wood. I have went on what I would call a health kick. It started off lowering my sodium intake, and has progressed into lowering saturated fats, getting more fiber, and all of the other boring nutritional junk. I have lost about twenty or twenty five pounds and I wouldn't mind to lose about fifteen or twenty more pounds. I have also given up on caffeine, and haven't had any going on two months. I still miss my morning cup of coffee, but over all it wasn't that hard. I am thinking about going for broke and giving up the cancer sticks. Whew, did I just say that? I am thinking about it.........Everybody is good . The girls started school last week and they both enjoyed their first week. Anna has a loose tooth and of course she is scared to pull it and won't let us close enough to pull it. Maybe next week, the 'tooth-fairy' is broke this week anyways.

What's this wet stuff?

It has been doing something that it hasn't done in a while. It rained. In fact it rained again today. I never guessed I would be excited about it raining. After planting all of the plants however, it is much needed rain. I have almost completed the first four zones of my irrigation system, so that has helped out. I installed one zone of drip line that I like a lot. Little wasted water, and it puts it right at the roots of the plants. Other than that work has all but stopped on the yard.....We took Cathrine over to the pool today and let her swim. She is a natural. She swims like a fish. I am glad for that.......We have Wednesday off for the fourth, we are looking forward to that. It is kind of weird to have a day off in the middle of the week, but I'll take it. I think I hear thunder, I had better investigate. Finally, back to the Georgia we know.

Easter

I haven't posted in a long time. I didn't have much to say. It is easter, however, and I will do a post. We had an "Egg hunt" at the house today, and the girls had fun. A couple friends came over with their kids so there was a pretty good turnout. We even had a dinner. It was fun. It is nice to have people over the house. I just wish the weather had been nicer. We a experiencing a cold snap not seen in a couple hundred years. It was about 23 degrees last night. I guess our area has broken the record low for two nights in a row, and we will probably break it again tonight. It did a lot of damage to the plants around here. A lot of the perennials had already started popping up, and were killed back. Hosta's, canna's, and crepe myrtles were all hit hard. Also the shrubs had already put off new growth, and most of them were hit. Oh well, they will all grow back. It is interesting to see which plants are hit hard with a freeze. this years late winter and early spring have definitely been weird. I have posted some pictures of the kids looking for eggs. I didn't get many good shots, as it is hard to keep up with them when they are running for the eggs.