My New Job

The store in Jacksonville opened up on December 10th 2008. We had a grand opening, and the store was packed with eager customers wanting to get into the store and check us out. I was fortunate enough to have a sneak preview.... as is the benefits of being an employee http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/careers/benefits.php ... or as they say "team member". The values and benefits of this company cannot be compared to any other place I have ever worked, with the exception of Wild Oats, which was a comparable company, that Whole Foods purchased this past year.
More information about Whole Foods can be found here: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/ I urge anyone who does look onto my blog to at least see what the "fuss" is all about. I feel proud to work for a company that is so concerned with the environment, community, as well as the world people.

It has been a welcome breath of fresh air after working for the Holiday Hell... Well ok the Holiday Inn, owned and franchised by Murpho Co. Inc. What a transformation...

snakes, crabs, and moths

I'll pick up just about anything, as long as I know what it is, know it won't cause bodily harm, and hopefully not bite me. I like taking the pictures of what is crawling around. That is if I can catch it. The black racer, I left alone to pics only, although this one will come right up to me, by at least a few feet. When I was releasing the little ring snake, the racer cut between me and Acelin, and he and I were only about three feet apart. Acelin suddenly said "snake mom, snake" and well, goodness there it was, moseying along, it obviously has not much to fear, and is a good three feet in length!

T.S. Fay -vs- our back yard

TS Fay hit our area late on Thursday August 21st. It didn't come with a lot of wind, but liked to stall and hang over an area for far too long and create a lot of rain. We were NOT the only area in FL affected by Fay... in fact ALL of Florida was affected by Fay. I think rather a record for Florida. Seen big storms, that come and go, but this one ziged and zaged all across Florida till everyone felt a little bit, or a lot of Fay. Here is my yard Friday morning:A bit of water creeping in, not even too much more than a heavy flow of thunderstorms, I got wet playing in the water with the kids and having fun catching frogs and salamanders. I'm standing on the block in the back yard by the red maple tree. Still high and dry:

Frog I caught... yes I have four boys and they all shied away from the frog, not wanting to try to catch it. Slippery thing it was, but worth the catch!
Three little salamanders that were caught in the inflatable Alligator pool:
Friday afternoon, before I went to work, the water had come up some more:
the block I was standing on earlier is clearly under water:
Friday night when I came home the water was up to the blocks on my porch. Pictures proved to be futile, so I didn't take any. We had an early trip that was long planned to Orlando and left early in the morning, when it was still dark. I had looked out and water was up to the porch. When we got home late that day I was in a bit of a frenzy seeing that the road connecting to our road was closed, so we did take another road and came to our house and the front was still DRY.. what a sigh of relief! However upon going into the back, the water had gone into the porch, and was up by about 2 inches. Our cat was obviously not amused!

Side of the house:

One of the many play toys that are just floating around in the back yard, the water was over our back fence, which is 4 ft tall... now it's 4 ft deep!

Sunday Morning and the water had receded a bit, the play house is still afloat and there is so many "critters" in the water.
These are the cement blocks right in front of my porch, still a bit under water, but not completely submerged.
The reflections of the trees in the water is pretty, really, but not having water property, I'm not really amused. Our back yard is the place for the boys to run around safely and have fun... now they can't till the water is gone! Which may be a week or more.
The critters found alive and dead in the porch were interesting. many spiders, worms, a few fish but the leech was a gross out moment for me, even though I summoned up the courage to actually pick it up and put it in a bowl and add water to see it in it's "natural" environment, I couldn't pass up the observation, since I had NEVER seen a leech in person, It was a neat opportunity, the kids weren't as amused as I was though.

The leech video (it's only 10 seconds)

good gravy it's a garden update!

I know it's been over a month, but I did have progress pictures, that somehow disappeared... that's what I get for not uploading them right away, huh? So anyway, here is my lovely front yard garden:
Here is from the front porch looking in the direction of the picture above
Flowers planted around the Sago Palm
Brussels sprouts looking nice
corn, sunflowers, and marigolds
planter box full of tomatoes... not including the other 10 plants placed around the yard...
Cucumbers

the next two are just pics of the self heal that has really taken off, if you look down at other posts you will see the difference! It's a good ground cover and really inches around and crowds out the weeds, plus it has nice little purple flowers that shoot up.

So it's a lot of work, I still have other things I want to plant, and move, and weeds to pull, bugs to pluck, and very soon, veggies to harvest!

More random garden photos

Onions

Interesting tomato flower stem, there are four flowers to one stem, usually it's one on one. The stem is really thick too.
First Sunflower bloom
Hydrangea flower... this was a "rescued" plant. I dug it up and transplanted it into my yard. It had MANY dead branches on it.
Japanese Eggplant
I think this is our 15th Zucchini... the kids are sick of zucchini already..

Tomatoes soon!

Chickens

Silly birds, let me take your picture... no I'm not the crazy boy who wants to pick you up all the time, it's me, the person who feeds you. well they wouldn't cooperate, but here they are, the birds.

I think it's time we find names for these birds.. I'm thinking airhead, dingy, and dumb dumb... no not nice, but really these are not the brightest birds in the hen house. The aracaunas are a bit flighty and HATE, can I emphasize that enough... HATE to be separated... the old adage of "birds of a feather flock together" is even an understatement with these two chickens. The other I'm not sure if it's a barred rock, or a Dominique, nor am I sure if it's a hen or a rooster... grrrrrr.

They like to get under a little table on the porch and poop.. Did you know chickens poop a lot.. yep, little poop factories, however, according to my friend Judy, chickens are not to be compared to geese, I believe geese own the monopoly on the poop factories.

So chickens are fun, they cluck and coo, and fluff around, and are nice little animals to keep. These ladies are around 3 months old, and still have a bit of growing left to do, hopefully we will have eggs from three hens in a few months. I can't wait!

Random garden photos

Broccoli floret

Corn getting tall, it's about 10 inches tall now
Yarrow flower, purple flowers behind are self heal

top of Brussel sprout plant
flowering chives with lettuce behind
stink bug
Blueberries starting to redden
My garden assistant, taking care of a grasshopper

your trash, my treasure

Now as I drive around I look for wood, we need it for the soon to be chicken coop, as well as borders for plantings and such. Having Monday's off is the perfect opportunity to check to see what the neighbors have cleared out over the weekend. I have already picked up a lattice plant support, which I'm not sure what I'll plant under it, but I'll figure something out.
Since I live an improv lifestyle and go with the flow, I find and I can create. These boards, plywood, landscape timber and cement rounds will come in handy in something. It's just so much better finding this stuff as someones trash, then to have to buy it. There is always more that I can get, but I choose to limit myself, so I don't end up too pack ratty. Which that is pretty easy to do. So I get what I can, leave what I can't and regret what I should have, and move on with what I take.

more garden progress:

I got all the self heal and Yarrow out of the planter box, and it has been transplanted in front of the bushes, since it will spread and is a nice ground cover with little purple flowers, I thought it would be nice under the bushes as well. I lined it with newspapers and mulch to keep the weeds and grass at bay, hopefully.


Freddy cat helping me scope out the front area. I added some decorative grass, mulch and the lemon balm, because it was in the same planter box as the yarrow and self heal, and I plan to use that box for a nursery for tomato seedlings.
same area, different angle. The dirt area around the sago palm has flower seeds planted, Naturtium, Celosia, Marigold, Cosmos, and Tithonia all summer, annuals that are drought resistant.

behind the squash I have planted cucumbers, I have wire fencing to make some supports for them to grow up onto.

This is a crepe myrtle that has some transplanted yarrow at the bottom of it. And the Corn to the right. The pile of mulch just doesn't seem to get much smaller... what's freaking me out is that I keep considering another load! The backyard better watch out!