Thursday, September 6, 2012

More garden pictures from last spring

I wanted to post more of the pictures of my beautiful iris gardens, since everything here is ugly and brown now.  These were taken in the middle of May. Blooms were a month early this year.
Enjoy :)

































Friday, August 31, 2012

Announcing.... Ganon Jacob

My new grandbaby. He's so sweet (of course !) What else would a grandma say!
He arrived in a hurry on Monday. But once he was here he didn't seem to excited about anything else. So far he's  pretty calm. His dad was a very fussy baby from day one , so I'm happy for his mom & dad he's not like that.

I had to wait days to see those eyes open!  He looks like mommy and daddy. I thought he'd have more hair, but they say boys have hair like their mother's father.  So far true in his daddy's case, my dad still has lots of hair at 91.  His mommy's dad? um... not so much! Time will tell.

Not much exciting with myself.
I've been trying to recover from the month of digging. I'm tired, can you belive it! LOL
I finished friday, had a wedding sat. and then family reunion sun.  Then the baby arrived on Monday, dr apmt on tues, and finally got my hair cut/colored  yesterday. Crazy busy for a farm girl that never leaves home!

I got the Td vaccine booster on tues and that made me feel a bit icky and more tired. Seems whooping cough has made a come back here, and they suggest anyone under 65 that will be around babies get it.  And I do plan on being around this baby as much as I can!


On the iris side, I went down last night to see how they are settling after all our disturbing/digging. They want rain. Hopefully we'll get some of that hurricane, but they say it's fizzling out. Of course *sigh.   I might have to turn on the sprinklers again. I've never had to water the iris. So strange this year.  We did get enough sprinkles to turn the yard green at least.  But it still looks awful. I have to go out and cut off the black peony stems/leaves.  So sad looking.

I'm donating a bunch of iris to the local Elks club to use as fundraisers in future years.  I said they only have to dig them. There is about 20 of them and one of me!  Not such a big job that way. I hope it works out for them, they need the money and use it for good causes in the community.

Oh, and "she's" back. uggg
 DEMANDING her shipping or "I'll tell ebay and paypal"   whatever. Are we in grade school?
 Thanks to all my great supporters  I realize she's the bad apple in the barrel.  Tossed her out! Not going to think about it anymore.

Hope everyone has a great day :)

Deb

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Iris Season is officially finished!

I'm done!! yeaaaa :D
All the orders have been shipped. Whew! What an exhausting summer.  Now we need some more rain to settle the leftovers back into the dirt. We've been disturbing them all month and they aren't happy about it.

Now I need to hurry up and make a few blankets/quilts for the any-day-now new grand baby.  I can't wait to hold him. I lovvvvvve babies :)

I cleaned up my huge mess in the garage where I sorted/trimmed/boxed orders. Put my truck back inside and shut the door. It feels good to clean it all up.
Now if the rest of the house were done I might take a go-to-town day . Maybe next week. I should do some cooking for a change. Oh shoot, I have to make something for the picnic reunion Sunday.  Maybe I'll take a birthday cake.

 I do need to figure out what to wear to a wedding reception sat night. With my horrible stained fingernails, farmer tan and those black toenails I'm not sure anything will look good!   It's supposed to be hot, and I have a sundress I'd like to wear. Oh well, I am what I am. I'm sure I look as tired as I feel anyway.


I'll try to get some pics up again next post. Still fussing with this new printer and the issues it caused.
Wireless? Forget it! Nothing but a pain. What's one more cord anyway heh.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Monday Aug 20th shipments

Phew, what a weekend. Or maybe I should say, what weekend!

Here are the zip codes of tomorrows shipments. I'm thinking this should work ok, not much chance of doubling up. But you can go to your ebay and check your purchases, it will have the info there.  (hopefully Inkfrog shipping added it - seems each way I try has some issue with email or logging tracking info)

I apologize that these aren't in numerical order. I will group them by the first digit.


01085-4221
02830-1883

25438-5653

37919
35633-1505

48047-1076
46835-9584

55358-2421
54166
57030-6709

64015-8300
68516
68728-2801
62807-1100
62526-4034

78232-4029

89508
80026-9735
89436-8719

92120-3235
98685-5129
93544-0297
92019
98118
92021-8981
94559

Friday, August 17, 2012

Uh oh, the plane!!

Remember Fantasy Island?  The plane boss, the plane!!
Well, here it's not excitement but dread. A few years ago they started arial spraying of the corn and beans. I didn't really like that yellow plane flying barely over my house again and again and again. And I'm a bit of a bitch about chemicals spraying near my yard anyway. No, I'm a big bitch about it. I've stopped the sprayer more than once in the field behind our house. They were spraying on WINDY days and it was drifting into our yard.
Well, a few years ago when the plane started we didn't know any better. I felt anxious and it upset me, but Hubby thought it was cool. We were outside working in the yard, the kitties were out but 1.  Myself and the kitties all got bad colds.  I wondered....since the one kitty that wasn't out didn't get it, and never did catch it, if it was the plane.
Kitties can't go outside when I hear the plane now.

Well last year, I was out digging several days when the plane was spraying.  I didn't like it and went in when he was very close. But I've read the stuff stays in the air for days, and can drift for miles. Wonderful.

One Saturday I was trying to finish up my dig and I just felt "off".  I couldn't wait to get to the washing because I usually get plenty wet, and it's nice and cold.   When I finally finished (I was moving pretty slow) and came in to shower. I noticed I looked a bit funky too. Well, I'm blond and I get red/purple faced in the heat. Scares the crap out of hubby!  Doesn't feel good either!
I took my temp and sure enough 101. The next morning it was 102.8 and I sounded like I was breathing pudding.  I called my dr and he knew it was the plane/spray because they had a bunch of people the same as me. Mega antibiotics cleared it up. They are spraying bacteria to infect the bugs and kill them.

 But it's making people sick. And what is it doing to our lungs?

And yet, they don't stop.  ???  What's wrong with this country?   If it's making ME that sick, what's it doing to  animals and maybe bees and  such?  I grew up a farmer, I get it. But it has to have a limit. Some things you just have to work with. This "gotta get the biggest crop at any cost" is out of hand.

And since the corn crop is almost worthless this year I'm not sure why they are spraying in the first place. My sister said the beetles were eating the silks weeks ago. And aphids were on the beans. But by now that would be a lost cause.

At any rate, if you hear the plane, RUN!!!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Past my bedtime, a quick note

I haven't figured out a quick easy way to give everyone specific days. But how about this?
ALL ORDERS will be dig and shipped out by the end of next week.  I've even figured in the three waiting payment.  So if you don't see them next week it will be early the final week of August.
Does that work?

I got 97 dug today, hopefully as many tomorrow.  Today was all for only one order , but tomorrow will fill a few. They will all be shipped out Sat.  (Today's order requested not before the 19th)

Good night all, gotta go find my icy stuff for sore joints and cover myself with it!

Deb

Well, that doesn't work!

I guess the buyer can't see the sales record number.  Hmmm, anyone have an idea how I can do this for you? I don't want to post names or ID's as I'm sure some folks wouldn't want that.  It would be too time consuming to post all the item numbers. I thought for sure the sales number would be somewhere for the buyer. But I went and looked at some of my recent purchases and I couldn't find it.

???? anyone have an idea? I really thought this was going to help everyone out with a ship estimate.


Todays Digs

Change of plans, I was informed by my farmer sister it only rained 3/10"   *rolling eyes
So, I WILL be digging this afternoon.
I will try to post each day the orders that I'm digging.  I will use the ebay Sales Record Number. So if you are waiting for your order, you can check daily for your number(s) and when you see it, I'm digging your order!
Generally they will ship the next day (unless it's sunday of course), or if I dig very late in the day and feel they are too wet to pack.

So, drum roll please.... here we have:

TODAY'S DIGS FOR THURSDAY AUG 16th

12622
12617
12619


DIGS FOR FRIDAY AUG 17th
12123
12123
12610
12478
12909
(above customer requested shipping monday)
12718
12763
12770
12822
12874
12774
13116

these orders will ship on Friday or Saturday (monday request)


A really bad day, and some good

Warning, rant.
Ok, so my ebay buyers know about the unreasonable buyer who claims I sent her crappy rhizomes. Actually she called them trithomes or something. ( you get the feeling she doesn't know what she's talking about?)
So she claims I sent her worthless rhizomes, and in all caps yells I WANT MY MONEY BACK.
Oh, and she doesn't send me an email first . She files a claim on ebay.  (one more reason ebay is history for me after this season. I'm tired of their nazi-ruler game and encouraging scammers.)

Now this really upset me. Because I work damn hard keeping the iris healthy and getting these flowers out as quick as one middle aged woman can. How many days in a row can she dig 90-100 iris? I'm exhausted and sore. I spend NO time with my family or grandkids all summer.  We have a pool that goes unused. My house...Oh you don't want to see my house! We have um...*cough ...several cats. (NO, not TV show several!) Hubby helps a lot, but when I'm done shipping orders I expect to be cleaning for a week!

So, instead of a reasonable email where I could educate her on how Iris grow, and how they do differ around the country because of the weather they have to endure, she goes for the gut. Hits me where I try to do my best with what I have to work with.
If I had known last April/May that it was going to not rain a drop for over two months this summer, I probably wouldn't have listed the Iris. For sure not the border/intermediates.  I watered and pampered them as much as I could. The temps were in the 100 range for weeks. Even with rain that would have worked on them.

Yea it gets even better today. I had told her I wanted proof. I wanted pictures, and they had to show my writing on the rhizome. She said she'd already sent them back. Posted a tracking number. I didn't even bother to try it because I figured it was bogus.

So today, I get pictures! (chase down the mailman??). She said they were black and rotten and teenie and the roots were "barely threads".
I'll share them here. You tell me what YOU think.  Granted, they were not all as big as I would like. But they were ALL intermediates/border iris who survived the drought . And ALL were ready to grow and bloom for her. Another thing she hasn't a clue about.  *rolling eyes

Here is a "comparison"  she says.
She KEPT the one on the left. Another  only-bigger- is-better idiot.  Sorry for the harsh name, it just pisses me off. 

I see green leaves, lots of roots,firm rhizome, several shoots (more than one fan , I could have separated this .) But I didn't because it was a smaller intermediate/border.  But she didn't like the brown color.!!! !
????????

This one isn't brown, looks like pretty healthy roots to me. Nice firm rhozome. Oh dear, I bit of yellow at the tip of one leaf. tisk tisk. ...I bet she'd look a little yellow too if she spent a few days in a box with no water.
  And can you see at the top, it says 2-2. That means we sent  TWO roots.
How much you wanna bet, I only get ONE back.  If any at all.

Oh no, the dreaded brown/black? (color blind?) rhizome!!!! eeeeek!! Doh
See the shoots on the side? See the white roots?
 Lesson to newbie-new roots grow at the back of the fan, see the new roots growing?
Ok, it's not huge, I'm sorry,
 I can't seem to get mother nature in a better mood this year.
She must have dealt with this buyer too!

Ahhhh this is a good pic.  Ok, SHE sees  that dark color "trithome'..... pfffttt ,  I can't even spell it how she did!  It's not rotten, it's a brown ROOT, goes under the DIRT.
And there again, I see shoots on each side, healthy green leaves.
BUT WHAT I SEE are those fingernails. White french tips, fancy stencils.....  Gardener? Absolutely not!
Bratty self centered gimme-it-all  20-30 something,? most likely.

This one got a little dryer leaves in the box. Otherwise, I don't see the problem. The rhizome is firm, white inside. I know this one wasn't so  "tiny".  Nice and plump for an intermediate/border.
She says it was "black, thread thin roots"? What kind of thread?  Apparently not a sewer either.  

Oh no, the oldest leaf turned yellow, and it's got dark skin.
I'm starting to see she has a serious bit of rhizome racism !

  Well, that's it then, must not be any good at all.
*sigh

So, feebay and their buddy preypal were going to give her ALL her money back.  For the ones she's keeping and these that she supposedly is sending back. ( I'll believe it when I see them. ) Oh and don't forget the postage that I don't have. I sorta gave it to the USPS when I mailed them! I already refunded EACH ONE w/o the others she wanted to keep. 
 Unless in their all mighty power they just take the other money too.  I wouldn't be surprised. 
Then she will not only have the rhizomes... yes, pita, they are rhizomes not trithoms....but EXTRA cash too.

I'm thinking she figured that all along.  Or she bought them and didn't really want them, or overspent. I'm guessing this because she didn't pay for over three weeks and it went to non-paying bidder. So she panicked and got all excited then. 
I told her it didn't mean anything unless she actually didn't  pay.  Being an ebay newbie she must have at least known 8 no-pay strikes on her less than 10 feedback woudln't be good. How could she get stuff for free if she can't bid??

Ok, this is my second vent and I'm sure my iris buddies are sick of it.
 One told me they didn't want to be my therapist. I apologized, that wasn't my intention of the email. 
 But MANY of you were super nice and lifted my spirits again. I thank you for that.
  The ones who know this is a hard job, and depending on Mother Nature during her obvious menopause is stressful.

If you get your iris and they aren't what you want, just send me an email. I will work with you, I know this year isn't  the best. Every farmer in states around me are suffering the same issue. Don't yell at the grocer when the produce is small, yell at Mother Nature!! 

OH! And the GOOD NEWS   :)
We got some RAIN!!! yipppeeeeeeeee
Last night our usual tenth, but this morning it really rained for a bit. I think we might have gotten between a quarter and half an inch. We haven't had this much since May. Crazy summer. It's looking dark and rainy again. Crossing my fingers! I can almost hear the iris cheering :p
 I could dig this afternoon, but I think I'll let them soak it up until  tomorrow. I hope you don't mind, but they really need it, and I honestly do want to send you the best rhizomes I can.  Many times already this year, I've left myself only a teenie sprout of a color. I probably won't have any next year, but the customer will.  :)

Happy Blooms to all!  *and some rain!

and I promise a better post next time. I took some pics of the process and will show how I work. Don't expect many pics of me, I look like one of those rhizomes! Never a good picture. :)

Monday, July 2, 2012

Who changed the calendar again!

Ok, it's JULY!  And it's tooo hot!  This is crazy hot, and still crazy dry. I watered the iris last week, first time ever. And we did finally get a sprinkle of rain, but wasn't enough to help. I think I'm going to have to start the sprinklers up again tomorrow.  The corn is curling up. That's bad. Corn has very deep roots and if it's dry that far down I start to worry about the big picture. Trees, bushes, wells! eeek.  Lets all do a rain dance quick!  Ok, ....AFTER Wednesday .

Speaking of...
Do you have big plans for the 4th? We don't do much. This year the grandkids are coming over to splash in the pool. (I hope, it's so hot we can't even get the chlorine up to minimum level!)
 I used to set up at the park and sell crafts and plants. But I'm just done with that I guess. Especially outside shows. It really is a very long day out in the heat.

So, if you're hiding inside like me :D  head on over to my website www.sunshineannie.com and I'll give you a couple coupons! Sorry, you have to pick just one, they can't be combined.

10% off orders of $35 or more with code LIKE10 is still in effect.

 Orders of  $50 or more get 15% off with  code JULY450  


 OR if your order is over $100 you get FREE SHIPPING!  with code  JULY4Free   


Please note that I'm trying my best keeping the counts on the iris correct. But there is always a chance I'll be short .  I hope not, but it could happen. With this super hot weather I'm not sure how the iris will be affected, and numbers are always decreasing with the sales on ebay. So don't delay! This is only good from right now until midnight centeral time on July 5th!


These iris will ship in August. Hopefully it will have rained nicely and be normal weather by then.


Have a happy and safe 4th!


Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Dry Dry Dry....weeds and wind. uggg

This is turning out to be such a weird year.  Super early spring, now so dry the ground has huge cracks.  It's starting to get  a bit humid even w/o the rain.  I heard once the corn does that. Pulls so much moisture from deep down and evaporates it into the air. Since we are almost solid corn fields around here the past 5 years, I can believe it.

I've been hoping for a nice couple inches of steady rain so I can put on a mild 10-10-10 fertilizer.  It hasn't rained enough to get the preen active! So yea, I need to get out there with my hoe too. Bleh.    Why is it weeds can germinate and grow like crazy when it's so hot and dry, but what you WANT to grow doesn't?  I guess that's why they are weeds.  The poop-thistles are growing like.... weeds! (I call them poop-thistles because they are always grouped under where the birds sit. So I'm sure that's where they are coming from)

I do have a little garden weed helper. He/she tries his/her best to nibble off the dandelions. (I think it's a girl-she's petite and cute! I think I'll call her Dandie)  I love to watch that little nose wiggle. She must have been out there all spring because she doesn't run away from me until I get less than 4/5' away. Then she just moves around the plant out of site. I hope the raccoons don't find her. (That's another story, I'll title it 'Why our garden shed stinks of Mothballs and ammonia!')


If you're following my auctions on ebay you know I'm busy busy keeping those going. Just a few more weeks and then I'll be digging orders.  Get your's in now, remember if you shop on my website www.sunshineannie.com  , you can use code LIKE10 and get 10% off your order! (only on my web site)

We are up to 115 Monarchs released so far! Only 3 chrysalis left to emerge in this "batch". Then I hope to find another round of eggs. Usually in July, but this year it's hard to tell.  It's been so windy that the milkweed has lots of little leaks under the leaves. Where it cracks or a bug punctures it , and it seeps out the white gluey milk that then looks sort of like a monarch egg.  So.... finding eggs is tougher.
 
Up until Monday I had seen lots of my Monarchs hanging around the yard. But it was super windy Monday and I didn't see but one yesterday. I hope they didn't all blow away!

...back to work  

Saturday, June 9, 2012

19 Monarchs Today!

I was expecting about 10, what a surprise! Several of them are very anxious to be on their way. There are 11 boys and 8 girls. I took them out two at a time and put them on the bushes.
It makes me feel good to know if I hadn't brought these in, besides the natural predators, they wouldn't have made it to the butterfly stage. I gathered the eggs from the empty lot by our house, and it was just mowed off a week ago. All those chrysalis would have been mowed up! :(   So even though they still have predators, and are on their own, they got to be beautiful and free!



Couple of the girls I tried in  a different bush, it wasn't woody enough and they were having a hard time climbing up.  It did keep them from trying to fly off too soon.











If I could wish to be
something else for just a  day,
I think I'd like to fly,
and soar above the trees.
To here and there and where I may,
I think that day that I would be...
A Monarch Butterfly!
                                          Deb Noll



And the iris update.......
The iris are all done blooming but about 2 late ones. So strange, they should all be in full bloom right now. (Sort of like my slow finishing of the listings! Still a good number to do.)
 I put some fresh preen on the iris beds, now we need some more rain to set it in. I still have to get busy pulling the dandelions in the beds. Not a huge amount, but one is too many.  They are a forever presence though, so I don't get excited about trying to get them all out. Many are taken out completely when I dig orders.  Oh and then there are the "other" flower beds in my yard. I'm afraid some are going to have to go. I just don't have time to take care of them, and most are full of grass and weeds. I hate to do it, the birds and butterflies love the coneflowers and black eyed susan. .... Ohhh to be 30 again, when I seemed to be able to do all I thought I could! *sigh


Friday, June 8, 2012

More Monarchs today! 7 so far...

I shuffled out into the garage this morning with my coffee to see if any new Monarchs had arrived. I was stunned to see 5 already! (ok, I don't get up that early).  I noticed they weren't ready to go outside, so I let them be for about an hour.  I went back out and there were 7!   The first 5 were stretching their wings. I tried to get some pics but it's just too dark in the garage even with the lights on when they are on the window side.


These two are the youngest today. Can you see the one in the back corner? That corner was very popular this year!


Showing off !

So I took the ones that were stretching out to sit in the bush and warm up. They will sometimes stay there for a couple hours before they are ready to fly. UNLESS they are a girl! I don't know why,but the girls are very jumpy. This turned out to be 4 boys and 1 girl.
Can you find 4 of them on the bush?



Here is a closeup of one of the boys , warming up.

And this is the girl. She would NOT stay on the bush, flittered off and landed in the grass. I tried to get her but she  made it to the arborvitae by the road.  NOT ready to fly, but try to tell HER that!!

I did get her to sit on my finger and headed back to the "warming" bush.

Just as I got there.... well, of course, she's off again! I didn't find her after this, but I don't think she went far.  Monarchs are nearly invisible when they hang with their wings folded.

Here is one of her brothers, showing off the dots on the lower wings. Only the boys get those!

Still two more to release, they were later so I will leave them until after noon.

Back to the iris work!