Answers

I really haven’t been avoiding blogging.  I’ve tried to do it, but I’ve just been exhausted in the evening, which is my usual writing time, and haven’t stayed awake long enough to finish writing.  Obviously we’ve made it back to Fallbrook, pulling in about 9 pm on Saturday.  Many things happened during my five days gone.  As I am about to frost a Buttermilk Chocolate Ganache Cake (see recipes!) (I occasionally sell baked goods) that will be picked up at 7 am tomorrow, I’ll provide answers to the questions I posed before leaving on my Oregon Or Bust sojourn.

Yes, the pond was filled!  Gloriously full, and with a boat blowing from shore to shore in the breeze!  The boat is on loan from Aquascape, who uses it in their work, but put out to float just to show off the pond for my return.  Water plants are being transplanted and seeded around the ‘wicking’ areas, and the streambed area for rain is being sculpted. I’m not the only one who enjoys the pond!

The palm trunks are being made into a bridge, which isn’t quite finished yet.

The cement stairs now have posts for a walk-through arbor.

The gnawed-upon palm stairs are even more gnawed-upon, but there are piles of bunny poo left where the culprits spent plenty of time wearing down their ever-growing teeth!  The Bitter Apple didn’t seem to make a difference when I sprayed it on the steps.  I’ll need to try garlic next.

As for my veggie garden, the pumpkin and watermelon have grown at least two feet in a week, and the pickling cucumbers have outgrown the two lengths of support twine that I put up above their heads just before leaving!

I’ve added more and guided them up.  All the plants not only survived, but they thrived.  I so cannot wait for the taste of my own first of the season tomato!

I still have a question, though.  Why is it that a roadside stand in Oregon sells avocados for .35 cents apiece, when back home – in the Avocado Capital of the US – they sell for $1.45 apiece in the grocery store?  And they aren’t very nice, either!  You can’t grow avos in Oregon, or at least in that wet and cold part of it.

Not all the irrigation has been buried, but a good deal has.  The sunflower will not raise it’s head again.  The pond is slightly green, but picturesque and natural-looking; I don’t want an unnaturally clear pond.  So all in all, a great week!