The Wagnthap's House of Humor and Torment

Spring is here.

I know this because every time I walk outside onto my patio

my nose holes are assaulted 

with the aroma of orange blossoms and steer manure.

(picture of neither orange blossoms nor manure,

just lantanas and palm trees)

I have not posted anything in 3 weeks.

This is due to being busy with the craziness that has become my life

and part pure laziness.

I planned on doing a wonderful post

for my 3 year blog anniversary.

I was going to do a giveaway.

It was going to be awesome.

This is where the laziness set it.

I would have had to go shopping

and buy some spectacular shi-dazzle to give away

and then write a post about it.

It just wasn't in the cards, people.

Let's talk about what's going on around these here parts.

When I say "Let's talk about this",

What I mean is,

I'm going to do some ranting

and you're going to sit there and read about it.

Easy Peasy.

Very little work on your part.

Are you still here?

Good, because this post just goes on and on.

First off,

I finally know what these things are
that are growing on the side of the house.

They finally flowered.

I have calla lilies.

Thank you to everyone who commented in my earlier post

to tell me these were either calla lilies, canna lilies, or hostas.

Now we can all sleep.

The garden is coming along nicely.

It's not been an easy process for this first time gardener.

We've had to deal with neighborhood cats

leaving their pootie rolls in the lettuce patch

and birds stealing the watermelon seeds,

only to move them to strange places throughout the yard.

We've found watermelon vines growing under our pool pump,

in the rocks under the tree

and in a flower pot on our patio.

Turns out, watermelons will grow anywhere

without constant supervision.

The watermelon seedlings were found and moved back to the garden.

The neighbor's cats were deterred 

by putting orange rinds around the soil

and by putting carpet tack strips on top of the block walls

 surrounding our back yard.

Don't judge me.

Do you like doody flavored salad?

We've placed bird netting over the strawberries

and the watermelon seedlings.

We've put marigolds in
as a deterrent to bugs and such.
The whirly gigs seem to scare the birds and cats
and they're pretty, so there you have it.

We were excited to eat our very first two strawberries of the season

which were about the size of small ball bearings.

While I ate it, I could almost taste it.

Here's what we've got going right now.

Green Leaf and Romaine

Red and White Potatoes
Yellow and green onions

Tomatoes, Peppers, Corn and Strawberries.

Also, if you don't have this hose,

run out and get one NOW.

That's practically an order.

I will never, ever use a big old green "non-kinking" hose

that weighs 3 tons and kinks like a Mother Hubbard.

Big green hose selling people are lying liar heads.

This hose is 100 feet long and it weighs practically nothing.

Honest.

Best purchase I've made in a long time.

Enough talk about the garden.

Let's move onto the house for a bit.

My project this week is to remove the wall paper in our bedroom.

I decided to start in a corner and just see what's underneath.

Like everything else we've dealt with since moving here,

it's been an ordeal.

The previous (and original) owners

put the wallpaper up over

plain old drywall.

Un-primed, unpainted drywall.

So, that's fun.
(And who doesn't love Hunter green chair rail?)

This is not our first experience with weird happenings here.

For example,

the wiring here is so strange.

All the light switches are upside down.

If the lights are off,

the switches are in the "up" position.

And, if you plug anything into the outlet

on the patio (like the weed whacker),

the evaporative cooler on the roof turns on 

even though the cooler is turned off at the main box.

The misting system over the patio is 

hooked up to the sprinkler system so when

the sprinklers go on,

the misters turn on.

What the What?

I've come to refer to the previous owners as

Mr. and Mrs. Wagnthap.

(We Ain't Got No Time to Hire a Professional)

They must have been a hoot.

I think I'll leave it at that for now.

I've got a product review with a freebie 

coming up in the next couple of days

so be sure to stop by.

xxx-ooo

Holly