seeingtrees.com

I read and post on a great forum called Two-wheeled Texans. The general feel and vibe from the other members is nice. Most are mature and friendly and the attitude of “It’s not what you ride, but that you ride” seems prevalent. It doesn’t hurt my feelings that the forum isn’t cruiser-centric, though.

Well, TWT has quite a few organized bike nights each week. However, there really wasn’t one on the east side of town which is where we now live. “What the hell?” I thought, I’ll try to start one up.

A simple post sparked some interest and last night we had our first NE Houston bike night. Six of us showed up at the chosen Taco Cabana and had a really nice time chatting it up about bikes, gear, and random other topics. It looks like Mondays will become a regular bike night for me.

Here’s a picture taken before we all left (unfortunately Becca “Rocketbunny” had already left):

Can’t wait to meetup again next week!

The garden is finally put up and the veggies transplanted. I spent Saturday afternoon hauling around 40lb bags of soil and getting the raised bed made. I am one sore lady today. It took 25 bags of topsoil and 5 bags of garden soil to fill the garden box.

But it’s done, thankfully. And my plants are in there and finally settled permanently.

I had to add some chicken wire because a certain dog decided to jump into the garden after I was done. Gah! I about killed him because I thought for sure he had killed the tiny tomato seedlings I just transplanted. Somehow he managed to leave 4 huge, dogpaw holes in the garden but not one of them was on top of a seedling. Phew!

Here are the pics:

Tomato seedlings:

Zucchini!

Wha?

As eating-out ex-addicts, cooking at home doesn’t come quite as easily to us as it does for others. However, I really do enjoy cooking. In the past 6 months we’ve eaten at home more than ever even if we are still going out a couple times a week. Cold turkey just doesn’t work for us. Slow and steady wins the race!

Monday I made some baked chicken with broccoli and potatoes. Pretty good! However, yesterday I made the oh-so-easy yet oh-so-good crockpot roast! Mmmm!

There really is something enjoyable about chopping potatoes, carrots, and onions; mixing sauce ingredients together; trimming and prepping the meat. Preparing a meal is just really nice and relaxing, especially when you are cooking with fresh(ish-grocery store) ingredients. I can’t wait until some of these veggies are from my own garden.

Anyway, I digress. The roast was great! We had some store bought rolls with it and it was all very yummy.

Just another step towards a simple life.

My tomatoes do not look good. The other day they started flopping over in their seedling boxes. Their stems look very weak at the base. I did some digging on the internet and I believe my seedlings are suffering from “damping off”.

I’m disappointed. I’m not sure what I did wrong. There are only about 4 that are still standing and look to have tiny “true” leaves developing.

My zucchinis on the other hand… wow! They are doing pretty well. A couple look like they won’t make it, but most seem to be doing great.

I can’t wait to get them transplanted into the garden! I guess if the tomatoes don’t make it I may buy some tomato sprouts from the nursery to transplant directly into the garden. We’ll see.

The box for my raised bed garden has been constructed! With Jesse’s help the frame is done. Woo hoo!! My plants will have a permanent home soon.

Here’s a picture of the garden box frame. It’s made of cedar planks.

I dug out the sod at the spot I plan to put the garden. Boy did that suck! Digging up sod is not fun. Well, Cooper had fun at least running around with pieces of sod in his mouth.

Here’s the spot after I took my first break. Umm… yeah I took a break after digging up a 1×4′ section of sod.

It’s too bad we have such poor soil here in Houston. It’s mostly clay. Good thing we’re doing raised beds.

Jesse suggested putting a bit more bracing on the box and I agree. Hopefully we will make it to the store in the next couple of days to buy more bracing and also soil! Then I can fill up the garden and transplant my veggies! Woo!