Esme's room - stage one

Plan 2 - updated

We are thinking about an old office desk for on the left, and she can do her computer 'work' there. That is what she calls it... her video games, Garry's Mod and Minecraft and kids learning games. We are also planning a 4 x 8 sheet of dry erase board on the right side wall and a bulletin board to hang up her drawings on. The right side of the drawing nearest the front will be a 'library' area with a rocker chair, a bookcase and buckets to throw her loose toys into. I have already displaced the rack and shelves on the left wall with a to-stud shelf system and will probably push the purple table back under there and some other small container shelving to put her art supplies in.


The room is clean and ready to lay some furniture out - then work on making it 'homey'. I don't plan to move her bed and dresser down here for at least another week or so... and some of the new furniture we will keep as surprises for her birthday in a few months.


I am already moving her toys down here. The changing table is being repurposed as a place to hold games and blocks and other 'larger' toys. She has not asked for TV once tonight - she has read books and is being 'busy' with all of her things.


Find the giraffe... at least that is what she said!
On another warm 'off' day I will paint the shelving a 'country red' good grade paint I have found on the mistints and then we can load her books onto them. There is a country red theme bird on a branch drawing I made years ago that I have hung up on her 'library wall' side (not pictured). I will be on the lookout for an area rug for here or to make something for in front of her bed and in the reading area. We have opted to not do a full carpet because of our many dogs and the fact it would probably lead to an expensive disaster sooner than we would like...

Garden Tuesday

Harvest and seeds

We went to the flea market this morning. Esme bought an umbrella with her piggy bank quarters. We got home and she ran to Grandma's for a few hours. I dug a bed for root vegetables today and harvested a little while Esme was up playing with Grandma. I've been meaning to put those carrots in the ground for winter for a week now... the rain yesterday helped loosen the deeper soil, so I felt better and easier digging.


black Spanish radishes coming up



There are rutabagas on the 'near' side and carrots on the far side.


My Tennessee Greasy beans are starting to flower finally... they demolished the corn they were on and I built them this metal post - which they have taken to.


purple flowers on these


I stood for a half hour or so trying to get a better picture of this butterfly, but he was just too 'flighty' haha... yes I know that one was bad. I got to see hummingbirds in the flowers and honeysuckle as well, but they also eluded the camera focus.


A shot of the garden from the back


Our Black Krim tomato putting on new fruit and flowers


This is 'the jungle side' - but it is producing basil, mint, peppers and yellow tomatoes, so I can't say much there.


A wasp claiming a cowpea flower against bees (not shown)

There were also some extremely noisy bluish bees with stripes buzzing in the Dixie butterpea lima beans.. I did not catch a picture of them but they were striking - very small, and very very loud like little airplanes.

In other news: Finished two hats, have yarn for a third. Have about four to six inches left on the blanket started two years ago. Have not made any progress on the room today - I do need to get a box prepared to transfer my portfolio work into from where I have it sitting up on sawhorses in that room. It has all of the sketchbooks and carry cases full of six years worth (and more) of 'serious' art, including all of my Cosmic Bear and Fox material.

A long distance view of the upcoming winter

Yesterday morning on the way to work I saw a flock of Canada Geese grouped together in a horse pasture. There were 15 to twenty of them, and according to others at work - they are migrating from the North down to the lake area on their way South. It is very early this! Mark has seen a 'woolly worm' and said it had no band at all - as if there would be no winter at all... yet the mornings are something like 55 with 80-90 highs and no rain. Very odd weather. By coincidence, this was the week I chose to start making winter hats and planning for the colder weather - ie: a thicker quilt for Esme's bed, slippers and so forth etc.. How much of a coincidence is that really, that I am preparing in my own way for winter when it is barely August? All I can do is note it on the calendar and see what my instincts meant in hindsight. It is like we have a long distance view of the upcoming winter - even from this far off...lots of my instincts are to prepare for a cold one. I had the instinct last week that we will need hay for the goat - and to plant carrots, I have not done either. I did plant a few seeds of black spanish radish, but just because I wanted to try it. We might get a break soon from this heat that has been causing us so much trouble - but do we want the cold of winter instead? Thoughts...

In Esme's room plans we have ordered a few pieces of furniture for her and done some other planning for what to put on the floor and walls. I let Esme choose the color for her chair (pink.. I would have thought purple but she was clear) and choose between several bookcases. She threw a bad fit today while we had a visitor and she took a nap, then helped me in the garden. We had a discussion about her room and about being good - and that she needed to help instead of be a brat and demand toys and throw fits etc... She has been pretty good all night - we will see if it will last.

Sunday Night: Esme read halfway through 'Ten Apples up on Top' to Mark and I - and then got tired. She was doing very well by herself. I saw her sound out the word 'more' and get confused with the words 'too' and 'but' often. A capitalized 'And' threw her off, although she got the word in lowercase type before that. She is doing really well and when her motivation is higher we read more and work on it more, other than that I send a low level book in her backpack to school and they say sometimes they offer for her to look at or read it, but usually they do some other craft. She did bring home papers with 'k' words and 'big and little' comparisons the other day and she was very proud of them. She read to me half of the 'k' words, asked a few others, and it has stayed out on her desk by her computer.

Green harvest and Esme room diagram

Small harvest
okra, pimento peppers, banana peppers, yellow tomatoes, basil, black eyed peas, lima beans

This drought has been so hard on everything - some of my new seedlings are still burning up with morning and night waterings... I am still getting some harvest but once in a while it feels like it will all just dry up and the garden will be done.. and then I tell myself that no - there are a lot of things still doing little bits, and to be happy with the little bits. Also, something is eating my corn. Something with tiny teeth. *Sigh* well I was taking a chance planting a second round... oh well.


A little burr grass that was in the garden

I am laying out the design for Esme's room - taking it a bit seriously Mark thinks ;) He joked asking if he needed to get out of the way before I ran him over with the construction equipment *ha*. I took measurements and the 'new' room is actually about 11x14 - much larger than I had originally thought. And the measurements of her main items bed, dresser, shelving unit, table will take up much smaller of the floor space. But - that will add more space to spread out toys and add a few more shelving units and a larger chair for her to sit in. I'm looking at a 'video rocker' style because she has liked these at the local library.


diagram before I knew the room was bigger


Esme had Grandma call Daddy today after she took some jar lids up and tell him that she 'forgot to go to work today' and he needed to know that. We still don't know what that was about...it might have to do with the time - as she usually calls Grandma to go visit at about the same time she asked to call Daddy instead to tell him that she was already there?

Esme's larger room plan

I talked with Mark last night about the new larger room we would like to move Esme into. I gave her an idea about what was happening, too - and she liked the idea a lot. It still needs a lot of work, that is why she is not in there now, plus - I didn't want her that far away before - downstairs and close to the kitchen and bathroom by herself all night. Now that she can communicate a little better - and seems to NEED more space and a place to 'get away from it all' this is something we will work for.

The new room is about twice as big - but not three steps away from Mom and Dad. Both are good for her. It has no windows, but that might help her sleep ;) without the tent. And she can use her flashlights and some of her toys to greater effect.

We talked about hanging things from the ceilings - hearts of all colors etc. I also told her there would be a shelf for her books - and she said she would 'read and read and read'. I made a note to myself not to forget some sort of soft chair or beanbag for her to do all that reading in.

For furniture she has her bed and plastic dresser - and we will have to give her some new shelving units as the ones upstairs are built onto the wall. Her changing table could probably go down there as some extra shelving as well.

For renovations we just have to insulate the floor a little better, plug up a few problem areas on the walls (an unfinished electrical box and a doorway that leads to a closet that has electrical panel access in it. Mark and I talked about making a removeable chalk or corkboard panel there for her drawings and then we could still take it down and get into that panel if we needed to.

At one point last night I had been 'done' in the room for a little while and came down and the light was on under the door. Esme was in there - leaning against the ladder with a paintbrush in hand. I asked her what she was up to - and she said she was not Esme, the Esme girl had gone to school. She was a man here to fix the walls and she was mad at me for interrupting her. Now we should get to work - both of us! *ha*

Garden today

part of the harvest today


Lemon Boy tomato


The garden with water.. and weeds


Another shot of the garden greened up


Florida Speckled Lima Beans


The four on the right were one 'ear' of corn that had split and never developed kernels because of it. The one on the left just had no kernels in it. This was the end of what was out in the popcorn field (although I had harvested good ears a while back)



The Kitty goat doesn't mind malformed corn, and eats the small unformed ears


Grasshopper that made himself known..
what kind is he?


Dixie Speckled Butter pea lima beans



You can't see me. No, I said you couldn't see me! Don't take my picture!


This sorghum broomcorn was white and yellow a few weeks ago - and now it is ripening to reds and browns


puppies eating softened food
they sing and cry like they are complaining in between each bite
but that is most likely the evidence that they are coonhounds!


blue eyes reflecting


second harvest of the day after little girl ran to Grandma's house

I sorted some summer and fall seeds - dreaming of what could be and what it would take to get there. Ordered some other fall seeds this past week and they are now all finished and paid for - not much, six dollars worth for a few things we wanted to try more of. I think I am set for 'oh way too early' spring seeds - cabbage and peas etc... if we choose to do that next year.