During the week N had a meeting with some higher ups about his future at the station. Remember how this job was supposed to be an anchoring/ reporting gig? Since moving here his anchor time has been minimal (it’s happen once) so he was eager to hear what they had planned for him and his future.

It looks like they are hoping to have him around and are grooming him to fill some big shoes in about 3-5 years. This means buying a home was absolutely the right decision to make and that we truly will be able to stay here for a good amount of time. Yay for following the gut instinct.

Knowing you can truly settle in and build a life for yourself is amazing. We’ve got our “bun in the oven”, a home of our own and his career going in the right direction so we are super fortunate and are so grateful to have arrived at this stage in life. It’s been a long and grueling journey and it will continue to have up’s and downs I am sure but what more could you ask for? We are pleased with everything, obviously.

I’ve been getting bursts of energy and then major spells of fatigue so I am gardening and unpacking when I’ve got the energy. The weather is warming up and the plants are springing to life, I am enjoying this very much.

Also, the animals are adjusting much better these days it seems. They still act up now and then and need to be reminded of the rules but the overly obnoxious stuff in the middle of the night has stopped. This is a relief.

Other random musings:

I just saw a commercial about birth defects and Paxil so I googled it for more info and am just floored. “Babies exposed to Paxil early in pregnancy may have a higher risk of major birth defects, according to a new study.”

I already don’t have much faith in our drug saftey testing process here in the USA. This is why I’ve refused the RhoGam shot during pregnancy and am doing my research on vaccinations right now.

This whole Paxil development is just added proof that we approve and distribute way too many drugs to people before we fully understand the effects and risks of the drug. It’s irresponsible and scary. We really can’t trust that all approved drugs and procedures are safe for us.

I need a washer bad!! We are doing laundry at the old place till the end of the month because our new place doesn’t have a washer in it already. Ideally we would love an energy star, front loading washer but there is no way we can afford one right now. Shoot we can barely scrap $100 together to go towards the purchase of a used one.

Not having a washer is stressing me out a bit and I don’t really know when and if we’ll get one. I’ve been looking at craigslist for them but am so worried that I’ll end up with one that is crap and our money will have been wasted.

Also, the external hard drive we used to back up all the PC files and financial stuff (a Seagate Free Agent External Drive) is now dead.. Or at least the USB portion of the drive is acting wonky.It worked at the old place but somehow in moving the computer it’s become damaged and is not longer recognized by the computer.

I am stressing because I need to balance the accounts and work the budget before this weekend so I know how much money we have for groceries but all the data is on that drive that I can’t access.

I am going to go work in the garden a bit now to counter all the things I currently have to stress about, LOL. Hopefully you have a pleasant weekend in your neck of the woods. We are so ready to chill and get some slow progress made on the new place.

The post So glad the weekend is almost here! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

I am thinking about just setting her free outside that way she can poo anywhere she wants. Anyone want a carpet pooing cat? Just kidding.

Enough about the cat poo. We are supposed to get some rain tonight here in Evansville. For the last few weeks we have heard nothing but whining about how dry and hot the weather has been. Every night when I switch on the news to see N’s report I hear about how hot and dry it was again today.

We think it has been just fine weather, minus the blood sucking mosquitoes. It has been much like Phoenix, AZ weather- hot and dry (but not nearly as hot as Phoenix). We are used to hot and dry and now that we have a house with AC (unlike Flagstaff, AZ) no heat or humidity is too unbearable for us.

Yesterday we went to the Mesker Evansville Zoo yesterday and had fun checking it all out. There were so many great animal exhibits and plants to view. Our favorite was the Amazonia exhibit because it was so beautifully landscaped and it allowed for great access to the animals.

After visiting the Amazonia exhibit I was really wondering how all the tropical plants can survive in this climate. The zoo had so many cannas, elephant ear and other tropical plants that shouldn’t be able to live year round here. So many businesses and homes in the Evansville area also have these same tropical plants everywhere so how is this possible?

According to the national gardening association our USDA zone for Evansville is Zone: 6A so plants that can’t handle cold winters shouldn’t be growing here. Unless everyone rushes out and digs them up and stores them during the cold weather.

Now these tropical plants are EVERYWHERE here in Evansville and I just can’t imagine that everyone runs out and digs them up before the first frost. That is just too much work and hassle and I just don’t believe that is what people actually do.

Well I better get going now. N has been anticipating seeing the fall decor go up and I have been putting it off for a while now. Over the weekend we visited Rural King and snagged some clearance mums to make our doorstep too like fall. Now I need to dig out the rest of the fall decor and get things decorated!

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Lots of plants require polination before they can set fruit, without pollination fruit will not set.

One of every three bites you take comes from a plant pollinated by wild pollinators.

Our tomatoes have been especially slow to set fruit this summer. Many are concerned about the dramatic decrease in the bee population because bees are our natural pollinators. Slow setting fruit has been linked to the decrease in bee population.

Tomatoes and Zucchini are our favorite, easiest vegetables to grow here in Flagstaff, AZ and we were looking forward to enjoying some fresh grown vegetables before we move. We weren’t sure if our plants would set fruit before we leave and this has been a bummer for us.

So, noticing the small developing fruit on my indoor and outdoor tomatoes today was super exciting for me. We also have some zucchini fruit setting right now. Woho our plants were pollinated! I would like to think that fingering and shaking the flowers has helped in the fruit development and I can’t wait for some fresh vegetables!

Oh and thanks to the bloggy giveaway I won a $10.00 starbuks gift card from The Adventures of Me. We are telling all our family and friends to buy us starbucks and walmart gift cards as going away presents.

We plan to use them to buy food and liquid crack (starbucks) while we are on the way to Indiana. Plus we have T-Mobile internet access at starbucks locations so we will be buying coffee while we blog and check our emails anyway. This $10.00 gift card is going to help us buy 2 free coffee drinks, yay!

If you feel inclined to contribute a few dollars to help us during the move:

• you can add some money to our starbucks giftcard (I’ll send you my starbucks card number and you can reload it) or
• you can get us a walmart gift card so we can buy food along the way. We are going to try to stay the night in a walmart parking lot at least once during the trip, just so we can say we did it.

Here are some more of my garden photos, have a great weekend!

The post Don't hesitate to finger your flowers or shake them! Ha… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

First, I compiled a list of the plants I got, plugged them in to my Dave’s Garden Journal with photos so I could remember what got planted where in a few months. It’s so easy to forget what you have and where you put it when you have a garden addiction like I do!

• Peruvian Daffodil (view my dave’s garden journal entry by clicking here) – Is a uniquw white flower with wispy petals and a sweet scent. Related to paperwhites in the narcissus family, can’t survive frosty conditions so it makes a great house plant!
• Summer Sunset Calla Lilies (view my dave’s garden journal entry) – Have green leaves with tiny white spots and orangish/ yellow blooms.
• Anemone/ Grecian Windflower (view my dave’s garden journal entry for these variations: The Admiral, The Governor, St. Brigid and Mr. Fokker ) – These come in a variety of color variations, they look poppy like and are deer resistant.
• Karl Rosenfeld Peony (view my dave’s garden journal entry) –
• Bowl of Beauty Peony (view my dave’s garden journal entry) – Has pink flower petals with cheery yellow and pink centers, plant in feb-march in Arizona.
• Tiger Orange Lily (view my dave’s garden journal entry) –
• Blue Girl Tea Rose (view my dave’s garden journal entry) –
• Intrigue Floribunda Rose (view my dave’s garden journal entry) –

Here is my niece who came with my mom to stay with us for my birthday. She is the most well behaved baby I have ever been around and she loves the camera!

Here we are at Wupatki National Monument inside one of the ruins. I wasn’t quite ready for the photo to be taken (as you can see) but it’s still priceless.

Here is a photo of us eating fondue on my birthday. It was yummy and so much fun!

We took my mother and niece out to Grand Falls for fun, we of course got a group photo of us in front of the waterfall.

And here are the photos I took of my newly sprouted crocus. They have surfaced in a variety of colors and locations. We are really enjoying their progress and beauty and thought you might also.

The post Birthday photos shared! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

That means gardening fun is about to begin for us! The crocus blooms are a beautiful yellow and are quite cheerful. They are kind of short, like they were planted too deep but it still so great to see them even if they are short.

Do you have any early spring bulbs that are blooming yet? I hope so because I am dying for spring time!

So, now that the ice is melting and the bulbs are blooming we are able to get into the large box of crap that was left behind by the people who lived here before us. Guess what we found? Personal documents and credit cards, can you believe that?

Teeni was just talking about how we all need to take steps to protect our personal information and then I find some poor schmucks personal information and a credit card just sitting in a box outside (that was buried in the snow) by the front door of the home we are renting.

Be responsible with your personal information guys! Shred documents that you no longer need so that nobody can obtain your info.. That way you are protected.

Once while we were living in an apartment complex we found a complete computer sitting by the trash can. We grabbed it thinking we could use parts off of it and realized it still had all this personal information on it.

The computer actually belonged to the apartment complex manager. It had the tenants personal information on it, rental contracts, notices etc.. We reported it and were furious.

Folks, if the personal information you are responsible for (yours or someone else’s) mistakenly gets into the wrong hands lives can be ruined. Be responsible and be careful!

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