This week at Nana's

Helloooooooo Family!

Weather Update
April is still happening here!

Hot, hot, hot. Its pretty nice here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It time to wear the summer clothes. I bought new swim suit and I'm ready to take the Grands to the pool this summer. Remember how much fun they use to have in the front yard sprinkler and at the spray park? But now they are older and will want to swim in the big kids pool. That means that Nana will have to get in the pool. No more pool side lounging. Im going to miss that kiddie pool. LOL.

The fire pit works great! Cant wait for a camp out.

Garden Plants And Outdoors Update

 I have been watering the yard and nursing the rose plants back to good health. This week one of the rose bushes popped out a beautiful red rose. The first rose of the season. I love to see the rose bushes bloom. By the time the Grands get here this summer the big rose tree on the side of the house should be bursting with roses.  

This weekend, I will plant the wildflower seeds in the front yard. In a couple of weeks, I should be able to put out the planters that I planted the herbs in. I will spray vinegar around the planters to keep the dogs and cats away. I just hope the Bonnie and Clyde dog team will stay out of the front yard. Those two pit bulls still roam the neighborhood destroying the front yards. Its so sad.

For the veggie garden, Ive had to improvise because of the dogs. This is the crate project. The K-9 Kennel Garden Club has been created. Its still a work in progress but this is the start of it. I white washed the wood and bricks to make it look less ghetto and this week, I will staple cloth or plastic around the big plant table to hide the crates. I should be able to put all of the inside veggie plants out there by the weeks end. I think its going to work. I have some chain link fence that I can put on top and grow hanging gourds. You cant see it but I strung fishing line back and forth to support the tarps. Those tarps can be put on and off easily. The wind beats on them pretty well but the tarps have held up wonderfully. I will still plant around the back yard to see if anything will take and if the dogs get it I wont be toooooooo upset. I have been sprinkling the corn meal around the ant mounds in the yard. There are 8 tiny ant hills. I just keep at it sprinkling cornmeal around the ant mounds each morning. The book says to do this for a couple of weeks. I think the cornmeal is working.

The K-9 Kennel Garden Club

I planted spinach and lots of green beans and (organic) watermelon and honey melon. I planted plenty of beans, the Grands love to pick the beans and I dont want to disappoint them this year. LOL. The spinach is already coming up. Very exciting. This week, Im going to sprout another set of green peppers. (This will be set 3 from differnt seeds I saved from last years garden). I just cant get them to sprout. I dont even eat much green pepper. Its just that Im stubborn and want to grow some blasted green peppers. LOL. The chile pepper plants and the red pepper plants are growing good. Still having trouble with the eggplant sprouts. Only1 plant grew from sprout batch number one. Looks like eggplant batch number two is producing sprouts. Im not sure how important eggplant is to me at this time. I may just say forget it. Boo who. Did I tell you that a lettuce sprouted up in the garden area from last year? I transplanted it into a planter. Its growing really well. Last year, I planted lettuce but the sun scorched it and it did not grow.

There is another kennel next to this one and I am thinking of making that into "K-9 Kennel Garden Club Bldg 2" or........ a rooster and three chickens? What do you think about that. LOL. I cant we havetoo many stray dogs and cats. I dont know how Rob does it. I wonder if the dogs or cats get his chickens.  But for now the K-9 Kennel Garden Club works just fine for my vegetable garden and it is animal proof.

Pet Update

The tank gang is doing great. Mr. Tubbs has had a good appetite and chases me for a snack just about every time I walk past the tank.  Mr. Tubbs gets overly excited and splashes making a huge mess when I lift the lid on the tank to feed him. Goldie the goldfish is just happy to get in on the action too and helps to make the water splash out at me. Bad Goldie. LOL. Mauricio is doing well too. I skimmed down on his snacks and he is not happy about that. LOL. The other day, he ate some of the plastic on the bowl that holds up his water bottle. Bad Mauricio. Tuck has been walking more around the house and has not been trying to hide he kind of just stays around the tile area. I finally got new filters for his house tank. Missy has still been spending most of the day outside because she likes it. She does not like to be out at night. Maybe there are skunks or racoons running about but I have a feeling its because of Bonnie and Clydes late night adventures in the yard. Poor baby, Missy probably has to run and hide for her life when those dogs come over. I let her stay in for the night if she wants too. Believe me, she wants to. LOL. Skinny Ding Dongs AKA Pedro sort of hangs out around the front yard. Missy chases him off but he comes right back. 

Wheezy the Jail Bird

I am happy to report that Wheezy has finally stepped up onto my finger!!! I am so proud of Wheezy. Last week, I had given up and I did not train with Wheezy over the weekend. Today, out of habit, I put my hand in Wheezy's house just to be friendly and talk, not even thinking of training. Wheezy stepped up onto my finger. Just like that. WOW. Was this a fluke? A freak accident? Who knows. I will continue the effort. I returned the weird looking millet sticks in to Wheezy's house. Wheezy has been enjoying the millet stick. That whacky bird. LOL.

Neighbor Update

Things are looking good around here. The lawn or dirt areas got mowed this weekend. I let Jowanda, the lawn killer man, mow down the dandelion patch. It should grow back in stronger. Once we get some rain the dandelion patch will grow like crazy. Anyways the yard, what grass there is looks okay. Jowanda is a good guy for weeding and mowing the lawn. Because I sure cant mow and I hate to weed the lawn. LOL. Guess who else was outside this weekend doing yard work? Yes, Henry. Finally! His yard looks so nice. I may just have to bake him some cookies for that deed. Today, I looked down the street and saw some hired help mowing the lawn in front of Orney's house. What is going on here? LOL. There is hope for our street. Now, if only they would tear down the old, dried up, giant sunflower stalks in Rob's front yard.....Is that asking too much? I wont get my hopes up. 

 

Due to some zucchini and walnuts hanging around the kitchen, I decided to bake up a batch of sweet bread in the form of jumbo muffins. Click here for recipe. Not too much baking or cooking happened. Also, I ate out a few times. Ive had lunch at Sadies and lunch at Dions. Tomorrow, I will bake a harvest pie because I have a butternut squash that's been starring at me for two weeks.

This week, I will try to stay home and do the soup and salad thing along with eating some healthy dips. Why dips? I know, I know. I always make my own hummus, salsa, white bean dip, pesto's etc. But here they are freshly made and delivered right to my door from someone who knows I love hummus. When God blesses you, roll with the blessing and eat the hummus. Now, I just need to make the pita bread. I may have to skip the soup and salad and live on dips this week. I will definitely have to share this blessing with friends. Hummas & pita anyone? 

Videos I watched this week and said "That's Cool". LOL.
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKOrmETgMkM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZH6i4L3Q3A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG9HOnZCDK8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPyIwY2hJ_A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yolum7_0UCA

This Week at Nana's

Hello to Sarah and Grand Babies!

Weather Update
April is still happening here!




This past week was just lovely. No coat needed. I even got a bit of sunburn on both my arms. Note to self, put on sunscreen before gardening. Albuquerque weather man, Mark Ronchetti, predicted rain but no rain came my way. I just have to say, the weather was pretty nice. I hope it was nice in your area too.

Garden Plants And Outdoors Update
I still have a good project going on in the back yard. I will post pictures soon. Sunday, I spent the afternoon gardening in the backyard and Im sure the neighbors enjoyed me being out there. Their dogs barked all afternoon and not once did they tell their dogs to stop barking nor did they take them in the house. Crazy dog owners. The owner did come out then went back inside. Oh well. Anyways, I had to battle the wind, the sun and two little barking dogs but I got a lot done. I looked like a million dollars after I finished that days gardening. I had dirt all over me and weeds in my hair too.  Sorry, I dont have a picture of me being a farmer. Use your imagination. LOL. Gardening can be dirty but its fun. The plants inside the house are all growing pretty good and they are getting stronger each day. The tomato plants are really getting big. I am watching the plants closely as to not over water or under water them. I placed most of them in the windows or near windows to get some good sunlight. I had sprouted some more spaghetti squash because I want to grow a ton of squash! LOL. I have no clue where I am going to plant the squash but I did see this amazing video of someone that hung squash maybe I can do something like that with the squash plants....Im just thinking here. BUHAHAHA.

Owens Project

I found an interesting video of an upside down garden. I would see this as a fun way to garden for every vegetable plant but squash or gourds. Jason has an awesome garden. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xw7zFOHpOg

Pet Update
I confess,  Im sure I am guilty of over feeding the pets. Guilty as charged. Mauricio is seriously a chubber wubbers. He is a big fluffy ball of love. I just love him. He just hangs out and watches me go about the house doing this and that. He seems to get really interested when I sweep or mop. Come to think of it, Mr. Tubbs likes to see the house get swept and mopped too. Lets face it. Its very boring for them and Im really the only amusement that they have. Things will get more interesting for the pets when the Grands come to visit this summer. Tuck is enjoying life. He is so easy to take care of. I did have to move his sun bathing stone over so that he would fit on it. He has really grown. Someone was over feeding him. I cant help it. He looks hungry. LOL. Mean Missy has been enjoying the sunshine and warm weather. Not really. She is guarding the house to keep Skinny Ding Dongs AKA Pedro out of the yard. She is mad because Skinny ate his plate of tuna and her plate of tuna. Skinny does not understand sharing. Anyways, they both have to eat outside on the porch because they had a cat fight in the kitchen. Crazy cats. LOL. Thats Skinny at the door in above picture. He is giving me the sad kitten eyes.

Wheezy the Jail Bird
I have the quietest bird in the world. I'm not sure what happened but the training has made him too quiet. I better find out whats up with that. A quiet bird is just not right. I gave up on the weird Millet Spray snack sticks. Wheezy did not want anything to do with Millet Spray. I still work with Whezzy each day and he seems to like the pretty talk and he is not afraid of my hand. I can put my finger right next to him. I can tell he wants to step up onto my finger but he is not sure about it.  Will I ever get him to step up? Who knows. Maybe he does not know why that lady keeps saying, "Step Up". LOL.

Neighbor Update
Nothing. Nada thing going on in this neighborhood. Boring. The neighbors across from me did clean up the construction junk in their front lawn. That was awesome because I was sure it was going to be there for a long time. Shame on me for thinking like that. Henry had parked a golden yellow refrigerator on his porch and I was sure he would leave it there...forever. Shame on me for thinking like that. But one morning at 2 a.m a loud boom was heard and I think he rolled it  off the porch to his backyard. I cant see it and that's what matters. LOL. Good job Henry. I have not been out to visit anyone this past two weeks. I feel bad for not visiting. I feel really bad when I drive by and I know Georgie and Carmen are saying, "I cant believe she just drives right by without stopping to visit". I'm not being a good neighbor. LOL.

This week I baked up a small casserole of eggplant parmigiano. Other then that dish, it was mainly a soup and salad week. I did manage to break away from my traditional soups and cooked up a small batch of split pea soup with potatoes and carrots. That split pea soup turned out pretty good and I would make it again. This is the recipe I used. I added potato to it and I cut the recipe in half because one person cannot eat that much split pea soup! http://unprocessedpeople.com/?p=545

I did NOT bake any cakes, cookies or pies but plan to whip something up this weekend. Let me know if you have a good recipe. I would be happy to try it. I am always looking for new dessert recipes. That's the great thing about the Internet, recipes are shared.  

DON'T FORGET TO EAT YOUR VEGETABLES! :)

Greek-Style Pita Pocket Recipe

• ¼ cup chopped romaine lettuce
• 2 Tbs. crumbled feta cheese
• 2 Tbs. chopped black olives
• 1 Tbs. chopped jarred roasted red peppers
• 2 tsp. Good Fat Dressing
• 1 whole-wheat pita pocket, cut in half

Videos I watched this week and said "NO WAY". LOL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVAXqKugXkg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE-jabRIfVU

This Week at Nana's

Weather Update
April is here!

BEAUTIFUL! The local weather people keep saying wind, wind and more wind. Old news to me. The weather here in Albuquerque has been warm and breezy. No coat needed. I was at Home Depot this past Sunday buying some fancy soil mix and the garden center cashier said it was like working in a wind tunnel there. She said it was even windier in Gallop, New Mexico and the wind had blown the shingles of her families roof. I remember last year was really windy about this time of year. 

Garden Plants Update
Transplanting the seedlings into bigger containers to grow stronger.

Finally, the seeds sprouted into plants and have grown enough to move them out of their little cups into bigger containers. After they grow in the house for another month I will move them to the great outdoors. Really, I could grow them in the house and they would be just fine but Im looking forward to adding some green to the backyard. The above picture is a couple of pumpkin blossoms. Pretty cool indeed. Two blossoms had opened up a few days ago. That was spectacular to see in the morning.

I have little recycled plant containers all over the house. Chile peppers, red peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, eggplant, pumpkin, butternut, spaghetti squash, zucchini and pineapple. I have plants in the kitchen, on my desk, on Tuck's house and in the den's upper windows.  It took me most of an afternoon to transplant everything. I only lost 3 plants in the process they snapped in half at the stems as I was moving them out of their cups. Boo whoooo.

Kitchen window. Tomato plants. This camera that I use is terrible 

and makes everything dark even though I use a flash. 

Stupid camera. LOL!

Outdoors Update

Exciting project going on. I am working on a fun garden project for the back yard. I will post pictures as soon as I can. It will be a few weekends before its finished. Sarah, you will love and laugh at this...yes, crates are involved in this project. Crates are awesome! Wait and see. :) The Grands should know that Nana and their Mommy can build. We built this cabinet and crates were used to hold up the wood as we constructed the cabinet. Its a terrific family furniture piece.  I wish I could get a better pic of the cabinet but this camera wont cooperate. LOL.

Pet Update

All the pets are doing great. They have clean cozy houses, lots of snacks and love. Skinny Ding Dongs - Aka Pedro has not come over this week to share a can of tuna with Mean Missy. They must be holding him hostage in the house. I have not seen him at all. Missy has been hanging outside a lot because its been really nice out. I dont like when she stays in at night because she wakes me up at 4 or 5 in the morning to go outside. Missy thinks the early bird gets the worm. She tries to hunt but she is really bad at it. Skinny gets his food by visiting all the neighbors. LOL. 


Neighbor Update
A new neighbor in the house next to the old Yager's house has two little dogs and they yap all day. I love how people go to work and leave their dogs out in the hot sun to bark all day. I sure hope they do not plan to make that a habit. They are cute little dogs but noisy. I dont think you know who Rob is, he is the guy with chickens and the garden in his front yard. That's so Whacky but I guess the backyard has chicken coops. Its so funny to hear his roosters and see chickens in his front yard. Its not like we live in the country. Anyways, once again he has been doing some gardening in the front yard. Maybe he will grow some more sunflowers. He usually has a front yard full of sunflowers each year. Last year, Rob grew his own green chile and Georgie roasted it for him. Good news for Georgie sort of I guess, He will not have to have back surgery. He has arthritis and now has to do some physical therapy for his back. 

There is a house its beyond that tree. This is the image Google has for the house.
 Someone out there is taking terrible pictures for Google Maps. Man oh man, is that tree huge.

What Cats Do When Your Away

Those are NOT cats! Silly dogs. 

 When your away,cats take selfies!

Cornbread is just so easy to make and goes with almost anything. I baked giant cornbread muffins in my jumbo muffin pan. The soups this week were minestrone and vegetarian tofu pasole. I'm still on the soup and salad plan. LOL. That's going okay, but I did break down and had some doughnuts. They were light and fluffy and probably had no effect on me what so ever. NOT. LOL.

Golden Corn Muffins

3/4 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
5 tsp baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 egg, well beaten
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Pre-heat oven to 350*

Mix and sift dry ingredients; add milk, egg and shortening. Fill muffin cups 1/2 full. Bake at 350* for 15 minutes. I normally, double up this recipe when making corn muffins.

What Nana Has looked at lately on the World Wide Web

 
Willie Is Better Than Your Cat

Karate Rockstar?

Homemade Pendulum Marble Clock

Quick Crew Dance Team

Sometimes, I watch videos of The Pete Holmes Show.

This Week at Nana's

Weather Update
April is here!

Weather wise, it was a beautiful week here in the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Actually, I'm just saying that to encourage the thought of good weather. Really, it was very windy. The mornings are still a bit cold but it warms up by lunch time. I love to sit on the porch in the mornings and have a cup of tea but it is still too cold for sitting on the front porch. Once the warm weather kicks in the humming birds will flock around the lilac tree in the front yard. That is always fun to see. The robin birds are here and can be spotted in the front and back yard. 

 

Its perfect weather for kite flying!

Extreme Kite Flying Video

This week Nana longed to be on a golf range. Having fun with this golf crew.

Chip Out! LOL!

Outdoors Update

Since it has been so dry and windy I have been watering the front yard. The ivy are looking very dry. I better pray for some rain. It is April and I do expect showers. The lilac tree bloomed last week but this week it is in full bloom. The smell of the lilac blossoms is amazing. I hope the neighbors are enjoying how awesome the flowers look. LOL. Well, with the front yard being all dirt, I am just happy that something looks good in the front yard. :)

See all those elm blossoms on the porch? They are swept away only to return the same day. They are everywhere!

 The pumpkin plants now have buds on them. Pretty soon it will be time to put them in a big planter or the garden. The butternut squash have buds on them too. Gardening is so much fun. 

Pumpkin Plant with Buds.

Pet Update

Its been pretty quiet around the house. Wheezy makes a little noise when Missy is thinking about attacking the cage. Stupid cats don't realize that the bird in the cage is not accessible by pouncing upon it. Twice Missy has jumped up on to Wheezy's house and knocked it down making a huge mess and one terrified bird. I will knock on wood because this has not happened for a while and I hope it does not happen again. I try to pay attention to where Missy is in the house and I listen to Wheezy's warning chirp. Mauricio is getting fat. Too much lettuce? Im not sure but man oh man is he plumped up. Maybe its the carrots. LOL. I think Nana is feeding him too many snacks. Note to Eve: Mauricio loves pineapple. You were right. :) I need to clean Tucks tank this weekend. That is such a chore. It takes me a good hour to clean the tank. The hard part is putting the rocks back in the order that Tuck prefers. So silly, but I guess he say, "Who rearranged the furniture in my house"? LOL. I keep forgetting filters at the store. I need ginkgo. 

Mauricio looking for a snack.

Wheezy the Jail Bird
Nothing new to report. Wheezy is just enjoying life. I bought Wheezy a new treat to help with training but wheezy is frightened of it and wants nothing to do with it. Its called Millet Spray. 



Looks like something from a Dr. Seuss book. LOL. I guess they have holders for this Millet Spray. Whacky name. I will try to figure out a holder for it. I think Wheezy just has to get use to it being inside his house. I see videos of people holding millet spray and their bird eats it from their hand.

Neighbor Update

I keep seeing Mrs. Pocheco out on the porch for a tiny bit. I love how she always wears the matching shirt and pants. She is so cute. The neighbors at the corner in the two story house (Skinny Ding Dong -AKA Pedro's house) have had a new baby this year and I have not seen too much of them. However, they must be doing some remodeling because they have thrown a bunch of construction trash out onto their lawn. Henry across the street is still the quiet neighbor. I'm sure he has a sick relative or friend living with him because I see nurses coming by to visit during the week. Sam has moved out of his house and that was a shock. Its a scandal. LOL. Georgie tells me his new neighbor across the street is very nice and has started to fix the yard up. Georgie, Kathy, Johnny, Levi, and Brian and Dorothy just came back from a trip to Sin City to watch the Lobo's play.  Everyone had a great time and nobody got rich. Georgie is going in for back surgery soon and has to use a cane to walk. I did not think he would be able to go to Las Vegas but he pressed on and went. He was not able to walk much but managed. His friend Tocho went too. I have not seen Carmen for a while, she usually stops by once a week. I need to get over to Georgie's to visit everyone. 

What Cats Do When Your Away

They make toast!!!

 

This week, I cooked up low calorie cream of broccoli, low calorie cream of spinach soup and spicy bean soup (I added 1 cup of cooked brown rice and diced tomatoes). I have learned how to make small batches of soup and not the giant family size. Usually, its just enough for two servings. As you can see from the pictures, I did bake a carrot cake. I replaced flour with oat flour and it was NOT a flat mess. The oat flour was made in my kitchen in a food processor. Oat flour works really well with carrot cake.  This was the first gluten free cake I ever made. Carrot cake is another wonderful way to get some vegetables into a dessert.  Im sure the oat flour will work with Zucchini cake or banana cake. :)

 Carrot Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting.

Nana's Messy Desk Area

What Nana Has looked at lately on the World Wide Web

Winnie The Pooh As Darth Vader

Lethal Lasagna

Bass Guitar Smash at Talent Show

Parking Failure

True Facts About The Octopus - Silly

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest Hoax

WEIRD VIDEO I'VE WATCHED

Im not sure if I should feel sorry for him or that possibly I don't get it.