Something you may not know about me.

I am dieting, yep. It is a regular thing with me. I am about 30 to 35 lbs heavier than I want to be. I am sure there are many of us out there who feel that we need to lose some weight. I am one of them. I am a bit older, not old but older, so I have the typical slowing of the metabolism and I must say unfortunately I am totally lazy. Yes I know hard to believe right? WRONG! If I could sit in front of the TV all day and eat I would for sure. I would love it I might add. Life is not that way for me or most anyone else though. So I go on my diet here and there trying to lose some unwanted pounds. If you have ever seen my Pinterest pins you would know the kinds of foods I love. Cream sauces, pasta, dough, FAT, oh yeah. Love it alllllllllllllll. My husband is skinny, it took me 3  years just to put 15 pounds on him, REALLY, how sucky is that, that I can put on 15 pounds in a week and it takes me 3 years to put it on him. UGH. Anyway I bought a gym membership in January and thought I am going to do it this time, hahahahahah right. Remember I am lazy at heart. My husband being the great man he is noticed I was pushing maximum density said if you go to the gym I will go with you. Ok I said, and for the last 3 days we have gone together, I am sore and tired. I feel like it is working though. I am on the Atkins diet which I love, and taking Raspberry Ketones which I saw on  Dr OZ. I am not seeing much but my husband thinks he sees a skinnier me. I think it is a placebo affect for him LOL. I don't see what he sees by any means. Oh well I will continue to try. Above is a salad that is fine for my diet, I wanted to share it with you. I fried up some ground pork which I like, then added some cheese, lettuce, cilantro, mexican crema, salsa, tomatoes, and for me there must always be salt. Oh and lime sprinkled on top. Very good, I will let you know my progress. 

Front Yard

This beauty is a curcuma alismatifolia aka Siam Tulip, here is some information on this that I pulled off the internet.

Location

·                                 Siam tulips should be kept in an environment where the temperature never falls below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. As a native of Thailand, the Circuma alismatifolia can quickly die in a climate with frost or freezing temperatures. In summer months, you can leave them outdoors in full sun, as long as they are protected from direct afternoon sunlight and strong winds. During winter months, take the Circuma alismatifolia plants indoors and place them in a window that gets bright, warm sunlight.

Soil

·                                 Keep the Curcuma alismatifolia in sandy, well-drained soil. If you plant them in pots, make sure that there are adequate draining holes on the bottom of the planters. Whenever re-potting the Curcuma alismatifolia, be sure to add the same kind of soil to the new pot that you had in the old pot.

Watering

·                                 Water the Curcuma alismatifolia 2 to 3 cups of water every 1 to 2 weeks. When you touch the soil surrounding the plant, it should be dry, not moist. Never over-water Curcuma alismatifolia, as it can easily develop fungal diseases. The plant is known to be drought-tolerant and will not stay healthy in a water-soaked pot.

Fertilizer

·                                 During the Curcuma alismatifolia's active growth, feed the plant with a water-soluable 20-20-20 fertilizer approximately once a month. Stop fertilizing during cooler months. The amount of fertilizer that you need to use will depend on the type of fertilizer that you purchase, but make sure you read the directions carefully to avoid harming the foliage during active growth.

Transplanting

·                                 Curcuma alismatifolia need to be transplanted every two or three years, in order to refresh the soil. If the plant is still growing, you can transplant the Curcuma alismatifolia into a pot that is one size larger than the old pot. Remember to use a well-drained and sandy soil.

Rhizomes

·                                 The Siam Tulip, like other members of the ginger family, has thick rhizomes. Every two years, you may want to divide the rhizomes in order to grow additional, healthy Curcuma Alismatifolia. After removing the plant's root from the soil, cut its rhizomes into 2 inch pieces. Each rhizome should have its own roots. Plant the rhizomes in a new pot in the same soil conditions as the original plant and about 1/2 inch deep into the soil.

Sometimes I am bad at planting things right away. I got this Cassia Tree a couple of months ago and here it still sits in its little pot in a kiddie pool waiting to be planted. One thing I found out is that it likes alot of water, it has almost constantly been in water and seems to love it.

Here is a view of my Cassia Tree so you can see it is still doing fine on top.

My Plumeria flowers

Remember when I planted my Plumeria and Bananas here. Well they are happy as can be.

Another view of Bananas and the Palms.

This is what my front yard is looking like right now. Nice 

Farther away view

This is the yard from East to West.

My Potato Tree is happy.

My new plumeria is not happy right not. It still has no roots, but soon it will.

Found a big spider on my Potato Tree, fancy isn't he!?

Where does the time go

Where does the time go? It has been a very busy time here on the Ranch. Our kids started School, My baby is now in 3rd grade! IMPOSSIBLE! 3rd grade. My oldest is now in 10th grade REALLY??? how is this possible? I see amazing growth in both of them. They are amazing kids. I am a very fortunate woman for sure. Real Estate is Blazing a fast path to home ownership. Things are going so well for seller's out there, Buying is also good, even though inventory is at such a low right now. We are managing to get families into their dream homes, or for some... investment property. What a great time to buy property. We always go to training so that we can better ourselves and be better for our clients. My husband Shane went to a Brian Ferry 4 day summit last week and had an amazing time. He learned alot and we are already putting some of what was taught into motion. We had a belated birthday dinner for our nephew on Wednesday night at Mimi's Cafe, we love that place. It has been to hot to ride the horses lately, holding around 103 to 105 degrees for at least a week now. It is horrible, our water bill is high trying to keep our plants and trees happy. Oh yeah I almost forgot, my husband BROKE OUR AIR CONTITIONER!! Yes that is right, he broke it. UGH! see we only have a window air conditioner and he was outside and saw that water was spitting out the back so he said oh I think I will go get my drill and drill a hole in the bottom tray to let the water drain out............... and WHAMMO the drill bit went up and the fan blade was in bits! so for 2 days we had no air. Thank goodness it was cooler yesterday. Now we have a new Air Conditioner. And last but not least, it has been sooooo busy that we actually both forgot our wedding anniversary. I was not happy about that one, how can we BOTH forget such an important day? I don't know. Sigh

Praying Mantis Baby

I found him on my zucchini plant last night, isn't he adorable? I sure think so!

This picture is blurry but I like it anyway!~

Tomato Worms

Do you see it? A HUGE tomato worm on my tomatoes.

See it? HUGE isn't it? sucker,  fed him and his other HUGE friend to my chickens, even got some video that is on this blog for you to see.

He is harder to see here but he is there.

Look at the damage to my tomatoes not to mention what they did to the plant itself.

I told you they are big.

Mama hen looking it over.

I think she was afraid of it LOL

Here is a short video of them trying to eat them.

Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce

On Saturday I wanted to do something with all of the tomatoes that we have been harvesting but was not sure what to do. I was out of freezer bags, oh no! HMMMMMM what to do. It was 103 degrees out so turning the oven on was out of the question. What to do!! Crockpot, that's it! I will use these tomatoes in the crockpot and make spaghetti sauce. So that is what I did. 

Look at these beauties. The green ones were a failed attempt at making fried green tomatoes, see I picked them, I put them on the counter and got too lazy to fry them up, not to mention I started my diet again and can't have the carbs of breading. So they started to ripen. I decided to put them in as they were into the crock.

Here are some cut up and ready to put into the crockpot.

These are a mix of sweet 100 and yellow pear tomatoes, they were just put into the crock whole. No need in cutting them as I planned to cook them for a long, long time

Here are some of them with salt added.

Now all of them are in with some minced garlic added.

Here is my Spaghetti sauce after 30 hours of cooking in the crockpot, no you don't have to cook it so long but the longer it cooks the better it is to me. I added basil from the garden, some dried oregano, onion powder and some garlic powder too. That's it.

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

Life is busy isn't it? Seems as though my life is so busy right now I almost can't breathe. Real Estate is on FIRE and my son starts school Wednesday. Really? so soon? Its the beginning of August. So crazy. It will be easier to conduct business now but I will miss my boy being around. Or will I? hee hee. I will have a picture post soon. HUGS TO ALL.
Tracey and Crew.