Is it Fall already?

Labor Day is past, and the temperature has already dropped. Tomorrow has a high of 58. I'm afraid the first frost will be here before I know it. I hope it doesn't happen too soon, because I still have a house to close on and flowers to plant at it. One-hundred tulips, and 100 daffodils worth of flowers to plant.
My first tuber-Dahlia bloomed, and there are more buds on the way. Enjoy!

Playing with Sketch Up

Because I like playing with 3D modeling so much, and because I'm trying to do more Auto CAD projects at work, I decided to put the house we're trying to buy into Auto CAD, and then into Sketch Up.
First I made the house the way it is now. I used Google Earth for the terrain, house position, and rough estimates. I also used the information we had on the house to guesstimate the dimensions as well.




Then I made the house with really long term renovations and additions. I added a garage and bonus room, plus a huge wrap around porch. I'm still having issues with designating a "front door" which would lead into the living room, instead of the side door with leads into the currently unfinished mudroom, which leads into the kitchen.


My next project will be to plan out my garden, which was my main goal when I put this into Sketch Up in the first place.

Gardening - End of August

Last weekend the temperature dropped a bit, and I realized summer is coming to a close. That also means the end of the growing season. My favorite item at the farmers marker, sugar snap peas, were no longer available Thursday.
I have a few more garden pictures. My dahlia's are creating buds, so those will start to bloom soon, and then the season will be over.
I'm already preparing for next year. I bought 100 tulips and 100 irises and Sam's Club last weekend, for the house (assuming we do get it). I spend time surfing the internet, switching between hgtv.com and seed sites, planning out my garden for next summer, and imagining how we are going to decorate the house. I have to keep telling myself that we'll need to hold off on decorating and major landscaping projects. I have a lot of time to plan.
But until then, here are pictures from my container garden, highlighting a few new plants, and developments in older ones. Enjoy!

Snapdragons.

I'm thinking about adding these to my permanent flower list.
They are overshadowed in this pot though.

My impatiens.
They hadn't been watered in a few days and are looking a bit droopy.
But I did grow them from seed and am very happy with them.


My largest dahlia bloom.
The dahlias were seed dahlia's grown in a greenhouse.
This is a tuber dahlia I planted myself.

Delphinium, grown from seed.

My violas again, grown from seed.

My sweet peppers, grown from seed.
I ate one so far, but they aren't getting very big.



I have no idea what this is, so if you know, please share.
I didn't even notice it growing in the pot until recently. Is it freesia?
I had freesia plants in this pot, but nothing ever happened with them.


Nick's firey hot peppers.


Nick

House Hunting

After making my container garden and enjoying it, I've decided I want more garden. Nick and I have been talking about getting a house for a couple years now, so a couple weeks ago we went house hunting.
We found a place our first day, and put in an offer. Then we had to put in a higher offer because a second offer was presented the next day. Yesterday was our inspection, and now we are moving forward with buying a house.
Its 1800 sf, made in the late 1920s, full basement, almost an acre and in the country. We're pretty excited and are looking at a closing date in October.
Wish us luck and enjoy the pictures.

The side of the house.

This area will be my garden. The property line is along the bean field, and I think the back is where the brownish grass stripe is.

Same spot, but turned around to face the road.

Standing at the end of the driveway, looking across the front yard. I want to keep the privacy bushes; Nick wants to take them out.

Looking at the house from the end of the drive way.


Nick looking at the site of my future garden.

Another view of my future garden.
There's already an asparagus patch and raspberries in there.

Standing at the end of the driveway on the other side of the house.
We'll get rid of the satellite dish and that big tree. The tree is mostly dead, and there's still 3 good ones left in the front.

Same spot looking across the front yard.
Some of the plant life in the front yard. These smaller bushes will go.

Looking at the left side of the front yard, from in front of the porch.

Same spot, looking straight.

Back of the house. This is our septic mound.
My vegetable garden will be on the other side of it.

Looking at the back of the house. The siding is at the top of our to do list.

Look! It's my car.
This is some of stuff behind the house.
Our land stops at the other side of the burn pile, a
nd the green plants on the right of the picture.
I think you can see the property stake above and to the right of my trunk.

Slightly down the driveway.
You can see the canvas shed that I plan to turn into a greenhouse,
peek out from behind the addition, next to the car.

Same spot turned towards the house.
You can see the bottom half of the two story sun room.
As much as I love the concept, that part is sinking, so we may end up taking it out.

The patio, looking across the front yard.

I don't have inside pictures since the people we're buying it from still live there, and were home during the inspection.

Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Running

I decided it is time to start running again. Its only been 6 years and 50 pounds, I can handle it. Right?
So, I spoke to a couple co-workers (who run marathons) about running shoes and feet, and then went out and bought some workout clothes. A week later, today, I was ready to go.

Wow. I can't even run a quarter of a mile anymore.

But I took the first step, and now I need to keep it up.

At least I enjoyed myself and didn't have a heart attack.