I'm a liberal, but gosh-darnit I can shoot a gun!

This weekend marked a big event in Asheville: The Gun Show.  I'm pretty sure that every male within a 50 mile radius drove to such an event as this.  I did not.  It's not that I don't like standing in line at 7 on a cold Saturday morning with a bunch of NRA hungry men, I just don't have any interest in guns.

Well, after Handsome Taylor and friends bought their weapons, they came home with grins past their ears and proudly displayed them.  Extensive cleaning and polishing followed.

So yesterday, both Taylors took me and Leah out to a pasture to shoot.  There were cows, but I made sure that we were not going to shoot in the direction of any animal.  So we shot into a woody bank.

Our artillery of weapons.

Taylor B and Taylor H...and cows.

This gun had a lot more "kick-back" than I had assumed.  Because I was not standing correctly, it almost knocked me off my feet.  

Taylor about ready to shoot Leah's pink pistol.  He didn't want his picture taken.

Woohoo!

Taylor testing out his machine gun rifle thing.  Complete with scope.

Great...how do I work this again?

Handsome Taylor and his Land Rover :)

A garden is hard work...

So I've done a bit of work since I last showed you pictures of my garden!  When my grandmother and every other gardening person told me that a garden is hard work, I said (to myself) "garden schmarden".

Right.  As in they were right.

Luckily for me, my garden plot is only about 12 ft.x 15 ft. or so, so I don't have this mondo area of land to till, fertilize, and well, garden.  That being said, a garden, no matter what size, is HARD work!

There is also a degree of planning involved--you can't just plant whatever you want and expect it to grow.  I was supposed to do a soil test to see what nutrients were lacking in my soil (i.e. Phosphorus, Potassium, and Nitrogen)...that takes about two weeks since you have to send it off to the Agriculture Center in Raleigh.  I didn't have two weeks, so I just bought Blood Meal, a Nitrogen-rich compound fertilizer because, basically, all plants could use a teensy bit more N.  This Blood Meal is also said to repel deer because apparently is smells like a massacre to them.

So after fertilizing I had to section my garden off to make raised beds which allows for better drainage, not to mention it looks so much better than planting it on the flat ground.  I divided my garden up into two large sections with several beds in each section.
Section # 1:
Bed #:

1. Onions (red), Beets (sugar)
2. Carrots, Spinach, Collard Greens
3. Herbs: Lavender, Echinacea, Rosemary, Lemon Thyme, Purple Sage

Section # 2:

Bed #:

1. Tomatoes (various types)
2. Green beans
3. Okra
4. Something else...but I forgot

Section # 1 can be planted now (except for the herbs) which will be planted in mid-April after the last frost date.  Section # 2 will be planted in late April to mid-May.  I haven't quite designed my layout for Section # 2, but I do have the design in mind...so I just have to get out there and finish it!

Sow True Seeds: Local seeds from Asheville!  :)

My AWESOME gloves that I purchased (they have an ultra sticky side so no more blisters or dirty fingernails)!!

Section # 1: Far left bed: herbs, far right bed: onions, etc., bottom bed: carrots, etc.

Whilst working on Section # 2, a welcome distraction headed my way!

See how cute he is!!  

My life reinvented by art

I'm not much of a water drinker.  In fact, if it's not flavored and I'm not thirsty, I won't drink it.  Okay...I might force it down to stay a little hydrated, but you get the idea.

Luckily for me, I found this spectacular depiction of how flavored water changes my view of water entirely!  This is not my work, but it's from another fantastic blog site that I've discovered--she creates such great stuff.

If you type this...

I just discovered that if you type "where's old salem" into the search bar of Google Chrome, my blog is the second result out of 47,800!!  Heck yeah!  Seriously internet, you are awesome.

Garden progress

My beautiful garden has progressed so so so much!  No seeds just yet, though.  Sorry.  My wonderful grandfather tilled the land, which in the time elapsed since the last garden, has become a mini-jungle.

Last Friday, when the weather was perfect, I came out to my garden to do a little work.  There were still a lot of roots and debris left from the roto-till, so I raked those suckers right out!

My gardening partner, Codi, who was taking a break from all of the hard labor!

He came to check in on the work...and to get a carrot!

The fabulous fence complete with latching gate (for the deer) that my wonderful grandfather and Handsome Taylor built for my garden.

Attack of the killer ladybugs!!

Not only is spring a wonderful season of rebirth, beauty, and warmth, but I've found out that in the mountains (particularly east Asheville), it is also the season of ladybugs.  There are literally thousands, and they congregate around windows, doors, and high areas (so if you have vaulted ceilings, well, that sucks for you).

Most people I've found try to open their doors to let them fly out; however, if they don't, you can either wait till they all die and vacuum the carcases, or you can vacuum them alive and try to set them free (if they survive the vacuum cleaner).  I didn't want to wait.

I realize that most people probably don't believe that there were thousands of those little flying things, so on my second go-round, literally a day after the first genocide, I took footage of my invasion.  **And on a side note, they should NOT be called lady bugs.  They bite and therefore should properly be called Mike Tyson bugs**

Oh, it gets worse.

Spring Volume II

So I've been slowly taking pictures of spring here in the mountains (and again, my camera is not fancy so close-up shots were done with the flower button...microsomethingorother).  And what a fantastic spring it is!  Everything is slowing blooming and I feel happier.  I think my birds are happier too.

Lying under the weeping willow: one of my favorite trees..sigh.

Here you get a little sneaky sneak peak at my garden :)

I shave my legs for days like today!

The weather here in Fairview/Asheville has been, for lack of a better word, wonderful.  Just this morning I woke up and went out to my deck to catch some much needed rays (with sunscreen of course!).  In the winter, because of my fair skin and blonde hair, I turn into this off-white blob--the color of my apartment walls.  Blah.

Back to the weather; this weekend we were able to play some Frisbee golf which was sooo much fun.  Granted, we all were pretty rusty, and Handsome Taylor's disc somehow kept ending up in either the thick brush or a body of water.  Not only did we get to play some f.g. but we went downtown to SkyBar: a little, tiny bar in this super old historic building complete with old-fashioned rickety elevator (similar to the one's in Titanic).  However, my camera isn't very fancy so the picture is a little blurred :(  But you get the idea.

Leandi 

Spring

So I'm sitting here at the cabin beside a heated woodstove (absolutely lovely) looking outside at a passing snowstorm.  Just last week the temperature was at a dreamily 75 degrees and I was soaking it up.  Not so much now.

I don't mind the cold weather that much, especially since I now have a great working woodstove to sit beside.  Delicious.

Whilst I'm staring out the window, sounds of Call of Duty plays in the background.  Yes, this is a wonderful Sunday in the mountains in springtime.