Extreme Makeover

The crew for Extreme Makeover Home Edition have been working all week on a home in West St. Paul. I figured I'd better get over there today since this was the last day. The house was done when I got there around 12:30pm. They were just doing a little bit of clean up inside the house. I and my fellow spectators were crammed in behind barricades along the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. This was the best picture I got of the spunky host, Ty Pennington (second from the right.)

The style of the new house fits in so well, that I wouldn't have known it was a new house if I had just been driving through the neighborhood.

Here people are practicing for "Move that bus!" Everything had to be practiced several times. We had to practice cheering and chanting. The bus had to take off and back up several times. The limo for the family had to practice driving up and out several times. Then we had to wait for it to go pick up the family. Ty and the builders had to come out of the house several times. Even the family had to walk up to the door and back down to the street several times before they could go in the house. It all happens so quickly on television, but there is nothing quick about it in person.

Even Santa was there! He works for the Ramsey County Sheriff's Dept in the off season.

I'll end with a shot of the family going up to the door of their new home. The first time, anyway. I stayed long enough to actually see them enter their new home. What an exciting day for the Morris family!

Baby Bunnies Revisited

Over a year ago, I blogged about a nest of baby bunnies I found in the front yard. It didn't happen this spring, even though we have plenty of bunnies roaming the yard. I've been busy lately and haven't gotten a chance to mow the yard for awhile. Rain is in the forecast for the next couple of days, so I thought I'd better get out there and do it. While mowing the front yard, I happened to notice the telltale pile of dried grass and tufts of fur. (Mama bunny pulls out her own fur to cover the nest and keep the babies warm.) Baby Bunnieeeeeeeeeeeeees! I left a wide berth in my mowing so I wouldn't scare them. Then I went and got my camera and carefully pulled back the covering with a dried plant stalk. I couldn't uncover them too much because they were scared and squeaked at me. Looks like there are three again this year and they also look old enough to be leaving the nest soon. (There were three last year too, but one met with an untimely death.) I wasn't expecting them at this time of year, but they sure are cute!

Sunshine on a Stalk

This is a Nyjer flower, an annual herb that originated in Ethiopia. It's grown for it's oil and seed, kinda like a sunflower is. They import it here as bird seed for Goldfinches, and they sure love it!

Only one problem, the seeds aren't supposed to sprout. They are heat sterilized before entering the country to keep it from being introduced as an invasive species. Oh really? Check out the picture below to see how well that works. Maybe they should re-think those sterilization procedures.

Baby Melon Grew Up

A little over a month ago, I blogged about the first ever melon growing in my garden. Today it came of age. Boy, when it started to ripen, it sure went fast! Sometime between Friday and today, the skin under the netting had turned from green to yellow and a bee and an ant were both trying to figure out how to get inside it.
This one is slightly smaller than it's sibling, which should be ripe in a day or two. The vine tried to take over the whole garden, but all I got was two melons. A third one died on the vine as a baby.

Too bad these pictures aren't scratch and sniff! The odor coming from it when I brought it in from the garden was very strong. And once I sliced it open, my whole kitchen smelled like melon. It's the sweetest, juiciest, most fragrant melon I've ever eaten.

Garden Fresh Salsa

The hot, sticky weather this past week has really kicked my tomatoes into gear. I'm crossing my fingers that most of the fruit will ripen on the vine this year. More than once in years past, I've had to pull them in green because they still hadn't turned red by hard freeze time.

That little guy on top is a paprika pepper. That was the first pepper on the plant and it turned red even though it is so small. All the other ones on the plant are bigger, but they are still yellow. I haven't grown paprika before, so I'm learning as I go along.

Another new veggie for me this year has been onions. I finally have all the veggies to make salsa, and I made my first bowl today. Boy, freshly picked onions sure have a lot more flavor than ones that have been sitting around in the grocery store for awhile! Needless to say, the bowl of salsa didn't last long.