SWAIN or a Story Without An Interesting Name

Not much of a post today. We're winding down at school and I was busy last night going to the store to buy the necessary cupcake preparation supplies and later preparing a slide show for the class today. The slide show was the various pictures taken throughout the year of the students, field trips, etc.

When I sat down to begin work on it I discovered that the program I normally used for preparing slide shows had been lost when the hard drive went south. Sooo, I had to scour the Internet really quick for a program that I could use to make one. I first went to PC World and looked for a free download. Nothing I liked. I journeyed to CNET Downloads. Same result. I decided to bite the bullet and download a program on trial and then possibly buy it if I liked the interface and the results I got.

THEN, I had a brain storm. Well, maybe it was just a brain burp. Anyway, before I download any program on trial I decided to head to Microsoft and look. And there it was, Photo Story 3 for Windows. It was FREE and it was a quick download. I downloaded, I installed, and then I created a great slide show; all within 15 minutes.

That gave me time to finish the faux diplomas (Really just a graduation poem) to hand out to the children at the Awards Assembly later today. While I was doing this Chris was helping by making the cupcakes for my class to have after the assembly. THANKS Chris!

And somewhere in the middle of all this I found time to go out and water the garden in front. All the flowers are looking good and getting better everyday. I will update all on the garden in a later post.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Please visit the Giveaway of the Day near the bottom of the left sidebar for free software downloads daily.

Garden Update

Took a few shots of the flowers in my garden yesterday. The Gazania and Scabiosa (Butterfly Blue) are really beginning to look good. We have had an Iris bloom for the first time since I transplanted them. I do not have a picture yet but I checked the Hollyhocks and the are getting ready to bloom. I planted them last year and they take 2 years to bloom. The Snapdragons from last year have about run their course. Fortunately I have planted new ones this spring. The Echinacea is getting a good start and the Carnations are beginning to bloom for the spring. I also have some Chrysanthemums beginning to bloom for the spring also.

Below are a few selected pictures for your enjoyment.

PS--The corn is starting to grow. Yippee!

© 2008 Barry T Horst This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day at the bottom of the page for free software downloads daily.

No Time To Rest

Spring Break for teachers can be a time of rest and relaxation. It is also a time to catch up on important tasks. Like filing income taxes. I completed and E-Filed income taxes this morning for Chris and I. I also completed and filed for Julie. My next task is completing business tax appraisal for the county.

Yesterday I spent half the day at the doctor. He said I am fine and has released me to fend for myself for the next six months. The other half of the day was spent tweaking the blog. I have tried to arrange it more logically and I have changed weather and news feeds. It's amazing how long that takes when you are trying to watch movies at the same time.

I am also getting ideas together for a new web-site. I want it to be educationally themed, targeting Kindergarten. I am needing to plan the page design and content but I can't find the html editor I like. If you have any ideas, shoot them my way.

It is raining today. Hopefully it will stop today and dry out enough to put the garden in on Thursday. I am shooting for Thursday because that is the only day that Scott can help.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Career Day, Spring Break, Gardening

Hallelujah! Friday is here!
Today is Career Day at school. It is also the last school day before Spring Break. What can I say?
At Career Day we will have various speakers that will come in and speak with the students about various career choices. Of course for Kindergarten the discussion will be much simpler, but will expose the kiddo's to some different types of careers. In the past we have had nurses, pharmacists, chefs, and delivery drivers come an speak. It is always a good time for all. I will report more later.
The last day of school before Spring Break. Let me say that again. The last day of school before Spring Break. It took approximately 120 school days for it to get here; and it finally got here. I can finally rest my throat. My allergies, a cold, and constant talking in class begins to take it's toll this time of the year. And this year is no exception. The coughing, clearing of my throat, and other unpleasantries can finally take a rest and let my throat get better.
Another plus with Spring Break is I can get back to the garden. I will plan on putting in a vegetable garden next week. Hopefully all of the freezes and frost are over for the season. Tentatively I will plant tomatoes, squash, peppers, corn, cucumbers, beans, and perhaps some other surprise items. I can hardly wait. There's nothing like supplying the rabbits, aphids, beetles, and other assorted creatures with free lunch all summer.
© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Garden Time

I spent some time in the garden this afternoon. There is a cold fron headed this way and it has been gusty all day. The weather man says that there are heavy thunderstorms headed this way later this evening. He also said that the low Monday night may dip as low as 29 degrees. Great, that means I may have to cover things again.I was able to separate and repot most of my chrysanthemums. I was able to get more snapdragons in, along with some lavender. I got out and picked up some more limestone for stepping stones and have placed them. I will need to come in later and dig some dirt out so that I make the stones a little more flush with the ground. I may bring in Irish Moss later to grow between the stepping stones. We shall see.Many of the tulips are blooming now. The daffodils are also coming along nicely.I have some pictures posted below. Enjoy them!

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

The Garden-Latest Pictures Are In

Here are the latest pictures from the garden. The top two are gazanias. They are beautiful during the day. They close up shop in the evening and go to bed on ly to open again in the sunlight.

The narcissus are beginning to look great. The snapdragons are in place now, as are the bluebonnets and grape hyacinth.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Beautiful Sunday

Today was simply beautiful. The temperature was just right. Just enough of a breeze to make it comfortable but not too windy. I was able to get out in the garden and do some work this afternoon. I planted the bulbs I bought yesterday at Lowe's. I am not sure why they had them on clearance. I bought a yellow tulip, a red tulip, a purple hyacinth, a pink hyacinth, and 2 yellow narcissus for 25 cents each. I also bought 3 flats of tulip bulbs for $1.00 per flat. The flats had fron 12 to 15 bulbs each. That's about 6-8 cents each. Pretty good deal. These were orange, pink, and purple tulips.

While I was preparing the garden this afternoon I discovered a huge chunk of old concrete that I had to dig out. This left a pretty good size hole in the garden that had to be filled. Fortunately I had some dirt lefte over from yesterday to help fill in.

Yeah, it's still a little rough. But remember, a garden is always a work in progress. Pictures will post as the flowers bloom.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Seed Catalogues Are Beginning To Arrive

I have been getting the new seed catalogues over the past several days. Just before the new year I received my catalogue from Baker Creek. They deal in rare and heirloom seeds. they have a lot of fine products and many seeds that I would never have the time to grow. I would sure like to though. Wouldn't be grand to grow long red beans that are up to 18 inches long. You can if you grow the Chinese Red Noodle Bean. They also carry some great tomatoes. If I counted correctly they carry 109 varieties of tomatoes which include green, orange, pink, purple, white, yellow, and striped. Oh, they also carry 66 varieties of red tomatoes. Take a look at them on-line. they have a wonderful selection of heirloom vegetables, fruits, and flowers.

On January 2nd I received the Burpee and the Jung Seed catalogues. I spent a good deal of time looking through them and trying to decide what to put in the garden for this upcoming spring. I still like marigolds, zinnias, gazanias, chrysanthemums, and snapdragons. Both catalogues have many fine flowers this year. I might try the Showtime Dahlia or the Fireball Marigold from Burpee. A new product from Jung that caught my eye was the selection of new Echinaceas or Coneflower, like the Green Envy and the Coconut Lime. Both companies are great. I have done business with them in the past and will do so in the future also.

Yesterday I got a catalogue from Stark Brothers. Going through it I discovered two apple trees that I would love to get. They are the Cinnamon Spice Apple and the Chenengo Strawberry Apple. Imagine an apple that already has the cinnamon flavor in it and an apple that tastes like strawberries. Chris said I should just buy some strawberries. The wonderful thing about these two trees is that each one will pollinate the other. Great! I don't know yet if I will get the trees since it will cost more than $50 to buy and get them shipped here. Oh well, I can dream.

Yesterday afternoon Chris and I took Jace down into the back field in the truck. We were looking for an old horse trough that was there. I found it and loaded it into the truck. I took it up to the house to use. NO, we don't have horses at the house and we are definitely not going to use it as a bathtub. I plan on using it as a raised garden in the front for some of my flowers. As I develop this and get it growing I will post some pictures for you to see.

Visit some of the links for the nurseries above. I am sure they will appreciate your visiting and taking a little look see.

School starts tomorrow. I will be getting back to my early schedule. I will see you then.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Friday Evening, The Weekend Begins

It is Friday evening and the weekend begins. What better way to start a weekend than to have the weather in the upper 40's, wet, and miserable. And the prospect for the weekend gets even better. It is likely to get colder and freeze Saturday and Sunday night. Oh yeah, the weatherman (aka "That Noble Prognosticator of all Things Climatic") reminds all of us that Saturday will be rather windy; wind gusts up to 40 MPH and that sort of thing. So let me get this next bit taken care of straightaway-----"Go fly a kite!" There! I said it and I feel better.

Whenever the weather gets cold and wet like it is today, soup just sounds good for supper. Sooo, this evening I proceeded to make some soup. I headed to the kitchen and gathered the various and sundry items required to prepare a meal fit for....well, an ordinary sort of guy like me. First, I took the pan and added a goodly amount of water; and while I was at it, I added some diced tomatoes. Having completed this task, I needed to wait for this to heat up before I could move to the next stage of preparation. I waited. And I waited. And then I waited some more. After several minutes time and having noticed that the water was not heated and why it was not heated, I asked Chris, "Do you think this will heat faster if I turn the burner on?" She said that she thought it might and then assured me that she didn't think I should count on solar heat to work today. "Thanks!" I turned on the burner. It is really amazing how much better things like that work when you turn them on. Having accomplished the highly technical aspect of turning the burner on, I was able to finish preparing the soup. It was great and I will have plenty for leftovers tomorrow.

Making plans for the weather tomorrow....Since it is supposed to freeze tomorrow night I have to figure out what to do with the flowers in the garden. I imagine it will come down to moving, covering, and bringing inside. I have several flowers that have survived from last fall. Among these flowers are chrysanthemums, gazanias, dianthus, geraniums, and others. This will have to be done during the "big blow" tomorrow. I can hardly wait. It is so much fun covering the plants with old bedsheets in a gale force wind. It is almost like trying to put the sheets on the bed and having the cats think you are playing a new game with them (Shameless reference to yesterdays post).

Later, and obviously before I posted, I worked on my flower seeds. I saved seeds from many of the flowers in my garden. I harvested the seed heads and then let them dry out. Afterwards, I got the seeds and stored them in envelopes to keep until next season. The other day I had a "brainstorm". Well maybe just a little "brain hiccup"! I said to myself, "Self, wouldn't it be great if you could re-use the little bottles from the pharmacy that your prescriptions come in?" After all, every one keeps the little bottles from the pharmacy that your prescriptions come in because there will certainly be a need for little bottles from the pharmacy that your prescriptions come in in the near or far distant future. So, I cleaned some little bottles from the pharmacy that your prescriptions come in and proceeded to transfer seeds from envelopes to the little bottles from the pharmacy that your prescriptions come in. I had French marigold, regular marigold, zinnia, dianthus, snapdragon, and broom corn. I still have several types of sunflower seeds to store.

Posting through the weekend.

KEEP IN TOUCH


© 2007 Barry T Horst



This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.