Hair Dilemma- Curly or Straight?

Ok, time for me to get all vulnerable and ask for some honest opinions.  Here's the deal: my hair is changing.  Yes, it's getting grayer, but it's also getting wavy/curly.  It's been a slow process over the last few years.  I have been straightening it because it wasn't quite pretty and I didn't know what else to do with it.  So over the last few weeks, I have decided to try embracing my curls and see if I like it.  This is totally different for me.  My hair usually has no style and I try not to pay more than $10 for a haircut.  I really don't care that much about my hair.  So here are some pictures (the last 3 are iPad pics, so they're not great).  I don't wash my hair everyday, so it looks a bit different from day to day.

Day 1

Day 1

Day 1

Day 2

Day 2

Day 3

So here's why I like it curly:
1.  I don't have to straighten my hair- less heat = good!  
2.  Takes less time to get ready because of #1.  I just spritz on some water and scrunch it a little.
3.  Humid days don't matter anymore :)
4.   Maybe my hair has a little interest now?

What I don't like:
1.  I have to use a little product in my hair to keep it from being fluffy.  I'm not quite used to that yet.

So what do you think?  Can I get away with letting my hair do it's own thing?  I am totally open to any tips from those of you with similar hair as well! 
My hair is also longer than it has been in quite some time.  I think I need to get my it trimmed and add in some more layers too.  Maybe next week...

2013 Garden, Part 3- First Harvest!

I hate to brag, but our garden is looking great so far!  We've had to spray for squash bugs and the grasshoppers really like our potatoes, but everything is still in good shape.  It's amazing how fast everything is growing right now.  These first 2 pictures were taken just 4 days apart.

Garden-  June 1

Garden-  June 5

Here's some closer pictures of a few "zones" of our garden.

Squash family rows- (near to far) zucchini, yellow squash, watermelon, spaghetti squash, honeydew, cucumbers, cantaloupe, pumpkin

Corn rows

Tomatoes before support

Tomatoes with support- we're trying a new system this year with t-posts and fencing material.  Last year all of our tomato cages ended up on the ground because our plants got too big.

First harvest!!  Yellow squash, zucchini, yellow potatoes, red potatoes, purple potatoes.  We chopped these up, put them on skewers, and grilled them with some chicken.  So yummy!

I don't show this view of the garden very often.  You can see our rain collection system and our shop in the back.  The garden is about 60'x30' for those of you who have asked.

Photo Dump

Sometimes we just have a bunch of random pictures to share.  Here's some highlights from our last month or so.

We had 3 baby foxes living in a rock pile in our empty pond for a few weeks.  They were so much fun to watch!

So stinkin' cute!

This hummingbird nest hangs right over our driveway.  If you look close, you can see 2 babies (one sticking out each side).

My snake catcher!  This snake was in our garage.

Our end of year chemistry department cookout.  Of course it rained, but we never complain about rain around here :)

We had a strong wind storm that took out a couple of our trees.

At least we get some firewood from the storm!

My first attempt at sewing with oilcloth.

Tie onesies for some friends' babies.

We only have a few yuccas on our property, so I always enjoy when they are in bloom.

We had some fun ripping out this old fence.

This tree was the main problem.

You know this was fun for Josh!

Ahh, much better!

We had a power outage for 11 hours, so we got to use our oil lanterns!

And finally, this boy turned 9 years old on June 2.  His foot is in a boot because he cut his paw while swimming at the lake.  Poor pup!

2013 Garden, Part 2- Surviving the Cold and Making Cute Garden Markers

Well, the new ground cover and watering system seem to be working well so far.  The plants didn't seem to grow much at first, but now they are taking off!  We had one more cold night we had to get through.  We covered some rows with extra ground cloth and tarps, and we covered some individual plants with buckets.  Of course it didn't get as cold as we expected, but better safe than sorry!

Preparing for the cold with tarps and ground cloth

Tomatoes and pumpkins did well under buckets.

I got an idea for garden markers from Pinterest that was cheap and easy.  I used metal punches and lids from canned food to make individual signs that I then nailed to stakes.  They are a little hard to read from a distance, but I like how they turned out.

Garden markers

More garden markers

"Corn"

"Green beans"

"Okra"

Here's a look at the corn marker in place

Garden with markers in place 5/15/13

Our potatoes and tomatoes are leading the way this year.  We have never tried potatoes, so it's nice to see them doing so well.  And look!  Our first tomato!

Rows of potatoes

Our first tomato of the season!

I guess this would be a good time to list all the stuff we're growing this year:
Bell peppers, jalapeno, green chiles, corn, green beans, okra, tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkin, honeydew, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and cucumbers.  Whew!  I'm looking forward to seeing how successful we are this year!

2013 Garden- Part 1, Still Experimenting

Well, we really procrastinated planting our garden this year, but it turns out we were just really smart!  We had 4 cold fronts come through in April that brought freezing temperatures to our area.  We finally got around to some of our planting last weekend, but wouldn't you know, we may have another freeze or two this week.  *sigh*  This is a little crazy for Texas!

Ready to plant!

We have a couple new experiments going this year.  The first is our watering method.  We water with well water that is full of minerals and salts.  We have had problems in the past with these clogging our soaker hoses by the end of the season.  No good!  This year we are trying drip tape with holes every 6 inches.  We'll see how it goes.

Drip tape all connected and laid out.  Some rows get double water.

 Our second experiment involves ground cover.  Last year, we tried a combination of clear plastic and black plastic to see which was better.  Black won.  We also just covered the rows and not the spaces in between with the plans of mowing between the rows.  Well, our plants got too big and took over all the space and made it impossible to mow.  So this year, we are trying a 20 year ground cover and covering more ground.  Some students came out and planted onions and potatoes several weeks ago, so we had to work around those areas.  Hopefully our weeding will be manageable this year.

Ground cover going down.

Ground cover done.

Time to plant!  Josh cut the holes and I followed with seedlings.

Of course Titus is always nearby supervising our work and protecting the wheelbarrow.

Some of the planting done.  More to come!

Rain Collection

Sometime in the last 2 years, we were given 6 empty containers to use for rain barrels.  Two weekends ago we put up some gutters on our shop, and last weekend we set up the barrels.  Now we need rain!

I believe Josh used this site to get some ideas and instructions for connecting all the barrels into 1 system.  We did find 1 leak, so we'll have to see if we can do something about that eventually. 
Garden posts should be starting soon!  I love spring!