Go Rain Go!!!

No I am not going to say away. Recently I have heard alot about the rainy weather we have been experiencing but I am for one and alot of others around here tend to enjoy it. As in my way of looking at it, it gives me time to play catch up in the house with the cleaning. It helps the plants and veggies grow like crazy and gives me a slight break in packing water up to the gardens and new trees. It has given us time to redo the building that we traded for, it has kept our water barrels full,it has made the kitchen cool during canning, and our water bill low. Rain is my friend.

Thunderstorms

With the weather changing every few seconds, it seems, I could not help myself but I had to take a few shots of the storm that was brewing out our back door the other day. The top on was right after they said our county could see hail. The bottom one was later that evening. I really love this shot becasue I can see aface in the clouds. Can you see it? Enjoy!

Garden in May

Our garden is really full. Some would say too full but nah we don't think that. With the recent rains( every day for 4 days) its very hard to get into the garden to pull weeds but I will post the garden pics anyway. So here you go.


In the photo on the top the veggies are 8 zucchini, 83 tomato plants, 10 rows of corn, then the potatoes. The picture to the right of the page is from the other side of the garden. First this way is the dreaded weeds that are growing everywhere in the garden, sunflowers the kids planted (heavy), 2 rows of onions ( 2 different kinds), melons, cucumbers, peppers, then the potatoes.



The potato box in the right is on its 3rd run. It is really growing well. I am excited to see how many spuds are In there. If they do well I am wanting to make an extended box to fit the garden better. A lot of people who have used the potato boxes say they grow a lot of potatoes in them so I am waiting to see how many more the box has then just the ones in the garden.

a day of rain

means a day of baking. We had a great deal of rain fall on us today. The water barrels are full again and the gardens are watered. It truly was a beautiful day!!

And so it begins

the watering with more. More then the precious water coming from the heavens and into the water barrels we strategically placed for holding water to use on the garden, pet baths, rinsing outside things. etc.Yes we had to drag out the hose. Oh the thud in my great watering setup the dreaded hose. For anyone else this would be the greatest gift ever, yes for most. But for me it is much more then that. It's the reason I have water barrels. I have them to prevent me from using the clean, treated, fairly priced, drinking water. I love the fact that I can go right out into the big glorious barrel and dip out some of heavens goodness. Okay okay before you say there is nothing wrong with water from the hose, I agree. there is nothing wrong with it, it's wonderful. But I prefer to use our re purposed water as much as i can for the outside watering. Also I have this really huge over sized yard and takes forever to drag the hose around to every small or large plots I have to water.I do not water our grass and no I am not complaining, yes I will drag that huge hose around rather then going to the store to buy the things that need watering. But today as i was watering I realized we have 2 rather long water hoses threaded together and opps its not enough. I told you I had a big yard. So I have one water spigot on our property I have been asking for another by the garden, shoot I would be happy if it were just in the back yard. One in the front one in the back. Sounds reasonable enough. But I make do with the one in the front and long that one day to have another strategically placed were 2 water hoses will be enough when the water barrels are dry. or maybe around 30 more water barrels. Which ever would be great. But for now I am thankful. Thankful for the water I have.

a time for color and babies

Yes that is Spring. With Spring in full swing I thought I would share a few pictures of just a few things that are happening around here.


On the left are the kittens that were born under our porch. The photo on the right shows a baby robin bird, just emerging from the nest. Preparing to take its first flight. A robin has eggs in the tree out front every year. We are pleased to be able to watch them emerge every year.



The animals and the garden are not the only thing growing. Our flowers that attract the bees are blooming and keep us in beautiful flowers all Spring and summer long. We plant just enough flowers to keep the bees happy and just enough food to keep us happy around here.





With the rain falling, sometime which felt like buckets, we were also able to capture some in our homemade rain barrels for the garden and raised beds. It seems to rain, fill the barrels, then quit raining long enough for us to use what we saved then rain again. I hope to add around 3 more barrels this summer.



The apples are growing faster then last year. We have a total of 5 apple trees now. Two of which will provide us with wholesome apples this fall and winter. This is the yellow delicious in the picture above. The other one, not pictured, that will grow apples this year is called a Jonathan apple. The peaches are bigger already then in the past, hope to have pictures uploaded soon. We pruned the peaches this year at the end of winter and they are so much happier.
While we still have grass we are taking alot of time to reduce our lawn every year. I hope to have the front yard grass free in the next 2 years. Have a wonderful day!!!

How to tell that the last frost has passed?

You can almost sit down.

Okay so I have said it before, several months ago, that we will have a last frost but not when expected. We have not had a frost here for several weeks. I think all the rain has made the frost not happen. I am happy , that just means more work for me a little sooner then expected but I am pleased. Pleased to have almost everything in the ground. If the rain would just stop for a few days I could get everything planted and let the rain do the rest. But no such luck. I have been going out every morning and planting as much as I could until the rain starts later on in the day. We have about 33 tomato plants in the ground as well as 25 pepper plants. There is still plenty more that needs to be planted. But it too must be done according to the weather.

Red and Oreo

They are the best little horse colts. I will be posting a few pictures of them outside. They loved seeing everything they could. They were not scared and were interested even in the dogs. They ran, kicked, and layed in the sunshine. Both get daily walks providing its not raining. They are getting more active and I must say they are a little spoiled. We guessed there age at- Red 2 weeks old and Oreo about a week old. We here have been busy with feeding and gardening. I am a bit relaxed today becasue it is raining and I can wait at least today on the gardening. Also gives me time to catch up on posting!