Easter 2017

Went to the country last weekend. It was Easter & as it turned out, our first mowing of the year. I got up there on Thursday & decided to go ahead & get a head start on the mowing. Greg came up early on Friday to finish up. In one of our fields there is a new (to us) weed.

It's an ugly little thorny bush that you can't pull up & after it's mowed down it looks like some sort of bird has met it's demise.

My Dad said he hasn't seen it before but it's in almost all the fields. Anybody know what it is?

Update: Thistle! Kill it!

Went out to the garden to open up the shed to let the breeze blow through.

I had left a bag of blood meal in one of the buckets under the back lean to & something must have thought it was food. Doesn't appear they liked it after mauling it, as most of the contents were still intact.

And woo hoo, my asparagus is growing!  I planted 15 crowns & all but 2 are showing signs of life.

Greg had brought a load of compost from the city property & as I was using it to fill in the cinder block holes I looked down & saw this on one of the crowns. A stick was put in by each crown so I could tell where they were located.

Isn't that just the cutest little (& I do mean little) thing?

Had a few minor projects to get done in the barn, like hanging blinds, installing handles & locks on doors, etc. As Greg was walking back & forth from the barn to the house he happened to notice this in the grass right by our steps!

It's a timber/canebreak rattlesnake. He was a young one, just 2 buttons. He was 'relocated'.

The next day this guy came strolling across the field.

Not poisonous but if you get too close he will snap your fingers off. He can reach his neck out several inches, as in 6 or more! He is kind of pretty though. After the photo shoot, we let him meander on his way.

Then also noticed these guys by one of the doors on the house.

Why do they always build their nests in high traffic areas? I let them stay if they are out of the way but these were too close for coming & going comfort. They were 'disposed' of as well.

Sorry this post is such a creepy crawly one but that's sometimes life in the country. Here's a couple of feel good shots to leave you with.

Birthdays & Moving In - Garden Shed

A week or so ago was my Dad's 78th birthday. My sister & I (along w/our sweet husbands) decided to cook a surprise lunch for him & his church members. We served Boston Butts, Potato Salad, Green Beans, Mac & Cheese, Salad, Rolls & of course cake & brownies. He was very happy & yes, even surprised.

We also gave him a gate alarm for his place up in the country. Like us, he has a very long driveway & sometimes people show up unannounced. With the gate alarm he will be able to hear them coming before they get up to the house.

Last Friday would have been my Mama's 80th birthday. I was thinking about a distant relative recently & thought to pick up the phone & call her with a question that only she would have known the answer to. Sad to think there are so many questions that will remain unanswered because there is no one left to ask. Sure do miss her.

This past weekend we finally finished the Garden Shed & was able to start moving in. I was originally just going to paint everything white because that was the paint that I had leftover from other projects. It was waaay too white! Didn't want to go to the store for a small can of colored paint so I looked around & found a tube of blue Easter egg coloring. It was too blue. I had some black acrylic that I added which toned it down to this very soft grey/blue color. Fine by me & I didn't have to make a trip to town.

I hope to have plenty of room for gardening things, paint supplies, canning jars, as well as Christmas Decor. We'll see just how long it takes to fill er up. Oh & still need to paint the back doors.

p.s. We also got asparagus crowns planted but didn't get a pic of the beds. Not much to see but I should take one just for documenting sake. Now to wait the 3 years it takes to be able to harvest & eat. That is, if they survive.....

Garden & Gate - Memorial Weekend Part 1

We had a very busy couple of days at the Country House last weekend. We don't get many long summer holidays due to Greg's business being at it's busiest during the warmer months, unless 4th of July falls on a Friday or a Monday. But, Memorial Day is always on a Monday so we take advantage. We worked 10 full hours Saturday & Sunday with another 4 or 5 hours thrown in for good measure on Monday before coming home.

I finally got to drive on the driveway, many times over the course of 3 days! It feels kind of slippery but will pack down over time.

Saturday morning, we decided to go ahead & 'set' the gate post, the one that the gate will hang from. Greg cut the 6x6 post to length, dug the hole, placed the post in, poured in quick set concrete w/water added, squished that around, leveled the post, more concrete & water, check level & then let it set until late afternoon. These are the tools of the trade.

10" Auger

The gate

Posts & Misc

Small quiet generator

After that was done, Greg mowed while I piddled around the house. When he was done mowing he decided to string trim.

I had checked on my weedy garden during the course of the day & saw that the beds were not settling as much as I had thought they would. I want to get the asparagus planted this year (2 beds) so I decided to take up my most gracious neighbor's offer of compost, good compost, horse poo & straw compost.

Now that is a load of compost! This is located about 1/2 mile or less, from the house. I had loaded 2 55gallon drums on a small trailer that I had connected to our golf cart. Here's an older picture of that setup from when we first started working on the garden.

It was about 3:00p by then & I was kind of tired. I knew I couldn't put those drums on the ground & then put them back on the trailer so I just shoveled it into them while on the trailer. They got higher & higher w/each shovel full. I would shovel about 30 loads & then rest. The sun was shining almost directly on the pile & it had gotten hot! Plus, our other neighbor (BPC - bi-polar cousin) had started under brush burning of a small row of trees across the street & I was just waiting for the wind to shift to blow smoke my way (which it never did, thank goodness!). I met a new friend while resting.

Bell

My friend has a lot of hobbies & horse & buggy riding is one of them. This horse (Bell) is used for that purpose, and of course helps with the compost pile. He has another horse & a donkey name Ringo, but they weren't around. Natural gardening is another of his hobbies. Here's a picture of his open pollinated corn patch.

His greenhouse is to the right, he almost starts everything from seed too. That raised bed to the left is asparagus which has been in for 3 years so he was able to harvest this year. There is another huge garden behind the shed/chicken coop to the left but I didn't get any pics of it.

I finally got the barrels full & headed back to house. I got 1 asparagus bed completely full & another one almost full, lacking by about 2".

About that time the in-laws arrived & they had brought a whole truck bed FULL of leaf compost from their house in the city. They had brought the mulch up to supplement 26 Crepe Myrtle trees that will be planted (& posted on) soon. But they had brought enough to plant 100 trees! I asked if I could have some to top off the other asparagus bed. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. We told them that we would unload the rest in the morning.

Before compost.

After compost.

We then hung the gate on the now dried post.

By then, it was about 6:00p so we decided to call it quits. We went in, took showers, made an adult beverage & sat down on the back porch to finally relax.

About that time we see Mom & Dad driving over to the fence line in their truck with the intention of unloading the rest of the mulch. Let me mention that they are both stubborn as heck & my FIL is 82 & MIL is 78. FIL has some shoulder issues (having surgery next week) not to mention he's had 2 hip replacements as well. He gets around like he thinks he's 50 but it's getting harder on him. They had loaded the mulch the night before & MIL mentioned earlier that his shoulder was aching.

Anyway, we weren't up to unloading it for them that late but knowing they wouldn't listen to us, I asked Greg to let them know I would like to use some of it on the other garden beds the following morning. They agreed to wait to unload after I had gotten what I needed, whew!

To be continued ....