The Birds and the Bees

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We got most everything done on our list last week, but for spraying, again. That will be this morning. Coming back up from picking cherries I chanced upon a VERY busy bumblebee and spent several minutes trying desperately to get him in focus before he zipped off. However, he barely stayed in one spot longer than 2 or 3 seconds, so I was sorely disappointed.





And we found a nest in the kiwi arbor of robins' eggs. I looked at a chart one time of how long it takes bird eggs to hatch and leave the nest. I was amazed. Some are out of the nest in only 3 days! I just tried to find the link but was unable to.





Cherry picking was fun. These are only bush cherries. They are like a mild sour cherry. They did not ripen all at once, so we are going to go pick more today. We also got rained out and had to hide under the bushes for a while, picking the inside.





















Here is the fungus that gets the cherries; Brown Rot. I had to rip out all the sand cherries I had put in years ago. They were so susceptible to brown rot that the entire bushes were a pile of mold. These are not so bad. We just lose a small percentage.





The grapes we will not be able to eat this year, due to spraying. But they sure LOOK great! LOL





The van before:





And getting clean. The car was almost unrecognizable afterwards. LOL





And the exterior windows sure look a lot better! They were pretty gross.





The potatoes are out of control! I've not been getting boards up, and the straw is barely hanging on. One of them has started to flower. I think the rest of the potatoes will go in the ground. I just need a bigger garden plot.





I like to keep my salad fixings all made up. We came up and put together salads worthy of the finest restaurants!









The asparagus forest. You can't see the forest for the spears?









If you've never smelled fig leaves, they are so uniquely scented. I visited my folks and their fig tree yesterday. It too had not fared well this winter. Just one of those years...





Laying out the string to mark where the new locations for the posts on the greenhouse will be.





I am really not looking forward to digging those out and moving them. One of those chores that I'll have to force myself to do.

Oh, yes. Our list for today:

DONE - Finish mowing goat pen
DONE - Mow around compost bins
DONE - One hour work on rocks
DONE - Pick more cherries
DONE - Pick more peas
DONE - Pick more strawberries
DONE - Pinch runners
DONE - Clean off patio
DONE - Put away sprouting stuff
DONE - Water lettuce
DONE - Plant more lettuce
DONE - Cover lettuce box with wire
- Re-pot houseplants
DONE - Prune/Tie grapes
DONE - Spray grapes
DONE - Tie up blackberries
DONE - Spray fence lines


~Faith

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Eye Catching Title Goes Here

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Sometimes something comes to me and sometimes nothing does. Today is a nothing day and I'm blaming the whole thing on the prednisone I am on, which seriously interfered with my weekend.

I'm trying to beat down this lupus flareup and poison ivy rash, so I began taking prednisone. Along with prednisone comes lack of sleep and nightmares. I ended up waking from sleep Sunday night with a nightmare I won't even mention because it would give you the willies. Needless to say, my adrenaline was flowing pretty well and I remained awake the rest of the night. I did get my "To Do" list posted so it wasn't a complete loss, but the whole next day I was not worth beans. LOL

Poor Michael was such a trooper the whole time he was sick. He kept working a doing as much as he could. I fought some frustration that my son has to work so hard because his father barely sends anything and is apparently hiding from being served with papers to make his give proper support. Michael is helping me work jobs nights, or weekends just to try to make ends meet, while his father is off in another state, with a girlfriend, and keeping 50,000 dollars a year for himself while sending us about 5,000. And this week, we got nothing again. But Michael never complains and he's such a young man of integrity. I am a blessed mother.

I also know that God will take care of us, somehow, when each difficult thing comes, He makes a way. We just try to work diligently, put Him first, and go about our lives with joy and gratitude.

Sunday we got up, did a few things around the place and then took off at about 9 to do an office cleaning and try to visit my parents. We had no time to go to church that morning as we'd not been able to clean on Friday due to Michael being sick.

We dropped by my parents and left some things there, they had gone to an early service and came home, so we visited. Michael is turning into quite the shutterbug and took many pictures of their place.





























My father, my son.





My mother, who has Alzheimer's, began chasing this dog away from the house with a stick. My dad would prefer to keep on good terms with it. It's a pit bull.





We are from California originally, or rather I am. My dad moved there with his family shortly after the Depression when things got too hard in MO for his family. They all migrated there. But we grew up in the country on a farm/ranch. When dad got older, he could not keep up with the work due to his neck vertebrae being fused. They sold and bought a place in town, swearing to live a life less buried in farm work.

The result is that you can take the boy out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy. They have the world's tiniest farm, on a city lot. The house still looks nice, but it works like a farm and doesn't fit in so well with the neighbors' places any longer. LOL

Here on the back lawn is one part of the garden, a netted hoop house. Dad also likes his songbirds, so he's got quite the menagerie, and they must be kept from the garden. We went out so I could show them how to harvest their cut and come again lettuce crops. He just built an outdoor sink area for the garden. Very handy.





And here is the result:














It was a nice visit, but we still had the office to clean. 12 operatories as well as the rest.












Yesterday we did a little work outdoors, but honestly I was still so messed up from the prednisone that not a lot was accomplished. I finished spraying under the last of the grapes when I'd finally had enough of our broken sprayer. We bought a 10 dollar replacement one at WalMart, which, given proper care, might last a month. LOL

We weeded and pinched runners off the strawberries. Watered and fertilized garden, the sprouts are all coming up, but struggling for nitrogen. I was going to spray fungicide on the grapes again, but we had intermittent showers between hot sun all day long, so it was not the best time. This also made BBQ for Memorial Day more of a challenge, but we got one in late.

Michael is trying to balance this fan that wobbles terribly. I've tried in the past and failed, but it sure is good to have another person here who is learning and trying new things. More and more often he figures something out that I haven't, so I appreciate his help more than I can express.





Our first radishes, tasty, sweet, delicious:




Our first Sugar Snap Peas:




Some daisies I picked from the horse pasture while down spraying for weeds and poison ivy around rocks.




And we spent time in the kitchen. YAY! I miss time in the kitchen. I hoped my parents could come for dinner, but they were not up to it. We made a few salads, some new potatoes, had delicious corn on the cob, and Michael did a great job BBQing some juicy, pepper-jack stuffed burgers. Served with banana peppers, BBQ sauce and other fine fixings. He was too full for the chocolate shakes I had planned.

When we had finished cleaning the kitchen, I took a picture of our table. I love the natural light, natural air... But it was a bit warm and muggy yesterday. Made me think of the future of turning on the cooler. It sure is nice to have a lower electric bill though.





So we played some card games, talked and laughed, until bed. And I did not have nightmares.

Now it's off to sewing class.

Faith

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December 30, 2008 ~ Fishing!

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Buying salad greens is really expensive. I often get the bagged ones because I"m so pressed for time. So if they spoil, it's a really horrible expense. I find they last many time longer if I let them air dry, spread out on paper towels before I store them.



Then I put them into containers that are lined with paper towels. Makes a huge difference. I tried the special bags, but I'm just not into washing bags out. LOL



The neighbor stopped by and picked up Michael to go to a local fishing hole. Here they are cleaning their catch.



Catfish and bluegill.



Thinking I'm not a huge catfish fan...
Faith
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