Rain, Rain, Go Away.

.

We've been needing rain pretty badly. We've had to water the garden and fruit trees. As a matter of fact, I knew that the only way to bring on the rain, was to give everything the good watering we'd been putting off.

So I did. And that's why within 36 hours, Sunday afternoon, when we were supposed to be enjoying a concert by friends, after we had done a couple of office cleanings, it was rained out.

It's all my fault.

See, it all started out well enough...









But the sprinkles we all tried to ignore gradually built into a steady downpour which either chased people to their cars for a ride home, or the die-hards among us managed to find shelter where ever we could.





And then there were the members who just decided to go with it and dance in the rain.





It was a good day. But a short concert - which is way better than shorted out electrical equipment!

~Faith

.

Another lazy Shabbat..

.

Aside from the fact that I felt icky and gross and exhuasted and achy, it was a great day off.

Not much to report, Captain. Except some wind blew off some mulch which we had to fix.





The beach plums (I think) are getting bigger.





And on the other side of the path...





The bush cherries are doing the same.





See those figs? Yup. All those branches are dead. I thought as much, but hope springs eternal, you know?





Looks like we'll be using those loppers soon!

~Faith

.

Friday Morning Excitement!

.

If you all remember our pool story from last year, here is our update. We didn't like the Easy Set pool.

We only used it a few times. It did not fit against the deck, so it looked bad and we could not use the deck with the pool except for climbing on and off, walking around to the lower side and climbing up and down the ladder over there.

I was really hard to clean, and even harder for the two of us to take down, dry and store for the winter.

So much so that neither one of us wanted to put it back up this year. Every day, when we have worked in the heat, we have looked up longingly where our pool used to be and, eyes glazed as if we were seeing a mirage, would stand and remember how luscious it used to feel to jump in when we were so hot; how we'd look forward to the end of the work day for a cool swim.

Out of desperation we began wondering about buying one of those pools at Wal Mart, but we really did not want to spend the money. Well, Friday morning I was digging around for lowest of the lowest prices online and, on a whim, I went to Craigs List.

I found THIS! It had been posted only hours before I found it.





Complete, the spitting image of the pool we had that had broken while we'd been gone, and it was for sale for only 200 dollars WITH a brand new liner in a box! WooHOOOO!

I called our dear friends to come and help, and wonder of wonders, they could come over with their truck AND help us tear it down to bring home.





It was a great day. We had a wonderful drive on the country roads, stopping for drinks at a cute gas station that looked like a log cabin home, and deciding we would go back for ice cream after our labors.

It took five of us over two hours to dismantle it.





Including chasing out a very disconcerted bull frog.





We've still got to get the pool up, but we are really excited about this! Cool! However, this sudden change of the plans made us run a little late for a home school graduation ceremony for a sweet and dear friend of ours.





Look at those caps fly!





Lots of food there, and then off to continue the celebration. New kittens almost stole the graduate's star status however. These two cuties have no tails.













Congratulations! So pleased to know you and see you embark on this great adventure!

~Faith

.

Flipping Out

.

Thursday began an early start to a busy weekend.

Sometimes I'm fooled into thinking that sage is just some boring ol' plant. Well, it sure showed me, as I was outside doing a little weeding!





I was actually just mosying past everything on my way to pull suckers and weed each grapevine. I don't know if you can see the clusters in these photos or not, but this first one shows what is available from a single trunked vine. A goodly amount...





But grape clusters grow from new branches on older wood, so the more older wood you have... sort of common sense here...





Did you know that the vine produce little tendrils of which some turn into clusters, and others just wind themselves around things to hang on for dear life?

Here's the work I had to do.





And here is my half way done point.





The kiwi vines are really showy with their bell shaped blossoms.





Later in the afternoon, Michael went off for more mulch while I processed about 2 hours worth of berries.





Here's about 1/3 of them.





Don't they look yummalicious?





These were destined to be Ladies Night strawberry shortcake later on in the evening.

Errands and a quick make-up class for Michael in which he was able to do some vaulting he'd not been able to practice for 18 months.





Then he went off with the guys for mens group and we ladies had some fun making a mess with home made cards.













And strawberry shortcake! A gift from God.

~Faith

.

Mulching, Planting, Strawberries!

.

You should know that a couple of weeks ago I had a discussion with Michael, where I was pretty much ready to quit this huge garden endeavor. I wanted to forget about it, and not try to bring in a big harvest, but just be satisfied with a small garden to get a few things from. Michael actually pushed for the larger garden. He likes the work, enjoys the food, and is looking forward to learning more, doing more, and hopefully being able to sell things at Farmers Markets. So we are sort of cheering each other on through this very busy garden building time.

We are SO proud of this path! The side of that bed is about 18 inches high, and that USED to be right next to the peas, covered in lots of weeds! I hope it stays put fairly well once we get it mulched. I expect some erosion, I've done raised beds before, but never on a hill, so I hope it doesn't turn around and bite me.





First thing after morning chores, we planted melons.





We worked in some holes into the lowest bed that we had mulched.





And labeled 5 different watermelon plantings.





Then it was off to get more rotten hay. Michael does most of this, as I have to avoid the poison ivy.





Which means that in between helping him, I get to find more lovely things to photograph!





Including him.





He's listening to Bible study lessons that he enjoys.

After many trips, and battling an embedded nest of very angry ants in the third round bale we found, we had enough to cover 5 beds.





We also planted the next melon bed toward the house with a variety of muskmelons, including an old fashioned Banana melon.

We were pretty tired - seems to be a theme of ours lately, and we still had office cleaning to do that night.

I thought - HA! - that I could quickly shower and wash my hair while Michael went out and picked a few berries and we might still make it to part of our Bible study first, though.

By the time I was out and ready to go, Michael was nowhere to be found. I saw a bowl of berries in the kitchen, I called inside, I called outside, I went to all the windows and looked in every direction.

Finally, his iPod laden head popped up beyond the tool shed. He was STILL picking berries!

Poor guy. I sent my exhausted child - well, young adult, really - on what I thought was a 10 minute chore, and it turned out to be an hour, while I was enjoying a nice shower! Needless to say, I went out and helped him finish.

Here are 3 gallons of sweet labor. We did not make it to Bible study.





He still loves me. LOL

~Faith

.

Beds 10 through 12 - of 24?

.

Yeah, I'm not sure we're going to make it, but we are going to give it a shot.

We waited on so many things with this garden. Here it is, halfway through May, and we've got very little planted.

What we DO have is a good start on some permanent raised beds. Even if we don't get them all planted this year, they will be ready next spring, with hopefully NOT much work to do. I'm really looking forward to a spring that we are not tied to working the earth as much as we have been for the last two years.

The hope is that the hay will be mulched thickly enough to prevent weeds, even from the seeds that will be IN the mulch itself. If not, we are in the same boat anyhow, so it's worth the try.

Here is the first bed we mulched with hay, the lowest future melon bed, which we hope to seed tomorrow.

This is laid down at least 6 inches thick, and it's partially decomposed already.





I found my summer squash being attacked by mangey little striped beetles, which I picked off and squished in my fingers. I didn't used to do that, but the harder I work on this, the more vicious I become in protecting it.





And here is the area we needed to work on for the last three beds on the first side.





This has a really bad area right above the peas. The dirt was turned over, toward the downhill direction, leaving us with a sharp bank heading straight into the pea bed. I was not sure how we were going to level it all out.

But I left Michael manning the rototiller...





... and I went on a walkabout down the meadow way to where we'd been hunting for rotten hay bales the neighbor said we could have.





I was dying to get some photos of this flourish of wild daisies we'd traveled through.

















Ooooooooh, look at these!





Here are some of the places we picked up hay from where he'd stored some bales.





And tucked back under the trees and a wild grape vine...





...was this wonderful find!





I hope we can get a chance to eat these grapes. Usually they are so high up in the trees you can't get to them.





We are so blessed to live by this meadow. Can't see the house from here.





Some sort of fiery weed.





A vivid red clover blossom.





Heading back home.





Michael getting his shoes back on after going in for his drink igloo.





While pulling a few weeds I found these sweet potato surprises! They must have very prolific roots, because these were a good 8 feet uphill from where they had been last year. I haven't decided whether to leave them, pull them, or move them, so they are still down there.





We decided to really make the garden straight and neat, so we marked it with string and recut the top border in a straight line to till it in. It was a lot of work, but we are so glad we did it.





Then we needed a shovel. We'd been working with only one shovel, and trying to make do with a spade and a trencher, but our backs have been screaming for weeks. So we took a trip into town to buy a super-duper shovel, and we also invested in a super-duper lopper. We are really going to be blessed by this! Every year I struggle with loppers that barely cut. Now we are set!





Ready to get back at it?





Ready!





There is a very naughty dog on the end of that chain. Twice he has been caught laying on top of our summer squash seedlings. He's going to be kept from the garden until they are much bigger. He gets to be tied up where ever we are working outside so he doesn't feel lonely.

Three beds marked out and digging begun.





All done.





And look at that beautiful straight top, where we plan on placing the cold frames.





T.I.R.E.D.

Tomorrow we hope to mulch all the beds we've done so far. Then we can call the garden beds half done.

~Faith

.