Happens Around the Farm- April

 It's been a while since my last post so it is a catch-up. 2025 has been busy for us in the family and around the homestead. Ms. Dirt has a new position within the company she works for. She will have more freedom without the constant worry of people under her. She also will be traveling more so me, the WOFs and chickens will be holding down the house. My job remains the same and I do enjoy it. with my short commute and freedom to get things done is a bonus. 

We have started in earnest on the garden and Ms. Dirt has been planting flowers with a vengeance. Let's take a quick tour. 

Sadly we had to put one of our chickens down yesterday. She wasn't doing well for a while but in the end she wasn't eating or moving. It was Madge, the official leader of the flock and the first to always greet me. We now have six and the girls all seem to be doing good. We have three more coming in June. 

Flowers around the coop. I swear I'll get this thing done soon. A lot of projects to do around the house. 

Raised bed garden tour. We planted peas about a month ago but the majority were planted out today from seed we started. We did have a few picked up from our greenhouse adventures. 

First time in a while that we've grown lettuce. About time to cut some for salads. in the very back are carrots and mint plants in between. 

Aforementioned peas. They are starting to set. 

New tomato plants in the ground. 

These are onions that I left in the beds last year. They started to sprout again in the fall so I re- planted them and up they came this spring. 

Mini peaches on the mini tree.

Pears coming on good. Need to find a good recipe for using these this fall. 

Front flowers are all Ms. Dirt. I'm not sure what all is out here. 

WOF of the Week.

We had a birthday this past week. Lady Matilda (Tilly, Tilly Moo, Tilly Loo Magoo, Tilster, Mooster) turned five!!! Happy Birthday Tilly!

Until next time, which hopefully won't be too long. 

September is Full

 It is September and it is full. Full of things to do. I haven't posted in a while so there are some updates to come. 

Garden has suffered so much that we pretty much gave up. Last post was about all the rain we had in July up to that point. We it kept raining. We recorded the 9th hottest July on record and 11th wettest. Then August rolled in and the rains continued. Tropical storm Debby came by and sat on us for two days, delivering another 5" to 6" of rain. The high temperatures came back with temps hovering around 95. Safe to say July and August were terrible. September started off fine then another system came in and dumped 7" of rain on us in a day. As of right now, September is full. We are full for the rest of the year. 

Flowers have been enjoying the rain and temperatures. Chickens being chickens. But the best is that the fire ants have come back with a vengeance. We poured killer on all of the nests we could find before the big rain. Now those are gone but we have as many or if not more new ones now. They have been non- existent most of the year. If you don't have them, count yourself lucky. They sting and hurt. 

We have a big event coming up this coming weekend in Benson, NC. Mule Days brings about 60,000 visitors to a town of 4,000 over three days. We'll be there watching the parade and eating foods we shouldn't. 

Online business is slow but it usually is this time of year. We got our LLC a few months ago and plan on changing some things up and really concentrating on the business. We also looked at a building in Benson that is currently empty. It is large but needs a lot of work. I will have this in another post. On to the photos. 

Like I said, the flowers are doing good. Especially the marigolds. we have talked numerous times about becoming marigold farmers. 

Chickens love their worms. 

Here's a before and after of the fire ant nest. I ran my shoe over it before the second photo. Trust me, they are there.

Marigold in the garden beds. I was also able to save some onions and the peppers are hanging on.

Last but not least we had to trade in the original WOFmobile. She had many miles on here for a truck and was starting to give me problems as I was fixing her. So the next WOF2 is our new ride for years to come. She is a bit bigger than the old one. 

WOF of the Week. I am apparently the weakest link when someone has food. 

Really? We're Drowning Here

 OK. Not complaining about droughts again. It has rained pretty much everyday in July. Yesterday and last night we got close to 4". It gets hot during the day, then rains which makes it even more miserable since it does not cool anything down. Oh yes, the humidity has been through the roof too. Just not a fun summer so far. Matilda does not like the storms at all. She gets nervous and paces and pants. We got some calming pills from the pet store but they don't seem to help. This makes for sleepless nights for us. 

The garden has suffered, especially the tomatoes. They grow through the day then get hit with 2" of rain, then they crack. And it seems there's not any time to work on it. As soon as you do it rains. This past weekend I had to fix the weed eater, lawn mower because it wouldn't steer and change the wife's oil in her car. Also mowed the front lawn and cleaned up the chicken's coop. Got done around 1PM and was spent. 

Now we seem to have a leak on our west facing wall of the house. Every time it rains we somehow get a small leak inside by the fire place. That will be this coming Saturday's job. always something. 

No pictures of WOF of the Week. Coming this weekend. 

Sky Water Did You Say?

 Finally! As I type this is is lightly raining. Took the pups out in it and of Course Benjamin did his thing and ran back into the garage. Matilda? Rain doesn't affect her. We walked the yard and then some. We had a real good rain earlier in the day. 3" according to the rain gauge. We definitely needed it and then some. My burn pile is high but for fear of setting the county on fire I have been letting the set. We are expecting more rain this coming Tuesday so maybe next weekend we'll get that pile down. 

Ms. TD and her friends went to the antique market in Charlotte Saturday so I talked the new front steps handrails and post caps. I didn't have all of the materials to finish everything and one of my boards for the handrail spindles was warped badly so it didn't put it in. I got the top rails in and one side bottom. I got the top caps cut and installed. Routed out a nice cut back on the caps, cut 2 small 4x4 pieces to hold the new light Ms. TD bought and set the lights in place, I thought they screwed in but apparently you have to use outdoor adhesive. Finishing up the stairs for good will be this coming weekends' job. I did some weeding in the garden afterwards but took no photos. I got overheated as it was horribly humid out so called it a day. Ms. TD and I have a four day weekend coming up so hope we can get a lot of things competed. 

We got another small harvest from the garden earlier today as well. Cucumbers are really producing this year. Tomatoes not so much right now. 

That's about it for this post. Hopefully more to come this weekend. 

Heat Dome

 Well here we are once again. I write to you this Sunday afternoon on my new laptop. It is the closest thing I could find that has the same keyboard layout spacing my my old one. It is more powerful and has more storage, which is good with all of the photos and other work I do on it. 

Heat dome. You read that right. Temperatures have been high with heat indexes for the past week above 100 degrees. To top all of that, for the past 30 days we have received .3 inches of rain, which was 27 days ago. A quick look tells me tomorrow is the only day for the following week the heat index will be below 100. I am not going to complain about storm dumps again. We have been moving the sprinkler every evening; to the garden to the flowers. The yard is pretty much done except for where the septic leach field lines are. This is interesting to us as they are not where we were told they were when we moved in. Originally this precluded us from building a greenhouse where we 'thought' the lines were. Not anymore. Another week of hunkering down inside and listen to the AC unit never shutting off. Electric and water bills going to be high for next few months. 

Ms. TD and myself have watched the first series of This Farming Life and now are on season 5 as Amazon hasn't let out seasons 2-4. Talk about a change of weather. Love to have some of those 60 degree days. Put it this way: my 60 degree day is 15C; today it is 98, to your 36C. You folks want some of this? About done with season 5. We find it interesting and become involved in some ways. We have talked about starting a homestead with our boys as there are a lot of agriculture programs available to new and beginning farmers. And let's face it, Ms. TD and myself aren't spring chickens. But an interesting statistic I read a few days ago was that over 140,000 small farms have shut down in the last 5 years in the US. This statistic should scare a lot of people. We'll continue to look into it but a few of us will still have to work fulltime to make it work. On to the tour (and sorry for no post last week)....

Ms. TD showing our first cherry tomato harvest.

I got all of the tomato plants cut and re- staked. Cucumbers starting to produce pretty good too. A lot of weeding to, which Ms. TD came and gave me a hand because I was already 2 hours into to tomatoes. Maybe not 2 but it felt like it. 

These were from Saturday. This morning I rolled out the plastic/vinyl/whatever it is out, thinking I was going to put the border up. Well that didn't happen as I reworked the front steps as the first step was too high. They are far from perfect but the last ones I put up there. The next person to do them is in for a surprise with all of the concrete under them. I have to do the handrails, post tops and spindles. Paint and stain to finish. 

A hydrangea of various colors.

The flower beds we've managed to keep alive.

The girls posed for a picture Saturday. This is after a run and coop cleanout and meal worms. 

WOF of the Week. Took the pups to the dog park early this morning and got a shot of Tilly in ball catch mode. She loves a ball.

Off to another hot week. They are calling for rain tomorrow but I'm not betting on it. And if it does rain, it will be worse outside. Stay cool....