Jammin

That's what we are doing on the homestead this morning. We spent yesterday goofing morning around town; visiting the dealership to get an oil change, cruised the Dunn Farmers Market (got a plat of strawberries, more later) breakfast, big box store for a few things, and back home. We spent the afternoon working on craft projects and the garden some more. I will say that I am really going to give this a good effort this year. I think all of the rain last year pretty much did a lot of people in, lack of enthusiasm seeming permeating everywhere. And with the record- setting rain we had a few days ago, everyone is like "Shit." But an effort will be made.

I got all of the potato plants strawed out in the afternoon. I did encounter a few beetles here and there but not too many so I just picked them off and squished them as I went. Leave them like this until they are ready to come out of the ground.

Got the first cucumber bloom yesterday. These were a big bust for us last year so here's to crossing fingers for this year's harvest.

Amy did a lot of crafting yesterday and ended up finishing the chair idea of hers. We got two old chairs at the auction last weekend for $5.00 total and she turned one of them into this. 

Onto the strawberries. We have been some good pickings so far this year on our strawberries and since we love them, we seem to eat a lot of them. The idea behind the plat purchase yesterday was so we could combine it with ours and can some jam. So that's what we are doing this morning, canning. And from observations (read tasting) it's going to be good. All in all we did (16) 8 oz. jars.

We have actually considered getting some more stuff in the ground and selling our wares plus other items at the Farmers Market. We'll kick it around some more. Naming it has come down to two choices; Woflandia Farms or WOF Dog farms.  

Speaking of which. WOF of the week. We were outside working and guess who else wants out?

Yes, she got to come out but is pretty much useless helping us out. 

Almost There

Well kids it's getting close now. Amy has done most of the shopping as I was out of town all flipping week, not returning until this past Saturday evening. Needless to say I spent most of the day Sunday lounging around, after a little morning trip to get a few things. In hindsight I should have spent it outside working on garden things and the building but with the threat of rain during our daytime temps of 75 degrees, I saw no need to drag everything out then have it pour on me. Yes, 75 degrees. And it was 64 when I left for work at 6:30 this morning. Strange to say the least. I know it's coming. We are on the uphill run for longer days now but winter's far from over.
A milestone has passed a few days ago; Chewie has been with us for one year now. He's gone from yelping anytime you touched his head or pretty much anywhere else to a fun, playful dog. Every once in a while he'll yelp about something, but his previous life before us wasn't great so we take it in stride. And he has become The Wife's favorite, following her everywhere.

I took a look this morning at the onions I started a few weeks back and they are doing pretty nicely. Little green strands coming up like they are supposed to. As for the remainder of garden items for next year, I have a pretty good plan set up and will be ordering the rest of the seeds. I can't set up my light stand until Amy has the Christmas stuff down in the office. She needs to move her butt! And I need to resist temptation to start things too early this year. Maybe I might play with the saved pepper seeds to see how well I did with them. :)
Well that's all I can say for now. We have an open house with one of our neighbors this evening then I may try to catch the Alaska The Last Frontier show I DVR'd last night while putting my plans on paper. Great show to watch and has become my new favorite. Still messing with Amy about moving there and at times she says let's go, usually after dealing with idiots on something. But she insists on indoor plumbing (no outhouses) so this is an obstacle to work around. I have found some interesting items while cruising some blogs from there and will share later.

Keep cool kids??????

Farming in the Suburbs

Interesting article I found today while eating my lunch. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/12/17/251713829/forget-golf-courses-subdivisions-draw-residents-with-farms
Subdivisions being developed around or including farms. I can see this really taking off as more and more people are taking note of where their food comes from. Conflicts could arise but that would obviously be handled by guidelines in the HOA. But just think of it; going outside on a Saturday morning, meeting your neighbors over coffee, then getting your hands dirty in a project that will benefit everyone around you. And you get to eat the rewards! There are a few empty lots in our small development and Amy brought up the suggestion of asking the developer for use of one of the lots for a community garden. I don't think they would go for it but it doesn't hurt to ask. The last four houses they built still haven't sold yet so they may be open to the idea.
On a separate but related note we found out who owns the property at the power lines, where I wanted to put a secondary garden. The same person who has our development. These people must own half of Harnett County! If they don't go with the empty lot idea maybe I can sweet talk them into that.

Well back to work. 8 days kids!

Buzzing Along

Well things on the homestead are buzzing right along now. I believe with the addition of maybe two more garden beds we'll finally have everything planted. I am still on the fence about sowing corn. It takes up a lot of space for no more than what you get out of it but home- grown corn tastes so good. I got the new flowering thing Amy bought planted by the garden and the two plants we bought a month ago at the nursery planted by the driveway. Weeded today (always a job to do), got the last two rows of green bean seeds sowed, pruned and tied up the tomato plants, used the old mulch from the front beds around the raised beds, and backfilled around the potatoes. Believe it or not I have vegetables being set so my bees have been around. They're buzzing around somewhere. Off to the back- breaking, knee- hurting, ant- biting tour.

Guess what I found on my potato plants today?

Gotta find a good way to get rid of these beetles before they destroy the whole crop and find my tomato plants. 

We have peas already. We didn't really notice them until yesterday. Shelling time coming up. 

We already have a sweet banana pepper. 

These are my cukes with the tomatoes running down the middle. Their leaves are browning somewhat and I am  not sure why. Last year's crop sucked so I don't want to lose this one too. Ideas?

Green beans are moving a little slowly but I did get the last two rows sowed on the right side of the picture. 

Have our first two tomatoes already. These are the Amish Paste tomatoes. 

And speaking of tomatoes here's a couple of shot of my 'rogue' tomatoes. I am not too sure what I am going to do with these. Keep them or not? Hmmmmmm........

Some more gratuitous shots.

I'll get some straw on the potatoes probably within the next week or so after I get rid of the beetles. That should keep them until they are ready to be pulled. 

Knock- out roses in front are in full bloom as is most other things.

Nice little set- up The Wife made for the back deck. 

Well, others things that have been happening. 1) I have been spying a fox that has been cruising around the property and other houses the past few nights. Not getting into anything bad but just out looking around, 2) We've been hearing a noise out of the woods starting at dusk and continues through the night until just before day break. It is a two syllable whistle with a small chirp on the end of it. I have been looking but haven't found anything yet that makes this noise. I may get a sound bite and post it here in case someone knows what it is. It's driving me nuts, 3) Had our first slithering visitor of the year. The Wife finds it and immediately demands it's death. After I find that it is a black snake, killing it wasn't one of the things I wanted to do. He wasn't in a particularly good mood this morning and didn't really want me around him. When I went after him he headed for the deck so that was it. I was going to put the body in one of the houses across the street, sort of a surprise for the drywall crew but decided the woods was the place for it. Would have been funny though. Maybe not. 

Well, sitting here eating my favorite ice cream and drinking a Dr. Pepper. Last time for this stuff for a long while as I am starting a program to get in better shape than I am now. I'm not completely out of shape as I do stay active for the most part. Just seems like things are growing in places I don't want them. Maybe I'll start another blog about this experience. Stay tuned. 

WOF of the Week. Yes we do have one. Both the pups went to the vet's office this past Friday for their spa treatment, which means toe nails done, baths (needed) shots, and general check- up. Well, it turned into a hard day for the WOF. Being up in years I have noticed she has slowed down a little. 

Poor girl. She was out by 7:00 Friday night. 

Make sure you're up to date on your shots and see you next time!

Weed

Dude! Or Dudette! Weed....... :)

No, not that type of weed. It the damnable Bermuda Wiregrass that invades everything around the properties in our area. If you've read any past posts you know of my hatred for it. I don't believe I have met a sane individual that likes it as well. I almost would rather have the illegal kind.

So I spent Saturday pulling weeds, pulling weeds, and pulling more weeds. I started with all of the raised beds and decided to go one by one; pulling the weeds, turning the soil over, pouring Preen all over, and installing to water line for the drip emitters. After that I installed some cheap netting between a couple of posts in two places for the peas. They were starting to grab hold of each other and I needed to stop that.

Then on to the potatoes. In my infinite wisdom I planted one row closer to the next so I couldn't get the tiller between the safely, so that meant hand- hoeing one row in each bed. After that fun it was on hands and knees pulling weeds. Everywhere. And I also got lucky and found a few fire ants to. They were so happy to see me that they climbed on and gave me a kiss. Damn things hurt. At the end of the day my back hurt too.

Sunday meant the Boys and I went to the driving range to practice (I seem to be getting worse so I may actually see the Pro for a few lessons myself) then came back for a much to do nothing day. I like days where you don't do anything. Need them every once in a while. Amy did some planting of flowers and cleaned up where the trash cans go. Looks much better around. Grass needs mowed but I am going to Thursday mow schedule. I was going to wash the truck but pollen is still floating about so that can wait. As you can see I averted two jobs with my common sense approach, the same approach I use for everything.

Some of Amy's handiwork.

The peas are now trellised.

Timer all ready to go and you can see the new spigot I put in. Now need a hose holder. 

You ever had rouge tomatoes? I swear I have some in a few of the beds. They look and smell like tomatoes. I don't know. 

Potatoes, onions and such.

Garlic is doing good too. 

And the usual end view.

I re- tilled part of the bean bed and we planted a second row of beans and filled in the first where some beans didn't sprout. 

That's a couple of the four new houses their building in our subdivision. After they finish the block foundations they'll have it framed up and under roof in about a week. They move fast. I really didn't want to see these being built. Oh well, new neighbors I guess. 

Well, sitting here watching House of Brian on TV. Good show. I like his other show he does also but it is fun watching him build his own house. Until next time, say Hey to Mr. Hand and be righteous.

Tuesday

Not a bad day all in all. Weather did cool down some but still decent enough for outside work.

We buckled down and got the other front bed done today. After the 28 bags of mulch no less. We went the bag route this year as there's no real good location fro some near us.

D U N N, done. We also picked up a couple of trees. A big red oak tree for the back yard and a white dogwood for the front yard.

Oops. I didn't realize Amy was in the background. See, I do get help from time to time. 

I did some more work on the gardens getting them ready for plantings and realized that I may have to build a couple more raised beds. And tomorrow I will be tilling for the green beans. 

I found this a while back and I though it was funny. I will most definitely do this at some point. Sorry, I have a sad sense of humor at times. 

Weeks Worth of Work

Well it has finally arrived. My week off. It actually started this past Friday and no I haven't been sitting on my butt since then (OK, just a little), I have been working some and playing some. I have the remainder of this week to work on that My Long "To Do" list. Amy and I have purchased a great many things that need to go in the ground or be put up so we're off and running.

Friday started off slow as we slept in a little. Bubby and Squeak were home so we decided to knock out Amy's mailbox garden and get started on the front beds. Bubby didn't get his leave approved in time so we could go to WV so we decided to just stay home. As of last night however his Captain approved a leave for him that will last all week, so now I have an extra hand for the week! So after I started the mailbox garden I let the boys finish it and Amy planted it out, guarded by her attack WOF.

Saturday. Well it was a very nice day so the boys and I decided to paintball from about 9:00 am to 4:30 pm. Long day of running around the field and at the end of the day my left heel started hurting again so now I walk around scaring little children with my gait. I doesn't get me much sympathy from anyone though. I did take some pictures of the peas (going strong) and the 10,000 onions (also going strong.) a while back.

Saturday also brought the WOF's their Easter gifts as they would leave us alone about them.

Sunday. The morning started with rain so I held off doing anything until I was sure it wasn't going to do too much. Watched the prerequisite This Old House and America's Heartland TV shows and read the paper. Once I saw that it was done it was time to plan out a strawberry garden for the plants we purchased. A trip to the big box store and I was back with some more of the damn heavy blocks. I was considering cedar but there's already a lot of that out there. After a few layouts I decided on a big oval.

In the front are two blueberry plants and off to the right are two blackberry plants. There's a history with me and blackberry plants that I will explain soon. I also transplanted my Candytuft plants I started into a large white box we had and put them off to the side of the strawberries. After this I hit the front left bed (front of the house) and topped off the new plantings with some good mulch (no more cheap stuff.)

New in here was a couple Creeping Flox and a couple Rasberry Surprise Dianthus. They smell really, really good. I'm sure I looked like an idiot bending over after I was was done with my nose to the ground. I also transplanted six Shasta Daisies that I started. They're on the steps as I have to find places for them. 

Also on Sunday brought a new change of order in the kingdom of the WOFs. Ginny, being the spoiled dog  that she is could always bully Chewie as he was the new addition to the household. Think red- headed stepchild. She always finishes her bone first and then takes all of the toys and keeps them to herself. Well on this day she went after the Chewman's bone and he snapped at her. She proceeded to snap back and he then proceeded to tell her that he had enough. So what do I see this morning?

Chewie with both Easter Bobos and his bone. He doesn't let it leave his sight. And now Ginny just sulks. 

Well, the sun is out after more rain and the temps are supposed to hit 72 today before crashing to 54 tomorrow so it's off to work on the front right and side beds today. I even toyed with getting some veggies in the ground but that may wait until later in the week when it warms back up. 

Protect your bone kids.