June 8th Update

 Still no rain worth counting. We may have had an two inches since last post. We are at least 11" down for the year. 

A graph from local station showing where we are in 2026 compared to last four years. We desperately need the rain. 

I have taken photos since last post so I thought I would do some comparisons. First from last post I planted the green beans. All photos about 2 weeks apart. Those are the potato bags I bought and used some potatoes we had that sprouted eyes, so why not. I had to add extensions to the bags but more on that later. 

The planted sweet corn has really been taking off and I planted a few watermelon seeds in between where a couple plants didn't come up. 

Onions are still going well. Hard to mess them up.

I had that one bed that I needed to clean out of weeds and get planted, and I just so happened to have a few plants from the island of misfit plants to go in. One that I am interested in was one of the leaders on another tomato plant that I put into a jar of water for a couple of weeks. It didn't look too good going into the ground but I planted it deep so fingers crossed it works out. 

Some of these went in where a brandywine died off from unknown circumstances. I just can't get them to grow here. I have one remaining and it's hanging on. 

Here is said sad plant that I planted. 

And here is the former weed bed planted out. 

The rest are tomatoes that we are starting to get some cherries off of. 

Here are the potato bag extensions that I made. I was going to but and cut some plywood boxes to extend the bags as they are not big enough to contain the plants themselves. Instead a found this siding underlayment and gorilla tape. I just rolled it up inside of the bag and taped it off. I added more dirt and they seem to be holding in place. 

Here's a couple overall views. I finally got the edge border down, then put down all of the cardboard we been saving and doubled up on the landscape fabric where I didn't cover with cardboard, then mulched everything. I was a long morning for me to get it done. 30 bags of mulch is what it took. I also picked up some nice bushes that I installed at the front and some daylilies that will be for another post. 

There's the girls' coop on the right.

I'd like to have another 8 beds for next year. 

WOF of the week. We'll go with waste of feathers. We've been letting the girls out more and more so I caught a couple cruising around. 

Sorry if this seems cut up but I will try to post more often. 

Harvest Monday; April 17, 2017

Happy Harvest Monday to everyone. Dave of Our Happy Acres hosts all Harvest Mondays.

No harvests again this week but hopefully soon.I just like to see what everyone else is doing in their gardens this week. It was a busy weekend for the homestead as all kinds of work was accomplished. Powerwashed the front porch and painted, mulched the front, sides, and rear flower beds, turned over the garden beds (most of them), and planted out some tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, and peppers.

Strawberries. Looks like we'll have a good harvest this year.

Peach trees are blooming out and setting. Surprised with the late frost we had.

Speaking of frost bit. Apple tress didn't fare too well.

Wife's barn quilt for our little building.

Spread some peat moss and black kow over the tilled area and worked it in. Did the same thing on some of the raised beds. 

Mulching around the front of the house.

Painted front porch.

Getting a good drink. 

We picked up a used 6" Meade reflector telescope Saturday as my son has been hinting about one. I had an 8" before we moved to NC so I had an idea of what to look for. We took it to a small tree farm just down the road from the house and did a little start gazing. Here's a picture of Jupiter and its moons.

That's about it for this time. Not much written content until things start coming in. Until next time.

May the Forth Be With You!

I hope it is for you. We all need the 4th now and then.

Busy on the homestead today, trying to get some things done before I headed out of town for a few days (back to that grind again :( )
Yesterday evening I tilled between all of the potatoes and bush beans to get the weeds down, then proceeded to till the whole patch where I "started" corn. Nothing was coming up save for maybe two plants. Maybe I got anxious and started them too early so I replanted some new seed from the store yesterday so we'll see how this works out. Strawberries are really coming on now and it looks to be a bumper crop this year. I meant to pick up a couple more plants as we seem to have a dead area in the bed but that will have to wait for the weekend. Also spent some time tying up some tomato plants and starting a few mellons. Let's take another tour shall we :)

I picked up some bags of mulch at the store and started to do all of the beds. I obviously didn't get enough as I wasn't really in the mood to carry too much that day. I also have been adding more signs to the garden, not so much for knowing what's where (except tomatoes) as for dressing it up a little. I even try to draw a picture on them. 

I got the line hooked up and sprinklers ready for the pole beans. Probably be looking at a few weeks before setting up the netting. 

DIL's herb garden. It will be a few weeks before this really starts setting out. Fingers crossed. 

All in all looking pretty good so far. It's early, I know. 

Front beds. 

Amester (she was tired of The Wife) was good enough to get me some stakes Saturday at Cameron so I started making more signs. After the glue is set up, on to paint then into the garden. 

Got a good picture of our Grand kitten, Gunner. I think things are settling down in the house now, thank goodness. He likes spending time out on the back porch. 

WOF of the Week.

It's been a while for a W.O.T.W. I know, but how many pictures of horizontal dogs can one take? 

Chewie says "Hey Baby" (in the voice of Barry White of course.)

That's it for now as a long week awaits. Keep your groove on kids. 

One more note. Birthday of one of my favorite actresses. 

April 7th

It has been a little while. Things have been happening.

We got the additional 3 beds filled and planted most of everything out. Hoping we don't get another summer like we did last year. We'd like some green beans this year!

Thinking of planting the green beans between the new and old beds. I held them back to have enough room to get to the watering house. Still have to run the new water lines and install all of the drip emitters.

Potatoes have finally decided to make an appearance.

We had some more 50/50 mix brought in as well as a truckload of mulch to do everything we needed done; front, side flower beds and between the garden beds. The Wife did most if not all of this work. She did a great job. And we still have some left after doing the new herb bed too. 

While said Wife worked on mulching around the gardens Saturday, The Boy and myself played in a big paintball game we've been planning on for a few months. 

Didn't play Sunday as we had a busy day planned doing other things. The Oldest Boy went on his next deployment, leaving at (finally) 4:30 am. Needless to say when we got home it was straight to bed. Not sure how long this one will last. 

One with the family taken by his wife. 

We know this wasn't easy on her. 

That's what I got for now.