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....

One Step at a Time

 This seems to be the running theme around here lately. Things are being accomplished around here; one step at a time. Slowly but surely. Between the Etsy business, working full time, dogs, cat, chickens, bills, house, eating, gardening and home repairs, any project takes time. I'm not a spring chicken either, and we live in what happens to be the hottest place in NC. This has been confirmed by others nearby. 

This weekend I dedicated my time to replacing our front steps to the house. For whatever reason gutters and downspouts were options on our house. The way the upper roof angles come together, rain will pour off of the roof right onto the steps. So after some time they rotted out and have been needing replacing. 

Look bad don't they. Well after a trip to the big big home improvement store and $400.00 later, supplies were acquired and demolition began. It took me most of Saturday to get rid of the old stairs and bust up the concrete holding the posts in, and get the new risers and posts put back in. I purchased pre- cut stairs risers thinking they would be easier. The posts are 6x6 treated and very heavy. I quit about 3:30 or so because it was just too hot for me and the gnats were terrible. Sunday had me putting the new treads in and a few other necessary details. Next weekend I plan on forming up and pouring concrete around the base to keep the wood out of the dirt, doing the handrails and front pieces. The dogs are freaked out by the steps but they are almost identical to the old ones. The first step is about 1" too high so I may have to build a small forward step. 

I moved the old stairs to the burn pile but still need to clean up the old cement. They actually turned out better than I thought they would. 

The vegetable portion of the garden produced our first harvest of peppers, We got some jalapenos and bell peppers. Not mush but they are nice. We have some cayenne that are close to picking. 

We'll start out front this week. My daylilies are about done for the year. 

Vegie garden is doing well. And be surprised; I got tomato stakes at the store on Saturday too! We can't forget that we have basil growing.

There are cayenne's in there.

Onions are onioning.

Tomatoes are getting bigger. 

There were no chicken shots last week and the girls say high.

Ms. TD bought a windmill three weeks or a month ago and we got it up this weekend too. 

The pear and peach trees are starting to sag pretty good so there may be some staking soon.

Forgot the garden shot. 

I think I may just start working on the weekends at around 5:30 or 6:00 AM. Only way I am going to get everything done that I need to do. 

WOF of the week. All three were beside Ms. TD while she was working on the grocery list. 

Until next time, stay cool.