SHOE SURPRISE FRIDAY NOT SO FUNNY

Last weekend, as I relaxed on the porch I decided to kick off my work boots.  I had socks on so I put on the black rubber boots and went to walk around a wet area of the yard.  After I was done, I came back to the porch and took them off to put these back on.  I started to just grab them, stick my feet in and go...

Do you see it there?  

Down inside the dark?  

It's there inside the circle if you look hard...

A wasp!  It had wandered in and was exploring when I came back and was about to put the shoe on.  I saw it climbing around and had to get a couple of pictures before it flew away.

One thing we've learned about the farm, always, ALWAYS, check your shoes before putting them on.  Normally it would be for spiders of course.  Or maybe an occasional mouse.  But now it's wasps!

The weekend is almost here!

UNDER TREE DECK, INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Every Thursday we like to post a picture of something we've found online that inspires us to do something similar at the farm.  

Sort of our own blog bulletin board so that we can eventually look back and someday, hopefully anyway, recreate it...enjoy!

Under the tree deck, image courtesy of SunsetLiving.com

2nd Man and I have been looking at options for underneath "Barnabas" (our party tree at the side of the house).  It's one of those spots where we WILL have a dinner table for outdoor dining.  It's close to the house and it's under an awesome old mesquite tree.  But at times it's wet.  There are weeds and grass that grow under it and when they are reduced, then it gets muddy if it's wet and you walk around under it. It would take some work to keep it up.  

Then we stumbled across this and it got us to thinking.  It might make more sense to build a deck around and under the tree.  It would actually make it into more of the outdoor room that we originally envisioned.  Of course this is an added expense of materials and labor to help us build it but it's one thing we are considering.  I will start cleaning out the area under the tree this Spring/Summer and we'll see what we can make happen.  

Be inspired!

RAISED BED GARDEN PLANTING FINISHED

So this past weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, was time to get the garden more or less, finished (and the flowerbeds I posted about yesterday).

It was an odd day on Saturday because there was a man, considered armed and dangerous, on the loose in the area.  He had fled the scene of a fatality accident and was on the run since it was a rural area (lots of land to hide on and homes/buildings to hide in).  Once the police officer came to tell 2nd Family, they came up and told me to be on the lookout and as I worked in the garden the rest of the day, I had our gun nearby just in case. I would work on things for 3 minutes and then look up and around.  Then another couple of minutes and look around again.  It was too distracting.  The decision was made not to spend the night because that would have made for a REALLY sleepless night.

Luckily he was captured without incident early in the evening.

So back on track with the gardening...

First up was to get some cucumbers in the ground.  We have never tried them and had an empty bed just waiting.  I pulled back the cover, turned the soil and put the trellis up.  We bought pickling cucumbers as neither of us is a big fan of just cucumbers but we love pickles and since the canning bug has bitten me, I figured it was time to try some pickles.  

Assuming these grow and produce of course, ha.  

I put down the straw around the plants and set up the trellis, which matches the red supports elsewhere in the garden.  This type is supposed to let the vines climb up the outside and the cukes will dangle through the other side.  We'll see if that works like its supposed to, ha.  

Here's the garlic bed.  They are doing great and I guess we have another couple of months before harvesting (end of May).  

Can't wait for that!  Fingers crossed!

In the larger bed, we deiced to try some seeds.  Planted two types of carrots, as well as a section of beets and a section of turnips.   These are all varieties best suited for our climate.  Hoping to see some green sprouts this weekend.

Time will tell!

Also planted a yellow squash and a zucchini.  This was before I got the irrigation set up in this bed.  This weekend I will add some root vegetable seeds to this bed to have some staggered plantings while the squash are still small.  

This was originally going to be Spring greens and then okra, but we missed Spring greens season.  I think we have gone right on to Summer, ha.  We decided to go ahead and plant the okra now.

Here it is in the middle of Winter, just before I got started...

...and here is it this past weekend.  

Let the growing begin!

GARDEN FLOWER BEDS DONE

One of the big projects for the weekend was to get the flowerbeds in front of the garden finally finished.  These are the flowerbeds that I set up and put cardboard down last year but...

...this is what they looked like after not being able to get to them before Winter set in.  The fruit trees took up time and then the garden and, well, they fell into a state of disrepair, as you can see above.

It took a good hour per bed but I got the soil all turned, the timbers back in place, the steel rebar put in to lock them in place, loaded them up with fresh soil, leveled it all out and they were ready...

...for flowers! For now, we have planted marigolds, Mexican heather, pincushion flowers, and salvia.  

I had to do the same thing on the other side of the gate, here it is after getting the timbers all fixed and the soil added.  I planted the same flowers in this one.

I put the marigolds next to the gate entrance so we'll see happy colors right there.  Plus they can be rotated in and out with other annuals more easily.

We're going to have a knockout rose in the middle of each bed too.  You can see it in the photo above.  I didn't plant them this weekend because I need a bit more soil to put around them after I dig the holes (they are larger than the smaller flowers we bought).  We didn't locate them at either end of the flowerbeds because I don't want thorns by the gate as I go in and out, and at the other end I will pass by on the mower and don't need them there either.  So we figured one in the middle of each would be pretty.

You can see how much space we have with the two beds.  I'm going to fill in some empty spots with lemongrass and rosemary, so that we'll have a bit more herbs at our disposal.

Corner flowerbed

And as a bonus, I also fixed up this bed again.  You may remember when we fixed it up last year.  Alas, the freeze killed everything in there except a little piece of the lavender, which is coming back now (YAY!) and of course the large Texas Lilac (Vitex) next to the stairs.  So I pulled timbers out, stacked them back together, straightened up the birdbath (still need to clean the inside), pruned the Vitex, and then planted some marigolds around the perimeter.  

We also decided to stick in a couple of mint plants.  Spearmint and Peppermint.  Yes, we know they are invasive, but we're OK with this bed being taken over by mint.  It will look pretty and lush, we'll still have the pops of color with the marigolds and as a nice bonus, fresh mint right by the stairs to the porch.

I also worked in the garden, more on that tomorrow!

TUESDAY MORNING UPDATE:  Our building had sporadic Internet last night so I was unable to finish the post on the garden.  I got the pictures loaded but then we only had intermittent connections.  So I guess that update is coming Wednesday!

Thanks for the comments and the birthday wishes.  Yep,  yesterday was my birthday but I seem to post about it every year, thought I'd take a year off of doing that, ha.  But thanks for the birthday wishes!

Check back tomorrow!

SUNDAY PLANS

It's been a good weekend so far.  Above are some beautiful wildflowers we snapped a picture of on the way to the farm.  'Tis the season in Texas!

Yesterday was odd, there as a manhunt in the area, and the day felt disjointed.  But I got a lot done in the garden and today I will be working on the flower beds in front of the garden so we can get some flowers in.  And if time, I want to work on some in front of the house.

Update later!

SATURDAY PLANS

Today is another day of playing in the dirt!

This picture looks funny because the beds don't "LOOK" done, but it was the only picture I had from this angle since I started planting last weekend, ha.  So the front two beds are done and the large one is almost done.  Next I have to plant the squash bed, some okra, and hope to get the cucumbers in if I can get the trellis set up (it's a red coated metal like the others but this will be the first time I've used it). 

We had rains overnight so I'm not sure how wet it will be out there.  I mowed last weekend (need to post pics of that) so I'm hoping it's an "off weekend" for having to mow.  

My other goal today is to start getting the flower beds ready  for some soil and flowers.  If I can get them ready this weekend, I can bring out soil and plants and seeds next weekend.  Got to get as much done before the rainy weekends start, which is usually April/May.  

Hope you have a great weekend!

MAD COW FRIDAY FUNNY

Is this what they call a "mad cow"?

I snapped a pic of this cow last weekend at the farm.  I just thought it was so funny.  

Maybe she was having a bad day?  

Actually, she was very gentle and curious about me, despite this angry stance...but she did make me laugh out loud.

AZALEAS IN THE WOODS, INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Every Thursday we like to post a picture of something we've found online that inspires us to do something similar at the farm.  

Sort of our own blog bulletin board so that we can eventually look back and someday, hopefully anyway, recreate it...enjoy!

Last week on Inspiration Thursday, we posted a pretty color palette of purple and yellow.  Several of you identified them as azaleas which of course we should have noticed (they have azaleas all over Houston this time of year).  So we were "Googling" pictures of azaleas and found this.  

This is such an amazing blaze of color, in the woods no less.  Azaleas like a bit of shade, from what we've read, morning dappled sun and afternoon shade is good.  We have JUST the spot for something like this (I'm in the process of getting it cleared now).  Would be so pretty to see when they are in bloom.  We love the random nature of their placement here.  Anyone grown azaleas?  

Be inspired!

RAISED BED ORCHARD

I was able to work this weekend and get the initial finishing touches on them.  We are very happy with how they came out.

Backyard raised bed orchard

Here they are, freshly mowed and edged around.  Don't they look neat and tidy?  The mowing was so easy, I planned it so that the mower fits easily between them all with just a couple of passes.  The best part is, since they are 12" tall, it turns out that is just the right height to keep out the grass clippings as I mow around them.  That's what I call a win win!

Fruit trees in raised beds

They also have their soil topped off.  I brought out eight more bags, 2 cu ft each, of raised bed soil, one bag for each bed.  

I put some slack in the twine as well but we are thinking of removing it completely next weekend.  We don't think it's needed,  With all the soil in place, the trees are pretty firm and not in danger of tipping over. 

We'd like to do some companion planting in them but from what I've read, it seems like we should let them spread their roots and develop that without competing for soil space right now.  Need to read up some more on that.

Mini raised bed orchard

Here is an angle I don't think I've posted before.  This is from the other side of the yard looking back toward where I stood to take the other two pictures at the top of this post.  We have eight fruit trees, 2 varieties each of apple, pear, peach and plum.  It's SUCH a relief now that it's all done to see them looking like we imagined they would when we planned it all out almost two years ago!

And now...we wait...

SPRING GARDEN STARTED

This weekend was a lot of things, updates on those in the coming days.

The big thing was to go ahead and get the garden started.  We're much earlier this year than last so hopefully that will help with a much better harvest.

I got all the stuff I needed, the cages, the straw, the irrigation supplies and of course the plants (there's that Rubbermaid cart, I LOVE that thing!).  I went to a local feed store and scored some of the veggie varieties that we wanted.

The beds were ready from a couple of weeks ago when I turned the soil and added to it so the first thing I did was plant the vegetable and herbs. Then I laid down the soaker hose and tested it.  It worked (phew).  I hooked it up to our timer so everything is being watered while we aren't there during the week.  

Of course, the rainy season is coming so for a period of time this Spring, I can turn that off.  Save the water!

Raised beds with tomato cages

Then I put the cages over the plants.  We also love our red cages, ha.  

The last thing to do was to put down the straw...

4x8 raised bed

I left space in this bed to make it easy to add some more next weekend (might plant seeds here for the root vegetables).  There are two Ichiban eggplants at one end and two TAM jalapeños at the other end...

Tomato bed

Two tomatoes here I this one.  These are two new varieties for us, chosen after research online (and from dear friends with experience).  They are the best for our area/climate, so we shall see!

4x4 raised bed

These are most of the herbs we'll use this season.  2nd Man makes a wonderful chicken with lemon thyme, and if the basil gets as big as the one last year, we'll have lots of basil for pesto and pasta sauces (that's why I put it in the middle).  Of course we use oregano and parsley and chives all the time and we have a rosemary bush on the porch in a container so that's it for herbs.

Because I combined the eggplant into the pepper bed (last minute change in plans), that has freed up a raised bed. 

Raised bed garden 

I still have to plant the squash bed (have the squash but just ran out of irrigation soaker hose).  We might forgo the Spring greens though, it's getting hot quicker than expected and greens might be too late so we'd go straight into planting two okra plants.

That will still leave us with one empty bed.  Hmm...might put up the red trellis and try some cucumbers?

Let the growing begin!

BUSY WEEKEND AHEAD

It's a big weekend with THE most perfect weather we could ask for...and the list of things to do is long.

Mow for the first time this season.

Edge, also for the first time this season.

Add soil to fruit tree beds.

And get some veggies and herbs planted in the garden.

All that should make for a full weekend and I'm looking forward to every minute of it.

Hope your weekend is off to a great start!

DUCKS IN A ROW, FRIDAY FUNNY

"J" from 2nd Family sent us this picture.  She said she laughed because there was a third duck here but he moved before she could get a picture.  

So she snapped this one and sent it to us. 

She said she thought this was the best she could do to get all her ducks in a row...LOL!!!

...and that reminded me of this.  

Sometimes, this is so true...

PURPLE AND YELLOW FLOWERS, INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Every Thursday we like to post a picture of something we've found online that inspires us to do something similar at the farm.  

Sort of our own blog bulletin board so that we can eventually look back and someday, hopefully anyway, recreate it...enjoy!

Purple and yellow flower garden, image via Pinterest

Wee have no idea what these flowers are but the reason we saved this photo was because of the color combination.  So often colors are similar or there are reds and oranges and and blues and many other colors in a flower garden or planting area and that's pretty of course.  But only putting two colors together like the person did here is different and really nice.

Who knew purple and yellow and green look great together?

Oh wait!



This could be a Mardi Gras garden!

Be inspired!

BEE DECISION

Well, after much soul searching and looking at lists of things we need to do this year, we have decided to hold off on bees this season.  

Bee on flower, see you next year

As much as I want to jump back into it, I need to devote the right time to it and be able to make sure their new homes are perfect in every way possible.

The original plan was to spend the weekends this Winter getting the new bee yard set up and rearranged.  But working on the orchard, in between unexpectedly rainy and freezing weekends, took longer than planned.  Now it's already time to start working on the garden and if we ordered bees, it would be time to pick them up at the end of March first of April.  

As such, we haven't had a chance yet to relocate the hives and we wanted to have some flowers and perennials planted for them too.  As for things to do, we still have to work on the flower beds around the house and outside of garden, a new fence needs to go up, we need to do some work on the house itself, a couple of big clearing projects to do as well.  There is just a lot to get done and we don't want to run out of time to do all of that either.

It's just another year.  That will be here before we know it.  Heck, this time last year I had just put in the second hive (which subsequently succumbed to CCD).

Now I can trim trees around the future 'new' location of the hives and use power tools that make lots of noise without bothering the bees.  

2017 SPRING GARDEN PLANNED

Well, with the rainy and cold weekend keeping us inside, we have more or less planned our garden for this season...

2017 Spring/Summer Raised Bed Garden

We'll be rotating crops around from last season and for the first time, we're going to try opening up the two remaining beds on this side of the garden and have something growing in all of them.  

TOMATO BED

We're going to have one bed with two tomato plants, two varieties that do best in our climate.

HERB BED

For now, we're limiting ourselves to what we use most, basil, lemon thyme, oregano and chives (we already have rosemary growing on the porch).

ROOT VEGGIES AND PEPPERS BED

The large bed will be two jalapeños (more jelly coming soon!) and a poblano pepper as well as a progressive planting of carrots, beets, radishes and turnips.

EGGPLANT BED

Two Asian eggplants as they grow best in our area.

SPRING GREENS BED / OKRA LATER

While the weather is cooler, we'll do spring greens (lettuce, spinach, etc) until it gets too hot and then change it out to two okra plants for the Summer heat. 

SQUASH BED

We are going to plant yellow squash and for the first time, zucchini.

MISC

We are also going to use the space around the plants in each bed to put in other seeded plants, extra herbs, and even marigolds, trying our hand at some companion planting in them this time around.

Harvest basket of veggies and herbs

This was a weekend harvest a couple of seasons back, so we are hoping for at least this much and more this time around.

RAINY AND COLD WEEKEND

Currently wet and 49 degrees!   

2nd Family said we have had 4" of rain and counting (over the last few days).  
The driveway is flooded and they said their ducks are having a blast swimming in the front yard, LOL!

So, 2nd Man and I have been looking at pictures and planning.  On days like this, we look through old photos we've taken and see what inspires us to do something.  We've decided that since we have the stars for the barn (soon to be painted!) we will need a weathervane.  We've posted before about weathervanes on an Inspiration Thursday post and so after some research online, we believe we have found one that we like.  

More info on that coming soon!

Since yesterday was a lazy day of rest and relaxing in town, and today it's flooded and far too wet to go to the farm, we're finalizing our garden plans.  Original thought was to get it started this weekend...good thing we didn't actually get to do that because there is the possibility of frost this week!

Hope your weekend is going well!