The White House

The White House

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

I'm Back

I'm still here. In fact, found some photos from the last week so I'll use them to jump back into blogging.

This was the last successful pan of fodder.  This one was thick and perfect. Now I have two pans of seeds that won't sprout (for days now).  When life slows down I'll have to perfect a growing method especially since chicken feed just went up another $3 to $22.95 per 50 lb. bag. I'm lucky if it lasts a week so I'm going to have to supplement with something else or get rid of some birds.
 Can you see my ground hog on the log. Still hanging around and still being good.
 Last week I used the  rototiller the beds and Olivia was my helper.
 Showing he can do it without training wheels.
 Olivia learning her way around tools.
 Tuesday was the major drama day then Nick's graduation that night. Wednesday was Olivia's Kindergarten Celebration, Thursday was Emily's last day of school so Friday was our Do Nothing Day.  I could work ten hours a day every day and never finish all that needs done, but sitting at the park with good food and a fun playground is far more important!

 The day before the End of the World (which I don't think happened, did it?) several fires broke out. It was pretty scary as it is hot and dry and the winds were very high. This is a fire in the middle of apartment buildings right in town.  I think only some vehicles were lost. Also, an old night club (since closed down) burned to the ground. I worked there back in '92.
 And to my back a huge forest fire erupted on Moose Mountain.  It didn't take but a few hours to get up to 400 acres (and I think it is 700+ now). Luckily the winds were right as it was near a populated area and could have been devastating. It's very dry and has been 75* for a week now with occasional windy periods. This may turn out to be a very high fire season.
 Skinny red fox in the the trees. I really need to start carrying a better camera with me! My niece saw him later that night with a chicken in his mouth.  I did a head count and it wasn't one of mine, but the ravens did get one of my new chicks yesterday-the day I let them out of the coop!  Looks like we are going to have to cover the pen again.
 After our trip to the playground the kids played in the sprinkler at home although they waited until it was kind of late and it wasn't all that warm. Doesn't look like Olivia minded much, though.

 Tink reminded me about compost tea so I made some with my worm castings I stored from last year. Hopefully, it will give a boost to my pathetic plants. With all that went on last week I was unable to keep up. I killed about 500 plants and some of the surviving ones are pathetic.  I sure hope this helps my cucumbers snap out of their near death state.
 Chris, one of the world's greatest gardeners gave me a tip to use bottles to water the roots of my tomato plants. (I hope they snap out of it, too).
 I planted the left bed with tomatoes and the right with cucumbers and peppers (not sure where the photo went).  Homer is working on building the center bed where I'll put zucchini, peppers....whatever!
 Yesterday I packed out 50 flats for some sunshine and the hardening off process before they get planted outside next week. Do you have any idea how long that took?  And then last night they all came back in (with a little help from Emily).  I am not doing that again. I'll take my chances that they are shocked and die when I move them outside.
 I finally cooked my husband dinner...BBQ pork steak, potatoes, etc. Someday that will be our life...relaxing on the patio with good food and not a thought to "what has to be done".
 The mosquitoes are horrible when it begins to cool in the evening so everyone heads inside. Last night they went with the Wii.
Well, here I am, 11:16 AM and I haven't done anything, but drink coffee and sit on the computer. Chores are not doing themselves. In fact, while I've been working hard I haven't been working hard enough. I had a goal to have the big stuff (pool, plants, animals) done by June 1 so we could spend more time playing this summer. I am not going to make it, but we are still going to play!!

It's cloudy today, but still 65* so I am out to soak it in!  Happy Wednesday friends.

4 comments:

Queen-Size funny bone said...

Today we finally had sun after 10 days of rain. Hope you get some rain so fires won't be often.

Anonymous said...

Wow....you are busy!!! I'm tired just reading about all you need to do! It's good that you know things can wait when it comes to important times with your family.

75* ....nice! Here in Maine there had been a black cloud over us for 12 days straight, today the sun finally appeared.

Janie said...

The dinner looks great. Glad you took a day off to go to the park. Everyone needs some rest and relaxation sometime.

stace41971 said...

I covet your greenhouse....and your green thumb. That is a LOT of plants...wow...I wouldn't want to move them all back and forth either!
Forest fires freak me out...probably because I've never had to deal with one...I think my mom talked about there being one on Dalton mt. back in the 50's...but that is the only one I can ever remember hearing about. Even at it's driest it's still pretty wet up here I guess.
I hope things are going well for all of you....been thinking about you lots :)