May 18-20, 2012

No rain and very dry, with temperatures in the 50s at night and 80s during the day.

Mow

In spite of no rain, the grass was high and had to be cut. Given the dust I kicked up you would have thought it was August. If it is this dry in May I hate to think about the rest of the summer. I did around the house and down to the pond.

Fruit

The nectarine tree is loaded, but something is already nibbling on them. The peach tree has lots of peaches, but not that many leaves. I will be surprised if it survives the year. Three big limbs were broken out of the 3-in-1 pear. I suspect raccoons are climbing it for the pears and breaking the limbs out. The apple trees are surviving, though I forgot to spray for apple-cedar rust. I watered all these.

Pond

While mowing at the pond I could see that the algae and grass was bad, so I made two trips down with my backpacker sprayer and Cutrine Plus. I did see two giant grass carp, but plan to get more next weekend anyway. I'll be anxious to see the effect of this spraying. Soon it will be time to start adding the bacteria to eat the muck.

Garden

In spite of no rain, the garden is doing fairly well. Sally has picked green beans the last two weekends and the onions are looking really good. The summer spinach has also completely filled in (seen in the back of this picture).

Wash Out Barn

We stopped at Betsy's on the way out to borrow her power washer, but it was much too large to fit into the 4Runner. So Saturday morning we tackled the barn with a hose, brush, and floor broom. Once I changed out one of the hoses and the nozzle, the job went much better. Sally thinks this will be good enough, which I was glad to hear. We couldn't see any baby barn swallows, so Sally sprayed a couple of nests with water to knock them down. Wouldn't you know it, one had two babies. One immediately died and the other kept hanging on, so I took it up the ladder and put it into one of the empty nests. The swallows came around it and made a ruckus, but wouldn't immediately go to it. I never saw it on the floor, so we are hopeful that it survived.

Trim Trees

Sally had me cut some dead and some living limbs out of the three oaks near the barn -- to open up the view. She would have had me cut many more, but I refused to be that draconian. This one had lots of dead limbs and even some danglers from the 2009 ice storm. They did look much better afterward. I also took the ladder and my chain saw over to the white oak where we plan to park cars (past the spring box), and took out the lower limbs so a car could be parked underneath.

Pull Knapweed

This stuff is horrible and was just beginning to bloom. The plants in and beside the road coming in are huge. Rather than weed eat them down (which is difficult because they are so thick) I took my pick up the road and would loosen the hard packed dirt and pull them up. I got most of the ones in the road and some of the ones beside it, but there are many more. My hands were soar for days after gripping, twisting, and pulling on these. Afterward I took the brush whacker up the road to clean it all up.

Kathi

Kathi has moved a travel trailer on to her place to live (since her house burned last month). They were setting it up Saturday. I'm not sure if she has moved in yet or not.

May 4-5, 2012

We finally received some decent spring rain – an inch and a quarter was in the gauge. You could tell it in the garden as well. Things weren't great, but were better.

Cherries

Thursday evening Sally got an e-mail from Bev with a picture of ripe cherries. She and Brian live in Bentonville and have a great cherry tree. We loved the ones we got two years ago, but none were produced last year. You also have to beat the birds to them, so you have a small window to pick. We decided to go by on the way to the farm and spent two hours picking cherries. This picture is of my setup at home to do the pitting, but I did the same thing as soon as we got to the farm. I think we froze a couple of gallons at the farm and finished up at home, where Sally went ahead and made two pies which she froze. These tart cherries are really great.

Paint

Sally has wanted the living room painted for years, so this was the weekend. We had done just a little taping several weeks back, but there is lots of natural wood trim. We spent Friday evening taping and did the painting Saturday. This is some kind of sandstone and not quite as creamy as the previous color, but looks good.

Super Moon

Friday was the night of the super moon. It really looked fantastic in person, but is lost in a picture.

Berryville for Jumpers/Mow

After painting, I was anxious to get some mowing done as I would not be back out for two weeks. Wouldn't you know it, the battery was completely dead, I had left my jumpers in the truck, and we had come out in the 4Runner. I was actually not sure it was the battery, because when I got to looking I found another wire chewed off – those damn mice. I finally got another piece spliced in, but still nothing. Knowing that I had to figure out if it was the battery or not, I I choose to go to Berryville and buy more jumpers. Sally decided to come along and did some plant shopping at WalMart. It turned out to only be a dead battery, and I mowed over by the swing, down to the pond, around the spring, and in front and behind the barn. It was a late trip back to town (for us).

April 27-28, 2012

Sally and Tender went to Harrison and met me at the farm.

Blue Birds

We have eggs at the house at pond. This is the second set of eggs there, but
this time there is a raccoon guard in place which I hope will protect them and
the fledglings. The house out back now has a complete nest and I've seen the female
leaving the house. I also have put meal worms out in a box lid below the house, and
they keep disappearing. The bird house in the front remains empty, which has baffled us.

Garden

Nothing has really taken off since it remains dry – another week with no rain. We did harvest this garlic since it had begun to lay over. I think it was left in the ground by accident the year before and these sprouted from one un-harvested clove. The basil is still hanging on, but looks pretty pitiful. Sally is bringing flowering annuals out and planting them in the garden to provide some color: marigolds, Jupiter's beard, verbena, and a small climbing rose. The summer spinach is beginning to fill in, not minding the dry weather.

Mowing and Weed Eating

The only mowing I did was the front yard. I did use the brush whacker a lot: the hill out back, the hill below the house, behind and in front of the barn, and around the spring. Sally wanted it cleaned up underneath the large oak you pass on the way to the barn, so we pulled out the big limbs (ice storm) and I brush whacked that entire steep, thick area. It will need another going over before the wedding.

Pond

The pond is not looking good. I can't tell if the grass is dead or is growing. The fertilizer didn't seem to do anything, and now their is lots of algae on the surface. Sally authorized the use of chemicals, so I made three trips down there with my backpack sprayer and Cutrine Plus. I'm hopeful it knocked out the algae.

This was the second week in a row there has been a lone duck or goose on the pond. I need to look it up and see exactly what it is. Sally never got to see it.

Thistle

I spotted a bunch of giant thistle on one of my trips to the pond. This was all in a small area where I missed it last year and let it go to seed, so I had been looking out for it. I usually spot it once it blooms (big purple blooms on those tall stalks), but I got to this before it ever flowered. With no flowers or seeds yet, I didn't bother trying to bag it – which I couldn't have done any way since there was so much. Something else to burn.

Compost Bin

I still need to build the compost bin for the humanure. I'm planning on using a couple of pallets that were left in the barn plus the double one I took apart. Not much progress here, but I did move some of the rocks where I plan to put it.

Briars

The briars I had sprayed a week or two back no longer have shiny green leaves, and Sally said they have to go. I cut out this huge bunch growing on the hill behind the barn and rolled them down and behind some cedars. This was the biggest ball of briars I've gotten so far. I cut and rolled a second ball with in one of the pins by the barn – where I had stacked the cedar posts. There is still more briar removal required.

Honeysuckle

The honeysuckle growing up the garage and hanging between the garage and house is blooming and has a lovely smell. The humming birds like it, and some other bird has nest within the vines.