May 9-10, 2014

Sally had an afternoon appointment for Tender at the vet, so they staid back. It was a rather warm weekend for May with temperatures in the mid 80s both days. It was also very humid, partly due to the .6" of rain we received Thursday. The rain was nice, but inadequate for this dry spring we are having. There was also an extremely heavy dew Saturday morning.

Showing

I thought I had renewed our Craig's List ad back in April, but when I went to check it early in the week it was not out there. I re-did it Wednesday night and we got an email inquiry Thursday. I talked to him that evening, and he came over from Tulsa Friday afternoon. I spent three hours showing him around: the bluff out back, the visible property lines, the house, the barn, the spring, the pond, walked back of the pond, hiked up to the cave, went on up to the SE corner, drove back to Plume Creek and hiked up the creek, went up into the back pasture, and back to the truck on the road. I really enjoyed visiting with hime and he certainly seems interested. Hopefully we will see him back with his wife.

Flowers

There were lots of flowers blooming. We had Iris by the cattle guard, by the deck out front, and the pretty yellow ones in the garden and by the drive out back. The peonies were also blooming, and the daisies were beginning to open up. I try and mow around the daisies until they stop blooming – bu that can be difficult since they seem to come up almost everywhere.

Spray Pond

I have yet to eradicate the grass in the pond, but I have knocked it back quite a bit. It is probably better to get it slowly anyway since a massive decay can deplete the oxygen and endanger the fish. (I did see some large bass swimming around.) So, I sprayed again. Will check back next week.

Cow

On the way to the pond to spray, lots of the Clark's cattle were gathered in the corner of their property where the creek exits our place and enters theirs. But one young heifer was on our side of the fence! The top three strands of the fence there have been down or damaged since the ice storm 5 years ago when the huge hickory lost lots of limbs. Its hard to believe she would have jumped the remaining three strands, but that was my only conclusion. Later when I was done mowing, all the cows were gone including the one our side. Just using my hands and scraps of wire I found, I tied up one of the three strands not broken. Hopefully that will keep them out until I can do more. But without a wire stretcher my ability to fix the problem is limited.

Weed Eat/Mow

I couldn't use my brush whacker the weekend before because over the winter the pack rats had chewed both of my slings into little pieces and stored them under the deck of the mower. (Its just too heavy and bulky to hold by hand.) I had stopped by The Hardware Store Friday and picked up a new strap with a nice wide belt. It worked good. I used it everywhere (including the road and cattle guard) except for the hill below the house. There is no guard on it, and since I broke a window last summer, I am extremely careful now anywhere close to the house. I also mowed to the pond and back, and left everything else since the grass was really not that high.

Garden

The garden is still pitiful. There were signs of what I think are green beans beginning to show, but I suspect it has just been to dry. The garlic is doing best. The basil Sally planted the weekend before survived and most of the onions are hanging on. Only three spinach plants remain and they are small, although the summer spinach is beginning to grow although it is thin. I planted more kale seeds, weeded, and watered really good (emptied both rain barrels).

Birds

The baby blue birds at the pond had left the house, so I cleaned it out. There were still blue bird eggs in the house out back. Sally was right about the babies in the house out front, they are not blue birds (the ones shown here). I did not check the house on the hill.

Firewood

When hiking to the SE corner, I noticed the firewood I had cut and split but not yet picked up. I went back for it and finished splitting the 7 or so logs I had at the barn, and then brought it all back to the house.