In the garden May 6th

I think I'll join Amanda over on http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/ Blog. She's starting her Thursday gardening posts again and I love them. So here goes for me. No pictures this week as it's too late and things are just too little to see right now.

I have had to water already, many times. I am LOVING my garden hydrant-faucet out there. It sure has made it so much easier for me. Before, I'd have to unhook then hook up all the hoses just to reach the garden, and then it never got to the end of the garden. Then I'd have to walk from the studio, through 3 gates, then to the garden, just to water. It really was a hassle. Not to mention all the kinks along the way!

So was wandering along the newly planted rows this evening and saw 2 crowder peas and a corn! Yes! No green beans to be seen yet. And lots of radishes and collards and kale and lettuce so far. The tomato, squash, zucchini and pepper plants are all looking great.

So hopefully, soon, I'll not have to buy kale anymore. Or spring lettuce. Or spinach. How exciting!

I still need to mulch with the old hay out there. And plant okra. And some more zinnias and sunflowers seeds. And weed. And water some more.

But it's getting there!

What's coming up in your gardens these days?

2 gifts for me

So I got home yesterday and my husband said there was something for me on the table. This! Isn't it the cutest little VW piggy bank? I love it. Our friend Kidd had gotten a piggy bank for Kansas' birthday and saw this and thought of me. So nice.

Then yesterday, I went to Mrs. T's to see her daughter Marilyn, who was in town a few days. She had told me she'd picked up some books with knitting patterns in them for me. From England.  I have never seen these magazines before. Have any of you who knit ever seen them?

                           Look at these sweet sheep! I love them. I'd love to make some of these.

And these kid's sweaters are adorable. I suppose now I need to learn to read knitting patterns?

This makes me feel good to know people think about me.

I'm off to spend the day with my mother. See you all later.

Ugh. Just ugh.

UGH! I seem to be stuck. And I am SO hungry all the time. But I'm sick of food. I need new ideas as to what to eat. Just tired of the same old stuff. And riding my bike is hard! I'm too old for all this. I just want the weight off right now and not have to work so hard to get it off. Just having a bad few days here.

Around the farm...

Chicken jail. Yep, had to put the chickens in jail til the garden gets big enough to survive their feet. I hate to do it, but I want a garden. Miss Broody Butt is out there too. Black Bart sure doesn't like her right now. He chases her when she gets off the nest. And he's always been so nice to his girls. I think I'll get the tiller in there and til them up some dirt and worms to play with.

The 5 eggs have grown to 8 now. I finally got the marker and made x's on these eggs. Seems like when she gets off the nest, the other hens think it's ok to lay their eggs in there too.

Had a friend come by Saturday and brought a load of old hickory wood for us. Some will need to be split. So we have a good start on next winter's heat so far.

I have really loved having this faucet in the garden. It really makes it so much easier for me. I can put water in the sheep's trough and across the driveway to the chickens too. And also water flowers in the yard. SO nice to have this. And when I start harvesting veggies, I have a sink under the garden shed that I can hook a hose to and clean veggies. So won't have to lug everything to the house to wash now. Pretty cool!

The plumbing guys do need to come back and level the ground out while it's dry. They couldn't finish while it was so wet. There's a big hole on the other side of the fence here. And big rocks all over. I will not be able to mow while it's like this.

I planted more Friday and Saturday. Got everything planted, except okra and zinnias and sunflowers. I wanted to wait til this week to plant them. It's going to be in the 80's all week. I've already had to water all the plants twice last week. I never would have thought, with all the rain we've had, that I would have to water so soon.

That middle spot will have okra planted in it later. The first row is beans, then crowder peas, then corn on the other side of the okra patch.

                                                             Future apples right these!

Siesta time for the sheep. They usually lay down for a few hours about mid morning. Not the alpacas. They are out all day. They'll lay flat on their sides right out in the sun sometimes. Like a goat, I have to go check to make sure they're still alive.

Speaking of goats, I'm going tomorrow with some friends to a farm in Sale creek to look at goats. This is the place where I bought my first Lamancha milk doe, Abby.  She has some really nice goats. I'll be looking at some she might have for sale. I would love to have 2 to milk. Plus I'll be getting a couple pigs in July, so will need milk for them too. They will pay for themselves real fast, as much as I'm paying for milk right now. About $29 a week for raw goat and cow milk.

This is the tomato row, with a few rosemary plants. I went ahead and planted 2 rows of long radishes and 2 rows of beets at the end here, just to finish out this row. And there is kale and collards to the left.  I had planted the collard seeds in that row, then forgot I had done that. So planted the kale there too. Then Friday, forgot again that I had anything in this row and started tilling it. I got down almost to the end when I remembered I had seeds in this row. Good grief! 

I just love this view of Lookout Mt. The sky is so blue and the grass and trees so green. The birds are twittering and flying around, looking for food for their little ones. So many baby birds in all the trees and bird houses right now. The hummers are back too. So much life all around right now. Just amazing.

We went to our youngest grand daughter's 12th birthday party Saturday. Then church twice Sunday for me. And the Chattanooga market. I love that place. I got some veggies and a really pretty copper and glass hanging piece for my front porch here.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Random post.

I went to town this morning, on a hunt for Blue Lake green beans. And beets and corn too. But the beans were a must. I found some at a little plant place in Lafayette. I had been there Tuesday and bought 2 flats of plants. They have good prices. So went back today and they had the beans. I also got Pink Eye purple hull crowder peas and Silver Queen corn and beets.

So went home and tilled several rows. I sure can tell a difference where the clover was. Nice and soft and lots of worms too. I think I'll plant the whole garden in clover next fall. I hope it helps in the quality of the plants too.

I got 4 rows of corn, 2 rows of peas, 3 rows of green beans, a bed of beets planted today. Plus had bought 20 marigolds to plant in the tomatoes.

Plus all I did Tuesday. Pretty good garden so far. I'll wait til next week, when we should be in the 80's, to plant okra. Then I should be done for awhile. Just wait on all the seeds to come up. I had to water all the plants this evening. Already dry. I want to plant more kale too.

After all this, a friend called and wanted to ride bikes. I met her up the road and we rode 4 miles. All the way to the Cross farm and back. One long hill I had to walk halfway up. Dang hills. I will go the whole way soon.

And I've lost 3 more pounds. It's taking lots longer than I was hoping. But 22 more pounds by June 5th. I hope I can do it.

My dog Bubba came home yesterday from romping out back and going swimming, with a sliced open left ear. I didn't know what happened to him. He came back all bloody. So I took him over to the faucet and hosed him down. He had about an inch long slice through his ear. Have no idea what happened. Unless he tried to attack baby geese back at the pond and the parents attacked him. I hope they did if that's what happened. Bad dog.

Cade's Cove

 Just some photos of my trip a few weeks ago to Cade's Cove in the Smokey Mts. in Tn.

This was the 1st stop. The John Oliver Place. I could live right here.

There is a stream over to the front of the house. It was so beautiful and peaceful. The dogwood trees were in full bloom too.

This is at the visitor center, about mid-way through the tour. Years ago, we came here with the kids. They were probably 8 and 10. They had people in period clothes, doing demonstrations. I remember a lady spinning on a really big old wheel in the house. And they had the mules out at the sorghum wheel too. There was an older man in the mill though. He was grinding corn for corn meal.

I could live here too. This is actually my dream house.  It is the Gregg-Cable House.

This house was amazing. It had started to rain at the visitor center and kept up the rest of the way. Glad I brought my umbrella. I went up to this house, The Tipton Place, and just wanted to stay there. All it needed was a few rocking chairs on the front porch. It was beautiful.

                                                                The view from the porch.

                                  It has the perfect barn ever. I could have stayed in here all day.

This is the corn crib. When the kids were little, they would go inside this. I have pictures of them in there.

Another view from the front porch. It was so beautiful and green here.

I'll post more later. It was so fun. I'd love to go back on a better day.

Y'all have a great weekend!

Gardening. Finally.

My bee mentor came yesterday. He did a very thorough hive inspection. I saw lots of beautiful golden honey!!!!! I am SO happy! He took the biggest box off the top and added the medium and shallow ones instead. He said they are easier to get in the extractor. We also put a queen excluder on the 2nd box. He  saw lots of brood and pollen in the brood box at the bottom. And lots of smaller newer bees too. So I have a very busy queen! I should get honey in June. So I went and bought a manual honey extractor. I am ready!

In garden news, I mowed most of the clover down Monday. Gary, the bee guy, said the bees don't really pay attention to the Crimson clover, because it's a hybrid. I had not seen any honey bees in it, just the big bumble bees. So yesterday, I mowed that bigger patch down.

Went to mt friends over at Pocket Farm and got 10 huge Rutger and 3 Black Cherry tomato plants. And some dill. Then went to Lafayette to this plant place and got 2 Better Boy, 2 Big Boy and an Amish Paste tomato, 2 red bell and 1 green bell, 1 sweet banana and jalapeno and cow pepper plants. Also 2 yellow and 2 zucchini and a cabbage. These are cups of 6 each. I had some kale left from last year. And a little envelope of organic kale from Woolly Moss Roots in Oregon. So I got some collard, radish, lettuce and spinach seeds from the feed store. And they were slap out of Blue Lake green beans. OUT! And will get no more. I am not happy. I love those beans and have planted them every year for 35 years now. There is no other bean like them. So I will be on the hunt for BL beans.

I got all of this planted yesterday afternoon. My husband planted 10 tomato plants. That helped. And I do believe I planted all the kale and collards in the same row!  I know I did really. This should be interesting. Sometimes I could just kick myself. And now, we are getting the most gentle little April shower. Perfect. It hadn't rained here since last Friday night. The South side of the garden was pretty dry, but the North side was still a bit wet. I still have beans and corn and okra to get planted. It's a start anyway!

Down here, I think I want to plant the stinging nettles. And I got some organic Mullein seeds from Taryn too, so might plant a row of that here as well. It will get pretty big. Got some catnip too. Don't know a lot about it. It does not smell too good though.

What's growing in your gardens so far? Would love to hear about it.