Productive Weekend

We had a fairly productive weekend.

Hubby stacked a bunch of  wood that has been sitting in two large piles with assorted cherry and poplar and elm sitting in small piles around the two large piles.  He's wheel barrowing the cut firewood into the shed and stacking it.

Looks like we used about 1 1/2 cords of wood over the winter.  It was a pretty mild winter.  This is our second year of having a wood stove for the winter.

In fact, I am running the wood stove again this morning but only for a couple of hours.  It wasn't super cold in here - 68 degrees.  At first I was going to tough it out because the house was definitely chilly but, hey, 68 degrees inside, 48 degrees outside, high of 60 or even 64 degrees later today, how bad can it be?

I certainly would have toughed it out when I was running the propane for heat.  I realized that I don't have to be tough.  Wood is inexpensive.  By taking the chill off the house, I live comfortably.  Is that such a bad thing?

I am running the water in the East Zone already this morning.  We really do have to keep up on the watering around here.  I need to go out an fix one or two leaks in the system.  I usually get at least a little bit wet.  Coming in to a warm house will be nice!!!

Over the weekend, Hubby also re-rototilled the area I want to put the peas in and the area that I am putting the strawberries in.  I should have moved the strawberries last fall but I ran out of time or oomph or both:)  So, moving them now will be my next best option.

Of course, there is a whole list of projects to get done but I think I will just try to prioritize and do the best I can.

The iris are coming up and some of the daylilies are, as well.  We have our first daffodil blooming.  The forsythia is blooming.  They are still quite small.  Maybe next year they will be big enough to really put on a show.

More Iris Are Blooming

More iris are blooming.  Forgive me if there is a repeat but I don't think there is:)  These are the latest iris to bloom.

Brilliant purple with a white beard and a purple ruffley border.  So flashy.  One of my favorites.

Pure white.  A little fuzzy in this photo.

A lovey salmon pink.

Pretty close to orange sherbet.

A lovely shade of blue.

Two tones of yellow and some brown speckling.  A very interesting color.

I ce blue and super ruffley.

So deeply velvety purple they appear to be almost black.

Finishing up with another favorite.  This one is about as red as they come.  A bright splash of color in mid-May.

Hope you enjoyed this new post on iris.  Let me know how your spring garden is going.  Of course, if you are in New Zealand you might have to let me know how your fall garden is doing:)

Other assorted spring flowers, tomorrow.

Busy Day, Spring Chores

It is laundry day but I can't complain much about hanging out the clothes when my view is this!

I got the tubing laid out for the melon half of the veggie garden.  I am running the water a bunch to get the soil to moisten since it is bone dry out there this year.  The veggie irrigation will be on  automatic timers once I finish setting it all up.  I am putting in some beans and other seeds this week.  Hubby is in charge of the melons and corn.  I have had a huge problem this year.  The birds are eating my little baby green sprouts so no beets, peas are a bit sparse and no lettuce.  I'll have to see what I can do about that.

I filled up the wall-o'-water today.  This afternoon I will transplant my baby tomato plants.

I emptied out the pond and scrubbed it a bit.  I got most of the sand and goo out of the bottom.

I had to take most of the rocks out, string the electrical extension cord and make sure the pump still runs.  Then it was time to fill 'er up.

I got the rocks stacked up nicely after several tries.  And, yes, I did crush a finger or two getting all those rocks put back into place.  The birds love having a pond and so do the cat and the dogs.  During the winter I keep the pond open by pouring hot water into it every morning.  The meadowlark was singing and singing as I finished up on the pond.  I think he approved.

We call it the pond, although that is a bit grandiose but the effect is lovely.  Maybe next year I'll finally take the time, effort and money to do the two tiered pond of my dreams.  Nothing too fancy just a nice upper and lower basin with a pipe of some sort to have water flowing from the top to the bottom.

Iris

The iris are blooming.  Looks like I have some more colors coming out right now but here are some of the iris that have been blooming for the last week or so.

Near the front gate

Back yard bank.  The yellow flowered shrubs are scotch broom.

Purple bottoms and white tops.  Very flashy.  Bank yard bank.

German iris in browns and yellows with true blue iris in the background.

Butter yellow with a white ruffle and yellow trim.  One of my favorite colors.

The iris are fun, simple, hold the sand down, put on a wonderful show early in the year and multiply easily.  You just can't go wrong with iris.

Grass is Weeds

Weeds are my life and right now the weeds are grasses!  I am pulling a lot of grasses that are trying to take over my flower beds.  The Feather Reed Grass is awesome when it is where it belongs but not so nice when it takes over an area.  The Alberta grass is really tall and I love it but it wants to take over as well.

Then there is the poke-your-eye-out grass.  I actually don't know what it is really called but it gets these long stiff stems that want to poke you in the eyes.  I'm trying to get most of that gone.

Finally there is the needle-and-thread grass which was a mini disaster.  It looked really pretty in the wind - and we have plenty of wind here - but it turned into a nightmare.  The seeds would stick in our clothing and the dog's fur.  If I wore a skirt to accomplish yard work, I would look like a weird porcupine.  I worked my buns off to get it out of the yard last year.  I did pretty good although I have had to get some more out this spring.

An hour in the morning and an hour or so in the evening is a good goal to keep the weeds under control.

Didn't do much with the miniature horse today.  When I clean a house, I just don't have much energy left for the extras.  Naturally everybody gets fed morning and evening.  I changed out the water for the goats and the horse, as well.

I love spring.  The irises are coming on and the place is greening up.  I definitely have to pull it together and get some photos up.

Corn

The first batch of corn is in as of today.  Of course you have to plant it in blocks so we did about 20 feet by 4 rows.

The weather was gorgeous with sun and a few puffy clouds going by.  Maybe 75 degrees.  Nice!

I got the two five gallon weigalas in but one looked pretty darn wilty this morning.  Let's hope it starts looking a little happier by tomorrow.  Watered it so.  The other one looks great.  The little tiny honeysuckle I just put in a couple of days ago looks quite happy and so does my new, cute little clematis.  The licorice mint seems happy as well.

I am disappointed that I don't see much, if any, hummingbird mints coming back from last year.  My trumpet vines are coming back but they are coming up from the roots.  I thought they would get bigger and come up on the vines that were left from last year.  Might have to read up on those.

We got the shutter built.  We are trying a barn door style shutter for the front [south facing] windows.  We had hinged shutters but they were bad about the wind so I hope the new barn door slider style will be better.  They sure help keep the house cooler in the summer and I think they help in the winter as an  extra barrier between us and the harsh cold winds that buffet the house.  Hubby did a marvelous job and the shutters were definitely over my ability to do a good job.  Let's hope it works as planned when we hang it tomorrow.

Hubby also got the outdoor pug wired up for the pond pump.  It isn't areal pond since it is only fifty gallons but the Aussie shepherd loves his pond and so do the other dogs that visit.  The birds like it as well.  I will have to get the pump going soon as I keep having to change out the water.  The pump will keep it much more aerated and the mosquitoes don't lay eggs in moving water so that is a worry off my mind.  Because the water keeps getting changed over by over spilling with new water I haven't seen any mosquito larvae but it is better safe than sorry on that one.

Wheel barrow wheel is aired up and ready to go again.  Have to stay on top of that.  Yes, we have tried foam.  They had a no flat wheel barrow tire at one of the stores last week but at $40 I thought we could just keep air in the tire we have until it wears out!

I worked on the irrigation and the back berm is watering well now.  The spring garden has sprayers so no more hand watering the new guys.  The back berm near the wind fence was a bit of a mess but that is now watering properly.  I made risers for the sprinklers out of PVC pipe to get them up over the irises , grasses and shrubbery.  I also made risers for some of  the rest of the berm area but I have lots to do so I am going to worry about more risers if the plants get taller.  That back watering system also got an adjustment by the wind fence and is watering quite well now.  I got rid of the center sprinklers, moved all the sprinklers to the front and aimed them towards the fence and used half round sprayers instead of the full circle sprayers.  I think the fence will stay drier and the coverage is better.

I managed to get the landscape cloth down on the right side of the house.  Maybe I already told you. Then, over the last couple of days,  I got the irrigation straightened out over there.

Did I mention that area got some low white lattice pieces for fencing?  They are about 2 feet tall and four feet long and they were free.  It looks pretty good actually and maybe in a few years I'll change it up and make it look even prettier.  Keeps the dogs from playing in there and cuts the wind down a bit.

All the dog fencing I have put up is great and now that the dog isn't trying to drink out of all the sprinklers they are remaining pointing in the right direction!

Weeding is ongoing and the goats got 4 or five bins of weeds to eat today.  They even quit begging they were so full.

The irises are glorious clouds of color and I have a pink iris and an orange iris blooming.  Really unique and really pretty.  The yellow irises were hit by the freeze nine days ago but may manage to start blooming again.  The purple irises are classics and do well every year.  The blue irises are starting to bloom and have lovely shades of medium and dark blues.  One iris on the east side is almost black and very velvety looking.  The red iris is in its prime this year!   The two toned German irises are also starting to bloom.  I can count on my irises for clouds of color every year and may get a few more different colors.

I am finally feeling rested up, caught up and I think I can start keeping up!  We'll see.  Thursday I have to go to town and Friday I have to clean a house so maybe by Saturday I'll be back to tired and not getting enough done.  I promised myself that whatever I do this year will have to be enough.  There is only one of me.

Watering east side zone overnight.