Veggie Garden

First of all the fire is out!  Yeah.

Hubby and I have managed to replant the veggie garden.  Let's hope we get something out of this garden this year.  Today is hot and windy.  The thermometer on the breezeway is reading 99 degrees.

Yesterday I took the little horse for a walk since my arms are sore from cleaning so many houses and I didn't want to use my arms for driving.  Today I am still very sore.

I wanted to get a lot done outside yesterday because the weather is supposed to be rough today.  I got two sets of sheets washed and hung out to dry.  Also, a couple of other loads of clothes.  Can't dry laundry outside when the wind is doing 25-40 so today will be out of the question:)

I planted the petunias I bought.  I also planted the red hot pokers I grew from seeds even though they are tiny.  I am getting tired of keeping them watered.  I hope I get some of them to live since the two I already have are really awesome.

I have three sage plants to get into the ground.  They will be a nice addition to the yard.  Hummingbirds love them.  My hummingbird yard is starting to mature and there are hummers buzzing all over the place.

So, today I went ahead and hooked up the little horse to the cart early before it got hot and windy.  He and I had a very rough time.  He didn't want to do a tight turn at all.  I don't know what his deal was.  I will have to get back out there and try again at the first opportunity.  I am not giving up on my efforts.  Every once in awhile we have a really bad day.  So far, the next time out on the road ends up being fine so we shall see.

Terry says maybe his feet are sore but he was quite happy to trot around without a cart yesterday when I took him for a walk and he is out there prancing around in the wind.  The farrier is supposed to show up in another week.  Crossing my fingers that it will not be windy since I would definitely like to get his feet trimmed and check to make sure they look okay.

I am running the water in the veggie garden for an hour this afternoon to try to keep those new seeds hydrated.

Worming

I bet you all thought this would be about having earthworms in the garden.  Nope, 7 years and we still don't seem to have earthworms.  We had some red compost worms last year that made it through the winter under some straw in the vegie garden but no sign of them this year.  It was too dry, I think.  Not a tiny bit of rain all winter and spring.  Oh, what an exciting day it was in Fernley when we found our first earthworm after only living there a couple of years.  Here in our sandy realm, so far not a one.

Nope, today we wormed the cat, the two dogs, the three goats and the miniature horse.  We generally do this in early June every year.  I don't recall why we do it in early June but we must have had our reasons when we first started this tradition.

We are worming the cat and the dogs specifically for tapeworms.  Penney had tapeworms a couple of years ago.  I thought is was shocking.  In all my years of dog ownership, I had never actually had a dog with known tapeworms.  There are no fleas here so we thought we were safe.  Turns out that if the cat or dog eats rabbits [and ours do] the rabbits all have tapeworms which the directly pass on to the dog or cat.  Isn't nature fascinating!  Yuck.

Any way, it is real and we are working to prevent problems.

I finally found a farrier that will come out our way.  I got a recommendation from the vet tech at the animal clinic we have been taking the dogs to occasionally.  Honestly, we worm and give the basic shots ourselves so unless your getting neutered or need rabies or are really sick, when you are a pet around here you don't see the inside of the vet's office.  Saves us a ton of money.

A Tragic Day...for the veggie garden:(

The wind howled.  The weather report said 25-33 MPH winds.  What a reporting travesty.  My front trellis broke due to winds.  Those winds had to be twice what was reported.  Trees were going sideways but all the trees seem fine.  It is the veggie garden that has been hit so hard, I don't think it can recover.

The weather reports and the thermometer at our house said the low was 43 degrees but the warm weather plants - the beans, all four kinds;  the summer squash, all three kinds; the 6 or so melon varieties and the butternut squashes and the acorn squashes and the pumpkins.  Also the corn.  All wilted and it looks like they have been hit by a hard frost.

Even the onions look bad but they will continue on.  The tomatoes were protected in the walls-o'-water.

Tonight could be even colder.  This sucks.  This reeks.  Oh the horror.  We are going to try to see if we can order replacement seed really quickly but I fear that much of the garden will be hopeless.  Even if we get stuff in we will not have enough warm days to get a harvest.  Darn it.  This is the worst veggie garden disaster we have ever had.

Gardening in Nevada is he!!

Is it Springtime Yet?

I have several days off so I have been going through the sheds and throwing things out.  You know, those old blankets and bedspreads that I was going to use for ... what?  Dog beds or plant covers or something.  I had some freeze protection row crop cover cloths that were stored for two years.  Turns out I can't use them since it is so windy here I can't keep them on the rows.  A large mouse/rat had turned them into a nest.  I threw them out.

We had a ton of rodents last year which we diligently trapped out but I hadn't really gone through the shed to see what the damage was.  I got a lot of stuff thrown away in two of the sheds.  I put out about ten bins and barrels and boxes.  The trash guy told me it was too many but he magnanimously decided to take it all anyway. Thank goodness since I will probably have more by next Friday.  I am in the mood to throw it away if it hasn't been used in awhile.

I also managed to gather up all the little odds and ends of two by fours that I can't bring myself to throw away.  We'll burn them next winter so I put them in a barrel to store with the rest of the wood out back.

Christmas lights.  We don't do Christmas and we have no children so ... I threw away some more of those darn lights.  I still have some left.  Maybe I'll be rid of them all in another year or two.  I spread all the fertilizers and such around the yard.  They aren't doing me much good just sitting in here, now are they?

The wooden shed looks much better.  The long shed is doing a lot better as well. I have some more work to do on the front wall and a shelf to install.  We have to make the sliding doors this summer, as well and I need it to be as cleaned out as I can get it to work in there.

Wednesday and Thursday were gorgeous.  Coreopsis is blooming underneath my Golden Honey Locust.

We have at least four males and one female hummingbird coming to the feeders.

Thursday the wind came up in one great gust and didn't quit for two days.  Here is an oriole clinging to the bobbing feeder.

Friday was hellabad.  This is rain/snow.  If you look closely you can see Wiseguy the miniature horse inside his shed.

Wiseguy came out briefly, decided the weather really did suck and went back into the shed to gaze out at the bad weather some more.  It rained and rained.  We needed the moisture but I got really wet working on the long shed.  I fired up the wood stove to dry off and warm up.  I love that wood stove.

Oh yeah, and the electricity went out for about 6 hours yesterday.  Bummer.

Fortunately the snow didn't stick and today, although only 55 degrees and pretty windy, isn't nearly as bad.  We are hopeful that our veggies will pull through and we won't have to replant.  Especially since we don't have any extra melon or winter squash seeds to replant with, for the most part.

Spring Has Sprung

Nice for the last several days.  Well, above freezing in the forties or low fifties overnight and in the sixties and low seventies during the day.

I know, where are the photos?  I will have some up over the weekend.

The hummingbird has shown up although last year we had several by the end of May.  One of the orioles is back to steal from the sugar water feeder, as well.  Hummer season is May 1st through Labor Day weekend.  You are supposed to pull the feeders after Labor Day so the little goobers will fly south when they are supposed to.

Hubby and I got the compost mountain spread over the new North Veggie Garden section.  Hubby then rototilled it all in.  Let the melons begin officially on May 15th.  The whole areas is bone dry so I am watering the veggie garden to try to keep that compost decaying into the dirt.

The peas are coming up and so are the rads and the beets.  The finger potatoes are starting to come up but the German butter and Red Sotos are still trying to reach the sunlight.  The row filled in, as usual, when we had a couple of windy days so they are planted deeper than I like to start them but since that happens almost every year, I am pretty sure we will have plenty of potatoes.

The onions and garlic are growing like gang busters but the carrots are having a hard time.  Need to start some more, I think.

The irises are starting to bloom with the standard purple ones coming on first and now the yellow ones.  Wonder who will be next of the irises to bloom.  Easy to care for and pretty.  I have quite a few irises in the yard.


We took little Wiseguy out carting for the first time yesterday.  He did great and tried really hard.  The street is dirt and it goes a little more uphill than I thought.  It also has quite a bit of sand on it this year.  The little guy had a bit of a hard time pulling me so we definitely walked up the hill and through the sand.  We went maybe half a mile up and half a mile back.  Next time we will be sure to go the easier route so he can trot more.  He likes trotting.

Garden Notes

Yesterday was a busy one!

I got 40 feet of Russian Finger Potatoes put in the ground.  One feature of the Russian potatoes is that I cover a few hills with deep straw in the fall and then I can dig potatoes all winter.  Then, in the spring, I dig up what is left and replant then in a new spot.  We get plenty of potatoes for the next year without buying seed potatoes.

I am growing 4 kinds of garlic.  Silver rose, Walla Walla, Elephant and Italian Softneck.

I also put in almost 60 feet of onions.  I usually buy the onion deal from Henry Fields or Gurneys and I get yellow, white and red onions.  I think I need to buy some sweet white onions next year.  I am getting really boring with the onion varieties.

I got several shrub bases with roots out of the pathway areas.  One large one and two small ones were directly on the way to the new veggie garden gate and I knew that one of us would be tripping over it eventually if I didn't get those things out of the way.  The other  shrub base and roots was in the pathway to the new horse pen.  It was a wicked looking thing with pointy branches sticking out from where I had chopped them off a few weeks ago.  I sure didn't want to bring my new buddy in and have him spook at the goats or some such and then cut his leg on a branch stub.

I finished getting systemic onto the trees.  We think  we have peach borers although we haven't managed to literally catch one of those little devils.  We had an apricot tree bleed to death and the next year another apricot tree died.  We have also lost a couple of crabapples and one or two apple trees to those monsters.  We have had attacks on cherry trees and another 2 apple trees but we dosed them with systemic right away and they survived.   We don't really like using systemic but we haven't much choice since the willows, peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, crabapples and apples are all susceptible to borers.   I've been using it on the Siberian elms, as well, since they have rough bark [which we think is what the borers like since we haven't had any attack our pears or other trees with smooth bark YET] and the elms get those annoying elm beetles that get into everything.

I watered the North Zone yesterday.  I watered the Front Zone and the Back Zone, both near the house, for three hours each.  It has been so dry this winter that I am already working hard to make sure the plants have water.  Spring is finally here although it can be a bumpy ride for 4 or more weeks.

The Kwanza flowering cherry trees are starting to bloom and the lilacs look fantastic this year.  Hoping for a good show.

It was chilly in the house so Hubby started a fire to warm us up a bit.  I called the burn line and it is a permissable burn day.  I don't want to spend much time on that but I might get a bit of the last stuff near the veggie garden in a pile and burn it.  We shall see.

41 degrees overnight.  Yesterday was 64 degrees and very little wind.  I hope today will be just as nice although it definitely looks cloudy, I am sure it won't rain.

I put the tomatoes and the artichokes [yes, I am growing artichokes from seeds] into the greenhouse and left them overnight.  Fortunately it was 52 degrees in there this morning.  Any time it stays over fifty I am happy since the baby plants do okay with that temperature and above.

Garden Notes

Overnight low of 26 degrees.

Yesterday's high was 68 degrees.

Today is a permissable burn day so I think I will work on that.

High noon and I got a lot done this morning. I cleaned the goat water trough and got them some sparkling new water.  I watered the North Zone.  I burned 4 piles of brush.  I got the asparagus in the ground along with some more compost.  I got some more of the compost fluffed up and turned over.  I got a bit of water on the compost pile.  I turned off all the water in the back and turned on the water for the front garden area.

The weather is nice with just the occasional puff of 10 MPH wind.  Break time and then I'll see what else I can get done.

Front and back zones watered.

Emitters replaced in West side or Street zone.  The old bobblers were wearing out and/or I put quite a few one gallon per hour drippers on that zone and that was a mistake since the last elm tree, way at the end wasn't getting any of the water.  The water just wasn't making it all the way to the end.  I already tightened up this zone a bit but it needed more work.

So, I tightened up the back half of the zone.  I took off a couple of more emitters off that weren't watering anything [the plant either died or got moved].  Five or six sagebrush were getting two half gallon emitters and they would be happy with one half gallon emitter so I changed those up.  When a bobbler [emitter] gets worn out the water streams out instead of dripping out and that lowers the water pressure on the line so I checked for that situation and replaced those that were a problem.  I replaced almost all of the one gallon per hour emitters.  I ran out of new half gallon emitters towards the end of the line.  I need to order some more.

I cut some more of the flat tubing.  I have 25 lines cut now and I need about 30.  Looking at the roll, I think we will have enough flat tubing for this year.  I am reusing the flat tubing from the old garden set up, as well.

Did dishes.  Cooked dinner.  Yeah, that should be the other way around but I didn't do dishes earlier today so I had to do dishes and then cook dinner which means now I have to go do more dishes:)

Garden Notes

Nineteen degrees!  Geez, that is cold.  Any hope I had of the cherry tree flowers surviving to make pie cherries is gone.  This is the third really cold night in a row and is the coldest yet!  At least it isn't supposed to be windy today.

The house was a bit chilly at 66 degrees.  Of course, with the wood stove we have higher standards for warmth than we did when we were running the propane furnace.  Hubby got a fire started about 5:30 am and I got up and kept it stoked.  Now it is a toasty 75 degrees in here.  I love that wood stove.

The good news is that I haven't planted any cold weather crops yet.  I felt kind of bad for not having the garden tubing set up and running for the peas and potatoes but now I don't feel badly about that.  A late start is just what I needed.

Yesterday morning I got 15 or 20 flat tubes cut to 40 feet for the veggie garden before I had to leave.  I want to make sure we don't have to order some more since I have to get an order for bobblers in by April 30th.  They are having a 10 % off sale and I need a bunch of them so that is a great sale to take advantage of.

I still need to keep working on the veggie garden area.  I have a few more roots to pull out and some grasses that need to come out as well.  We also need to spread out the compost and rototill the  garden area. The most important goal I have is bringing my little horse home.  Preferably next week.  We shall see.

Only One Day Off

Hubby is only getting one day off this week.  I love the overtime money but in the springtime it is rough since we have a lot to get done between now and May 1st.  We ran errands.  First, we went to Starbucks.  Then, Lowe's to pick up the gates we ordered.

The 14 foot gate stuck way out of the trailer so we put red flags on it.  We also picked up posts, 2x6's, an old work electrical box and a package of 9volt batteries.

I had a coupon for Burger King and I love those Whopper with Cheese burgers.  Haven't been in months since I only go if I make it to Fernley or Fallon.  Then, we tried to stop by the feed store in our town but it was gone.  Didn't actually surprise me since the new owner was quite the character.  Read:  Clearly drinks a lot.  We had to drive to Dayton.  Hay was outrageous at almost $18 a bale for alfalfa and grass hay.  Still, we were getting low on alfalfa so we bought 2 bales and, since I am bringing a little horse home pretty soon, we bought one bale of grass hay.  At least they were heavy bales of good quality hay.  Hubby dragged them off the truck and into the hay shed.

We drove the horse pen supplies around through the veggie garden and parked near the work area.  The new garden set up is making it easy to use a truck and trailer in the garden.  Obviously, once the veggies are planted, we are done doing that until late fall.  This will be nice for bringing in manure, if we get around to it this year.

We got the lynch pin of the horse fence in.  It is the corner post for the reinforced corner where we will be hanging the six foot gate.

We got the last rafter up and the back trim board.  We seem to be moving right along on this project and we need to be.  We have to be hauling that little horse to our house in about 2 weeks.

A little taste of spring.  The pie cherry tree is blooming.  The ground squirrels and birds generally get the cherries, if we get anything at all.  So far, no late frost in the picture.  I have bird netting but I'll have to do it up tight on the bottom to keep the ground squirrels from stealing from us this year.

A Productive Day

Rusty is telling that goat.  When the dogs are outside the fence the goats kind of play with him but when the gate opens the goats run up onto the goat toy and safety.  Goats are pretty smart.

Yesterday was incredibly productive.

We got a pine post in for a hose guard in the veggie garden.  We treated it with old motor oil so the termites wouldn't like the taste of it.  We have wetland termites around here.

We staked out the horse pen.  It will be 33 feet by 38 feet.  The shed will be 7 feet by 7 feet.  We are working out the final details on the fence so that I can get a materials list going.  Hubby will have to drive me to the home improvement store to pick up materials.  Maybe when we go pick up the gates we ordered.

Speaking of gates, we called over to the feed store and tried to get the last two gates we needed but they didn't have gates in the size we wanted [14 foot and 6 foot] that matched the four foot wide gates we already purchased.  They had a different brand that they claim is the same color but they seemed pricey so....I did what all great shoppers do .... I went online.  I found a match at a box store in the next town north of us.  It is about a 25 mile drive.  I had to order them to be delivered to the store.  The gates will be in about April 3rd so I want to have a materials list done so we can pick up fence posts and boards at the same time we get the gates.

We'll take the trailer to pick up our items.  The trailer has been a fantastic investment and we got such a good deal.  The neighbor, who is really good at building trailers, helped us build it at cost plus us a few hundred dollars in labor.  The trailer pulls really nicely and has helped us get wood for the fire, hay for the goats, take hunting gear for the annual hunting trip and helped us haul manure in for the garden.  You can't beat that.

Hubby repaired the old wheelbarrow which has been a pain in the behind for a long time.  The bearings keep popping out of the socket then you have to tip it over and pound the darn things back into the holes.  He took the wheel off, moved it forwards and put a couple of shims on it.  That also solved the other problem where the wheel would rub on the wheelbarrow when you had a load in it.  Yeah!!!!!

He repaired the large ax and then oiled the handles for the rakes and shovels and such.

We staged the fence posts to finish up cross fencing and gate areas and it looks like we have just enough.

I helped Hubby cement in another fence post.  This one is sort of  in front of the greenhouse and will have a four foot man gate on it to get into the driveway into the back area.  It will only open out since the greenhouse corner sort of blocks it but it allows for maximum backing in and protects the greenhouse from getting backed into.  The greenhouse windows are very expensive and they are hard to replace so I sure don't want a disaster like backing a trailer into it.

Hubby also moved the 4x4's for the horse shed to the area where we are building the shed.  He moved the roll of wire that was blocking the greenhouse door.



Just for fun, Hubby went ahead a worked on one of his chainsaws while I took a nap on the couch.

I e-mailed my horse driving trainer and she hasn't gotten back to me.  I wonder if she is dumping me as a client?

Re-configuring the Veggie Garden Headers and Then Some

I got the old header line out of the garden.  It is right where the south row of the new  silver buffalo berries is.  You can't see the hedge very well.  It's still young.  The new 3/4 inch line will run directly from the faucet just outside the green man gate, up the west side of the veggie garden to the center pathway.  Of course it all has to be configured with a filter, pressure regulator and two timers, one for the south side of the veggie garden and one for the north side of the veggie garden.  I have to order some supplies from Dripworks.

I dragged some long, long pieces of 3/4 inch tubing that I wasn't using from the back acreage and placed them on the left or west side of the garden.  They run about 60 or 70 feet to the center of the garden.  Twelve feet to the left of the white pipe is the new silver buffalo berry hedge that will protect the garden from the wind on the west side.  The brown rows on the left are strawberries.  They are moving although I am not positive where I am moving them to.  I have a couple of ideas.

I placed the tubing and found out I have enough used tubing to complete two 90 foot lines up the center of the garden.  One for the north side and one for the south side.  You can see my mountain of compost just inside the line for the north veggie garden section.   The new garden configuration is really nice.  There is plenty of room around the edges and up the center to maneuver a wagon, wheelbarrow or an ATV.   The center driveway is 16 feet wide.  The old Chevy truck will be able to drive in with loads of manure.  Exciting stuff.

The final garden size are two sections of about 90 feet by a little over 40 feet.  That means our rows will be 40 feet long.  Why not 50 feet?  I don't know.  This is just the way it worked out.  I think we were thinking that the flat tube would water more evenly at a shorter distance.

Flat tube will be next.  I found some that was left over from when we originally did the garden five years ago. We will definitely be seeing how far that goes before we buy more.  That stuff is expensive!  

I spent a lot of time today measuring and staking out this final garden configuration.  Then, I cleaned up the dog poop from a winter of pooping.  Yeah, if I lived in Seattle I wouldn't have this problem.  It would all melt away in the rain.  The dogs have five acres to poop on but they really like pooping on the strawberries.  As usual, I took the fencing down months ago and we just got the new fencing up a few days ago.  That always happens to me.  Hubby has a job to work and he also has to do the car repairs.  Throw in some overtime and yard stuff can get put off for quite awhile.  Fortunately, he really has tried hard to get his part done.  Fencing is one thing I just cannot accomplish. 

I took another stab at turning the compost pile and watered it some more. I moved one wagon load of compost from beyond the far side of the goat pen to the main pile. Then I watered the strawberries.   Back to forking some more compost. I cleaned out the goat shed but just left the straw in the pen.  I got them a nice thick bed of new straw. 

I picked up the hoses and such that have been laying around in the garden and brought a couple of slings of wood into the house.  Fed the dogs and cat and goats.  The goats ate their hay so fast, I threw them  a little extra.

I promised myself I wouldn't over do it today and I finally quit working for the day.  I did get a lot done but, it is spring and there is plenty more to do.  At least the veggie garden is starting to come together.  I can start planting peas on St. Patrick's Day according to local gardening lore.  That won't happen but maybe by next week I will be ready.

Really chilly today although over night temps have been well above freezing for several nights in a row the temperature just didn't go up much today.  Fortunately, I have a nice toasty fire going in the woodstove. 

It is snowing pretty good out here.  Maybe I better check the highway reports so that when Hubby calls I can let him know what is going on.  He should be off work in about 20 minutes. 

Wrapping up the garden

Well, it is time to start wrapping up the garden.  I need this to be done as of October 1.  I picked another watermelon and several other melons.  Need to eat 'em or freeze 'em and keep doing that everyday for the next week.  Whatever isn't done October 1 is going to the goats.

I managed to throw some of the melon vines that are done to the goats and I took out one patty pan vine and threw it into the goat pen, as well.  If I get rid of the least productive plant at a rate of one or two a day I should have them gone in a week.

I picked some more cayenne peppers and I have them on the expanded metal wagon hoping to jump start their drying out.  I cut the pepper plants back so that as much sunlight as possible would reach the peppers that are almost ripe.  I also cut off all the green peppers since there is no way they are going to ripen up now.

I got a spade out and loosened up all the onions that are left in the garden.   I turned the water off on those rows a week or so a go and now it is time to get those into the shade cover and get them hardened up for storage under the bed in the guest room this winter.  I dug up some earlier this week and left them on the hay in the shade cover to dry.  Those can go into a milk crate and get put away in the guest room to make room for the next round of onions coming out of the garden.  Really, there are too many onions for the two of us but I am thinking that I might be able to trade them for eggs for awhile this fall and winter.

I have quite a few acorn squash and I should start picking the ones that are trying to turn orange.  Those need to get put under the shade cover as well and then later I can store them under the guest bed, too.

We only have a few butternuts which is my personal favorite.  I am waiting until the last minute to pick those.

We need to get the hay out from the greenhouse so that I can get our rosemary and pineapple sage put in there.  I froze some of the rosemary so that we could use it this winter.  Dried rosemary is like pine needles so we are trying the frozen route.

A Day Off?

A day off?  I guess not really.  I pulled a bunch of the tubes from the veggie garden and moved three or four loads of compost from the driveway of the long she/veggie garden over to the new side of the veggie garden.  I cleared a couple of more shrubs out of the new veggie garden area.  Fed the goats antelope salt bush, bean plants, corn stalks and, as a treat, some watermelon rinds.

Obie, the big goat, looked like "Wow, this is so juicy and delicious."  He was chewing it and letting the watermelon juice run down his chin.  Adorable.  Taffy and Spot like watermelon, too.

I picked tomatoes, Asian and straight 8 cukes, carrots and a watermelon.

Hubby came out and we picked the first two Lilly Crenshaws - the best melons on the planet:)  The one we opened was a bit over ripe and was still delicious.

I got a load of cleaning towels washing.

We had steel head trout and almondine sauce for lunch along with a salad.  And that delicious watermelon and crenshaw melon.

Break time!!!

Fed the goats.  I started with 6 corn stalks [with over ripe corn attached], some bean plants and some sunflowers.  They have a lot of the antelope salt bush left.  I also threw them the rinds from today's melons.  Finally, I threw them some of the crappy grass and weed hay as they are going to have to eat that this weekend so it is time to start putting some of that into their diet again.  I have one more round of corn to feed them and a couple of days worth of bean plants and then they are down to melon vines and such.  Not their favorite but they will eat them.

I picked some of the cayenne peppers and set them up to dry in the greenhouse.  I also picked some basil to dry.  I put the four garlics into the greenhouse as well.  Fed the dogs and made sure the watering was all started.

I picked strawberries and I think I will have bacon and a strawberry/lilly crenshaw melon smoothie for dinner.  Yummy.

The green freezer has been running since yesterday and it looks like it is holding near zero.  Perfect.

Is there anything better than home grown food you grew yourself [okay, the neighbor grew the eggs and I bought the tortillas and bacon.]  I had a delicious smoothie of home grown fruits and tortilla wraps of bacon and fresh home grown eggs.  Delicious.

Garden

Not much to report today.  I ignored the garden in favor of cleaning a house, meeting hubby for coffee and enjoying my time on the internet.  This is our last really nice day for awhile in that it looks like it will be almost 100 degrees for the next week.  Have to get things done early in the morning or late as the sun starts going down.

I picked a head of lettuce that must have been over 12 inches across.  It was beautiful!  Hope we are going to get some more strawberries.  Over all the veggie garden is spectacular this year!

Watering the North zone over night.

Gave the street zone a booster thismorning but since we got so much rain yesterday morning I did not water overnight last night.

Veggie Garden

Picked pea pods today and have enough for a stir fry tomorrow.

Went shopping but Meeks was closed on Sundays.  I didn't know that so I have to go back later in the week.  I got my 4x4's, 2x4's, OSB 4x8 sheets and appropriate screws but couldn't get several other items.  Back again on Tuesday I think.

In the meantime I am going to get two more post holes dug, get the 4 posts cemented in and go from there.  If I keep plugging away at this I will get there someday.

Time to do some weeding, feed the goats, get the water started on the back berm, feed the dogs and get some more of the needle and thread grass out of the yard.  That should keep me out of trouble for a couple of hours.  It is sort of hot out but the breeze will help cool me down and keep the mosquitoes off.

Tonight's overnight watering zone is:  North Windbreak.

Veggie Garden

Yes, the peas are coming on.  Snap peas, garden peas, sugar pod peas.  Yeah!!!!!

Hope the new rads I planted come on fast as we just picked the last of the first batch.

I got a beautiful bowl of lettuce and I thinned the carrots again.  I have a few tiny carrots for today's salad.

I need to get my ooomph up but I just can't seem to get going today.  Oh, well, tomorrow's another day.  I did get the dishes done and started loading the car for tomorrow's cleaning job.  I raked up some cheat grass but I think it is hopeless.  The trash is staged to put out tonight for tomorrow's pick up.

The goal on the corn is knee high by the Fourth of July.  We are behind due to the weather this year so we'll see.

Weeded and fed the goats.

Maybe another cup of coffee will help.

Coffee and a nap just isn't enough to get me motivated today.  I did get the trash put out on the curb.  I fed the goats grass.  Got the shutters opened up and watered the fruit tree zone for an hour.  Watering the back right now for an hour or so.  Over all, I think I will finish Hector Avalos The End of Biblical Studies and hang out on the couch for the rest of the evening.

Summer

Suddenly it is summer.  We went camping for four magnificent days in the far north of Nevada.  We come back and suddenly it is summer.  I summerized the place today by getting the mister system up and making sure all the screens were in the screen doors.  Storm windows are in the ready for next winter.

Got a few clothes on the line. Got the camping gear stowed and all the clean clothes back in a drawer. Made sure all the plants are getting watered around the yard.  Watered the street zone overnight last night.  Most of my plants are in great shape but the bronze leaved weigala still looks unhappy.  Darn it!

The whole place is popping all of a sudden with three kinds of penstemmon blooming.  The purple penstemmons [they just went in last year] are really pretty and the garden variety of penstemmons are very nice.  The crimson penstemmons are coming up in several places and I didn't plant them there.  In our climate I think volunteers are great.

The trumpet vines are working it.  I have tried for several years to get those going and this year I have the big one I bought coming back all over the vine and the little guy that is three years old is really trying hard this year.  Might need to make it a trellis.  Yeah!!!!   I noticed that one of my tiny oak trees in the front yard is alive and growing as fast as an oak tree can.  Another small victory for the desert garden.  A lot of the pine trees are putting on a lot of growth this year.  I couldn't be happier overall.

The peas in the veggie garden are just starting to put out flowers.  The lettuce is coming on strong.   The melons are coming up and the winter and summer squashes as well.  I need to get the Arminian cukes planted and some more radishes and lettuce and what ever else I can think of.

Delicious meal today of smoothies with last years cantaloupes [still a bit left in the freezer] and home grown strawberries.  I put the over ripe ones in the smoothie and sent the rest to work with Hubby.  Also, trout from our camping trip with Almondine sauce.  And a green salad of mixed lettuce and rads we grew ourselves.

Planted:

Asian cukes
Garden cukes
Rads
Head lettuce
Cabbage, Mitchelli
Chives
Dill [left over from a couple of years ago]
Beets

Emerging:

Beans, melons, winter and summer sqauahes

Tomato and garden peas are just starting to flower.  I am so excited to see a tomato flower already as I always seems to get tomatoes just as the weather turns frosty.  Maybe I will be having a plate of tomatoes before fall.

Fed the goats weeds this evening.

Watering NOrth side over night.

Veggie Garden

Had to clean a house today.  Love it when I am bored in the winter.  Hate it when I am busy in the summer with the garden and projects.  Shhh, don't tell my clients.  They have no idea.

Hubby put in the windter squash today!  I thought we were done but after talking with Hubby I realized we were short on winter squash!  The weather is so weird I don't know if we will get any veggies at all.  At least the lettuce and rads are coming on strong!  Peas are starting to kick butt as well.  Guess we'll have cool weather veggies even if we don't get any warm weather veggies due to the bizarre lack of warm weather.

What?  There is no wind today.  Something in the sky must be broken.

Brought a bale of hay home.  Need to unload it.  The only hay available was grass hay and it was $14 a bale.  Dang.  I hope the price goes down to something reasonable later in the summer.  Tom did say that he was getting straw in tomorrow so I will have to swing by and pick one up.  Wonder what the price on that will be?

Brought some rocks for the newly landscaped front of the house garden. This time I stopped at Lucille.  Nice firm road base so no sinking in the sand and there are more rocks on the dirt track paralleling the highway, also firm.  Nice, off the highway just a bit and plenty of rocks available. Need to unload them.

Need to unload and reload cleaning supplies as I get to work again tomorrow.  Probably need to quit typing and get something done.  Didn't bother to open the greenhouse today.  Hope it didn't get too hot inside the greenhouse but it was mostly cloudy and very cool.  Guess I will find out when I quit typing and go out and get something done.

Got the goats, dogs and hummers fed.  Did everything on my list.

The greenhouse was well into the 70's and was very nice.

Watering:  Not going to water the north zone tonight as planned due to the incredibly cool weather.  Only about 60 degrees today plus no wind for a change.  I'll save some water and electricity.

Veggie Garden

Lots of weeding plus I got rid of some more of that needle and thread grass and a few more foxtails I spied.
Goats had weeds for breakfast.

Planted:

Beets [that is a redo as the previous beets must have gotten frozen out by that darn hard freeze a couple of weeks ago]
Flat Italian Snap Beans [that one is new this year]
Royal Purple Beans
Yellow Snap Beans

A meadowlark was singing beautifully sitting on the back shrub populars.

Not done yet and have to get as much done as possible before the wind starts up again this morning or early afternoon! Gotta go.

Planted:

Carrots, Rainbow
Pak Choi

Time to go out and see if I can get enough lettuce and spinach to go with the rads for lunch!

Delicious!  Homegrown is all right with me!  Mixed lettuce [thinned the lettuce in the veggie garden and picked the one that sprouted on the south patio], spinach, rads all grown by us plus some store bought carrots slices for lunch. Also, delicious smoothies made from our frozen cantaloupe and haogen melons with fresh strawberries and a banana. Throw in a steak on the BBQ and we had one heck of a meal.

Wind is howling.  Came up about noon and must be hitting 35mph.  Partly cloudy and maybe 67 degrees.

Watered front and backyard zones 2 hours.

Watering street zone overnight.

Chores like feeding the goats by pulling weeds, taking out the trash, dinner dishes, turning on the night time watering, closing up the greenhouse, making sure the hummers and orioles have some sugar water, taking out the compost and organizing for tomorrow's cleaning job are done.  Time to sit on the couch.  American Idol is over so my favorite excuse to do nothing is gone.  I'm sure I have a couple of books to finish.  I think I'll have French toast and bacon for dinner with a big glass of milk.

Planting Veggies

Planted:

Haogen [saved seeds]
Hale Jumbo Best Cantaloupes [saved seeds]
French Cantaloupe [saved seeds]
Filet Beans, Maxibel
Straight neck Sqash
Zucchinis
Patty Pans

Also, rototilled new annual flowers area.  Got sprinklers up with pipe extensions in front and on wind fence.

Watered back and front for one hour

Yesterday we lazed around.  Did water East side windbreak.

Tonight watering fruit trees.

The morning was gorgeous and cool.  The afternoon is windy, maybe 25 miles per hour.

Also, redid the pond pump.  Hubby took all the rocks out.  I got the pump situated deeper in the pond and pieced together some extensions for the bubbler.  I got two flat rocks around the pipe and the bubbler is causing the water to flow over the flat rock in front onto another rock and then into the pond.  I put some logs to the left side as a "windfall" near the pond.  There are some nice rocks sticking out of the shallow end for the birds to bathe on.  So far it is a big hit with the birdies.  It has a really natural appearance and I am very pleased with the results.

Cleaned the hummingbird feeder.  Took the old truck in for new hinges.  The doors are sagging.  Of course, it is 33 years old.