Where do I begin? Since the crazy snow squall on April 15th the weather has improved dramatically. It seems in no time flat we went from winter to summer.....and along with instant summer comes instant outside chores. The list of "wouldn't it be nice if...." is ridiculously long and makes my head spin. It's hard to know what to do first! Especially since this is our first year on the farm and absolutely everything is new to us.
One of the items on Joel's to do list is to clean out some of the brush surrounding the huge bluff. So why am I showing you a picture of the brush? Because it has tons of wild blackberry bushes hiding in among the weeds and tall grasses. And if the berries are good ones, we will want to preserve those bushes when the weed whacker is nosing it's way thru the brambles.
And now the bushes are starting to bloom white flowers. I wonder if these will be good berries later this summer? Or are they better left for the birds and deer to eat? We'll soon find out, won't we?
The wife of the farmer that used to live here had perennial flowers planted in the bed along the back rocking chair porch and I've been curious about what type of flowers they are. They started poking their heads out of the ground several weeks ago and it's been fun to watch them grow and to name the ones I'm familiar with. I've figured out the day lillies and sedum. There is also some kind of vine that just popped up all of a sudden. It was growing so fast that I decided to put a trellis behind it and train it up so it won't get tangled in all the other plants down low. Pretty soon it should bloom and then I'll have that one figured out, too.
One of the plants I've been anxious to buy and plant are peonies. Lots and lots of peonies...in luscious colors of pink and white and crimson. Well, lo and behold, there is a peony bush in the pic above!
Every morning for the last week as I take Molly out for her early walk I check the blooms to see what color this particular bush is going to be.....and it's driving me nuts that it's taking so long. Hmmmm, what color do you think it is? I wish it would just open up already. Now that we have 2 rainy days, maybe when the sun comes out again Sunday it will open up for me.
Oh, my. See what I mean? I have boxes of plants that need to be put in the ground in the kitchen garden. But first I want to mark out the different sections of the garden because a lot of these plants are perennials and will come back each year, so, I want to choose wisely where I place them now. Things like the asparagus bed and strawberry bed will be permanent and I really want to make a good decision about their placement. So many decisions..........my head is spinning.
Joel is always working on and thinking about infrastructure of the farm. One of the tasks he is working out in his head is how to get water to the two gardens and later on, the pigs and chickens. We already have several frost-proof faucets around the property, but watering the gardens still requires a couple hundred feet of hose. I know! I'm constantly dragging heavy hoses across vast areas of the property and it's getting to be a hassle. Hopefully, we will be able to address this sooner rather than later......ummm, let's just say
I'm hoping it gets addressed sooner since I'm the one doing all the watering.
Yup, this is the typical lineup of vehicles. My car near the farmhouse door to drop off groceries, the Polaris near the house so I can jump in it and run around the property and Joel's truck ready to hook up a trailer and haul "stuff". When Jeremy gets home he parks next to Joel. We've got lots more space to park your car, too.
Now if we only had a guest house,
Debbie
