last of the garden plants

We have one flat of seedlings and a couple packets of beans left to plant in the garden. A few tomatoes, and yellow squash, and it's all in the ground.  It seems like we have had rain every single day this month.  So when/if the sun every comes out we should have all kinds of growth.  Everything currently in the ground seems to be doing well.

gert and corn

Gert Enjoyed the cool weekend weather out on the pasture, she could have her calf anytime now.  The corn in the garden is just now starting to sprout. The only thing left to set out is tomatoes (now hardening off on the porch) and a few vines of cucumber, and squash. Potatoes are about 6 inches tall.

strawberries

It's amazing what a little bit of rain will do.  Each strawberry plant has 4 or 5 fruits, all roughly the size of a nickel. I'm still looking for strawberry/rhubarb recipies. If anyone has a good way to enjoy these fruits, just let me know.

a post for jason

Jason's memorial garden... We miss you hasone.

berries.

The strawberries are loving all this rain.  As you can see they are full of blossoms.  More than a few of these plants have fruits the size of dimes on them now. 

grazing.

Finally, we're ready to let the sheep out to graze for a couple of hours each evening.  They seem pleased with the arrangement.  Probably in a couple weeks they'll be out there all the time.  And eventually they'll go back across the road, after the grass has had a chance to bounce back from last year.

The brown patch in the middle of the photo is the garden plot.

old brick path.

Last summer, we uncovered a portion of an old brick path in front of the house.  Olive Hill in it's hayday was world famous for it's bricks.  There are clay mines all over Carter County that supplied brickyards with raw material to be fired into bricks.  The creeks are full of bricks from this area, that wash up, or are uncovered periodically.  We'll probably continue this path when we get enough bricks put aside, from creek walks etc.  Anyway, We moved some of grandma B's Hostas to either side of the path to make room in the woodland bed for some new plants from Lucasville.  Just one more thing to mow around, but ultimately less to mow!

strawberry bed.

We've got the strawberry bed mulched in.  These were planted last year, but didn't do too much in the way of fruit production.  The bed is full white blossoms, so it should pump out some berries this year.  Also in this bed is some swiss chard that came back from the roots from last year, and asparagus (which the turkeys beat us to this year...)

straw, wool, and sheep turds... a winning combination (right?).

Almost 5 feet tall already. 

two varieties update...

Melinda Guessed it.  Virginia bluebell.  At least for a little while longer, until the turkeys find it and eat it.

not cabbage, not spinach, so what is it.?  Hint: not culinary.  anyone know.?  Try to guess before it blooms and gives itself away.

weekend update...

Friday night. The neighborly Mr. H.  had his plow on and came down to plow up the garden.  AWESOME!  Looks like maybe we forgot to dig up a row of potatoes from last year... ooops.

Then all day Sat. Mr. H came by all day to hang out, make fun of me,and basically build a pig pen for us for Darryl faye, as she is due to have piglets in a few weeks. 

This way through the barn, for all the babies...and everyother creature.

Down to one live hive.  We've gone into the last 2 winters with 3 hives each, and only made it out with one alive each time... maybe this year will be better.

Malia comes out of the house when she wants to to watch us do chores... otherwise she's still in the house, hopefully only for another day or two.  She's still smaller than a newborn jacob, which is about half the size she should be.  She seems alert, and active though.  Polly the chihuahua hates the fact that her territory has been invaded, and that she is no longer receiving 100% of the attention.

Nice sunny weather to lay around and watch you mom, aunts, and granmothers eat their hearts out. It was nice to be outside in a T-shirt.

Here's Kendall White.  I predict she'll have had her baby today while we were at work... We'll see.  She is one our top fav. ewes, and NFS No Matter What.

Rhubarb

I have been following  George Orwell's diary (1940) via this blog. The other day he mentioned that his rhubarb was sprouting. I went out behind the white building last night, and sure enough, there it was.  I planted this wad a few years ago, and was able to cut some for eating last year. Our neighbor at the end of the field also gave us a start of his wife's mother's old-fashioned variety.  No sign of it coming up yet.  If anyone has any good rhubarb recipies, send them my way.  I love it pretty much everyway I've tried it.