Progress

 I bought a new pole for my flag outside the door.  My old flag pole was too darn difficult to attach a flag and this one works better.  I have enough flags I could change them every week.   (years of collecting)

This is the one I chose for a week maybe two.   The Loons are here down at the lake according to my baby brother.  I have not heard them ...but the Canada Geese are honking when flying over and the Bald Eagle circles above in the trees.  ( He is looking for small critters to eat as most of the road kill has been consumed.)

 The patch in the side yard might be grass someday.  If it doesn't rain soon I will have to get out the water hose and tend to it myself. 

I have been selling some stuff...a very Vintage 1970's love seat left the house yesterday!  One less thing to clean around.   It was fairly ugly... it was useful when youngest Grandson Adam was a little boy ...he could stretch out on it and sleep very comfortably. (He grew)

I bought a set..a sofa and this love seat from friends Bonnie and Rueben when they got new furniture about 1999.  Chance claimed the couch but never the love seat...so it was almost as good as the day I bought it.  No one ever sat it it anymore...Jen used it for a luggage rack.  

Progress is slow but still progress.   Trying to look at the bright side of things!

Supper was salad and a Philly on a pretzel bun.:)

Weather: High was 69 F or 21 C eh.  Warm for the first part of May. 

Far Side

Above the rest and a Mission

 In the corn field across the road from us one corn plant is growing above the rest.  

It must have been a vigorous seed or got a whole bunch of fertilizer. 

Far Guy has been on a three day mission.  There has always been a tree at the side of our walk, a spindly little thing when we first moved here....it grew.  It has been in the way for 24 years... 

Far Guy attached a come a long to it and a neighboring tree and stretched it out.  He dug around the base.  I said "You should cut it off and call Steve to come grind that stump."  By this time it was a challenge.  Jen came over to take Senior Photos of Hailey...so she dug on the base of the tree, tightened up the come a long, and chopped at roots.  They watered the ground to soften it up.  They discussed possibilities...using Tilly...they decided that may not be a good idea.  Yesterday we borrowed another chain from my other baby brother...after a couple of straps were busted.  I dug around the base...Far Guy chopped at roots with an ax.  Far Guy tried pulling it out with the Ranger.   After a while I got in the Ranger and pulled on the tree from all directions, moving the Ranger slightly each time and pulling until my tires would spin and just like that the tree came out of the ground....It seems I twisted the tree enough to bust it off under ground level.  We drug the tree into the woods to be cut up later, filled the hole with black dirt and planted grass seed.  Three day mission accomplished. 

Far Side

White Blooms

 The Hawthorns are blooming.  We have always called them Thornapples...the wood is good for flower stems if you are a woodcarver. 

Can you see the thorn?  The tree/shrub will get red tiny itsy bitsy apples come Fall and the birds will eat them.

It should be a good year for Chokecherries.    Last summer we cleared out many branches that had fire blight (poop on a stick) and that really helped with the growth.  My baby brother, his bride and I worked really hard at clearing out the infected branches.   If we just take care of new areas we should have a handle on it.   If pollination goes well we will be busy picking and steaming chokecherries come the first week in August. 

Each tiny flower will be a berry!  The clusters will hang heavily from the branches first green then turning pink, red and a very deep red almost black and they are ready to pick.

Yesterday I mowed the entire yard, previously I mowed just the front yard.  It was a busy day.

Far Side

Long Weekend

 Every week can be a long weekend when you are retired.

I manage to do odds and ends all day yesterday.  Stuff that had been neglected or put on the back burner.   Far Guy worked on his new/old car...a window was not rolling down properly...but it is now...I was in the garage when it was all torn apart...I wondered how many parts he would have left over.  

Seed heads on the Virgin's Bower. 

Interesting seeds! 

The Yellow Pear tomatoes are still producing a few tomatoes a day and there are many green ones yet to ripen before we get a frost.   It was a good year for tomatoes.  

The potato harvest has begun...I hear that the potatoes are smaller this year...according to someone who drives one of those potato lifters.   Those fields are all irrigated...but he said that even with irrigation they still needed rain which they didn't get.

Far Side

Lettuce Wagon and A Peony

 We planted lettuce in the little red wagon.  Parked it on the patio next to the kitchen window.  

The lettuce wagon

A bright spot in the day was the Fern Leaf Peony that Larry sent me a few years ago. 

Everything is so dry...the grass out in the full sun scrunches under your feet. 

Yesterday we were busy all day.   We had a hump of soil that needed to be taken care of  moved to a hole and leaves were all stacked up against the east side of a garage...I mowed the front yard...we had to fix the freaking mower again.   I told Far Guy how I would have designed that poor excuse for a part that falls off.  He agreed that would solve my problem...so would a new lawn mower.    If it doesn't rain I won't have to worry about the lawn. 

I spread some diatomaceous earth trying to control some big biting black ants.   Then I noticed some PI and the war was on...but first I had to fix a sprayer...a couple of times...I had parts...Far Guy said to throw some of the worthless spray nozzles in the garbage.  He was working on some car parts and I kept interrupting him. 

Finally got the sprayer fixed and went off to kill something...Poison Ivy.  Gosh it felt good! 

Far Side

White Blooms

 We have some new blooms.   Sure hope it doesn't freeze.    That is a real possibility later this week...be wary of the super flower blood moon Wednesday and there will be a partial lunar eclipse visible in our area early Wednesday morning...then the moon sets below our horizon for the total eclipse.  (Friday it is forecast to get down to 38 F ...that could be a freezing night for sure) 

Chokecherries in full bloom. 

This is another bloomer. 

These upright blooms belong to a Hawthorn...yes it has long spiky thorns.  Most people call it a Maythorn around here it is called a thornapple ...woodcarvers use the twigs for stems of flowers they carve.   It will get berries that the birds will eat. 

Yesterday we watched church and made a big batch of Baked Beans for the Summer.  I soaked the beans; pintos and northern beans overnight.  We cook them up add lots of secret ingredients and when they are cool we package them into servings for two...they will be a side dish over the summer when it is too hot to cook...they will accompany some brats or hamburgers on the grill.

Far Side

 

Plant from a friend

Years ago ...probably about 20 some years I got a small plant from Faye.  

It grew! 

It grows on the sunny side of the grain bin.  It attaches itself to some wire fencing that Far Guy put up that goes to the roof of the grain bin.

Far Guy was inspired to carve a few of these flowers...a work in progress. 

This plant is Clematis virginana  or Virgin' s Bower.  They are quite fragrant. 

We had a busy day...I am still not happy with the Christmas Ornaments...I shall try option d tomorrow.  We are almost done carving ...this week should see them all carved and ready for painting when and if the kinks are worked out. 

The latest shawl is being blocked.    I am still working on the project with no pattern...sure hope it turns out as I imagine. 

I watched Just Go With It on Netflix...a funny movie I give it a 8 out of 10 stars. 

I place a large order with Wally World...we shall see if delivery really happens in two days.  

Far Side

To be or not to Bee

The other day I noticed a Bumble Bee that had succumbed to a pollen overdose either that or it was in a catatonic state.

Perhaps it was just his/her time.  I did think “poor bee.”  I did not touch it just incase it was just sleeping.  I am allergic…so I kept my distance. In my old age I am becoming less afraid of them and don’t go ballistic when I see one.

We have very few bees around here, in my opinion the crop spraying in the vicinity has killed off a number of bees.  Away from here there are bees.  You cannot leave your windows down, they are insistant about getting inside a vehicle and are often seen right in front of a vehicles radiator…perhaps saying a one last good bye to relatives…or parts of relatives.

Wild Gardens

The flowers in June are so different, it seems like they are full of promise..all colors of the rainbow. The Lupines are the Stars of my June garden.

The flowers of July are like spent fireworks. The Lupine have formed their seed pods and start to re seed sometimes quite explosively. The Gaillardia begin to show off..

The flowers of August are warm and comforting..they signal the start of the end of summer.

Far Guy mows the pathways for me all summer, so I can walk amongst the flowers and take photographs.  Sometimes I have lots of dog company.  I started this planting a long time ago with just a few flowers..and fewer weeds. 

They are what they are…beautiful and wild and no fuss no muss only a little mowing and lots of photo taking.

 

I don’t weed, I don’t water, Chance and his friends fertilize frequently. The Wildflowers have formed root systems deep and strong that will withstand drought and heat in the summer and the forty below zero in the winter.   Deer and Turkeys wander in and out of the yard…they munch here and there..I am past getting upset about what the bums eat..I just share. After years of perfect gardens these Wildflower Gardens are now just perfect for me:)

The Roses

Years ago Far Guy built me a garden structure which we used as an entrance into the gardens from the parking lot. He used some pine timbers that were really thick and wide.  I had this idea to mount some old implement wheels to the sides and have my climbing roses climb up.  We went by my cousin Danny’s place, he had some old wheels that were perfect, they used to belong to my Uncle Ervin. 

Oh..that looks too cold and snowy..

Lets just fast forward to summer! There it is in the wild gardens!

The roses have been there a long time, they are Canadian Climbers, ‘William Baffin’ roses.  They do not like the warmth of the steel wheels..the ones on the east side to the left do the best.  The canes die back some each winter and must be trimmed every spring..if I were more diligent about pruning and forcing the canes to go in the right direction ..perhaps they would look better.

The flowers are only slightly fragrant.  These roses bloom from July till frost.

I love the roses and buds before they have opened.

Then they unfurl, they are a wonderful from their own root rose (not a grafted rose) hardy for our area where it gets 30 some below zero every winter.  Deer also love to nibble away at these roses..they must be tasty too:)

Slow John

Last October John bought my greenhouse and it's ENTIRE contents. He paid for it in full, but never picked all of it up..until yesterday, he finally came with a friend and took everything that was his. They almost took out the side of my garage with their big honking trailer and vehicle, and narrowly missed Chances pool, they did dump all the water out of it when he hit it with his front tire. ....what a couple of idiots. A double horse trailer is TOO large to back in between my garage and that big old tree.

What do you think..room for a car? A horse trailer?

I swear this week everyone in the entire free world wants to drive through my yard. What is up with that nonsense anyway? Everyone must be trying to irritate me on purpose. I put that lousy little windmill there, it probably won't last long in the racetrack that has become my yard.

What a relief, that greenhouse is finally gone and the yard looks a little bit less like a junk yard

( or welfare as my friend Linda would say). I walked around and picked up all John's leftover garbage, and told Far Guy to lock the gate on the business driveway. I now have an extra corner of my garage to store the snow blower in, and some more shelves to use. Ten months of waiting, I could have birthed a playmate for Chance during that time.

Now that it is finally gone, I will show you some of the photos!

Last November..

Suppose anyone besides me has safety issues? I went directly into the house after I took that photo last fall..no pun intended.

This morning, after a lovely rain..there are even some flowers wanting to take over already!

Far Guy's tomato plants are mobile, yes his greenhouse is still there.. it is a woodworking shop now, and it is a real mess..we are not going there except to check on the tomatoes:)