Uwana

Sorry it's been awhile.  Our internet has been down.  That's one side to living in the country, sometimes the communication signals aren't the best and not the first priority to be fixed.  Plus I've been a little swamped with appointments, school, spring prepping for the garden.

For all of our springtime in winter, we ended it with a late freeze.  Thankfully I had held off planting most things even though my seedlings were more than ready to go in the ground.  I kept hearing the old adage in my mind, "don't plant until the pecan/oak leaves (depending on who's telling it) are the size of a squirrel's ear".  Everything else was bursting out in new spring green coats but those were holding tight.  I decided to err on the side of the old timers.  I was glad I did.

Some of my fruit trees did not get the squirrel ear memo and were already packed with fruit.  Despite covering them, they lost almost all their fruit.  Most of my peach trees had not blossomed yet, so I'm still hopeful for a small crop.  This is only their second year and they have to be kept from fruiting too much in order to prevent breakage on the small limbs.  I heard that the blueberry farmers in our area had lost up to 80% of their early crop.

We have new chicks!  There are broilers and layers, mostly layers.  We also have some turkeys that are due to arrive in June.

Preparations for the spring garden are well underway, including extending it.  I have a permanent garden and add compost to amend the soil but sometimes you have to till up a new spot.

The girls are still hard at work laying eggs.

I love the sale rack in the Lowe's garden center.  You can always find something for $1 that just needs a little love.  I like to bring them home and see if I can nurse them back to life.  I call them Uwana plants...you wanna live OK, you die and I'm not out too much.  Most of the time they need just a little pruning, a little watering and the right environment.  When the focus of my time and money goes to food productions, it's a simple and cheap way to help establish flowerbeds.  I try to stick with perennials when I'm buying or annuals that will reseed themselves.  The plant in the pictures above and below is Cosmos.  In that one little pot there were six different stalks.  I pulled them all apart and planted them individually.  They're doing great and have a variety of colors.  

This little hen was hard at work in the nest box early this morning.

You never know what you'll find around here.  If I had a dollar for every piece of broken glass I've found, I could build myself a fancy new barn.  Tilling up the new garden rows unearthed someone's old burn spot.  There were bottles, pottery shards, charred wood, a tin can or two, even a penny.  This morning I found this little firetruck buried under some leaves.  It lost its wheels years ago but looks like it was loved and played with often.

And we're never short on critters around here.  The neighbor's chicken is making her daily rounds.  She prefers to spend her days at my house.  She'd just given up chasing the dog for a pecan that she wanted to steal. 

Two friends enjoying a little relaxation on the porch. 

And this sweet baby was watching me as I came home from picking up Jack.  Still haven't got a cow of my own yet, this is one from the neighborhood.  There were several new calves and a baby donkey.  Gotta love spring!