Wednesday, May 20, 2009

At long last, sandal weather!

Can't believe I've been away from my blog this long! So much to do around here that I've barely been indoors since finishing my school year at Butler on May 5.

The chicken coop is progressing nicely. I took an extra week to reset my little barn on its foundation. So now I'm looking forward to being chicken-ready by Memorial Day instead of Mother's Day. The interior is near completion. Now I have to dig some post holes and set up the chicken yard.


I found all these four leaf clovers back by the chicken coop. I think I'll have me some lucky chickens.


Look! My first radish! I already ate it in a salad with some fresh-picked lettuce and asparagus.

Bibb lettuce is sooooo photogenic!

The potatoes are growing like crazy!



This beautiful visitor stopped by to admire my poppies.


And some new neighbors took up residence above my downspout. I think they are ambitious sparrows. They built their nest out of last years Siberian iris fronds.


Here's my first peony. It's the fanciest variey in my yard, and always the first to bloom.


My mud shoes sit by the back door, ready for action.

Looks like the weather is finally going to cooperate with us farmers. Dry days and weekend temps in the 80's! Yahooey! I hope to wear sandals to Mike and Steve's Indy 500 party on Sunday, and Leanne's big birthday bash that night. It will be great to take a break from digging and construction to hang out with my pals.

7 comments:

Melanie Sutherlin said...

Everything is so pretty! Let's hope for no rain on Sunday! It sure is beautiful here today.

Gluten free Kay said...

Hi Melanie,
It finally feels like summer! Hope it makes my tomato plants grow like crazy!

glutenfreeforgood said...

I've been checking in on you periodically and wondering where the heck you've been. I figured you've been out working the back forty and it looks as though I was right.

OH my gosh, your plants (birds and butterflies) look amazing. I am so jealous. Not in a bad way, of course, in a "my garden stinks" way. Seriously, I had ("had" being the key word) 6 little chard plants, 6 little lettuce plants, beets, some rosemary, lavender, basil and 1 tomato plant. For some weird reason, my dog dug up the lettuce and chard. Two nights in a row. He's not a digger and has never messed in the garden before. It's like he waits until I go to bed, then tip-toes into the garden, pulls up the chard and lettuce and then tip-toes out. You can hardly see his footprints and he's a giant dog. He's an Alaskan Malamute and weighs almost 130 pounds.

Anyway, I'll keep trying. Thank goodness my CSA delivery starts soon or I'd be starving this summer. So much for my "victory" garden. It's more like a "surrender" patch.

I'm impressed, Kay! Very impressed.

Melissa

gfe--gluten free easily said...

Kay--It always make me so happy to come here and see what you've been up to! :-) So many beautiful pics and neat things going on there. My late FIL used to be able to find bunches of four-leafed clover like that--lucky chickens indeed!

I'll be interested to see if you have some baby birds soon. The sparrows keep trying to move into MIL's bluebird houses, but she keeps them at bay with her paintball gun--no kidding! Today she had it on the other side of the house to keep the cedar wax wings off her cherry tree. LOL

Shirley

Gluten free Kay said...

Hi Melissa,

I have been working outdoors every daylight hour! I need to go back to work so I can get some rest.

I fence certain crops that the rabbits like, namely beans, cucumbers and zinnias. The rabbits lose interest when the plants are big, but they LOVE the tender newbies. Also, I've had some stuff dug up because of the organic fertilizer I use from Gardens Alive. It smells like ground fish. Critters try to dig up the fish. Must be frustrating.

And my cat loves any fresh turned dirt. I mulch with straw and lay pieces of metal fence on top until the ground firms up. It only takes a couple of rains for the ground to become uninteresting to Daddy Cat.

Baby chard and lettuce are quite tempting! Hope you find a way to save them.

Hi Shirley,

Not sparrows after all. I saw a robin sitting on the nest yesterday.

Kudos to your MIL and her ingenuity! And her aim!

Ginger Carter Miller said...

SOOOO envious of your chickens to be and your garden. I wish I had it in me. It's been ages.

Hope you're well!

Gluten Free Steve said...

Welcome back! We have a lot of butter lettuce, arugula and spinach here in our garden that we've been dining on. It's so much better then store bought lettuce!