A Big Calamity at Calamity Acres

I can't believe it. 

You know I try never to take the Lord's name in vain, 

but I came OH SO NEAR tonight. 

I just can't believe it. 

Several times over the past two weeks I have sent pictures to my 

lawn service for the farm, asking that they cut the weeds in two beds to the ground. 

One of these beds was the potato bed in the past, and I am not going to 

ever plant potatoes again.  My plan was to pull the borders out 

around these two beds over the winter, and plant grass to the fence. 

This is how we built these beds, using the "lasagna" method, 

taking the sod off... putting newspaper in layers down. 

Then good planting dirt and manure.... then a layer of straw. 

(We later went to mulch)

Expensive, and labor intensive. 

Here is the north bed, coming to life. 

This is the south bed, the summer we made it. 

The wood border is not on it, yet. 

You see that behind the fence, there is no bed yet.  We later made one there, 

but Keith was getting sick at that point, so it was never really planted.  THAT WAS THE BED 

I ASKED TO BE CUT.  That, and the corresponding bed on the other side of the arbor, on that side of the fence. 

The view as I got out of the car tonight.  I could see all the way to the henspa. 

All gone. 

Yes, I had to clean them all

 out, I had already started.  

I was going to dig them up, one by one.  Remake the beds. 

At least he left the buddleia, he also left TREES. 

In the corner, by the arbor, was a big patch of rudbeckia, still blooming. 

All my expensive iris.  

I am just so .... MAD. 

My plan was to dig it out little by little, and replenish the bed, pulling out the weeds. 

Now I am going to have trouble telling the weeds from the perennials. 

Can you see the sedum on the side, on the left?  I had a huge stand that was just getting ready to bloom.  The iris were butchered down to the ground. 

This was one of the two beds I am taking out, that WAS to have been cut. 

Good gosh. 

I couldn't have been any clearer, since I sent pictures.  The two beds on the SIDE OF THE HENHOUSE.  

Yes, I'm angry, but I'm also trying hard to see the good here. 

At least the big weeds are down, and I can start digging, if I ever get over this cold. 

I can't tell where the poison ivy is, so I am going to have to glove up and wear long sleeves. 

I messaged the owner of the company immediately, but he has not answered me. 

I'm sure he knows I'm upset.  I don't know how I can be with a high school kid in his last week of summer, who just wants to be done with it and go back to football, or whatever. 

I'm just so disappointed, and the cost of all this... we had several thousand (that's right) dollars invested in these beds. 

The guy has not come back yet to replace my water line, and it's a soupy mess.  (On top of everything else).  

As I was getting ready to leave, a lone coyote sounded from the bottom of the pasture.  

I was glad to have the Beacon of the Farm to light the way.  

I'm sure by morning I will have calmed down and see it in perspective.  

I feel like crying. 

A Few Shots of the New House

No, not inside yet, sorry!  

Here are some scenes from outside, so you know I have my work cut out for me. 

Here I am looking at the front door.  Can you see the damaged hedge???

The ones on the right have been dying for a while, and it has spread to the first one on the left. 

A better view. 

I think these are coming out.  I am not even sure how to do it, to make sure we get all the roots. 

Hostas are going in in their stead, as a memorial to Brandon and Joel, Keith's sons, and 

to my brother and sister. 

I'm going to get some advice at the nursery. 

I do subscribe to the advice that you are best to wait a year before doing 

anything in your new "garden"... but gosh... these hedges that must be manicured 

don't do it for me. 

This damage is in the front yard, just in front of the porch.  I am not sure if it was from the two big dogs that lived here (one was a mastiff, one a weim) who ran free. 

It almost looks as if water lines were dug up at one time. 

I'll be filling in these slight holes and re-seeding. 

This is the west side of the house... there is a drainage hose snaking through there that is 

not connected to anything... I think it blew in, and I'm going to take it out.  Where the yellow flag is laying there is a gas line.  

So you see, I don't have much space to work with here.  

I like the grass... and we'll see how the mounded over grass looks this year... but the barberry bushes are out of control.  Their trunks are pretty big, so I am going to take a better picture, and take it to the nursery and see what they say.  I envision phlox and other flowers growing in here. 

And look what I found away down on the very end, at the corner of the house!  Tulips, that someone planted long ago.  I was so glad to see them! 

I'll take some pictures of the back of the house, where I am VERY limited because of the septic tank and it's mound.  

Here, however, I'm looking out at the front yard.... there are four small trees in it, and I am dying to see what they are.  They are just budding out. 

And here I've turned back towards the front of the house again... and you can see that we have a problem area where the side retaining wall meets the fence.  Yesterday, a Big Black Dog appeared in our fenced portion of the yard suddenly.  He is very elderly... and we think he must have jumped down from the wall onto an additional retaining wall you can JUST see on the left, where the fence starts, and down into the yard.  We are not sure that Lilly can jump UP... but we are going to put a section of picket there so that no dogs can get in, in the future... and no little grandchildren can fall over the wall, which is quite deep at it's highest, by the house.  

I wanted to apologize today for something I said the other day, and I think Sandy from Oklahoma Transient called me out on it... 

I mentioned that I had always considered my animals as "pets" and not "livestock" and that I always treated them as such and really took care of them.  Well... a good farmer...even a good "hobby" farmer... takes care of his livestock the right way, if he wants them to be productive for him.  I didn't mean to demean anyone, and I think I was just trying to say that to me, they were never a means to make money or produce meat., etc., but were my hobby.  A hobby that I broke my neck over keeping well over a series of very hard winters!   I know all of you have gone through the same thing, and are still going through it... as I saw Michaele's picture of snow in Nebraska again this week!  

Kudos to all of you! 

I'm working up to pictures of the house, don't worry... and I'll throw in some pictures of the inside of the OLD house as well. 

Here's the sturdy, beautiful deck Keith built at the old house... and where I had so many planters last year. 

He mentioned in passing one day that I needed to "get rid of " the planters.  HAHAHAHAHA.  

Hysterical laughter here.  The green one is going somewhere in the front of this house... and I'm finding homes here for the others, I'll show you my plan tomorrow.  

Now I'm going to go read a few blogs!  Tonight Keith will lock up the birds for me, and I'm going to go watch Grandson Jax in his play at school!  

Gardening Expectations

We had hoped to start construction of the greenhouse next week... and are still planning it.  This week Keith is busy with all day meetings, and we are expecting The Weather Event of the Winter on Thursday, according to our weathermen.  Snow, Sleet, Ice, the whole caboodle.  For right now, here are our plastic sheets: 

They are on the ground because in yesterday's 30 mile an hour winds, they began to sail away from where they were stacked on the side of the henspa, even with the 4 x 4s you see on the ground stacked up against them.  We had to weight them down, literally.  Lifting one in any wind is akin to taking off... we are warning you of this.  We will be putting the greenhouse together on NO WIND days. 

They are on the side of the henspa, near the garden, where no one will have to walk while the snow is on the ground this week. 

Last year, I bought a very good book on Amazon by Sydney Eddison, who has been a life-long gardener and raised hundreds of daylillies in her gardens, where she worked alongside her husband.  Then, she was widowed.  She came to the realization that, in order to keep gardening, she would have to cut back and replace some of those perennials that she had always loved with easy-care shrubs, etc.  (The book is called : Gardening for a Lifetime).  Today, while out in the yard, I took some pictures. 

Please note that the green you see coming up is GRASS, that I am going to have to dig out next week (OR pull up, as some of it is in the lasagna layers, and is easy to get out)

Not grass... yarrow, or achillea.  

And the north side of the arbor. 

Do you see what I've done to myself? 

I babied 15 perennials on the deck all last summer, because by the time I was ready to plant them, the gardens were burning up.  I took a chance and put them in in September, and almost all died.  That is a LOT of money to throw away... nursery grown perennials can be anywhere from 7.50 apiece to 12.50 or more apiece.  This year, I'm planting annuals, because I suspect we are going to have another hot summer, and the water can only go so far.  I have bought lots of annual seeds from Burpee, and from Thompson and Morgan. 

Some of the perennials are still alive, but my point here is... I'm not getting any younger, and I realize it now.  The days of having my grandson over for a few days of digging are past, too, so I am going to streamline and make things as easy for myself as I can.  Oh, yes, there are still going to be sacks of dirt hauled around, and raking, and digging... but I hope less and less as the beds mature and self-seed. 

Something is going on in the henspa for the past 3 days.  A group of five little bantam hens has stopped laying, and are hiding under the nest box back in the corner.  I'm not sure when they are coming out to eat and drink... or get warm under the light in there.  Tomorrow, I'm putting the critter cam in there and I'm going to find out who is bedeviling them... and then that offender (or offenders) is going back to the old henhouse.  

I'll report on that tomorrow night. 

Here was a little visitor yesterday: 

All the wildings are going to get extra feed these next few days.  If we DO get the ice and sleet, it is going to be critical to their well-being to have food and water.  

Abby's making sure she knows where all the shelters are! 

That's it for today from Calamity Acres! 

A Super Sunday

Luckily I went to church last night, because our day kind of got lost in the shuffle somewhere.  Nathan's dad brought him over after his overnight, and I expected a call at anytime in the afternoon from his mom, who was at work in Lawrence.  It is 7:22, and I've just gotten back from taking Nathan to meet his mom, who had to work late... and they had a 60 mile drive home ahead of them.  I missed the first half of The Game, and am not sure at this point which Harbaugh is winning. 

Can you tell I was bearing a treat bucket when I went into the henspa? 

After a minute, most of them came back in to have a small treat...

(it was a blur, believe me) 

Except those outside, who got their treats there. 

The birds in the old henhouse had treats, too.  I was finally able to get an accurate count of these , the old big henhouse and the little red one... there are 26 birds, but of those,  10 are roosters, and some are too old to lay any longer.  These birds can't go into the pasture for a while, until we think the coyote is no longer watching for them.  They stand at the gate in the morning and look out into it longingly. 

Keith made a new gate for the henyard... with Abby's help. 

And as you see, we did not get it hung... I had to leave to drop Nate off, and then that errand ended up taking two hours.  

The old gate is pretty much done for, and it was the gate the coon went through at the bottom, where the wire is loose.  You can see that even the frame has broken on it.  I'll be glad to get the new one up. 

One thing I am doing in the henspa is regularly cleaning out under the roosts, I would say weekly at this point. Today, instead of raking it out into the henyard to build up the mulch in there, I bucketed it, and then dropped it over the rail into my little yard cart.  I spread it on three of the garden beds.  No, it has not composted yet, but out of the picture to the right are bags of composted manure, and fresh Miracle Gro garden soil.  I'm going to start layering these beds and build them up to get them ready to plant, and the roots won't be reaching this wet straw for a while. 

Where I am, she is.  This is a face only a pug mother could love... but to be fair, the afternoon sun was in her eyes. 

As Nate and I waited for his mom near Lawrence International Airport (!), a redtail spent some time looking for dinner. 

We ended up waiting at McDonalds, since she had to work so late, but it gave us all time to visit for a bit before they started home to Garnett. 

Keith is watching the puppy bowl instead of the Super Bowl, he says the game is over for all intents and purposes, so I haven't seen even one commercial. 

Downton Abbey at 8, and then Elementary after the Super Bowl, so I can finally relax! 

I want to welcome Hidden Meadow Farm, On the Bright Side, and The Beginning Farmer to our blog roll.  MA at On the Bright Side is the kind of upbeat blogger that Kerin was at Always Fixin'.... she has her own attitude of gratitude.... Hidden Meadow raises animals that are on the endangered species list, and they are beautiful.... and The Beginning Farmer is a most interesting serious farmer, but full of good ideas for us hobbyists.  I hope you enjoy them as I do. 

Another Gorgeous Day

Working outside again today, and got started on the vegetable beds.  The poor garden suffered from inattention this year, and baked in the hot, hot sun.  The beds all need humus and manure and peat moss and fresh soil piled on.

 

I pulled up two huge swiss chard plants from one bed, and took them to the little henyard because those birds are STILL not going into the pasture, though they have progressed to going into the big henyard during the day while that flock is out in the pasture.

 

I threw the chard in and scared them to death.

 

 

They all ran screaming.

This hen, Mable, (the one I suspect is withering on me), was braver than the others, and came over to see what was going on.

 

 

Pretty soon the others thought they would give it a try.

 

 

Pretty soon we were having a chard party!

 

 

One little pug got overheated, though, and had to rest on the deck for a while.

Abby ended up having to come in... even sixty in the sun is hard on pugs!

 

 

 

 

 

Under the Weather

I think the events of the last six weeks, my sister's sickness, Keith's fall, etc. are finally getting to me. I was out watering the garden tonight, and realized I felt awful.  Came in, took my blood sugar, and it was dropping rapidly, so I stopped watering for the night and made a good salad for myself and for Keith, who was out at the time.  I am still not feeling well, so will post quickly and then hit the hay.

I know they are hard to see, but there are birds feeding in the flat feeder at the wild bird station. I had actually taken a chair into the hoop house, so I could sit and water everything in there thoroughly.  I discovered that I can sit there, unseen by the birds, and watch them up close! 

We still have lettuce, though it is getting long in the tooth.

Swiss chard "Bright Lights". 

I planted this because it is just so darn beautiful.  I only planted two plants and they are HUGE.  I have no idea how to fix it, or if it's too far gone to fix.  I'm too pooped to read about it tonight.

I would actually plant this in the flower bed. \

And speaking of flower beds, here's one I've been neglecting:

It's the last bed we made last year, to the north of the hoop house.  It has a huge hollyhock in the middle, some liatris, some iris, and a LOT of weeds.  By the time I finished with it tonight, I was on my way to getting it cleaned up... but realized I just did not feel well enough to stay outside a long time.

And with that, folks, I've got to get to bed or fall out of this chair!