Okay, So This is Ridiculous

Here is what the temp was on my way home from taking Chris to Garnett.  As I got about two miles from home, it dropped to 103.  Whew. 

I was stunned to see that everyone was okay when I went out to do the waterers. 

Every single waterer got done this morning and this afternoon, as soon as I got back from taking Chris home. 

This pool was full this morning, to the top... so you see that the ducks put it to good use today.  The thing that works so well here is that the pool keeps Swamplandia wet and cool. 

And you can see that Mary agrees, and was standing in the small puddle when I got to the yard. 

Look who finally found the downed tree, and had a great time climbing up and down it! 

As you see, Kelly has no chain collar on.  We had one on both Kody and Kaycee, if you remember. 

Yesterday, I went outside, and called Kody to put him in his pen with Kelly. 

He did not come, and I realized that Kelly was calling me loudly from the chicken yard, and yes, this is unusual because Kody is usually louder and first. 

Kody's collar had hooked itself by the little plastic clasp to the side of the 4 x 4 chainlink pen I used to keep the juvenile birds in.  He could not get loose, and thank heavens, was standing, but pulling wildly against the chainlink and the BREAKAWAY COLLAR DID NOT BREAK. 

No more collars. 

Except when they are being trimmed, no more collars.  It was too close a call and scared me badly. 

Chris and I cut a lot of weedy debris down, and tomorrow, IF it is a little cooler, Keith and I will haul it down to the brush pile in the pasture.  I'm leaving the popholes open tonight, because the heat is the worst enemy. 

Here's Chris and Me this morning, before we left for Garnett.  I remember when he was knee high to a grasshopper! 

Now he towers over his old gran! 

Today my brother Mike and sister in law Robin celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary... my gosh... I was 13 when they married, and the day was as hot as this one has been.  

I can't believe how times flies, but the proof is in the above picture! 

In Which I Confess to You

This folks, is what our raised bed vegetable garden looks like today.

 

Sad,  isn't it?  The fact is, I foresook it for the perennial beds, choosing to put all my effort into them this summer.  We are going to do some cleanup this long weekend, and plant a few things for fall, but frankly, that's what's great about gardening... there's always next year! 

 

You can see how I had high hopes for it this year here. 

 

In the hoop house is one tomato that is suddenly blooming and setting out new growth again... and my pineapple sage and cilantro are both sending up new plants from seed.  Strawberries are still alive, too.  Planting the herbs in bins was an experiment that worked so well that next year (Oh, Keithhhhhh) we are going to need to put a bench on the deck... made with a board and some cement blocks... so I can grow the herbs right outside the kitchen door!   We are going to try to put up a real, small greenhouse, because we liked the hoop house so much.

 

I'm still doing lots of this, too....

 

 

We got about a half inch of rain last weekend, but it was 95 today, and they are predicting 98 tomorrow, and then a drop in temps.  We are getting 60's at night, now.

I watered the pear trees yesterday, and the apple trees (and weeping cherry) this morning.  I also have been watering the perennial beds, too.

 

 

These two don't care, as long as they can nap where it's cool.

 

 

Neither does this guy, who is getting to be an everynight visitor to the pasture!  Lucky I lock everyone up!

 

 

 

 

Taking Shape

Keith worked in the heat of the weekend on the new henhouse... and it's really taking shape.

This is the east end, where the "people" door will be located.  He put the siding and flashing up on both ends, and got both ends painted.  Here you see the gable end going up.  There is a hole under the middle piece for the vent... he will cut it out soon.

And the west end.  I particularly like the color of this building, and I think we are going to paint the other buildings here the same color (eventually).

Here is the henyard door.  The pophole will be to the left of this door, and will actually have a switchback, as the door is pretty high.  The house sits up off the ground a little over a foot, so that the hens can get out of the sun. 

Roosts will be to the left, and a brooder cage to the left of the window on the far wall... nest boxes will be on the wall to the left of the door.  We'll have the electrician out for the wiring of the building soon, and then the fence around the yard will go up.  Hopefully, by mid-August the layers will get to move over to their new digs.

While Keith was working on this new henspa, I was doing this:

Life, as it is this summer of 2012.

Faye Henry at The Blessed Hearth is having a Giveaway  here  right now... I would go enter it if I were you!

Night night!

Monday, 97 at 8:12 PM

Hey!

This isn't bad!  I'm actually out there enjoying myself tonight!  I don't know if I'm used to it or what?

However, I have just run short of water and decided to give the pump a rest.

Let me address a couple of comments we received last night...

Cheyenne said: "get a drip hose".  We have one, Cheyenne, but our well pump will run and run and run if we drip water, until the water is all gone.  We risk burning the pump out.  We discovered this last year when we got the drip hose and almost lost the pump.  I actually laid it out last week, thinking I would use it off and on, but have yet to connect it.  I agree wholeheartedly about watering from the roots.  I have a hand faucet for the hose that I switch out with the one you saw pictured last night... it produces a fine spray, and I usually connect this, and leave it at the base of the plants for a half hour at a time, the pump can keep up with that.

About twenty minutes ago, I was out watering and noticed the pressure had dropped considerably.  There had been a one hour hiatus after I had watered the birds, which I do as soon as I get home from work.  This tells me that our water table is getting low, because the 120 foot deep well is not replenishing as fast.  Heretofore, I could do the birds, come and water the hoop house, and then water the two biggest garden beds without worry of losing pressure.  I have come in to do the post, and then will go back out and try to water a little more tonight.  Tomorrow morning I'll go out at 5:45 and do the porch plants and the hoop house. 

Tonight, it was the pear tree's turn again:

I can't fill the buckets too full, because then I can't lift them out of the wagon. (I am, after all, just a woman)  I had to bucket out (with my egg bucket) the blue bucket because I had filled it too full.  This was trip number two. 

The Japanese Redneck (Hi, Ramona!) commented that they had used greenhouse plastic on their greenhouse.  We will do that in the future, we think.  This whole thing was an experiment this year, and we are ready to go whole-hog (though not with a huge one).   Despite this weather, we liked the whole experience.

Don't I always look so charming in my chore clothes?

Guess what I'm eating right now?

I wish I could tell you they are from our bushes at the foot of the pasture, but no... ours have literally burned up on the bush, I went down Saturday night to check.

These, my friends, are a gift from Kathy next door!  They are sweet and delicious and HUGE!

Keith is out doing an errand so guess what?  I'm sitting here popping them while typing and I hope there are some for him when he gets home! 

I'm going to stop right now and go out and lock the turkeys up.  The two batches of chicks are putting themselves away, I found them in their respective hutches last night, all going to sleep at dark.  One turkey, Clarabelle, was still out in the high grass laying an egg, so I'll check to see if she is back, and then lock everyone up.  We are taking a chance and leaving the popholes of the big henhouse open the last few days, it's just so hot in there even with the fan running.

Is There Life after Watering?

No, I don't always water like this, but I had other things to finish up and wanted to get a lot on in a short time.... I usually water at ground level, the best way.  But wow, the plants need it desperately now.

Here is the pear tree that looked so dead last night... this is what ten buckets of water did for it.  Our problem is that we can't do all the trees every night.  We have to do the water for the birds... the water for the plants in the hoop house... the flower beds, in a superhuman effort to save them... and the trees.   At least this tree has perked up and the branches are standing out, compared to last night when the whole thing was wilting.  Tonight I concentrated on the apple trees, so we are going to alternate trees each night.

I did some surgery on the hoop house this afternoon. 

Though it looks sad, we are actually pretty happy with the whole experiment.  I'll be home next year to take care of everything, and we are going to try to find a real greenhouse to put up in the same footprint.  All in all, despite the horrid planting year, we are very pleased with this.

Everytime I came in for a few minutes to rest, these two greeted me at the door.  We love these little dogs... they are loyal and loving, and brave enough to take ANYTHING or ANYONE on if they think their Mommy and Daddy are threatened.  Gertie and Abby have blessed us with their prescence here.  (poop on doorstep from the swallows nest above it... the swallows are currently tending their second clutch of the year)  The pugs cannot come out during the daytime except for a few minutes.  Gertie, especially, is going stir crazy, because she loves to roam all over the yard, being the farm dog.

I found that today was not as bad as yesterday... I was able to work outside for four to five hours, spread out over the day.  We took a break at 1:30 and went to meet Amber, Jesse and Baby Jace for late lunch at a restaurant in Johnson County.  (Keith's daughter and son in law).

I did initial chores at 6 AM, and changed water for all the birds.  After church and an errand in Lawrence, came home to do water again...After we got home from lunch, I watered the birds again, and then began work in the garden.  I emptied a few beds, and then pulled some beautiful onions.  They are drying on the deck.

I found this when I went into the barn to look for eggs.  We must have walked by it 20 times in the last two weeks, as it was just outside the gate to the barnyard.

Uh huh.  Sixteen beautiful eggs in a nest under a sapling, just about three feet from the gate of the horseyard, where we have had the hackneys going in and out, and the palomino mare last weekend!

ARGGHHH   I hate waste!  I took fifteen eggs and removed them (into the trash) and then left the white egg you see in the middle, to encourage the girls to keep laying there. 

Mr. Barrios came back today to put the ridge shingles on the henhouse, it took him 20 minutes, so I showed little Eddie the chickens while he worked.  We had a good visit after, his mare is doing well but he has been doctoring the wound on her neck.  It seems the man at the place where he keeps the horse tied her very tightly that Friday night, frightening her and causing her to rear back, hurt herself, and break her halter and get loose.  I was glad to hear she is recovering from the wound.  We are so grateful to him for the great roof he put on the henhouse, and now Keith is planning how he will finish the rest of the construction.  I hope to move our layers into it before the end of the summer.

I saw this when I came out of the pasture from taking care of the Mille Fleur pen... this is the most patient dog.

Note the crossed legs.  She is waiting for a mouse to show it's nose... and then it's toast.  I keep finding dead mice all over the yard.

That's our Lilly Ann!

Working in the Dark

It's better to work in the dark, these days.

Keith is filling buckets in our little wagon because of this:

That's one of our two year old pear trees, in great distress now.  We put four buckets on it tonight, and Keith is out filling more right now.  We put three on the far tree.  He is going to water each of them again while I am posting. We would hate to lose these trees, he worked so very hard last year to get them going.

I can hear the tractor starting again for Trip Number Two.

We can't let the hose run for long, as we are on a well, allbeit a deep one.  We ran ourselves dry Sunday, and had to wait overnight for the pressure to re-build.  A new well pump is over $1000.00, so we want to be sure we don't burn one out.

Red sky at night, Sailor's delight

Red sky at morning, Sailors take warning

These were last night's and this morning's skies. 

Sorry about this (more chickens), but I have to show you:

The porcelain and mille chicks came out tonight, two days after I put them in the little henhouse with the bigger birds.  They were suffering each time I checked on them, draped on the waterers, and panting hard.  Finally, they all flew the coop.  I actually took a break from watering and sat and watched them as they played on the ground for the first time in their short lives  Unfortunately, there are 3 cockerels in this picture, two purebred porcelains, and one purebred mille fleur.  The other brown chick is a d'Uccle/silkie cross. Notice they are all heavily booted.  I'm hoping I can find homes for these little cockerels.  One, the one in the middle, is an especially nice porcelain.  The little mille is nice, too, if he had lifted his head you would have seen.

Our skies here almost look as if some rain is coming.  Keith reminded me tonight (we got a wild hair and ate at Bob Evans!) that last June we had temps over 100 regularly, up to 110.  I don't remember the gardens wilting so much, or the trees suffering so much. 

I am listening to the news that 9 states have folks out of electricity tonight, and terrible devastation from storms.  There are more who need our prayers tonight.

PS, it's 10:15, and I've come back on to tell you that there is lightening in the sky to the north, and thunder, the temp has dropped about 20 degrees already, and it is blowing, just since I posted and showered.  We're saying a prayer that we get a little bit of rain!