Into the Heat

Friends, NE Kansas is descending into heat.  We are expecting a full week of 

very hot temps, and no chance of rain until at least next Sunday. 

I watered yesterday afternoon, topping off the sheep tanks, the chickens, etc. and then 

came in to do some dishes.  I had no water, or almost none.  It's time to 

be careful, I am on a deep well, but I can't just water and water, and 

have to space it out.  I waited an hour for the well to pump back up, 

and things were fine.  It was a good reminder. 

I looked out to see Snowy and Jes lounging on the deck this morning before it got really oppressive. 

See the sheep in the distance?  

On Friday, Benjamin, my yard helper, was here, and we fashioned 

a gate to the front of the old henhouse, so that the sheep cannot get into it. 

(Two must not get into any grain). 

I can let them in to graze the heavy clover over there, and I have put deep fortexes 

on both sides so they have plenty to drink.  

However, when I went to put them back in the pasture this morning, I was short a sheep...SHE WAS IN THE HENHOUSE and I had to laugh, because I think she actually low-crawled under a side board. 

I am going to show it to Sam and Benjamin tonight and we will figure out a solution so the birds 

can get in and out, but the sheep cannot. 

She had not touched the chicken grain, I think she had just wanted out of the sun 

and to lay on the straw in there. 

At any rate, the sheep are only in the yard for a couple of hours at a time. 

I keep an eye on them. 

I sat up in bed this morning to find Rusty, the feral cat who was 

raised here, calmly cleaning himself .  He became aware of me watching, but 

kept grooming. 

He has let me get two feet away from him, but even after two years, does not trust

me to pet him.  He is in good flesh, and looks healthy, he was neutered as a kitten before he came here.  Sadly, his two sisters and one brother were gone long ago. 

My African violets are doing wonderfully!  These are in the laundry room 

window. 

I love this goat. 

My living room looks like a nursery.  Jester loves that tiny bed, for 

some reason.  

This boy is going on a diet, he cannot jump onto the bed any more, and I don't need another diabetic. 

Different day, same tiny bed. 

The "June candles", (yucca) have begun blooming along the road. 

They look wonderful in the evening. 

I have lots of daylilies on the deck right now, because I took apart a 25 foot long bed where I had them. 

They will get back in the ground this fall.  I am so enjoying them. 

Let me mention a book here. 

I have a copy of  "Gardening for a Lifetime" by Sydney Ellison.  I remember reading it ten years ago, and laughing and thinking "That will never be me".  Mrs. Ellison wrote about being widowed, and being unable to maintain the huge gardens she and her husband had created. 

She had huge daylily beds.  

The book is about how she worked around all the "work" that she and her husband had created, and how she gave up and combined things. 

I'm there. 

I'm rereading the book this week. 

Keith was so very generous to me, building beds all over this place. 

He built the raised bed vegetable garden, and I still have his notes from the 

first year, when he studied vegetables and ordered them carefully. 

He built eight beds, and an additional long bed to the right 

(the one with the ROSE BUSH I am still working on). 

They had trellises, and we grew beans and cukes in 

them. 

These beds were too close together, and weeds were a terrible problem, always. 

Keith hated weed-eating with a passion.  

(a friend suggested I put down roofing to keep the weeds down). 

Last year, Chris, my grandson, dug out all these beds, and 

we bought scores of bags of good dirt and filled them.

Within weeks of planting the vegetables, 

they were overgrown and I could not even get in there, remember, I was 

dealing with a torn Achilles tendon at that point, and Chris lives in 

Garnett. 

The reason they are clean now is that I have a wonderful young man, Benjamin, 

who has been helping with heavy yard work. 

Two weeks ago, I visited Next to Nature Farm, here in Leavenworth County. 

They had an assortment of large stock tanks (Rubbermaid, I think) that they had planted with their vegetables.  These were three feet high, and as you can see, there was a variety in them. 

I LOVED THIS. 

I priced these tanks the next week, and I can afford to accumulate a few. 

This would be a way for me to continue vegetable gardening for a few more years, 

after the initial purchase and the purchase of the dirt to fill them. 

For now, I have four tomatoes in pots.... the four on the left, 

the other is a milkweed variety. 

All the tomatoes are bearing fruit.  I just shot them with Miracle Gro today, too. 

So, today, I went to an open house in Tonganoxie.  There have been few, because of Covid 19, 

and I was surprised to see this one. 

I have watched the listings to see if anything looks like it would be manageable for me and the dogs. 

This was just a gamble, it was two stories. 

The house was cramped but had been done up cute, and the second story space made into a wonderful master suite. 

I got home, and stopped in Troy and Kathy's drive to give them some magazines for her mom. 

We were visiting, and I turned around and looked at the house and made an 

exclamation. 

This is what I saw. 

I realized then and there, I can't move. 

(from the big hen house porch) 

At least, I can't move for a while. 

I had a good laugh at myself. 

Yep.  She lets herself out of the chicken yard, and puts herself back in. 

That dirt in the porch planter is mighty soothing. 

Calibrachoa. 

Aren't they beautiful?

As I type this on Sunday evening, our world and our nation are still in turmoil.  I pray daily that we can all come to a new consensus 

of a better way to live. 

I pray for prejudice to end, and for me to 

learn more. 

I hope staying in touch with you all helps.