Two Thousand Twenty Four

I sat down here this afternoon to do a blog post. 

I realize, according to my blog statistics, that this is post Two Thousand and Twenty Four. 

Two thousand times I have sat down here to communicate with people far away from me. 

At first, it was daily as I wrote about our life here at Calamity Acres. 

Then, we moved to "The Big House" for a few years, as Keith grew more ill.  

Back I came, after he died... and I have to laugh because he made a point of getting me to promise I would not, because he knew how I threw myself into things. 

Here I sit, a month before my birthday... wondering how long I can do it. 

Last week, I told you all about the cats and how they have "taken over" Calamity Acres. 

This week, it will be about plants, and other things. 

I am going to use telephone pictures . 

When I first started doing this, I carried a small camera in the pocket of whatever I was wearing, pulled it out to take pictures, and then put those pictures into the computer.  Now, I carry my phone but not all the time, because it is awkward.  I still have the little camera and think about going back to one. 

Let's start with Zoey, whom I foster failed last November.  She has just been a delight. She is a true little farm dog, though not raised on a farm.  She loves to be outside, and loves to get into things.  I have to watch her. 

Luckily, other than chasing once in a while, she does not bother the chickens. 

She would love to catch a squirrel. 

She has a bark, too, which I love, because Jester does not bark.  I know when something is happening with Zoey. 

I am gardening almost exclusively in planters and pots now. 

Here is the downside of having a deck full of flowers... I have about 

four rotted boards on the deck.   Two were under a rug which I bought four years ago, thinking I would have a beautiful place on the deck in the shade to sit and read.  That rug trapped water underneath it, and rotted the boards.  They need to be taken up and new ones laid, and preservative put on the whole deck.  The thing is... all planters would have to be moved off, and there are four the size of the ones in the pictures above. 

So, I am thinking about how this is going to be accomplished. 

My guess is some construction company is going to tell me I need a whole new deck. 

I really don't have 10,000 to spend. 

So, we will see. 

This surreal picture is a mushroom that was growing in my yard two weeks ago. 

I actually got down on the ground to take its' picture.  It looks like a spaceship, doesn't it? 

It's been very hot here lately, and we have been doing a LOT of this. 

Last Sunday night, a lady volunteer from 

Kitty Cat Connection came here and took the mother cat and four kittens from my shop. 

I had had to trap them the day before, and I must have made twenty trips out to the shop to check on their safety in a day. 

I breathed a sigh of relief when they left. 

Mama was returned this morning, she will live here now, but she 

is neutered, had her shots, and wormed.  She is very gentle, and I will be able to continue getting her yearly shots since I can load her into a carrier. 

The four babies will go on to adoptable homes, or barn homes, neutered. 

The happy thing is, they were negative for FIV/FLV.  

I don't post a lot of family pictures anymore, but this beautiful little doll and the handsome little brother in the boppy are my great grandchildren, Maci and Wyatt. 

I have actually not met Wyatt yet, as they live some distance away from me.  Their mom and dad are blessed to still work for employers who provide six weeks of paid time off for birth benefits. 

Two more of the planters on the patio.  They have filled in so nicely this year! 

I have tomatoes and peppers growing in various big planters and tubs.

The young men who keep their sheep in the pasture have gifted me with several lick tubs, 

and they make GREAT planters, once holes have been made.  That green one with the tomato on the right is one of them. 

I am about to be inundated with tomatos. 

Another lick tub being used as a planter. 

This is part of the gorgeous display gardens tended by the Master Gardeners of Wyandotte County (KS) at the National Agricultural Center. They are just amazing and the dedicated gardeners, men and women, tend these beds and a much larger display garden in the back.  

In the middle of the one perennial bed I am trying to reclaim is this beautiful pink hollyhock... the others are wine-red and white.  

I love this color. 

My grandson Jax is helping me to reclaim this bed, and after I finish here, I am going to go out and 

work on cutting even more saplings out of it.  I am using Tordon on them now, they have GOT to stay gone.  To think I once had 4 20 foot long beds!

We are layering (okay, JAX is layering) cardboard and straw on the parts of the bed that had become overgrown with weeds.  In the spring, we will move the straw and plant new perennials in the wells, and bring the straw that will have decomposed back around them. 

This afternoon, I made a trip to a local greenhouse/produce store that I had not visited since the pandemic started... I was stunned at the quality of the plants they are raising there, and 

I hope to buy some for this bed. 

This is actually kind of a funny picture. 

This is the nest box in the big hen house. 

I have not found an egg in it in many weeks. 

Snakes would starve here. 

To be fair, there are only four old hens left in this hen house, and to my knowledge, only one of those is laying once or twice a week. 

One has become broody in her old age, and complains daily when I take the egg (that another hen has laid) out from under her. 

The young girls, of whom there are seven, may or may not lay in their own hen house, I only got four eggs last night.  This week, Ben is going to come and clear my west fence line, and I bet we find a nest under there with a lot of eggs in it.  It has been so hot recently, and I would not want to lay in the hot hen house, either. 

I end with this cool picture I found on Pinterest. 

I love fall.... and we are having a Pumpkin Festival at the Ag Hall, in lieu of a Christmas festival this year (I think).  I would LOVE to do something like this on our pond there!  

Stay safe in the heat everyone, and that includes my friends in Europe.