The Reunion, Rain, and Flowers

I am so blessed to have a fun Irish Family. 

I won't bore you with names, but show you a couple of pictures.  We had our party in the church hall of one of the oldest churches in Kansas City, Kansas... where they still have a social club AND a bowling alley... and believe me, the younger members of the family put it to good use!  The sound of pins falling and balls rolling rang out all afternoon as we ate and visited. 

Two of the oldest family members greeting each other in the middle of the mix. 

Okay, I lied, I will tell you who these folks are:  that's my big brother Mike, his daughter Anita, and her daughter Marlo on the left.  

The Guy Who Started it All! 

Gosh, what a great time we had! 

Then, it was home to these: 

Tonight we have had a storm, but it seems to have blown over without too much damage.  I'm going to check one more time on the TV to see what we can expect the rest of the night.  If you look at the second iris picture above, you will see the potato bed in back of it... the straw that I put on the potatoes last week to cover them as they grew.  As of tonight, they are at least 8 inches above the straw!  

I'll be putting more down tomorrow. 

We gave away bags of lettuce to the concrete guys when they came to get their forms tonight.  After waiting for weeks for it, it's coming up faster than we can eat it! 

And one more treat for you to start your week off right: 

This was waiting for me in the big henhouse tonight. 

The Remarkable Mr. T! 

My Apologies

I tried to post last night, but HughesNet was not cooperative.  I'm going to do one tonight in hopes that it will actually post.

Here is what we are going to be working on tomorrow:

Here is the south bed, the balance of which we never got covered last year.  Where you see the siding down is a patch of nasty nettles that burn you.  We are trying to kill them without using poison.  Tomorrow we are laying paper all around (landscape paper) and then layering straw, max mix (the bags of which you see there) which is a sort of woody mulchy dirt, and also some shredded paper I brought home from work that will be wetted and mixed in.  The light colored (tan) mound you see in the distance is the start of an open compost heap, with cleanings from the henhouses.  The grass you see in the picture will all be pulled out, and you can just see where the first half of the bed ended, with straw in the left hand front of the bed. 

Here are some beautiful white irises blooming in the first bed... and, as you see, there are TONS of little saplings that must come out tomorrow, and tons of grass that I am going to have to have Chris dig up for me.

Here is the big bed of yellows and purples that I moved from the yard last year.  In fact, they were intertwined with the nettle bed... and were heck to dig up.  They have rewarded us beautifully!

That's Abby doing her business, sorry about that!

My chief Mousers!

Bits and Pieces

This afternoon, I was able to leave the office a little early so I could go sit with my sister until her husband got back from an all day meeting.  I found her sitting up in her hospital bed, in a caftan, and able to speak clearly and lucidly... what a blessing!  She was in some discomfort, but we had a good conversation about "the old days" and I was grateful for this nice time with her.  Her home health care nurse has told her he cannot explain why her bloodwork is staying so even, because when she was sent home at the end of February, beginning of March, we thought it would be just a short time before hospice was needed.  I'm so grateful for this extra time, and her lucidity.  Those of you who have had terminal family members will know what I mean. 

I hope if I ever get the bad news she received two short years ago that I'll be able to react with as much grace as she has. (and fight!)

Here's a homestead tip from General Sherman (aka Sherm or Sherman) about the right way to carry a waterer.  Most of us... including Keith and I... carry the waterer by it's bale, on the top (on the left).  The proper way to carry them is separated, and by the comfortable handle on the inside of the can.  I can't tell you how many bales I've broken in the last 20 years carrying a heavy waterer.  Not pleasant in the cold of winter, let me tell you!

Sherman and Grant have stopped fighting, by the way.  The red turkey, however, is pretty dominant and going after the hens and roosters in the little henyard.  All three boys spent the day in the pasture, but I think I may have to move the red out completely for sure. 

I have had but one egg in the little henhouse this week, and tonight, found something as I got home that I wish I had waited to take a picture of before disposing of it.  It was a shell-less egg, held together only by the membrane, and was laid by Rockette, the gold laced Rock. I should be getting at least

four a day from there, with the four big girls who have just turned one year old, and several little eggs from the smaller birds. 

I am not sure if it's the turkeys, or the three new hens in there that has thrown everyone off. I had something else odd last night (and didn't get a picture)... one of the "new" old hens in the little henyard (there are three)... shot yolk out her eggbed.  It landed on the ground, and Sherman scuttled to eat it up.  I followed her for a minute, and she calmly shot the rest of the yolk and the white out, and then bent to eat it.  I could see a small piece of shell sticking out.  I was able to pick her up, and she looked clean otherwise, but I kept her in the nursing cage all night, letting her back out this morning.  So tonight, I found her alone in the hutch in the four x four pen in the big henyard.  I forgot she had been in the little henyard and did not know where to go, and carried her around and put her in the big henhouse.  I'm sure she'll wake up in the morning as if she always lived there, but I am watching her.

The little hen crossing the middle of the yard, white with a black tail, was Teeny's only chick to survive the possum and hawk attacks from last summer. (This was taken on Sunday)

Tonight, here's how I found her when I got home:

Yes, she's gone.  Keith came out and put on plastic gloves and picked her up and we looked her over, and couldn't see  anything.  In fact, we weren't 100% sure it was Teeny's baby, because we had a six year old hen that looked about the same.  However, Teeny's baby has not looked good for at least three weeks.  When I would sit in the henyard at night, I would catch her in the 4 x 4 pen, her eyes closed, a little hunched up.  This is a sign of trouble, for you new chicken owners.

She was too young to lay, but it could have been almost anything.  We think she had been dead most of the day, and maybe fell dead from the rafters this morning, in fact. 

I tried to post last night for over an hour, but the internet would not cooperate.  I would have posted one of these:

That's Iris "Batik" beginning it's bloom season, one of my favorites.  I'm embarassed to show you the whole bed, since there are about 20 tree saplings growing in there.  Hopefully this weekend we'll be working in there while the boys are here helping us.

Pooped Out Sunday Night

Well, we made it through the weekend without severe damage from a storm, and I am very grateful for that.  Except for some chairs blowing off the porch, little damage was done.  We did have very strong winds all day, and tonight the temps dropped from seventies to fifties in the space of less than an hour. 

I had intended to plant a daylilly and two sets of swiss chard (Bright Lights) that I had stopped and bought after church, but gave up on that notion, as the wind would have sapped the life from them after I had them in the ground.  Instead, they are in the hoop house tonight, where they will be safe until we can plant them this week.  I only wish I had bought cabbage plants too, as Keith offered me one of his beds.  I have not planted swiss chard before, but I always admired Bright Lights, and I'm willing to give a shot at preparing it for dinner.   I am planning to divide a huge patch of monarda too, this week, and put some in the mirror bed across the arbor from the first.

Mountain bluets are blooming now... I almost bought some deep blue ones this afternoon.

Here is something else blooming now

The first of the irises.  The little birdbath flew into the flower bed during the winds last night, but it is back where it belongs... the birds use it regularly.

I have a bed literally chock full of irises I transplanted last year, they are the old-fashioned yellows and blues... but I love them anyway.  They are also swelling at the bud and about to bloom.  The flowers I bought from the Iris lady last spring did not do as well, I'm afraid.

I have more irises in the above bed that are also swelling.  As you can see, I need desperately to pull about twenty small tree seedlings, and right in the middle of the bed... beyond this camera view, there is a clump of grass that has already formed seedheads, so it's GOT to come out in the next day or two.

Keith, just before going to bed, informed me that the newsman said we have no appreciable rain coming in the next two weeks.  I'm sad to hear this, as we need it, and got very, very little last night.  Keith watered everything in the hoop house tonight, and his outside beds.  I'll wait til this terrible wind dies down to plant my new plants.

Gratuitous picture of April taken this afternoon... as she chattered to me.

I tried to upload some more videos tonight to You Tube, but Keith has reminded me (again) that in doing so, I use all our satellite bandwith.  I am going to see if I can save some to a stick and use a computer at the library (where they are on DSL) to upload.  I'll find out the rules this week, and if I can do so, I can take 30 minutes to upload some, and add them to the blog.  I have some amusing ones, and I think people would enjoy seeing them if I can ever get them to load.

Have a good start to your week!

(130 days to go, not that I'm still counting or anything).