June 1

Well, I FINALLY got all of the vegies in. Some of the potted ones didn't make it, but of course I save seed and added to the rows. I got my first green bean yesterday, with what looks like many more to come!

Back in the east garden, my 'experimental' garden, I am testing to see what I can and can't grow. There are wheat, oats, potatoes, mangel beets (for the chicken feed in winter), pumpkins, watermelon, and spanish peanuts. Each row filled with straw and hay and horse manure, soaked in water, then the seeds or plants added in and covered up.

So many things are putting their little heads up now; radishes, spinach, potatoes, mustard greens and lettuce. The onions are doing well, the garlic isn't up yet. I have to weed in front of the trees and around the strawberries today. The sunflower seed heads I collected will make a nice line of flowers in front of those trees along the driveway. I even got the petunias in the hanging baskets out on the big hanging planter, and the morning glories and sweet peas scattered about. Mulched the hostas at the base of the verandah and the roses around the arbor in front. Even got the planters at the front stoop planted, in salvia, parsley, and chives; the little roses look to be coming back there as well as the marjoram. I'll have to get out and do some serious weeding, and I used a little sevin dust on the pumpkins and watermelon yesterday. I'll need to do that some more today. I'm holding off on the serious bioinsecticide until everything's up and attractive to bugs, and until the bugs really get serious, but the pumpkins needed it yesterday!

Yesterday while walking the dogs, Sasha 'bowed up' at one of the trees and barked. There was a king snake, about 4 feet long, wrapped around the base of the tree. We left him/her alone - they eat gophers and are not poisonous, although they do have a nasty bite. I've also been told that they keep away rattlesnakes; will fight them and kill them. Good. A welcome addition to the garden, in that case! As long as they leave the chickens alone, we are good.

We moved the chickens outside last week; 80 deg temps outside. They quickly took up scratching and picking. They are not in the tractors yet, just a little hut with a fence around it to get them acclimated. They were terrified at first, of course; but soon got the hang of being outside. They are now eating twice as much, of course. I started giving them cracked corn yesterday to get them used to it. The cold front that came thru last night dropped the temps down again to where they are supposed to be; it will be in the 70s during the day and 40s at night again for awhile. But the chickens are getting acclimated. We lost one - she just kind of stopped eating. When I looked at her, she looked malformed, like her breastbone was separated. So one out of 22 is not bad. Our neighbor Phil told his wife that we didn't have room for chickens - but he thought we were going to have 200 or more! People here seem to like to do things in a BIG way! Apparently he thought I was going to run a chicken farm! Nope - chickens are just a little part of what we want to do.

Phil has started bringing over little mechanical things for Mike to work on; the only problem is that he's not coming back to get them yet! LOL His and Pat's sons, Landon and Luke, are working the ranch with Phil, and they leave the house every morning at 5:30 AM.

Mike is worried that I am getting too much sun; I'm not blistering, just turning red. I'll have to start wearing my hats. I am really developing my muscles, especially my arm and leg muscles, and losing some of the winter fat. It feels so good to be outside all day and working away.

We might go to ID at the end of the month for the National Dexter cattle show. My brother there has never seen them - even though there is a Dexter ranch right outside his ID town! We talked about going to the show together, and he might buy a couple of steers to put here til fall for a meat supply. He has money and no pasture, I have pasture and no money! LOL

Working in the yard and gardens for the next two months will take up all of my time and effort. I'll have to show up to work occasionally for some things; like ths AM I have to go in for abt a half-hour and file a State report, and I'll have to go in when the co-op orders come in to separate them for the teachers and have them in neat piles for them to take with them to set their classrooms back up in August. I've told Dean to just dump the stuff in the gym and I'll separate it out. But otherwise I get the summer off! Wish it was a PAID time off, but oh well - stuff happens.