Next year Sugar Pea...Neena will grow you one

BEAUTY IN THE HEAT

The Texas heat is exactly what makes Texas mornings so amazingly wonderful. After a day of 105 degrees, the morning 78 is almost cold. My days seem to keep me away from home a lot these days. So this morning I took 15 min to sit in the front yard at sunrise and just allow myself to be amazed. At times like these I know for a fact that there is a God and he is especially fond of every person on this planet to have created such a masterpiece. I wish I could share with you the smell of weeds and herbs as the cool breeze blew to me from the field. As the sun crested the horizon the sky was an amazing shade of clear blue with beautiful tufts of white and grey clouds. V's of white egrets flew right over my house sometimes so close I could see them turn their head down and look right at me. Hummers flew in and took long sips of the cool nectar waiting in 4 feeders hanging along my porch. Pictures never do scenes like this justice but I have to try. There is a peace (lined with longing) knowing that I will not be gardening at all this year. I may plant a large crop of garlic as this must be planted here around October, but until February, that will be it. The rest of the time will be spent building up raised beds and compost piles, finishing chicken coops and painting. That should fill up what is left of the summer. Can you believe tomorrow is July 31 and summer is almost over?

BIRD BATTLEFIELD

What is in the air? Someone must have told the hummers that I was putting up a new feeder today because when I woke up and opened the door, there were now at least 10 hummers buzzing my front yard. I which I was quicker with the camera. I will try harder to get pics. But there was so much violence in the front yard it got the mockingbirds going. Now I live in the middle of a huge avian battlefield which I am sure will spread to the other areas and then will be on the news! Maybe I need to put valium in the hummer nectar? Today after work, I am going to clean the goat pens where my horse boards and bring that to the compost pile, rake up the pine needles and pile them in the back by the garden. They are good to mulch blueberries. The I am going to pull everything off the porch and prep the front of the house for paint. I don't have help so I will be doing this myself. This should be very interesting. I will work on the house til dark every night this week when I get home.

But before that I made coffee and sat in my chair in the front yard, watching the battle and listening the wind chime and the birds and enjoyed the morning so much. That is a dangerous thing to do though. I came up with all kinds of ideas!!

I LOVE TEXAS

I know that there are amazing places in the United States but for me Texas is perfect. (ok so maybe a white sand beach, rum punch and a cabana boy in attendance is perfect but you know what I mean!) Not too much cold, not too much mud, lots of heat. This morning was one of those mornings that make me grateful to be alive and living in Texas. At 7am it was cool. Drinking coffee and cleaning out the turkey pen the birds and cicadas where just waking up. I could hear the sound of my wonderful wind chime everywhere I went.


The hummers were swarming the feeder thankful for the fresh cool nectar.










In two hours I had mowed, cleaned and fed turkeys and started the compost pile. Since this year is kind of a wash for produce the plan is to work hard to prepare for next year. I must get the fence up to block off the garden area since Bull is convinced he is helping me by "ariating" my gardens. Then there is the chicken house. The plan is to get it finished in the next month (hopefully) so the chickies can get established before winter.




















While working hard outside I happened to look up at Bull. I had put him up when I found that he had been gardening in the night. He had gotten his head caught in a large silver tarp and was waiting patiently for me to help him out. I have said it before...he is a special needs doggie....but I love him anyway.

RABBIT POO IS HERE!

It must be Christmas. I brought home my first load of rabbit manure from a lady who raises show rabbits. So this is really fancy poo. I was half way home, talking on the phone to a very special friend, driving 60 MPH and I look over and sitting on the passenger seat is the biggest ugliest bug you have ever seen in your life! AND IT TURNED IT'S HEAD AND LOOKED AT ME!! It got away when I tried to kill it. Now all I could think was the bags of fancy poo in the back seat of my car must be teaming with the giant bugs that look at you. I had 10 more miles to go! I made it home and got the fancy poo out of my car, built my new raised bed and poured in some of the poo. The rest will go into the compost pile so those giant mystery larvae can grow and multiply. Maybe when they grow up we can have intelligent conversations.

Farm Doctor

Can you believe it has already been 10 days since Bull lost his marbles?? Well now what? The stitches have to come out but I have to go to work. How do you get a 78 pound hyper puppy to lay still while you cut and pull stitches in an area that he is not going to want you to mess with? Well I thought and thought. I let him help me water the turkeys, pick basil out of the garden, say hello to the hissy kitty, all of his favorite things. Then he got to go inside with mommy...woohoo...it must be Christmas. He really is a gullible doggy. I got the scissors and the tweezers. Then I got a cool wet rag to wash the area with and this was the key. I made him lay down and when I put the cool rag on the stitches, he completely relaxed. For the rest of the procedure he never moved but simply watched what i was doing. See I believe in miracles. Sorry Bull said no pictures!

Thankful for 100

This morning I walked outside to water the turkeys and thought my skin was going to melt at how hot the sun was even this early in the morning. So I wanted to post a photo reminding me why I am loving this 100 degree weather! I am so excited though because using an online classified site I found a person with a lot of rabbit manure available and I will be going to her house today to get a load!!! This I feel is the key. Nothing will grow in this soil and without getting a soil test I am pretty sure that due to the sandy nature of the soil the nutrients simply have leached out since the prior owners seem to have only grown and mowed grass here. Between my rabbit source, the turkeys until they are in the freezer, horse manure and goat manure from the barn I keep my horse at, chickens soon and grass clippings, I will soon have the earth here teaming with life! Have you ever thought about the simplicity of compost and how blessed we are with it?