Nice weather today, cleaning summer kitchen

It didn't rain today and the weather was fairly nice out. I watered in the greenhouse and sowed more tomato seeds, still need to do more peppers tho. The plants that are up are growing nicely. Everything outside is doing well right now. But they are giving frost for tonight. I sure hope it don't. I need to re-sow my lavender as it did not come up at all. I would love to have a whole bed of lavender to cut and make sachets for the linen drawers. Sprouting the seed is the hardest part otherwise it grows really well here. On the way back up to the house from the greenhouse I stopped and pulled what few weeds were growing in the herb bed by the driveway. Not too many I am happy to say. I went out back to weed the asparagus bed although it is not too bad either. And the asparagus is starting to come up. I should get a mess or 2 when it gets in full swing this years. But I didn't get any weeding done down there. I went in the summer kitchen to get a drink and got side tracked. I did manage to get the summer kitchen wiped down good and the rubber mats taken out and washed down. I scrubbed the floor really good. Not that it will help a lot, but for now it looks nice and clean. I still need to wash the ceiling but that can wait till tomorrow I think.
I think I killed all my strawberries that I had planted in the strawberry pyramid in the back yard. Back a couple months ago I weeded the bed really good and lifted each strawberry crown out and then replanted them. A few plants are green with bloom on them and the rest are still lil brown stubs. Oh well such is my dang luck. So I guess I can go the the garden and dig up some more of the ones that got plowed thru and move them over here to the pyramid. Add that to the to-do list.
The time is right here to plant corn and beans. Dad always said it was time to plant corn when the leaves on the oak trees were the size of a squirrels ear. And they are. Next time we get a couple days of dry weather and can run the tiller thru the garden to work it up again we will plant the sweet corn and green beans. They prolly wont be up outa the ground till after the last frost date for us. Potatoes also need to be in. I think the later you plant the later you dig the longer the taters will keep in the cellar. After all we grow them for storage mostly. I have a doc appointment tomorrow so I will look for some Yukon Gold potatoes to plant.
Not much else happening here. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The plants survived the storm

The strawberry plants survived the rain we had last evening and the raspberries still look great. Although it is very muddy in the garden. Couldn't do anything there today but got lots of other stuff done. Rodger got the fire wood that we had left over from winter off the front porch and picked up the rest of what was in the woods that he had cut earlier this year. Then he piled brush below the house so we can burn that next time it rains and we don't have wind. He helped me move the porch furniture off the front porch too so it could be pressure washed. After many tries and adjustments to the pressure washer it finally was working right and I got the porch cleaned. Next week we are gonna get the deck stain to go on it even tho the wood is pressure treated. I just think the stain will protect it longer and make it look better too. Also cleaned some area rugs that are not machine washable, well they wont fit in the washer. If it don't rain tomorrow I might get the back deck cleaned too so it can also be re stained. Seems there is always some kind of maintenance when you have a house of your own. But I sure would not want to change that fact. Not much else happening here today. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The strawberries are settled in.......

I am pretty sure the strawberries and raspberries that we transplanted last evening are settled into the ground well. We had storms forecast for last night an none materialized. I was kinda hoping for a lil rain to get the strawberry plants off to a good start. We today we got the rain. I know we had sufficient rain to settle them in or possibly float them off the the river. It rained cats and dogs here this afternoon. No storm to speak of but the rain came down in buckets. I didn't go to the garden this evening because I guessed I would sink to my knees in the mud. So maybe I can go check on the plants tomorrow if we don't get more rain. 
When I went out to check on the baby chicks today I stopped by to look closely at the asparagus bed. I got a few asparagus spears peeking thru. Maybe this coming week I can have a mess of fresh asparagus. I can hope, right?
I went to the greenhouse this evening to check on things and turn off the fan. I set the cabbage plants aside that need to be transplanted to the big garden.  When I started the cabbage seed really early I put potting soil in a flower pot and sowed the seeds in the soil. When the plants were about 4 inches tall I took some out and put them in the cell packs to hope and get some growth on them before time to plant them. There were a bunch left in the flower pot and I set it aside. Today looking at the difference in the cabbage plants, I think next year all my plants will be started in deeper containers and just left to grow till time to pull them out for transplant. The cabbage plants that are in the flower pot are twice the size of the ones I moved to the cell packs. Not sure  why. They all got the same food, water, and light.  So lesson learned. Start em in pots and leave em till time to put them out in the big garden. I remember when I was lil, dad and mom would take an old dish pan with holes in it and fill it with dirt from the garden to start tomatoes and cabbage in. And they would also sow a bunch of seeds in the tobacco bed when it was done. They always had tons of tomatoes and plenty early too. The longer I live the more of the old ways I find to be better.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Got some planting done

It didn't rain today and was nice and warm,  so we got the strawberries and raspberries planted this evening after supper. Rodger plowed the garden north and south this time instead of east west. I planted the raspberries north south also. From what I have read on this it provides better air circulation in the plants. This is also true when planting a grape arbor. I had 1 row about 75 ft long of raspberries and almost 4 rows of strawberries that long. I half the strawberries live I will have far more berries than I will ever need. Not looking forward to keeping the weeds out of all those either. The next thing that will go in that area is the grape vines but they will need to grow for a bit before we transplant them to the garden.
The lil chicks are looking good. They grow so fast at first. In just a couple days they start getting lil wing feathers and are lots more active. They have food and water at all times and heat to keep them warm.  I would like to buy a few baby chicks of a standard breed to have for layers. In my experience the dark Cornish do not lay well in winter. Or summer for that matter. I may look at the farm stores next week when I am out of town to see if they have some baby chicks of standard breed. They can live with the Cornish cross till they get bigger.  We shall see.
Not much else happening around here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

You can sure tell it is spring

If you look around it is not hard to tell that spring has sprung here on the McGuire homestead. You will see lots of plowed ground getting ready for planting and lots of clean-up work being done. The county has spring clean up in spring and fall for folks to haul off junk that is not normally picked up on regular garbage routes. So I think I will have a load of junk to haul off this coming weekend.
As for the plowing and gardening, well Rodger has the ground plowed where the garden is started already. I have beets coming up, as well as onions that are growing rather well. If it dont rain tonight I am going to try to transplant some cabbage tomorrow night. This evening I went to the field and dug up probably 400 strawberry plants so they didnt get plowed under. After Jason got done with work at his house he came over to help me dig he plants out. Those will be re-planted in a new place as soon as the ground drys a lil more. For now they are in 4 big rubbermaid totes in the back of Jasons truck. I put a layer of shredded paper in the bottom of each tote then scooped the plants up and set them on top of some  soil and watered them in well. I can only hope that the weather is nice tomorrow and we can transplant the strawberries, raspberries and cabbage. The strawberries that I dug up for transplant were in a row in the river bottom on the edge of the old garden spot from last year. They are green and some of them starting to bloom. The berry plants here at the house have not gotten any green leaves on them yet. Guess it just shows the difference in temperature from being close to the river. After supper Rodger helped me plant the currant bushes that my friend Rosie had given me. Those are here near the house and close to the woods so they can have some shade and maybe stay a lil cooler as they grow in cooler climates. Now if I can just save them from the lawn mower all will end well. 
I checked the grape vines that I had left in the starting medium and they have roots now so those will need to be potted up soon. But soon is gonna be when I have more room in the green house.
I got my baby chicks yesterday morning. I got the call from the post office about 6:45 to come pick them up. So now I have 26 healthy happy lil cornish cross chicks in the brooder house. And yeas I finally got it cleaned out and all the stuff moved that we had stored in there and bedding put in for them. All that was done on Tuesday beings I had forgotten to do that over the weekend.  Talk aboiut waiting to the last minute to get things done.
Its hard to believe that we have had to mow the yard already this year. It seems a bit early to me. I love the look of a newly mowed yard. Just seems to make the whole place look neater no matter how much stuff you have around. Jason mowed his yard an trimmed  it this evening as well. Now we wait and see what the weather does tomorrow to decide what we will be doing then.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

A nice day and rain later

Today started out being rather nice, warm partly sunny, really a good day to work in the yard. And that is just what I did. I had brought a few ornamental bushes from west Kentucky last week and was really wanting to get them in their permanent place. So one of them was planted near the bird feeder in front and the other burning bush was planted at the back of the house on the south corner. The burning bush was really big and believe me that took some digging to get a hole big enough to plant that thing in. Then I looked around and got another idea to extend the sidewalk on out past the new bush to the strawberry bed to make mowing easier and make the whole thing look neater. That included digging up some sod and extended the row of Lariope or as some call it "monkey grass" on to the bed. That wasn't enough as usual, it needed to have landscape gravel and the sidewalk extended. So I located some huge pieces of cardboard to use for a weed barrier under the gravel. Well my body jus don't hold out like it used to so that lil project is not complete. Still need to put down more weed barrier and finish hauling the landscape gravel to finish. I had to come in for a snack and rest a bit then start supper. The guys got home and as we were eating supper a really heavy thunderstorm moved in. We had some serious wind here. When I say we had wind "here" I mean it hits the top of the mountain behind us and the river area in front of us. We do get some minor wind right here at the house but not even enough to toss the cushions out of the patio furniture. We are blessed that our house sits back in an indention in the side of the mountain. When the wind kicked up we turned on the news and weather all to find we were under a tornado warning. We didn't even lose our power here but others in the county are without power as I write this. Listening to the news, there were reports of several tornado's and straight line wind damage in Kentucky this evening. We did get some heavy rain tho. That means no planting the raspberries or strawberries this week and the yard wont get mowed for several more days. May have to resort to the bush hog if we cant mow in short order. The yard looks kinda silly right now where I got the weed eating done yesterday and didn't get it mowed. But OH well, there will be another day I'm sure.
And with all the things I did remember to do this weekend, getting the brooder house ready was not one of em. Dang, I will have baby chicks in a box in the house if they show up tomorrow. Talk about a brain fart. Story of my life.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

I got new toys !!!!!!

OK so once in a while a girl needs to have new toys. Don't let ya mind fall in the gutter here now. I got toys to do outside chores with. As you know I spent last week with my aunt Ann in west Ky and on the way home stopped to see my friend Rosie an her hubby. Well both Rosie and Ann have chainsaws and I tole Rodger I wanted a small chain saw too. I was reminded I am not allowed to have a ladder and he insisted on knowing why I thought I needed a chainsaw.  I think I kinda freaked the fellers out a lil. In the process of discussion of what would be most beneficial on the farm and multipurpose we settled on a Craftsman Cordless chain saw. I just wanted something to cut small brush around the edge of the yard cause I cant to well manage a brush axe. Also light weight so the guys can keep it on the tractor to trim tree limbs so they don't take the new muffler off the tractor. Yep, the muffler got knocked off with a low hanging limb in the field. So I now have a lil battery powered chain saw. Its so cute. I got the battery on the charger so maybe I can try it out tomorrow. While we were out getting my saw noticed Sears had another tool set that used the same kind of battery pack. The tool kit has a reciprocating saw, (great for cutting down the back of a hog after its butchered) , a drill, light, an a cordless bagless hand vac. We were looking for the reciprocating saw and for just $20 more I got a handy hand held vac to do minor pickup in the house. So needless to say SOMEthing will get cut up tomorrow. Then it was off to the gun store to find me a good .22 rifle to shoot critters out of the garden. Yep, I got one a them too. See I'm not ya normal woman. Most women go shopping for clothes, me I go get new tools. Oh an I about forgot, I also got a new heavy duty dump wagon for my 4 wheeler. We got to try the wagon out when we got home from shopping and went to plant the fruit trees. We had 13 trees to plant and the wagon was ideal to haul them and the tools to the field. The dump bed works great too. Will be very easy to move dirt to build new beds for flowers and strawberries up here nearer to the house. OK enough about my new toys.
The things in the greenhouse are coming up and looking great. All I really need is more room in there or at least more benches. The benches are full and so is the floor and I still have more shrubs to re- pot as soon as they develop roots. I have about 4 different kinds that will need to be potted in the next few weeks. Not to mention the rest of the grapevines that will -prolly make roots too. Tomorrow I will need to get the brooder house ready for the baby chicks. They should arrive early next week. The building was cleaned out this past winter so all I really need to do is move all the stuff that is stored in there to somewhere else and put down bedding and get the heat light up and feed an water tanks in. Shouldn't take too long to do that. I sure hope our weather warms a bit this coming week. This cold stuff is really getting to me. I cant remember the last time we had to run the heat this late in the spring. But it has been getting down in the low 30's at night here. A few nights we have had to run heat in the greenhouse. They are giving showers for several days next week and a wind advisory for tomorrow. So cant open the greenhouse if the wind is too strong or the greenhouse becomes a kite. Just have to wait and see what tomorrow holds for us.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella