Too wet to plant..........again

It was kinda cool this morning and had rained a lil bit over night. Still over cast but not raining about noon and Rodger had went out to get another bag of mulch. I thought 1 would be enough to finish the project that I had started. I got the mulch spread on the bed in back of the house and still came up a lil short. Probably 1 more bag will finish the leeks. Maybe get to that on Monday. Then it started to rain again. We got some pretty heavy rain but didn't last long. Just enough to settle in the seeds that I had planted on Friday evening and give the new strawberry plants a nice boost. My online friends Carl and Gretchen sent me some beautiful strawberry plants, a different variety than the ones I already had. Jason and I got those planted on Friday evening and fertilizer put near them so they should grow by leaps and bounds. Everything has been side dressed at this point so now we wait and hope the garden grows well and produces good.
It had rained too much this morning to get the other field of corn planted  so that will have to wait till next week also. Only planting another half acre or so but it needs to be in to have plenty of time to mature. It is a long season heirloom variety that we can use for cornmeal or stock feed.
With the cool weather today I thought a kettle of tater soup was in order. It was so good. I love potato soup with lots of onions and garlic and I sprinkle my bowl of soup with finely chopped dill. So yummy for the tummy.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Finally making progress

Well the railroad company finally got our crossing fixed so we could get to the garden last evening. We got about 300 tomato plants transplanted, 100 sweet potatoes, and about 50 or so peppers of various varieties. The corn and beans we planted a couple weeks ago are up and look really good. The potatoes are coming up as well. AND the Colorado potato beetles are eatin on them as they come out of the ground. I think the tater bugs are holding on to the plant and riding it out of the ground. Each plant that was emerging had no less than 4 bugs on it. It was pitiful, Rodger and I went up the rows mashing the bugs. So we killed round one of bugs.

The taters have barley emerged and the bugs have already attacked.

3 long rows of tomatoes and 1 row of sweet potatoes transplanted to the big garden.

Rodger has a good start clearing the hill in front of the house. We can actually see the garden from the front porch.

The front herb bed and the new extension that we finally got added on. Most of it is planted. Some are transplants and some places I have sown seeds.

Flowers on the front side walk are blooming.

My peonies bloomed for the first time this year and do they ever smell heavenly.

How the heck long does it take hollyhocks to bloom? These things are huge and have buds where the flowers will be but no blooms yet.

The onion bed extension to the right in the back yard. As you notice it is kinda nice to live near railroad tracks sometimes. They do leave ties around about ever 2 or 3 years.

I was hoping to get the small seeds planted in the garden this evening but we have Had a lil rain this afternoon with more expected. But this will sure help the tomatoes and things we set out last evening tho. Ah, all in a days work.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Just one of those days

Do ya ever have those days when you just don't even want to get out of bed? One of those days you feel like crap but not really sick? Well I think I had one of em today. Or maybe the 2 days work prior had caught up with me. Dunno, but I have not managed to get a thing done today. But on Sunday I did get my herbs planted in the new herb bed extension that I wanted to do. The plants are small yet but will grow this summer and fill in nicely. But in the meantime it does look kinda bare. Also got the leeks planted in the bed out back. I still have some other things I want to plant in the herb bed but just sure didn't feel like doing it today. Then after the guys got home from work and we ate supper Jason went with me to get a load of mulch for the ornamental and some of the herb bed.  I use free wood chips to mulch with. The do help keep in moisture and keep down weeds in the pretty stuff. As most of the chips were hardwood chips I didn't mind using them on the herbs that I had just planted as well. That was a hard job for both of us. Jason loaded the mulch into the truck and then loaded it into the wheelbarrow so I could put it around the plants. By bedtime last night I was done. And it was near dark when I finally got done with all the lil projects. We have had some 80 plus degree days and even a few with no rain. Not sure if 2 days of working outside in the heat did me in or what. The heat is great for the plants in the greenhouse but not so much for the chickens in the brooder house. The Cornish do get really hot during the day. They have a fan in there but they have such fast metabolism and produce so much body heat that they can die from heat exhaustion pretty quick. So till butchering time that will be a full time chore trying to keep them cool. Not sure but may go ahead and butcher them at 5 weeks so they don't suffer in the heat. Kinda depends on the weather later this week.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The herb bed extension is done

We got the timbers laid last evening for the herb bed extension and the timbers in place for the bed extension out back on the end of the onion bed. Rodger hauled some dirt last evening for the herb bed. Today he finished it up. Dang that is a big area to plant. But thas OK, I can fill it. He also got the dirt put in the bed our back. Jason and I used the rack to level all the dirt off and make it nice an pretty. I was going to try to get some stuff planted today but it started to rain a lil bit and I decided against planting in the rain. We just got enough rain to make a lil layer of mud on top of the soil. If we don't get more rain over night or tomorrow I might get them planted. The rain stopped pretty soon and I did get the used bedding out of the brooder house and fresh straw put down for the Cornish cross. The old used straw is piled to compost for a while and then it gets used to put around the raspberry plants to mulch and add nutrients to them.  I do like to try and keep the Cornish dry and clean. If their bedding gets soiled they do get pretty nasty at butchering time. All they do is eat, drink and sit down. They are quite big for 4 week old chickens. Just a couple more weeks and they will be in the freezer.
When we were finishing up the herb bed, I was needing some weed barrier to put down under the dirt to keep weeds and grass from the yard from coming up thru my plantings. When I started out I was using shredded junk mail that I shred all year long and save just for this kinda stuff. Then I ran out and used paper feed bags that we had saved. Just split those open and put them on the ground over the grass and hose em down and cover with soil. I soon ran out of those and had to resort to the plastic weave feed bags that chicken feed and such come in. Those are split and laid on the grass too just like the paper one. Water will go thru but weeds wont come up thru them. They will eventually rot under the soil but they are free so who can complain. I still have a LOT of those plastic weave feed bags left to use as a weed barrier around the fruit trees in the orchard. I guess the next project will be hauling mulch to mulch in the planting in the beds. When I get them planted. Maybe tomorrow if we don't get more rain. Guess we wait and see what tomorrow holds.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Another day without rain

We had another day without rain here today. The ground is drying out nicely but dang it we cant get in the garden. The railroad company has taken out the crossing and it wont be put back till next week. This would have been a great time to get the rest of my garden planted and the plants transplanted that are in the greenhouse. But at least Rodger and Jason got started on my herb bed extension in the front yard this evening. We might get that done tomorrow and ready to plant. The extension is actually bigger than I had anticipated. But that is good too. Just more room to add plants. The bed started out about 22 ft long by 8 ft wide. It will be 8 ft longer on one end, and we added another 8 ft to the width on the side. So total space is about 30 by 16 ft. Rodger got started this evening moving the dirt into the new bed too. Its gonna take a lot of trips with the lil tractor bucket to fill all that area in. In the morning I need to round up more stuff to use for weed barrier. I used shredded paper this evening for what we got done. Guess I need to raid the building and dig out all the old card board that we have around. Last resort will be paper feed bags. But I really want to save those to mulch around the fruit trees in the orchard. Not sure how much we can get done this weekend beings we are forecast for 20% chance of rain till next Thursday. Maybe it will miss us. I can only hope. The wild blackberries are in full bloom now so as soon as they start losing their bloom we usually get several days of cool rainy weather.  We surely have to get all the planting done in the next week or so. We will be butchering chickens the weekend of May 21st. They will be 6 weeks old then and huge. On my to-do list for tomorrow is to get the brooder house cleaned out. The new herb bed will be a good place to put the fresh manure from there. It will have time to rot before the lil plants put roots down to get into it. And it means I wont have to move the compost twice.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

A nice day even if its wet

The weather here was fairly nice today. We did have some sunshine and a breeze blowing to help dry things out. The ground is still quite soggy but I did manage to plant some roses in spite of the mud. Rosie had given me some Rugosa rose starts when I was at her place earlier this year. I had them in a paper box sitting in the greenhouse. I kept them watered and they had leaves and were starting to grow in there. I got out today and dug a trench, added some good soil and planted them. That did free up a good deal of space in the greenhouse too. I had talked to her today on the phone and we were talking about old fashioned roses. I knew where some were growing at the old house site and told her I would get one dug up and potted to bring to her when I come to get Jason's puppy. So I have a rose bush in a pot and got an extra one to plant here at the house. I planted it near the old farm equipment in the lower end of the yard. I got about 10 total rose plants planted and only got 1 rose thorn prick the whole time. I did good. Normally I get tore all to pieces.
The other day I found a good recipe in a magazine for filled cookies that I want to try. They sound easy enough, even tho made with a box cake mix. I didn't have a piece of paper to write the recipe on so I put it in my phone.



Filled chocolate cookies

4 whole eggs
2 18 oz boxes of devils food cake mix
2/3 cup oil

Filling

1 8ox pk cream cheese
1/2 cup butter softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In large bowl mix cake mix, eggs and oil, the batter will be stiff. Pinch off pieces and roll into about 1 inch balls. Place on paper lined baking sheet and flatten. Bake till light brown and still slightly soft in the center.
Let cool on pan for a few minutes then move to rack to finish cooling.
Fill and enjoy

To make the filling:
Beat cream cheese and butter till light, add vanilla beating well, add in powdered sugar and beat till smooth. IF filling is a lil too soft, chill for a few minutes to stiffen.
Spread filling on half the cookies, and top with other cookie halves.

Enjoy with a cup o coffee or glass of cold milk.

I might just make some of these tomorrow if I cant get outside to work in the gardens. But I think I might use yellow cake mix instead.  Pretty sure these guys here will prefer them made with chocolate cake mix tho.

So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Dang it rained again

At some point last night it rained. I know this cause all was wet and soggy this morning. Jason said it stormed really bad last night. By dang I was too tired to hear it. I slept right thru the storms. So needless to say there was no working in the berries today. Am pretty sure it was mud over in the garden. So we have not done much here today. I did clean up the house, took care of the chicks and started some more tomatoes. Yep, more maters. My friend Sheri from up in Missouri sent me some seeds for Tumbling tom (red and yellow) tomatoes that she says are best grown in a hanging pot. Also some Red House Free standing (heirloom) tomatoes that she said needs very lil staking, and some Juliet grape tomatoes. See I am alas up to trying new things. It should be warm enough now for the greenhouse to stay warm enough for the tomatoes to come up pretty quick and do well. I have a lot of tomatoes in the greenhouse that need to go to the garden and that will happen the next few dry days we get so we can work in there again.
Here at the house I finally got my sun shades made for the front porch. I had the burlap cut and had Rodger cut 2 strips of lumber for me to tack the burlap to. It is mounted under the ceiling on the west end of the porch. I am sure it will help keep the front porch much cooler this summer. Should keep the sun from beating in on the front of the house too. I love sitting on the front porch but when the sun shines in there in the evening it can get unbearably hot. Now it would be nice if I could get the stain and sealer put on the porch and railing out there to protect it better. Still am thinking of planting the 2 wisteria vines I bought on the south side of the porch and let them grow up the railing to shade the south side a bit in summer too. Plus they do smell pretty too.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella