Summer 2010 June through August

BUSY!!!

From the top (I hope)

 

Garden Rock? 

Good soil to startwith

The garden turned out to have more gravel than soil, I re-tilled another plot in hopes that it was just a bad patch. It is not. The whole yard is piles of junk, some rock, some mulch, some who knows. The good news is that rich BLACK soil was under the gravel.

The garden, first patch

The wheelbarrow and driveway at about half way

 The gravel is good for roadbed so off to the hardware store for a new wheel barrow. With said Wheel barrow in hand I began to make THE DRIVEWAY (insert horror movie music here) The driveway occupied almost all the summer shovel, move, rake, repeat! When it was all done it looked ok.

Footprints in the garden

Houseplants, last time seen alive!

The garden was not a total bust, I did get a few beans off of it, (2 good harvests in fact). The deer and cows liked the garden and occasionally helped themselves.
The folks brought us some plants for indoors and they promptly died. (did I mention that house plants and I get along?)

Rhubarb still alive

They brought some outdoor plants, Rhubarb and some raspberries. The rhubarb flourished but the raspberries struggled. I planted them and some Wild rose suckers in a patch I am calling the 'reflection gardens'.

Wild Roses

Over time I plan on turning the front corner of the yard into planter gardens with pathways and benches and that kind of thing. I also want to put in a spot for a memorial to some of the painful hurts we have from the past. Also a place for the grave markers of the cats the folks buried here. Just a quiet place to get alone with God and remember the things that we went through to get here and heal from those tears.

Ol red getting herself together

I gave ol' red up for almost dead and went out and bought lil red. I ran that beasty all summer long as I poked away at fixing the yard. Over time I did manage to fix ol' red but I use the term 'fix' loosely.

Lil red all shiny and new

I got some of the yard cleared up, so now it looks like someone actually lives here. It was over this time I also met 'the boy'.

Lil red hard at work

and more Mowing

We started late on getting firewood and were plagued by chainsaw issues. Add a flat tire and a fuel shortage or two and we are getting behind in the wood. The boy was having his own fun in getting firewood for the winter so we teamed up and got enough (almost).

By summer's end the yard looked better and the wood pile was getting bigger, the driveway got the layer for this year. I am beginning to set up a yard for the (hopefully coming soon) chickens, and now that the woodticks are getting under control, I can tackle the back half of the yard. As always the demands on my time and pocketbook outweigh what I have to start with. I had hoped to be done with the whole ratrace thing when we moved, and sometimes I regret moving because of what we would have had there. Oh well. You can only move forward.

WET!! 

I think the lawn has enough water now!

This summer also was one of the wettest in years. Here in Manitoba we had some flooded fields and overfilled ditches.  There was one afternoon in mid June it rained here so hard the drainage I have set up on the yard couldn't hold it, I measured 8" of water still on the yard when it stopped raining, after less than half an hour from when it started!

This ditch is 3' deep under half an hrs worth of rain

The drain runnith over!

There was a drainage ditch here a few minutes ago?

Gen 9 12, 13 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature  that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

Did Somebody just say  "OOPS???"

Finally Flora and Fawna 

Some of the things here that I like. Or am not so fond of.

Spider not sure what kind

Looks like a black widow

Jumbo Moth, one of many

Sandpiper or as the folks call him Pete

Sparrows
This couple nested over the living room window

and her

Yellow Finch? him

Birds nest in the oddest of places

Chippy (yes he is a squirrel) 

Just leaving the garden no one saw anything!

Ok so I promised you a rose garden!

little purple flowers

white clover flowers

ladyslippers

ladyslipper

Brown eyed susie

Pretty but allergic

Beautiful White flowers of Poison Ivy!

The Kids working hard on a summer evening.

Still Missing is the frogs, the two kinds of purple flowers, the bachelor buttons, and so on. But I didn't want to overload the blog this month.

On a funny note (picture is missing) I did wake up one morning and go to get the coffee and there on my coffee cup was this little green frog (about 1 1/2" long). Without my glasses I am almost blind, so I poked the frog without realizing what it was when it moved it scared the crap out of me! I don't know who jumped more me or it! And to this day I still cannot figure how it got inside the house.

The Cow Drive

Anyone know the theme song for Rawhide?

One last thing that happened over the summer,  this cow got out from the community pasture down by the boy's place. She wandered all the way down to our house and was headed out to the highway. The wife and I  jumped into and on the car and chased her down. Turned her around and drove her back the 3 miles to the pasture gate, which was still washed out from the flooding. I snapped this pic on the way while riding on the trunk of the car. My first cow drive!