April was busy (unless you were Archie), but fun. Lots of spring flowers, new bees, new raised beds (that I'm having to replant after the really hard freeze over the weekend :-/) all the spinning, a little painting, beautiful moons, interesting fog, good sheep, good friends...
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Thursday, May 7, 2026
Sunday, April 5, 2026
Thursday, November 20, 2025
The Parable Of The Broken Doors
Anyone who's visited the Wool House in the last...embarrassable amount of months has surely noticed the falling apart doors. Feeling a bit like a broken door myself, I hadn't made any effort to even take them down, much less hang the new ones that were just waiting for a coat of paint in the garage.
The blanket flowers and salvias out front had been blooming like crazy all fall and had done their part to distract attention from the doors and we'd all enjoyed them, none more than all the bees still gathering food to pack their larders for winter. News of an upcoming hard freeze hit hard. Especially as, if we could just get through two miserably cold nights, the temps were heading back up into the 60s again.
All the potted plants were moved inside; the orange tree carried in as well. That job gets harder every year! The greenhouse, with its falling apart roof panels (yes, it's a farm trend) was patched back together and the resident writing spider tucked in. The plants in the ground...just covering them with a sheet was not going to do much good.
If it had just been a few flowers, I'd have accepted the inevitable. It was a lot of flowers. If I could just build a "greenhouse" over them...
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A couple of old lambing jug pens, an ancient rusty puppy exercise pen, some miscellaneous tomato supports, three beat up Wool House doors as a roof and some booth tent sides later...a little fairly large "greenhouse" covered everything in hopes that there might be enough residual ground warmth trapped to keep everyone safe.
And cold it got. 21 degrees and snow.
...the bees were back at work!
I am sentimental to a fault (maybe/probably) and I hate to throw anything away because it's old or broken or just used up. Those old doors didn't want to just get chucked into the back of a truck. No one does. And like the parable of the leaky bucket, without those broken doors, we'd have had no temporary greenhouse.
Two weeks later, the flowers are still blooming and the bees are still around. The old doors are safely tucked into the barn. The lamb and puppy pens are in frequent use here, but those doors are beyond repair and will be replaced in the spring. The old doors can stay though, because I may well need their help again sometime.
Monday, October 27, 2025
Real Quick
Hug A Sheep Day was chilly, but very fun and I have pictures and stories to share from that, but they are on my phone, so an extra step to share, but not to worry...I will get that done, hopefully tomorrow. In the meantime, here is a quick post to update everyone on the swallowtail caterpillar in the garden.
Last week I found a swallowtail caterpillar still eating away on some leftover carrot tops out in my messy garden. I'm glad the garden was messy because, by accident, there was still some food for a late to the party caterpillar.
We had two medium freezes and a hard freeze last week and I worried about what was going to happen, so I built a makeshift greenhouse using some picket fence pieces and clear plastic and on the coldest nights I draped a cotton sheet over the top, tucking it in the edges to hold as much heat in as I could.
It worked!
Each morning I walk out and check on it and this morning he/she was in a good spot for a photo so I grabbed my big camera. Cell phone cameras are nice, but no comparison to a good DSLR. I not only prefer those pictures, but they are also easier to get inspired to post a quick blog.
Monarch caterpillars can not make it through the winter, but swallowtail caterpillars can overwinter if they make it into a chrysalis. I'm not sure if I would need to try to move it into the garage or something, but if we make it that far, I'll do a little more research.
In the meantime, we'll all do our best and be grateful there to have made it this far. Those carrots have got to be confused for sure!
Speaking of messy gardens, it's best to leave them messy all winter! The birds will eat all sorts of leftover seeds and any insects they find there and there are insect of all sorts living in the mess and eggs that would hatch next spring if they are given a chance. Embrace the mess and leave your leaves, too!
Monday, August 4, 2025
July
July...was brutal. So incredibly hot and humid. Demoralizing. I did manage to spend about 36 hours up north for a wedding...and that made it almost worse. Worse in a "need to buy a lottery ticket" way. And yet, watching these photo flash by, there was a little good mixed in...but I can say it was better watching it than living it.
Thursday, July 31, 2025
Hey, Pinot
It looks like you've been exploring in the barn again!
"Yeah, maybe. How'd you know?"
It's not a puzzle. Look at your messy face!
This picture does make a fun puzzle though. Enjoy!
Pinot loves his outdoor run around time and is currently obsessed with exploring the barn. He still briefly checks in with some of his garden haunts, but I think he likes visiting the sheep and he loves to climb on the lower hay bales.
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
A Morning Tour
Friday, June 13, 2025
And May...
Much of May was second verse, same as the first. Pinot was still digging his hole and filling it back in. Bullseye kept getting friendlier and friendlier - just a charming young cat. More rain. More green grass and also a special mix of grass planted out front for Pinot.
The cake baking continued.
Short Round made it all the way out into the yard to graze a few evenings. Maisie grazed in the driveway. Baaxter had been kicked out into Summer Breezy because he was being a bully. Boys...
The cicadas arrived and that's been...interesting. I can stand the mess and the noise, but fer cryin' out loud, get off me while I'm trying to weed eat!
There's a funny story about poison ivy and Short Round getting some props for helping support the removal at a friends house...by goats. Since Short Round will eat anything, I figured she should be there in spirit :-).
Betsy enjoyed another party. Bea enjoyed a trip to Dairy Queen. Everyone enjoyed the beautiful full moon.
The gardens are coming along, both vegetable and B Garden.
The horse shenanigans continued. Boys...
Knitting as fast as I could to get. this. project. finished. My Iknitariders had fun riding along and didn't mind too much when Bullseye fell asleep with them.
Maisie is a Good Sheep.
Losing Burrnie and Kaala was not unexpected, but still sad. I love the barn camera shot of her sleeping tucked up with Liddy near the end. Kaala enjoyed her friends here. So did Burrnie.
Speaking of the barn camera, I love being able to check in with everyone whenever I want, but also, if I see something odd I can go back and see what happened. One evening I saw the sheep all jump up startled. I switched to the barn lot camera to try to see what they were looking at. Something small and light colored, but I never could decided exactly who it was.
The month ended with a fun steam train ride at the Heavenly Hilltop Railroad with 20 and Pip and Skipper (Rebecca's lamb), who is now far too big to pick up.
I love these scrapbook compilations :-).
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Spring Has Sprung
Well, that (springtime in Kentucky) escalated quickly! Like it always does.
Most people look forward to spring. I'm more a of fall person, looking forward to the quiet of winter. I haven't finished my Iknitarod vest yet, but I'm still working on it. I stopped to knit a small sweater for a chilly new sheep friend (not at bottle lamb...sorry) who I'll introduce maybe tomorrow. I have garden news to share. An exciting new fiber tool. Plans for the summer.
Just not enough hours in the day, even though the days are getting longer.
Sigh...
Friday, May 3, 2024
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Stupid Springtime
Too much to do and not enough time to do it.
80 degrees one day and frost the next. Luckily nothing seems to be too damaged except some asparagus.
Why do I get these ideas of new garden things I want to do each spring? See sentence one...
This picture seemed to resonate this morning, so how about a new puzzle?
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
A Tour Of The B Garden
I've tried to take pictures of the B Garden this summer and I'm not getting anything that's making me say wow, but I took a short live video tour of it on Instagram last night that's pretty fun :-).
Tuesday, September 7, 2021
Thank Goodness It's Not Still August
Most of August is just a hot, miserable slog, but a few things make it a little more bearable...or maybe it's just two things. One is keeping track of the August fogs. The other is celebrating Stella's and my birthday.
Sometimes we have neighborhood parties. Sometimes we go get milkshakes and root beer floats. Sometimes we go on a picnic and play cards. This year we had a homegrown tomato party!
Auntie Reg had an extra planting bag so we put Stella's favorite tomato, Cherokee Purple, on her porch. I've never tried to grow a container tomato so I wasn't sure how things would go. Obviously they went well!
Cheers to a happy birthday!
Oh, one other thing that August is good for is butterflies. Stella has a couple of beautiful light purple (and white ;-) butterfly bushes next to her porch and they attract the most beautiful butterflies, humming birds and hawk moths :-D.
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Can't come up with anything else good about August.
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Maybe bats. The bats are still flying strong in August...
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What else?
Friday, July 10, 2020
Monarchs!
Well, one. One monarch. But more are surely coming!
How could they resist this buffet :-D.
Last year I planted milkweed seeds in two of the raised beds and my cousin and I transplanted 10 plants from the back field into the lavender garden. Nine of the 10 plants came back this year with extras on the side and one of the raised beds is so packed with milkweed plants that I haven't even had to weed it all summer.
I also planted plenty of buckwheat and scattered several packets of seed mixes for butterflies, bees and birds. There are still a few lavender plants left after three years of way too wet winters and a few volunteer sunflowers have popped up as well. I'm just now seeing some mixed flowers and I can't wait until the whole garden is blooming!
This picture shows how many milkweeds are packed in the raised bed just outside the lavender, now known as the butterflies, birds and bees garden.
This picture maybe better shows how tall they are.
I tried (once again) to plant some vegetables this spring, Victory Garden style, and (once again) in the event of a zombie apocalypse, we're going to be some of the first folks out. But, hey, we'll have lots of pretty flowers ;-).
Here's a new puzzle that ought to keep you busy for awhile. Enjoy!
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