Garden Therapy

It's the strangest thing ... gardening seems to be one of the only things in the world that can completely get my mind off of everything else. It doesn't make much sense. It would seem that since only my hands are occupied that my mind would wander. But it just doesn't. It's a wonderful thing ... something I'm just going to accept as a blessing.

I've been indulging in plenty of "garden therapy" lately - recently rotatilling the garden and planting zucchini, yellow squash, green beans (two kinds), lima beans (Emily's favorite!), cucumbers (four kinds!), sunflowers and zinnias (not to eat, but because they make me smile), and tomatoes. You can see here that my potatoes, onions, lettuce, spinich, carrots and peas (regular, sugar snap and snow) are all coming along nicely.

I still have about 50 pepper plants that will go in the ground in a few weeks along with the okra. Andy asked me awhile back if I was planning to feed the entire town of Winfield with the produce from my gardens. :) In fact, I am hoping to participate in our local farmers market this summer ... certainly not every Saturday, but a least a few time. I also have a new raised bed that Gage and I finished last weekend (yep, that makes THREE gardens!) where I plan to plant herbs and more cutting flowers.

The fruits and berries we have planted this year are coming along just swimmingly. Roger recently planted for us four peach trees, four apricot and four cherry. It has become a tradition for Gage and me to plant trees for our anniversary. This year we have a handful of pear trees and apple trees on their way! The six blueberry bushes and six raspberry bushes we planted are also sprouting right up! Last summer I planted strawberries, which are thriving! One thing about planting soooo many different varieties of plants I am not familiar with is that I have LOTS to learn. I'm devouring anything I can get my hands on that tells me more about fruits and berries. For instance, I was recently reading about the care of strawberries and discovered that it is recommended that one pinch off the blossoms until July 1. When we went out to pinch blossoms, Gage and I discovered that the plants were already LOADED with berries! Here is just a tiny little bit that we picked off. Now, the book that I read didn't say anything about pinching off the berries, but we decided to try it and see what happens. Hopefully if won't decrease the yield later in the summer. In any case, we are looking forward to plenty of yummy fruits and veggies this summer and in years to come!

Belated Easter Pics

I know Easter was almost two weeks ago, but I couldn't resist sharing a few pictures! We went to Dighton for Easter ... Kalo and grandma in the "fort"! Maggie is quite possibly the happiest baby I have ever seen. No big trick to get her to smile. :)

Dying Easter eggs and hunting to Easter eggs!

Maggie was too cute on Easter Sunday!

The little man, all ready for church!

Maggie and Grandma :)

No Easter is complete without bunny slippers. :)

Ice Storm

Crazy Kansas weather! In one week's time we have gone from tornados and hail to ice and blizzards to 65 degrees and sunny and back to thunderstorms again last night!! We fared the ice storm pretty well - we had power the whole time, which is more than we can say for most folks in the area. Bernice - our 93-year-old neighbor - is staying with us intil her power comes back on. (Yes, she is 93 and lives by herself in the country ... she's pretty amazing!) Even though the ice shut things down for a few days, it was quite beautiful ... This is Gage's favorite view of the house ... he loves the exposed roots on this old oak tree. Koda didn't mind the ice and snow a bit! Poor daffodils!

I did manage to bring in some tulips and grape hyacinth before the storm hit. They certainly brightened the kitchen!

Bye-Bye Camper

You may recall, in one of my very first posts I shared with you about purchasing a camper to be our "headquarters" during our build. In truth, we actually lived in the camper more than we lived at Roger's last spring, summer and fall. I loved that camper. I hated that camper. And now it is gone ... On St. Patrick's Day, we sold our camper to some friends of ours. It all happened suddenly, which was great, but crazy. Gage and I had just started talking about what we needed to do to get the camper ready to sell. I went out Saturday afternoon and deep cleaned the sucker. Saturday evening, Jeff and Dovie showed up and said they wanted to buy our camper. Just like that. Like it was meant to be. Strange how your feelings about something can change so quickly. Looking at it through new eyes after I cleaned it I thought, "What a great little camper. We should definitly camp out here sometime this spring. Maybe we shouldn't sell it." When just back in October, sitting in the cramped, dirty, musty, leaking camper, I didn't think I could hate anything more than I hated that camper. C'est la vie, right? Above is the happy little camper last mother's day. Imagine how blown away Gage's family will be when we can host get togethers in an actual house ... not just on our camper's "porch". :) Here is the empty spot where our camper used to sit! So great! So strange! We actually now have a view from our front porch, and we can watch Emily playing in her tree house. Emily was with us on Monday for spring break. Good day to catch lady bugs. :)

Fire, 'Facts and Garden Fun

I realize it has been a bit since my last update. Here is what we have been up to over the last few weeks...

Some beautiful, warm days last week provided the perfect opportunity to burn our fields/pastures/weed patch. Having grown up in Western Kansas, the spring burn is still a somewhat foreign concept to me. In Lane county, any spring fire is almost certainly an accident. Not so on the edge of the Flint Hills. I've learned that spring burns are essential to promote healthy bluestem growth and to keep trees from taking over your pasture land (not such a concern in Western Kansas ...) It has taken me a few years, but I'm finally past my fear of field fires and trust that folks around here are skilled and knowledgable in controlled burns.

Since our land was cropland just a few years ago, we currently have more weeds than grass. Hopefully with consistant spring burns and a little cultivating, we will have pastures before long.

Looks scary, doesn't it?! Looks like our house is just a few feet away from the fire! In fact, a very green lawn separated the fire from the house, all but eliminating any danger. Plus, the wind was pushing the fire away from the house.

A view from the porch of the burn out front.

Is it just me, or does the dog look concerned?

Eek! I hate this view of the house right now ... DESPERATLY needs landscaping! I'm working on it ...

The weather stayed delightful through the weekend, giving me the chance to plant some early crops - yea!! Peas, lettuce, carrots, onions and potatoes are all in the ground ... I am simply craving fresh vegetables! I can't WAIT!

Dusty was a lot of help, of course ...

.... but he tired quickly and opted for a nap on my sweatshirt.

After our beautiful days, we got a much needed rain early in the week. Rain on freshly-tilled gardens and just-burned fields provides the perfect opportunity for artifact hunting! (and yes I realize that calling artifacts "facts" in the title was ridiculous ... I just couldn't resist the alliteration.)

Here is what I found in the one of the gardens ... it's lovely don't you think? That's a thumb tack next to it for scale.

I was very proud of my little point ... until I saw what my husband found ... same thumb tack, muuuuuch bigger arrowhead. (humph)

He also found this tool. What a show off.