On the weekends we take breaks from our hard work to go play with the dogs by the creek. We throw sticks in for Tweeter, he quickly brings them back and begs for another. Its no small secret that Tweeter loves to run after and pick up whatever you throw to him. I don't say fetch, because that assumes he brings it back for a re-throw. It gets old fast. SO, sometimes we through rocks. This takes him a lot longer to come back with giving us a break! However it is also a very commical event to watch. This actually started when he was a pup. Throw a small rock in the bottom of a wash tub or five gallon pail, and the whole Tweeter went in after it! It was even funnier after he followed the baler all day baling hay. He would circle the wash tub after the rock, and then lay down with just the tip of his nose showing above the water, but thats another story. This weekend we had a rainstorm Saturday night so the creek was a lot higher than normal. As Ben describes it, the creek is aprox 3/4 Tweeter's deep or 1 whole brown dog. Here are pics of Tweeters "rock fetching" I know you guys may not find it as amusing as we do but I couldn't resist. And to put it into perspective, all these pics = 2 rocks. Remarkably, he has a "high" return rate, and yes they are usually the same rock we threw! Seed Savers ExchageSunday morning we headed to Decorah to the Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, IA. For those of you that are not familiar with Seed Savers, in a nutshell, it is an organization that works to preserver heritage varieties of vegatables, berries, trees, and other plants. They sell open pollinated and historic seeds and started plants, as well as put on classes and work shops on gardening, seed saving, etc. This weekend they provided a workshop on grafting trees, namely Apple Trees. www.seedsavers.org So much to choose from! We came home with seed started Onions, Leeks and rhubarb. Along with some seeds and our apple graftings. We got our onions from SS last year. We have found this is WAY easier than starting them from onion sets. And they all turned out great! You can tell everyone here takes pride in what they do here at SS. The grounds look great, the plants healthy and organized etc. I of course smelled all the wonderful herb plants they had started. Makes me really want to put my herb garden in. But I need to think about this first as I have no desire to WEED said herb garden but don't want tons of pots to water.... any suggestions? I really want to go back later in the summer when the gardens are in full bloom. Or at least GREEN! We've only gone in the spring to get our garden stuffs, its always been brown. Apple GraftingThings you need: A grafting Knife. It is slightly different from a regular pocket knife. Only one side of the blade is angled, kind of like a wood workers chisel. A Rubber band to wrap the graft and pull it together, wax strips to help seal the moisture in so the graft doesn't dry out, tape and marker to lable your grafted trees! Woe is the person who grafted 6 different trees and did NOT label them! And last but not least you need your root stock and your cutting from your tree of choice. Ben and I work well with each other. His strenght was doing the actual cutting of the graft, mine was wrapping the rubber band around the graft and wax. NOT as easy as it sounds! So Ben cut, and I wrapped sealed and labled. We were done in record time I think. Take a close look at the picture above. The FIRST thing they had us do was hold up our hands, show that we all had 10 fingers. They warned us not to cut ourselves. Now look at the pic... tape on Ben's finger. At least he didn't cut it bad or a 2nd time. Ben and the hole in the rock....He made sure I took a picture of one of the holes in the rock face at SS. He REALLY REALLY wanted to go check them out and see if anyone is living in them... Things around the house- But no pictures.Yet....We got a lot done on Saturday before the rain moved in around 7pm. Worked on cleaning out the "summer kitchen" AGAIN. There was a LOT of junk in there. Still a lot to do but we can get in it again.
I did TONS of laundry. Literally I swear. We also cleaned out the south porch and ripped up carpet. It is now ready to have the cracks caulked, walls and floor cleaned and painted. I have a few screens I have to get repaired and windows washed. But its getting closer to being ready to use! This excites me. We have NO bathroom upstairs my 3 trips down the stairs at night is getting a little old. I'm ready to sleep in the porch. GARDEN: Ben put out his pumpkin plants. We've had to cover them a few nights this week but its not really that cold. We should be getting our cold hardy plants in next weekend if its not rainy. CHICKENS: chickens are doing well. The meat birds are growing crazy fast. We've only lost 1 out of the 29 so we are doing good so far. knock on wood. We did have to separate the black chicks and the white chicks because the white ones grow so much faster and were starting to crowd out the little ones. Thanks it for now. :)
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Morell HuntingBen, Timber and I went morell hunting about a 1 1/2 weeks ago. I think it hasn't been cool and damp enough for good mushroom growth. We found a few but none morells. Not that I'd eat them, Ben would. It's the whole living off the earth. I'm not a big fan of any mushrooms. Clothes Line = "Y"I've been begging Ben to move the clothes line because it is on the north side of the house under a ton of trees. Not the greatest place for drying clothes... He tried pulling the metal "pole" out of the ground with the skidloader. Apparently these were put in when cement was relativly cheep because I now have a clothes line that looks like a Y. The base did NOT budge... Plan B build a new clothes line.... Garden Time!!!!With this wonderful weather we had/have we were really anxious to get the garden in. However things aren't that simple when you have to break new ground for the garden. The weekend before Easter Ben got his grandpa's old plow from the farm and plowed a nice big space for the garden and then got our tiller out and tilled it. Still needs another tilling or two before it's ready but its a start! Baby ShowerThe announcement was made... we are expecting a Boy and a Girl in Aug. :) Thanks Brooke for the great cake! She even had me cut it with the biggest knife in my moms house. Everyone stood several feet away from me ;) This is the best "belly shot" that you are going to get. Sorry my friends, you are lucky I got my picture taken! 2nd cousins? My causins daughter and my sisters daughter had fun playing with the babies new bath toys! These girls are so cute. It is hard to believe these girls are about all grown up! My mom starting babysitting for them while their Mom worked at the school. I started babysitting for them on weekends and during the summer not long after that. Miss A (the baby of the family) was only a few weeks old when I first watched her! These girls have grown up into wonderful young women and will always have a VERY special place in my heart. (I was trying to not look fat but that obviously was not accomplished...) Hind sightWish we would have gotten a group pic of everyone at the shower. There was so many wonderful generous woman! I appreciate each and everyone of you. These babies are sure blessed. A huge thank you to everyone. And here is the highlight of my Monday after 10 hours of work...I arrived home to this.... Ben ordered chicks a few weeks ago. 1/2 the box is a meat breed the other 1/2 is a straight run of layers. The boys will most likely be stew birds... I'm not a huge fan of Roosters..... If anyone remembers my post about the 3 roosters that were in our bunch of birds last summer, they all made the decision of eating them easy for us ;)
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