One Bed of Peppers

After work I went out and dinked around -- too pooped to start being really productive.  But dinner helped, and I went back out and got 16 peppers into the ground.  That's one bed planted.  Two more to go. 

That's a lot of peppers, I know, but they are easy to freeze and so very useful!

Wind

Sooo much wind.  The boys weeded before they left, so there is a clear place for melons now.  But the wind.

I had hoped to plant the peppers today, but it's just too violent out there.  Maybe some tomorrow after work.

Work

The boys gave me a couple hours of their time, and three walkways were cleared and mulched.  I got the north edge done, and by the end of the day the sweet potatoes were in the ground. 

In the coming week it's supposed to be in the nineties most days.  I've been waiting for warmer weather, but some middle ground would be best! Great Plains weather: last week forty-five, this week ninety-five.

Visitors!

Philip and Peter arrived and we all went to dinner -- at The Black Crow in Beatrice, a place I've always wanted to go!  Lovely.

Sunshine Again

Anna and I put a fence next to one of the rows of peas that needs support -- two more to go.  These are blooming a bit, so it's time to get ready for a crop. Yum.

What a Day!

It was warm once -- I remember!  But right now it's fifty degrees with the wind blustering like it's March.  As I have mentioned, the peas are loving this spring.

At least there's no warm air to make tornadoes with.  Today, anyway.

Rain and More Rain

Maybe half an inch fell this morning.  Clear skies for the drive home, but now the dark clouds are gathering.  I forgot the rain gauge at Home Depot today.  Of course.

But the BIG news is that some peas are blooming!  They need to be put on a fence...

Trees

The toughest "weeds" in the garden are the ones that we are reluctant to pull AND that are hard to pull.  Trees meet both criteria.  They are cute little maple trees, or hardy elms, or friendly mulberries.  Even when they are small, but especially if they've made it through a season or two, their roots are tenacious.

So Saturday I recruited Doug the Olympic-style, over-the-head-with-who-knows-how-many-pounds  weight lifter, to deal with the trees.  He would squat, wrap the flexible little trunk around his hand, and stand up slowly, back straight, thighs doing all the work.  Perfect form.  And the trees came up.  Hooray.

A Beautiful Day

Today was as lovely a day as any Nebraska can dish up: sun, a soft breeze, no hotter than seventy-five degrees, and little puffy clouds in a light blue sky.

We started on the south end of the property, visiting the fruit trees.  There are tiny little apples and peaches, but no apricots or plums that I can see.  Hmmm, do apricots need to cross-pollinate with someone else?

 Then we walked past the garden up to the north end to visit Corbie and Serena.  They considered us to be strangers, mainly because we brought no salad offerings ( a wheelbarrow full of garden weeds is their favorite treat right now).  Corbie stared at us silently and mooed not a single moo.  Serena snuffled hopefully and squelched around in her pen (lots of rain equals good squelching), but we had no treats.

Back at the house, we picked off ticks.  The count?  Three so far.  They're in the tall grass but not, thankfully, in the garden.

The Girls

It's cloudy and rainy and a little bit thundery, so here's a picture from sunnier days.

Well, I know what picture I'm going to put here, but my computer won't do it for me. Later.