Yard work

Several years ago Joey Burns and I  began clearing the fence line. I don't  know how many hours we worked in briars but we managed to clear a small section and keep most of it maintained. Then DOT did some road work and cleared out the entire area we had worked on!!
So last year when they built the school and paved the road, they not only took 1/3 of our front yard, they also cleared a good chunk of the fence line (a long with the fence). When we complained about the fence being moved, they put a new barbed wire fence in, but it's  no longer on the property line.
So we've  once again started tackling the task of clearing the fenceline and repairing what is left of the old fence. Josh and Jake have done an incredible amount of work and I can't  believe how much progress they've  made in just a few days!

 The trees in this pic is where DOT stopped clearing. From immediately in front of the trees to the woods is how much they've accomplished.

 And here you can see where they've  found the original fence line!

 This is the "creek bed" where water runs from the road towards the pond. One of our goals in this project is for the water to flow this way again and not flood the side yard.

And this shot is from the woods looking back toward the trees. I think it shows a better view of how much distance the boys have covered!

Starting out with an oops...

So this morning we were up and early so I could make it to my classes on time. I glanced at the calendar as I head out the door and halfway to class my mind starts telling me that I saw 10 AM  on the calendar and not 9 AM  as I've been thinking all week. So after pulling into a parking spot and call Bobby. He double checks for me, and sure enough I've  arrived an hour early! So I'm  trying to focus on what I  can accomplish during this hour instead of all the things that need doing at home. Happy Saturday!

experiment

Somewhere we've read that drilling holes into stumps and filling the holes with epsom salt will help them naturally deteriorate faster. I have three stumps in the yard and several small ones in a wooded area that we're slowly clearing (trying to get to where we can redo the fence on the property line and reclaim part of the woods near a bbq pit Bobby's dad had built years ago).  So before all the rain come this past Monday morning we went to work. I should have used a larger drill bit, but since we were fighting the clouds it was a "get this down NOW" event.  I didn't take pictures, though I'm hoping within a month we'll be very pleased with the results. Time will tell!

spring-ing

All these people keep complaining about the weather and how we don't have spring on social media, and I want to simply shake them. I understand relishing warmer temps and the sunshine, but my sinuses are now in pain mode and won't get any better for several weeks, the spring cold season is now in full force (think people sneezing on laptops during class and having to leave class because they are coughing so bad), my calendar blossoms with the warmer weather and my energy level doesn't. Don't get me wrong. I love watching seeds sprout and new growth on trees and flowers. I love biddies and watching them grow  (and so far we've not lost one to the hawks, though we did lose our rooster Tuesday morning about 3am and I'm more than a little creeped out that something got it out of the garage), and I enjoy all the events that come with warmer weather.  But I feel as if life is hopping by and I simply can't keep up with it all. In the past I've shrugged the feeling off with "well, do what you can as you can" but lately I've had this small niggling feeling inside that it's simply not enough.

And since we've made the choice to start eating healthier, I'm not purchasing Dr. Pepper so the "fizzies" help clear my throat. I did buy extra apple juice so we can drink it warm and some diet ginger ale to mix with grape juice. I'm trying to focus on what we can do and not what we can't.

Saturday wraps up the last of my training. I'm officially finished with teaching and assisting, and that day is my day for being taught. May 8th is the primary. May 12th we begin rebuilding the roof to the chicken pen and the big hen house. The babies are already going in there some so I don't think it will be too hard to move them all in when it is completed. We'll be in AL the end of May for my nephew's graduation and hopefully my Dad's surgery, then a few days with Bobby's youngest sister. By that point produce should be coming in from the garden and my days will no longer be as flexible as I would like.

So I have two more days of "freedom", though since I need to do laundry and swap out Bobby's spring and winter clothes, it won't be quite as free as I'd like! :)

one wreck photo

We will probably never know what happened that day, other than the fact God miraculously protected. This is the passenger side of the truck. My uncle and Charley's father-in-law took pics of the truck this afternoon. There was only one from inside that they've felt free to share on FB, and judging by that one, I understand why they think the other inside pics are too graphic. I am just SO amazed that he is only going home with bruises, staples in his head, and a blood spot on the brain.

Meanwhile prayers are still going up for other family members and friends who are struggling and hurting in various ways in their lives. Life in this broken world is not always easy.

answers

Monday night was awful. Tuesday was a hallelujah day. Wednesday was awful, then by Wednesday evening things finally started calming down for my cousin. We are rejoicing, even though we know there is still a very long road ahead. This is what his wife posted on FB around 3:30NC time today:

Today’s Update: Great news, we’re going home 🎉!!! He’s still hurting terribly, but we’ve gotten all the answers we need and he is seizure activity free. Memory will come back slowly. There’s a lot of details, but he’s ok. Spots on the brain will heal and so will the rest of him. No driving for a long time. He will gradually be back to normal. Words cannot explain how thankful we are for your prayers. ❤️ Monday, we were at Twin Cities thinking Dad had an aneurism when I found out about Charley’s accident. Both of the closest men in my life are safe and healthy. We are blessed.
From this picture to this picture in 4 1/2 days...

S

sI am still

chick update

The biddies are almost all feathered (meaning no more heat lamp). Hooray! We're letting them out a little more, but still cautious because of the hawks that fly around (though they've yet to catch a squirrel!). They enjoy their free range time, and venturing out around the house more. 

When laying hens face trauma, it's not unusual for them to quit laying for 2-3 days. We knew our injured hen would not lay for quite a while (her butt feathers/fuzz are growing back but her tail is still bare), but we've been disappointed at how long the uninjured hen has gone without laying. Sunday night we got our first egg from her. :) They're still making a horrible mess in the garage, but I'm hoping within 2 weeks we'll have at least the roof on the pen so they can resume going into the house.

a day for remembering

Last night we received a phone call that my cousin had been in an accident and was airlifted to a nearby town. For hours we had no other information, but prayers were going up in many states on the family's behalf. This family has been through a lot the last few months, with my cousin losing some of his memory (he's in his 30s) and a lot of tests and struggles with the VA hospital.

This morning they not only took the tubes out, but they allowed him to come out of sedation. Last night he had no reflexes at all below the waist. This morning he was wiggling his toes on command. Last night he once again didn't know his wife. Today he did. Tonight he was moved out of ICU and into a regular hospital room. He still has a very long way to go, and with his illness and being out of work so much the last month, I'm sure the medical bills are going to be unreal. But tonight his wife found the name on Facebook she had been searching for...the name of the woman who arrived at the wreck scene, stopped, called 911, and then stayed until both paramedics and the lifeflight arrived. And her FB post...a pic of his truck, his first name, and the helicopter arriving on the scene, with the request for prayer for his life, and for the family as well. I was almost bawling when I read that. Our family is so grateful for her, but even more for her asking for God's people to pray for a young man she knew nothing about. We still don't know how long or how much of a recovery they have ahead of them, but we do know God is healing and answering prayers, and that has all of us very excited.

Today we also had the privilege of going to Florence, SC to visit with a dear family friend. We had a good time, and it was good to be with someone from "home".

Tomorrow we have some repairmen coming out to look at two windows. The windowsill on one totally broke apart and pulled away from the handle Sunday morning as I was closing the windows before the rain started. Thankfully we were able to close the window enough that no rain came inside, but I'm not totally thrilled about having to replace two windows (maybe 4). That was not an expense we had on our radar for this year! But I am thankful to live in a country where such repairs can actually happen. We don't have to tape plastic over the window and hope the rest of the frame doesn't rot away too quickly because there would be nothing to replace it with when it did. There are many countries where that is a reality, and we are so fortunate to live in the land of the plenty.

God has blessed us, even though we really don't deserve it.

checking off the weeks

My planting calendar starts in March (although Bobby had some helpers prep one of my garden areas in Feb). I spaced the pole beans out and planted one kind each week, in hopes that will stagger some of the heavier harvest times. And I'm excited that things are beginning to sprout and grow, and the planting is still on-going.

Pole Beans - Kentucky Wonder. They're large, flat green beans. Not Bobby's favorite but I love them because they are easy to grow and I think they taste good. I only have a small row of these this year. (This is what my geese kept eating last year.)

Pole Beans - Green Limas  I've never tried these before, and I'm excited at how they keep popping up. (See the small speck of green peaking through in the center top of the pic?) I guess I planted some seeds deeper than others as they're coming up in bunches every 3-4 days.

Pole Beans - blue lake stringless. Another green bean that is new to me but should be smaller than the Kentucky Wonder. Hoping Bobby will like this a little bit better.

Tomatoes (seedlings purchased from Ken's Produce) are now up to the lower rung. (Yes, I know I need to weed.)
 I only have 8 tomato plants this year.

Dwarf sugar snaps...the first thing that went in the ground...a "cool weather" crop.

Our helpers Josh and Jake assisted in putting up the fence to keep the chickens and geese out of this area. I can't till or dig down in this area because of the dog's underground fence and an electrical wire running through this area. So I'm using wheat straw. Since I didn't have it out all winter, I'm having to water it every day for 2 weeks to prep it for planting. I've used this method on a small scale twice before and was very pleased with the results (or until the baby chicks entered and scratched the straw apart!!!)

And my other cool weather crop - red potatoes - has been started and stopped 3x now thanks to geese and chickens. They are now in the fence area and at least 2 plants for every planter have survived the previous excavations.

Eggplants should start sprouting this week. Okra and some zipper peas went in the ground Saturday. Cantalopue and red peppers also went in their straw bales, and we started prep on the area where we'll plant corn Saturday as well. That area will not be fenced in, and I fear the deer and raccoons will totally ravish the crops, but I want to try. Next week I'll plant more zipper peas and the last week in April will be bush butterbeans (grey and green). And that will be all I can handle, if everything makes it to harvest.

goose

Geese only lay eggs in the spring. And I use the term spring as in the time frame from Feb- April. And then they're done for the year. But for the last several years, we've not had a gander, so all their eggs are unfertilized. But the geese are unaware of that. So we spend the first few months gathering their eggs when they're not around (the first month or so they lay one egg a day until they have about 10+ and then they'll start setting).  And then they start to set on unfertilized eggs...which means they sit their until the eggs rot and literally explode in the summer heat. And that stinks...mightily. This year a goose has built her nest between the little shed and the old dog pen/my garden area. They're now in panic mode, as between us, the dogs, the fox, and we think a raccoon...something is getting all their eggs. And they're mostly setting on their nest (they head to the pond for the night), which means they're being very aggressive towards us. Just hissing and tongue wagging for now; no actual charging. It helps that I put the garden door/gate between us when I enter. Last year we sold their eggs to a local produce man (Bobby's uncle), but too many other critters have been in the egg business this year to really have much to offer. I seriously considered bringing her some goslings this weekend (a local hardware store had some for sale), but with the fox , turtles, and hawk around I wasn't sure how long they would last, nor that she would adopt them.  I'm still considering it, as goslings are much cheaper than full grown geese. On the flip side, I know how much poop the generate and I've not forgotten them eating half of my green bean vines last year. Do we really want more of such creatures, even if they do follow you in a straight line or fly directly at you at feed time?

life

Last fall I started looking for a smallish (as big as me) bookcase or china cabinet to hold finished quilts. We've had many discussions and jokes at the house about cramming "one more thing" into my sewing room, but yesterday it actually became a reality. The family who sold it were carpenters from NY, and they acquired the piece from a home they were renovating (the family gave them several pieces they didn't want anymore). It made the trip with them to NC, and they've finally decided to pass it on. I'm beyond thrilled with it, both in looks, function, and size. And as a crazy side note, I recently learned a new quilting acronym: PIG - projects in grocerybags. :) As you can see from the two machines on either side of the cabinets...I have a few of those (although some are in shoe boxes).

And last night we went outside to this sight:

This is the "little house" that Josh and I rebuilt (still waiting on the front door and to me to pain the pen), but the rooster is on top of the pen and the two hens we have left are standing beside it, staring in at the 12 biddies inside. (How's that for a run-on sentence?) It made us laugh. It was the first time any of these 3 "older ones" have gotten near the little house.

Garden-wise: sugar snaps and pole limas are coming up; already time to weed, and I'm waiting for next week to plant the remainder of April's crops.

our new alarm clock

Last week I woke up around 5:30am to a chicken making strange noises not far from our bedroom window. I said something to Bobby about it, and he replied, "No, that's a goose." So I'm trying to distinguish exactly what I'm hearing when Freckles races down the ramp, barking full force. Then we distinctly hear the cry of a chicken. So I get up, head to the bathroom window as quickly as I can, and see a fox standing on TOP of the privacy fence, over the chicken pen. I went outside in my pajamas and the fox went off the other side of the fence. I quickly let the one hen in the pen out, and started looking for the second one. I couldn't find her. And then I saw the feathers...two huge piles all around the little hen house. I felt sick, but there was nothing I could do. So about an hour later, I heard the cries of a chicken, and run back outside thinking we're losing our last hen. Instead, the rooster is trying to mate a nearly bald hen. She was alive!!! Evidently Freckles interrupted the fox's attack. So since that night, both hens have been roosting in the garage (we have an open garage), refusing to go into the hen house, and the last few nights the rooster has joined them there. And when he crows in the morning, it reverberates.  Last night, something made him crow not long after they made their perch. I went outside to see what was going on, and the dumb thing was responding to its own echo. (Ever since they cleared the woods for the elementary school, there's been a very distinct echo on our curve of the road.) We do have some friends who will be helping us make a roof for the pen before we gut the house and rebuild. I will be glad when that day gets here!

pollen week

Well, the first week of pollen season is here. I remember as a child, the first time I saw pollen on the car. I was horrified and didn't know what was happening in the world. Mother laughed at me and seemed incredulous that I was shocked. I have no clue how old I was, I just remember my horror at coming out of the store to a yellow car.

Today in the store, I heard three different ladies from NY saying this was their first spring in NC, and they had never seen anything like it. A part of me wanted to say "Welcome to the South. It only lasts about 3 week" but I remembered my shock when I first saw it and figured I'd let them continue to marvel at this strange and yucky stuff.

It's supposed to rain today - storm, actually. So I hustled to get the last of my pole beans into the ground, and planted some eggplant in my one and only planter's box. I'm excited and a tad baffled by my graden this year, even though I'm the one who plotted it out. There's still bush beans, peppers, corn, and okra to go into the ground, though we're still pondering the corn. I'm pondering whether or not to put up a fence; Bobby's pondering why on earth I'd consider planting corn without a fence. The fact we saw 5 deer in one of the areas I'm contemplating the other night has only increased those thoughts.

We've lost two hens this week. One was taken about 5am in the morning (the dogs and geese put up an outrageous protest),  and the other was simply a pile of feathers the next morning. I repaired a hole in the pen's fence yesterday. I'm not overly pleased with the end result, but our two remaining hens were still alive this morning so I suppose it did it's job. Hopefully I can repair the electric fence this week and give them an extra layer of protection as well.

The biddies are doing well, feathering and growing like crazy. So I guess technically they're now pullets. One of the oldest (a leghorn) hopped up onto the smaller perch post Josh and I added to the pen today (a first!), making me think all that time and energy to insert it was well worth it. We have the small house located between the house and the garden area, which is inside the dogs' fence line.I thought that might help protect them a little more, and so far I think that's been a wise move. Freckles especially is keeping a close eye on them and is very curious about their movements, especially when they chase each other when one has a bug. It's not uncommon to see her sitting beside the pen with her head tilted and a puzzled expression on her face. I've yet to capture a pic of her in that position as she moves when she sees me, but I've seen the scene a lot since we've moved the biddies outside.

And if my brain was refusing to accept the fact that spring was here, the trees and shrubs filling out  with greenery and colors tells me we are quickly moving on through this year. (Hello! It is April already!!!)

So I'm still two projects behind for the year (replacing the big hen house and redoing the small flower garden), and we won't even discuss quilting projects, but I am pleased with some of the clean-up and the reproduction of the small hen house. (and no, I still don't have all the finishing touches completed on it!) 

Hopefully when I sit down the next time I will have pictures to post. Springward ho!