Warm Days in May!

      The weather has finally warmed up! And I think it's here to stay! I'm at the place where I stay inside after 1 or 2 in the afternoon until about 6 at night. I have lots to do during that time though. I just now got through working out with Jillian Michaels! Isn't it nice to have a celebrity right in your own home? During the other hours, I clean, cook, do dishes, and laundry.Tonight I'm making chicken fajitas, so I won't have to cook them until the guys get home. Skylar has finished school and will graduate on the 29th. My baby! Where did the years go? I remember when.......!

      The garden is doing better than last year, so far. One tomato has a bloom! I wished they all did! Something is eating the leaves of the beans. What can I do to help that and keep it organic? I purchased some non-organic sweet potato slips and am going to see how they do. I planted organic heirlooms I ordered a couple of years ago and they didn't make it. I have more knowledge how to grow them now. I just don't know if chickens will eat the sweet potato leaves. Do ya'll know? There's a great spot to plant them in the chicken yard. I'll have to read up on that. How's your garden doing?

      The goat girls are doing well. Their bellies are beginning to get bigger. The brown one is bigger than the white one. Maybe she is further along, or has twins. They are due mid-July. The babies will be here before I know it! I hope ya'll are experiencing a warm in your temps! I'll try to send some of our warmth to you! Have a great week! Blessings from Bama!

The making of biscuits.

I think he's the cutest boy in the world, even if he doesn't smile!

The candy striped amaryllis is fading fast!

I need to look up this vine. Do you know what it is?

Hillbilly chicken shade! They love to gather under here!

I hilled the potatoes but it doesn't look like I did enough!

How high should the hill go? I think it might start to fall down if I go further.

The bees are calm and carrying on. I don't know if I told you in the last post, but Guy had to put the nuc in a larger box because there was no more room for them in the small box. They were honey bound!

These are right next to the bees. Funny how purple shows up blue in a photo.

My one and only bloom so far is from an heirloom: Nepoli.

I wanted bread for breakfast but it was too late to run the bread machine. I thought of the bread that is the easiest, from Jim Lahey's book, My Bread. It is delicious!

Hot and fresh, right out of the oven!

      

Mother's Day, Flowers, and Gardening!

      Was it the best Mother's Day you ever had? It was quite the weekend for us! In fact, it was quite a week last week! Sorry I didn't get to write a post, but ya'll know how it is with these warm temps and gardening! My days are filled with housework; divided by cooking and gardening=no time left for much else! But I sure do love this busy season! I can hardly wait for the wonderful veggies to be harvested! Just this morning, I planted sweet corn. It takes 80 days to produce, but will be worth the wait! We have pretty much gone from Spring to Summer and very muggy weather! I don't know about ya'll, but I prefer this much better over cold weather and winds!

      The girls were here this weekend and one had a little accident. I didn't get the accident on film, but she is O.K. Randy always rides them in the golf cart. This time he attached the riding toys to it and pulled them around the yard. They loved it so much! Winterlynn and her wildness got a little carried away with the steering; getting cattywonkers with it, and turned herself over! Right on the pavement! Talk about road rash! Wow! Her poor lips looked like someone gave her a wallop! It just couldn't have happened on the grass! Too bad it didn't; she might not be all skinned up! I think she won't do that again!

      Our bee mentor Guy, came and separated our hive. I have never seen so MANY BEES! I was so into what he was doing, I didn't pay much attention to the ones swarming around me. He was running out of smoke and the bees got really upset with their hive being opened up like that! All of a sudden, kamikazes were after me! I tried to get them off, but one got me anyway! It HURT SO BAD! My first sting of all the years we've had bees! They didn't stop there! They chased me all around the garden, making me trip over the raised bed and hurt my ankle! I had to run inside; and they were at the door, hitting the glass! An hour or two later, Randy got home from work and went outside. They got on him! He too had to come inside! They waited on us at the door but we didn't go out again until the next morning. They were O.K. by then, as if nothing had ever happened. If you ever deal with bees, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE PLENTY OF SMOKE! I don't like getting stung! 

      I hope that is the end of getting hurt on our homestead! But one must always be careful! Now we have to watch for snakes! I think they get my eggs sometimes! I'm thankful for my exciting farm life! Thanks for stopping by and reading! Leave a comment if you wish! Have a great week! Blessings from Bama!

I love everything about this peony!

Black iris.

Chocolate swirl bundt cake with thick chocolate glaze! I ate more of this than I should.

Guy with the frames.

The bees are coming out to see what's going on.

He's scraping off the excess wax so the frames will fit in there better.

I was standing where he is in front of the greenhouse when I got stung. This photo was after.

Very agitated bees!

Riley is starting to loose her baby look.

She's trying to turn on the t.v. while the others get piled on the mini tramp.

Randy has them strapped in with a seat belt.

A lovely, fragrant rose.

White peony.

Candy striped amaryllis

The clematis almost looks fake!

I love these fragrant cabbage roses!

Turning around at the road.

They love this!

They're having so much fun!

Winterlynn insisted on going to swing right after her accident. See her bloody nose and lip?

Poor baby!

She looks better in this photo.

Lovely New Dawn rose.

This miniature rose has climbed all on the fence!

The bees are much calmer now. I'm wondering about the nuc. I haven't seen much activity from it. I will let you know if it makes it.

The tomato plants are growing.

As well as the pepper plants and eggplants.

The three rows of beans look good.

Cucumber plants

Potato plants. I dug this up while digging the potato trenches. Someone used this property for a dump, I believe.

My soon to be graduate!

Skylar gave me this for Mother's Day! It's my new favorite cookbook!

Spring on the Homestead!

      We've been experiencing beautiful weather these past two weeks! I was out of sink and missed out on several good days to work last week, but I've been making up for it this week! And boy, my body is letting me know! There is just no substitute for gardening! It's a workout of it's own. I've also been walking on my road again after not getting to for so long. There are a lot of dogwood trees blooming and wild violets. They are all so pretty! This time of Spring, purple is the major color. All of my purple irises are in bloom! As well as the purple wisteria! It smells heavenly!

      I transplanted tomato and pepper plants and put them in the greenhouse. Tonight will be their first night there. I hope it won't be too cold cause peppers and tomatoes are hot weather crops. I believe the addition of the greenhouse will be such an advantage to the homestead, as soon as I learn how to utilize it properly. I am thankful for the thermometer Randy bought for the greenhouse that I can read from the house. It lets me know the temp of the greenhouse. I hope the greenhouse holds up under our diverse weather. So far, it has held up under strong winds.

      We got our bees this week! I am so happy to have bees again! Third times a charm, since this will be our third time with bees. Hopefully, since they survived where others did not, they will make it through anything! They are a very strong hive, many in numbers! They may even produce extra honey this year! Time will tell.

      We tilled up a new area for a garden this year. It's the spot where the boy goats were. It seems to be very fertile. I planted the Chinese cabbage there and also squash, zuchinni, and okra. I hope to plant beans and peas there too. So much to do; so little time! How's your gardening coming along? Are you there yet or just planning? I learn so much every year and try to implement new things that will make gardening just a little bit easier. Such as weed barriers. We have a tremendous battle with weeds! Or should I say grass? Try Bermuda grass! The worst kind for a garden! I am putting down cardboard again this year, as it seems to help with that. I'm also trying leaves to see how they will do. Again, time will tell. I hope ya'll are well! Have a nice day and thanks for reading! Blessings from Bama!

These cookies were cooked in the Sun Oven. They tasted O.K. but were a little hard. The oven still has a little rubber-like smell that made the cookies taste weird. I hope to get rid of that odor soon.

This tom was on our property! How fortunate I was to capture him in photo! He was chasing his hen. He eventually flew across the fence onto the neighbor's property, after her.

Purple tulips.

These eggs were also cooked in the Sun Oven. They are a little more done than I care for but made some delicious deviled eggs. I will adjust the cooking time when I cook these again.

Wisteria, red tips, and white dogwood trees.

The beautiful Keria in full bloom!

Wisteria right up next to a volunteer nectarine tree.

Wisteria next to the hen-house. The wisteria smells like perfume!

Two volunteer nectarine trees that went home with Guy.

We purchased this bush at a trade day. I was told it was a snowball bush. It never has balls, though. What is it?

The morning the new hive arrived.

Randy is cautiously undoing the strap.

The first of the bees. They seem to have adjusted to their new home.

A nice fertile spot for the cabbage.

Skylar has been moving wood closer to the pool. We hope to get the deck built this summer.

The area where I placed cardboard. I had to dig out a lot of blackberry brambles and some kind of thick hay-like grass with a tuber-like root. It took me all day just to do a small area!

Filling up the old pond with the blackberry brambles and weeds.

A couple days later and the bees are still doing good.

I have lots of purple irises.

Can you tell I like the wisteria? That is the wood Skylar is moving.

My cardboard is on that trailer.

Randy had to work on the fence the goats are dragging down. Now he's just petting them.

It was windy when I was transplanting my tomato plants today. The peat pots fell on some of them and broke the plants, but not in two. I planted those tomato plants in hopes they will be alright.

The rest are in here until I know it's O.K. to put them in the ground. The ground still feel sort of cold, so I'm waiting til next week to put these in.