Whacking Rhubarb

Before you go all "O.M.G she's killing her rhubarb" on me, let me explain. I planted my rhubarb a long time ago, along an old fence line. Then I fenced in the horses, which would later turn into steers, which would then become sheep and goats, and of course the chickens,and now has become my garden area. Between the rhubarb fence line and the horse fence line, which has now become the garden fenceline, there is about 6 feet by 100 feet of weeds and raspberry canes. Doing battle with raspberry canes is not my favorite activity, and my arms now have the scratches to prove it, however, their eventual surrender of juicy little reddish berries is worth it.

But not in my rhubarb.

Since the 6 feet isn't enough room to get my tiller in, I have to hoe out the weeds by hand. Not happenin'. Sorry. Not gonna weed a strip 6' by 100' by hand (or hoe), especially since it's riddled with crabgrass, all manner of forest undergrowth and raspberry canes. I'm just not that adventurous.

But neither do I really like to use gas powered appliances, since they use gas and all, but in this case, the gas powered weed whacker won. Well, technically I won, since I had to do 7 different rain dances to get this thing started, eventually I did and the rhubarb was sucessfully whacked. No, let me rephrase..... the weeds surrounding the rhubarb were whacked, and all but one or two rhubarb leaves survived. This is a good thing and it looks a lot nicer than a weed and mosquito infested patch in which to wander around lost in until you happen to run into the rhubarb.

So, the rhubarb doesn't care if it's weedy, but I do, so I whacked. And won! And Murphy (of murphy's law) didn't show his face once!

Radishes are coming up, so far no show on the spinach and carrots, and one potato plant has emerged through the hill to peek up into the sun.
Tonight maybe I'll get some lettuces planted, my designer lettuce collection depends on this, after all!

I'm still working on the multicolored cardigan for the muskrat (3 y/o granddaughter). One of these days I'll take a picture of it, the back is done as is 1/2 of one front. Tonight probably won't see much knitting, being as how I'll be playing with my designer lettuce collection, but tomorrow night there is another hockey game, so a lot of knitting will happen.

Go Wings! Pluck them Hawks!! (pay no attention to the grammer, it sounded better than "pluck those hawks"!)

Is It Spring Yet?

Let's take a wander around the old garden shall we? The rhubarb is coming up, no this isn't a picture of my rhubarb, my camera got left in the house this morning. Still have to dig some of that for my Dad who wants some in his garden.

I've planted my strawberries in the stone ledge border I built around the pool, they also don't look quite like the picture, actually, I'm not at all sure they're alive.

Asparagus has been planted as well. Oh, and onions. Onions are important.

Garlic is ready to go in too, although normally a fall crop, someone didn't get off their behind long enough to get it planted in the fall, so spring it will be. Started it in the house probably in January or so, not too much longer, actually the tops are starting to die back already.

My Tiger Lilies are popping up all over as is all of the mint that seems to find it's way around the place.

Started in pots are Hollyhocks (I know, they'll grow anywhere, anytime, but I wanted to make sure I got a good bunch of plants before I put them out for the rabbits to munch on - gotta feed those rabbits ya know!)

Also started are tomatoes (3 dif. kinds of regular tomatoes and 2 different strains of heirloom) as well as peppers, hot and regular.

As soon as hubby gets the garden rototilled for me (or Sunday afternoon, whichever comes first) I'll put in some radishes, carrots and spinach and beets maybe. Don't know about beets, have to check on those, but definitely the first three.

One of these nights when it's nice enough, I'm gonna grab hubby and go tooling around the countryside and woods, looking for blueberry plants to transplant. Tried to grow some from seed, but no go.

One of the next big projects in the barn related area of the homestead is to Clean. Out. The. Barn. This spring has been very busy with work and other stuff, and that just hasn't gotten done yet. If I could get hubby to get the dozer outta there, it would help. Then I have to build a wood rack (actually just reinforce it as I've already built it) and start piling all of our scrap wood up there, off the floor. The next task would be to corrall all of the binder twine, actually, this is valuable stuff. But scattered all over the floor, not so much.

In the knitting room, I'm still working on granddaughter #1's sweater. Purpley heathery Lithuanian Birds and Blooms design, and I do need to get a picture of that.

Here's the reason for a recent er, um, stash addition!

So, daugher #1 calls and says, “Go to this yardsale. They have TONS of yarn”, she says. “More yarn than I’ve ever seen in one place, ever!” She recants. “It’s your heaven”, she teases, “your own personal paradise”, she continues.. yadda, yadda, yadda….So, being the dutiful mother that I am, I went. Seriously, this woman had a problem. She needed to start her own Yarn-a-holic 12 step program. She had yarn. LOTS of it. Yes, TONS! of good stuff! Mohair, cashmere, alpaca, wool, actually very little acrylic. She had skeins and balls and cones. She had needles, and lace wires. Stitch and row counters were coming out of boxes. Patterns, books and leaflets jumped as I walked by. But she doesn’t have alot of this stuff anymore. Bet you can guess why! Because now I have a yarn problem. 8 (yes, count them - 8!) lawn and leaf bags later I’m now looking into 12 step program requirements for myself.
Part of my New Years Resolution was to knit from my stash and not buy any more new yarn. There’s a loophole here, can you spot it? Yup! New! This yarn was not New, so it didn’t count!
I wonder if justifying addictions is addressed in the 12 step programs?
Moral of this story? Sorry, got nothin’ for ya. But yard sales, garage sales and auctions rock for possible stash enhancement!

So, now that I've fessed up about my recent purchase, I better go. Got a few minutes before I leave for work and that means I have a few minutes to pet and drool, I mean to admire my recent aquisitions!

Another Busy Weekend!

Much was accomplished this weekend. Lots! An almost insane amount of activity was registered on the "get-er-done o'meter". Scary amounts actually!

Got the chicken coop moved to it's proper location, which means that an old dead tree had to be taken down, the area had to be leveled, and the actual coop moved into it's new home. This translates into big boys getting to play with big toys (ie.. bulldozers, skidders, front end loaders...) That's ok, it had to be done, and if they had fun doing it, at least it's done! Still to do: fence in the area around the coop.

Got most of the garden in. Got the back part of the garden fenced off for the horses, so they've mowed down a lot of the weeds. And part of it rototilled. Still to do: Tonight if it's not raining, I'll do more rototilling and planting.

All of my laundry that I washed and hung out on the line got wetter, because of the torrential downpour that we had 3 times between friday night and this morning. It's still out there. It's still wet. Or wetter, or dripping saturated. It's not dry. Or anywhere near it. Still to do: Wait until it dries out before I hang anything else out there. I'm no physicist, but I do get the concept of water weighted down laundry, vs water spun out laundry.

Got part of the hayloft cleaned out in anticipation of a near record haying season which should start in another 2 weeks or so. (groan). Still to do: reorganize so that the hay that is left from this season is in a spot easy to get to, so that when the loft is filled to capacity, this will be the first hay I feed.

Got a small blow-up pool for the Monkey. Best 4 bucks I ever spent. And of course, I had to show her how to chase her mother around the yard with the hose. 2 yr olds are so trainable! Still to do: hide from her mother as she was not impressed!

Got a bunch more rhubarb picked and frozen. Called Gurneys and got a refund for all the asparagus I ordered from them and never grew. They were GREAT!!! No questions, even after I offered possible fault on my end, no questions at all. Issued me a refund on the spot. Definitely a company to do business with again!! Gurney's rocks!!

I even got to swim in my pool! I love my pool. My pool rocks. It's 15' round above ground. And chemicals or not, it's my lifeline in the summer. I'm a heat wimp, or so I've been told, but when I work out in the garden or am putting up hay, I got to get me cooled down quick and a total immersion in my pool is just the ticket. The water is cold, but after that first initial shock, it's sooooooo refreshing.

Hubby got the hot tub cleaned out and filled up. Still to do: hook up the electrical so it's more than just a big bathtub filled with cold water.

Hubby got the dog run finished. Still to do: Nothing! One project is actually totally completely done! I know, I'm scared too.

Had a tornado yesterday, that was fun. Actually out at our farm it was just an old fashioned thunderstorm with high winds. No biggie, get them regularly this time of year. But in town... yikes! trees down, buildings gone or relocated, cars flipped over or had trees dropped on them. Trees on roofs (rooves?) signs wrapped around trees, or relocated to other stores.. It was quite the event. I'm sure noone was hurt, probably would have heard by now, so that's a good thing. But there are a lot of people who will be getting new porches, roofs (rooves?) and cars.

I didn't walk to work today. It was raining just a bit when I left, but being as how the first mile of my trek is through the woods and meadows, I would have been drenched. Now it's beautiful, but I know it's still soaking wet out there. Tomorrow when I walk, I'll take pictures so you can appreciate the awful hour long commute that this is to become.

Hope you had a good weekend! Tonight, housework if it's raining, more garden stuff if it's not!

Upside Down Tomatoes!

So did I walk to work this morning? No, I didn't. Mostly because of the Mizzle. Yup, it's all the Mizzle's fault. Mizzle is an interesting thing. (technical term meaning mist+drizzle). It makes everything wet, yet, not so wet that you have to have an umbrella or raincoat or anything, but wet enough so that you get wet if you're out in it at all. Between the 1 mile of woods and fields that I'd hike through to get to the 2 miles of roads, I'd be rather soaked. Plus we're expecting thunderstorms this afternoon, the severity of which always depends on what the Big Lakes do to the air masses as they pass through. And, in the spring, with thunderstorms, there are tornado possibilities. All depends on the Big Lakes.
Up here, most of our weather depends on the Big Lakes. Our meteorologists also depend on the Big Lakes to bail them out of inaccurate weather reports. Hey, I'm all about whatever works!

Hubby got most of the garden tilled up last night. This is huge! Plus.... what is even huger... or bigger, or more gi-normous is the fact that he fixed it so that it doesn't require an act of God and/or a Raindance to start it. (If you're married to a mechanic, you totally get the huge-ness of this concept!)So, barring any colorful lightening displays this weekend, the garden will totally get done! Tonight I'll let the horses into the area not tilled yet, so they can do some preliminary mowing for me. This is exciting for me, again, I have no life to speak of.

I'm doing a few gardening experiments this year, 2 of which have really been tried and tested. One, planting tomatoes upside down in a bucket. Plus, I'll plant peppers on top of the bucket, or in, or, well, you know. Hard to explain, I'll have to take a picture. But it totally takes care of bugs and weeds, plus it's supposed to yield greater crops. The results will be carefully documented!

Another is the 3 sisters method of crop production. Plant corn in hills, and after a week or so when the corn has started to peek above the ground, plant beans on the side of the hills. The cornstalks give the beans something to climb on, plus the beans will fix nitrogen into the soil for the corn. When the beans are up a bit, then in between the corn/bean mounds plant squash, or pumpkins... This keeps the weeds down in between the corn and beans, shades the roots (because up here in N. Mich it gets sooooooo hot) and also serves to keep little furry four footed creatures from climbing the cornstalks and helping themselves to my pantry-in-progress.
This also will be documented. And I need to move my asparagus, my bad, I planted it too close to the rhubarb. Imagine my surprise when the huge rhubarb leaves totally shaded the sun loving asparagus. Yeah, I didn't see that one coming!

And....... MY WINGS WON LAST NIGHT!! Let me say that again, in cause you just tuned in. MY WINGS SKATED AWAY WITH THE STANLEY CUP LAST NIGHT!!!
Major, Major, Major kudos to the Penguins fans, who even though their team did not win, still stood in respect and stayed for the ceremonies as celebrated by the Red Wings. A majorly classy group you all are! And I mean that sincerely. It was very very evident in the faces and postures of the Penguins after they lost that they were just heartbroken. Sick. Defeated. It hurt to see the looks on the faces of the brave warriors of the Pittsburg team who skated for all they were worth, took this major loss in stride, and still had the sportsmanship to respect the Wings for the job they did. Again... Major Kudos!!

Guess that's all today. There was no walking, there was tilling, and there was winning. 2 outta 3 ain't bad! (is that the correct way to spell "ain't"?)

Busy Weekend!

So this past weekend, I went and created even more work for myself. I never learn.

We got all of our asparagus planted. Got a spot cleared for blueberry seedlings, pushed over a dead tree. Seriously, this was not gonna happen. This tree was part of my clothesline, but it had this branch that would attack me every time I went to hang clothes. So, while hubby had his bulldozer out clearing spots for me, he decided to take the branch off of the old dead tree that was part of my clothesline. As soon as he barely touched that branch, the whole tree cracked and started falling. Can you imagine if I had hung just one too many towels from that clothesline? There was no warning, I could have been under that tree when it decided to go down. We were both very surprised, it was a huge old oak, very sturdy stump (or so we thought). Whew, that was a close one!

So now we have asparagus out by the rhubarb, that must be weeded, and soon we'll have 50 highbush blueberry plants that will have to be weeded (and watered), and, and, and....

Was gonna do the annual clean up the yard/barn/pasture bonfire so I could get all that garbage out of the way, and wanted to move the firepit, but it was too windy to burn. So.... the annual yard/barn/pasture bonfire must be postponed.

Started to clean out the pool, this is a multi step process, involving a wetsuit, tolerance to cold water and the ability to create suction from a huge sump hose. Suction as many leaves, water bugs, spiders, asphalt from the shingles... out as is possible, and then do a whirlpool (walk around in a circle really fast to get the water moving so all the "stuff" will go to the middle). Then after all the debris is settled, we start all over again. Some would use a filter system. Where's the fun in that?

Rode my bike several times and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

Blondie came up this weekend, so we got to visit with her a bit. She found a deep old sink at a sale and got it for me. Now to remember all the steps involved in counter/faucet/sink replacement. My faucet needs a new handle, and hubby came up with a way cool idea! Use an antler for the handle. It would look really neat, so now to figure out how to make that work. Blondie also brought back the 120 days ago sweater, she doesn't like it, it makes her look like a big fat fuzzy pink cloud. Sigh! Oh well, The Mouth does like it, so at least someone will wear it.

We also went to the mud bogs at a friend's house, those are always fun too. Big boys driving big toys through a big mud puddle. Doesn't sound like much when you look at it like that, but it was fun.

Wow! That was a busy weekend. Today we need to start more tomato seeds, jalapeno pepper seeds, water the asparagus, clean out the horse trough..... ugh. I'm sooooo good at creating work for myself!

And, being close to the first of the month, I can expect my Yarn Of The Month shipment any day now, it's like Christmas!