A Little Carried Away....

I just can't seem to help myself! I have been planting seeds..... lots of seeds. The weather is absolutely marvelous but I have been burned before by the hint of early spring in Kansas. I have put a few cool hardy things like cabbage and broccoli out in the garden but I have restrained myself from doing serious gardening until after about April 10th. The actual predicted last frost date is April 15th but the rebel in me just has to push the edge of the gardening envelope........ Mean while, I am starting all this stuff indoors.

Yesterday, I wasn't exactly indoors. It is so nice out that I moved to the front porch to do all the dirty work.
The tomatoes that I started a few weeks ago are seasoned travelers now. They have been in and out of my front door too many times to count. I have been working my way through the old seed box and I have been very disappointed in how poorly my gourmet lettuce seeds have germinated. So while I have lots of flats, in reality, I have only a few plants.

I love using the "pot maker" that I bought many, many years ago. It enables me to make small seeding pots out of strips of news paper. I have pretty much ran out of newspaper. I found several stacks of the plastic pots that I saved from the plants that I bought last year. They were very brittle but I have used all that I can salvage. I've recycled yogurt cups and started on disposable cups.....

The bad part about all of this is that I have gotten way ahead of myself. I really do not have the space for all this potted dirt. I have a few flats on the dining room table. If they sprout, I've got to move them somewhere with more light. I have a couple of shelves with grow lights rigged up over at the barn kitchen but they are already full.

The entry just inside the front door is a obstacle course because I have no less than seven flats of seeds plus the big plastic tub outfitted with the grow lights.

Today, we are having to work on an outside fencing project and tomorrow afternoon we are heading down to Stillwater for an awards banquet for Salena. After all of that is out of the way, it is pretty obvious that I have to get my gardening green thumb under control.....

Look What is Heading Our Way.....

We are located north east of Coffeyville, Ks about 45 miles. Could be an interesting evening!

Up date at 11:30 pm :  We had a great lightening show off to the north and DID NOT get a single drop! You just cannot predict the weather in Kansas..... the best local weatherman says that we will get some rain by around 2:00am but I will be very surprised....

Doing a Little Fate Tempting Myself

I haven't gone as far as those folks I saw last Sunday . My tomatoes are still safely in their pots but I did set out the broccoli and some of the cabbage that I started from seed. I have been moving the little plants in and out of the house to take advantage of the sunshine and start to harden them off, too. Last night, while I was lying in bed, I realized that I had left the batch outside. I debated with myself-- briefly--- about going out to get them but opted to stay in bed. They were still there and apparently no worse for the cool evening air.   

The ticks, snakes and lizards are out in full force today as the temperature topped 80 degrees. I spread fertilizer in the orchard and blueberry patch. Then I spread a little kelp in the open area of the garden.

Neil and I have started to seriously plan how we are going to divide our pastures for rotational grazing. We are starting small and beginning with the lots and paddocks around the house and barn that will be used for the dairy animals and young stock over flow. I even found a pad of graph paper to make it look like we mean serious business!

Seth told me this afternoon that his winter hay feeding/fence fixing job will probably be finished tomorrow. Just in time because another farmer has called to ask him to help with their spring cow/calf working later this week. After that, his MAMA has plenty for him to do! LOL! We have big plans for getting his school finished up and lots of fence of our own to fix and build.

Going to be an action packed spring and summer on this farm!

I Just Couldn't Stand It.....

....... If our week got any better than this last one! Spring break got off to a pretty rocky start-- and I mean that literally.
Poor Salena met a big truck on her way home from college that slung up a rock and cracked her windshield. By the time she got home, it was a major crack all the way across the driver's side of the windshield and cost us a whopping $250 to replace. To add insult to injury, after it was repaired, Seth backed the Ford truck around into her car and broke out the driver's turn signal. Sis got a bit worked up when the lady at the parts store quoted her a price of $179 for the replacement. We found it at the junkyard for $25.

It also rained for most of the week and we ended up with just over 4 inches. Everything was a sloggy, muddy mess but we are not complaining. The upper pond is almost full. Every slight hole or indentation in the county is now a puddle. Our road is an absolute nightmare to drive down and I hope the road crew manages to get around to us early this next week.

Seth worked in the rain and drizzle to get electric fence put up on the far side of the farm to make a nice sized summer pasture for the horses. They put them out in it late yesterday afternoon and they think they are in horse heaven. There is a spring fed pond up there that will spare us the chore of hauling water to them. Now we just have to get a flea and tick treatment on them before they are completely carried away. The ticks and mosquitoes are out in full force. I have already pulled a few off of Holly's udder at milking time and given myself the creepy crawlies just thinking about them.

During all this rain, my dear friend, Rachel, and her kids came for a visit that lasted for a couple of days. I know she had to get back to her own home and projects but I wished that she could have stayed longer. It was so much fun to see and hear the kids roaming all over the farm and canoeing in the pond.....They pretty well terrorized the snakes and turtles, climbed the tree house, milked Holly and the girls and even managed to play cards and watch a few movies...... I will admit that we did more laundry in 2 days than I normally do in a week just to keep enough towels to dry them off from their many trips in and out of the house.
Between laundry loads, Rachel and I cooked, made cheese, did chores, planted strawberries, bred a cow, plotted, planned and solved the world's problems!
 It is good to laugh and joke and share with kindred spirits.

The rain left yesterday along with our guests. It was beautiful day but today has been even warmer and better. Neil has had the weekend off so he has gotten all kinds of things done. Salena's car is road worthy again. The tiller is ready to plow the garden when it dries out. He managed to patch up the lawn mower tires enough that we are at least optimistic about getting it all mowed at least one time before investing in new tires.

The new tractor, Hammer, is in the garage and sometimes I just have to walk by and pat him on his faded red hood. The new brush hogs and bale spear lined up in the edge of the trees just like on a real farm.

Now, I am nursing a bit of sunburn and feeling crawly things-- real or imagined--- because I have been out in the garden putting down mulch in the pathways of the garden. It is my yearly attempt to keep the "garden cancer" known as Bermuda grass beaten back to an acceptable level.

On top of all this wonderful stuff, Neil and I celebrated 27 years of marriage on March 23rd.

That is a long time for a guy to live with and love a crazy goat lady.......

Welcome "Hammer"

At long last....... we are truly farmers! We own a tractor. Salena christened this lovely beast, "Hammer"" because the first thing we had to do was smack the starter with a hammer to get it to crank up...... I know that doesn't bode well for the future but we are optimists by nature.

Hammer came with not one but TWO brush hogs and a small bale spear. We are on the look out for a few more small pieces of equipment to go with it but for the immediate future--- we are set!

Backyard Pictures

The rain has begun to slow down and the grand total so far is 3.1 inches. Not too bad for about 30ish hours. While there was a lull in the weather, I thought I would step out on the deck and take a few pictures of our overflowing pond. This is the one we call the Big Pond but.....

It would be even bigger if it did not have this gaping hole in the dam.

After the water escapes through the dam, it rushes off down the hill and makes a really pretty waterfall as it leaves our farm and heads down stream to our neighbors big pond and eventually to the Verdigris River.

Still, not a bad view from my back porch....... I am a blessed woman!

Still Raining!

It is officially mud season now! Of course, I can't seem to find my boots but I am going to make a greater effort to find them before I go out this morning. I'm late but I really don't want to go out but I know that I have to. Holly and the girls are waiting. Rain falling just seems to have that effect on me! I did zip out on to the deck earlier in my nightgown to check the rain gauge. So far, 2.5 inches and it is still coming down.

The big news is that we are going this weekend to look at a tractor!!! Yesterday, before I knew about this, I had a lightbulb moment over at the barn. I am going to rearrange things so that we have more space in the shop section of the barn. That is where I milk the girls and it also has all kinds of junk stored there from the big move--- two years ago.... I was looking around while waiting for Zelda to finish milking and thought about how much more space we could have if I cleaned out the stall and moved the milking unit over there.... Then we could have all kinds of room to do something just inside the garage door. Turns out, that would be a great place to park a small tractor.

I cannot wait to see just how much water is in the upper pond. The middle pond is probably running over the spillway and I will have to cross it to get to the barn. The big pond out back is definitely full. I can hear the dull roar of water going over the rock from inside the house. Fixing that break in the pond dam is still on the list of things-to-do for this year but it keeps getting pushed a little further down the list.

I am glad that I took a picture of  the daffodils because they are  looking rather bedraggled after all this rain. Our last official frost date for this area is April 15th. I am sure hoping that doesn't happen because nearly all of the trees have bloomed or are budding out. We drove through a neighborhood in a small town this past Sunday and people were already setting out their tomato plants. I couldn't help but think that they were tempting fate......