Garden photo Monday

Kansas heirloom melon

Delicious heirloom melon

Not a morning person.

Red potato blooms

Flooding

I talked about rain and moisture in my last post 6 days ago. I have lost track in inches how much rain we've gotten but I think it's well over 10 at this point for the past 2 weeks! Both the Arkansas and the Little Arkansas have gone over their banks in several places, we're still high and dry for the most part but last weekend, Sunday I think, I walked out to pond being well over 1/2 full OVERNIGHT! That was the rain we got over 7 inches alone. It was nuts. It would stop raining for a day, then rain that night and so it went for the entire week except Thursday, which rained all day, I think and Friday for most of the day as well. The rainy days meld into the next, it seems.

We gave up on trying to finish tying in the electrical lines for the new milk house- too much water, too much mud. We got all the other conduit in though and the water lines and got the trenches filled. There were a few places that were washed out but Jeremiah got bucket loads of dirt today and filled all those in.

Drew and I were sick today. I am not sure from what. With all the mosquitoes I joke that we probably have malaria. Oh my lord the mosquitoes are SO bad! We literally cannot walk out side without one landing on our person immediately ANY time of the day so for the most part, we just stay in! Fortunately I am feeling better and I am sure he will tomorrow. We both started feeling pretty crappy after lunch out yesterday so I have to wonder if it's not a little bit of food poisoning.

Today the sun was out, not that it mattered much I had a fever so I was sweatin' sitting still.

I have some photos to share. I know I don't post nearly as often as I should.  Some are old, some are recent. I don't seem to have enough time to play around with photos like I'd like but occasionally I can sneak away. Have a good weekend!

Tea Time

Rachel was invited to a tea party Saturday put on by our super talented friend Amy and her daughter, Brayden. Amy and Keith have kids (boy and girl) the same age as Rachel and Drew and they get along wonderfully. The tea party was a smashing good time...for girls and dolls only!

P.S. You probably wouldn't believe it if I told you, but another 1.1" of rain dropped on us Friday night and this evening I was woken up by thunder so loud it sounded like the house was cracking in 2. I'll check the gauge in the morning, I expect at least another inch for a total of over 9 inches in about 10 days time! As of this morning, we had over 7 inches of rain in a little over 8 hours!  Some of our rivers are nearly overflowing their banks Our rivers are over their banks in many locations and parts of northern Kansas, as usual, are flooding out. I hate to see that, but for the rest of us, it's just so needed! 

Up a Creek

How quickly the weather can turn around. I thought surely we'd be in for another hot long dry summer. So far, I was very mistaken! While one vacation we received at least an inch of rain and in the past week, over 7 inches!

The hail the other night was unreal and we didn't even get the brunt of it. But it's so funny how storms around here can be...it can be raining on one house and be completely dry the next house over. About 5 miles away as the crow flies hail as big as softballs bombarded areas for as long as 6 minutes. Lowes had roof damage so severe the roofing guys lost count at 6,000 dents in the roof and it's so bad, the whole thing will need to be replaced. Even almost a week later there were buckets and cans and every type of container they had lined up side by side all up and down the aisles to catch the dripping water. I am sure they had to keep all employees on staff just to be sure the floor was moped up!

Glass from windshields littered the parking lots of several businesses (Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, etc.). It was pretty bad! But, we got a lot of good rain out of it, 2.5" from that storm. The past couple of days and nights it has rained and rained and rained! We were getting a bit flooded out going out to the barn. The water comes down off the hills and channels right through the middle of the barnyard and veers east to across the orchard a bit and into the pond.

Jeremiah desperately wants his pond to fill but it's gonna take an awful lot of water to get it started. Everyone north of us has to fill theirs first, not to mention we'd much prefer the aquifer fill first! The Little Arkansas is near flood stage and Jeremiah said the Arkansas is very high too. Everything should subside in the next couple of days though as it looks like we'll be dry for a couple of days. It's a good soaking rain for the most part. The first few storms softened up the ground enough that the next storms to come through had a chance to soak instead of running off, and that's what we need! Everything is SO green! It's gorgeous. Course, with the wetness comes bugs, there's never a happy medium!

The garden has grown leaps and bounds. I'd show you with a photo but I need a new battery for my camera and have been a little slow in getting that done. We still aren't picking a whole lot out of it. It always seems mine takes a little longer than some to get going but once it does, it goes crazy! We have picked lots of peppers and there are lots of tomatoes on the vines, which are HUGE again this year and so healthy, but still green yet.

I have had enough of my make shift milk room and I finally put my foot down 2 Fridays ago and decided it was a task that needed to get started. If it never gets started it certainly won't ever get finished! So at the last minute Friday afternoon Jeremiah was calling around to equipment rental companies and getting estimates for a trencher rental. By Friday evening we Jeremiah had the yard all dug up.

Nothing ever goes as planned however (and it's never as budgeted!) and when we thought we could tie into the existing line to the barn, Jeremiah decided against that. He has visions some day of putting in an ag well and between an ag well and everything I may eventually be running in the new milk house, 30 amps just won't be enough to run the milk house, a well AND existing things out in the barn which isn't a whole lot unless it's winter and then we've got the tank heaters.

Anyway, so we trenched a whole new line from the house out to the milk house site, the old wire and conduit will eventually be cut half way out to the barn and the wire from the house to the cut will be removed and used up front. See, there's not enough amps going out to the shop either. Not enough for Jeremiah anyway so he trenched a line from the house to the shop too! There was plumbing put out there when it was constructed but water was never put in so we put a water line in, then new conduit for electrical too. He's going to take the 30 amps currently going out to the barn and send it to the shop and put in a 100 amp breaker in the box and send it out to the barn. That outta do it! We were working against time to get the conduit and water lines in before the storms filled them back up with dirt but I now have 3 new water hydrants out at the barn (one to the orchard, one to the eastern pasture (where the pigs are now) and one int he northern pasture that he trenched a 300' foot line for). That should be plenty of hydrants!

Snow, the dog, is in heat and I don't want another round of puppies so soon so she's in the garage and driving me insane! She got out once by opening the door and I went chasing her across the yard at 1 AM! She's trying to fit through the cat door as we speak. By the time all is said and done she'll probably destroy it! She's no small dog and I am wishing I had a kennel big enough to put her in. I would put her in one of the goat pens but she'd dig or climb out! She'd probably destroy a kennel too so needless to say, neither of us are happy campers right now. To top it off, we castrated buck kids over the weekend and I have major poison ivy on my forearms from them roaming through it eating and me picking them up! I have not slept well in nights despite taking Benadryl and drinking myself to sleep and now the dog! 

We're driving down to Wichita Saturday afternoon to meet someone coming up from Oklahoma to buy a buck kid. Another lady in Amarillo wants the last papered buck kid I have for sale and I said I would meet her half way for gas money. There isn't a whole lot to see in the SW part of the state I don't think and I don't want to cross state lines but I am sure we can find something to do since the trip is paid for. I think we've got that planned for the weekend after next.

We have 2 new foxes back and have lost a few hens. Yesterday morning I found a pile of feathers by the roving coup. The stupid batch of chickens we got in February are pretty much near full grown now, most of which were roosters (!) and they roost out in the open on top of the roving coup! Stupid birds. They won't go into the coup. I counted heads though and everyone still has theirs so I guess it was a thwarted attempt. Still, this evening at dusk I put the hens that roost up there into the coup and the rest of them I put into the roving coup and shut the door. It does not have roosting poles in it, they sit on the ground. It's big enough for 3 full grown birds really.

The second set of meat birds I let out during the day. I hate them. They are awful awful creatures, I call them the minions, they are also referred to as the piranhas too. The other meat bird batch weren't nearly as bad as these guys. They would peck you to death if you let them I swear and they are always under foot! Honestly you feel like the Pied Piper, only they aren't rats their flesh eating chickens! Why do I continue to let them out of the roving coup then? Because they can forage all day long and it's free! I still feed them a lot twice a day, though that's when they are the worst when they are "starving" so I do give them that in their defense. Any idea what it's like to see 75 white chickens all over the yard? On the whole bug issue though, we've had VERY few ticks this year. It's all a give and take, I guess.

I am incubating 22 eggs. We'll see how that goes. I've not had much success with incubation and after 3 attempts and 12 hatching from the last batch of 40 eggs, I gave up for the spring. We lost a few of those once they were feathered out to who knows what the and rest of them went as payment to the person I got fertile eggs from for the first 2 incubation attempts even though none of those eggs even hatched...the eggs that I finally had success on the last batch which were all from my coup after tweaking the incubation method I was using.

We've got a Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster now and mostly SLW hens too. We have 3 golden laced wyandotte hens and more roosters than we need and then just one last blue laced red wyandotte hen and 2 roosters and one of these days I'll put her and a matching fellow into the roving coup and pull some eggs from her to incubate. The golden hens mostly stay with the golden roosters so I am sure, without even having to separate, I should have pure chicks. You'd laugh if I told you I got 6 golden laced wyandotte roosters to 3 females. We'd butcher some of them if we had the time!  At this point I just want replacements in case the foxes get more and I am sick to death of paying an arm and a leg for chicks from the hatchery!

Our girl piggy is due to have piglets any day. We separated the male from her. We're penning them with electric wire, 2 strand for their previous pen and one strand for the male since we ran out and it seems to do the trick and he doesn't test it. They each have a pretty big area of pasture to root up.  Piglets should be an interesting experience. We don't plan to keep them, we'll sell them as weaner pigs after we castrate them. That'll be a new experience too but I figure if we can butcher chickens and pigs and goats and burn baby goat heads to dis-bud, certainly we can castrate some pigs!

Well anyway, we are supposed to be dry here for a couple of days I think. Jeremiah will be in Kansas City Wednesday through Friday evening. He's taking part in the last of that state tech-ed overhaul project. Least you think he didn't pick up another project though but he was volunteered to be president-elect of I don't even remember what now but something having to do with executive decisions on the state level for Kansas Career and Technical Education. Next year he'll move up to president. He said they want new young blood. I wish it were a paying position (but it's not) and it means he'll be spending at least 3 more nights away for conferences in 3 different cities (Topeka, Kansas City and somewhere else) over the course of the year and I am sure there is paperwork that goes along with it! I know it's a huge feather in his cap but to be honest, I am a little perturbed actually. Yet more time away. But anyway, nothing to get all worked up about. I'm thankful he has a good job with people who think so highly of him to put him in these positions. I know it speaks volumes of him.

The dog seems to have settled down...or chewed her way out but at least it's quiet and I am going to try to grab a few more winks of sleep before another day dawns.

Have a great Wednesday!

Rain

It's amazing how much rain can affect your mood. Isn't it Wa. that has the highest suicide rate? Alaska has got to be somewhere at the top I'm sure too. Those dark and gloomy wet places, it's a must to take vitamin D. or sit under a "happy light", which is a lot like a jaundice light for infants!

It rained most days while we were on vacation or at least threatened to but you know what? Rain used to spell disaster for me but since moving to Kansas, rain is just like sunshine, you learn to love it and I have definitely learned to love it after 2 years of drought. Rain here doesn't usually last long, short bursts of storms roll though and it's back to work...a little wetter maybe but no worse for the wear.

Speaking of the devil, our weather radio just went off. I haven't heard that thing go off in ages, since last summer I think! It's been quiet for us tornado wise so far. I used to think the Mid-West, Kansas in particular, lived and breathed tornado warnings all year. It's so not the case. In fact, Kansas is not even on the top 10 list for severe weather in the nation and while we are centrally located and part of "tornado alley", there are states that get them a lot more often and a lot more severe than us.

Spring started out good in the rain dept. then tapered off just around grass hay cutting time which puts the alfalfa and corn growers on edge of course but without a break in the moisture, the grass hay doesn't dry and the wheat can't be cut, so many American's don't realize how much weather affects their food supply half way across the nation. The wheat harvest was a little late (but certainly within normal range I think) this year due to the usually cold spring (i.e. snow on May 2!) we had. All in all it was a pretty nice winter and one I could be happy with again. It was pretty mild for the most part, lots of snow but it didn't stick around long and really helped us pull us further out of drought.

Then the rain stopped and the heat began. We left watering the garden every other day, staggering waterings actually- one part of the garden would be watered well one day, the other part the next. I fully expected to come home to one dry and brown state once again! We were pleasantly surprised to see that everything was green, really green! And growing! We've gotten regular rain since we got home and aside from one day of watering, despite temps in the 90's to near 100, the garden has not needed water because of adequate moisture from above! Thank goodness! People complain they have to mow their grass more often. I will mow every dang day and be happy about it if it means we get rain!

Yesterday morning I did chores in the rain. This evening Jeremiah was working on the water lines we're putting in out to the pastures (I'll write more on that later). I had looked at the radar a bit earlier this evening and there was a storm growing up north. Storms don't usually go south in the spring or summer (in winter they do which is where we'll get the really cold temps), so I didn't think anything of it until I started dishes and saw it growing and growing and growing out the kitchen window. I checked the radar again and with radar showing no ring of mild green weather but rather a huge ring of pinks and purples, I thought I ought to go out and do chores and tell Jeremiah to finish up. No sooner after I finished feeding the pigs did the hail the size of golf balls start to drop from the sky, the wind picked up and Jeremiah and I literally had to sprint to the house while being pelted the whole way. It hailed for quite a while and the wind was just awful. But then, it rained! Rained and rained and rained, over an inch in about 45 minutes. Oh how we need it so badly! THIS is what summer is supposed to be like, I can even live with the humidity on the stormy days if we get the rain. We're fortunate we didn't get the really big hail. Friends had photos of baseball and softball size hail a little further north. I can do without the hail, it dents vehicles and breaks windows and puts holes in roofs.

The rain tapered off for a while and is back now. It's late, near 11 and I can hear it pour outside. After dinner after the rain had passed, Jeremiah, Drew and I sat in the dark master bedroom eating french silk pie and watched the lightening show out the window with the window open and the breeze coming through. I can't think of a nicer evening than that. Our pond may not fill up this year, but I am hoping this rain is going to pull us out of the drought and get us back on track.

The temps haven't been near as horrid like the past 2 summers. We've had a few very bad days over 100 with a higher heat index due to humidity but for the most part, it's been OK. We're looking forward to some days in the 80's this week and next and after 2 summers with temps over 110 for days on end, even 96 seems like a reprieve.

It appears we'll be soothed to sleep by the flow of drip drops off the roof. It's been a week or more since I've been out to the far pastures but the hay consumption has been way down for the past couple of months so I know there's good eatin' out there.

Time for bed as the short hand nears 11. It's good sleeping weather. Night night.

Back home from vacation

I had wanted to post more vacation photos but truth be told, we spent a lot of time running around and visiting, back and forth between states and houses that I didn't really get a whole lot of time to take photos in the first place.

Wednesday and Thursday we spent at Jeremiah's folk's house. Friday we went south in Kentucky to Loretta Lynn's (famous country singers) childhood home. Her brother owns a general store in town (photoed) and we were supposed to go to the store and "ask for Herman". We did and the cashier sent us up the road to Butcher Holler, the same Butcher Holler she sang about in her country song "Coal Miner's Daughter". The song and the movie are a bit off in truth but regardless, it was still a nice day to spend out there. The weather was wonderful, it wasn't humid and it was nice to just sit and talk.

Saturday Jeremiah, Matthew, Drew and I drove up to the graveyard where his uncle was recently buried. When Aunt Ruth grew up there, she said getting up to the church and grave yard was nothing but a walk up the hill but since the coal company has bought the land out, under certain restrictions they must leave the cemeteries alone (there are 3) but the more mines they dig, the longer the road gets so what used to be a short jaunt was a 1 hour ordeal. We had to pass through the guard shack to even get onto the road and passed coal semi trucks going up and down. We could have spent all day out there trying to find that cemetery since the guard said she was new to working there and really had no idea exactly where it was. The older gentle man we talked to down in the town before going up the coal road didn't really know, they said it sounded familiar and thought it was about 5-6 miles up the road.

We were about ready to give up after driving up and down the roads. I saw a coal truck stopped and asked Jeremiah to ask him. He drives the roads all day long, certainly he should know! As it turns out, it just so happens we are at the entrance. It was worth it. The old church is still there and they still have funerals in it. I don't think either of the 2 other cemeteries had churches on them (one had a covered area with pews and long tables for gatherings. Aunt Ruth and Gracie said family reunions are popular at Graveyards. 

We stayed for a while. It really was a lovely spot. I wish Rachel would have come along with but she wanted to go with Tonya and Deana for the day. On the way home we stopped at Twelve Pole Church where the boys said they would occasionally attend monthly gatherings for singing. Jeremiah made me cross the cable bridge over a creek, he knows I HATE heights. He said they used to run across as kids...and I used to run across gravel bare foot as a child, so there you go.  There were some people there doing work on the church so we chatted a while before heading back out to meet Aunt Ruth and her daughter Candy for dinner.

Sunday we went into Ohio and did some more visiting. It's been so long since we'd been back that it seems a lot of time was spent visiting and I wish we could have had longer. We tried to fish every morning before heading out and the kids had such a wonderful time with cousins!

The goats and animals were taken care of by friends and the garden had grown leaps and bounds while we were gone. It took us 5 days to get caught back up with work and we're finally getting regular rain! It's been so humid the past couple of days but this summer is completely different than the last 2 and is more like what is should be instead of the hot incredibly dry like we've had! The pond isn't holding water but I am hoping we're finally pulling out of this drought. The pastures look wonderful.

Big Sandy River one evening

Ohio River

Cable bridge at the Twelve Pole Church in WV

Queen's Ridge Cemetery and church.

Queen's Ridge Cemetery...a gorgeous & peaceful final resting place.

I like taking photos of outhouses. Here's a his and hers.

Single seater

Vacation: Day 4- Drowning Worms