just another week

Hi Mary,

Wednesday morning I drove to Sutton's Bay to visit mom where she is house sitting.  She is taking care of the kitties and playing in the garden and doing a little housework.

We dug up some raspberry suckers, and a few other flowers/herbs growing in the wrong places for me to take home to see if I can't expand my gardens a little - and to copy the ones up there.  They are very nice, and I do enjoy them.  It was a quick visit, but fun.  It was a hoot watching her feed the chipmunks - they are very tame and will practically eat from her hand.

I have been working on my sweater, and doing pretty good with it.  That is despite the fact that I had to rip out the back portion that I had finished last week - I have to admit that I forgot to switch to my larger needles after the ribbing.  Sheesh.  But I recovered and finished the back and then fixed the oops I found on the sleeve.  Picture here of progress so far.  I went to the Fair office and entered it for exhibition for the end of July, so I better keep on making good progress!!  I also made a couple of summer dresses this week, so I have been productive.

I got my framed cross stitch picture back from JoAnn's.  I am more impressed now that it's framed.  It

looks a lot more complex and advanced now that it's all neat and tidy.  Or it could be that now that I've spent $175 for framing (over $400 quoted before coupons and sales - really???) I have to admire it more just to make the expense justifiable.  Or something.  $175 just seems like a lot.  How am I ever going to get my four Celtic ladies framed?  Oh my.

So the garden is growing apace.  I look at it and am happy that it's finally in and showing growth, but then get frustrated because it's so far behind.  It seems like everybody else's is doing better and they are getting something out of them already, even if it's only lettuces and radishes.  Sigh.  Considering the wet weather I am lucky it's in the ground.  I just need to be patient.  And get out there and weed once it drys out a bit.

Front garden - starting to see green through the fence

Back Garden - asparagus, raspberries, corn and rhubarb

Out of Jail

Ta Da, here it is.  Well most of it, anyway.  The fence is up around the garden and the girls are free to roam again.

So okay, the garden still just looks like plowed up dirt from this vantage, but really there is A Lot of growth going on in there.  The beans, onion and peas are shooting out of the ground and everything else is following at an appropriate rate.  I can't believe it, but next weekend I will be putting in my second planting of corn already!  And look at my fence!!

But we did have a bad day last Thursday.  The fence wasn't finished yet (Did I tell you I put in all those posts all by myself?  I was so proud!)  and the big girls were confined to their run.  Which they hate.  I let the little girls out to roam since they are too frightened yet to go far and too little yet to do any damage if they did.  When it was time to put everybody up for the night, we found two dead chickens in the run, a big girl and one of the babies.  At first we were very confused, how could the baby be killed inside the run?  The best we can figure is that the big girl died of natural causes (they are such heavy layers, they tend to have internal problems) and that her sisters were upset because their pecking order was disturbed.  When the baby got in through the wires, with or without 'help', the sisters pecked her to death.  Of course this is all supposition, we are not chicken experts and we didn't see anything.  But it makes sense to us.  I buried them by the raspberries.  

So I wanted to replace the baby, and Bob said we should get two new babies, to get back to our original number.  No Problem.  But when we closed the lid on the box there were four babies in there.  So now we have 11 chickens.  What am I going to do with six-ish dozen eggs a week?

When I took my cross stitch map in for framing, I bumped into some yarn that said 'take me home.'

 What could I do?  Besides, I'd already spent an arm and a leg on the framing (story later), what's a little bit more, right?   I was a good girl and did a swatch, but what ever for? The gauge was way off, not even close.  Sigh.  I was matching the recommendations on the band, so I am just going for it.  I love the pattern and if it's even close to fitting I'll just block the dickens out of it.  It's not fitted, it's like a sweatshirt, it should be fine.  (I just keep telling myself that.)  And yes, Eagle Eye, there is a mistake in the sleeve.  I just noticed it myself, so I will fix that before the next photo shoot.

Babysitting was too fun on Saturday.  She decided that she liked grandma and never cried once.  And she took her first steps - to me!  What a nice day.

  

after the rain

It rained.  And rained.  And rained some more.  I didn't really think it was necessary to dump inches every day when it was time to Plant. My. Garden.  I was in quite the funk.  But it finally stopped (mostly) and the sun came out and warmed things up.  The wind picked up on a few of those days as only wind in the the middle of a corn field can, which helped.  And then The Plow Guy came for a visit.  We both agreed that the ground was still too wet to work.  But what to do?  If that crust on top of

the garden wasn't broken up it might be July before I got it planted. So he came back a few days later and broke the crust up.  Just in time for more rain, but at least now it could drain into the soil instead of laying on top of the crust.  A few days later a neighbor came over and plowed it again.  And so Sunday, June 1, Bob and I started on the garden.  A month late, but now the most of it is in.  Currently it just looks like plowed up dirt.  But there are seeds/transplants of:  melons, tomatoes (2 kinds), cucumbers, summer squash (2 kinds), chard, lettuces (5 kinds), radishes, onions, dill, parsley, sweet peppers, cauliflower, celery, beans, potatoes, basil, cabbages (2 kinds), brussel sprouts, hot peppers (2 kinds), beets (3 kinds), garlic, carrots (3 kinds) basil, cilantro, peas, pumpkins and various flowers.  In the back garden we have asparagus, raspberries, corn, rhubarb and more flowers.  What you won't see in either garden is chickens.  They are in jail (confined to their run) until we can get fencing up.  I didn't spend 20 hours planting just for them to tear it up in 5 minutes!

So my mood has improved since the sun came out and I could play in the dirt.  What I did to keep from going crazy while waiting for
the ground to dry was finish my cross stitch project.  Of course it will look better after it's cleaned and framed.  But it looks very good already to me!  I also fixed up the Christmas stockings for Cathy and Anthony.  So now everyone there has their own stocking, correctly sized and named in the color and pattern of their choosing.

Since I have only been at this chicken thing for one year now, I expect I have gone and done something

a bit foolish.  But I couldn't resist.  Look at how little and cute they are!!!  Instead of saying 'Cluck cluck cluck, let us out so we can devour your garden!' they say 'Peep peep peep, are you my mother?'  Their feathers are so soft and I can carry all three of them at once - in one arm!  I haven't taught them to pose for the camera yet, that will come in due time.  They are Barred Plymouth Rocks, and are supposed to be very good layers, too.  We shall see in a few months.

And finally, the pic of the youngest grandbaby.  She finally got her first tooth last week (at 14 months), yea!! I get to babysit next weekend, I can't wait.  I doubt I'll get much done besides stacking blocks and doling out finger food, but I am still too thrilled.

retirement

Dear Mary,

 It was so nice to talk to you yesterday. I always like hearing how you're doing, how the family is doing and what adventures you and Bob have planned. And talking to you reminded me that I had started this blog 100 years ago and that now that I've quit work I may just have the time and energy to keep a journal. I know it would be good for me, but let's see if I have the discipline to keep it up. Writing has never been my strong suit, and my discipline comes and goes. So we'll see. 

 Today we are having another one of those grey, dark days. Everything is still too wet from last week's monsoon, so the garden must wait some more.

So I have been working on my latest cross stitch project.  It is a Janlynn design, Olde World Map, and I have found the pattern very enjoyable and relatively quick to stitch.  I've just started the backstitching, so we'll see how I feel about it after I've been doing that for a week or two!

Tonight we get to visit my younger son and his family.  I will get to squeeze my youngest grandchild for a minute - she's over a year old and still doesn't have any teeth yet!  Go figure.  We predict she'll get them all at once an drive her poor mama totally bonkers.  With any luck I'll have a picture of her for next time.    love, suzie