And so it goes

We're in full summer mode here, even if the weather is not very summer like. We've had quite the stretch of cool and cloudy days, punctuated with plenty of sprinkles. Sure cuts down on the watering the lawn and vegetable garden, but tends to bring me down with day after day of gloomy skies. I am sure we'll have a return to warmer temps and sun, eventually.

This year, we are tackling the firewood chore earlier than usual. The idea is to get it all cut, split and stacked before the silvers start running, lol To that end, my hard working husband has a large pile of logs already cut-and we've gotten the woodshed partly filled already. Tonight the plan is to split and stack as much as we can. After that, there is a pretty big pile of very gnarly looking stuff that has a fairly large diameter...I am pretty sure that once it's cut, I won't be able to even pick them up to get them on the splitter!

The garden is perking along, the only disappointments being the carrots and beets. I just have to plant those some other place because they just don't germinate or grow well there. I have plenty of bean plants up, and most everything is starting to get some size on it, thank heavens. A couple weeks ago, my son and I created a small bed out of some leftover material, and stuffed some greens in it-it's really taking off there and I am pleasantly surprised. Over the weekend, I realized I had about two flats' worth of miscellaneous veggies to do something with. Pretty danged small of course, from being in the flats so long. On a whim, I ran off to Home Depot and picked up some bagged mix. We put down a few inches of old horse manure and then topped it with the mix and stuffed way too many plants in there. If they live, great-if not, oh well. I couldn't bear to throw it all out, so anything that grows can be fed to the chickens. The new spot is where I intend to move some raspberries to next year anyway.

In the greenhouse, I have baby fruits-peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers. We just need some sun and warmth to really get it going. My one specialty basket of nasturtiums in there is doing very well-I can't wait until it gets a little bigger with more blooms so I can take a photo to share-very unique plant. Last weekend I finally got the greenhouse arranged and tidied up, which was a bit of a project in itself. Things tend to get pretty jumbled when you are potting up and planting like crazy :) Also over the weekend, I noted three honey bees actually inside the greenhouse, I was thrilled. And not so thrilled to find a wasps' nest there too. Not sure what to do about that, I think I'll leave that for my wonderful hub to deal with!

In between the gardening, we managed to get some red salmon in the freezer (yay!) and hub made some delicious smoked salmon to enjoy. He is very very good at making smoked fish, everyone loves it and it's gobbled up like candy. We tried making dog treats using the trimming from the fish (thin belly strips and etc) and it was a total failure. We'll try again I'm sure, but that was a big disappointment.

My replacement layers are getting some real size to them, my gosh they are getting big. Last night when I arrived home I found all the chickens out and about had a heart attack-you can't imagine how much damage chickens can do to a vegetable garden until you see it for yourself. I was fortunate they had not ranged far from the pen, yes indeed. It was a real Kaystone Kops episode, getting them penned back up-it took my son and I nearly a full hour. We did figure out where they'd made their escape and got that repaired easily enough. Silly birds, always something. The Yokohama hen has gone broody and we've given up trying to stop her-if she choses to sit on a few eggs and hatch a couple of chicks, so be it.

This week I hope to contact a few hay farmers, see how the crop is shaping up. Since we've had no rain at all in May here locally, I figure it's going to be a pretty late first cutting. Now the real question is, will my hay last until then? I am sure lots of local horse people are in the boat as I am, lol