Time moves so fast when it is full!  Planting, children, school, the house, life...

James had a team of volunteers over to catch up on our perennial weeding.  In exchanged for their labor, we'll be donating $5 to the Lord's Diner for every man hour they contributed.  They tackled our garlic, strawberries, and asparagus beds before breaking for a home cooked meal (including asparagus, chicken, and goat raised by us).  They also laid out our entire watering system for the main garden and moved some serious mulch.

Rain and lightning called a definitive end to the evening, but not before food, fun, fellowship, and prayer filled us all.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

YJ Acres

After 21+" of rain since July 14, we are enjoying drier.  I would not wish away any rain God sees fit to send us, but I am glad we are finally able to wade through the weeds and try to tame the chaos!

One of my three new rose bushes is blooming.  I normally don't choose something yellow, but this rose is cheery and bright against the rest of the green path.

The below hill has been a trouble spot for us.  We lost the only tree planted on it last year in the terrible drought.  When my mom and I were planting bulbs, the tree was so brittle that we could pop off large branches.  We planted a sweet cherry tree in its place.  The hill is also problematic because mowing over it, what with the stones and uneven ground, results in excessive need to trim as well as bald spots where the mower has scalped the high spots.  Our solution, over the next several years, will be to gradually kill of the grass and replace it with rose bushes and mulch.  I had to leave behind my collection of roses at our old house, so I am looking forward to choosing all over again!

 I started the spring with a cleaned up front walkway.  Herb plants were planted, weeding commenced, and... the summer and time escaped me.  This week, every time I leave the house to pick up or take the girls to school, I have been pulling a few weeds.  Although there's plenty left to do, I can now tell where the oregano, basil, echinacea, chamomile, sage, rosemary, lavender, and tarragon are... and where they aren't!  I ran out of mulch from chipped limbs, so I may be at a stopping place in this yard improvement for now.

 Apples and peaches are slowing approaching ripeness in our orchard. When we made a trip to Lowe's for supplies for the new and improved chicken tractor, we also splurged and bought several more fruit trees.  Even better, we already planted them!  Another honeycrisp, gala, and Wolf River apples were planted, as well as a plum.  We're looking forward to maturity in a few years!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

a Gasp for Breath in the Rush of Summer

I have used my vacuum sealer to put up to pints of dried fruit.  While I would love to put up more, the mulberries have not been so popular, and I haven't enough strawberries.  Next year, I will start drying strawberries sooner!

The {almost} daily compost bucket. We have just enough spoiled food (and eggshells) that I don't want to give to the chickens, so into the bin they go!

Onions are bulbing out fabulously.  This year, I'm striving to use onions as soon as I pull them, including chopping extra for the freezer.  Last year, too many onions spoiled through my failure to chop and use.  I know few things that smell quite as horrendous as a mouldering onion.

We are slowly... slowly... slowly beating down the weeds.  While they are still ahead, I think we are making great strides.  I'm not sure the same can be said in the battle against the whiteflies, although a judicious application of neem may help me.

The first garlic has been harvested.  The bulbs are disappointingly small overall, but they were planted too closely, in haste, by a nauseous pregnant woman.  I blame it mostly on me.  I'll save the biggest for this fall's planting (by Columbus Day).

Fava beans, why do you hate me?  Like in a past attempt, many are beginning to shrivel and burn up.  Is it the unexpected heat?

Tomatoes!  I am anticipating the first ripe ones with great delight!

A gift... an unexpected mulberry tree.  It is a weeping mulberry and quite attractive.

We also have apple trees suffering from cedar rust and peaches from oriental fruit moths.  I think our neighbor has not cared for his trees in the past, so we have work to do next spring to handle these issues!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Tomatoes hardening off...  I think we have 13 flats.

I love the sight of redbuds blooming in the spring.  I didn't know, given my ignorance of trees and the drought last summer, if I was lucky enough to have any redbuds. We have two!

While working outside today, I remembered my hat in an effort to avoid the nearly-obligatory first ferocious sunburn of the summer.  (No, it's not summer weather, but it's always the first sunburn!)

Rhubarb is thriving!

Strawberry bed

I don't see any major gaps in the strawberries, so I think we planted well.  The rain has definitely aided in helping plants establish themselves.

Peas, lettuce, spinach, and onions are planted.  Who left the shed door open?  I think one of my little helpers have come by...

Despite the thriving weeds and lilies around them, threatening to choke them out, the garlic is doing well.

ASPARAGUS!  I am so relieved to discover five plants survived the searing heat last summer.  Q added his finger to the picture.  I'm looking forward to the first harvest of the spring!

The Assistant and Q added their thumbs to this onion picture.  The onion have lovely new growth, and I hope they enjoyed the cold weather we had recently.  It should aid in bulb size.

Peach tree, post-multiple frosts.  I'm still not sure what will come of it.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Orchard

View from the north/northeast

View from the south/southwest

the lone cherry bush, to the east of the driveway

And, lest I forget:

			(SOUTH)
	Peach		Gala apple		Winesap semidwarf apple
(driveway)	Redskin Peach		Jonathan apple		x
	Honeycrisp apple		Cortland apple		Honeycrisp apple
			Macintosh
			(NORTH)

Spring...

... always tries to come a little early.

Go back to sleep, little bulbs!
The girls, Mom, and I planted hundreds of bulbs last fall.
I look forward to seeing what grows... but not yet!

Site of the future herb garden

a work in progress
but progress is better than nothing!

What are we going to do with this ugly guy?

We should have watered our cover crop a little more last fall.
This is the consequence of a pregnant momma who can't face 100+ heat!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

katie z.

Labor

... of various sorts has been transforming life here.

On January 14, the newest member of our family joined us.

On January 19, we began an orchard.  Our almost-a-neighbor tree man is planting a cherry bush, soon to be joined by 7 apples and 2 peaches.

We now call early evening/late afternoon (that time with children that is sometimes called the witching hour) the "bobcat hour," as recently, a bobcat has repeatedly tried to kill our cat.  She is smart, though, and has escaped, although (s)he treed Andromeda once.  We're learning to remember to shut her up in the barn before dark, aka, the bobcat hour.

The weather has been unseasonably warm, and now there are tornado warnings for places to the east and south.  Fortunately, we seem to be confined to possible thunderstorms.  As we could use the rain, bring it on!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

katie z.

Saturday Work

The gentleman should have finished their 100 bushes and trees by now.  The holes were already dug, so it was "just" laying a tree in the right hole, adding a shovel full of compost, and planting.  Add to that their work at getting four tons of compost delivered, as well as a truck-load of mulch at the Little House and Purgatory Ranch.  Myle was a workhorse too, watching kids, some not even her own, hauling water to water the orchard at the Little House, shoveling compost, and planting trees.

Needless to say, compared to their intense labors, my weeding of two rows of potatoes and watching kids is pretty puny.

Evergreen bunching onions (left) and garlic are thriving.
Looks like the onions are even forming bulblets just as they should!

Potatoes.  Awesome.

Trees we planted last year the day before Bear Cub Q's birthday.  Many are still alive.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Seedlings: Update

In an effort to prolong the time we have until being forced to plant 150 seedlings, James and I spent the afternoon heeling in the saplings in our garden beds at our house. This should buy us at least a week, if not two or three, before they MUST be planted on the land. That should give me time to have a baby without worrying about all these other babies dying.

We have American Plum, Native Pecan, Bur Oak, Mulberry, Lilac, and Hackberry, 25 of each. The pecans look like twigs, and the hackberries have well developed roots. It will be fascinating to see what grows best (and what the rabbits eat).

Seedlings!

Today, 150 seedlings arrived on our porch. These are destined for the land, but we weren't quite prepared for them today.

They are to be kept from freezing, but we are still 5 weeks away from our last frost date. They should be planted soon, but I am due to have my own baby any day.

This could get interesting.

Dan will upload some pictures from the land on the first day of "Spring".