Mother's Day May 12th ~

Had a very nice Mother's Day. 

Started out with DH making a nice breakfast and then onto Williamsburg. The first time I have seen Williamsburg with leaves on the trees and flowers all about.

I just loved all the beautiful gardens, simple but well maintain and incredibly done.

Above is DS, in one of the unique gardens at the Governors mansion.

First time I went around those gardens.
It had garden's within gardens....... was magical. 

One of the many walled Gardens, have many more photos to sort thought, so these are just some of the first.

A Beautiful Cottage garden and little house below.

What do I spy with my little eye, but a Minion in the sky. 
LOL... wasn't expecting to see that.  And who ever was flying that thing... was throwing it around like a race car!

A Secret garden path.... we went down a lot of those. Where most people do not bother to go. We had the place pretty much to ourselves back there.
Did I say I loved it?  ;O)

Plan on posting a few more of the photos in the next few days, as I get time.

Sadie needs Surgery........

Bad news on Sadie... our little orange cat.  Both Stifles keep going out and with one side, she is popping her leg out of the joint socket.
She needs Surgery, in tune of $1,000+ dollars.... is either that or put her down.
Surgery needs to be done very soon, she can't keep going like she has.

So.....
Make an offer on any of my original paintings... some will come with frames, some without.
Need to sell some Art to pay for this...   So make an offer.. please pass the info around.

Visitors ~

We had some visitors move across the Farm yesterday.  Was kind'a surprised because they are pretty far from water.
Not sure where they came from, but I haven't seen any geese nesting in the area.... they would of let me know.
Going to assume they are heading for the pond at the back of the property.

Jacob ewes ~

The Jacob ewe lambs are settling in. Have them in my tack room, needed a place small enough to gentle and halter train them.

The smaller one with the uneven horns is taming out the quickest.  

She also loves to jump... thinking of calling her either "Dragonfly" or "sparrow"  .... what do you think?

The one with the Face shot, she is going to be a little harder to tame, she is acting like she comes from the Alpha ewe.  

Her name just popped into my head... Abigail.  LOL  

Japanese Maple~

When I moved from Oregon to VA, I had to leave all the beautiful Japanese maple trees my DH bought me, with a good friend.
Just no way to take them with me.

We went to a local nursery yesterday to look for some garden stakes. Something VA people know nothing about,,, any way..... found some there, bought what they had.
Couldn't help it, haven't been to a good nursery since we left Oregon, so I just had to look around.
Love trees, so went to look at those.  And would you believe it, they had a couple varieties of JM's... on sale. 
DH must of saw the look on my face, so he said, "Pick one out", Happy Mother's day.
Think my smile could of lit up the dark side of the moon!  LOL

Looked at the pots next, do you know, the cost 4 times the amount here in VA, compared with Oregon!  Flabbergasting to say the least. Refused to buy one.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a half whisky barrel on sale, to put my wee Rosemary plant in.
So I decided to just use that as the planter.

With the families help, I potted up the Lace leaf Japanese maple. To make sure the chickens do not dig all of the soil out, DS found some stones for me and I put them on top.
Is quite pretty.

This is not the best picture, because it started to rain..... but more to come soon. LOL

The Kitchen~

Bought some pan wall racks, so I have easy access to them.  Am extremely pleased that the make the kitchen look more complete or larger if you will.
Would be a lot easier to show you in person.....   but a picture will do for now.

Mia ~

Mia was posing for me,,, sweet cat she is. 

To bad my camera is shite inside.

But I can see a future painting in one of these. 
Granted I need to start painting again.

Asparagus, Nari and sheep

Every where I have lived, I have always wanted Asparagus,,, now I have three small raised beds of them.  This is the first one to come up! 
 I have a baby Asparagus! LOL

Nari hunting......  then had to come see what I was doing. 

Sheep in the new front pasture... needless to say, they are happy!

Our Wee Orchard ~~

Really hard to see some of the fruit trees, but if you look very closely.....

Having to start all over is a pain, this is the 3rd Orchard I have started up, I just hope this time, by the time it starts producing, we will be here to enjoy it.

All but the newest tree, a Williams Pride Apple, are blooming.  Very beautiful to look at.   ;O)

Flowering Cherry Trees

Put arrows near DH's flowering Dogwood in the back of the photo, and  Kawanza flowering cherry near the front of the hen house. 
I planted them last year, because I missed the beauty of the type of Flowering trees, we had in Oregon. 
They do not look like much now, but in a few years, this will be a very beautiful spot to look at.

Just love this flowering cherry tree!

We also planted another type of flowering cherry tree, but it will not be as spectacular as the Kawanza. 

Kawanza is hard to find here, but would like to plant two more trees before next Autumn.

Raised Beds, Pancake Muffins and a Flowering tree.... oh my...

DH made breakfast yesterday. Pancake batter put into muffin cups and baked at 350* for about an half hour or so, I don't think anyone was timing it.
Came out pretty good and I love having blue berries on them.

Spring comes a lot later here, than in Oregon.  The first flowers of spring, from my Peach Tree. 

DH put in the 4th raised bed on Sat.  
DS and I will put the stone dust in the holes and I will put some of the horse manure that has been composting since last year in it, mid week. This will give the mortar time to cure.
The yellowish stuff you see on the paths, is Corn Gluten, this will help keep the weeds from growing.

You can see on the front left bed, some of the cap stones we plan on putting around all the raised beds. Makes it easier for me to sit on and tend the Kitchen garden.

Most likely a bit early, but I ordered some tomatoes, peppers, Artichoke plants, a Rosemary and Thyme.

Making Bread.... one handed~~

I badly needed to make bread today, and being one handed was a bit of a challenge.
However, with the help of the bread machine, doing the first two rises and kneadings, I was able to make hamburger buns. 
Right now, they are doing their last rising in the oven.

Keeping my fingers crossed they come out right! 

**Updated....  the Hamburger buns.... little more character to them than usual,  but they still taste good.  ;)

Second set of Raised Beds~

Last Sat, DH started on the 2nd set of raised beds.
 Was hoping to get 6 done for this summer, but with Congress cutting our pay, might not be possible.
At least this is a start. 
Have also decided to cap the edges of these raised beds, so they are easier for me to sit on. 

Sheep happily eating in the newly fenced front pasture.
It is a load off, that they will have food.
Am slowly getting Stjarna and Maggie used to the grass again.

Needed to do some, slight, pruning with the Willow tree I planted last year, so I figured I would see if I can get some of the cuttings to grow roots.
Free tress are always a good thing.

Nari and the Bird House ~~

This is Nari during the morning chores. She is on top of the Bird house, with a Nut Hatch cussing her out, a little farther up the tree. 
Going to assume, said Nuthatch, either has chicks or eggs in the nest box.

So DS saved the wee mother bird from the multi toed wonder....

Raised Beds slowly going in....

The 2nd raised bed being built last Sat. Should be ready to put soil in it today, once is warms up that is. Will be using a combo of Horse manure, composted for a year, Peat Moss and sand. 
Then I can get the other Asparagus planted.

I ordered enough blocks to do, two more raised beds. Have been trying to get them delivered since Monday.
Hopefully they will get here tomorrow. 

Might put in a couple of pressure treated raised beds too.  They are a little faster to build.

Plan on putting Gravel dust between the beds to help keep the weeds down and make a safe surface for me to walk on. 

Yup, that was windy yesterday....

Photos are from the beginning of the storm....

Very windy, rain/sleet/snow.... sticking snow as you can see on the shed blow.
Wind so strong, it forced moisture through the edges of the shed doors to make puddles inside...
Wind so strong, there were a number of times when I was feeding the animals... I just about hit the dust and having the feed shed door try to take me out, wasn't much fun either.
As you can see, I wasn't about to bring my camera out side in this!

Was quite a wild ride yesterday but I thank my lucky stars, the power stayed on.

Nari did not even, try, to go outside.  This is what she did for most of the day yesterday and I don't blame her.
Specially since I saw a number of tiny birds get tumbled about on the ground by the winds. Was impressive.
Last thing I needed was a tumble weed cat!

The herd at rest.....

This is the most unflattering photo I have ever taken of Stjarna, and doesn't help my clip job is... blech..,,, but I wanted to show you the wee herd.  
And Max, just like a cat, loves warms.   Dyfra loves her goats.
Can you find Sid?  LOL

Mighty Maggie and the work she does.....

Yesterday,  I brought Maggie up, so she could carry what was needed to help me find the fence line on the far side.

Maggie has years of experience with the Sawbuck and Panniers and she has always been a great help to me..

Took us nearly 3 hours, nearly did me in and if I did not have her to drag me back out....

Did indeed find the old boundary line markers, now wither or not we have enough fencing to go that far....

We will have to measure that today.

(Just a note- the sawbuck and pannier look lop sided but I weighed each side to make sure they were even in weight)

Slightly odd angle photo, but you can see more of the Sawbuck and Panniers.

Lemon Tree~~

The Lemon Tree I bought for my birthday last year, is blooming and smells wonderful.

I will let the blooms fade out, but then I will pinch them. I want the tree just a little bit bigger before I allow it to set fruit.
Will be hard to wait but worth it!

Max and Sid, say Hi !

 Max

 Sid

They are great little weed eaters.... and even wag their tags when you itch them or give them treats.  A lot of fun to have around.

Raised Garden Beds, Grape Vines ....

 Earlier this month, saw this sky looking out from the front door. Thought the color and contrast was quite pretty.

Can see the cinder block raised bed to the left, DH put in a couple of months ago. 
Then the blocks that have been waiting to be made into a raised bed.
This is were my Asparagus will go.  

Planned on more raised beds, but that will have to be put on hold due to the pending pay cut, unless I can find some free or super cheap used ones.
Will try to put in some more traditional beds, though my body can't really handle tending to those any more.
Family has to eat this summer, so will figure something out.

Bought two grape vines last Fall and planted them. Just hope they survived the winter here. Hard to tell at this point.
DS, put in two posts few weeks ago, so we will have some where for the vines to grow,,, thinking back on it, we should of put more concrete in the last post. As we pulled the wire between the posts yesterday, that one moved a bit.
Possible problem later on, but not going to worry about it right now.
Tied some orange tape on the wire, since it is nearly impossible to see.

In a few years, this place might just be pretty...... I hope any way.

Human Genes Engineered Into Experimental GMO Rice Being Grown in Kansas

Human Genes Engineered Into Experimental GMO Rice Being Grown in Kansas


This is beyond scary.... and everyone should pay attention, specially if you all ready have food Allergies!