Fixing the Hail damage~

Sanders Construction, who is also a good neighbor, is working on, getting the hail damaged fixed.
We have a long list of things to be done and they are doing a great job.

Biscuit and Sunflowers~

Home made Biscuit Breakfast made by DH. Doesn't it look good?!

Had two Sunflowers growing in the Hen house yard, before the Hail storm. Now there is only one.

Can see the damage to the leaves due to the hail. 

Still is a beautiful and cheerful flower.

Baby Chick Up date~~

Baby Chick up date....

The 5 Lavender Americana Bantams are doing well, as are the d'Uccle Porcelians I bought from Murray McMurray when I figured out the hatch wasn't going well with the LAB's.

There is one lone Cochin in the middle.

The d'Uccle's when they were a little younger.

A Lavender Americana Bantam, can see how much larger their eyes are, compared to the other breeds.
Having a lot of fun with them,  they are quite tame.

Went to the wedding ~~~

Me in Make up, for the first time in 20+ years and even tried to tame my hair.

Was a nice wedding last night. Very happy for Russ and his new bride.

Got to dance with with my DH for the first time in a longggg time.
Only could do one dance, but I loved it.

Those cute little half boots,,,, surprisingly super, super comfy!
They are Yuu Marsha Leather Shooties, in-case anyone is interested in trying them out.

Bantam lavender Americana chicks~

Some of the chicks hatched 2 days before they should of....
Right during the time the Direct TV person arrived.....  
Thought the chicks that hatched would be ok until he left.... 
Bad move on my part. sigh ~~
Should of grabbed them and carry them around with me.

Lost the first three chicks.  :P   Due to the non broody hens stealing them from under the broody hens. 

Have 5 so far, though I am not sure the rest will finish hatching out or not.

Not able to find any more Bantam lavender Americana..... I just ordered a few Porcelain d'Uccles, so they will have a few more buddies.
They will arrive next Monday.  
Will raise them for awhile in the house and then move them out to the tack room in horse shed.

Will be nice to have some bantams again.

Hail Storm~

I need to clean up my kitchen garden this morning... but its depressing.... 

All the fronds have been knocked off the asparagus...

My peas and beans,,, while it looks green, they have been sheared off about 2" above the soil.

And the garden was doing so well before this.

Oh.... and the baby bunny in my garden.... that looked at me an peed. :P

Part of the dish knocked off by hail.

Some of the damage to the house.  While its not a lot it still needs to be fixed.

Above... is a punch through that is bigger than my fist.
Below... a number of hole through the siding. 

And why I really thought the hail was going to break a window... its hard to see the dents in this.

The hail lasted around 20 minutes,,, was Quarter sized, sizes in between and a few fist sized hail were hitting the house and garage.  And it was coming in sideways, different directions... and almost like we were in the food blender.
Sounded like a bomb was going off and I stayed in the center of the house.
Weird high and very strong winds didn't help.
The storm with the violent thunder and lightening, lasted nearly 4 hours here.
I wasn't impressed at all.

The Amish made, board and batten sheds, fared much better. They will just need a bit of stain here and there.
Wish I could put up either Hardy plank or board and batten on the side of the house.

Have called the insurance, so need to find a way to pay the deductible.
The good Contractor and neighbor, will be here later today to see what it will take to fix the many, many holes and damage to the siding and garage and make sure the roof's are sound on both buildings.

Kitchen Garden and wee Orchard~~

The new Flavor supreme Pluot fruit tree , is doing really well.

This is the one Grape vine, called, Mars, made it through the winter,, even after the late freeze killed the new growth. A little Horse manure compost did wonders. Also have a ground cover, that I hope over time,will help keep the need for weeding down.

This is the replacement grape vine called, Reliance. It is a Red grape, I hope it does better than the Einset grape vine did. I am going to use Strawberries as a ground cover in this area.
Still need to add a horse manure compost to the new vine.

This is the Shiro Plum and is having problems coming out of dormancy. As is the Pear tree.
 I contacted Raintree over a week ago, about a couple of issues with this last order of trees and roses...
3 of the Rosa R's have having issues too.
Have not heard back from them.
Kind of surprises me, I have started 3 Orchards, in 3 different states, mostly with their trees.
Not sure what is happening with customer service at this point. 

Pea, Green bean Bed. Also has a basil and cantaloupe plants. The later I will have cascade outside of the bed.
The peas most likely will not produce pods, until it starts getting cooler this Fall.Can see the rustic trellis.
In the front of this Bed, is a small Willow tree I started from a branch, off the slightly larger Willow I planted the first year we arrived here.

Same Bed, different View.

This is the Tomato and Squash bed.
Will just have two tomato plants this year.
The Squash should grow to to fill the bed and help keep the weeds down. 

Also have one Pepper plant,
few onions, flowers and a couple of Cantaloupe plants.
I hope in time, DH can make some rustic arbors, so I can have plants like the Cantaloupes, grow up and over the walk way between the Beds. 

So far, knock on wood, the Veggies are doing much better this year.