Chillin' and Grillin'

While Mamie and Poppy were relaxing on the sun porch, a large black bird with a bright red head flew through the yard.  As you can see from the photo, it is a beautiful Pileated Woodpecker.  We hear them quite often, hammering away in the woods around our house, but today we had the added pleasure of watching it.

Today we were feeling a bit melancholy. Our daughter and grandson left at about 5:30 in the morning to go back home.  We so enjoyed having them with us for the last two weeks.

Sign of Things to Enjoy

As spring rushes toward summer, it makes us excited of things to come.  We always look forward this time of year to see how the roses will fare...as we planted quite a few; but we have pretty much left each one to their own fate....

The first one pictured here has to be our favorite.  The aroma is wonderful and the color is beautiful...

Louise Clements

These are the buds that are a sign of things to come.

Flower Bed Makeovers.

  Yesterday we went to see a dear friend whose husband went to sleep after 94 years of life.  They were married for over 70 years.  Poppy was very close to him and lost a friend he could confide in.  Mamie is a lot like his wife, and so they have an unspoken closeness that they understand without having to use words to explain.  Yes, there may be years in age difference, but Mamie and Poppy have learned that age does not matter when it comes to making good friends.  We enjoyed spending some time with our friend, and have already planned to go back again.

  We  scheduled some time the next day to work around the yard after our morning routine.

  We started in the back so we could eat on the back deck later in the evening and enjoy the fresh, clean look.  One of the things we do to prep the beds is to add a layer of compost and then cover it with some mulch.  Of course, we remove any weeds that we can and trim up the bushes for this year's growth.  Then we mulch, but as of yet we haven't got the mulch for the beds. But the work begins.  While working here are some of the flowers we are enjoying.

Trying to get the chores done early...

Early Spring Garden gate entrance redo...

Do to the unseasonably warm weather (which we love), we decided to get a jump on the garden walkways and such. One of the problems we have had is that when we get our showers that usually begin in the spring, the water rushes down the slope that heads right to the garden and has washed a lot of sediment through the area. The main target was right through the gate. Our property is quite hilly for the deep south, and when it rains you have to try to control how the water will flow when we get the torrential down-pours. We have never had problems with flooding where we are located, yet when it rains it pours!!!

So here is our gate area. We use to open the gate out or in. Now we can only open inwards. Plus because of the silt, the weeds are starting to move in.

We purchased railroad ties for 10 bucks each, and buried them in the ground, then removed the excess soil.

Now the front door. Yes I said the "front door". I never finish one thing all the way. But the weather was so nice I decided to take advantage of the warm sunshine. Our door has suffered a bit from humidity and doggy toenail graffiti. Notice our fancy saw-horses? I lightly sanded the door and added a fresh coat of sealer. Then placed it in the power dryer to speed up the process.

Then back to the garden! Of course a little Frisbee time with Pickles first.

Next we added our weed barrier (free cardboard), and topped it with some crushed limestone. We love the way it turned out. This should help divert any rushing water.  One project crossed off of the list.  And when the garden starts getting busy, we won't be bugged by a weed-infested garden entryway. 

Oh, I did get the front door hung back up.  Only problem is, I only got to do one side.  That's the way I roll!

This post is copyrighted by http://sweetpicklesfarm.blogspot.com/

Bugs Are Good- (Except the Bad Ones)

Oh! how we have been dreaming of warm, sultry days! When we awake with the excitement of a new day!

The possibilities are endless--what for breakfast?  Should we try that new egg dish made with feta cheese and roasted fennel? Or perhaps that coffee cake made with fresh buttermilk and brown sugar?  Or, maybe we are not that hungry and will just gulp down that beet and greens juice, because we know that we need to eat something, and we haven't been feeling our best- so whatever we put into our gut, it better be healthy!  BUT- after that, we can go out and plant those wonderful seeds we ordered in the winter, while we were dreaming of warm, sultry days...

...wait...we STILL are there, smack-dab in winter, and ONE of us has a nasty COLD-- caught from a nasty BUG!  A BAD bug!  Yep, sniffling and sneezing, tons of balled up wet tissue next to the bed, no appetite and no energy.  Sigh.

However, when we think about the gardens, we also have to consider bugs.  And, there are good and bad bugs.  There is so much research you can do about the subject, but good old-fashioned experience is sometimes the best.

When we built our house, we started from scratch with a wooded lot that had never been built on.  After we moved into our home, we wanted to get going on putting in a garden.  There were so many grasshoppers and crickets! 

But we did not want to start putting chemicals and synthetic fertilizers on this virgin land...what to do?  What to do? After much research, we decided to get some chickens.  Chickens LOVE grasshoppers and crickets, (among other nasties) and give great fertilizer and, not in the least, eggs.

Mamie  picked out a few breeds she wanted to try, and we put in our order.  But a few nights after that, she woke up in the middle of the night in a hot sweat, full of anxiety.  (Of course, at our age....)  So worried about the responsibility- "What are we doing getting chickens at our age? What if it is too hard?  We want to SIMPLIFY our life, not complicate it!"  But, after Poppy calmed her down and said we would talk about it in the morning, Mamie calmed down.  Sorta.

After waking and talking it over, we both decided to give it a shot.  Let us just say, we have never been sorry.  It has been about six years, and our chickens have earned their keep.  They have greatly reduced the grasshoppers and crickets, fertilized our yard and compost, and kept us in wonderful eggs.  And with all of the research, we have learned a lot about nature and growing things.  And bugs.

You want bugs in your yard and garden.  Good bugs, and- believe-it-or-not, bad bugs.  There are so many bugs that are good for your garden.  They tramp around with their ungainly feet, all around your plants.  They pick up pollen, which helps your plants to thrive and produce.  But, they need food.  Many of them eat bugs.  Other, succulent, delicious, swollen-from-gorgeous-veggie bugs.

That is why you need some bugs for them to eat.  In a nutshell, if you allow bugs to come into your world, you have to account that some of your beautiful, hard-earned produce will be munched on.  By bugs.  But then, other bugs will hone in on the buffet, and eat those bugs.  It is a win-win situation.  We still are more than willing to grab a bad bug that has been missed at the buffet, and squish it right between our fingers; (we have toughened up our eeww-factor over these last few years), or toss them to the grateful chickens, or hunt down egg sacs on the back of leaves and use sticky tape to pull them off.  Yes, it is work.  But when you sit back and survey the fruits of your labor- a beautiful garden and yard, a coop full of happy chickens, and a pantry bursting with a rainbow of colored mason jars, you cannot help but go to bed happy and looking forward to the next adventure.

The Beginning 2013 Yard Tour

The beginning of a new year and I'm already wanting spring. The weather is dreary and chilly. So, as I scan the blog world looking at other people gardening, cooking good food and showing their personal projects, I realize that my life too can be interesting if I looked at it from a outsider's view. Allow me to take you on a brief tour of our homestead.  Not a great time to introduce anyone to it being it is in the doldrums of winter, but it is what it is.

This is a view across the front yard. To me it all looks brown, but as I look at it again it is green (just the winter green that we get in the deep south).

Here we have the chicken coop. As this blog develops we'll let you know how this all came about.

The Homestead as we like to call it....

Our little farm (as we affectionately like to call it) has given us a sense of comfort and peace that we as husband and wife have been able to share amidst the trials and turmoil of this world and one disaster after another. Our experiences in gardening come from trials and errors (which we can truly say, have been many). Yet we hope the things we have learned or share on this blog will  bring a glimpse of what we enjoy. And how we are trying to look at the bright side of life, glass half-full, silver linings, on the right side of the dirt, et al.  We realize that everything we do is not correct as to one of our loves-gardening, because almost everyday we learn some new way to compost or what plants work best in our area, what bug is good or bad (sometimes after we've killed it, only to find out it was the good one that paid the price of our error). This blog will be the work of two best friends, that have become one over the last 30 years. Since our wedding day until now we have always tried to keep the world around us from making us do our own separate things. We have learned that many things are designed to keep people so busy that they don't take time to smell the roses (much less learn how to even grow one).

Now on to the name of our farm. Pickles is our little Boston Terrier that has brought us so much joy. In her own little way she has helped us to look at life with a little less stress. Yes, we wish our life would be stress free, or that we are not affected by the rampant commercialism so prevalent around us, but having such "home comforts" as our sweet little "Pickles" sure help us to enjoy and be thankful for our many blessings.

So, this is just a journal for what my wife and I enjoy discovering each passing day at this time in our lives.  We feel this will be a nice way to share with our two children that live far away, and as a notebook for our little grandson as he gets older.

This post is copyrighted by http://sweetpicklesfarm.blogspot.com/