Getting Lots Done...

The weather is so nice it just makes you want to get outside and DO SOMETHING!! Well, for me that's going to be gardening and cooking and cleaning the chicken poo off the porches! Trust me, with laundry included and a graduation to attend, I'll be a busy little bee all weekend long :)

As for the garden, I'll be doing some more weeding out there. It seems whatever was eating my peas has moved on as no more of them have come up missing. I hope it stays away for good! The peas are slowly climbing the fence - I thought they would be much higher on it by now considering how they grew so fast once they got out of the ground. It matters not since the plants already have peas on them...now the peas just have to get fatter :) :) :)

The carrots are doing well with their feathery leaves standing tall above the weeds...lol! They look so pretty when the wind blows and they all bend back and forth with it. I haven't uncovered any of them yet, although the temptation is very strong, because I think the packet said they wouldn't be ready for 70 days. Now I don't know if that's 70 days from when they go in the ground or if it's 70 days from when they emerge from the ground...I'm going with 70 days from when they emerged from the ground. That would have them ready for the picking around June 26th according to my garden calendar. Of course I had to have a calendar, how else would I keep up with this sort of information with the memory I have? LOL!

I still have just the one beet...no sign of any others at this point. When I get the weeding done, perhaps I'll come upon another one or two...ever so hopeful of me to think so, huh? Well, those two rows of seeds had to go somewhere??? I'm thinking since we planted them when it was raining, maybe they got washed out of the garden somewhere or maybe the dirt was washed off of them and some but ate them...who knows? All I know is I have just the one beet. I don't see me making too many salads with that one unless I let it grow all summer long. hahahahahaha I had such high hopes for them... :( oh well, there's always next year!

The beans are doing wonderfully and, again according to my calendar, should be producing flowers by sometime next weekend. The row that Dizzy Debbie helped plant should produce flowers by about mid-June. There are lots of these bean plants and all are doing so well that it appears I should have set my sights on them rather than the beets...lol! So far, so good on the rabbit population. We have lots of rabbits but they don't seem to be interested in my beans. Now watch, I'll say that and they'll start tearing them up! hahahaha

The onions are coming along very well and I think I'll try to uncover one of them tonight! The stalks are looking really, really fat which means the onions underground are likely getting fat too. They probably won't be ready for harvesting so I'll be sure to cover up the one I check on. I won't dig it up - just move the dirt from the top of it so I can see if it's getting nice and round. mmm a salad with slices of juicy, red onion...YUM Certainly there is no worry with rabbits eating the onions...nope, no sign of that!

The Mexican Oregano from Teri has grown a little bit and for sure I'll snip it when I make my marinaded mushrooms. Italian salad dressing does them well but adding that little bit of freshness, sends them over the top! Oh, I'm making the mushrooms for Tenesha's graduation party on Saturday.

The sacrificial geraniums look beautiful with their red blooms completely covering the plant. As I was sitting on the porch reading my book last night I could just barely catch their scent. Some people don't like the way geraniums smells but I do. To me they smell very earthy and dirt-like...and that's a good thing - if that makes sense?

The pink, wild, roses are still blooming along the front of the woods and my plan is to ride the 4 wheeler down to the trailer tonight to check on the rose bush down there. I hope I get to snip a couple of flowers to bring home to the cabin. I hope I'm not too late to get those first two you saw in the flickr photographs!

That's your weekly garden update :) Stay tuned for another episode coming up this Monday :) :) :)

Getting back to me sitting on the porch last night...it was a very pleasant evening, about 68 degrees and slowly dropping, a slight breeze was coming off the hill, there was still plenty of sunshine and FINALLY a hummingbird showed up. It didn't stay long, just took a drink from my little feeder and off it went. It came back probably every 15 minutes or so and then it was gone. I'm sure it went to tell all its friends that I finally got all my feeders back out and filled to the brim with super sugary water! LOL!

I hope to be watching them again tonight if I can get home while it's still daylight. I need to do the grocery store thing after work but since I'm only shopping for one this week, I should be able to get in and out pretty quick. I'll get the groceries in, head to the trailer to check the rose bush, get back up to the cabin, get my book and my beer and get out to my chair all before the sun goes down on another beautiful spring day in Tennessee. It's hard to stay at work, that's for sure!

As I said the temperature was dropping slowly and after an hour or so outside, it was just too chilly and I had to come inside. Not to worry, I opened a can of boiled peanuts, grabbed a napkin and a paper plate and headed into the living room to watch Iron Chef America. I rarely get to watch it anymore because it comes on so late on a Sunday night that I just can't hold my eyes open long enough to watch it.

Well it was "Battle Basil" so that was pretty exciting (well, for me it was, okay??). I know I'll be inundated with basil in my CSA basket somewhere towards the end of summer so I thought I'd pick up a few basil recipes. As it turns out I ended up on the phone through the whole show...lol! No recipes for me unless I catch the re-run again!

So I finished my peanuts and cleaned up my mess and then went to the kitchen window to see why the dogs were barking their heads off. Even the old dogs were barking so I knew it had to be something. There in the driveway, not too far from the doghouse actually, were three deer. They were grazing through the grass, filling their bellies, when one turned directly toward me. She was so fat that I couldn't see her hind legs! I've never seen a pregnant deer before but I know they aren't typically that fat. She must be about ready to give birth. When the second deer walked over towards her, I noticed it was just as fat! How about that? Two pregnant deer eating grass along our driveway? The third was thinner, as they typically are, so it's possible this one could be a very young buck or just one of the females who didn't get, uh, well, you know.

I'll be watching for those little ones as days go by and keep you posted on my sightings :) Wish you could be here to see them for yourself...:) :) :) As wildlife goes, there's plenty to be seen these days. We have lots of rabbits running around, lizards lazily soaking up the sun, birds chirping from all sides, a turkey who comes up in the front yard every day and now the deer and hummingbirds are back. It seems things have come full circle.

TGIF everyone! Enjoy the weekend and have fun hanging out with Wally while he's there!

"How is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?" ~François Duc de La Rochefoucauld