Biting off more than we can chew? What else is new?

Have you ever found yourself overwhelmed with things to do? The proverbial "LIST" that never ends? This last week was one of those weeks. I made too many plans, started too many projects and forgot that I'm not a "spring chicken" anymore.
Monday and Tuesday it was still too hot to do anything outside, unless it was after dark or very early in the morning. I watered a lot.
We did clean out the chicken coop and then we decided to tackle the overhead storage in the garage. This was a killer project that could have waited for cooler weather.  Heat rises you know. It was so hot... and there were paper wasps all over the place.

Look at this! Everything that was up there...

Came down.

And most of it went to the DUMP. We had black storage bags filled with outdoor furniture pads that were nesting places for rats. What's Annie been doing? She's suppose to stay on top of this problem. The garage is her responsibility. I'm going to have a talk with her.
We had Christmas boxes up there, filled with stuff that hadn't been used since we moved here sixteen years ago. I did find a small pink plastic swimming pool. If it holds water and I can find my bathing suit, it may come in handy during the next heat wave. See it... under the ladder?I guess I had a plan "B" all along.
Isn't it amazing that we can accumulate so much STUFF in our lives. We store things, thinking that we will need them (at some point) and then we forget what we have. It's amazing and kind of sad.
The oak chairs, a dresser, a bed, an old treadle sewing machine , a rug and that floosie, the 38' Chevy were in a storage locker, downtown. We were paying someone to store things that we couldn't fit into the house. I'm sure the old Chevy would like a room of her own, but she is now under a canvas tent above the chicken coop. She'll survive. The rug, bed and sewing machine were auctioned off at the local Auction house last weekend. The dresser and two of my mom's oak chairs are sitting in the garage. I just can't sell them. And there it is.
But, now we have more room to store more STUFF, in the upstairs area in the garage. It's all cleaned out and ready to receive MORE STUFF. We'll see how long it takes to fill this space with more things that I just can't get rid of.

The heat is gone.  Life is more about what we can get done around here and less about fantasies of infinity pools and ocean front property.
The weather folks tell us that it will cool down and stay this way until next week. We went from 104 degrees most of last week  to 94 yesterday and today the Delta Breezes cooled things down into the 70's with a slight possibility of RAIN. Oh Joy!!!
Thank you oh Gods of Wind and Weather for listening to my shameful whining and nasty disposition. I'm eternally grateful for this lovely reprieve from the heat.
We finished the front porch this morning. It is stained and it looks beautiful. I will post brag photos later.

This morning I cut back the woolly thyme that was threatening to take over the whole front yard.

This was a quick job and it smelled good. Cutting Thyme in the early morning is a wonderful way to start the day.
Then there was the vegetable garden to water, bird feeders to fill and the hummingbirds were dive bombing us because their sugar water feeder was empty.
The Prospector left really early to help a neighbor cut wood. The dogs were complaining about this breach of contract... their routine being altered somewhat, and telling me to do something about it.
I ignored them until about 6:00 a.m. and then got up.
 I let the dogs out, fed them and fixed my coffee. I went down to the vegetable garden and watered.  Then I started cutting the Thyme. I got so involved I forgot breakfast. This is what cooler weather does to me. I go outside and work. It's like magic. I regain my energy that gets lost in the heat.
When the Prospector got back we started staining the deck. It looks great! Now we have a lovely refinished front porch.

Let's see... what's next? The goat house needs cleaning out. Annie has a scratch on her nose that doesn't look too good. We may have to take her to the vet. The laundry room needs painting. The road needs more gravel and we need a few more goats in the pasture. Brownie isn't keeping up with all the grass and weeds.
It's always something and then there is the biggest worry...
Fire season is here.

The fear of last summer's fire is etched in our memory. The burnt area below the house is a constant reminder of that horrible day when we had to leave everything and run from a fire that threatened our lives and everything we loved here on the mountain.
Thanks to Cal Fire, all of our local volunteer fire departments, the bombers, the water helicopters, the young trainees from the fire academy and our goats, who cleared the defensible space that kept the fire at bay long enough for the firefighters to control it..... The house was saved.
Again, I pray to the God of Wind and Weather, the God of Fate and Circumstance.... Keep us safe from the the monster called FIRE, this summer. Keep my animals from the harm of someone's carelessness.
I can handle the long list of things that need to be done around here, but I cower before this monster. I can live with the rattlesnakes and unseen mountain lions, but I'm terrified of the blazes that threaten us every year here in the foothills.
We love this land. It's where we want to be until we can't be here.
This was THE DREAM. The longed for lifestyle when we lived in the "suburbs" and worked to support our family.
This is not a dream anymore. The reality of it is that living here is a lot of work. But... This is our home, our life... and no matter how long the to do LIST gets, we will just keep at it.
Now, it's time to check for Rattlers before I let the dogs out into the run. You never know when they are going to be sunning themselves on the walkway. We need to check the woodpile and behind the chicken house too. And so it goes....

May Day Morning

"I grow plants for many reasons: to please my eye or to please my soul, to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty or for nostalgia, but mostly for the joy in seeing them grow."~David Hobson

The tiny grapes on this vine are just starting their journey.

  The magical process of becoming.

The hothouse rose, a gift from my sister, that I transplanted this morning has one flower left from many... but with nurturing and some good soil. it will grow its beautiful pink, peony-like flowers again and again this summer and remind me of my sister's visit all summer.
Gardens are so wabi sabi in their growth. I like formal gardens, but it is the comfortable, country gardens that are my favorites with their rambling nature and irreverent attitude.

 All the flowers seem to get along and each is tolerant of being with the others.

The sage sits next to the chrysanthemum.

And  the succulent shares a bed with the sweet alyssum and a wise Buddha.

There is mystery at work here.

A small viola that grow in the rocks where they were not planted. 

I'm not the only gardener in this garden.

Someone else is rearranging my initial choices to plant a flower in a certain place. The critters and birds that share this garden with me have decided that one of the yellow pansies would look better in the rocks and so it is.

I might call this "my" garden... but it really belongs to many others... The multitude of creatures that surround me while I weed and plant. The saying " It takes a village..." is true.
It takes the pollinating bees, the worms and  the spiders to make this garden healthy. It would be presumptuous of me to take the credit and say that I do all of the work in this place. There are birds that would disagree. There are many helpers here.
I weed, hoe, plant and compost. I plan and create structures... add some garden art.

 The Rockrose that grows all over the hillside with astounding beauty this time of the year...does not bloom because of me. I planted it, but there are other forces at play. I water... but it takes the sun to make it bloom.

 The Pittosporum, near the porch is blooming too. I always confuse this shrub with the Mexican Orange, the Choisya.  I though my mother called this plant a mock orange. I'm still not sure which is which. I only know that it is variegated and  fills the air with a heady aroma.
This garden, that overwhelms the senses in Spring, is not completely of my own doing. I'm more like one component of this orchestra. Without all the various instrumentalist, the sound and the soul of this garden couldn't be played. Every insect, bird and creature is there for a reason. This makes me feel like a grateful part of something amazing and wonderful.

"Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace." ~May Sarton

My mother understood this... and her mother before her. 

 As one of my garden signs says.....

"In search of my mother's garden, I found my own. "~ Alice Walker

Rainy day... Sunny day. Rainy day... Sunny day. Welcome to our Winter.

I had a great day with a friend yesterday. We even went "out" to lunch. This is what she wanted to do. I don't blame her. She has been cooped up for a few long months and when the doctor told her to start walking... lunch was of the first order.
 "J" has a temporary handicap sign to hang on the rear-view mirror and so we were able to park in a "handicap" zone, really close to the restaurant. This has its advantages in the rain.
So I took "J" to lunch. She WALKED.... no wheelchair, no walker... nothing but her willpower and a big black Velcro boot. I held on to her but she did really well.
When we got back to her house I know she was tired, but she took me upstairs.
This is her beautiful staircase.

 "J" has been sleeping downstairs since the accident because this beautiful staircase was not wheelchair accessable, as you can see.  But she climbed it, slowly, yesterday.
This is the upstairs landing...

This is a beautiful antique buffet at the top of the landing.
 In front of it is a very cute cat abode for one of "J"s four cats.

 To the right of this cat house is the door leading to the balcony where she slipped on some ice and broke her ankle last November. The door is locked for the winter now.
One of the cats was watching us from under a table.

This is the upstairs guard cat?
 Oh my! Scary isn't he?
 We  worked on some Ancestry.com relatives that "J" has been helping me find. She loves to research family history and she called me one day asking for some information about my family. She wanted something to do while she was in that wheel chair.
Thanks to "J", I now have found relatives, on my father's side that were born in Ireland in 1736. I find this fascinating. I have a lot of family that came from Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland. Amazing information.
 Of course there wasn't a lot of territory for folks to spread out into at the time, with safety, so I guess a lot of people came from these areas .
I also found out that a great, great grandmother was born in Ontario, Canada. I'm so excited about this. Her name was Matilda Ann Beckwith (A name I had never heard of before.) Her son, Daruis Henry Williams (born in Illinois) moved to Kansas and married Annie E. Cottingham (from Kansas) in 1880. They had a child named Arthur Deloise Williams (my grandfather). My grandfather married Maude Ethel Herald, moved to Southern California from Oklahoma, and my father was born in Eaglerock, CA.
Have you ever traced your ancestry? It's so exciting and interesting. You have to check each person to see if the tree is valid, if the information is true, but so far we have had very little trouble finding these relatives.
I can't wait to find out about John McKinney and Elizabeth Jane who came here to Virginia from Ireland. Now, I want to find the European connections. It's like a gift that you find after years of wondering who these people were and where they came from. "J" has found a relative that came over on the Mayflower. How amazing is that.
 I would especially like to know about  the women... who chose to marry, move to different places, leave their parent families, start their own families in a new environment and die far from their place of birth... the questions of how they lived, what their lives were like, how many child they had, which children died young and why. It's all there in the census, at least back to the 1850's or so, when the census started. But there are other places to discover information, like death records, enlistment records, genealogy libraries etc. There are lots of ways to find out about your family. It's like meeting these people for the first time and having a conversation with them. You want to know more. I'm hoping for some surprises and things that I didn't know. I can't wait to continue this on my own.
A few years ago I found out I had a distant cousin living in the Northwest. Our grandfathers were brothers. But, we never knew each other. The family didn't visit. It seems that the brothers moved in two different directions as young men. Maybe Clarissa, my cousin, and I can get some more of this figured out.
Well... This is something to work on and learn about.
"J" is doing really well and the recovery seems to be going in a good direction. We had a good time yesterday, despite the rain. It was a nice visit.
 We had two days of rain and now the sun is shinning again.This morning I went out and planted Hollyhock and gladiolus bulbs.

 This afternoon The Prospector and I sat on the porch for awhile. The Prospector hurt himself a few weeks ago. He did some 30 yr. old stuff with his 67 yr. old body and is paying for it dearly. He hurt his back and left leg. So he has been taking it really easy. He finally went to the doctor and they took xrays, gave him some pain meds and told him to rest. So he is...

He's not happy about it, but he has slowed down. He can't do much of anything.
 Carl is happy.

He sits with the Prospector and watches over him. (Notice the paw on the slipper.)
The hip and back are getting better but it will take time.
I'm doing double duty for a while but that's OK. At least it wasn't a broken back or a slipped disc.
 It will heal and then he needs to remember how old he is and be more careful.
Right, my love?
The sun felt good. I looked at my morning's work. The garden is doing nicely. It's been such a mild winter here. I feel bad even saying that with all the tornadoes back east, but we have not had much of a winter and I would like more rain before summer sets in.

This is how the front garden looks right now. Beautiful.

With tulips coming up next.
The parsley never died this year. It's still going strong.

Well... got to go and feed the goats and chickens now.
Have a nice weekend...

A Place of Her Own

I went into the back garden this morning. This is behind the house near our bedroom. There use to be lawn here.. and then a small plastic pool... and then a pool made of plastic that had a filter. Now the lawn is gone and so are the pools, that were always nice on hot summer afternoons, but were forever clogged with debris and dirt... not to mention being a Bed & Breakfast for Mosquito's.
So the area has become a place for pots: Pots of blueberries,  containers of succulents, tomatoes... and my wonderful. sweet  Basilicum.. growing bigger each day in the early summer sunshine. Waiting for its transformation into Pesto. Can you smell it?

The tomatoes are somewhat behind this year.

This tomato will grow to the top of this wired cage and flow over in a month or so, but its been shivering in the cold and we even had to pinch some frostbitten, curled black leaves a few weeks back.
All of these pots will have to be moved around in the yard, soon, because this lovely, FLAT area is getting a makeover. It's going to share space with the little building of my dreams... A POTTING SHED.


I'm collecting ideas...

and reading serious books on the subject...

I would like this to be my own little place to pot plants and start seeds... but even more... this will be a place of solitude and reflection.
I want a table to write on and a comfortable chair to sit in.

and a wall for tools, baskets for gloves and shelves for pots. It will also have windows to see the view from and, maybe, even a pretty, old rug on the floor.
SO MANY IDEAS!
SO MANY PLANS!
This is something I have wanted for years. The Prospector is going to build it for me, bless his gold seeking heart. I will help.  It will be a simple structure and small. I will add the "Farmlady" stuff  later.
There will be flowers, garden art, and COLOR.

There may even be an outdoor table for really messy jobs.... like felting? Well, maybe but...
I should probably stick to garden projects.

And I want a bike like this...

A used up and retired bike, like this one, above, that is painted purple to match my French lavender and the joyful songs of the birds. Isn't birdsong purple?  Well...whatever it is... to me, it feels like PURPLE.

And why not a miniature faerie garden on a rusty iron chair. Who knows what little creatures might come to live here.

My wonderful little potting shed will settle in here somewhere between the Chitalpa tree and the Chinese Tallow. These trees will shade the little house in the dog days of summer and this is where we can tap into water and electricity at the corner of the house. Yes, I will have electricity... and maybe even a chandelier.
It will be a dream that is practical and yet where I can let go of life's irritations, plunge my hands into  good dirt or sit quietly doing nothing if I so choose. It will be a place of my own, my "man cave" of the gardening world.... my garden getaway.
A blogging friend that shares the love of gardens and nature says...
"I believe you have to look for the joy factor wherever you are and whatever you do." *
She says that having a sense of wonder isn't age-specific.
I love this statement.
Doing something that you truly love is so important.
This garden shed will be part of the "joy factor" in my life.

Quote is from an article in Country Gardens Early Spring 2011
Garden of Earthly Delights- author Sharon Lovejoy written by Debra Prinzing

Rainbows and Gardenitis

Last night before dinner we experienced this beautiful gift of nature.

Can you see it?

A Rainbow landed right in our canyon. It was still raining when I took the picture but the sun was shinning too. That's all you need... some sun and rain together and the magic begins. We had rain, wind and some hail all day long so I took this rainbow as a sign that this was the end of the rain.. for a while. That's quite a biblical  supposition for me, but I like to throw those ideas into the mix occasionally. Keeps my readers wondering where I'm really coming from.
The Prospector said that he thought he might  go down to our neighbor's creek to see if there really was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. He should be so lucky. Nothing is ever that easy..... and then, of course, the rainbow vanished.
The clouds were breaking up. The rain stopped.
Across the Mokelumne River the rain continued and one more vague rainbow appeared.

Then all the clouds move east to the Blue Mountains and into the Sierras.

What a beautiful evening it was.

**************************

This morning I awoke to sunshine and the clearest, most beautiful day you can imagine. One of those "take your coffee outside and never come back in until dinner"  kind of days.

First we had to get a "poop" sample from Brownie. That's technical farm talk. This is a whole lot easier than it sounds. They do pellets. It's not messy, just logistically difficult.  We succeeded and the Prospector left for the valley to drop off the sample at the vet, go to an appointment to see the "back, leg and knee" doctor and a few more touch and go landings that we save up for our trips down there. 

The dogs and I went out into the garden. My mistake was picking up the loping shears and putting my gloves on.... thinking I was going to just trim a few areas back and pull a few weeds. HA!

I went down to the vegetable garden to dump the scraps in the composter and I have decided that the weeds are in love with all this rain. They were everywhere.... and huge.

I really could start a NETTLES processing plant. I have nettles everywhere. A friend on Vancouver Island, BC. told me how to cook Nettles and you can make tea with it too. But, again, I let it get beyond its prime and all this rain kind of makes it look like it is already cooked. The really nice big plants are wilted and brown. But, never fear... there are baby nettles everywhere. 

So I went to work..... weeding, pulling down the dead vines on the trellis and feeling like I was a Master Gardener on steroids.

This mess, above, became this clean garden bed below.

This only took about 45 mins. The soil was wet and soft. The weeds came up without much effort. Gloves and a long sleeve shirt are absolute necessities when working with Nettles. They aren't called Stinging Nettles for nothin'. If your skin comes in contact with the leaves, you won't believe how it hurts. You can read why HERE.

When I came back up to the front yard I saw the Vinca. I decided to go in and have some breakfast first. Good thing... because once I went outside again I didn't come in for quite a while. This is weed pulling weather. It's not hot. The ground is wet and soft. The mosquitoes are so confused that they don't know whether to bite you or run for cover. This rain is also keeping the Rattlers at bay.... for a while.  That's a good thing.

So I started cutting back the Vinca. This is a landscaping nightmare. Please don't ever plant Vinca Major. It's an invasive, noxious weed that never goes away. We have controlled it by surrounding it with rock and concrete blocks but still it spreads everywhere.

This stuff would survive Armageddon.

It's beautiful but it's so invasive. It creeps everywhere and I truly wish I had never planted it. 

Look at this...

It grew right through this rock. Lava rock is an igneous rock that is volcanic in origin. It's very porous. The Vinca found an opening and has grown all the way through. I know this happens. I've seen ivy grow through concrete. But still, I find this amazing.

So I made a big mess everywhere. Not even neat piles of cuttings. I just tore through the Vinca.

I even had lots of help...

Then I noticed that the Yarrow was almost on the ground after all the wind and rain so I cut some of it back and made another pile of these beautiful yellow flowers to hang and dry. I will use them for an arrangement later on in the Fall.

Oh, and the hillside had some huge weeds growing as though they belonged there, so I sat down on the hillside and picked as many as I could. And then... I cleaned up the Chrysanthemum bed. More Nettles!
When I realized that I couldn't stand up straight without severe discomfort and that I couldn't feel my toes anymore, I knew it was time to stop.
I have six or seven piles to clean up this afternoon. Don't you just hate it when you work this hard and  have to CLEAN UP afterwards?.. Darn.

Rockrose Collage

"She can't stay out of the garden."

Farmlady's in the garden again. I can't get any sleep. The weather has been rainy one minute and sunny the next. I've been trying to get some shuteye in between the storms but she keeps coming out here.

First she came running out of the house yelling "Cutter! Don't dig in the garden!",because he was digging another hole in the dirt that she had filled for the third time. I heard her mumbling something like "I'll fix that dog." and then she started putting rocks around the tree so he couldn't dig in there. I'm trying to get some sleep and she's out there making all this noise.

 She got all excited about the Iris that were going to bloom. I heard her say..." They're almost ready".... like she was baking cookies or something

 Then she dug up some places and planted flower seeds. I thought I heard her say that she'd had enough yesterday... but no, she's out here again.

Finally, she picked some parsley and went back into the house.
A few minutes later she was back outside and started packin' dirt into some planters
.... and she's singing a song about "Tis the gift to be simple, Tis a gift to be free,   'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be."..... I don't know what that was all about.  What's the matter with that lady?

I think she needs a Valium. I wish it would rain so she would go inside and let me get some rest.