Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The greenhouse is all planted, almost.



Mother, Jacob and I worked in the greenhouse for a few hours this afternoon and are now nearly done planting. We are done actually, except for a few dwarf fruit trees I ordered from a couple seed catalogs, the trees not having arrived yet..... We planted several different kinds of peppers, tomatoes, pumpkins and melons close together so they get going. Then, when the main garden area is worked up, we can transplant them after all danger of frost is over. It is SO nice to have a greenhouse! A new blogger friend, Mrs. Laura at "All Good Gifts" posted about their greenhouse today as well, so you can click HERE to visit her and see how she made a slip-over plastic cover for their greenhouse. :)






I'm so pleased with how Jacob is taking over the manly responsibilities here at home! Yesterday, he got the big tractor hooked up to the big digger (vibra-shank) all by himself and pulled it up in front of the shop so it can be inspected/fixed before heading out to the fields. Plus, he's been our main cow checker during the day and he feeds the cows twice a day too. This evening, the bulls needed a bale and, after I was done milking cows, I heard him across the road at their pen and thought maybe he'd need help with watching the gate. I hopped on Andrew's 4-wheeler and zipped over there, only to find him closing the gate, already done with the job. Tomorrows job is fence fixing. Fun, fun! Want to come help?






Oh, I should tell you about what Lady found yesterday... She was in the barn when I went to give Suzie (the young milk cow) her water and she was looking at something underneath the built-in feed trough. Curious to see if there was a new chicken nest under there, (our chickens have free-run of the farm and we consequently get to hunt for our eggs,) I knelt down and took a look. What should I find but: 3 little kittens, 2 orange and 1 calico! :) They are very small yet and still have their eyes closed. We have more than enough cats already, but it still is always exciting to find new babies!






That's about all the news of the day, I think. I could tell you about the tiny red heifer calf that Jacob and I fed half a bottle of warm cows' milk to tonight as we're not sure if it's getting enough nourishment from its mother or not; or I could write about all the tulips that are getting ready to bloom out front in our long flowerbed; or how I split up our large Bleeding Heart plant this afternoon and planted them in the open areas of our corner flower bed; or how Dad and Andrew come home exhausted and dirty from grain cleaning for 13+ hours each day; or of how Mom needs to be in Bismarck early tomorrow for sessions; or......., but I should probably get some sleep as I also should get up early to make the guys' their lunches.






I thank God for such an interesting life!!!

2 comments:

Rachel Beth said...

Dearest Cora
Yes, it's wonderful to have an interesting life, certainly something we can be thankful for! :)
I haven't been much on the net this past month so I've had a lot to catch up on! Enjoying myself going through the posts I've missed.
God bless.
Lots of love,
Rachel*

Laura said...

Dear Miss Cora Beth,

I'm so glad that your greenhouse is working out nicely...and thank you so much for linking to my "greenhouse" post...that was very sweet of you! You will so enjoy having a "house" on such a big scale! We have friends that have one on runners...it is so interesting and useful! They can "move" their greenhouse ever other year by simply pushing it along the runnners...thus giving the soil a year to compost and such. They have amazing gardens.

Oh, your kittens must be so adorable. Wish we lived closer...we would take a couple off your hands! We lost our barn cat last summer...we believe to an owl...do you have issues with owls? We've had two large ones just lurking around...spying our hens. We've had to be careful to keep them in the pen most days. We've got them out today...but are keeping careful watch for predators. We hope to get a couple of kittens soon. It is always nice to have barn cats around!

How sweet of your mom to get you a new hoe! Don't you just love gardening tools! I'd like to get one of those little "soil block" contraptions...but they are quite expensive (they make blocks of soil so that you don't have to have little pots to start seedlings). Samuel says that he can make me one...so I'm counting on his creativity!

Hunting gophers, huh? My guys would love that! We don't seem to have an issue with gophers around here, thankfully. Probably our biggest issue for the garden is deer...but I've got a great organic "recipe" that seems to keep them away...so we've been very blessed to not be bothered by them too much.

Well, off to the clothesline. I just wanted to stop by to see how you all are doing...so glad to hear that the weather is improving. Our prayers are with all those devastated by these deadly storms.

Have a blessed day,
Mrs. Laura