Garden Time! :)

Well, just got back from an absolutely awesome week over in Parma, Idaho. We have our annual church convention and each year just gets better and better! The thought I really appreciated is shipwreck doesn't happen because of the storm, it happens because of lack of depth. In order to survive the storms of life there needs to be spiritual depth. And this year I met a lady who likes to travel, so maybe I've found myself a travel partner? :) I love it when you meet somebody that you click with so to speak and can just talk.

Before leaving for convention I tried to get as much planted as I could because there was going to be optimal growing weather while I was gone. It was well worth the push!! Came back to everything popping out of the ground. So exciting!! 3 rows of corn, cucumbers, 1 row of pole beans, one row of bush beans, summer squash, winter squash, tomatoes and peppers all got planted the Monday evening before leaving last week and when I came back on Sunday pole beans, corn, some cucumbers and some squash were already up. A week can make a big difference in a growing season. Especially when there's a shorter growing season! The tomatoes and peppers aren't from seed but everything else is. The cooler weather garden also grew a ton. Lettuce, Kale and swiss chard are ready to pick. Fixed scrambled eggs this morning and added the swiss chard and kale. It was pretty good! :)  Peas are blooming and there's a few developing so in the next couple of weeks I'll be picking peas as well! I also planted most of the flowers last Sunday, and a gooseberry bush. So far a lavender start and a lobelia didn't make it but everything else is looking good! Now to find some more starts to plant. ;)  Actually there is still a few starts that need to get into the ground, but not many!

There was a faithful finish of a wonderful man in our field last week. The lives that he touched were amazing. He was clearly a beloved member of the community here. I shared an office with him and we met in meetings on Wednesday and Sunday so got to know him some. He was a quiet guy but had the most wonderful spirit. And you could just fill that spirit when visiting after he got back home from the hospital. He was young, only 67.

My days of being spoiled with Christina being close are officially over. She started over to the Corvallis/Albany area yesterday. She'll be there for the summer and then head to BC for a convention and then to Boring for preps. She is truly doing awesome! She had time with Aunt Nancy this Spring and it has been wonderful for both of them. I'm going to miss her being in the next field over!

Erika has a bun in the oven so to speak. :) I had settled myself with having two grandkids but get to have more! This pregnancy is a bit different so maybe this one will be a boy? She's due the end of November. We're hoping to get together next month. Meet in the middle and have a few days together! So looking forward to that!!

Click on a picture and then you can scroll through them. :) The Sphinx Moth pictures really show the detail of them when you do that.

My 'cool' weather garden. From left, Peas, kind of can see the carrots, leeks (but can't really see them), Broccoli, Broccoli, lettuce, back half of row is mustard greens and front have red leaf lettuce, swiss chard and kale.

Main garden the day after I finished planting it.

Fence is up and finished!! Yay!!!

Sunday morning at Parma

Christina and I

Thunderstorm!! Had quite the winds that evening!

See the hawk? Spotted it on a walk.

An onion field at Parma

This is the 'cool' weather garden just before I left!

This is what was planted Sunday afternoon. The flower area goes back to the wheelbarrow.

Gooseberry bush. So far, so good! Still living!

Lilac

This is looking back the other way. Most are perennials so should come back next year.

Hummingbird moth!! (Sphinx moth)

Another shot. So cool!!

And one more! :)

Tiny grasshopper!

Mating moths

Another hummingbird moth shot. This gives you an idea of why that's their nickname! The hover with the wings moving just as fast as a hummingbirds do!

Butterfly

Painted Lady Butterflies LOVE chive blooms!!

Just some cool cloud shots

Pippy... He gave me a scare this last month when he stopped eating but seems to be doing better for now. Now Mia is having issues with eating. :( Must be something to do with turning 15. Mia just turned 15 and Pippy will be 16 in 3 months. They've had a good long life!

Erika update/Old Kitties etc.

Pippy has given me a scare this week. I'm hoping he'll be okay but we'll see. :( It appears that he's ability to smell is starting to go. I try a new food and he's good for about a day and a half and then he's flat not interested. He's weight has dropped to 10 pounds! He's a big kitty and at his top weight he was 16 pounds. He's also now 16 years old! I took him to the vet and they took a blood test and looked at his teeth. Both show he's just fine. He's slightly anemic due to age but other then that the doctor said he's a very healthy 16 year old. So apparently when a cat can't smell, the cat won't eat. I'm thinking he gets used to the smell after a couple of days so it just doesn't register and thus loses interest. It'd be the pits to have a healthy cat go due to his sense of smell going. 😢 Mia at this point seems to be doing just fine. She's now 15!

Aunt Nancy and Christina have been here for the last week and will leave Thursday for Parma preps. It's been good to have the time with them! Christina is making a baby blanket for her new niece or nephew. Erika and her fiance are expecting the end of November. She hasn't been as sick with this baby as she was with the girls so that's been nice for them!! The girls are so adorable! I'll get random text saying they miss me and that they love me to the moon and back (using Erika's phone). It sure means a lot to this grandma!! I'm hoping to meet up with them this summer at a place they'll be going. It'll be for three days so we'll get some good time together! Permission has been given by my boss so unless something happens I'll be going! Pretty excited to see them again!!

The fence is coming right along! I meant to get an update photo today but forgot so may add it later. The posts are in and the boards going across are all on as of today! I'm pretty excited!! Then the end of June the shed will most likely be started, if not earlier. I've asked a guy to come and take the sod up from around the fence and from the area I want to turn into a garden area. I was hoping by the first of June that would happen but with all the rain we've been having I'm not sure it'll get done by then! I'm going to be putting flowers etc around the perimeter of the fence. Maybe even some hanging baskets since they should be able to go on the posts. I do have a cool weather garden that has lettuce, mustard greens, swiss chard, carrots, broccoli and peas so at least they are loving this weather! Just over a week ago it reached 82*! Thus my sunburn but I found out that Chamomile works awesome in healing bad sunburns. I didn't even think about it until my face started feeling a bit tight near the end of the day. Whoops! The first sunburn picture was that evening. The second was the next day. It was already feeling pretty much okay but is just a little lighter red. It only took about 4 days for it to completely disappear. I'm thankful I don't have true redhead skin!! The rest of the summer it'll just tan.

It was quite and experience getting the sprinkler system up and going this year! First I couldn't get the water turned on because I couldn't get a piece screwed back on that needed to be attached for the water to be turned on. So I called the guy who had winterized the sprinkler system and he had to cut away some plastic on the side to get the piece attached. He turned the water on and was getting ready to leave when I lifted the lid off where the system is housed and it was leaking (leaky gasket) so managed to stop them before they drove away. Good thing! Ended up having a clamp come off a pipe in the middle of the sprinkler system (see picture), that got fixed then the sprinkler head needed fixed and just as we started to think it was fixed two stations in the system stopped working. So called the sprinkler guy AGAIN. Poor guy. Turns out one of the stations in the sprinkler system stopped transmitting and he fixed it so that it skips that station and now all are working. Whew! Pretty crazy. Hope next year goes better!

I also went over to Idaho Falls the weekend before Mother's Day and spent a few days with Christina and Aunt Nancy! We went to a garden nursery so I could do some plant shopping (my Mother's Day present)! The potted petunia pictures are flowers I got there. Also got a Lilac, Cat mint, Coreopsis, tomatoes (very cool thing, this nursery has 4 different types together at a $1 a plant), peppers, basil, snap dragons, plus a couple of more. Then the place we stayed gave me Iris starts, Hens and Chicks starts, chives starts and yarrow starts. Looking forward to that sod coming up so I can plant them!!

Pippy, he's a handsome boy!

Pippy, he's become quite the lap cat!

💓

Hand sewing the final part of the binding.

Christina sewing the binding on the baby blanket

As someone pointed out- This is more Oregon coast weather!!!

Quilting the baby blanket!

Another house going up behind me, thus the fence.

Can you spot my vehicle? 😁

A before picture to compare for later. Did a panorama from the back corner.

The 4 different tomatoes I got are repotted so they can grow some.

Peppers repotted

This will be in my garden shed next year!!!

Whoops! So glad for the Chamomile recipe Christina has! It reduced the pain significantly.

 Tiny bit better

Cool sunrise! Light pillar was showing this morning.

Dust Storm! It was a lot worse before I grabbed my camera!

Came home to this the day of the dust storm. Only day the chairs have tipped over since I've been here.

Oh dear. :( 

My plant haul this Spring. :)

Saw this kitty in Idaho Falls. She kind of liked me. 😉

At the garden nursery.

Looking at plants. Loved this nursery!!

A year after moving...

Is now getting super close! It's hard to believe how fast this last year has went! Got through the winter without much trouble, got through this Spring with a bit of help from work to get through the mud. Thought of the snow being an issue, not the mud!!! The awesome thing here though is that it dries out pretty quickly. The soil is pretty sandy so it drains quickly with help from the wind. So much has changed and it is truly wonderful! A sad, and yet not, thing happening right now is that one of our friends is now on hospice. It's possible he only has about a week left to live. What makes it not so sad is his wonderful spirit. He is absolutely filled with joy that his time is drawing close to enter into eternity. I honestly am not sure I've ever seen such joy. It is very special. When times are tough and I wonder how am I going to get through this? His joy is going to be a reminder to me that there is a wonderful end when I am willing for what my Father would like of me. My Aunt and Christina went to Boise today and on their way through dropped by and saw him and then dropped by work to see me for about 15 minutes or so. My Aunt said she's not sure if she's ever seen such joy in anyone. His family is going to have some very, very special memories. Truly remarkable!

The grass in the yard is now starting to turn green so mowing season is not far behind! The wind whipped up the plastic today and it's obvious that it's doing it's work!! The grass has turned yellow. I'm honestly not sure how much of garden will be there this year. I'm going to have a fence put in so that's going to effect the garden area somewhat. It's becoming quite obvious that the lot behind me is going to built on so really feel like a fence needs to go in sooner rather than later. The builders don't put fences up since the 4 house they did on the other lots last year have no fencing. So by the end of Fall there should be a shed and a fence! Then next year I can start seeds!!! That's going to be pretty exciting!

Teagan turns 7 in just a few days!!! So hard to believe! It's pretty cute. Teagan has her top 2 front teeth missing and Scarlet has her 2 bottom teeth missing. I do miss those kids!! Looking forward to seeing at some point this summer!

Work continues to go well. The rain isn't being kind this Spring in allowing planting to get done in a timely manner! But it's so nice to see all the freshly plowed fields!! Then there's the fields that have alfalfa. They are a rich dark green right now. The also have the canals filled as of this week. It's a wonderful time of year! And the view from my window at work.... wonderful!!!

Rush hour in the country.... 💓

Pippy has become quite the lap cat. His taken Mia's place in laying on my lap while cross stitching.

Gorgeous sunset

Mia doing her cuddles

Garden space! This fence will be replaced and there will be a fence at the back of the property.

Garden space that's ready to plant! There will be a fence where the grass ends at the side of the property as well.

Love the sunrises! Will miss the open space once the fence goes in but needs to be done....

Christina Sewing!

Christina asked me to post these videos. She has taken on sewing with a sewing machine. :) She sews quilts by hand but hasn't ever really done much with an actual sewing machine! She made an awesome skirt this week! It turned out very cute! Glad I finally figured out how to post videos! 😂

February update!

It's been quite a month! Especially the last couple of weeks weather wise. Winter decided it was going to return for about a couple of weeks and then the week after that it decided that it was spring time and dumped rain on us! Got a few inches at a time of snow within the winter period. It's pretty awesome to be able to work from home on those days and enjoy watching the snow come down. This last week though has been pretty crazy with the mud! Between rain coming down and snow melting it has left the farm road a mud pit! I now know how to drive in 4 wheel drive! Pretty crazy, something checked off the list that I didn't even know was on the list!!;) I also now know you don't have to go very fast to have mud all the way to the top of the truck! I made it to work in the car Monday morning but ended up leaving it there and using a company truck. The car was brought home yesterday so I can get around this weekend. I'd say the ruts in the farm road are at least a foot deep if not deeper. It's pretty crazy. One field on the way to work is completely flooded and ducks were swimming in it this afternoon! I'd say there's a decent chance we'll have a good water year. Can't wait for Spring now so that I can get outside and start working in the yard! We'll see how it goes but I might test plant some peas and see what happens early next month. I have row covers so that would help them. Do need to get some black plastic for the area I'm putting the garden. Should have done it last year but I was busy with other areas of the yard.

Work is going awesome! We got the taxes done with just the basic journal entries needed. That's what gives us bookkeepers/accountants a job accomplished feeling! Working on learning the asset management side now with insurance. Side jobs are going well as well. I'm managing, at least for now, to stay caught up. Might be interested in another one or two side jobs. :)

And got to have some company this week! I do love having company so anyone that I know, if you are driving through Rupert and need a stop over, I have a couple of rooms available. And I'm quite serious in about that! :) 

On a more somber note a guy passed away a couple of weeks ago from cancer in our field. The funeral was wonderful! And then a day and a half before the funeral a guy from our meeting had a major heart attack. That was close to two weeks ago. He ended up with a hole in his heart because the tissue died where he'd had the heart attack. They did surgery on that this last Wednesday. He was responding some yesterday but hadn't opened his eyes. They were hoping that would happen today. One just never knows what is around the corner so our best bet is make things right today so if tomorrow doesn't come all is taken care of. And I love that nothing is too big/too hard for our Father to help us make right. All we need to do is ask for the help.

A picture Christina sent.. Nola and her cross country skiing!

Sunrise

Just a bit of snow

Corbett got a bit of snow too!! Scarlet making a snow angel.

Teagan's finished with her snow angel!

Both Teagan and Scarlet

Sunset

The mud pit.

What got me through it!

Snow is all gone as of yesterday. Pretty rainbow!

Sunset time about a week ago.