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!!