Weather Change is Coming

 Promises to be cooler, good; more rain; bad.  Still no hay.

I read Flower Lady's blog this morning and one of her followers posted a comment about gardens that appealed to me greatly.

She called her Florida lush gardens 'raffish'.   I loved it.  Here is the definiation of raffish:

adjective

adjective: raffish

1. unconventional and slightly disreputable, especially in an attractive manner.

   
   

   "his raffish air"

   
   

 That is so much more appealing than weedy, overgrown, untrimmed and all  those ugly things we call  our 'raffish' gardens.

Here is a picture of mine:(one section of raffishness)

Thank you Lynn McIntosh.

Reading Flower Lady's blog always is uplifting; she has a gift.

I went out this morning to check  around and found the grass was very wet.  I wore my Muck boots so my feet stayed dry but I was  kicking up dew drops as I walked.

General Doings

I went into the new chicken yard to check around and decided to let the new  girls out.  They are almost as big as the old ones. All the old chickens (rooster and 4 old hens) went inside and immediately the new girls dashed to the back of their enclosed pen!. Finally one came  out while DH and I were watching.....the rooster went crazy after  her.  Don't know if he had evil intentions or was just excited by a new female prospect.  He  is really much too old but he is still very 'active'.  We rescued her and locked them back up again.....will  try again.

This is a picture I took looking west out of the chicken yard.  The trees are our west property line.

 

The cows in the far west pasture heard the ATV and headed to the barn where DH feeds them.  It is just a small heard of the two milk  cows, their babies, and a couple of others.

They recognize voices and truck and tractor sounds too.

I took some long shots for more perspective of the yard layout and the beds.  Notice the ATV tracks through the wet grass.  DH was heading east to the drive to go check  the beef herd.

 Smokehouse on the left ;house on right (not seen) and looking east at Kerria (old Ash Tree bed)

This is a long shot of the front yard



and this is the alley way between  the tree and shrub border and the house.  It really shields us from the road now.  There are just a few spots to fill in.  We only have one tree left out by the road.

I cooked our first eggplant and the squash from yesterday for lunch. I made a sort of pasta primavera (used canned tomatoes), onions and the sliced squash sauteed in olive oil with a dash of basil over frozen fettuccine that I had made and cooked some time back.  DH never complained about the lack of meat.....we did have grilled (on my grill pan on the range) egg plant slices.  I coated the pan with olive oil and sprinkled on salt and pepper.  Finished it all off with shredded Parmesan cheese.

This was bread day but our granddaughter called and talked while I was in the process so it wasn't ready for lunch.  We had a hot slice later and called  it dessert.

Blooming Today

Yesterday was a very hot and humid day. 

I managed to do  some weeding for a  couple of hours early (not early enough).

At last a sign that the butterflies do like this plant, butterfly weed, asclepias tuberosa.

  

This is the east end of the bed, there is another orange daylily further west that I should move to this grouping.



More daylilies have opened:

This is one of my favorite colors, Prairie Blue Eyes.  It was just a happy accident that the lychnis self seeded nearby.



and this one is Blueberry something and is next to some perilla which compliments it nicely.




This is a clump of unknown daylilies that I moved from the shop wall bed to the front of the house in the dining room foundation bed:

 

It is amid a bed of self- seeding annuals.  This is the seed pod of nigella damascena or 'Love in a Mist'.  I have the white variety.  I think the pods are as interesting as the blooms but they will self-seed even in the lawn.



I believe this one is Bama Music in front of the new porch near Jackmanii clematis.  (I won't lie; that is crab grass surrounding it).  I am  working my way to that bed........slowly.



I think this one is Fairy Tale Pink.  It is in the New Bed (now several years old).



For some strange reason I keep forgetting to take pictures of the yellows.....maybe today I will do that.

Others Blooming:

This is a darker version of salvia farinacea which has self-seeded for several years in this spot.  It may be due to the soil or hybridizing with others  of various shades, including white.


These are the ones at the end of the other bed that are much pales.  See the white one in the back  to the right.


This patch of rudbeckia (Prairie Sun) is next to the salvias.  It has also been self-seeding from a few years now.  I think I have lost the darker band of gold around the green eye  but it is still very pretty.



This is a pale yellow Buck rose right behind the salvia and rudbeckia.  They are too tall but maybe it will begin to grow again.

I see the volunteer squash is creeping up  on all of them. 



This is a phlox in the bed outside the kitchen.  I noticed that the bloom is somewhat variegated.......

I am throwing this one in to prove I did do some weeding (here with the string trimmer).  That is perilla wilting in the sun.



Garden

I take no credit for this squash since it came from the volunteer from last year's yellow squash:



But I did plant the carrots in the whiskey barrel:  This is just a sample but it is very nice and sweet.



BTW, I saw a half barrel at the local hardware and it  was priced $69.95!  Egads!  I sure never paid that for this one.

The rest of the garden is pathetic  this year.

Back Again

Well its catch up time again.  First, I have had company for three days last Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday until noon.  Whoops, that's five days!  They stayed longer than planned.

 We have had workers here again.  This time all was successful.  They porch is now completely screened and the new chicken yard is finished.  They also completely enclosed my garden.  The back side was never fenced and now it is! 

The Porch:



It hasn't stopped raining long enough for me to paint the screen door.

This is the south end facing the road:



and this is the interior:  I am thinking two wicker easy chairs?



and now the new fencing project:

This is one of the new gates.  This one is next to the shop.



and these two are on the west side of the garden:

I now have to go into the garden and then enter the chicken yard.  I did this to have easier access to the chicken yard with the mower.  The hydrant complicated leaving the opening next to the old chicken house.

 

Note how they placed the gates almost on the ground.  One boy had a large chicken flock so knew how they escape small openings.

and this is a partial view of the lovely long and chicken-tight new yard.



This is the new back fence for the garden.  I can now mow the jungle that used to grow here.



These boys were just 16 years old but had been working for a fencing contractor (for want of a better name) for some time.  He is the step father to one of the boys.  I thought they did a super job.  They also tore out and replaced the farm fence behind the cellar .  Max had them do some very tedious repairs out on the farm.  One of the boys says he will come on Saturdays and do yard work for me.  (here I go again!)  I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Blooming:

Daylilies and More



I am leaning toward getting more easy-care daylilies.  They come in all heights, colors and are pretty fool proof.



I am proud of this one, Joylene Nicole.  She has been buried beneathe the boxwood by the back porch for several years.  I moved her early spring and she is blooming!


I have several clumps of this one next to the Walker's Low nepeta.



I also have several clumps of this red including one that needs rescuing from the "new bed" where it is hidden.



Hyperion is blooming but it is raining so I don't have a picture.....a lovely light yellow that is sometimes fragrant.

This is the bright colored end of the Hummingbird Bed outside the kitchen.  I have more red daylilies to move here.



The lilies all came in bloom and were lovely for a few days but are now suffering from an excess of rain.



I have several clumps of this pink lily and have no memory of planting them in various places:



This is clematis Harlow Carr on the garden fence with an Asiatic lily,



Another group of brighter lilies:



There are still some poppies blooming:

Lots of Things Going On on the Farm

Well, first, let's get the weather out of the way:  It is still raining every couple of days so no hay down yet.  I have windows open this morning to enjoy the cool 64° but will soon have to close them and enjoy the AC.  It will be very humid after the 3/4 inch rain we got late yesterday afternoon.

We have had a hectic couple of weeks and for us it is a culture shock.  We are so used to the quiet house with just the two of us.....cooking only when we want and sitting down when we want.  First we had the 6 young people as guests which definitely meant cooking (a lot) and very little sitting.  The last left last Friday.

That was a very busy day.  The carpenter came in the afternoon to work on the porch so he was here.  Then the AC had been acting up and the serviceman came.  In the meanwhile our KC granddaughter texted that she and her Dad would stop by from Oklahoma City for a short visit.  She had been playing softball in a tournament.  Max was out brush hogging  and he doesn't hear the cell phone with the tractor running......Now I have the AC man,  the carpenter, and SIL and GD here.  Finally Max comes in and is shocked to see them.  He had been talking  to the AC man even though he saw their car......said he thought they were sure paying them well these days and it didn't occur to him whose car it was.  They drive a Toyota SUV.   He  had probably even forgotten they were in Ok.

The next day the fencing boys came and he once again at the far back of the farm  cutting brush.  I didn't know the details of some of the fencing project so I got on the ATV  and drove back only to find he had a padlock on the blasted gate and hadn't given me a key!  He has corrected that little error now.  I finally got him and we got the boys lined out.  They replaced the fence behind the cellar and are redoing the chicken yard and part of the garden fence.  So far, they are doing a bang-up job and we are very pleased.  They are just out of high school so we were doubly impressed.  The head man came by and told us we could be safe in their hands....it seems he was right.

This is the new west entrance to the garden:



This is standing inside  the garden; the left gate is into the yard and the right is into the new (when finished) chicken yard.

The garden has never had a back or northern fence and often animals would come in this way.  Now we will have a new fence  so the garden will be entirely animal proof (except of course for the normal farm varmints that climb)

This will start at the shop building and run west to meet the chicken yard fence.

They think they will finish this job by Monday.  Max has several repair fencing jobs for them.  We think they will be available for at least a week while their boss is out of town.

Now the other project of the screened in porch:  It drives me crazy; he is doing a fine job but works only half days every other day.  I swear I don't see the sense in working this way.  Why not just tell each party when they can start and finish the job in hand.  Instead they are working three jobs concurrently!

This is the new vinyl flooring over very wavy concrete:

The framing was started yesterday before the rains drove him away.







Of course now he won't be back until Monday afternoon.

A few more poppies have opened, a lavender and an orangey red one:
 

 

I have three loaves of bread going so all for now....