More Clean up in the Yard

We had a productive morning.  I am trying desperately to get the yard in good shape so my BIL won't talk about me when they visit this month!

I loaded the trailer with all the saplings I cut from the east yard a few days ago then headed to the garden with the chainsaw.
I had let several peach seedlings grow up from the compost pile inside the garden proper and they had to go!  The last storm broke several limbs. 

I had a new blade on the small electric saw and it worked beautifully.

Here is the view toward the garden before work  began:



Note the pile of limbs I lopped off out of my way first.  They were hanging over the fence.  The trees are that group in the middle of the picture.

There were about five trees growing close together.
And now they are gone:



I still have a large split tree mid-garden that will go next.

I am happy to see that the east end of the garden now gets full sun!  I topped a few pepper plants with the peach limbs but have enough peppers not to care.

This shot is a bit closer.  I wanted to show the clear end of the gas tank that was a tangle of tree-size perilla, lambs quarter and elm saplings.  I eliminated all that mess and found three treasures that the possum has missed.





This half dead evergreen on the smoke house will go next.....I will have to rig up something because a rampant clematis climbs all over it each spring.



This rose of sharon (a seedling) is looking very good now that the Japanese Beetles have gone below ground.



I am in for the day.  Lunch will be a soup of leftovers.....

Chickens are laying well.  6 girls/6 eggs some days.  They are still small pullet eggs but will soon increase in size.

Hay is Done!

Well, all but removing it from the field back to the hay lot.   We have that done too.  Rains are now predicted and cruel and selfish person that I am,  I want it to rain.... I know others are still waiting for their hay harvest.....but my ground is cracking open in spots.  I even drug out the hose and watered some over the weekend.

I had company over the weekend so didn't do anything outside.  We did make home-made ice cream again and used the White Mountain electric freezer that was a gift from MIL.  I wouldn't pay that price for one but I must say it was worth every penny  (of her money).  It doesn't bog down and freezes evenly all the way down in about 25 minutes.  My whole family loves Mom's old recipe for ice cream.  The don't want half and half, heavy cream or cooked custard, just her old time Milnot recipe.

I have finally sprayed my front ditch and Max is right, it looks bad, but I didn't want another year of crabgrass weeds setting.
I also sprayed the regrowth of Elm trees in the new chicken yard fence row.  Elms and soft maples seem to be rejuvenated by cutting them down!  I can see it will be a long-time process to keep them under control.  We have lost another chicken.....have no idea how or what.  We lock them up each night just at heavy dusk.  I couldn't believe we finally caught a raccoon in the trap and my husband took it back on the farm and released it.  He  didn't want to permanently eliminate it while our granddaughter was here!  I would have in a heartbeat if I had know about it beforehand.  It was probably back by evening.

I have had a few cucumbers and need to harvest my patch of peppers today.  I am letting the beans set seeds and dry on the vine  for next year.  Tomatoes are still very sorry.
Continued on 8/6/2015:
I  didn't get the peppers harvest, but I did get some serious lopping done.  The culprits seem to be ash tree, elm tree (several varieties, and lambs quarter and poke.  Now I need to use the string trimmer.

We got a welcome rain yesterday; near an inch.  I had already been watering some so it was very welcome here.

Today is extremely hot and humid so I will do nothing outside.  The weeds will wait.

Food 

I am on another bread adventure. I read Chickens in the Road blog pretty regularly and enjoy it. She is a professional writer and blogger.  She holds seminars at her farm in West Virginia and if I lived closer I would attend just for fun.

Her latest was about Tudor Biscuits.  This is a southern thing and was completely new to me.  Well, to make a long story short, I did some research and found that the brand Lily (flour) is used by lots of southerners.  I have seen it a few times here, but not at the stores I use.  I ordered lots of flour from Amazon and some from Walmart.  My local stores haven't been carrying King Arthur's white whole wheat flour lately so I ordered it too.  Free shipping and good prices so we will see how it works out.  I will be trying the new biscuit recipe using self-rising Lily flour and will post the experience when I do.

This has also peaked my interest once again in a grinder for flour.....DH is still dragging his heels on this one.....he may be right.

Later today I will attempt my first ever blueberry pie....let you know how that goes (maybe, if it goes well==I recently had a flop of the worst order on French bread due to my negligence.  DH wanted me to post pictures......I refused!) 

Miscellaneous Pictures

They  are working in pairs now:

and I think this is the heirloom rose, Reine Des Violette

 

The zinnias are still going strong but are getting a leaf disease as usual,  I am leaving some for seeds which will also not look pretty,



I thought I had killed  this rose of sharon  when I accidentally sprayed with herbicide instead of Sevin, but it has returned, maybe not in full glory, but the blooms are the same.


I am heading to the kitchen.......