Spring Moments 2014

Well another couple of months have passed filled with so much more then I can even begin to share.  Life is full, what can I say.

Now I am sure I had told myself I wasn’t going to garden or do flowers this summer as I knew I had a lot of other work projects that really needed attention, but once a gardener always a gardener, I just couldn’t stop myself.  In the greenhouse I soon had it filled with every pot with starting seeds and creating hanging baskets.

Soon the rains came along with melting snows and rising waters.  We had our road washed out at one point and lost a stretch of our fencing which we had only replaced a few years ago,  other then that we were lucky and not major damage.

Another year older and a beautiful birthday was spent having breakfast on the deck, then going for a bike ride just up our dirt road.

I am a very big recycling person and am so glad to see our dump include all types of plastics now as well as milk cartons and many more plastics and styrofoam's.   Our dump will hopefully last for many more years.  We have a really great dump for recycling so many different things.  It takes a bit more extra time cleaning the cans, glass and stopping at the different locations at the dump to empty your recycling.  Just wish more people would take the time.

Well is wasn’t long after returning from our winter home down south that soon all our woodsy friends starting appearing to greet us for the spring.

Now I know many of you are probably wondering what is happening with that little acreage we bought last winter.   Well amazing how life’s paths can change.  Seem our tenant moved out of our rental in town right on the river that we have own for 20 years and we decided to not rent it anymore and was thinking we would sell it.  Well after spending a couple of nights and enjoying the private backyard and being right in town yet right on the edge of nature we may just have a complete change of retirement location.  We haven’t even had a chance to spend at the new property as any extra time is now spent at the house in town cleaning it and trying to get the yard green again.  Many repairs need to be done there.  News and photos of there coming next blog.

When the days warmed up and the grass turned green life was good here at the ranch with all the fruit trees blossoming and the garden ready for planting.

What ‘s spring without some spring flowers and this year I was blessed with many.

My flowers don’t even begin till almost middle of May as our season is so far behind.  But when it does come all the planting I spent years doing suddenly paints my landscape with so many different colors.

By middle of June it is time for the first harvest of rhubarb which I bag and freeze it all for later use in the fall for wine and jams.  During the summer lots of rhubarb crisps are also made.

Sheaba’s world is forever changing, upon returning back to the ranch, she was fearful and hesitant for a while.  But since the weather has warmed and sunny days with no wind she is much happier.  She now comes to us while we are sitting to be pet and snuggled with her tail wagging.  I am now trying to teach her to lay down.  Even with treats it is a fearful moment for her to be asked to do something, but today she laid down with a gentle nudge on her back.  With all the flies and mosquitoes out now she again prefers to spend all day in the house between her walks.  She showing so much more affection for us even though she can still run away when feeling fearful.  But with all her lying around she is gaining too much weight.  I think I will have to cut her food down.  But so many people always comment how beautiful she is and what a healthy coat she has.  I do spend a fortune on her dry dog food.  But cancer and many other problems on the rise with our pets I believe the food is a great cause , along with environmental exposure. 

Our animals all seem to have some sort of social problems.  Siriun our cat is now 8 years old and is the laziest cat I have ever met.  I have to throw him outside.  He used to be a great hunter when we had our other cat Wildflower, but without her outside as well he doesn’t want to go out. So he sleeps, sleeps and eats and sleeps.  He never even gets active in the house.  We have a new to us couch and he does enjoy now snuggling next to me while I am sitting there working on my laptop. He really needs to go on a diet.  But his only joy seems to come from eating.

Well the summer flowers are blooming now and I have taken a trip to Oregon for a family wedding, and so many other projects and gardening activities keeping me so busy this summer it’s hard to get a blog out, work on my greeting card project  or even less time to visit.  I find more and more it is easier and faster to stay up to date with my long blogging friends on Facebook.  But I will continue to try and get a blog out here now and then.

So as I say goodbye to spring and now summer is in full swing, with a visitor now and then we take a break from all our work and enjoy the moment and view.  May you also take a moment now and then to enjoy the company of friends and take in your surrounding and be thankful for all the wonders that life has to offer.
And have a
Good Morning…   Good Afternoon…   Good Night…
Whatever it is to you.
Photos & Words
by
Here I Am Carrie

Spring Gardening 2013

The spring flowers are blooming and it has been gardening time for me.
What a feeling  as your hard work starts to show results with new life in vegetable plants and flowers. 
Our whole area is in bloom with dandelions.  I know many of you think of them as a nuisance, but I see them as a great food source.  We eat the whole plant as this time of the year.  I chop it all up for salads as well as cooked for a vegetable.  The flower heads are plucked clean around our place by the birds and chipmunks. Our whole yard has big bright yellow patches.  Sunshine on the lawn that’s what I call dandelions.

Like the sun coming up in front of the old barn.
The birds have already picked all these clean.

 

Winter tried to hold on a little longer this spring with a few late dumps
of snow.  The returning birds really appreciated having birds seeds to eat.

 

I sometimes forget the sprinkler going at night when there is still a heavy freeze.
But it always gives me a chance to add to my photo folder frozen in time.

 

Warmer weather did arrive allowing me to get busy in the greenhouse.
I enjoyed planting my seeds in pots outside the greenhouse with a beautiful view.

 

What a great feeling to get my seeds planted early this year in the greenhouse.

 

I really cut back this year in planting seeds.  Want to scale down on the
gardening so I can try and spend more time making improvements in my many garden beds.  They have been neglected for many years now.  We still have our palm tree, oleander bush, grape vine, ginkgo tree and now some other new tree that won’t survive outside our winters here.  The all made it through the winter in the greenhouse as well as my geraniums.

 

Hubby had already started hand turning and weeding the vegetable garden beds.
Oh what a relief after all these years to have help preparing the garden.
He even planted all the potatoes.   Meanwhile I transplanted more raspberries and rhubarb to their new bed and planted all the onions, lettuce, beets, kale, Swiss chard, turnips, beans and lots of flower seeds.
The first of my perennials to bloom are my primroses.

 

Then a record breaking heat wave hit for a week.  I was putting shorts on first thing in the morning, something I rarely do even in the summer as it’s normally so cold at night.  So with the heat the flowers started popping with color.

 

I did some serious weeding in some of my perennial flower beds.   I only have finished with the middle section of my big long one.  There is so much creeping grasses in them I have had to lift the whole plants to get the grass roots out from the flower plants.  That’s why I so love  container planting.  My wheel barrel is planted with wildflower seeds every year.  I still have to make all my hanging baskets and potted flowers as well as plant my sunflower seedling everywhere.

 

Like I don’t have enough flower beds already I am making a new one in front of our new carport.  It’s a work in progress I started last summer.  But got the last of the grass removed and started filling with compost to mix and create some soil in it.  All my flower beds are lined with old rail road ties we have moved around
for 30 years and used for some many different things.

 

The heat finally brought all my out all my wonderful garden friends the good old garden snake.  Near some rock piles we have I have seen up to 5 sunning themselves.  But this one I discovered must have had babies.   Never seen this before.  There are 3 young snakes wrap around the big one.  Look closely you will see them all.  Or perhaps they are males trying to mate. 

 

The heat wave didn’t last so I covered everything in the garden to protect from possible frost and helps to keep the soil warm for germinating seeds.
Most my seeds were all sprouting by now.

 

I still have lots of planting ahead of me as all my seedlings I started in the greenhouse will soon be ready to be planted.  I will wait till it warms up again a bit.  Right now we are having lots of rain and near freezing nights.  But the sun is always popping out sometime during the day.  This is so not normal to not have freezing every night.
But in the greenhouse everything is still thriving
waiting to me moved or planted outside.

So the gardening will continue for a few more weeks.  We are not going to do much camping this summer like we did last summer as upkeep has fallen behind when we are gone too much during the summer.  But we love it here and feel like it is a paradise.  I have speakers in the trees so music is always playing making the work more enjoyable.  We always try and eat outside for lunch and enjoy the view and scenery around us.  Watching the birds and occasionally wildlife.

So find a way to create and enjoy your own paradise
and have a
Good Morning…   Good Afternoon…   Good Night…
Whatever it is to you.

Photos & Words
by
Here I Am Carrie

 

Summers End 2012

Summers end has arrived here at the ranch.  There is a crisp feeling in the air in the morning and I have already experienced a couple very light frosts.  Amazing no plants damaged yet.  Must have been that blue August moon that is extending my growing season.  Well I am here at Davis Lake camping again enjoying the extra time to get some blogs prepared.  So for now lets see how the flowers, garden and greenhouse are doing along with a few other extras.

Yes the flowers are still blooming like crazy.  Also Wildflower is doing much better.  She is now eating again and has chosen to move back into our house and eat and sleep there.  She still spend her days outside.  I so thought I was going to loose her, but she has rallied back to her old self again health wise and is putting the weight back on.  I found the secret food she just loves and has brought her appetite back.  Good old raw egg.  She is eating her dry food as well and gets some fancy  tuna cat food a couple times a day.

 

I have poppies and calendula that always
reseed themselves every year in the garden.

Lets see what’s been growing in the greenhouse.

This year our grapes have 6 clusters of grapes.  The vines are great for helping to shade the inside of the greenhouse during the heat of the summer.

This summer I grew 3 varieties of tomatoes
and a couple green peppers with one hot pepper plant.

I had one sunflower came up on it’s own and grew marigolds
in all the pots with tomatoes and peppers.  My notes board I use
to keep track of when I planted seeds and when they came up.

Some of you may remember the Robin eggs I followed hatching last month.  Well this time Cedar Waxwings had their nest in the same pear tree that the Robins had nested, so again I was able to photograph their progress.

No we don’t have a new dog yet.  This is Cole who we babysit quiet often.  The first time was  just when he was a puppy and only a week after we had to put our old dog Buster down.  It’s been a few years now and he like part of the family when he comes to visit.  He is here camping with us on his first camping trip.  He is so much like our old dog Buster.

Here is a view overlooking part of my
vegetable garden and the fruit trees.  The big empty bed is one I just
couldn’t get done this year, so just let it rest for a year.  Now that
I am downsizing the gardening I can allow beds to take a year off.

This bed is where I have begun transplanting my raspberries and rhubarb.  I have nasturtiums coming up along the raspberries everywhere.  I planted the rest of the bed with lettuce, onions, carrots and turnips.  Flowers always come up everywhere.  Gone are the days of the perfect garden I used to keep.

At the other end of the garden my other raspberries and 2 1/2 beds of potatoes with poppies popping out everywhere.

Well like I said we are here at the lake spending 4 days with perfect sunshine,
lots of heat and only a few other campers in the whole campground.

I did go fishing and caught lots of small ones I had to throw back.
So I hang up my fishing and just kicked back and tried to capture the dragon flies that were flying all around me.  Also tried a little self  portrait of myself.

Hubby did not give up fishing and the big ones started biting again and he was able to catch his limit easily.  No winds for 2 days and the lake was often like glass reflecting the beautiful scenery all around it.

So I bid good bye to my summer of 2012 it was a great one.

Also here is a link to a new blog I started a month ago. 
Quotography by Here I Am/Carrie
They are single photos that I added words or quotes from me.  Remember the days of guests books when we left graphics behind, here I am sharing the many I created as well as more to come.

I hope the season changes will energize everyone like it does for me
and have a

Good Morning… Good Afternoon…  Good Night…

What ever it is to you.

Photo & Words
by
Here I Am/Carrie

 

Summer Has Arrived

With it all the color and green that the warm weather and rain brings.  We have only been back at the ranch for 2 months yet seems like so much longer. 

When we returned the weather was still very cold and continued to get frosts right up until middle of June so I went to work in the greenhouse.  Starting seeds and preparing my flower pots that are now on my deck.

 

 

Once I could start work in the garden I began moving half my rhubarb and raspberries to a new bed.  I am taking a bit of a gardening break this year to work on some of the beds so only planted half the beds this year.  I will soon be ripping out the entire strawberry bed as wild variety has taken over and the old variety never did well.   

 

When we arrived home Momma deer was here to greet us along with her twins from last year.  She stayed around in the yard till around the 1st of June when I know it was time for her to have a new baby.  I haven’t seen her since.

Well it hasn’t been all work and no play.  We went on 2 camping trips to our favourite lake.  Where the scenes of the lake are always breathtaking.

  

Often enjoyed dinner while watching the sunset.

I did a bit of hiking and finally took up fishing as well.  No I didn’t catch anything.  I spent most the 3 days reading how to do my fly fishing lines and practicing casting on land as well as preparing my tackle.  I should fish from the canoe, but my back can’t take sitting in it.  I am thinking of getting one of those belly boats to float around in and fly fish.

  

I always enjoy those moments as
I gaze out over the lake.

  

Well hubby left me for 3 weeks and made a trip to Germany to visit family and friends.  Someone has to stay home and take care of the animals so my vacation was spent at home.  No cooking or cleaning so yes it was a vacation.  I did have all the yard work and lots of other projects to keep me busy.  But alone here for most of the 3 weeks has been heaven.  I had a group of old school girl friends come for a visit the 1st weekend.  What a hoot that weekend was.  Some I hadn’t  seen more then 2 times in the last 30 something years.  Didn’t take long for us all to bond again.

  

 

Also kept busy raising a dozen meat chicks for our freezer.  They will be ready to butcher in a couple weeks.

The robins have been nesting all over and Wildflower is so happy again to be able to go outside.

  

 

The weather has not been so good the last 3 weeks.  Many storms would come in and then just dump the rain.

  

 

But with the rain and then the sun the signs that
summer has arrived are now here to enjoy.

 

So work hard and play hard
and have a
Good Morning…   Good Afternoon…   Good Night…
What ever it is to you.

Photos & Words
by
Here I Am/Carrie