Vacation Pt.2 (cont)

A walk through the woods and ending up at a beautiful pond set the trip off perfectly. 

 Good Night Y'all!

Officially Out of Hibernation

 It took us  a while around here, but we are finally really getting stuff done around our place. Both of us are procrastinators. Patching holes in our ceiling that I made trying to get Christmas decorations down ( oops), trying to maintain a  real garden succesfully, coating our  metal roof with Elastomeric Roof Coating which will hopefully cut down our cooling cost; really important in Texas summer months, and also provide a waterproof barrier for our leaky roof. The husband is coating the roof thankfully, but I do bring him cold drinks from time to time. Pretty important job! Along with all that, trying to do day to day stuff that comes  with herding two kids, two dogs and three goats! This is why this blog might have a little bit of dust on it as of late. Our mini garden has shown me that I definitely will be doing a much larger one next year, but hopefully next year our tiller is working because I don't think I can take doing it all manually again on a much larger scale at that.  The sunflowers are gorgeous even though they aren't at their full potential of beauty. I can't wait until  they finally bloom!  

When my son found this worm he was so happy. Going through a bug phase. Luckily for him I don't too much mind it. This one as a defense was swaying back and forth and lifted it's " upper body" to  try and make it self seem bigger. The two "eyes" on top are also for that purpose. It was pretty cool to watch.

Yellow Squash

 I found these on my yellow squash yesterday, they aren't there today though. I think they are called  "Leaf-Footed Bug Nymph" . I am trying to go as organic as I can, so trying to get rid of these should they come back is going to take some research. 

The neighbor's cat coming over for some loving

HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT!

Goats and Gardens

 I grew up in the city, but I always loved animals and later on came to love plants. It's weird, especially if you knew me personally. I don't seem the type.  Breaking molds here people! We had Pygmy goats previously given to us by a family member and  good friend that had goats for a while. We just bought a place with land that needed to be cleared and since we didn't  have money for a tractor, we decided that goats were perfect for our need. They were.......... until the drought last year. They were constantly trying to eat my " good plants" because there pen wasn't sufficient for them at the time. I really didn't blame them, but it was nonetheless very trying on my patience.  We gave them to an older couple who had land and were goat free for around 8 months or so, until a few days ago. I got a cute baby goat itch and we HAD to get some again . They are so soft when they are babies and beyond cute. I could hold one all day long.   I have yet to name them because we are firm believers in naming our pets something strange and different, which takes time. Our last goats were named " Goatticus" , " Big Dirty" and " Jodie Foster" ....don't ask. 

Three Sisters

  I know...Right....

 Since we moved here I have wanted a real garden that we could eat things out of. I am taking baby steps towards this because I don't want to invest a lot of money into something that I could potentially suck at. I am decent with whole gardening thing so far. Rooted a few trees and even diagnosed some problems with a Japanese Maple, Rose tree and newly planted willow trees; which are all  currently thriving.  Today after playing with goats the son and I went to check on our plants. They had a vegetable hiding under the leaves! I got more excited than I should have. My son looked at me like "what is wrong with you?".   

It's the tiny yellow thing. Crooked neck squash

Silver Queen Corn is starting to pop out

A row of Mammoth sunflowers

Mammoth Sunflower

Sugarbaby Watermelon slowly growing

I have a few other Sunflower patches, but these seem to like this area the best. Next year I am going to be a little stricter about the "Three Sisters" gardening plan   I think the crops will produce better because years in practice have shown it definitely works. We also have zucchini, strawberries and eggplant in another bed.   Next year the garden will be bigger, this was just a test garden to make sure I wasn't going to kill off everything and somehow  make the earth go off it's axis and throw us into an ice age.   I am happy to say that so far we are doing pretty good and there has been no ice age!

Vacation Pt.2

The day was pretty windy...when I say windy I mean it was a big enough deal that there were warnings put out for people to stay inside. REALLY WINDY. So what did we do? We made sure we were outside....We went through the Wofford House, the garden and headed over to a pond with lily pads in it. Very serene and peaceful, have I said it was beautiful?  We then headed towards the trail.

I always start these hikes with  an enthusiastic, care free frame of mind and half way through I think " Why would they make the trail so long that you get lost?........ WHY?!" Outside of the  trees and brush it's quite breezy and cool; inside not so much. With a backpack full of gear and a baby it wasn't the best of situations. Glad to do it because I was hoping to get some good shots.  So here's what I got

More Poppies. 

A mini rock garden with plants

Another view of the garden behind the house

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Beginning of the trail. The baby was already sleepy.

Entrance to the trail

Bat Boxes

Chimney Sweep

See! It's nice, you got to see all these beautiful outside things and didn't even have to break a sweat. Except maybe for the last one. I just hope it was a teenager and not an adult. Next blog is going to be about our new  baby pygmy goats.

Vacation Pt. 1

I am one of those weird people that enjoys going to see historical buildings, museums, aquariums, parks, gardens, etc. Some might say " I like to get my learn on". Do I retain any of it, not really . Hoping that I can someday get a piece of life old timey kind of living that once was  the norm many, many moons ago. Visiting my in laws, my husband was driving me around so I can do my picture taking things. He informed me that there was an arboretum in his hometown! WHAT!? We have been to this tiny Texas town countless times and we are basically one in the same person and you didn't think to come here?! He didn't know I would go crazy over this particular place that's  hidden away  from anywhere we have ventured around here thus far? I chastised, but soon got over it after I saw how gorgeous the gardens, the  historical  " Wofford House" and the overall vibe this place was giving off.   So this is where I just show you the pictures I took. It's really a dream to one day turn our place into something similar to this.

Entry Way 

POPPIES!

A arbor type thing. I really want to do something like this.

Wofford House

Garden and Milking barn(right) in back 

 Pea Sheller

 

Right of Milking barn  was a beautiful garden

  That's all for now....be safe.