We’ve been planting like crazy every single day, from morning until dark. I got in dozens of 100-foot rows of beans, both pole and bush, quite a few rows of squash, about a half-acre of pumpkins (many of which are sold to our local nursery, The Watering Can), quite a bit of various corn, and some more peppers.
Will’s also been busy — hauling manure out onto our pastures, re-tilling some of the garden spots, and pounding in steel T-posts to fasten our cattle panel bean trellises on. He also is working on the old haybine, trying to get it into working order as a spare. Unfortunately, as he was heating a bearing, trying to get it loose, it caught the dry hay in the rollers on fire! He tore to the house, hollering at me to get the fire extinguisher, then tore to the bathtub full of water by the chicken coop, that we use as spare water. With the big fire extinguisher and several buckets of water, we got it out without serious damage to the rubber rollers. But both of our hearts were sure beating fast for a while! Keeps life interesting.
As I have to run to Mayo Clinic with our friend, Tom, I’m doing double time this weekend, getting ready to be gone for two days. I’ve got to do the laundry, pack a bag, plant more sweet corn and some more beans today. Some days I wish I were triplets! But I know it’ll all get done. Thank God, Will’s so good about taking up my slack. I appreciate him so much!
— Jackie
Finally rain here in NE MO 1/2 inch, while all around us got inches. But it is cooler so weather not so hard on plants. Preserving as much of my spring garden as I have time for. No extra time for women…right! Your white lilacs are beautiful. My purples were too and the wisteria smells so good. When I get tired, I think of you Jackie, then I realize I should not wine. Here on our farm, we too have had machinery fires. Every tractor now has a fire extinguisher. I too see many similarities between today’s weather and the 1930’s.
Yep, around here, it’s feeling like dust bowl weather! We got a tiny bit of rain, but not enough to do any good but to cool the weather down. I love wisteria! Unfortunately, it is not hardy up here. Boo hoo! We’re still planting like crazy up here.
We just slogged our way through one of the wettest Mays I can remember: 9.13″ for the month, and chillier than normal on top of that. Now we’re finally getting some sunny weather so that I can get plants in the ground. It’s also been one of the worst tick seasons in recent years, no matter how careful I am about keeping pants tucked in socks, covering myself in repellent, I still manage to collect a bunch.
It’s been quite an active spring for the local bears too. Some years we hardly see any, this year they seem to be everywhere. A neighbor has a long-unused chicken coop on his property, completely empty, in which he found a sow and three yearlings holed up a few weeks ago. I think those are probably the mama and three cubs that were constantly prowling our property last year. I don’t even go to the barn without my bear spray anymore.
Way to go Will! Fire can spread so quickly. Already gearing up for a big fire season here. So dry and winds! My husband has pvcpipe and sprinklers on the roof s of barns and sheds. Hoses laid out ready to be turned on. 100 is in the week ahead! Last week 40’s and mid 60! Hope everyone is prepared in their areas! Poor Alberta:(
I’ll pray that you get some rain. I’m already praying for rain here. For us, here in south east Idaho highlands, we still had snow on the ground and a another batch of snow on the end of June and the 1st of July. This all came after my supposed last (probable) frost date. We are still dropping into the upper 30s and low 40s at night. This means my warm weather crops are in danger of dying due to low ground soil temperature. That’s only at 50 during the day at the top two inches but the morning is at 45. But it’s warmer now so the temperature should go up. The forecast is for the high 80s from tomorrow afternoon on.
I think we swinging back into the temperature extremes of the Dust Bowl era. Weather is cyclical, that is how the almanac predict weather for a year or more. The highest temperature most of the Midwest states seen were during the Dust Bowl era. If we are getting that hot again it be tough on us, the crops and our animals. We have better farming methods now so blowing dust hopefully won’t be as bad. My dear step Mom family moved to Alberta from Kansas because of the Dust Bowl. A couple of Uncles with family and belongings wnt to San Antonio Texas to stay with family when their farms were destroyed. San Antonio was still getting some rain because of storms coming off the Gulf. I know we, humans in general, have caused a lot of pollution but this higher temperature swing was talked about people in the early states, with the Founders roasting in the buildings that they met in. Something you never hear about. I really don’t want to see the high temperature myself. But I prefer to be forewarned.
Still praying for you to get rain. Down here in Southern Illinois we are going to get more rain starting tomorrow. To me that dry dirt sure does look good! But we have to remember that God is in control. I’m really glad that roller didn’t get destroyed by the fire! And those white lilac sure are pretty!
I Jackie. I hope you might get a blessing of some good rain soon.
It was hot and dry here and now is raining since early morning and it’s almost 6:30 in evening.
I pray some will come your way.
You’ve been super busy planting and especially since have to go with friend to Mayo.
The fruit of your labor will make it so worth it all though.
I know I’ve been planting like crazy here too with more to go. Just a bit difficult to do much
in all the rain right now.
I’m thankful Will was able to get the fire out with no damage to the rubber rollers.
I’m glad the smoke isn’t bothering you too badly.
It just makes me sneeze and my nose run at times but can deal with it.
The lilacs are beautiful and glad to take time to enjoy the beauty of nature around you.
Dear Jackie,
Can you believe the smoke is here in Tennessee. Yep, they were talking about it on the news and our smoke detectors have gone off twice in two days. (no real fire of course) Mother Nature sure is a strange Mama! But makes for beautiful sunsets and sunrises. We have those fancy smoke detectors that are sensitive to everything, even dust. Just never thought about smoke particles from Canada. You two are truly work maniacs. But you seem to be a lot like our folks and want to get it all done asap. Good work ethics: but you never know what tomorrow will bring so do today all that you can.
We got .001 of an inch. The ground barely got wet. We’re still hoping…
Jackie, your white lilacs are beautiful. You and Will are busy as beavers. Hope the smoke is not being a problem.
Makes our eyes and noses run but not awful.
Again, a decent amount of rain in our forecast. Again, we’ll see if it comes to fruition. Need to take a closer look at the strawberries to see how the berries are growing. Tater plants are looking really good – time to mound the 2nd planting.
Glad a potential disaster (fire) was snuffed out quickly. Hopefully we’ll both get decent rain/winds to clear out the wildfire smoke.
We got 2.75 inches, dad got 3.8 inches – we’re about 10 miles apart. Regardless, we’ll take it.
Harvested a handful of strawberries yesterday. Too wet to check today but tomorrow is a different story. I had a few, left the rest for better half. You just cannot beat home grown.