Flower Miracles

The most blooms I've had in years!

Very hardy ground cover. I was told what it was a couple
 years ago by the nursery owner but it has slipped my
mind as to what it is called.

Going in a different direction today.  I do lots of vegetable gardening and when I have time, I try to keep some flowers about.  My grandmother died when I was 5 so I don't have too much to remember her by.  I have a couple memories of her, like her making donuts and making the centers for my brother and I, shelling peas in front of the house and washing my mouth out with Ivory soap when I said 'damn'...that was a bad word in her books.  So when we moved back here and started cleaning up the place...as it had become overgrown something terrible...I actually found some snipits of her gardening.  This in itself is quite a miracle as there was no gardening being done here since 1980.  Between this and my grandfather mowing everything or the cows running amok when they got out, I was quite surprised to find these.  This also gives me something to remember how hard she tried to make the property nicer even if my grandfather kept mowing it down for more space! I found a Begonia plant in amongst the Lilacs still trying to grow, I found 2 Iris tubers laying on the ground by the old fence, and some ground cover growing under the trees.  So I transplanted these flowers/ground cover to see what would happened.  I got some purple Irises and they have been mulitpling ever since.  The Begonia has been desperately trying to grow but every year a kid, dog, chicken, ants or something or other knocks it down or eats it.  However, this year by some miracle I have quite a few flowers blooming...it was quite surprising! The ground cover is growing so well I am pulling it and weed wacking it!!  Just a little more heritage to add to the farm !

The bush on the left is Lilac and the other on the right is a purple
leaved bush which turns green as the summer progresses.

Chatting Up Dexters

This past Monday I had a visit by some nice people from Barry's Bay.  They said they have passed by numerous times on the way to Ottawa and saw someone home (I was feeding the chicks out front) so they stopped in.  They had seen the 'little cows' in the field and wanted to know more.  So we had a nice little chat about Dexters!!  I find I like talking about them, which is odd as I never before liked talking about cattle.  I have definitely fallen for the breed that's for sure.  We have 3 Registered Dexters, Whisper, Willow and Xander.  I hope they learned something new that day!

Xander in new pasture this in May

I got to chat more about my Dexters and the breed the next day too!  I had a local farmer stop by and asked if my bull was forsale or if he could lease him.  I know there are not many Dexter owners around these parts and thought it was kind of odd for a local beef farmer asking about my bull.  I must of had a bit of a confused look and he ask if I was all right.  At this point I had to ask him if he realized that my bull was not a black angus but a Dexter.  Well was he kind of surprised and said he thought he was just a small angus bull as he was looking for something that would give low birth weight calves but have good growth.  Well Xander would definitely give low birth weight calves!  We had a good chat about the breed though.  I think he was just being nice.

Garden is Finally Done!!

Making the hills with a homemade hiller

Well almost.  I still have my succession plantings to do but that will come.  We were finally able to get out on the garden to plant and I have been doing so since the beginning of June.  I will hopefully be at the Renfrew Farmer's Market June 25 with lettuce, swiss chard, radishes, maybe strawberries if there is extra for market, rhubarb and hopefully some other stuff!!  Now I am just working on market set up.  I had some issues with my bunching onions so that will be a little later. The chickens are growing well and will be processed at the end of June beginning of July.

Row covered in plastic mulch

Making the holes using a propane torch