Chapter 4 - April

April 10th -
50 degrees and storming. We have had about 1/2 inch of rain since 4 am...and another 1/2 inch is expected today. The driveway is soup again, the yard in under water, but it looks like my waterway will hold up! With the past week being 60-70 degrees and sun, we got outdoors...finally! Got my courtyard staked out, dug out part of the waterway to see if it would follow it or go its own way, burned off the garden, got the gardens spread with DE, took a hike this past weekend, and priced the materials for our deck. All my trees, flowers and garden plants have been shipped so we are waiting on them. Dug through all the garden/flower seeds I have gotten and made a list of those. We bought 50 pounds of seed potatoes, and 2 pounds of onion sets...only to have them go completely to waste. We bought them 2 weeks ago and this past weekend we had them out to get in the ground...everything had molded. I was not a happy camper! Still have several seeds to get for the garden: corn, pole beans, bush beans, kidney beans, horticulture beans and peas. May look into a few plants that will be a little further along since it's going to be another 2 weeks before we can get into the garden(tomatoes, green peppers, and cabbage).

We have the gardens planned out for companion planting and organic growing. The upper garden will be: corn, squash and a few pumpkins, beans, potatoes, peas, peppers, radishes, onions, cabbage, basil, dill, chives, clover, lettuce and spinach. The lower garden: half of it is the kids. The other half will be: Sunflowers, oregano, parsley, cucumbers, nasturtium, lettuce, radish, spinach, more corn, a few more pumpkins, zucchini, gourds, and amaranth(if I can find it). The vine garden is the smallest in width, but the longest. It will have: more sunflowers, watermelons, and pumpkins. The orchard is planned out for: 2 apple trees, a pear tree, a peach tree, a nectarine tree, a cherry tree and a fruit cocktail tree, and 3 grape vines. My courtyard, I am very excited for! It will be mostly edible gardens, trees and bird/butterfly friendly. It is set to have: 2 Mimosa trees, a medicine wheel herb garden, a waterway, a scarlet red maple, 4 butterfly bushes, lemon grass, 2 lilac trees, 3 box woods, marigolds, lavender, blueberry bushes, honeysuckle, hummingbird vine, cat mint, mint, fern leaf bleeding hearts, gladiolas, calendula, clover, chamomile, yucca, forsythia and burning bushes and hydrangea trees. We are going to dress up the area for the chickens with: a dusting box, and a living food source. It will have sunflowers, oats, wheat, peas, clover, kale and maybe some blueberry and raspberry bushes.

I am very excited to get the gardens in this year. Let alone getting a deck on the house. Then when it dries up some, we'll be digging out the drive, laying a mat, and dumping gravel. It will be nice not to worry about getting stuck!

April 11th -
Woke up to 40 degree temps, and the sun trying to come out. I am getting really concerned about getting in the gardens. I have so many things that needed to be in the ground already and the couple of days that it's not supposed to rain, over the next 7, isn't going to allow for much drying to get in and get the ground worked. I am seriously ready to put in raised beds so the rain/flooding/droughts/frost will not affect our gardening! Even with companion planning, it's still getting much too late in the Spring for my liking! I needed the ground worked last month, and need to have the seed in the ground this month. I have too many seeds, to not have them in the ground and growing!

Our online orders better be getting here soon. I need my trees in the ground now, need our deck done so I can get my flower beds in, my courtyard done, the orchard in, and I am getting really antsy.

April 14th -
UGH! I want to get my garden in! Starting seeds today in egg flats so hopefully when it finally quits raining, I can get plants in the ground and we won't be harvesting through the first frosts. 7 days of rain is forecast and honestly...I am tired of it! I want in my gardens, I need to get the ground worked, or get the wood to raise up the beds. I am ready to raise all beds so this rainy crap won't affect my gardening! Frustration has set in, as has Spring fever!!!

April 17th -
Well, finally finding some bright spots in these gloomy days. Even though we have severe storms forecast and 3-5" of rain predicted. After a year of having cattle, hubby has decided to sell-out of the cow industry for a while. After losing 2 cows and 2 calves in the past 9 months, it's time. We will keep J's cow for our own beef needs but the rest are going to the sale barn. J decided to raise some pigs, and has been wanting some sheep so I believe that will be the route we end up taking. Too much money lost too quick and he has decided it's time for them to go. We have acquired more hay ground that will take up a little more time and some other projects we need to get done will be coming first. This coming weekend, we will have to mud in 40 trees. Then hopefully by next weekend we can get in the gardens. I am feeling a little relief from the financial issues, but I know it will be short lived. We have a lot of projects that need done, some that we are wanting done, and one of these days I hope we can just relax a little and have a bonfire!

April 21st -
Well here we are with 9 days remaining in the month. What have I accomplished towards my goals? Not a damned thing! I am frustrated with myself, frustrated by the lack of respect I receive, still smoking...though not as much, not a single plant is in any of my gardens, trees need to be planted and they aren't, a deck to be built and can't get the time or get to the town to get the materials, flooding all over my hometown area and I am not there to help, flooding all over my immediate area and no way to help. I am being preached at for not showing compassion, when everyone is just really lucky I haven't blown my cork! Wanting to get to Illinois for my best friends college graduation and that is looking grim, and still attempting to get to back into nuclear power but nothing to fit what I am able to do with the kids/husband responsibilities. I am very frustrated, angry, becoming resentful fast, and finding that even though I have always held a short patience level...it has become even shorter. I try to talk to family members, only to be told they don't have time. Our lives get crazier all the time and still nothing I need done is getting done. I am just overwhelmed with everything! I need a break without anyone around me. Time to regroup, and just be for awhile.

April 25th -
This will be my entry for April. As our week draws to end, that means the craziness of the weekends begin. Since the weather is shifting and supposed to finally be warming up, that means work like crazy to catch up on projects that have been held up by the weather(and a tractor that has been torn apart for a week!). Tonight/today is the Full Moon/Partial Eclipse. That always proves to be interesting. I'm anxious to get pictures tonight! As the Spring projects begin, I plan to take lots of pictures documenting our experiments in gardening. This weekend actually will begin tomorrow, as our 2 heifers will be hauled to the sale barn. Saturday will be groceries, cultivating the 3 gardens, cutting the poles to begin placing flower beds and the walkway. Sunday the trees and part of the bushes will be put in the ground, finally. Hopefully, the garden will be dry enough to till, if not...it will be tilled this coming week. The yard will get mowed, chicken coop cleaned out and nests re-strawed, and the water feature dug out. Next week will be mostly a normal schedule before next weekends trip to Quincy to get the deck materials. May is going to be a busy month. Building the deck, putting the roof on it, finishing the planting in the gardens, finishing the courtyard, a trip to my best friend's college graduation, fencing a section of yard for the dogs, and somewhere in the month getting my counter in the kitchen cut, moving the refrigerator, and finally having the ice/water on it working again, and getting the shelves put up in the kitchen to get ready for the canning part of gardening.

Now that the weather finally appears to be actual Spring weather, I am getting anxious for bonfires, and some much needed time outdoors. Be watching my personal and homestead Facebook pages for lots of pictures!
~S~