Weed Pulling Party!

Since Mother Nature has had a serious case of P.M.S., my gardens have gotten away from me! I really need to have a weed pulling party, but the problem with that is I don't want anyone in my gardens! Maybe I need to have a babysitting party instead! One where there are several adults to help keep up with kids while I work in the gardens! :-)

While the soil is still moist enough to easily pull weeds, I am constantly having to stop and check on kids, because they conveniently disappear from sight, more often than not! Then they get hot or bored and want to come in the house. Well, I love our house too much to let the little monsters be in it alone for any length of time! And since they can't seem to get along for any length of time, they get about 10 minutes between me checking on them! Needless to say, ALL my chores are done sporadically and it definitely takes longer to get it all done.

So, as plans go, I plan to get potatoes, and peas weeded and strawed today. I also need to get the peas staked, and the tomato trellis' built. I have gotten the go ahead to use the left over gutters to plant my herbs in, and hope to start that project today also.

Inside, my projects are unlimited! I can't seem to be able to get everything done around here. We have now come into hay season, so that is through in the mix as well. I don't do anything with the hay, myself, but hubby does and that either holds up supper or holds up the cleaning after supper. With 30 acres of hay this year, and 300 or so bales of straw to bale...it's going to be a long 30 days! Then come fall, we'll have more hay to cut. I am still trying to understand this part of the farm life. i know we need the hay, and understand the it's importance...just not the time it consumes. As fast as the yard grass dries out, why does it take 3 days to be able to rake and bale hay? Oh well, eventually I will be able to understand...it's still new to me.

We moved our outdoor dogs closer to the chicken pen in hopes of fending off the usual predators. It didn't work. We lost another chicken last night. Seriously, 3 dogs within 4 foot of the pen and something still got one! I guess the next step is building a roof on the pen and try that out. Growing grass and vegetables for the chickens, in the pen, is proving a massive failure! I thought if we planted deep enough they'd leave the seeds alone so they could sprout. Not the case! The dang chickens just dug deeper. So, the next step there is to build boxes around the pen so I can cover them to keep the chickens out until they grow. The idea of having a living chicken garden is fantastic, but I need to make it work for us. This is something else I will eventually get figured out.

As our crazy lives keep moving, we took on 2 weeks with an extra child at our house. My nephew has been wanting to spend time here for a couple years, and our schedule just didn't allow it. This year, I figured I would just add him to the mix so he could finally come down. Needless to say, it's been interesting throwing a 3rd child into the mix, and still try to get projects done. He's a great kid that is more than happy to help, but now we have the 3rd wheel syndrome on occasion. 2 kids play well, 3...not so much! But we are managing and slowly adjusting. Since I rarely go anywhere, he is having to adjust to not being busy all the time.

As I get started into my crazy day, I am trying to decide where to start. So many projects to do, both indoors and out. I guess I will make my list, and get excited as I start crossing projects off. Let the craziness begin!.......

~Sal~