Right now, our Backyard Garden consists of 12 rows of raised beds, divided into DIY hoop houses or greenhouses. One is covered with plastic, the rest with shadecloth. As it gets cooler, we may cover the rest of the hoop houses with plastic. It is November 11, 2019 and it is still fairly warm for autumn.
We have 198 strawberries planted and there are 40 trees in our orchard now with more to be planted this week. Four varieties of green beans, herbs, garlic, beets, and more are growing on the back three acres.
Good Monday morning, everyone! One thing is for sure--our backyard garden on the farm is a whole lot bigger than it was last year in San Antonio! We have a lot of things growing--plants we grew from seed, plants we rooted, plants from runners, plants from bulbs, bushes, and trees. They are all part of our fall garden and we are excited.
The water well people texted that they cannot make it out today to inspect the well so we still cannot use it.
Phil and Bethany have been working outside planting and doing other work that needs to be done. I have been doing computer work and I unpacked some more. Some of the unpacking problem is that I don't know where to put so much stuff. That is really why it is taking this long. I need to get rid of more.
David is not feeling well, but earlier he was working outside as well. He is actually resting right now so he can feel better. Our manager at David's Garden Seeds® has a migraine headache but is at work directing three people. The fourth who was supposed to work today called in sick.
I need to get outside and take photos as well as do some transplanting. But I really need to get the rest of this house unpacked. One week from tomorrow, family descends on our home to see it for the first time. I would like it to look good.
This morning it was so foggy that I couldn't figure out why there was so much white out the window. (This was before I had caffeine.) It has mostly burned off now and our landscapers are planting more trees, bushes, and grapevines in the orchard. I went out there and got a few photos of the plants and the fog. Interestingly, it was 53° when I got up this morning, but it is supposed to get up to 78° today.
David is feeling much better and is outside working. Bethany is killing those horrible ants. Nacho pointed out that deer are attacking our trees so we need to get a tall fence with electricity around the top of it soon.
While I was out there, I decided to get some photos inside the greenhouse and of the raised beds in the backyard garden.
The water well people came out this morning and everything is fine. David came in and announced that we now have a working well. We have to get pipes to run the water back to the backyard garden since the well is in front of the house.
We fed our crew lunch and then the Ferezco Power people who did our big generator arrived to put an electrical plug on the well.
Bethany is now planting four varieties of carrots and several varieties of beets. All of the fruit trees and plants are now in the ground. So far, we have 60 trees, vines, and bushes. The ants are attacking some of the trees. We have been putting down ant killing poisons that are organic.
This morning started at 4am for me. I woke up and couldn't breathe so I sat on the couch for a while but my nose would not clear so I got up and went to work on the computer. It was a long day.
Today was bright and hot with a high in the backyard garden here in Rossville of 82° Fahrenheit. So much for winter. It's gone! Today, onions were planted while David and I did a Thanksgiving run for food for our Thanksgiving guests next week. There are still a lot of onions left so they will be planting them for the rest of the week.
Ants continue to attack our plants and trees out there so Bethany was out there putting up a good fight today with all organic stuff to send those ants where they belong. They have clipped most of the leaves off of one of my brand new orange trees.
I got a lot of work done in the house this afternoon. The island and table look good now.
This evening we went to a community Thanksgiving dinner put on by the Rossville Community Church. Right now they are meeting in a tent just down the road so we went and had a wonderful time meeting some of our new neighbors. The food was good, too.
It is 8:30pm so I think I will be going to sleep early tonight and hopefully get some good rest tonight.
The sun is beginning its ascent over the backyard garden as I sit in my office. Shades of pink streak across the sky. I put a pork loin roast with potatoes, mushrooms, onions, carrots, and celery in my slow cooker this morning. It turned out so good tonight.
The cutter ants are hacking away at a grapevine and two pear trees today. Hopefully, Bethany killed them when she sprayed this afternoon. I catalogued all of the new trees. Bethany took the labels off of them.
Phil planted more onions today and the rest David gave away. I was walking around in the backyard garden this evening before the sun set and everything is looking good because of the warmer weather that we have had this week in the 80s and high 70s. The strawberries are getting a lot of green on them and the green beans are getting tall.
I worked hard and it took hours but I got the guest room in shape for company today! I even got the TV and Firestick working in there! Now I found a lot more of my personal stuff so our bedroom and closet are a mess again. I still have to work on the craft room. That is a complete mess. I have to think it all through. I do not have enough room for everything I have. I think I will get rid of most things and keep sewing supplies, counted cross stitch supplies, crochet supplies, and my polymer clay.
We have the turkey and ham for Thanksgiving defrosting in the refrigerator. When I cut up the veggies this morning for the pork roast, some of them were frozen. We don't have enough room for veggies and fruit in the fridge. I miss my big fridge in the house in San Antonio.
This morning, we awoke at 6am to be ready to leave for San Antonio by 8:30am. It started raining shortly before we left and on the way in, it was coming down hard. I got my feet muddy in the driveway. The backyard garden area loved the rain!
David's plan was to drive to our store and have one of our team members follow us over to the other side of San Antonio to take the SUV to Steve, our mechanic. We got to work and I took care of a few things and then we took off for Steve's. The SUV starts when it feels like it and the rest of the time, it won't. David thought maybe it is the fuel pump. We shall see.
Then it was on to Salt Grass where we had our biggest Thanksgiving company gathering ever. About nine people canceled due to the bad weather or other things but we had a good crowd of over 30 people. The food was delicious and we enjoyed the fellowship. There were also three birthdays to celebrate and one of them was mine! There was a huge delicious cake and cards. I kept moving back and forth, checking on the other end of the table and visiting with our people now that we hardly see most of them.
After the lunch, Phil drove us back to the farm. The rain had stopped and a cold front was moving in. The cold front was a lovely relief to the heat of the earlier part of the week.
David went to his office to work and I went to the craft room to start unpacking. I spent several hours but just scratched the surface.
We spent the later part of the evening from 9pm on watching Walker Texas Ranger.
Today, we awoke early to 43° in the backyard garden and sunny weather. It got hot, in the high 70s. I spent most of the day unpacking and organizing in my craft room. I emptied many boxes but there are still more to go. It is amazing how many boxes are still in there. I am trying to get it to look as good as possible for my holiday company. Some of them come in on Tuesday.
The problem is, I have too many craft supplies! There, I said it. I did do several loads of laundry, all of which need to be folded and put away or hung up.
David worked out in the backyard garden while I worked inside.
I did dust a bit around the house when I got tired of unpacking. I did no computer work until now and it is 7pm.
We were hoping to get some Christmas decorating done but we have to have things unpacked as much as possible.
The FedEx man came today, bringing boxes for the girls from Chewy.com so they are happy.
Of course, there is church tomorrow but most of the day must be spent finishing the unpacking and cleaning the house.
We had a good church service in San Antonio this morning. After that, we dropped by our business to pick up a few things. Then we headed home to check the backyard garden. After lunch, David was watching a World War II movie so I joined him but I was also straightening up for next week's company. I am still unpacking!
I bought a new welcome mat for the front porch, but since we still don't have a front porch, I thought I would put it on the side porch by our driveway. I went out to put it on the porch and our neighbor, Jorge, with the new baby, was putting the final touches on the fence that separates our lots. We bought most of the materials and he put the fence up. I thanked him and asked about his wife and new baby girl. He said they were here up on the hill. He called and they came over so I could see the new baby. She is perfect, so precious!
We went up to the orchard and saw hundreds of cutter ants cutting leaves off of our olive, raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry bushes, as well as our pear trees and pine trees. No matter how much organic poison we use, they continue to thrive and hurt our new trees. I took some peroxide out with me and poured that into some of the large ant holes in the ground. I heard Bob Webster, a local gardening guru on the radio, once say that it will make the ants explode.
We checked on the backyard garden and the onions, garlic, strawberries, green beans, and so many other things looked great. Our backyard garden will do well as long as we don't have any severe freezes.
David decided we would run into Pleasanton so I could get a haircut and he could pick up some things at Walmart.
After that, just as we were leaving, a truck showed up so we had to cancel our shopping/haircut plans. David told a friend that he would interview someone even though this is our very slow time of year so he did.
About
45 minutes later, we left for Walmart in Pleasanton. I wanted to get my
hair cut but I knew it would be too late. I got there at 5:30pm. They
close at 6pm. The only stylist in the Regis salon was taking a personal
call in front of me and did not even acknowledge me. She just kept on
talking. She finally said that someone is here and she would have to go.
She hung up and immediately the phone rang and she was on another
personal call. This person must get paid by the hour instead of
commission or she would have been glad to see me.
Finally, she hung up and it was 5:40pm. She wasted ten minutes of my haircut time talking nonsense to two friends and then told me she leaves at 6pm. In other words, if I don't finish, you are out of luck and you will look stupid with a half cut. I told her to forget it. She missed out on a good tip. I will never go there again.
Also, some of the Walmart
employees were rude so I won't be going back to the Walmart. They have
gates inside the store. If you step through the gate to enter the store
and then decide you need a cart or that you have to do something else,
they will not let you through said gate. You have to go around and
through a checkout line in order to go back. I was in severe back pain
at this time but she still told me I would have to go around through a
checkout line. I went around. She then told me how sorry she was to have
to enforce this rule. I told her it was a stupid rule. When you see a
customer in pain, you help them. You don't make them walk farther
because you are on a power trip.
By the time we got home, I was in a lot of pain with my back and I was very upset that I didn't get my haircut. I have not had a haircut since the spring and my hair is long and scraggly.
We ate and I just watched Walker Texas Ranger for the rest of the evening.
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