Outside Projects in Summer, Inside Projects in Winter. Well....

It's been a MONTH since I've last posted, so sad. I'm in disbelief! Could things have just stopped around here? Well, that would be a huge understatement. Life is rolling along faster and faster than ever. This summer has been a feat of running from one project or commitment to the next. It seems like the summer whirled by without me really being aware of it. What happened?

I guess I should start with the weather. A typical summer here is hot and dry. The rain mostly stops by the middle to end of June and rarely falls again much until September sometime. Then factor in multiple days of 100 degree temps and you have the basics of what the expected conditions are. Everything green turns a shade of brown/green during this time if its not watered by someone. Well, that was what I expected for us again this year..lots of hand watering and pretty much non-existent mowing of our 2+ acres. Boy, was I fooled!

The grass this summer has kept growing at nearly the same rate as it did during the spring. Just keeping everything down to a level that was acceptable to our neighbors was challenging. We're still battling the lawn! I am seriously considering my option of fencing a huge part of the back of it for a horse or something. At least that would cut down on the amount to mow. I would love a miniature horse or two for pets and just think of the manure for my garden!

Remember the wise words of "Do inside projects in the winter and outside projects in the summer?" Don't get those mixed up like I have! I came up with the brilliant idea (about a month ago, hence the last time I posted) that I would finish off an inside project that I had stopped at the beginning of April...dry-walling the dining room. The thought occurred to me when rain was predicted for an entire week at the end of July. "Hmm, I thought. I would surely be able to finish this in a week while I'm trapped indoors anyway." Having said that, it didn't stop there. I have not only finished the dining room, but the hallway and the kitchen and dining room ceiling plaster. I'm now working on the third wall in the living room. It is one of those pitfalls I seem to get into. One project finishes and I then I think to myself how much I would like to see the next done. The next thing I know, I'm practically living in a construction zone.

Did you know that weeds continue to grow no matter if you are busy or not? Well with all of the rain and my 4 week construction project, mine are doing just that. I run out there and yank out as many as I can quickly and run back in promising to make another round. My landscaping has flourished this year because of all of the rain. Now if I can only enjoy it while waging war on the weeds.

Lesson learned: I can't do it all. (at least not at the same time)



Oh, and did I mention the New Orleans mission trip I went on this summer? Yes, that too was a week of much needed hard work serving the still devastated people of New Orleans. Helping to lead 50+ youth was challenging yet so amazing. I am so thankful I was allowed to be a part of this trip.

Under Construction

Keeping everyone cool here when the temperatures exceed 95 has its challenges. Our summers put everything to the test when it comes to just surviving. Plants are monitored daily with container plants needing watered at least once per day. The animals..well its not uncommon for us to refill water morning and evening. It just gets that hot here. The chickens seem to fair better than the rabbits, so we've had to take extra measures to ensure their safety. One of them includes finishing a roof over their enclosure.



This has been part of our plan for the area since the start. Trying to find time to construct it has been our challenge! There is nothing like pressure as your motivation. With the sun scorching down and knowing my dear husband was going to have to manage animal care while the kids and I were away for a week got the ball rolling. With just a couple of days to work on it this is what I've finished so far. I do plan to cover the whole enclosure with chicken wire like the chicken yard. I have the bamboo roofing tied on here until we get back.

By covering the rabbit enclosure with chicken wire, we'll be able to turn the chickens loose in there to take care of any weeds (surprisingly the rabbits would rather dig than eat grass, lol) and fire ants. The chickens LOVE to eat them. I guess its a spicy treat or something. This will save a lot of labor and be much healthier for everyone. Since I use the rabbit manure for my garden, I don't want to treat the area with any sort of fire ant or weed killer. It seems like a pretty good deal to me!

This is NOT about construction...



I plucked this huge tomato hornworm off of one of my tomato plants this year. Can you believe how large they grow? It's no wonder they can consume branches of leaves at a time on my poor tomato plants! This year I'm thankful the population of these boogers has been low. Last year I was put through the test taking care of this problem. For those looking for an organic way to handle them try bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Some labels just say "caterpillar killer" on them and it has Bt as the active ingredient. Bt is a protein that caterpillars can't digest and that is what kills them. Humans are not harmed at all by it. You do need to reapply it on your plants after a good rain and every few weeks to keep your plants protected. Bt is not selective in the type of caterpillar it kills so be careful on where you use it. I have dill and parsley that swallowtail butterflies use for their host plants. It will kill their caterpillars too.

One personal satisfaction I get when I find a giant tomato hornworm on my tomatoes is that they "pop" green slime when I stomp on them. Gross I know, but hey...someone has to pay! Thankfully the damage done by the hormworms usually doesn't cause major harm to my tomato plants. In most cases the plant will recover just fine. I have even seen a few plants eaten to nearly nothing and recover but I still don't like 'em.

Random Pictures

Here is what's going on in my yard:



..a jumping spider hiding in a gladiola



..my rock rose that I got from this spring's plant swap is blooming



..one of four of my new castor bean plants given to me this spring. This one is a red variety



..a new variety of morning glories that I started this year. I love the color!



..one of TWO lemons on my newly planted lemon tree



..a gulf fritillary butterfly caterpillar on one of my many passion vine plants. This is their host plant. I've had quite a few of the beautiful bright orange butterflies fluttering through my back yard.

Happy 4th of July!

It's time to celebrate! I think our evening will consist of grilled out food, a crazy game of Trivial Pursuit and then to finish the evening..fireworks! We have a few that we've bought to set off tonight. The neighbors buy really nice ones too, so between all of us it should be a lot of fun. We can see the fireworks displays from several area cities (that should tell you how flat it is here) from our back yard. Since we have teenagers now, the thrill of going to see a public display is not quite as fun as setting them off in our own backyard. Thankfully, we live in the country where we CAN set them off AND we are currently not under a BURN BAN. We are commonly under those this time of year when everything is dried to crisp.

Outside of that, the work outside continues. I'm working in the veggie garden trying to keep it from drying out. Within the next few weeks I will begin to set out tomatoes and peppers for the fall garden season. Everyone around here prefers the fall garden. It seems to do much better than the spring. Most of the insect problems are reduced and all around performance is higher.

Breaking News...After months of waiting I finally have swallowtail butterfly caterpillars!! Yay!!



The fennel plants have grown HUGE and I have checked often to see if eggs have been laid on them. I was beginning to think I had missed the chance to raise some swallowtails here. That's why I am so excited to have 5 hungry caterpillars now. The swallowtail caterpillars will use parsley, dill, fennel and any member of that family as their host plant. What a beautiful caterpillar!!!

Can You Believe It???

....I'm FINALLY posting something! It's been a juggling act over the past few weeks. Lots of shuttling my children to this or that obligation, yard work, house work, projects and whatever else that has demanded my immediate attention. It's not been all bad, just busy. I guess that's just the season of life I'm in right now and add in the fact I often overload myself thinking I'm Super Woman or something...Well I hate to break the news to you (or even myself) that I'm not. But I am pretty good at admitting that I need help..In steps FLYLADY

For those who haven't heard of FLYLADY, it is a wonderful system of routines that help to keep your home running smoothly. It's worked for me extremely well(when I don't fall off the wagon) and I have managed to keep CHAOS to a minimum mostly. Now that takes care of the inside of the house, check. What about the outside? help!!

I thought I was the only one who struggled with keeping up with the yard work and house work at the same time. Well, I'm not alone. It seems there are a lot of undocumented struggles out there. It was through some casual conversations during the busy season of May when I heard about the dilemma. Hmmm I thought, there has to be a better way!

About two weeks ago I was at my wits end on keeping up with everything and I couldn't spend 6-8 hours outside anymore because it's just WAY too hot here now. Plus the fact I can't physically do it. Working such a day would have me knocked out for 3-4 days afterwards with a sunburn, dehydration and a sore aching body for sure. It was then I decided to use something I had learned about through FLYLADY and that was ZONES! "Perfect", I thought. By dividing my yard into zones, I would be able to work my way through the entire yard over the course of a week in only 2-3 hours per day. So that's what I've done and here it is:

Zone 1: Foundation landscaping in front of house
Zone 2: Foundation landscaping in back of house on east side plus several beds in that area.
Zone 3: Foundation landscaping in back of house on west side plus several beds that include our blueberries and blackberries
Zone 4: Landscaping along the inside back and west side of our privacy fence
Zone 5: Raised beds along the outside of the privacy fence.
Zone 6: The huge vegetable garden.

Something here you have to keep track of is WATERING. It seems like when the rain stops in the spring it heats up and dries everything to a crisp if you are not careful. That was something I had to learn to do when I moved to Texas. Without an automatic watering system, I have to do all of it by hand. A good watering guideline is 1 inch of water per week. So this was a way I could ensure I was making my way around the entire yard with enough water.

My schedule has also been adjusted now to farmer's hours! Up at 5, outside from 6-9, then I'm done. I work in Zone 6 each day for an hour since the veggie garden needs it. I use up the remaining time in a different Zone each day. This gives me time to do some thorough weeding, pruning, mulching etc. I have been a weed pulling crazy woman every morning over the past few weeks..It's a good thing I have an ipod. :) I'm making it though and I would recommend others try this too if they don't have a system to work through their yard. I know 3 hours seems a lot for most, but we have a lot more than most to take care of here. I bet it would be MUCH easier for normal sized yards.

So there you have it..I should be back to blog posting now that I've gotten things under control.

Oh, and here is my Spider Lily that is now blooming:

Busy As A Bee

It has been over two weeks since I've last posted anything on here. Shame on me! I wish it were because I was off on some tropical vacation or something as a reason why, but NO I've been here "busy as a bee." With school work, yard work, the animals and my volunteer obligations I've been a bit overwhelmed. Finally though, I'm able to blog a bit about what's going on around here.

First the bees....



Taking a peek inside was such a treat! The bees were busy, busy, busy building their combs and filling them.



These pictures were taken a little over a week ago. I checked on them again Sunday and the combs are even larger now and more are capped. All of these photos were taken from the back of the hive.



I am just amazed at their ability to construct their hives. The natural shape of the doesn't change the perfect hexagon cells.

Bee Progress

Well after several days of letting the bees get settled, it was time for a hive check. Plus I really was a bit anxious to see what they'd been up to since their arrival on Monday.

What fun it was to be fully geared up and able to get a closer look at the bees in action. Using my smoker I blasted away trying to make sure the bees were nice, calm and distracted. It was easy as pie trying to get into the hive and do an inspection. First on my agenda was to remove the queen's cage that she had been shipped in. It was completely empty of both her and her candy. It looks as if they'd just started to build a comb around the edges so I was thankful to have it removed from there.



You know I worry about squishing bees so I tried to carefully slide the top bars apart to get the queen's cage out and then inspect the hive. It was challenging but pretty non-eventful. With a little maneuvering I was able to push them back down under the bars as I closed them back together. I was really happy to see that the bees has already constructed several combs about 3-4 inches square. There probably were more but I stopped looking as to not disturb them any further.

Removing the feeding can that came with was another task I had to take care of too. It was bone dry. I was thankful it was pretty full when I got the bees on Monday because of all of the rain we've had lately. It was just near impossible for them to gather much food for themselves.

Speaking of food, I was able to take some close-up shots of the bees going in and out of the hive entrance. I was fascinated by the amount of golden yellow pollen they could carry on their tiny feet! Click on the image to get a closer look.



Several people have told me beekeeping is addictive. Well, I am already a believer. I wonder what the rest of the year has in store.