September 2015

Well, I obviously haven't posted allot this year.  The Garden went to hell in a hand basket this year due to all the spring rain.  I lost about 8 peach trees due to the rain.  Their roots literately drown in the water since they can't get oxygen.  Furthermore many of my trees turned out to be white peaches instead of yellow peaches.  They are sweeter, but not as rich in flavor as yellow peaches and harder to market as they bruise easier and perish quicker.   My nursery supplier said he would replace my trees at no cost.  It does take two years to reach your first harvest, so it is pretty depressing.  I will probably just replace the 8 dead ones.   Reg did make some good peach preserves with the white ones.

I did have some garden success in my small kitchen garden behind the house and in fact won Grand Champion and $75 at the county fair for my tomatoes.

Here is Reg's herb garden

Did a bit of canning too.  We (I) love pickles

In March we added 6 Khaki Campbell ducks to out farm  One did not survive, but all are laying eggs as of today.  They are now 6 months old.  They thoroughly enjoy the little Walmart swimming pool.

built a duck house

Found an egg in the herb garden last week.  Now they are all laying in the house.

Today 9/11 we had 5 eggs for the first time.  Up until now it was mostly three.

Had some company this summer. My sister Cynthia and the Butt family were here in May.

My other sister Margaret (right) and my niece Monica (left) were here for a very short stay in the spring.

Of course we had out kids and grand-kids up several times.  Stew even made an appearance in August. We had great fun at Tyler State Park swimming and at the Van Zandt Country Club pool.

Picking Blueberries

at the pool

with Nanna in the new estate cart given to me by my friend Jim Prevratil

 Erin and I enjoying the back porch.  How do you like my long hair :)

Stew and Megan at the lake

out three lovely children all grown up!

At the Forge of course :)

Great swimming lake (Tyler State Park)

The Milner Family

The Milner girls

Stew and Chloe

Most recently our dog Maddy had to have doggie knee surgery, TPLO.  Very major operation and she is now recovering.  Had to build her a ramp to get in and out of the house.

This is Maddy laying down with "our" other dog Gunner keeping a sharp eye out  We have sort of adopted him or he adopted us.

Maddy with her cone head,  You can see her rear leg shaved.  The incision is on the inside of the knee.

I had to paint the ramp and add some silica to the wet paint to provide traction.

Started a fall garden this week.  Will pant garlic, onions, broccoli, kale and other stuff.  This lets me put a cover crop on my summer garden.  it gets tilled in in the spring to provide a "green" manure. The winter garden is 50 x 60 ft.  I love my tractor.  It is the Best tool I have ever bought.

Always have to have projects.  This is my latest, a cupola for the barn. Needs a weather-vane.

oh, almost forgot, we had a tornado hit our town on Mother's Day.  We were fortunate, it hit about two miles away.  Pics posted by the Van Chamber of Commerce