Colorful Garden

 I really love growing stuff. I suffer through the winters because I'd so much rather be outside tending a garden in the sunshine. This year I focused on veggies that my family regularly eat instead of the novelty crops like spaghetti squash that I had 15 of last year. I also planted a huge row of giant sunflowers and several rows of zinnias. I've noticed higher yields on years where lots of flowers were planted in the garden. They bring so many beneficial pollinators to the garden. 

Here is the early stages in May after I mulched it. Not much to see here.

These were taken early August. 

We've got a ton of tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupe, baby watermelons, basil, green beans and sweet corn. The baby asparagus are looking good, maybe next year I can harvest some. We've had to deal with corn thieves this year for the first time. I think it's raccoons as I saw a family of them near our house last week. They pull the ears off of the stalk and pull away the husk and eat every last kernel on the ear before throwing on the ground and moving to the next one. 

 

We moved the chicken A-Frame house over to the garden since they were demolishing the grass where ever they were positioned in the yard. This way they can work up the soil and leave their droppings, enriching new soil for the garden next year. 

 

I let the 4 batams out in the mornings to hunt for bugs while I'm in the garden.

Omaha Zoo Chair Lift

Omaha Trip

 My sister and I decided to have a girls/cousins weekend and met in Omaha. They have a spectacular zoo, one of the highest rated zoos in the country and it was time to check it out. A friend of my sister also said to check out the safari park right outside of town. She said it was not to be missed. We met at the Wildlife Safari Park in Ashland and piled into her minivan to enjoy the drive through park. It was sure fun to see many animals up by the road. They have a parking area about half way through the park where you can get out and walk to many exhibits, get a drink and cool off. The kids really enjoyed it, glad we went. 

The next morning we got up and had a wonderful breakfast and headed to the Henry Doorly Zoo in downtown Omaha. It was a huge zoo that would have taken a few days to see it entirely. We hit the major points and then took a sky lift to go over the parts we would miss. I think the lift was the best part of the zoo! It was 20 minutes and very relaxing. I'm glad we went and would highly recommend the zoo.

Kids got some good hotel pool time in too.

Wesley's Activites

Wesley had a great 8th grade year and is looking forward to starting high school in the fall. He's in a few activities including Scholars Bowl, karate and band. We are so proud of him! He was accepted into the elite singing group in the high school this fall. Really excited to see what they do. Here is a clip from the variety show.

He's been having fun in karate, moving up the ranks slowly. He's currently a yellow belt. Part of the requirements to belt test is participating in a tournament each year. Last weekend he took part in the fun tournament. It's for kids under 16 and low stress. I think he enjoyed it! 

This and That

I celebrated another trip around the sun by going out to eat with my folks and gorging on delicious mint vegan birthday cake. There is a local gal who makes wonderful vegan baked goods and my goal is to try every flavor of cake she offers (which is quite a few flavors). Thanks for the birthday dinner Mom and Dad!

 

Last spring I planted 40 strawberry crowns and this year I'm basking in strawberries! They are nice big ones too. I love growing my own food, it's very satisfying knowing what isn't sprayed all over them.  The artictic freeze we got in February took out 90% of my thornless blackberries which was quite the loss but there are new canes back there and I should have berries next spring. The cherry tree gave us a lot of cherries for the first time this year which is fun.

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy getting sushi with my Greta? We usually go hit the thrift stores and then off to sushi. It's a fun tradition.

Our outdoor kitties just turned 9 years old. They are really good cats that have stuck around for nearly a decade. The key to keeping barn cats alive is to lock them up each night. They get locked up in our shop where they have beds and food and litter boxes. There are too many night creatures out there (we just found a dead bobcat just a few hundred feet from our driveway on the dirt road). Happy birthday Minnions!

If you decide to sit on the couch then you are deciding to become a comfy dog bed. Our dogs love nice warm lap.

We've been trying to do new things locally just to get out of our ruts and support local business. We decided to try the new Mexican restaurant and boy with the kids enjoy it! They ate and ate and ate. Good times!

Zoo!

 It's so nice to be able to get out and go to the zoo again! We loaded up into out little electric car on a mild spring day and had a lovely day seeing the animals. Did I mention we actually had a spring this year? So many weeks in the 60's and 70's this year. It was so nice! I can't say I ever wear layers to the zoo, it's usually 90 degrees and we sweat from one animal house to the next. I'll take it though! 

We were excited to use the fast chargers at the zoo which were just installed. A nice perk is that they are usually right up front and empty. 

They put treats on the ledge.

My favorite part of the zoo is the goats in the petting zoo. All the babies everywhere!

Released!

We finally did it. We fenced in the front three acres of the property so the goats will have a large area to graze and perhaps we won't have to mow around 300 walnut trees. We've been attempting to finish it for years and never start early enough in the season before the oppressive heat starts. But this year we were motivated! It sure helped to have a beautiful spring for a change......generally it goes from winter to summer in about 2 weeks. 

 

It took a couple of months but we got it done just in time for the goats to have a lush new pasture to browse from. Goats are not grazers like cows and sheep, they are browsers like deer. They pick off the tops of weeds, vines and low hanging leaves. This is great for our abundance of poison ivy. I let them loose for the first time and they went directly to the nearest tree covered in the nasty vine. 

 

 

I hope they are able to keep the area eaten down.  

Freedom

Last summer I noticed several large female water turtles would come into our back yard and lay their eggs in burrows they dug. Then I would go out the next morning and there would be empty egg casings strewn about the yard where some critter dug up the eggs and ate them. Well at least one little guy survived and Sean found him crawling around the yard yesterday. 

Normally we would just put him in the koi pond which is a nice little nursery for these newly hatched water turtles but it's in the process of being cleaned out so it's empty. We decided to take him to the nearby creek to release him but it's not accessible except by standing on the bridge some 10 feet over the water. So we made a little rope and bucket system for him to be lowered down. Good bye little guy, good luck!