Time Flies,and Black Flies

Here it is,Wednesday already. Time flies when your busy working outside,doesn't it? Something that also flies are those darn black flies. They should be the NH state insect,if they aren't already. They are the most annoying things on earth,at least until they go away and the mosquitoes take over. Seems like if it isn't one thing,it's the other.


The woods across the road are in full greenery now. I love this time of year (with the exception of the above!) Blossoms are coming out..the grass is green...the sky is a beautiful blue...the weather starts turning warmer. How can one not love this time of the year?


We have been busy little bees. We finally got the blueberry bushes planted,so we shall have to see next year how they do. Today we have finally finished our raised beds. The mix is all in them. We started building them on Saturday.

Here they are without the fill. I have two others on the other side of the garage. Those two are for my strawberries (planted yesterday)and for my kitchen garden. I did also plant my onion sets yesterday in one of the below boxes.

One of the things we used for the fill was our pile of compost,which is comprised of leaves,grass,and pine needles. It has been sitting there since Spring of 2004. It's great,nice black soil with plenty of worms in it. Rick built a sifter so only the good stuff would go into the garden-no rocks,or miscellaneous "treats". At first,we sifted the dirt onto a tarp,but then,once we figured out how many cubic ft the wheelbarrow fits ( 1.5 cubic ft),we skipped the tarp and just sifted the dirt into the wheelbarrow its self.

We also used some vermiculite,humus and manure ( to give our compost a few more ingredients) and peat moss. Next year our compost will comprise of more ingredients,but we didn't really start composting our kitchen scraps until a couple month ago. Plus,we will have the turkey and chicken poo besides.

Mixing all of this was a lot of work! We wound up with about 72 square feet of compost mixture. We have 7 4x4 boxes,one 4 x6,and one 4x4 that is 12" high. This will be for our carrots and potatoes.

We were outside filling boxes when all of a sudden,Rick stopped and listened. "What's that noise?" he asked. I happened to look off to our property line and a chicken came into view! Rick and I both laughed. Our neighbors chicken was walking along our mutual property line,checking things out. She just poked around,then went back into her yard. It was quite cute.

Today I started our Straight Eight and Pickling cukes,our pumpkins,and our cantaloupe. My tomatoes have just started their true leaves,but my peppers are still not producing them. They are still on the first set. Hmmm. I know they take a while,though.

Tomorrow is a muffin date with My Dear Friend Michelle and then a much needed day of housework. My floors are crying for a good washing! It is suppose to shower tomorrow,but if the weather improves,I will have to go back outside and plant more seeds!

Friday it's off to Dartmouth Hitchcock for Rick's Echo Stress test,the first of his pre-op appointments. That should be interesting. They have to make sure his heart can take the stress of the operation. I say if he can deal with the pain he has been in for this long,what's a little old operation? :)