Another Project Completed

We woke up to a bright orange sunrise and a very cool morning with a temperature of 46 degrees F. I went out early to take photos for this morning's post in sandals and short sleeves, wishing I had put on a sweater. Fall most certainly lingers in the air, waiting for the perfect opportunity make her grand appearance with the first frost. This morning the lawn and the hay field are heavy with dew.  The boys had been fed early; they watched as I took photos, waiting patiently for me to let them out in the pasture. The Head Gardener had put on his hunting cap and camouflage hunting clothes to hunt pronghorn antelope early this morning with his bow. So he had done the feeding early. I knew the look in at least Sundance's face: "I need my greens." You never know what Pop is thinking as he hides behind his sun screen.



Softly I chant to the grass: "Grow, Grow, Grow" because we lost our first cutting; it got rained on so many times that it molded, so we really need a good second cutting to get the boys through the winter.

The Head Gardener has worked so hard this summer, first on the sprinkler system digging hundreds of feet to improve the irrigation system, then he fulfilled my desire to have a nice, mud free path from the barn door to the hen house. His first step was to build the path, getting all of the weeds out and forming a nice shape.

Next, he used a pick to dig a small trench to embed the plastic garden edging, giving the path a 

defined shape.

With the edging in place, he used the tractor to move the gravel from where it has been piled for well over a year. The neighbors across the street let him have it when they ordered too much for their landscape project. We were happy to take the gift, knowing exactly what we would do with it. Just a took a while to get the project done.

 So it went from here--

Across the lawn

Happy is the man with a tractor.

To here: Nothing like seeing a dream project realized.

I love the clean, new lines. The path adds some architectural interest to the garden.

Look at little the apricot tree planted late last summer. We bought two for the price of one and while they were scrawny little saplings, look at the girl now. Apricots next year? And the holly hocks just plant themselves where ever they want. We keep some, but dig a lot out.

I don't know if Chanticleer will appreciate the path, but I know I will when the HG is away and I have feed the chickens. No more mud.

Next minor project: install the iron trellis--some place.

The beds along the pens may be the new strawberry beds. On the other side of the pens where the HG didn't put gravel I have thought about filling with decorative grasses. We want to provide some shade for the chickens. I had wanted to plant morning glories along the fence, but the seeds are toxic to poultry as is wood line (or Virginia Creeper). I have planted two clematis at each end of the this bed, so they will add color and fill in some. 

And this is the sunrise on the Garden Spot. Smoke from the fires in California and the Northwest has finally drifted over Colorado, bringing warnings for those with respiratory ailments to stay inside, so while the haze makes for glowingly beautiful sunrises and sun sets, they come with a heavy cost to those in the fires' paths. Give us normal, please.

Isn't the Head Gardener amazing? Close to going on Medicare soon, he has the strength of bear, the endurance a distance runner, and a commitment to get jobs done. Now, he gets to relax and do what he loves most-- head to the prairie or the mountains with his bow where he will relax, rest, as he contemplates nature and hopefully has a successful hunt. I don't tell him often enough just how much I appreciate his hard work and admire his desire and ability to do so. 

While he worked so hard to get some nagging projects done this summer, there are always more to do and some go undone until next year. Look at the garden, for example. Full of weeds and low production. We got off to a very bad start because the bad weather kept us from getting it planted on schedule. As I say, "There is always next year." We will have a nice crop of onions--ready to dig; tomatoes, thought they are slow to ripen; potatoes, ready;  cucumbers, which we are enjoying now; and cabbages. The cauliflower didn't do well, they never do; the broccoli worst we have ever grown, green beans eaten by rabbits. 

James A. Michener Library

Hubby will be elk hunting over Labor Day, and I will be recovering from my first week back at work.  I will be dog tried at the end of the day with aching feet, but ever so happy to back in my classroom.      Let me leave with a different mosaic for Judith's Monday Mosaics, one of my university: University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, home of the Bears. A Division I school belonging to the Big Sky League. A small liberal arts school, first known for its fine teacher education program and its School of Performing Arts, especially known for its spring Jazz festival with world renown musicians attending each. The university also is proud of its Monfort School of Business. I am honored to serve in a very small capacity teaching freshmen how to write academically. I am so lucky to get one more chance to do what I loved so much and a new kitchen floor. I will be teaching two classes back to back on Tuesday and Thursday and tutoring in the Writing Center for 2 hours on Fridays. And grading and blogging on Sundays as I watch the Broncos play. 

Yes, Fall is certainly in the air. 

So now that the blogiversary party is over, back to normal. Thanks so much joining me and for your sweet congratulations. Some of you have been with me since the beginning which just makes blogging so much fun. I find myself going to my right menu to read other blogs before I even get to reading my own comments. I'd say that I have matured as a blogger when it means more to see what you are doing than it does to read my comments first. I like that feeling.

Have a fabulous week. I will be getting my feet wet again.

Happy Blogiversary

Drum Roll, please. Light the fireworks. Sound the trumpet. Cut the cake.

Five years ago August 19, 2010, I launched my blog Welcome to Ann's Garden Spot. I had always considered myself tech savvy because I had to keep up with the Internet use and growth if I wanted to keep up with my students. I had them producing their own web sites one year in a research class. That was very exciting to see the students hard work displayed on the web. Those were the good old days before Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat. iPhones, iPods, and iPads.

I decided that I wanted to provide a website for my classes, so I took a class on web building at the local community college back in the day when it all had to be done in html code.

I discovered blogging quite by accident when my grandson was asking about toads. We googled "toad" and discovered a lovely blog Robin's Nesting Place. If she could do it, so could I.  And I was hooked.

It took me a long time get even a few followers. I joined Blotanical and gained few friends then I joined a garden party where I met more of my earlier followers. Now I am participating in Mosaic Monday, as most of you do, which has helped me to build my following.

I also keep Ann's Dollhouse Dreams where I publish maybe once a month when I have something to report. House building and making minis take a lot of time. I don't have may followers mostly because I have not worked very hard to promote that blog. So if you stop over there, many thanks. It's a niche audience.

 Because I lost my space on the university server, I have started another blog on Blogger for my students, so that makes three that I have to keep up with.

Daughter Heather one day talked about her "people"--she had found her people, those with whom she works are her people. So you are my people. As my real world friends, I treasure your friendships, too.

And now to present (recreate) Monday's post that mysteriously disappeared without a trace. Like a puff of smoke, it just disappeared as I was trying to link it to Mosaic Monday. A couple of you had already read it and left comments.

I updated you on the chicks that we bought last spring and brooded in the house until they were old enough to go out to the chicken coop. They are a handsome group of young hens who will keep us and few friends supplied eggs for some time.

The young hens have begun to produce an impressive amount of eggs, about 4 a day. The egg supply adds up quickly at that rate. Since I don't do a lot of baking any more except at the holidays and we don't really eat much breakfast during the week, the eggs tend to collect rather quickly. You may be asking what I do with all of them? I take them to my friends at school. One friend loves my eggs and claims that they are better than the organic eggs that she buys at her favorite organic grocery. I let folks decide what they want to pay me for a dozen, but my friend set the price @ $5.00 a dozen. She first offered what she paid at the store for organic eggs, $8 a  a dozen. I protested. So we agreed on $5, which is plenty for a dozen eggs.

I do not claim that the eggs are organic because because they aren't; the chicken feed is not organically grown and produced. A lot goes into certifying organically grown foods. Nor do we claim that they are free range because they aren't. Just today we saw a Cooper's hawk fly over the chicken pens while we were working in the garden. Along with fox, coyotes, raccoons, and our own cat and dog, the hens are not safe outside the pen. They are cage free, but still safely penned.  None the less, the eggs are fresh. Did you know that sometimes super market eggs may be as much as 3 months old?

They do look pretty in bowl, don't they? They even look impressive in the carton. My favorite is the green egg. I enjoy seeing the different eggs in the carton. Do you see the really dark eggs? Those are Black Copper Maran's eggs. We bought her just for that egg, a chocolate egg.

I thought that you might like to meet the flock now that they are all grown up. 

This is the main pen, the first that we built. The bucket is rather cool. It is the water bucket with nipples on the bottom that the chickens drink from.

 Partridge Rock: Brown egg. 

 Barred Rock: Brown egg

 Brown Leghorn: white egg

 Black Copper Maran: Chocolate egg

Cuckoo (CuCu) Maran Rooster. Not a very nice fellow.

 Americana: Green egg

Brown Americana: Green Egg. She is one of the original hens, now 4 1/2 years old and still laying. Because she id aggressive toward the other hens, she has to live with Chanticleer.

You remember this handsome fellow, Chanticleer. He is a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte. He and the old hen have a new pen on the other side of the chicken coop. 

He begins crowing about 4:30 AM before dawn and continues yelling until the Head Gardener goes out feed. We have noticed this week that he is quiet when the HG works out in the garden or in the yard someplace where he can see him.

This is Pertilote, Chanticleer's brood mate, a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte. She lays brown eggs, but was so badly traumatized by the rooster and the other hens that she quit laying. We are not sure if she lays now. These two are 2 years old. There two Blue hens. The other one lives in the dog crate because she doesn't like the other hens. She does get to free range because she the HG's little buddy when he is working in the garden.

CuCu Maran was supposed to be a Black Maran hen. I wanted black hens. They are so elegant looking, but we ended up with Copper Black Maran hen and this fellow.

Many cities now have ordinances that allow for small backyard flocks of poultry. When we decided to get hens, the Head Gardener did go to the town hall to find out what the ordinances in Ault were. There weren't any, so they asked him if he would write up a plan, which he did. The town council did pass a rather strict ordinance for poultry keeping, so there are a few flocks in town. Of course the ordinance bans roosters mostly because they are just plain noisy. The Cucu is on the board at the feed store: Free to a good home. And we get away with having rooters because the neighbors have not complained yet (though I do), and even though we are in the city limits we are zoned agricultural which means that we can keep livestock and poultry outside the city ordinances.

Chickens often end up in dog pounds and humane societies because people find out that they poop on patios and then they aren't so much fun any more.

Some of my favorite moments are spent out in the garden listening the hens talk to each other. I find their conversations soothing and interesting. I like the soft clucking and squawking as they pick and peck around in the pen. It is very relaxing to watch them just be chickens. Then I take their eggs and make an egg salad sandwich.

Thanks so much visiting with me each week. I would miss you terribly if blogging went away. This has become my favorite little community. We have so much fun reading about each other's daily goings-on, family, friends, hobbies, challenges, and celebrations. I would love to meet each one of you, and I know that we would have a lot to talk about. I enjoy your comments, but enjoy more reading about your latest adventure and then being able say something in return. I am glad that you joined me today in celebrating my 5th blogiversary. It means so much.

Fondly, Ann

What Happened?

Good morning. I have never had this happen before. I as trying to add my link to Lavender Cottage Monday's Mosaics, on the new lap top. The mouse pad froze, so I restarted and when I went to find the new post, it had disappeared. Bayou and ElizavethD had left comments which I read. I have no idea as to what happened. Has this sort of thing happened to you? The post was there, then it wasn't.

I can't possibly rewrite it this morning, so I will simply post the mosaic of our shopping trip to our favorite private nursery that specializes in alpine plants and minis. I'll work on the post later today.

Be sure to hop over to Lavender Cottage for the wonderful mosaics. 

PS. Check out Ann's Dollhouse Dreams to see my latest projects. 

Thanks for visiting. (Can you tell that I am really bummed?)

Room to Breathe

There is an quietness in the August air as summer winds down. The flower garden feels quiet, too, as my favorites fade away. Some plants never rebounded from the mid-July hail. Along with the heat and the hail damage, the flowers just couldn't rebuild new leaf structure. Still we have accomplished a few projects, or rather the Head Gardener has accomplished a lot. Now it's time to finish up projects and wind down for fall.

August always hosts the Ault Fall Festival, a celebration of harvest in our small community that kicks off with a beer garden in the park Friday night and fireworks. We don't drink beer, so we stay home and watch the fireworks that light up the sky right over our front yard. This year Jen surprised the girls with an over night at grandma's to watch fireworks. They had never seen big ones up close. They loved the show.

Saturday morning begins with a parade with the VWF members leading the way down Main Street as the crowd salutes the flag and honors the veterans past, present, and future. Local celebrities also march in the parade. This year Smokey Bear gave hugs to the kids as he led the Forest Service entourage.

 
And no parade will be complete without pretty ladies  riding beautiful horses.

Each year the crowd grows as more people move into our small town, and we find ourselves wondering who they are and where all of the old-timers are then we realize that we are the old-timers.

We wonder through the crowd, glad when we meet a familiar face that we haven't seen for a long time. We admire the antique cars, the quilts and other home arts, the flowers and the vegetables, wondering how that head of cabbage grew so huge.

The little girls shop at a jewelry boot: "First piece free then 2 two for a dollar." The necklaces fall apart before the girls get home.

Pond Repair

 The water feature in the front courtyard has always leaked, so all summer all long we have wanted to fix the leak. It turned out to be not so much of a project, after all.

The HG began by removing some of the rock that were holding the line in place and hiding it. If you look to the left where the liner folds, you will see exactly where the leak was, a simple wrinkle in the liner allowed the water to  escape. 

He built up the side bank to reinforce the foundation where the water had soaked away some of the soil.

The rest of the bed was solid. Instead of replacing the old piece of liner, the HG cut a new piece a bit wider, making sure that it was flat and straight when he laid it back in.

We like the way the rocks were restacked and the way that the water tumbled over them, which is really the whole idea behind a babbling waterfall. 

Across the driveway more plant removal to open up the center circle. Today four old rose bushes that the last owner had planted were removed. The garden is so over run with bind weed that removing the thorny old bushes will make it much easier to control the weeds in addition to opening up the space.

We removed old iris that had over grown their place, give more desirable plants breathing room. 

Also gone is the huge clump of pink yarrow. It had taken over this corner of the garden, strangling out other plants, hogging water. I will probably finish out the summer fighting weeds until we have a clean and smooth surface that we will cover with bark mulch for a clean, groomed look. (Long, deep sigh): So much work. Renovation of the center circle will continue.

When the neighbors did away with their water feature, they gave us their water lily, a pink one. I had the pots that I cleaned up, added coffee filters over the drains holes, put in a layer of gravel, added regular garden soil, not commercial potting soil, placed the tuber on top of the soil, placed more soil over the tuber, then added a layer of pea gravel to hold it all in place.

Now the water lilies are in the pond where they will grow and bloom next summer.

In the garden, I have answered the question: Do blackberries fruit on new canes or last year's? Answer: New. I cute the blackberry nearly to the ground this spring with aspirations of digging it out because it sprawls all over, taking up a lot of real estate. Instead, we left it and the new canes are bearing the fruit. Stray sunflowers are always welcome here at the Garden Spot, and soon we will have tomatoes--I hope. 

Oh and the water garden in the front? Still leaks.

Hope you all have a good week. Be sure visit Monday Mosaics at Lavender Cottage.  And thanks so much for dropping by. 

Happy Birthday

Another birthday celebrated. Little Lucy will be 7 Tuesday. Her mother out did herself again by creating an under the sea wonderland where a mermaid might live.

Everyone marveled at Aunt Trudy's fancy vegetable tray. Don't you just love the little fish?!

We are still doing battle in the front center circle, and I think we are making some progress. This, I am determined, to be the last year that we fight weeds. there.  I have thought of putting down weed barrier fabric, I think we will just do a heavy bark mulch since I still want plant material. We have resorted to spraying thistle and vinca, so once they are gone I can get a better idea of what plants I want to add, hoping to catch end of season sales on perennials. I haven't taken photos of this week's work since it is all redundant. 

Today I am off to the chiropractor--gardening and adjustments seem to go hand in hand. Then a stop at the garden center to see what's on sale.

So I will leave you with a few my favorites this week. The dark lily at the top of the mosaic got a lot of attention from last week's post as did the pinkish tiger lily. Check out White Flower farms online catalog for a species that is close in color, but a different plant.

I hope you have a great week. Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Be sure to check out Lavender Cottage and Monday Mosaics.