Extra super busy tiring weekend!

   I had a lot of stuff to do this weekend, and then did about 10x what I had actually planned... on Saturday I ran errands (clothes shopping, kayak-accessory-shopping, grocery shopping, and sushi lunch) and was out for several hours. Then I came home and mowed the lawn (enjoying the gorgeous weather!) while I did a load of laundry, then attached my kayak rack to the Rav4, and loaded the kayak just to make sure it worked. I invited Kelly over for a homemade pizza dinner, baked up a storm, and then we watched Anthony Bourdain's new Kansas City episode that aired earlier this week. (He visited Oklahoma Joe's, Stroud's, The Savoy Grill, Cigar Box, Town Topic, Rosedale BBQ, BB's Lawnside, Woodyard BBQ, Dirt Green Farms, tailgated at the Chiefs Game, and saw the Hair Museum in Independence.)
   Today I started working in the yard at 8 am (before I'd even had my coffee!), made a quick trip to the hardware store, planted coleus, weed-whacked the back yard, ate lunch on the front steps and talked to Loren & Champ, and then kept working right up until 1:15, when I had to quickly change and head to Swanson's for Aki's agility class. We spent a couple hours there running like crazy.

   On the way home, we stopped at the hardware store for another load of dirt, and then I worked in the yard for 3 more hours. The dogs sat out on the deck and observed, while chewing a couple of the big "dinosaur" bones (aka beef femur) I had bought for them. I went inside & out, checking on Gypsy and doing 3 more loads of laundry.
   By the end of the evening, I had watered, fertilized, and applied weed killer to the whole lawn, put down 19 bags of top soil to level out the grade (19 x 40 lbs. = 760 lbs.... a LOT to buy, load, lift, carry to the backyard, and dump. But apropos for Earth Day, I moved a lot of earth!). I cut and laid chicken wire over the new dirt, pounding large staples to hold it down—which I HOPE will finally keep Aki from digging, so that grass can grow again. She has been focused on one 4' x 4' spot for a few years, ever since she dug down and discovered an old credit yard. She seems convinced that there's more to find there...

   I weeded the flower beds. Moved some rock. Bought a bunch of perennials and planted them in my flower beds and containers. Mulched. Watered. Thanks to the head start Mom gave me, my yard might actually shape up okay this season!

Happy to be outside:

   After all that, I picked up, put the tools away, and came inside to give Gyp her treatment, give her another new food, feed the dogs, shower, run to McDonald's to get a Filet-o-Fish sandwich for Gyp (she only took 2 tiny bites, so I ate it), finish laundry, read the paper, have a glass of wine, blog, and crash!

Funny-slash-weird

   Today was one of those days where I needed a laugh. I had a long day at work, and then a meeting that lasted until almost ten. By the time I got home, I had been done 14 hours, missed a happy hour with friends, and was starving. So I started heating up leftovers.
   When I walked over to the sink to wash my hands, I noticed something sticking out of the disposal on the other side of the sink. Which was odd, because nearly 100% of my food waste goes into the compost bin. My first thought was that I had absent-mindedly shoved some celery remnants in there while I was making soup.
   Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was a SPROUT that was GROWING out of my disposal! Of course it totally grossed me out initially, as I was thinking it was a fungus. Ugh! So I bravely reached my hand down there and pulled out... a large handful of PUMPKIN seeds that must have been washed down there when Dave & I carved pumpkins 3 weeks ago, each with a 6-8" sprout!

   So if you need a pumpkin for Halloween next year, feel free to stop by. I'm growing them inside of my sink.

Bittersweet Farm: Around The Farm

Approaching the house from the garden

The main pond

View of the pond from the second-floor porch at the main house

Garden shed (Mark built it, of course)

House & honey house

Another pond on the 80-acre property

Lily pond. We saw green heron here!

Back door to the house

This old pump still works!

Lunchtime on the porch, overlooking the pond and the majestic farm

   One of the things that impresses me about homesteads like this one (and like Greg & Peggy's, up in Homer, Alaska) is when I stop to think about the immense amount of imagination that went in to creating it. This farm has been in the family for years, but Mark and Becky (with a little help from their friends) have dammed creeks, added ponds, and seeded them with lilies; they've cut trails through the property; they've put in lush gardens; built another house, and a shed, a chicken coop... you name it!

   My favorite idea of theirs is the large wrap-around porch on the main house, with a row of rocking chairs all lined up, overlooking the pond and a large chunk of the property. It was the ideal place to sit and relax, have lunch and a glass of wine, and share stories. 

   I hope someday I'll have a place as beautiful, unique, and inviting as theirs. They are certainly the type of people to make everyone feel welcome, and people come to spend time together there. They've even got extra beds tucked all over the place... What a special, wonderful place!

Summer Flowers... Fingers Crossed

   I finished the bulk of my planting over the last couple of weekends, and this morning I got my dahlia tubers into the ground. I hope they'll make it... never got around to planting them last year, but they were safe and dry in the garage. We'll see. They're one of my favorite flowers, so I'm looking forward to the explosion of color again this summer! Matched only by the Asian lilies.

Signs of life on the trail

   Here are some close-up shots that I took along the trail. The grass was barely beginning to come back to life, and the trees were not yet budding (unfortunate, because the area is supposedly full of dogwood). So many of my shots are monochromatic, which I didn't realize until I reviewed them. The subdued colors help you appreciate the forms themselves and are striking in their own way.

   While we were loading up to hike to our campsite, I went off-roading to find the little girls' room, and  happened upon the dinner site of who-knows-what animal. First I started seeing clumps of hair near the trail, and when I rounded a pine tree and entered a clearing, there was the makings a "build your own deer" kit: jawbones, a head and spine, and a couple of legs. Although a bit gruesome, I can see the beauty in the bones that made the animal, and it provided important sustenance to whomever devoured it (possibly a coyote?).

   Frankly, I'd rather come across a hungry wolf than a nestful of wolf spiders, which were waiting for us as we emerged barefoot from the frigid creek:

Tree #99 reporting for duty... SIR!

A cute lil' snail shell I found near the creek:

   Mini stalactites on the ceiling of the cave (Brandon's photo):

Fungi that reminded me of sea shells:

Lichen that reminded me of coral:

More colorful lichens:

Forest floor collage:

This moss-covered rock looked like a creature to me:

Don't poke the pokeweed

Something strange has been growing in the corner by the fence:

   Someone had told me it was called "pokeweed," and they were right. These persistent weeds have been sprouting up in my backyard every summer, and I keep pulling them out by hand. What I didn't know, until I read it in today's paper, was that the plant is highly poisonous. And not just the berries: the WHOLE plant. Especially the stem & the taproots. You shouldn't handle them without gloves, which I've never used before. And they're not just poisonous to people: they're poisonous to animals too! Despite that, birds eat them—and I found evidence that they were eating mine. Guess what I'm going to be digging up tomorrow morning!

Tulip tree

   A while back I posted a photo of a curious little tree that was sprouting in my front flower bed, waaay too close to the house. I had no idea what it was, but the leaf shape was unique. Maria commented & said it was a tulip tree. After looking at photos of these trees, I had to agree with her that it was worth hanging on to. So after running & washing the car today I finally uprooted it & moved it to a spot in the backyard that can accommodate such a large specimen. It had been growing out from under the retaining wall, so there was no way to dig it out. I moved as much dirt as I could & then had to pull. It came out surprisingly easily, but it did break one of the two largest tap roots. Fingers crossed that it will make it long enough to see those incredible blossoms!

A couple of months ago, this wasn't even up to my knees!!

The leaves are HUGE (also, my hands are small)!

And the new leaves are adorable:

Photo from Flickr site on tulip trees:

Penobscot Mountain

   Penobscot had some fun, narrow "staircases" of granite that snaked around the edge of the mountain & forced some tight squeezes and a little climbing:

The trail had plenty of cairns to keep me on the right track:

Not sure what they call these formations, but they look like giant cat paws to me!

   The view wasn't much on this particular day, but the fog added some mystique. And after a fast, strenuous climb, the misty air at the top was exhilarating!

   Hiking down the trail that lead from Penobscot to Sargent turned out to be a real treat for the senses. As soon as I hit the treeline, magical foliage surrounded me. The colors gleamed and everything dripped with dew from the fog. The Manor House's great breakfast was supplemented with wild blueberries by the handful. The trails were lined with them!