Long Overdue

I reread this blog the other day and discovered that the last post was in February of 2012.  This filled me with the same anxiety as finding a library book hidden on a bookshelf for who knows how long.  Sorry to keep you waiting!  We have really been kicking into high gear with the house lately and have made huge improvements.  Mike is out there almost every day with his dad and Berry and it looks great.

The South side of the house.  The part without new plywood is going to be torn down (hopefully soon!).

North side of the house with flowers!

 While Mike's been hard at work inside, I've been ripping up the grass in the front of the house and planting flowers.  I think the best surprise has been how well the poppies have been growing along with the Northwest wildflowers.  I can't wait until there's nothing left I have to mow!

I took a gardening gamble and planted corn in the front!  The deer haven't shown too much interest (knock on wood) and it has surpassed "knee high by the fourth of July".  Hopefully we'll be able to enjoy some end of the summer sweet corn.

Monster Squash

We also have some gigantic summer squash taking over their raised bed.  Today I saw a few blossoms out there (finally) and I'm pretty excited.  Sadly the two melon plants(!) sharing the bed don't look quite as happy.  That might have been a bit over-ambitious.

The tomatoes are doing well too.  True to form I forgot to start them inside until the end of February which was perhaps a bit late.  Mine looked too sickly so I ended up just buying some starts from Seattle Tilth.  They're pretty happy and we already have some ripening tomatoes and lots of flowers!  I think the crazy red mulch might actually be working it's magic.  Hopefully we'll have some ripe tomatoes well before September.

Bees

We have also got some (many, many) new residents at Ruston.  Kiki brought us over a couple of bee hive starts.  The one on the left is a traditional Langstroth hive and the one on the right is our attempt at building a Top Bar hive! They both seem to be doing pretty well despite some amateur fumbling from the two of us.  We are both anxiously anticipating some delicious honey.


Unfortunately I only had my sad phone camera today and it was completely incapable of taking interior shots.  Soon!


Ann