This weekend was warm and summer like with blue Sky, yellow Sun, and warm air all around. We were able to work outside, shirtless and sleep naked next to each other. It was so nice. Wolf finished building the fence around the garden bed.

It has five foot stakes with three foot chicken wire around it. We had to add peat to the soil and what little manure (horse and chicken) we had. The soil became so packed from the rain that no air could cirulate through, which is why the sprouts didn’t make it. We had gone over to Danbury to get more manure and Old Bessie (our pick up truck) died in the persyns driveway so we had to abandon her to a tow truck. Hopefully it won’t be expensive to fix. On the way back we saw a baby moose on the side of Rt. 104. No mama but that it may be we just couldn’t see her in the thick trees around Smith River. We got back to Howling Hill and Wolf finished up the fence as I planted everything.

“Everything” includes

Tomatoes (a bunch of different varieties)
Marigolds around the tomatoes to distract bugs
Peppers (cayene, orange bell, and ancho pop)
Itty bitty pumpkins
Eggplant
Cucumbers (two varities)
Potatoes
Sunflowers
Carrots

As I was coming to the end of the bed with no room left for all seedlings, I said to Wolf “We need another garden bed” which he gracefully built and extended the fence around.

The second bed is five feet by eight feet. It has planted in it

Tomatoes
Marigolds
Sage
Basil
Curley parsley
Chamomile
Coriander
Rosemary
Mellon
Beans (bush)
Thyme
Spinach
Catnip
Oregano

and I still didn’t have enough room to plant the dill and the rest of the sunflowers. Most of the seeds I sprouted didn’t make it through the torrential rains we had a few weeks ago, nor through feline attention, so I had to buy the marigolds, chamomile, melon, beans, cucumbers (well, some of them) eggplant, some of the peppers, and pumpkins (which I grabbed accidentally. They were sitting next to the acorn squash which is what I wanted). Steph was nice enough to give me the tomatoes, some of the peppers and cucumbers. I’ll have an updated picture later. I need to wait until Sun is right.

The weather outside has caught up with the Gregorian Calendar. Sun is bright in Sky, fluffy clouds, warm temps.

Wild strawberries, which dot the front yard, are in fully flowered, promising lots of small sweet fruits. I expect to be feasting on them around June 10th when Mistress is in her full glory and giving birth to the red sweets.

This weekend we’ll be putting the plants Stephanie gave us into the ground. Our plants didn’t survive kittens pooping in the buckets and the torrential rains we had for almost two weeks. Wolf will be working on the fence around the garden bed this weekend to keep other critters out of our food supplies.

Sun came out for a while this morning. A beautiful blue sky greeted me when I awoke. Alas, the clouds are moving back in and I fear more rain will come.

We had record rain in the last month. We got more in the last week than in the last two months. So much rain fell from the sky a new record was set. Most of the rivers crested, towns were shut down, and so were roads. It was ark building weather.

I fear the seeds did not last. I’m not sure we’re going to have any crop come summer. I still have seed packages so I will plant those in the ground, but the soil doesn’t appear to want to play host. I did plant some sprouted seeds in cell packs and used the soil from Boscawen, the same soil in the garden beds, but none seem to be coming through the dirt. Well, the catnip appears to be. No peppers, no tomatoes, no cayennes.

I’m a terrible farmerette.

Everything has greened up quite nicely due to the five days of rain we’ve had, however, now there is flooding because of the sudden increase of water. Some towns have been closed completely, some have had mandatory evacuations, and roads all over the state have been closed. We got the average monthly rainfall in one day.

These two pictures were taken last week. I forgot to put them up as I was readying for my graduation. By now, the azeleas and tulips have all opened.

Tulip

Azelea The azeleas are being taken out later this week and brought down to a friend’s house. I’m not one for manicuring plants and I find that’s what you have to do with these. Because I haven’t trimmed them, they’re taking over the front of the house so they’re being moved to Massachusetts. I will fill in the front of the house with more tulips, daffadols, crocuses, and other small pernineal flowers.

Yesterday’s rain turned out to be a mere sprinkle. Today is beautiful and sunny, dry and arid. I wonder if we’re moving from a green enviroment to a red one. If the weather the last few weeks is any indication of the summer to come, it’s going to hot and dry.

Wolf went outside to work on the garden bed but the blackflies are so horrid he came in after about five minutes. Needless to say, the bed isn’t going to get fixed anytime soon. That’s ok, it’ll work for what we need it and we can fix it, or build another, toward the end of the growing season.

I’m still wicked sick with allergies. For no other reason than to make my allegeries go away, we need rain. A good week of steady misty rain.

It’s supposed to rain today, which is a good thing. We’ve had the driest spring I can ever remember. And it’s already gotten hot out.

The clouds are coming in, thick and white/grey. Hopefully it’ll wash away whatever has put my allergies into high gear…I’m pretty miserable.

The azaleas are getting ready to bloom. The bright pink is a welcome color against the brown and green of New England, however, I’m going to be digging all four of them up next weekend. Three are going to Michelle’s and one we’re planting in a different part of the yard so we can put in a new window in our bedroom.

It’s blackfly season. Wolf won’t have to eat dinner tonight, he’ll have injested enough of them to fill his belly and get his needed daily protein intake. He’s outside shoveling the manure out of Old Bessie (our pickup truck) and putting a pile next to the garden bed. He’s going to dig out some of the soil in the bed and put it in the front of the trailer so I can transplant the Four o’clocks, Chinese , and the Eastern Columbine into some good soil. Hopefully he’ll get it done before the rain, but I’m not sure if he will. No biggie if he doesn’t.

It’s been warm enough at night so we can leave the plants outside to get needed moonlight and extended daylight. The sunflowers are doing well, but the peppers, tomatoes, and other veggies haven’t come up through the soil in the cellpacks. I’m getting kinda nervous…

Pictures another day.