May 1st, 2006

WOW, I am tired from this weekend. We got alot accomplished however.

I woke up to rain this morning. That is OK, it has been dry for a few days and we want the grass to start growing more. Not much higher than where we live there is still FEET of snow on the north side of things.

Friday I was scrambling getting the Winter issue finished. Then I was preparing for a local trade show for Saturday. That was fun. I used to go to the BIG shows for Sportsman and Gardening ones at the Expo in Portland, Oregon for teaching S&R awareness. This small show was nice to get back into it. The magazine was well received. Met a few good contacts and saw the man who gave me the loan for the press, he liked the magazine as well. But he gets a free copy and it will be at the office this week.Saturday after the trade show, I stuffed the vegetables back into my fridge at home (can you BELIEVE I forgot my hand selected carton of eggs and told everyone in my household for the last week, there would be a serious issue if they ate them. Then I forgot them! So I had to BUY brown free range eggs. Then I saw a friend right after the trade show and gave the bought eggs to her.) and then went to my friends son's 1 year old B party. We dined on moose steaks.. yummy.

Sunday I conned the kids and a spare to go out and help me get more slate for the raised rock flower beds. In 2 hours we had 2 pickup beds full of rock. We have truck to truck radios (bush radios) and due to the dust on the bush roads we had to stay about 2-3 miles apart between trucks. I was the second truck and we had to drop back that far so we could breathe in the truck.We were still up in snow line where the rock slide is. The snow was melting, and making lovely ice sculptures and waterfalls. "Kid" was playing more in the water and finding the fossils in the rocks than actually picking up rock. Since he is studying rocks in school, we selected a couple good ones with the fern or moss fossils on them for him to take for extra credit since he had to re-do his science test at home since he got an extremely low mark on it (translation - he did not study one whit on it). But going out and getting rocks piqued his interest I think.

We saw a moose and a yearling black bear. Coming back, the black bear was still there in the same place 2 hours later and we stopped and took pictures of him. The poor little thing was not very happy with a truck stopping, but he never ran off. After a couple minutes I thought maybe he was injured, but then after he started moving, I knew he was just not too concerned about us.

"Kid" took the pictures and they are at all crazy angles *L*. We were only about 14 feet away from the bear, so there was no option other than "Kid" taking the pics.

Sunday - Hit the garden with the big tractor again. We got the raised asparagus bed in. I am waiting a few days to see what grass/weeds will come up before putting 100+ asparagus in it before I farm the rest of the plants out to people who want them. Weeding young asparagus beds from grass is quite horrific in my opinion. I will mulch it heavy with chips or straw when I get the plants in later this week.

The woodstove in now installed in the greenhouse, though it needs pipe yet. Gravel is in the low spots which had to be dug out to get the frame level. I brought alot of the potting stuff down in 2 truckloads from the sheds, there is 2 truckloads more maybe. Monday or Tuesday we will get the rest of the coroplast and side in the greenhouse and it is done. Then I can start getting serious and also move ALL these plants out of my kitchen.

The same friends with the 1 year old son, they came over and brought the leftover veggies and moosesteak and we made a fine stir fry dinner here last night and BBQ's hamburgers. And watermelon. We were FULL.

Evening Updateain, Snow, WIND, Wind, WIND, Rain, Hail/Snow pellets, Sunshine, REALLY WINDY all day long. Mother Nature has no idea what she wants to do today.. either that or show off all what she can do.

I forgot if I told about the greenhouse walls this morning. I thought it would be cheaper to use 6mm UV plastic this year and then put up coroplast next year, which is a solid plastic with air cells between. It was nearly $300 cheaper to get the Coroplast. VERY weird. So we went with the Coroplast. I knew it would be extremely windy up here the day we started to put the sheeting up. It was. Very.

This afternoon I went to a friends house to treat her injured dog and then in a little bit I am going to another friends house to treat her kitty's paw. It looks just to be a couple toenails that got hung up on something.

My friend "A" came over and had sourdough pancakes for breakfast (see the Summer 2005 issue) before she trimmed my ponies front feet as they did not get completely done the last time she was here. She is VERY tall and my pony is rather short.. well, she is a pony after all.

I have her in the front pasture as I am thinking I want to get on a horse again. I have not ridden since my fall in July and I am not 100% if it is a good idea or not, but if I can do it, I want to ride the shortest and most bombproof horse I have.

I brought home a few bales of hay to tide us over until we get 8 rounds bales tomorrow as well as rolled oats and a bag of sweet feed. The horses will start working again soon and will need it. We usually never ride less than 30 miles on a ride.

I saw the hummingbird again today. After he checked out the suet feeder and my license plate of my truck, he remembered where the feeder was from last year. I know it had to be one from last year as this guy was looking for one and it took 4 weeks for them to find it last year after it was hanging up. I feel bad feeding them this early, especially since it is snowing but they were here and want to give them the energy. I know one person who had a hummingbird feeder up and one year with a cold snap she had dead hummingbirds all over her yard one night.

I am pretty tired this evening. I think I will have the leftover moosemeat stir fry from last night, kick back and watch a rare movie.

CLICK HERE to see what "Down to the Roots" is all about