Posted By FarmerJ on May 21, 2011

I thought I would take some time this morning to share with you a little bit of what’s been happening around the Farmstead over the past couple of weeks.  After our bout of record-breaking hot weather, things cooled back off and the rains came.  A little bit of warm weather, water and sunshine is all it takes for things to spring to life here on the prairie.

We have some really pretty purple wildflowers growing along the slough bank this year; probably from seeds that washed in last summer’s waters.  I’m not sure what kind of wildflower it is ~ I must have missed that episode of ‘Weed of the Week’ on Ag-PhD ~ but, if all weeds were this pretty, I’d sure be less likely to want them dead!

I’m not sure what type of tree this is, but it is a strange one!  It puts on the prettiest white flowers with faint tinges of pink at the first sign of spring.  There is not one single leaf on the tree when it flowers.  The flowers all get blown off in the strong southern spring winds, and then the tree is bare again.  Many of the blossoms have already blown off in this photo.  Finally, in what seems like overnight, the tree becomes full of the greenest of leaves.

The strawberry patch in the square foot garden is quite happy.  Actually, it’s too happy.  I’ve got to cut back quite a few runners.  Again.

I do believe this is the making of some berries!  Darling Husbie’s mentioned something about a pie a time or two already.

This is one little patch of potatoes.  I’ve already forgotten which variety I planted in what patch, but I think these are the Red Pontiacs…or they may be the Kennebecs.  At any rate, we only have ten plants of this variety this year.  Darling Husbie is still grieving over not having his two 150-foot rows of potatoes like we had last year.

This is our other little patch of potatoes.  I think these are the Kennebecs…or they may be the Red Pontiacs.  Regardless, we only have seven plants of this variety this year.  I’d planted eight, but one of the seed potatoes rotted.  Whichever variety this is, it is quite a bit more productive than the other.  These plants need mulched already, whereas the other variety has just recently poked their heads out of the ground.

Here’s a shot of the onions ~ remember the onions Darling Husbie found in the mess of grass and weeds left over from last year…the ones I’d completely forgotten about?  Despite some of them looking like they had a bad hair day, they are doing quite well.  They got a little beat up by the ping pong size hail we got pelted with a week ago Thursday.  I see that a critter has been burrowing in the box.  He better hope the vicious Toy Fox Terrorist doesn’t spy him!

Here we have the ferocious jungle kitty protecting the seedlings we’re starting indoors.  You’d have to be crazy to try to reach down for those plants, yes?

Actually, she was just yawning in the photo above.  The crazy Mon-kay thinks she needs to curl up in every box or basket that remains stationary for longer than a minute.

Here’s some more proof of that.  She really likes this basket, because it sits on top of the hutch portion of my desk, and it allows her to look down upon the lesser breed…the canines.

You may recall me mentioning Husbie plowing the alfalfa field in recent previous posts.  The field corn was planted on 02 May.

I couldn’t cross the slough to the field because it’s full of water, but you can still see the little corn babies poking their heads up all in a row…after row…after row.  This was taken yesterday evening.  Grow corn babies, grow!

The girls and I really enjoyed wandering around the yard taking these photos.  It was truly a lovely evening.

But, we had to go in.  The rain was coming.  Again.

We hope you and yours are able to take time to enjoy some of the simple things.  Oftentimes, it is there you can find the most beauty and the richest blessings.  ♥

We are once again linking up to Farm Friend Friday and Farmgirl Friday.  Yes, I know.  I’m a day late.  Again.  And, still a dollar short, too.  But, do hurry over there to find out what’s been happening at some other fabulous farmsteads!

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