Fresh Dirt.....my blank canvas

It's that time of year again!! My mailbox is stuffed full of the new seed catalogs. Garden tools and gloves find themselves in my shopping cart. I have 13 acres of untouched ground .....my blank canvas..... calling out to me.

I love getting garden and seed catalogs in every year.....but how I love those old vintage catalogs that use to be mailed. This one pictured above is from 1887 and the vibrant colorful cover makes me just want to work outside all day and order everything they have in the catalog!
I worked on several blank canvases today.... my arms are aching from the tiller... but for now, I will start by showing you my enormous flower garden I have tilled and planned on. I have a large area for a vegetable garden as well, but that will be a later post. I love flower beds tucked around every corner of the house, but I have always wanted a "flower garden" . It took me 3 hours to get this tilled up. {:

This past summer I had a lot of Zinnia. They did so well. I harvested a lot of the seed and I will also purchase more when the time comes. I plan to have a large amount of Zinnia in this garden this year.

I have never tried California Poppy, but I love the way they look. This is a new one I will try this year. Such a dainty flower full of petals. Don't you just love old seed packets? These came from around 1920.

Another favorite flower of mine is the Cosmos. These flowers will stay and bloom all the way up to November. I have more flowers planned for this garden and will decide as I go along. I still have much work to do in it before I plant. I am adding compost that I have worked on all year to the grounds and I still need to put a fence around it so that my chickens will not have a flower buffet. I will also till the ground a few more times before I get ready to plant.

My next blank canvas is this wire archway that my husband made when we first moved out here. I have tried grape vines, but they did not do well.

Today I tilled on both outside walls of the archway. I plan to plant the decorative gourds that did so well for me last year on one side. They have enormous leaves and would make a great shade for the inside of the archway.

The ground looks like it needs nourishing. I will work on that before planting seed.

On the other side of the archway, I plan to plant morning glory. It is hardy and it's leaves are also beautiful. Ok, everyone....I am sure some of you are getting those seed catalogs in the mail as well..... what are your plans? Where is your "blank canvas" at? Are you going to try to plant something you never tried before? I would love to hear!

A New Day Dawning

The morning sun streaks across the room

painting a lace curtain onto the wall,

as if to say....imagine...it's another day ! A new day to be creative. New possibilities await you!


It's another chance to plant new ideas...new seeds along the path of this journey you are taking.
Don't sit and let the day's dust settle on you...to find another chance gone...another dream put off for another day.

This day is your blank canvas....

waiting for your palette of color to make it anything you choose!

Kathleen

They Call Me Boo, but I prefer "Queen"

My name is Boo. I have been with Kathleen almost 14 years. My life began with Kathleen when she and her family lived in a noisy neighborhood in town. I was a very small kitten and was dropped on the inside of Kathleen's backyard fence, where she found me scared and crying. She instantly picked me up and brought me inside to meet the family.Kathleen and I formed a bond and I have been "Queen" ever since.

In about a year, I was expecting kittens. I soon turned out to be the family's homeschool project. I was watched and wrote about and had an audience when my four kittens arrived, letting Kathleen's children watch the miracle of birth for their very first time. I once again, was treated like a queen. We lived in town for seven years, then one day, Kathleen boxed me up in a carrier and away we went to this country place we now call home. She opened the carrier door and let me explore the inside of the house and the grounds. She got too busy unpacking and moving and I could not find her. I thought she had abandoned me, so off I went walking down the gravel dirt road, the moon shining bright, meowing and crying as loud as I could. Luckily, Kathleen heard me and called out to me. Oh, was I glad to see her! She didn't abandon me! I ran as fast as I could to her arms. She took me inside and I made my residence under her bed and stayed there until I realized that she too, was staying .

Well, time goes on... and as in a lot of old ladies , so much has happened in my life. The father of my four kittens never came back, so I was a single mother, then I lost three of my children to different deaths....Max is the only one I have left. I have also been mother and teacher to any new kitten that arrives to the farm, plus I have had to put the rules down to all of the dogs about respecting cats. They have learned to listen. I used to roam the woods and explore the days away...until a coyote attacked me. Kathleen found me....the coyote had ripped me open from my neck to down below my stomach. Kathleen rushed me to the vet. Luckily, my stomach lining had not been ripped and I survived. The vet used hundreds of staples to put me back together. Once again I was treated like a queen, except everyone was calling me "Frakenboo" until I healed. So glad that is over. I now spend my days in the safety of the front porch and in the house. Kathleen has noticed that my eyes are starting to get foggy looking and I can tell she knows what will be happening soon. She is treating me like a queen even more. She refers to me as her " little old lady in a fur coat" I know that I am loved, I know that I am special...I know that I am "Queen"!

Chicken wire....A Flower Grower's Best Friend

First of all, I want to tell all of you, thank you for your sweet comments you leave while visiting. I read each and every one and really enjoy your view on things!

Who doesn't love to see chickens walking the grounds and listening to them croon? You see them in every old western movie and in any country painting... chickens..... a homey view.......however......
if you look closely at the ground....especially in the old western's, there is no grass... nothing but dirt. Chickens are the best cultivators ever, not one blade of anything will remain in a garden or flower bed, if your chickens walk the grounds.

Even when the grass and flowers have given way to winter's sleep, they will scratch and clear out anything standing, as you can see from one of my flower beds. I love my chickens and want to see them walking around and not way out in their pen....however, I love to grow flowers. And the selfish side of me, just can't see why I can't have both.

So now.. I am happy.....my chickens are happy... and hopefully my flowers will be able to be happy in the spring. I spent the day pounding stakes around my flower beds and stretching chicken wire around the stakes to block my flower beds off from my feathered friends. The wire is 2 foot tall, my chickens wings are clipped, so they are not able to fly over the wire.

I tried to stretch the wire tight enough so that it wouldn't look saggy and too bad.

I plan to plant morning glory around the fence line so that maybe it will grow and look a little prettier. However, I know the chickens will probably eat the morning glory. But I have faith that they won't be able to get inside of the fence and eat my other flowers. Do any of you have any problems with your fluffy feathery friends doing the same thing? Do you have a better suggestion? I still have a few flower beds to work on. I would love to hear. Have a blessed weekend!

Where peace really is

The day was windy and cold,.....I also had much work to do...no time for a daily walk. By late afternoon, the wind calmed down and the setting sun painted the sky in hues of pink, blue and gold. Still enough light to go for a walk. Not one human voice, not one running motor......just the sound of quietness and calm.
In a matter of minutes, the sky changed to colors of tangerine and purple. The moon, not quite full, was bright and the coyotes started their serenade. All farm life is tucked away in hay...safe for the night. In moments like this, I realize how blessed I am to live in such "peace". I can feel it settle over me like the warmth of a blanket. If I live to be a hundred and if I am able to still recall the moments of my life....it will be times like these that will bring a smile to my face.

Farm life...the ups and downs of it all

Sophie helped me take all of the Christmas decorations down....

who can find a more good natured and patient creature?
Remember my earlier posts about "experimenting" in my green house? I had planned on planting all kinds of seeds and seedlings. We have only had a few severe cold days and the past few days have been very warm. As you can see, some plants have done very well......

Where others have struggled. The alo vera I had shown you with the bloom, never got to bloom. The cold nights made the bloom fall. That plant as well as some others are still doing good, but as you can see from some of the tips, the cold nights are tough on them.

Very tough. One problem with this type of green house...although put together well, it still has crevices and gaps along the plastic where the wind and cold still get in. I have sealed as much as I can, yet it can only do some good. I could put a heater in, however, the heating bill will zoom up and I have not checked out the proper kind of heater yet. One day I will look back at all of my failures with this and think nothing of it.......for now, it is very discouraging.

But on a more positive note.... my hens have started up their laying again. There is nothing more pretty to me than a hay filled nest with brown and green eggs lying in wait.

I took this shot of the Italian Jasmine budding and almost ready to bloom.

The very next day, it bloomed it's pretty vibrant yellow flower. In just a week or more, the whole bush will be covered in these little blossoms. I love this jasmine bush. Even though we have not had a drop of rain and the cold is zapping my greenhouse flowers.... it sits out in the grounds showing forth it's beauty. A promise even in harsh times... a glimpse of hope and cheer! Hope all of you have a good week and can find glimpses of hope and cheer along the way!

It all began with Ginny, and a box of left over field cotton

Several posts back,.. I took all of you on a visual walk with Sophie and I. I showed you the grounds, the farm animals that live here and the soft, fluffy cotton left on the roadside by the cotton haulers during harvest.

Ginny, at Gingerbreads Househttp://gingerbreadshouse.blogspot.com/ left a comment saying that she would gather all of that cotton up and spin something out of it. If you haven't met Ginny, hop on over to say hi. I promise you... you will think she walked right out of the pages of a history book!
Because of her comment, Sophie and I went out to the cotton field where there was still so much cotton left behind on stalks. I pulled a little, went home and spun a little with my fingers as you see here.
I emailed Ginny these pictures and asked her advice on my "spinning " technique. This email led to many late night "email talks" about farm life, the art of spinning and family. It seems Ginny and I are kindred spirits. {: I mailed Ginny a box of Texas cotton and she worked her fingers to the bone just to clean the seeds and hulls from it. She also told me in her emails about dying wool using walnut shells and prickly pear cactus.

Imagine my surprise when I went to the post office and found a box from Ginny waiting for me. Inside was this beautiful mohair wool dyed by Ginny......

as well as this hand spinning tool with the beautiful spun yarn on it!!! My heart just stopped right there. What a generous heart Ginny has to send me this treasure. Now I will need every one's advice on hand spinning.... I will be visiting your blogs as well as those of you who offer wool from your sheep to spin! This tool has opened a whole new world of hand work for me. I won't give up my embroidery work.... that is my passion.... but I have a lot of acres for raising sheep.... and now a good reason to indulge in such a dream... well, for now that is what it will remain. {: So for all of you.... any advice and resources would be a wonderful help.. I can't wait to hear from you. Please stop by and say hi to Ginny... she would love to hear from you as well.