Red eye

We are off, tomorrow morning, for a week in MO. The lists have been made and the bags packed. The weather report is calling for hot, humid temperatures but we are used to that. These two beauties await me at III. These cedar logs are project material!

They are a little rough, in the photo, but I have been working them. They are ready! and so am I . . .

Garden Invasion

Last trip down, I lovingly planted five cherry tomato plants. I chopped through 50 years of pasture grass and dug out Prairie Roses with 2' long roots. I pulled grass and dug in a large bag of potting soil, then embedded the tomato plants. I watered them profusely hoping they would make it two weeks until I could get back and tend them. While I was gone, while my back was turned, something stepped over my garden fence and feasted on all but two of my tomato plants! And next to them, wildflowers had been cut off a foot from the ground as neatly as though I had taken my garden pruners to them.

It must have been a deer but I couldn't find any tracks. I can't think what else would have munched them all down and left 12" of the wildflowers and why didn't they take the last two tomatos?

I will save those tomatos! I pounded in stakes and wrapped chicken wire around the surviving two plants. If something gets in this time, it won't get out -- but I don't know what I'll do if I go back and find I have trapped a deer! Or what I will do if the last two tomatoes are gone.

Summer at III

Among the bumble-bees in red-top hay, a freckled field of brown-eyed Susans dripping yellow leaves in July,
I read your heart in a book.

From "Adelaide Crapsey" by Carl Sandburg

It is summer at III. The bashful Brown-Eyed Susan is in bloom as well as the Prairie Roses. We spent only part of a day here this past weekend as we were at Too, doing overdue repairs and maintenance. I enjoyed the day at Too but as I cut back grapevine or sprayed poison ivy, my thoughts wandered over here and I wondered how the tomatos were doing, what flowers were in bloom and how is that next project going to turn out.

We soon will have a whole week at III. I'll have my fill, no doubt, of prairie flowers and pioneer ways but for now, my thoughts are of summer days at III.

A VISITOR TO III June 9,10,11 2006

We were welcomed by the news that my brother, RWH, was finally coming down for a weekend visit at II, and also a visit to III. Now, he finally knows what we have been writing about. RW and a friend came to II on Friday, and stayed until sometime Sunday, while herself and I stayed at III. Saturday afternoon, RWH and his friend came to visit us at III. They immediately hit the pond with their fishing equipment, hoping to have the same luck as previous fishermen have had catching the big "cats".
HOWEVER, the only fish that seemed to be biting were small ones, and I mean very small. But, RWH seemed to be having some uncanny ability to catch stick fish, or, maybe they were "fish sticks". And, I might add, was very consistant at it. Cast after cast would bring in sticks and more sticks. As the picture indicates, he finally pulled in the "big" one. I never did see him catch anything that was alive. Anyway, it was fun having visitors and hope they will come down again sometime. I do want RWH to know that one of my first thoughts when we were first looking at this property was all the times we roamed the timber around Prescott, shooting at squirrels and anything else that moved.
We didn't do to much this weekend. I mowed as usual, herself started her new project of planning a cedar post bed. I worked on removing more stumps with the chain saw. I think I am finally down to maybe 25 more that I have to remove before I can mow and not have to worry about hitting one, as I did this weekend. I bent the deck enough so that it stopped the blade from turning, but managed to get it repaired, changed the blades, did a little maintenance, and basically took it easy for a change.
We went back to II on Sunday afternoon to mow there as we knew it would be another 2 weeks before coming back, and with the 1 and 1/2 inches of rain we got Sat. nite, it would have been a jungle. Anyway, I got half way down with the push mowing, and the engine quit. So, have to install a coil the next time down. The mower is 27 years old, but keeps on a runnin. Just needs a little coaxin sometimes.
All for this time

Ronnie's Catch

III's Garden

Crazy Quilt

Crazy Quilt

The garden at III started as a symbolic gesture when we first began our sojourns to this pretty part of the world.  It was late winter or very early spring and too cold to really plant anything but I carted down a bunch of winter onions and a clump of chives and stuck them in the ground just so I could say we had a garden.  Soon after, in imitation of the pioneers during the great westward expansion, I put in a fence to signify that this is my place, my homestead.

The fence is short and virtually useless but I dig in there and compost and am conditioning that area for a real garden someday and the fence bookmarks the garden spot.

Today, early June, the garden is colorful with a few yellow blossoms of the Brown Eyed Susan and some pearly white Queen Anne’s lace.  The last of theWild 4 O’Clocks are fading and I am letting various other wild things grow – at least until they bloom.  Depending on what gifts they present me, these wild young things might be removed or decapitated.  Some transplanted Bachelor Buttons, brought from home, were added to the fabric today.  I am hoping that the “Buttons” will blossom and set seed to return each spring on their own.    

III’s garden is a mish mash of colors and textures right now – a Patchwork Quilt.  In order to keep down the grass and unwanted wild flowers, I have placed small pieces of carpet in the garden.  This might be an unorthodox method of weed control but it works and I like the look of my Crazy Quilt garden.

The Rifleman lives!