Outdoor Escapades

With all this nice weather, I have been getting psyched up for gardening once again and simply being outside. Today was spent working outside on these various projects:

-Planting the potatoes in our vegetable garden. My dad said that "We should do it now so it can snow." Last year I took over the veggies, and up until a hail storm in early August I had a successful crop of zucchini, yellow squash, roma and grape tomatoes, ground cherries (an experiment that ended up being extremely delicious), bell peppers, hot peppers, red and Yukon Gold potatoes, and green beans. Hopefully this year's crop will not be inhibited by weather.

-Removing a dead cedar tree from the stand south of our house. It's always fun to take part in my dad's schemes. After the tree was downed, it was still propped up by some remaining branches. I was going around picking up the branches that my dad cut off, so I didn't see him begin to chainsaw the supporting branches. A "watch out" was the only warning I got before the jutting branches closed around me. Fortunately, I escaped with only minor scratches. Now I can tell people that a tree fell on me.

-Planning some landscaping for the back yard with my mom.  She wanted a potting/garden storage shed for Mother's Day last year, and we finally got the project done.  Two weekends ago my dad, grandpa, and I moved an old well house to our house, and last weekend my dad and I bricked in the floor. Today we started to reconfigure our garden layout, and brainstorm plant positioning. My mom finished up adding some decorative touches to her "new" playhouse." I say "new" because this particular well house was used as a playhouse for my mom and aunt when they were little girls.

-Working with my 4-H steers. I have two Hereford steers, Ralphie and Clyde, for the 4-H beef program. They needed walking again to keep them halter broke. At first they were reluctant to go anywhere, but when we got them outside of their usual pen they acted like the giant puppies they really are. After a quick jaunt around the yard they were ready to eat and get a good back scratching.

It was nice to have a day when I didn't have to leave home. It's not often that happens, and taking advantage of a break was refreshing.