Far Better Farmstead

It finally dried out enough by Saturday to plant some things in the garden. Now, believe it or not, there is a frost watch. Our frost free date is normally the middle of April. But then again it has been very cool this spring. We borrowed some buckets from my dad to cover the tomatoes and peppers with. We also moved the laying hens over next to the potato patch because we are going to plant corn where they were. This patch is mowed, so the hens don't like it as well. In this dry spell, I also got the potatoes heeled up. The frost should hurt them too badly. Mother's day was spent at church and with our mothers. All-in-all a very good weekend.

It has rained here - a lot. I mean more than I can describe. The exact area we live gets about 65 inches per year but in the last 2 weeks we have received over 14 inches of rain. That doesn't even sound right. Even 10 miles away, they didn't get half of that. People look at us funny when we tell it. Needless to say, the garden is on hold, I am glad to still have a semblance of a driveway, and I feel something like a fish. We did manage to get our potatoes planted on the Friday before Resurrection Day (I know some of you call it "Good Friday", but I'm not crazy about that term). Anyway, the rain washed through them and uncovered a bunch, but we covered them back up. They are up fine now. We also planted 275 strawberry plants and 25 raspberry canes. We fenced the berry patch to keep out critters. As far as anything else, we haven't planted it yet (not even cabbage, broccoli, or peas). Oh well, every year is different - maybe I can grow them as fall crops. ...