Food and Yard

     With the nice weather holding, it's been a marathon of yard work the last few days. After ignoring them much of last year, I was able to clean up, fertilized, and weed the row of hops. I am hoping for a small crop this year so I can use them in my brewing. Half the bines are shooting up quickly. 

     Saturday was a bit more relaxed, less work, more friends. I started two pork shoulders at 11:30 pm Friday and pulled them out at 5:30 pm Saturday. I also smoked chicken drumsticks, cornbread, and cheese. We certainly don't go hungry on the farm, neither do our guests. My wife took over for me mid day and made the homemade cheddar rolls, sweet potato salad, and cornbread so that I could install the trailer hitch on her suv. 

     We sure made up for our day of rest on Saturday with a very long day of yard work on Sunday. It does not look like much in the picture above, yet I had already removed quite a bit of growth before this was taken. This side of the yard along the property line has been an overly dense, overgrown patch that needed some care. 

     I ended up spending several hours thinning, cutting, pulling, raking, and dragging various bushes, trees, and vines. My hands and arms are showing their wrath today, luckily no rashes or blisters.

     While cutting everything back, I found a lot of nice stones that will work well as a border. Right now we are planning to have the border go from the apple tree to the corner of our property and partially around the pond. Then we'll mulch this area and plant hostas and flower bulbs. 

     After a bit of discussion, we have decided that we will remove the trees growing along the pond to try and make it a bit more inviting (we don't own it, but will certainly take advantage of it as our neighbor allow). We have already ordered one weeping willow to plant on the right hand side of the pond and will get another to plant on the other. In a few years, the trees should frame the view of the pond and beyond nicely.
     Myriah spent the majority of the day tackling the invisible fence for Baxter. She laid out the wire, hooked up the receiver, and was able to get about a quarter of the line buried. It is quite the task to run 700 feet of line around the property, but she's a champ and we can worry less once its up and running. We did test the static shock on ourselves, hopefully Baxter will not have to experience it much, but we know what it will be like if he does.
     As if he could sense the incoming restrictions to his farm freedoms, Baxter spent every minute that we were outside, running, eating, exploring, and "swimming." I don't believe we have ever seen him so tired as he was last night.

That is it for now, until next time.