Well the bad news is there will be no peaches this year either. What the late freeze didn't get, the fruit moths claimed. This is after spraying. I'm going to research this more and see if there are alternative products for pest control. It's so frustrating to have two gorgeous trees and no fruit. The good news is I planted asparagus for the first time this year. I have four plants showing now. No harvest this year. You harvest in fall and for us that will mean next fall, as in fall of 2016. DH is a big fan of asparagus, but it is too costly to buy on a regular basis. I'm so glad to be able to have this for him.
Everything planted so far seems to be coming up. What I have coming up gangbusters is tomatoes. Volunteers from last year. Lots....uh hundreds......Looks like grass from far away. Yes those are my volunteers.
I moved 40 volunteer plants into a permanent home. I took all 40 from about an 4x8 bed covered in them. I also potted 24 for some co-workers, and another 13 into seed pots for later planting, There are still all the rest of the volunteer tomatoes from the two 4x8 beds. I'm gonna hate to do it, but unless I can find other homes for them, they will need to be treated as weeds and dug up. I hate to do it. Breaks my heart, but I am out of options. Takers? Hmm? Right now in my garden 129 tomato plants have a permanent home. I have at least twice that in volunteers left to deal with.
I'm getting snow peas. In fact we had a salad last night containing said snow peas with dinner. Just a few, but they are good. Then of course lettuce and Spinach are still coming along.
My bell peppers seem to be struggling and I can't figure out why. The soil seems loose and they are watered. Not all seem to struggle, but at least half are. Not sure what I will do about that. I still have peppers frozen from last year to use in recipes, but I really wanted some fresh for salsa and salads.
Herbs are thriving. So far I have harvested Oregano, Lemon Balm, and Mint. The Parsley, Sage, and Basil that I started form seeds seem happy; some in pots on the back deck, and some in the garden. The Sage and Parsley are in the garden. Yes that huge bush in the back of the bed is Mint! The oregano is closer to the front of the picture. It is hard to see the sage because it is only a few inches high.
On the room front, this past weekend I noticed the temp in our "gym" (really is a living room, but we use it as a gym) was 6 degrees cooler then the "man cave" aka Den. So this past Saturday we had a major room arrangement. We flipped the rooms. The logic being the gym is used primarily in the morning when it is cooler and the Man cave is used more after work. So this works out perfectly. It was a long hard day of rearranging furniture and cleaning as we went, but by the end of the day it was all done. It has been about a week since the move and we have discovered something. We love it! We are pretty sure the room arrangements are permanent. We are in the market for 2 recliners for the new gym/ man cave so that during football season DH can watch his games in the "man cave". When I say we are in the market, I mean the thrift store, yard sale market. Anyway, since the move it really is his man cave because he uses the gym more than I do. I prefer to walk outside when I have a chance. The new living room area is kind of my room now. It is a perfect fit. So excited about the change. And to make things even better, today Dh is putting up ceiling fans in the living room and the master bedroom. I have wanted ceiling fans for years. From the move to the fans, there is a method to the madness. You see all of this will allow us to cut back on power use. The thermostat for our heat pump is in the laundry room which is adjacent to the gym / man cave. When the thermostat says it is 78 degrees, the side of the house with the living room is 72 degrees. Since the move, we will be able to keep the thermostat set way higher and still be comfortable in the rest of the house. Toss in some ceiling fans and we are good to go. Here is a pic of the Gym / Man Cave. The living room is coming later
On the truck front; we have the truck in the shop being repaired. WE SHOULD HAVE IT BACK BY WED!!!!!!! HAZAA! And it was about $900 cheaper than we estimated! Since the repair was less, we have instructed the mechanic to go over the truck once it is running and let us know what needs fixing. We budgeted a certain amount for the truck and so we want to make sure it is a good running truck. Had this mechanic not come highly recommended, I probably would be Leary to do this, but he has been highly recommended by someone we trust. We won't go over our budgeted amount though. Ahhh it will be so nice to have the second vehicle again.
So it took me 2 weeks to update you on things from the homestead. What can I say but I will try to do better next time. But at least there are pics! Have a great day!
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