This month's calendar Archives
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Another busy week has passed with plant workshops, extension office help, meetings and trying to get a few things done around the place between sun breaks.
We had such a great weekend with the nice weather and all. We loaded up the Kubota on the trailer which wasn't an easy task. First thing Dave did was break his ramp that he uses to load the tractor onto the trailer and so he spent most of Friday afternoon building a new ramp. Then on Saturday, after Dave got the tractor loaded, he hauled it up to the upper lot so he could put air into the low tire on the trailer. He hadn't quite made it to the upper lot when the tire went completely flat and peeled itself off the rim! Then the tongue jack on the trailer broke when he started to change the tire! He spent the next couple of hours jacking up the trailer with portable jacks and getting the spare (which - of course - was also flat) mounted. By the time we were ready to go, we were both tired but three hours later we made it to Silverton with the tractor in tow. We had just pulled into Leslie and Jason's driveway and along came our oldest daughter, Lara and her three girls. After Leslie got home, the gals (Leslie, Lara and I) took off to our favorite place, Bauman Farms Nursery to see what we could buy. We left all the granddaughters home with Granddad and Jason.
Jason had fun trying out the tractor and I am sure he is going to put it to good use. Leslie wants to build a raised vegetable garden this year to try to keep the chickens out of it. Good luck with that! She will probably end up fencing the garden in with chicken wire to keep them out. Anyway they borrowed the tractor to use for that project.
After dinner, Saturday night, Jason and Leslie wanted to show us the new brew pub in town. Since the two oldest granddaughters are old enough to stay by themselves, the four of us jumped in the car and headed for Seven Brides Brewing in Silverton. They had a "sampler" item on the menu where you could order samples of some of the beer that they brew. The photo makes the glasses look a lot bigger than they are - there really wasn't that much in them! I am not a beer drinker, so a small sip was all that I cared about. Some of the samples were pretty good and some were a little strong for my taste. Anyway, it was a fun night out with the kids and we made an early night of it with the grandgirls home by themselves.
Since our granddaughter Paige had an early soccer game on Sunday, we left for home after breakfast. It was a beautiful day (it was over 70 both days over the weekend) and by the time we got back home there was still plenty of time to get a few things done so I washed my dirty outside windows. It always makes it seem brighter after the windows get washed. I also pulled a few weeds and planted some of my flowers in the yard that I had gotten earlier.
The rest of the week I have been very busy (as usual). I had to help at the OSU Extension Office as a Master Gardener showing a couple of new class members the procedures while working in the office. We had several projects to solve and a couple of walk-ins to keep us occupied. I had also brought in a sample of an infestation of insects that were invading one of the fir trees at Waterfront Park in Wheeler. The rumor around town was that it was Gypsy Moths and several people were worried but after investigating the insects, the nest turned out to be from a Silver Spotted Tiger Moth and not as harmful. So that was a relief to everyone.
We had our monthly Garden Club meeting on Tuesday and a couple members gave a presentation on Garden Art. It was very interesting and I only wish I had enough of an imagination to look at a piece of "junk" and make some art out of it. We were supposed to have our weekly work party in the park on Wednesday, but because it was raining too hard we canceled that. But the sun managed to come out on Thursday so I spent some time working with garden club members transplanting plants in preparation for our sale in May.
The wildlife is thriving around here. The Goldfinches have returned in abundance and I even spotted an Evening Grosbeak at the feeder. I did manage to find a dead chipmunk floating in my rain barrel though. It probably fell in and couldn't get out. I made Dave fish it out and then put a board inside the barrel so if it happens again, the poor thing can at least have a place to crawl out without drowning.
