butterflies

I have been stuck on butterflies the last few days. Well, not really stuck on them but they have been my eye candy and models for photos. While gardening today this one was hanging around filling up on echinacea so I took a short video.

around the homestead-midweek mumblings

I need a double of me or just another six hours to every day so that I can get everything I need to get done accomplished. Unfortunately, when things get too busy, the first thing I neglect besides dishes and house work is the blog.

Since we seem to be headed in the direction of a drought again this season, last weekend was spent hauling water and giving all of the gardens a little drink. This in no way is enough water for them to grow properly but it keeps most things from shriveling up and dying on us while we hope and pray each day that Mother will offer up some honest to goodness rain.Thus far it has not worked although we did get two tiny showers at the beginning of the week that amounted to less than a tenth of an inch. If we do not get any rain today or tomorrow, we will be doing a repeat of last week and hauling water again. I must say that too dry is still easier to deal with than too wet.
Since we had to spend most of the weekend watering we had to push aside the goat shed completion although we did spend a few hours on it the other day and got some of the cob done(first coat) on the outside of it. The roof is also completed now, we just need the rain to work on the hay and get it to growing.
The gardens, all things considered, are doing fairly well. Bug issues are going to be a major issue this season unfortunately. It sucks but it is what it is and something is always lost in the never ending battles. The cabbage got ransacked by crazy worms and though I tried to salvage them, they were just too buggered up to save. The critters did enjoy them however so they weren't a complete waste. Potato beetles have been a major issue as well but have been able to keep them in check for the most part and only lost a few plants to them. Turnips, peas and most of the other cool weather crops have been harvested out so I have found myself with several open areas that can be planted again. I was going to replant them all yesterday but nothing is going to germinate and grow unless we get some rain. It is much like playing in a sandbox out there right now so until I see a good chance of rain they will remain fallow for a spell. Summer squash, zucchini, carrots, onions, cucumbers and tomatoes are all coming in nicely and we have begun harvesting the first few of them all. I dug a few potatoes yesterday too. The crows stole all my corn seed from amongst the tobacco plants, I will not be replanting them down there but will try another round up closer so that I can keep track of the devils a bit better and shoo them off. None of the peanuts I planted came up either so I have those two beds to plant with something different.
Hopefully in the next week our summer helper will finally be arriving so that will give me a bit more time to do some posts and catch up on blogworld things. Then again, maybe not! Another semester of school is finishing up and I have a couple rather large projects to work on which will be hogging up much of my "spare" time.

silent sunday