Almost Complete

 We finally got the wings to the gate that was installed about a month ago. Don and I worked on them for a couple of days. Was a bit of a challenge but we did it. I think it looks great. Now we need to purchase the gate opener for it and have it installed if possible.

 We planted a couple of native ferns on the outside of the gate and it really set it off. We have some plants in the yard that we will be moving also. Inside the gate next to the wings we will be building a triangle shape raised bed and we will be planting a Wigalia on each side next to the wings and in front of those we have some Agapanthas that will go in. They bloom at different times so I think it will look really nice. Will take more pictures as we proceed.

The picture above are some Carnealian Cherry (Dogwoods) that were planted in some tiles that we had put in the yard years ago. We decided to move them into the pasture where the Oak trees were that we had fallen because they were getting bad at the bottom. As you can see by the gate, one fell this last winter and really did some damage. Gonna use the Oak trees for raised beds in a different part of the yard. The goats really like the Dogwood so we had to do something to protect the trunks from their little mouths. That is why the trees look like they have stripes on the trunks.

 This picture is one of the tiles that one of the Dogwood trees was planted in. When we took out the tree we moved the Davidii in. We had this planted in the center garden in the yard. It looks good here and gave me more gardening space. I can always use more garden space. Means more home grown food.

 I did get some of my garden planted today also. This is the corn I had started in the greenhouse. I did that last year and it really extended my growing season for corn. We don't get a lot of hot weather here for as long as the corn needs it to grow and develop. I also planted some sunflowers with the corn and some squash plants along the front edge.

I had to take a picture of the Viburnum Metafile in full bloom. I really like it. It is such a different plant. I am not sure how tall it will get, but if it reaches the deck it won't hurt my feelings. In the back ground you can almost see the Wisteria coming to life. It will be in full bloom soon. Our bees are soooooo happy....

MOWING THE YARD

Today was day three that Janice has been down visiting family in Lodi, and it took three hours to do my morning chores today. Of Course I had to scrub out all of the animals water containers.

 My day to mow the yard, it's a tough life, but having horses helps.

Once they start wondering into other parts of the yard I know they have grazed about all they want and I can give them evening grain and they are done for the night.

Poppin

So we finally got the spring snow that we usually get this time of year. It never seems to fail, even though we didn't have any snow all winter long we get April snows. So I had to take a picture.

As you can see it was only a sciff, but snow none the less. That is OK, we can use it and it only stayed for about an hour. We really needed the snow up on top of the mountain.

The Crocus are blooming really nice now. The yellow crocus bloomed early so I didn't get them in the picture. The two little trees next to the crocus are olive trees and we hope to get them planted soon. Don't know if they will grow here but what the heck, why not try...right?

The Asian pears are really putting on the pears, but we shall see how many of them actually stay. Hopefully the bees did their job and got it pollinated in time before we got the rain.

Don grafted the Spartan tree that was having a hard time producing good fruit. We have a beautiful Honeycrisp tree that has wonderful apples so he decided to make a Honeycrisp tree out of the Spartan tree. Hopefully it will take off and grow.

The branches that he grafted in look like they are trying to grow which is a positive for us and from what I can see it looks like all the branches may take off. Keep your fingers crossed.

The Lithadora is in full bloom now and I just love the way it looks on the block wall down the driveway. The bumble bees really love this stuff and I really like having the bumble bees around. Just more pollinators.

This is a peach tree the started from our compost pile. Don found it growing in the compost and so he re-potted it in a small pot to see if we could get it to grow. It started to grow beautifully and so we planted it in the yard about two years ago, The poor thing had been eaten by deer so much that I was beginning to wonder if it was going to make it. I put a fence around it last year and it took off. If you look really hard you can see the first peach,,,,ever. It is the little bitty white spot in the branch all by it self. I am so excited.

While I was taking pictures the babies came out to enjoy the sun. They are growing up so fast.

I think the little buckling has doubled his size already. He is also very strong.

They can be a handful for the momma's. This is Brownie with the three of them and as you can see they are doing very well.

The horses were enjoying the pasture also. They really like to be out of the paddock. Although I did find Flash leaning on the fence and pressuring it to get to the grass on the other side. You know that the grass is always greener on the other side
....

The bees were also out and about all day. I just love to see them working. I really need to get into the bee yard and do some grass trimming. We did get the Escalonia pruned back away from the hives and got them in the ground to start for other places on the property.

Here you can see that the babies really like the hill side. What fun to run up and down and make momma's worry

The fig trees are loaded with figs. Hopefully they will get enough warm weather to ripen. I like figs.

They are growing up from the bottom so Don wanted to experiment and see if we could get more trees so we notched the bottom of the little trees and put rooting hormone on and then pine shavings that had been soaked in water around the base to protect them. If they root we will have about four more trees.

The one tree in this picture is pretty good size already. Hope it works, I would like to have more fig trees. I have a recipe for fig bars in my recipe folder on this site that I haven't really had a chance to try yet. Maybe this year.

And last but not least the Japanese Wisteria is just loaded with blossoms. I can't wait for it to bloom the flowers are sooooo fragrant.

Well that is it for now. Hope your enjoyed the tour. Hope you all have a great day....

TODAY WAS BABY DAY

Well we thought Ghost was going to kid during the night last night, and this morning when we went to the barn we were surprised with a little Billy that weighed in at 11.5 pounds.

This is Ghost's little boy and he is really a healthy one. 

 Needless to say he was not overly impressed when we took him to be weighed and get his navel disinfected.

 He was good enough that we were able to get a good picture.

 We had gone out this evening to check out the new little billy and low and behold Brownie went into labor.

 The little girl with the white face was the first born, Janice helped pull her a little, and Janice and Brownie cleaned her up pretty fast.

 The second little girl came soon after and Brownie is still cleaning it up and stimulating it to nurse.

 We really could not be more blessed as all the kids are healthy and doing well. Both of the little girls weighed in at 7.5 pounds.

 Ghost has already built a strong bond with her little guy.

 Some of the shots of these little ones get so touching.

Before we left the barn, both of the little girls were up on their feet. We are glad we got the girls from Brownie as her feet are great and Ghost has back feet that are not the best and we are planning on keeping these girls for milkers.