Old Lang Syne

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

There was much about 2011 that was awful.  My Mom and Dad's death.  The death of three Aunties, one Uncle, a Neighbor, a Co-worker.  But Death is always there.

There was much about 2011 that was great - my family's trip to Japan, my garden, my work, my chickens and my Brother, Scott, and his wife, Shannon and my lovely extended family.

Here is to a great 2012!  Christ's Blessings to  each of us!

Church Singings in the South

One of my earliest memories is attending the "singings" on Friday or Saturday nights at my Granny Brown's church.  We had to bathe in the kitchen with a pan of water filled by using the water hand pump.  Granny didn't have an inside bathroom yet or running water.  My unmarried Aunties would be giggly about who might be there at the church that night.  Granny would shush all of us and get us moving in one direction out the door.  We would pile into whatever car or truck worked at the moment and drive the short distance to their church.  If the electricity died, as it sometimes did back in those days, someone would pull their old truck around to the front doors and shine the truck lights into the sanctuary so the show could go on.  There was always a "love" offering.  I could never figure out exactly what that was.  Refreshing water was at the back of the church and we all sipped from a communal dipper.  Here is one old time song  that I've enjoyed recently that brought this memory out to share with you:  The Cox Family - I am Weary, Let Me Rest .

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

In the light of Christ, I wish you everything good to eat and wonderful family news in the coming year!  May your gardens grow tall and give you much produce to enjoy, may you learn more about self-sufficiency and making do or reusing.  May you have less trash going to the land fills and give more money and goods to those who don't have.  Many blessings to each of you this holiday.  Peace in Christ!

North Alabama Farm Girl has made her cranberry relish and is looking forward to sweet potato casserole, fresh green beans, a turkey tenderloin and rice for her Christmas Eve dinner.

Longest Night of the Year Celebration

Last night was the longest night of the year.  This means that the nights will gradually get shorter and the days longer until we in Alabama experience our first spring like days in late February.  Yep, I know it sucks for you Northern folks in February still but our winter is a micro winter and thankfully short and sweet.  Yesterday it was hovering around 60 degrees and I was able to finally get the bonfire (a.k.a. yard trash) ignited and we roasted hotdogs over the hot coals and made s'mores with our flaming marshmallows!  Very nice night indeed.

It was made even better by having the day off even though I ran around like crazy trying to do all my piled up errands at once.  I did finally get my grow light so my bonsai (present from Mike) gets sufficient daily light.  A plus is that my Meyer lemon will also get to use the light and I should have some fruit this year.

My collard greens are chomped to the root by the deer.  With the warm balmy days though they may continue to grow and if I can keep the deer away, I'll have some more greens to enjoy through winter.

I stood outside tending to the bonfire when my neighbor, Don Browning, and his great grandson, Jack, stopped by for a chat.  Don loves bringing his greats over to see the chickens.  They are still talking about the fresh eggs I gave the little girl great last year.  I promised Jack I would grow him some popcorn this year.  He is a first grader and thought popcorn had to come from China and that it couldn't grow in a garden.  Nothing I enjoy more than having kids get to know what a farm can do for them.

I love Mike!

My hubby is the most practical and loving man.  He is so very special that I dedicate this post to him!  Thank you go putting up with me and my family for 32 years.  I love you!  Big hug and kiss, you are the most wonderful person in the world!

Deer invasion

My neighbor who recently died had a passion for all God's creatures (her description) and that included feeding the local deer.   We have experienced a population explosion due to the deer getting fed about 150 pounds of corn each week.   Due to my neighbor's death, the deer are now hungry since I refuse to feed the local wild critters.  However, my poor collard greens have been eaten leaving me little fresh produce for the table.  The two messes of collard greens I did get before my neighbor's death were out of the world good.  I always remain hopeful though.  I might get some fresh deer meat soon and that would be awesome too.

Rest in Peace, Mom, and thank you for everything!

My Step-Mom raised me from the time I was five years old.  Like any Mother-Daughter relationship we had our ups and downs.  She did things wrong as I did.  I had a smart mouth and she was quick to punish any sign of it.  She believed in corporal punishment and I was beaten regularly between the ages of five and thirteen.  I hated her for that.  Then at thirteen I discovered how to keep my mouth shut and she started to teach me to cook.  She was a superb German-style cook while I lean toward Italian-style cooking.  I so appreciate the skills she taught me.  I didn't realize until recently that I was a prep chef long before the popular cooking shows featured it.  Together we cooked for a large and extended family.  We were poor monetarily but my Dad hunted and fished and had a large garden every year.  "Mom" made fresh baked rolls that would melt in your mouth.  We never lacked for food because we grew it ourselves or Dad caught it.  One year she taught me how to can and another year taught me how to make jellies and jams.  Summertime at our house was very active preparing for the next winter.    She never learned to make decent saurkraut; it was her only failing.  Spoiled kraut is bad, very very bad in the house.  She also failed to can the fresh sausage correctly one year and it spoiled.  The smell was horrendous.  Everything else though was so good to eat.  I can not eat mediocre food because of her; she set the food standard in my life very high.  Here is a picture I snapped on my phone of her during one of her last "good" days.  Her mind was clear to the end but her body failed her.

Hello World

My Mother, Polly, passed away October 26th.  In one year I have lost my Father, my Mother, three Aunts, an Uncle and my neighbor of 25 years.  It has been a very long and very sad year.  I am seeing a counselor to deal with the sadness, anger and hurt I am experiencing at the loss of so many this year.  I think if I could dig and work in the dirt and tend to my animals that I'd heal much quicker.   Rest in Peace, Mom and Dad.  You loved and were loved in return.  Thank you for everything - I will love you forever!

My bee colony did well up until the Alabama summer sizzled.  In early August, as I was spending more time helping care for my Mother in all my spare time, my bees were invaded by a yet to be determined predator.  Their honeycombs were blackened by the fecal material of the worm invader.  Had I been home and available maybe it would not have happened and I could have saved the colony.  It is disheartening to report the loss of  a one-time flourishing colony.

I will be very glad to see the end of 2011.  I want to sit and make plans for a bigger and better garden in 2012, to establish a couple of new bee colonies and to continue my plans for more self sufficiency.  God's Blessing to all for a safe and wonderful Holiday Season!

Sundays

Sundays for me have always been a day of rest, reflection and food.  My Step Mom was a great cook - large quantities of germanic style cooking.  What the woman could do with cukes in sour cream and dill was amazing. We had german style potato salad - slathered in a vinegar and hot oil marinade - with bacon bits (real bacon) and green onions.  Pot roast for Sunday with carrots and red potatoes cooked in the beef's juices.  Homemade southern buttermilk biscuits and mustard greens.   So, so good.  Most of it homegrown.

For comfort food this week since both hubby and I are waylaid by a virus, I made tuna and mac casserole with a buttered crouton topping, collard greens simmered in chicken broth, a dab of cider vinegar and brown sugar with some ham hock, sweet potatoes baked slow and soft, everything but the kitchen sink soup (whatever is left over makes soup).  We have so many left over today that we eat when we want and as much as we want.

Ahhhh,  now for a nap and ballgames :>

Fall is in the Air

Everytime I work outside, I work with my Dad.  Images of him bending over his tractor and banging it when he got frustrated with it or cleaning his tools in an oil-soaked bucket of sand or just standing and looking out across his garden to the mountain in front of the house.  His eyes a brilliant surprising blue against a sun darkened face.  I loved my Dad so much and I miss him but I thank God for ending his life at the home he built with his own hands with his son and wife beside him when he breathed his last.  He was a good, good father and a good man.  He loved and was loved.  He gave me so much love of the land and nature.  God's Blessings to Art Oden this Sunday morning.  Love you Pop!


Getting over an ugly virus this weekend so I am staying inside and inactive as much as possible.  But I have my office window open and the breeze is blowing cool air into the house and I hear leaves falling and rustling.  Ah, Fall is in the air!


So, here is my Fall To-Do list:


Clean up the electric push mower and store it in the shed.  
  Make sure it is fully juiced for storing and then check each month until spring.
Clean out and organize the shed so something as large as the electric push mower can be stored in it.
  Make sure there are shelves and hangers aplenty.
Crack last year's black walnuts and hazelnuts to make a holiday nut torte (yum)
  and to provide space for this year's harvest of nuts
Move my farming equipment (including my beekeeping equipment) to my shed from wherever else it is on the property!
Put finished compost into garden
Plant clover for a nitrogen fix into garden soil
Mulch the fig bushes, blackberries and blueberries.  Apply some of the finished compost around these plants. 
Plant some ornamental dogwoods and fruit trees along our property line.  I want some pear trees for pear preserves in a few years.
Clip the chicken's wings.
Cull Prissy the white orphington and Pick the broody speckled sussex hen that is no longer laying from the flock.  We'll be down to two chickens for the winter but we'll have lots of good tasting chicken & dumplings.
Order next year's flock.
Start the mushroom logs
Find the copperhead snake that has taken up home around my shed and eliminate him. 
       Thought long and hard about this one as I hate to kill snakes but a copperhead is bitey critter - no warning, all bite.  It has to go before it gets me or one of my loved ones.
Get the big lawn tractor ready for winter storage.
Winterize the chicken coop for Peck and Penny and the new batch of pullets.
Start the bees on syrup for winter food.  Once started, I'll have to keep it up all winter.
Look for parasites in the beehive and treat.
Sharpen my garden tools
Clean up my flower gardens.
Open up the bluff from the rotten tree debris and put some sitting benches along the scenic overlook.
Find out the cost for livestock fencing around one acre (through the woods, down hill and uphill)
Reconsider building a "true" chicken house - I have the plans - just need to do it.


All these tasks will take me well into Winter.  I'll be lucky to have 1/2 of them done before fall is over.


My summer garden harvest was great.  Good year for cukes and cherry tomatos.  The heritage tomatoes I tried bombed.  I had lettuce almost all summer and it did not get bitter.  Next year we'll have a even better garden.

Updates

I've been away for a month or two trying to sort out  issues in my life that left me lethargic.  My father died in early April,  my step Mother fell at the end of April - a stroke and a broken hip.  My beloved Aunt succumbed to heart disease and heart failure in June.   I have some major life issues to address.  Went to my new-old doctor who  had been out of practice due to her own serious health issues.  Went to her after she sent a letter to her former patients saying she was back and was in full-time practice again.  I felt my current MD was not paying attention to my health issues.  So I went back to her saying I was depressed and that I had a rapid heart beat and general listlessness.  Rather than giving me anti depressants she did a full blood work up and it turns out that I have pernicious anemia. pernicious anemia is also termed Biermer's or Addison's anemia.  Thanks WebMD.com, I found out the following information:


"Pernicious anemia is due to an inability to absorb vitamin B-12 (also known as cobalamin or Cbl) from the gastrointestinal tract. Humans get vitamin B-12 from animal products; both meat and dairy products are dietary sources of vitamin B-12. The body is able to store vitamin B-12 for a long time, so inadequate dietary intake must persist for years before a true deficiency of vitamin B-12 is reached. Because of this, the symptoms of pernicious anemia usually do not appear for years. While pernicious anemia is most commonly diagnosed in adults with an average age of 60."

"Feelings of numbness, tingling, weakness, lack of coordination, clumsiness, impaired memory, and personality changes can all occur. Both sides of the body are usually affected, and the legs are typically more affected than the arms. A severe deficiency can result in more serious neurological symptoms, including severe weakness, spasticity, paraplegia, and fecal and urinary incontinence."

"As with other causes of anemia, symptoms related to decreased oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood can include tiredness and shortness of breath. Vitamin B-12 deficiency also interferes with the function of the nervous system, and symptoms due to nervous system damage may be apparent even before the anemia is discovered."  

"Symptoms of anemia are due to the reduced oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood. Shortness of breath, fatigue, dizziness, and pale skin can all occur with anemia. In anemia, the heart is placed under stress since it has to work harder to deliver enough oxygen to body tissues. This can result in heart murmurs, fast heartbeats, arrhythmias, an enlarged heart (cardiomegaly), or even heart failure."

"Pernicious anemia is most common in Caucasian persons of northern European ancestry than in other racial groups. In this population, 10-20 people per 100,000 persons are diagnosed each year with pernicious anemia."

All of these symptoms are getting under control with weekly B12 shots, massive doses of calcium and vitamin D as well as just better health management. 

All this time to myself has me thinking about what to do next on the homestead - I had given my chickens a chit for life long support because I raised them as pets.  I had thought one could be a broody hen but that experiment failed grandly.  She did not take to the fertilized eggs. These pets eat roughly $30 per year of laying pellets plus require significant pasture and time to keep their coop clean - and they lay less and less.  So I'm thinking that with the cooler fall weather now in North Alabama it is time to cull the flock and then get a fresh batch of chickens for spring time laying.  If I proceed butchering the chickens, I need to do it now.

Booger.

I ordered a broody hen containment system from Hayneedle for 79.98 <.http://www.hayneedle.com/Ware Premium Backyard Hutc>.  It looks just like our hen house - cedar tee-pee style.  And I ordered six fertile Easter eggs for our broody hen to hatch.

Fertile easter eggers from My Pet Chicken

Unfortunately, the containment system is on back order but I received the fertile eggs.  What to do?

Improvise.  Necessity is the mother of inventions.  I needed to get the broody hen out of the nest the other hens use for egg-laying duties and into her own area.  I used what I had on hand, an old wire dog crate, poultry wire under the bottom, newspapers over that and a basket turned on its side and then some pine bedding and a tarp to keep the hot Bama sun off them mid-day.  Ta-Da!

The new incubation and containment system

Now what would the broody hen and her sisters think of it?  

H'mmm, I don't remember leaving these eggs here.

Maybe.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

A Grand Experiment

Is already hot today - the high is expected to be 97 degrees F - heat index well over 100.  Chickens do not do well in heat.  Heat stresses chickens much more than freezing temperatures.  So lots of tender loving care for my little flock of ladies.  Today also begins a grand experiment.  It is time to cull my flock but before I do that I want a little broody hen, Pick, to incubate some fertile eggs for me. I have a new experiment to set up.  I have ordered six fertile Easter eggs (type of chicken that lays pastel colored eggs known for their very low cholesterol).  I have one very broody speckled sussex hen.  Under the hen goes the eggs and in 21 days we'll see what we have.  When eggs are incubated this way, ratio of hatch is 50:50.  Ratio of hens to roosters is 50:50.  So I expect 3 eggs to hatch and either 2 roosters and 1 hen or 2 hens and 1 rooster.  Hoping for 2 hens and 1 rooster.

Rain and cool temperatures!

We had rain all afternoon on Sunday.  Like any farmer, I pay attention to the local news primarily for weather events so I can plan my time.  Yesterday I had the lawn to conquer but fortunately we had a wonderful soaking rain all afternoon.  I totally missed the amount of rain or that it would even rain on the news.  It will be a couple of days before I can mow and the grass will be up to my waist by then but I sure did appreciate the rain!

Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits

I love the Pooh Bear!  Sadly, Eeyore is more my style these last months.  Life has been tragic lately for my family.  We lost my Dad in April.  From my Dad I learned that any soil can be improved and made to support life.  I also learned my love of all things gardening.  He planted much too large gardens and he could have fed the entire Tennessee Valley.  I've spent more time than I care to think hoeing in the hot Alabama sun corn fields spread across 10 acres.

Then we lost my dear Aunt Faye in June.  She loved flowers and always had such a beautiful yard that neighbors would stop and comment on the color.  From my Aunt I learned that flowers and vegetables are companion plants - one does not need to exclude the other in the home garden or lawn.

And now my Step Mom is ill and not thriving.  Failure to thrive is another way to say she is dying.  It is sad and I've cried lots of tears but such is life and we grow on.  I'm taking some time to be with her as much as I can.  Other things can wait for now.

Getting started with beekeeping

The most frequent question I'm asked is why would a woman want a hobby like beekeeping?  First, let's take the sex-ism out of beekeeping.  Women, men, teenagers and children can all enjoy a hobby as fascinating as beekeeping.  Second I don't consider it so much a hobby as an effort to become self-sufficient and know my food intimately.  After last summer's fiasco of chicken house sickness, I was totally ready to get back to what I know from my childhood -  I know how to raise my own food and process it.  Sure you make mistakes but you have many resources locally and via the internet.  Here are just a few:

United States Department of Agriculture, USDA, has a free printable 50 page backyard beekeeping publication at http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-0135/.

John Maynard who is the bee inspector for the State of Alabama will answer questions.  As a note, every Alabama beekeeper, even if only one hive is started and is for personal use, must register their hive with the State of Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries.  It costs very little ($10) and your apiary receives a certificate of registration good for one year.  You are encouraged to brand your hives and register your brand with the state as well.   If your hives or equipment are stolen, your mark identifies it as belonging to you and it can possibly be located again.  Let's face it, beekeeping equipment can be expensive and the hives have value.

Your "hobby" is closely monitored due to disease.  Alabama is one of the few states not reporting colony collapse.  Most states that allow cross border migratory transport of hives to California are experiencing this problem  Alabama does not allow colonies to go to California to help pollinate the almond growers trees.  It could be caused by the stressed state of the returning bees or by something being passed to the bees.  Hard to say right now the exact cause of colony collapse but I'm very glad Alabama is a closed border state.

A wonderful resource for the beginning beekeeper is their local beekeeping club who provides great mentoring and knowledge sharing.  In Alabama, check out http://www.alabamabeekeepers.com to find a club near you and join it.  At this site are numerous copies of their newsletter, Stinger, that provides a wealth of information.  I spent about a year researching different sites and finally taking a couple of beginning beekeeper classes offered by our local beekeeping association.

Finally most of the beekeeping companies market their wares in great catalogs.  You can go online to http://www.dadant.com or to http://www.gabees.com or to http://mannlake.com to find solid information about the ins and outs of beekeeping.

The second most common question I'm asked is why did I select a top bar hive or kenyan hive.  I am a small woman.  My husband is allergic to everything outside (bees, ants, etc.)  So I am a single operation beekeeper.

A commercial hive, the hive that most people think of as a hive, weighs anywhere from 100 pounds full of honey in a large hive to 75 pounds in a medium sized hive to 55 pounds for a small hive.  Plus you must constantly monitor and move the top down or up depending on the location of the hive and the queen.  My back just won't take it.  The kenyan hive is at my waist and you can work with the hive without moving square foundations up and down back and forth.

There are drawbacks to the kenyan hive, also known as the top bar hive.  First the honey is only comb honey.  You cannot borrow the club extractor (assuming you did join that beekeeping club or association) as the extractor works with frames.  A top bar hive does not have frames, only a bar across the top where you will extract the honey by cutting the comb and then squeezing the comb for the honey. This is the old fashioned way of getting honey.  You also will not get as much honey from the top bar hive.  So one has to decide which is most important - what is your reason for beekeeping?  For me, it is a backyard, grow it myself movement.

The final question I'm asked is "Is it expensive?"  The answer is maybe.  Like anything you do, it can be done inexpensively or expensively.  Your choice.  The full bee suit, gloves and veil will run about $90, the smoker another $45 (tobacco burnt in the smoker will kill mites that are parasitic to bees), woodware (the hive) can run $285 and up.  You must purchase a hive tool, which costs a few more bucks.  It is always suggested to have two hives.  Bees and the queen may be purchased or collected from the wild.

Our club keeps a swarm list for anyone who wants to collect the bees for free.  The problem with this method is not knowing the nature of the queen.  If you buy a certain type of bee, it should have a certain personality.  For example, I have Italian bees and queen for their less aggressive nature.

I did not buy the full bee suit but did feel that the veil and gloves would be good.  My hive ran about $300 but is guaranteed to not rot for years and years.  I also bought my colony and queen for about $100.  All told I have spent  about $450 on the bees, including my club membership dues and the state registration of my hive. Did I do this because I wanted something cheap for sugar? No, I did this because I wanted to know where my food is grown.  Could you do it cheaper?  Absolutely!

Bee-tastic!

Started my first hive this year - a cypress kenyan hive or top bar hive.  Ordered the Italian bees and queens from Rossman Apiaries in Georgia.  These are smaller and supposedly gentler bees - less aggressive.  I was very worried that I had killed the queen when I uncrated the hive but had to wait three weeks to find out if the hive was alive and well.  So on one of the hottest days this year I suited up in my beekeeping outfit ( a raincoat, heavy corduroy pants, long sleeve white t-shirt) and my elbow length gloves and baseball cap with beekeeper veil and took my hive tool and smoker and went to find out if the hive lived or not.  The result photos provided by family friend, Nikki, are below and I am happy to report a healthy hive with honey and babies and wax being produced on multiple bars.  They did it!

Bees are less aggressive toward a beekeeper in light colors.
Note the pants tucked into my heavy duty work boots.

Smoke is from cotton seed lint, bellow the smoke a bit away from the opening so as to not burn the bees.

Because I am a busy-bee-body, I purchased the top bar hive with the window so I could keep an eye on them without disrupting them.  Looking for problems with mites, no honeycomb, no bees - just to name a few problems. The bottom of the hive can be opened in the summer to increase ventilation and has a small wire covering that protects it from other varmits coming into the hive.

I love it.  Honey, honeycomb and bees.  The hive was empty when I uncrated the bees into it.  The only thing I did was take some bee balm mint and rub it on the top bars.

I moved the divider bar back to give them more room and inserted more top bars for them to begin honeycomb production.  Everything looks as it should.  By end of July or early August I should be able to take make a light harvest from this first year of capped honeycomb and leave the rest for them to winter-over.  Next year I should be able to make multiple harvests and I am considering a second hive and new queens.

This is one happy hive and beekeeper!

From field to table

Our garden's leaf lettuce is holding up to the 100 degree temps in Northern Alabama.  We had freshly picked lettuce salad for lunch as well as day lily fritters, home grown and canned pickled eggs and salmon croquettes.  Amazing what you can find to eat if you just look.  Were the day lily fritters any good?  They look a bit like a soft shell crab when cooked and they fry up very fast.  See for yourself in the pictures below if they were any good - nothing was thrown away!  Yum!

From field

To batter and flour

Frying up fast

Brown in under a minute

Lunch for Saturday 6/4/2011

No left overs

The pickled eggs up close

To goat or not to goat for dairy

Part of the self sufficient life style that I'm wanting to attain includes making goat cheese and other goat diary products like milk.  I have a time commitment issue to resolve as goats take more time than say chickens and they are more habitat needy.  I do not have an enclosed protected area for milking and I am not particularly fond of working outside in the dark and cold, which I would have to do without an enclosed protected area.  Goats require a diet that is fresh and readily available so there is some expense to maintaining a herd of does and their offspring.  Then there is the issue of culling the herd as goats become less productive.  A chicken is a bit easier to manage for meat than a goat.  Quite a size difference and could I do it without help and get the meat saved before it spoils.  So many considerations.  Taking it slow in deciding whether to get goats or not.
Dairy Goat Breed Standards

Happy Birthday to our Adopted Son, Charley!

Charley has been with us a whole year now!  It is unbelievable that he is all of two years old and such a part of our family life.  He still does not have sit, stay, down, heel, fetch, roll over or no down yet.  But he is trying really hard to not potty in the house any longer.  He has ratter instincts - only he became a pet first.  I doubt that a rat stands a chance with our other dog or cat but Charley would get totally eaten.

Welcome to the Northern Alabama Homestead!

Pickled eggs made with 12 of the smallest hen's eggs, hardboiled, shelled and then packed into a wide mouth mason jar with pickling spices and 5% acidic vinegar.  Goes into the refrigerator for 2 weeks.  Then we will use in place of dill pickles for eating out of hand, on sandwiches, and in salads.

 A white orphington hen lays the largest eggs on our homestead.  These eggs are very thin shelled and prone to breakage before collection in the morning.  Wish she laid a slightly smaller egg; I worry about her getting egg bound when I'm away from the homestead.  Her name is Prissy.

Peck, Pick and Penny

Prissy

 The smallest eggs are laid by speckled white sussex.  Their names are Peck, Pick and Penny.  They each lay a unique but consistent size.

The hens live within a electric fence enclosure with a top bar hive full of Italian honeybees.  The fence and their chicken coop is moved every few months but rotate around the hive.  The hive remains in place.  Bees and chickens are compatible.  The chickens eat the mites that are parasites to the bees.

   Our garden is producing a fine batch of leaf lettuce suited to the hot/cool spikes in our spring time.  I will sow a row of black seeded simpson next weekend that will stand up to our hot June and July days.

My hot weather crops, peppers, basil and tomatoes are planted.  The garden is mulched and ready to grow.

 Squash in a container surrounded by rosemary and lavendar.

 I found some $1 containers of azaleas on deep discount at Wal Mart - obviously intended for Mother's Day. I purchased all they had and then planted them along our property line.  Should be gorgeous next year with their flowers.

 

My nemesis alive and well in the North Alabama heat

North Alabama has seen severe weather this year.  Evidence of the last storm remains over our house.