Cherrypicking

Our cherry trees have done very well and we decided last week it was finally time to start picking. I picked a basketfull one day (as much as a pound, I'd say), pitted them, and froze them on a tray.

A day or two later, Jeremy went out with ladders and boxes. He doesn't mess around! I picked the cherries off the little tree while he got the big tree.



This is a little over 15 pounds of cherries! I was worried we'd have less cherries this year after having to cut down the other half of the tree. But we got 18-20 pounds last year so we're practically there now. And there are still more cherries to pick.

Jeremy and his intern spent hours pitting them, which meant cherry mess all over the floor,



all over the table (and everything on it),


and all over the walls and window!


I don't think any of this batch got frozen. Jeremy has been drying them in the dehydrator, so we'll have plenty till next year for cereals, scones, and other baking projects.

Nothing like cold watermelon on a hot day

Especially if you're a chicken!



Unfortunately, this watermelon snack was a couple weeks ago and we didn't have any fresh, cool watermelon to feed the girls yesterday when it soared to 103 degrees here! They panted and complained, but they survived the heat and are ready, along with us, to enjoy a bit of a cool down.

Lovelies

I have been waiting for ages for my Siberian Irises to bloom. This year the leaves got much bigger than I'd ever seen them and then a couple weeks ago I noticed these purplish bumps that I realized were irises-to-be! They finally started blooming last week. I was thrilled!



Here are a bunch of them in the front rain garden:



The other three types/colors of irises have been blooming too.
Darker purple ones:



The ones that smell just like grape koolaid:



and the yellow ones in the front yard (new this year!)



Here's a shot of the back rain garden looking quite glorious with regular iris, siberian iris, columbine, phlox, and some unknown flowers in bloom - and many more yet to bloom!



Out in front, between the rows of raspberries, are the poppies. One bloomed yesterday. Then a whole bunch more bloomed over night.





This flower has moved back onto the 'unknown' list since the little identifying tag is completely blank! I guess permanent marker can't stand up to a Minnesota winter.



Lastly, another one of my favorites in full bloom now, the wild geranium:

Promises, promises

The yard and garden has been making some promises to us lately.

I promise you strawberries (and bunches of them!)



I promise you cherries:



I promise you enormous garlic!





That was our garlic on May 19, 2 1/2 weeks ago. It's even taller now, I'd say three to four feet. It's twice as tall as any garlic I've seen around here. There had better be some awesome garlic down there!

Our yard is also promising lots of raspberries; but so far no blueberries, currants, cranberries, or lingonberries. I'm a little dubious about the veggies in the garden (leeks, spring onions, turnips, summer squash, broccoli, kale, spinach) but it's early yet so we'll see. The tomatoes I put in a couple weeks ago are growing now so that's promising!

Giveaway! Giveaway!

If you've been drooling over one of my tea cozies but are too cheap (or poor!) to buy one for yourself, your opportunity to get your very own for free is coming up!

The blogger behind Mad in Crafts is celebrating her 30th birthday this year with a month of crafty giveaways. I donated a tea cozy to the cause which will be on the block around June 17.

I'll post again to remind folks. May the most tea-cozy deservingest (I don't think that's a word...) person win!

Paradise

It's amazing what a long hard winter will do to perennials and gardens in general. Many people are talking about how much more amazing the plants are so far this year.

I have been enjoying our yard immensely. Everything is so much more lush than last year and things are growing and blooming that never have before! (More on that in another post.)

Here is the yard under the cherry tree. I took these pictures two weeks ago - everything is much taller now!



Here's a little close-up. It's all wild violets! Perhaps you can make out the mess of poppies just beyond the raspberries? They have yet to bloom.



It's amazing how much has changed in two weeks!



The tulips have done their thing and are now cut back and yellow and purple irises are taking their place. The cherry tree has cherries growing on it! The bleeding heart, rhubarb, wild geranium, and stacks of other things in that photo have doubled in size at least.
We have a comfrey in the backyard that is probably 3 1/2 to 4 feet tall. Everything is just happy, happy, happy - and I couldn't be happier about it. =)
Well... I'd be even happier if I could keep up with this blog. There are so many things to post about - but I'm taking too much time doing said things to get any computer time. =)

Compost time is happy chicken time

Another project to cross off my to-do list: Digging out the completed compost and flipping the other two bins over. I've been wanting to do this for awhile, but have been waiting for Jeremy to build the raised bed in the boulevard. He's too busy with mushrooms, so I finally decided just to dump all the compost onto the beds in the back (which need to be dealt with too!)



After I dug all the compost from the middle box and dumped it in the far left box, I decided to treat two lucky chickens to the bugs and interesting bits left behind.



Ahem!


"What, me? I'm busy here!"


"nom, nom, nom"


"tasty!"

Finally I put those chickens back and turned to face the last bin. Now, I have a warning here. If you are any kind of animal rights type person you should stop reading now. Just skip to the pretty all-finished picture at the end.
As I started pitch-forking the piles of old veggies, spent chicken bedding, leaves, and chicken poop out of the last bin, I remembered that I'd seen a mouse in the compost bins. I'd especially seen it in this bin. So I went sort of cautiously. About 6 inches to a foot down, I tossed a big pile into the middle bin and a little mouse went flying. She scrambled to the back of the compost bin and gave me a look. Sort of a, "What do you think you're doing!?" look. Hmm. I kept digging out, and another foot down, way in the back, I found a nest with about five brand new baby mice. I looked at it for about two seconds, then picked the whole thing up and deposited it in the chicken coop.

Oh yes, I did. Now you all know how sadistic I am! I ran for it back to the compost bin. I didn't have many qualms about what I'd done, but that didn't mean I wanted to watch the carnage. I figured I didn't want mice in the compost, or eating the chicken food, or in the house, or anywhere around so they had to go. And the chickens L-O-V-E-D the mice. Seriously, I was a major rockstar to them for the rest of the night. Every time I got near the coop they all came running, even more excited than they usually are.

I did feel bad about it when mother mouse came back and hung around for awhile, while I was still there finishing up, staring at me from a distance with a look as if to say, "What have you done!?" Sorry mama mouse. I think she's starting a new nest in the middle bin. Grr.

Anyway, here is the all cleaned up bin!