Life All Around Us...

Hello friends and family.

Welcome back to another update from Southern Rays Homestead. The weather has been absolutely fantastic. We had one chilly day, but other than that. We have been in the 70's and 80's. One day it even got 90. We just really need some rain. Hopefully, will be get some tomorrow. We really do need out rain catchment system up and going, but that will be in the near future.

We did get out second sunflower bed built, filled and planted. We are excited to see the dream come to fruition. Driving into the property amongst rows of sunflowers. We are getting some sprouts in the right garden.

I have been chipping wood for days. Wanted to get all the garden beds topped with wood chips. It will help with weed pressure and holding in the moisture. All the beds are covered now expect for the herb gardens. Once I get them planted out, I will add the mulch. My white clover has sprouted.

The bulb garden is about done with the blooms. I am waiting on the last kind of tulips to bloom. The lilies will bloom when they are good and ready. I sure have enjoyed that garden. I can smell it when I walk up the drive. The butterflies and the bumblebees have been enjoying it themselves.

Rick and I took a break with cutting down trees and chipping, so we started cutting down vines that are climbing up the trees that we still have. We have to take care of the trees we have left. Rick has been working on dropping the trees in the new extended safe zone around the cabin. We are 2/3 done. The wind was not cooperating today.

Another side job we did, was clear the neighbors drive way across from ours. We have never seen them or met them. Heck, they probably just bought the land online, and have never set food on it. Anyways, we had to clear it so when our churt is delivered, they can pull into that drive and back down our drive way. It will also be the case when my parents come to visit in May. They are bringing their fifth wheel, so that will definitely help them.

The peas are sprouting up and so is our onions. In our root vegetable garden, we planted beets, leeks, parsnips, turnips, carrots and kohlrabi. Nothing has sprouted there yet, but it will be soon. We also put together our greenstalk planters, added soil, and planted some seeds. We planted 3 typed of lettuce, 2 types of radishes, bunching onions, yellow strawberries and some chives. The radishes and one type of lettuce is already sprouting.

The winter sowing containers are doing well. They need a little more time and then I can transplant most of them. The herbs are being slow, but that takes time. We have some additions to the food forest. I got a deal on two blueberry plants. The two we brought from Michigan are not doing so well, so we figured they will be back ups. Besides there is no such thing as too many blueberries. I added some malabar spinach in the forest as well. Waiting for them to sprout. Most of the stuff in there is leafing out . So excited. We are even getting asparagus sprouting, but with all the stress from living in pots and planting in the ground this past fall, we don't expect to harvest for another year or so. I have seed to add to that area as well.

We picked up our Tennesse tree day trees. We added the Sumac up front and the elderberries in the forest with our other one. Now the rest of our trees we had to throw in pots for now. We need to clear some places for them. I also started a garden journal to keep track of everything we have done to our gardens and what we have planted.

Our tenants are doing well. They are getting anxious for their home. I don't blame them. We lived in there for 8 months, but we downsized from 900 sq ft. They downsized from over 1500 sq feet. This lifestyle is quite a change for them, but they will get the hang of it. The ordered pizza the other day, and invited us to supper. That was very thoughtful of them.

That about sums it up. We will be working on dropping the rest of the trees. Then we are back on working on the cabin. We will be staining all the rafters, putting up the facia, installing the siding and get that water catchment system up and running. Of course this is all pending on the weather, energy and if our equipment decides to work.

Thank you for stopping by and reading our blog. We will have a bonus blog in the very soon. So keep an eye out for that. I will email our subscribers when it is up. Not sure if I will notify on facebook for not. I would really appreciate it if you would subscribe. That way you are the first to know when we post. Take care and talk soon.