"Life on the farm is ANYTHING but laidback!"

The year continues to be a weird and wild one! Our weather here has been from one extreme to the other with temperatures being way cold to over the top HOT! And of course, right in the middle of the hot spell, our 30+ year old window AC unit decided to call it quits! Every year we wonder if this is "the year" it dies and sure enough, this was it. Our daughter had a small window unit she wasn't using anymore that we installed to replace the old unit but try as it might, I don't think its big enough to help a whole lot. Really, out here in the woods the goal is not so much to cool the house as it is to take the humidity out of the air. High humidity and the problems accompanying it are more pronounced in the woods and hollars than when we lived in town. (At least the dehumidifier in the basement has held up and I'm doing "stair laps" 2 or 3 times a day to empty it!)

Snakes continue to be an ever present problem this spring and early summer which is not normal at ALL! Even the cats walk through the yard as if they are about to step on a mine. We usually don't have to be this cautious until later in the fall when they begin their shedding and get much more aggressive.

Most of the garden is in but for some reason nothing seems to be growing! I'm not sure what to attribute that too but we should be picking our first tomatoes by now and yet they are still only a matter of a few inches tall! The cotton is just sitting there and about the only thing that looks like it's doing anything are the lima beans. (While the garden doesn't seem to be growing the grass is growing JUST fine!)

On the fiber scene, I had a printing supply salesman stop in the shop a few months ago that I found out raised Alpacas. Last week he brought in 4 bags of samples from this years clip for Susie and I to look at and try out. I scoured them this past week and combed them last night so tomorrow I will take them back to the shop to weigh on the digital scale and see what percentage of loss we had. These are some REALLY nice samples and I'm looking forward to not only Susie spinning them up, but also driving over towards Nashville to visit this breeders farm. Maybe we will have to buy some more fiber....after all.....it's IMPOSSIBLE to have too much!!!!

Weird Spring!

To say that "life" has continued to be weird around here would be a gross understatement! Part of the reason there is sooooo much time between blog postings goes back once again to the old adage of if you don't have anything nice (or positive) to say then don't say anything! Well.... with that in mind I probably should just post a picture and not write much because it's been pretty un-positive. While we have graciously been spared the death and devastation the weather has been dealing out to areas like Joplin and Tuscaloosa, we have had our share of weather issues. Here we are almost into June and Susie and I are JUST now getting into the garden to turn ground and plant. With a 40 mile drive to work each day, I try to keep my eyes open for every one's gardening progress and I must say that I am seeing very, very few gardens that have been planted or even worked up so I guess it's not just us. (Somehow I find very little comfort in that!) As far as the Pima cotton progress goes after planting close to 300 plants, I THINK we have 30+ that have survived and they look really bad! At this rate, IF we get a harvest, we may be able to make "his and hers" matching Q tips.

As you can see from the picture, we are already dealing with "nasties " which is really out of the norm since we usually don't have to worry about these bad boys till in the fall! I've already scored one rattler and one copperhead so far and Susie has one copperhead under her belt so far as well. It's getting to the point you don't venture through the door unless you scan the ground FIRST!

Cotton Update!

OK.....I haven't lost it QUITE that bad....I realize that this is NOT a cotton picture! Actually it's a picture of the columbine (Aquildgia canadensis to be exact) that grows out our back door but I wanted to see if anyone was paying attention.

As far as the cotton goes, I'm starting to wonder if there is going to be much to report this year. We have already planted and RE-planted the crop and from the looks of things, it could stand to be re-re-planted but at this point in time, there isn't time to start again and get a crop from it. I'm not sure if the poor growth as been caused by cold temperatures, lack of sun light, the fact I used newspaper starting cells, or if it's just the way Pima is. I was suppose to have growing shelves with heat pads and grow lights done before we started these seeds but the planer broke and we ended up spending too much time finding parts and repairing it to wait till it was finished. Next season should see it finished and i hope it makes a big difference. Although it's been years since we raised white Pima, memory tells me that we had this problem last time as well! Depending on how this all plays out, I think we may well go back to the open pollinated heirloom colored cotton next year....assuming there IS a next year growing season.

Susie and I spent yesterday out in the garden hand turning ground and putting as much of what was left in hopes that maybe it would get growing but the ground is still rather cold and of course we had yet ANOTHER storm come through early this morning! We are praying for whats IN and praying for a break in the crazy weather so we can get the rest in....not to mention the never ending mowing! To date we have all the yard mowed but haven't been able to do either of the fields yet which stinks. The grass is already almost taller than our poor mower can handle and with push mowing over 4 acres, ANYTHING that causes problems or delays really causes a snowball of problems. Besides the cruddy weather, the gas prices are going to be really interesting with this years mowing. We took our cans into town yesterday and filled up and spent more for just this time than we use to spend for an entire season!


On a positive note, not only have we been spared the death and destruction that others in the south have faced this past week, but the wild flowers were really amazing this spring! We were worried what they would be like since the area around us had been basically clear cut last year and things are REALLY tore up. Some of the flowers we are use to seeing were gone but others were spread far and wide. The biggest thing we have missed this year were the mushrooms. With all the habitat gone, we have only found one to date....but it was sure good!

Out The Back Door!

Meet Paul Pima!

I guess it COULD be Pauline Pima since I really don't know if it's a girl or a boy cotton plant. (And I hope everyone knows I'm making a joke) There is a growing number of the seeds germinating so I couldn't resist taking a picture of one of this years plants. Stay tune....either Susie or I will keep posting the cotton progress.

That Was FAST!

No pictures yet but after planting the Pima cotton last Saturday afternoon, I am pleased to announce that our FIRST seedling has "crowned" this afternoon.....only 5 DAYS from planting!!!! Now, if the rest of the little buggers will just come up, life will be good....well...at least BETTER! We also soaked some of the old dark brown cotton seeds from several years ago in a "tea" of water and Miracle Grow which we read helped the germination rate on possibly non-viable seed. These were planted today so time will tell if this will work.

Cotton Seed

And last but not least, here is the bag full of Pima cotton seed. After filling the 3 flats, you can't tell I've even opened the bag! I guess the next big question to be answered is how to store them for next year to retain their viability. (I would have done these 3 postings as one post but I have YET to figure out how to place more than 1 picture in these blogs without them being stacked on top of each other and the wording doing weird things around them. Sorry!)

P.S. It's also come to my attention that in years past, people talking to themselves was viewed as "abnormal" and could get you locked up. Now a days its called blogging and people actually follow you talking to yourself! Kinda weird if you ask me!