Working on a New Project

And it's a BIG project.

I've been looking for a long time for some property to buy for my Moody Girl Farm homestead, and I believe I've found it.  I signed a contract on a 1.15 acre property in western central Texas.  There's a small older house on it (a fixer-upper), an outhouse, an old well, and a cistern along with city water and sewer and co-op electricity.  I signed the contract on November 9th.  The hold-up is the survey.  The property is in a small town (population 338) and surveys are difficult to get done.  Very few properties in town have been surveyed so the surveyor is having trouble finding a starting point.  Closing was postponed from December 12th to December 27th (yeah, tomorrow) and now has been postponed until some time in January, the date to be determined.  I've been up to see the property several times and I'm so ready to get started fixing it up. 

In the meantime, I've begun working on a site plan for where everything will go: the gardens, chickens and bees, and a greenhouse.  When I originally composed my Goals in 2011, I wanted 2-3 acres with the idea that I might also have several goats.  They're still on my list, but further down now.  I suspect the house will take up a lot of my time, trying to get it move-in ready for when I retire, again, in November 2018.

I'll have lots of photos once I close on it.  Until then, never surrender, never give up, and may all your dreams come true.

A quick photo from December 7th when we got snow!  Big ol' fat snowflakes!  We got about 2 inches of snow here in town.

Becomming a Sponge, in Several Steps

First steps, clean the skin off the gourd, shake out the seeds.  This is the OLD loofah, it measured about 10 inches long and had well more than one hundred seeds!  I suspect the other longer gourds will have a lot more seeds which means I'll probably never have to buy loofahs seeds again!  The skin wasn't too hard to remove because it was so brittle.

Here is the gourd after a quick plain water rinse.

 

Here is the gourd after a quick rinse in a light bleach water.  I might should have left it in the bleach water a little longer than the 3-4 minutes I did. This is a practice gourd, so once it's dry I'll know if it needs more time soaking.  I'm hoping the bleach will lighten that dark spot.  Now it's laying on top of my compost bin so it can dry in the sun.  I need to turn it over every 30 minutes or so.

Once this one is done, I have six more to do...

Can't stop a Loofah!!!

THIS is my loofah vines!  They've taken over the garden bed and have spilled out onto the grass in front of the bed.  I had to use a 2x4 to prop up the trellises, as I mentioned before they weren't really strong enough for loofahs.  The cucumbers would have done just fine here had the loofahs not crowded them out.

 

I picked/cut these seven gourds to begin practicing this week how to peel them and make them into sponges.  The one on the far left was the first to grow on the vine - I probably should have cut it much sooner.  I'm going to have more than three dozen gourds to play with - and I just saw 6-7 baby ones on the vines in the grass!  I've read that the vines will keep on producing until they freeze! Oh boy!

I'm working extra this week so I may not get the next post on until next week.  Until then, never surrender, never give up, and may all your dreams come true.

Drooping loofahs

Hurricane Harvey brought wind and rain to San Antonio this weekend, but not as much as they predicted, and not near as much as poor Houston is getting.  I had already tried to prop the trellises up three times, but they weren't meant to hold up this much vine, and in this kind of weather.  We're supposed to have rain for the next four days, so I may let the vines just stay where they are for now.

 

Sweet!!!

I picked this little stem of berries even though a couple weren't completely ripe.

 



 

Oh gosh, they were good!  The two largest were really sweet.

 

I should have my funds to purchase my land by next week, then I'll begin searching.  I'm ready to get all of my trees/vines in the ground at their 'forever' home.  It's going to start getting interesting...

Can You Find the Cat?

Gifts from my Cat

I found this yesterday morning when I went out to feed my kitties.  It was slightly stiff so it had been there for several hours.  I didn't know which of my kitties brought it to me, but I moved it out to the sidewalk, planning to put it in the trash can before I left for work. 

 



 But then Big Boy began sniffing at it. 

Then he moved it away from my other cat, Big Girl.

 

He didn't eat it, thank goodness.

Broken Driveway Update

They've repaired the driveway.

But only time will tell if it holds.  They'll lay the asphalt on Wednesday.

Broken Driveway!

Not even finished and they broke it already!

And I doubt it'll get repaired.

Street Maintenance Part 7

I have a driveway entrance, sidewalks, and St. Augustine grass sod in place.  They'll be putting in the asphalt this week.

Everyone in my immediate neighborhood will be very glad when this project is finished.

Garden Update July 8 2017

My work schedule has kept me busy, I worked six days this last week so I could have the next seven days off.  So, here's an update on the garden.

I've told several of my neighbors that they can come over and pick tomatoes whenever they need some - I can't keep up with them!  I made tomato sauce from one batch I picked, and I have four one-gallon freezer bags full from another batch.  When I go out to feed the kitties each morning, I walk over, pick a tomato or two, and eat 'em right there.  Soooooooo delicious!!!

The two loofah vines have gone crazy and are taking over the bed.

One thing I do love about the loofahs are the bees that they attract.  I counted twelve gourds, but as thick as the vines are, I could have missed a couple!

My lone jalepeno plant has certainly produced!  Several of them at the bottom are turning red.

 

 

One of the cucumber vines bit the dust, the other seems to be doing ok, it's trailing along the fence.  I've been slicing one almost every day and taking it to work - cold cucumbers slices are just what I need when the temperature inside the museum is 85*.



They say necessity is the mother of invention...I needed a TALL pot to move my pecan tree to, so I put this together.  I cut out the bottom of the three brown pots so I could stack them up.  Pecan trees have long tap roots and the roots on this one were beginning to circle around inside the orange pot so I knew it was time to repot it.  I hope this will suffice until I get my farm and can put it in the ground there.  This little tree grew from a pecan from the giant pecan tree in my back yard.  I wanted to take something from here to my farm.

And finally, saving the best for last, blackberries, soon.  I have just three clusters like this one, but I'm really looking forward to eating them!!!

I also repotted my four avocado trees and the smaller Mexican olive tree.  I bought two larger pots at Lowes and basically just moved every thing up one size.  The two Mexican olive trees I have in pots sprouted under the big one in the front yard.  All of these will go to the farm, once I get it.

My corn crop was a fail, and it was my fault.  We had a couple really hot days, over 100*, and I hadn't watered the corn for 4-5 days.  I managed to harvest three ears of corn that I will save the seeds from for next year.  I didn't harvest any ears earlier because I wasn't sure exactly when 'harvest season' was.  I have plenty corn seeds from this year's order, but I want to save some from the ones I grew.

I've learned a few lessons from this year's garden.  I need to work on my plant spacing, the poor tomatoes are too crowded.  I didn't get the additional cages for them so some are languishing too near the ground.  And, be very careful where you plant loofah vines!!! 

More post later.  Until then, never surrender, never give up, and may all your dreams come true.

Street Maintenance Part 6

This was my driveway entrance when I left for work Friday morning.  I expected to see the poured driveway done when I got home, but not only was it not done, but they had moved a lot of that gravel away and left a 6" drop from the old driveway.

So when I got home, I had to get my shovel and build up the area so I could get into my yard.

Really disappointed!

Veggie Garden Update 06-17-17

How many times will I say 'I have a ton of tomatoes' this season!!!

The loofah gourd vines are growing along the little fence.  I have six gourds so far.

There are two peppers there, the size of ping pong balls.

The cucumbers, on the left side of the trellis, just keep coming, they're growing on the fence also.

My corn in the back yard may be ready to pick, but I'm not sure.  I'll post photos tomorrow and maybe someone will be able to tell me if they are, or are not.  Until then, never give up, never surrender, and may all your dreams come true.

Street Maintenance, Part 5

Work continues, this is as deep as they dug.  At the end of each day, they filled in and smoothed over the driveway entrances.

Now they begin to build back up with gravel.

They've begun to put in the curbs and driveway segments at the far end of the block, it'll be next week before they get to my house.  Will post photos then.

Fruit and Veggies

My blackberries are getting bigger, I can hardly wait to eat some fresh off the vine!

I picked these tomatoes Monday morning and made spaghetti sauce.

I'll post a photo of the sauce tomorrow, along with additional photos of the garden.  Until then, never give up, never surrender, and may all your dreams come true.

June 10 2017 Garden Update

My gardens are coming along nicely.  I made two videos tours, but they are larger than Blogger allows me to upload so I'm putting them on my You Tube channel, you can see them there.  Here are the links.

Loofahs, cucumbers, peppers, and okra  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUC9vYSts7Q

Tomatoes, cotton, onions, and carrots. And a steam roller  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD1zZOWbgBI

I made pickles with some of those cucumbers yesterday, I'll open a jar in a couple days to see how they came out.  Until then, never give up, never surrender, and may all your dreams come true.

Garden Update June 3 2017

Here's a quick update on the front yard gardens.  In the far left bed you can see the cotton, but the carrots and onions are hard to spot.  The bed to the left of the sidewalk has my tomatoes, and the bed to the right of the sidewalk has the loofah vines (large yellow flowers) and the pickling cucumbers growing up the trellis, with bell peppers, okra, and jalepenos pretty much hidden by their foliage.

I'll write more later, until then, never give up, never surrender, and may all you dreams come true.

Stret Maintenance, Part 4

This was Tuesday morning, May 31st.  They're still digging up the street, I don't know how deep they'll go.

Garden Udate May 29 2017

New photos of my garden.

I'm going to have a TON of tomatoes!

 

 

I have several bell peppers almost ready to pick. 



 

 

Pickling cucumbers getting bigger! 

 

 

One of three loofah gourds growing. 

 

 

Corn in my back yard, which really need to be mowed! 

It's really grown in the past month http://charboord.blogspot.com/2017/04/i-forgot-corn.html 



 

And blooms on my blackberry vine! 

 



 



I didn't take a picture of the onions, you can't really tell what they're doing. 
I'll try to post again later this week. Until then, never give up, never surrender, and may all your dreams come true.

Quick Garden Update

Here are a few photos of my front yard garden, I'll post a photo of the corn in the back yard this evening.

 

 

I'll post more photos this evening.

Street maintenance, Part 3

Part of the driveway has been cleared out and replaced with gravel.  When the steam roller flattened the gravel, it actually shook the house - the windows rattled!  Another section of the sidewalk was pulled out also.  That section had a couple footprints - I'm not sure where they came from, but we've decided that we're going to make some kind of footprints (probably cat) in the new sidewalk. 

P.S. My lawnmower is in the shop... Hopefully I'll get it back today and can get the yard looking better!  I'll post recent photos of the veggies, too.  Until then, never give up, never surrender, and may all your dreams come true.

Street Maintenance, Part 2

The City was busy yesterday.  And it seems they aren't going to redo as much of my driveway as originally planned, and that's ok.   They've removed a part of my sidewalk and the concrete curb and loosened the asphalt paving.

 

 

Access onto the driveway is going to get a little tricky, but I'll manage.  It's going to look so much better when it's done.  Until then, never give up, never surrender, and may all your dreams come true.

Street Maintenance, Part 1

The City has begun the work to repave my block of my street.  It began yesterday with some curb removal.  They say the project should be completed by mid-July.  I plan to take photos of the progress every couple days.  This is the beginning.

 

We are getting sidewalks on both sides of the street, which is odd since none of the other blocks have sidewalks.  Last year the City repaved another block in my neighborhood about two blocks from mine and did not put in sidewalks. You can barely see the orange stripe on the driveway in front of my car. I believe that's how far up they will redo the driveway entrance.  My veggie gardens should be far enough back from the street not to be disturbed by the sidewalk installation.

 

The forecast is for rain off and on for the next 2-3 days.  I'd like to get some newer photos of my garden beds if the sun will come out.  I'll post them when I get them.  Until then, never give up, never surrender, and may all you dreams come true.

I Forgot the Corn!

I forgot to post a photo of my corn, this one taken Tuesday.

 

 

There are 33 stalks in my corn patch, along with the three black-eye peas.  The corn really shot up in the past two weeks, but then we've has some rain and warm days.  This is my original bed that I created in 2013 and then expanded in 2015. 

 

Will write more next week, until then, never give up, never surrender, and may all your dreams come true.

Garden Update April 25 2017

What a difference a few weeks makes!  Here are some recent photos of my gardens.

The tomatoes are doing great!  I have a soaker hose in this bed to make watering easier.

You can see three tiny carrots at the bottom of the photo.  I have eight radishes, seven onions, and five cotton plants here, all doing really well.

This is a mixed bed with bell peppers, cucumbers, okra, a jalepeno, dill, and loofah vines.  The small clay pots have marigolds and nasturtium seedlings that I just needed to get into pots.  I'll be out of town for a few days and needed to do something with them before I left.  I'll transplant them into the appropriate beds when I get back.  I also have ten marigold sprouts in 4-inch pots that will be repotted into larger pots when I get back

I moved a few things around in the beds in front of my house.  From Left to Right: blackberry, canna, Mexican Olive, canna, potatoes, canna, Passion vine, and in the small orange pot is a little pecan tree.  This little tree grew from a pecan that fell from the giant pecan tree in my backyard.  It's because of that big tree that I had to put my vegetable gardens in the front yard. I have all of these little trees still in pots because I hope to take them to my farmstead, once I get it.

Here are a few more little plants I had to repot.  The two brown pots at the bottom of the photo and  the two larger orange pots have avocado trees, and the white pot with the cat faces has another Mexican Olive tree.  The orange pot in the white tray at the top of the photo has Goldenrod.  I grow this for the flowers - they make wonderful 'pine trees' for model railroaders!

And, lastly, the two green flowering plants on either side of the caladiums are for attracting pollinators, I don't remember the names... The blue pot and the two pots to the right of it have more potatoes.  The two small pots with bright green leaves at the bottom of the photo are sweet potatoes. I'll put into the ground later.  And the larger orange pot at the top right corner of the photo has an avocado tree (about 24 inches tall).

That's it for now. Until next time, never give up, never surrender, and may all your dreams come true.