Working in the gardens and picking rock

I decided that today was the day that I was going to give both the flower gardens and the vegetable garden some love. I started out with the flower garden and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was digging though as if I was on some mission when all of a sudden I looked at what I thought was a rock. I’m sure glad that it caught my eye before I tried to bust it apart because it was this huge frog (or toad?) Which ever one, he was sitting really still and I think he was hoping that I didn’t see him. But I put him on a rock and just worked around him. Once I was done there, back to the flowers he went.

This guy took me by surprise today

Next stop? The hydrangeas that I planted by the Roadhouse. Now I knew that the wind was just killing them, but didn’t really realize how tough they were looking. I’m hoping that they’ll come back and be better next summer because I think they’re just about done for it this summer. Sometimes people tell me that it’s kind of windy at their place. But to be honest, I’m thinking that if there was a trophy for having the most wind at a farm, we would so be in the running to place first! The lady at the local nursery where I bought them said that they ‘should’ bloom yet this late summer. But I’m thinking she didn’t have any idea how tough they were actually going to look after a windy spring at our farm.

My poor flowers.....

On to the garden. I knew that this was going to take the longest, but I was hoping to get it all weeded today. It really wasn’t it that bad of shape, and once I got started it wasn’t too bad to keep going. The weather was so nice and the only noise that was on the farm was a swarm of birds that were going crazy right by the garden. I guessed that the dogs were ‘playing’ with one of the smaller birds and when my curiosity got the best of me, that was exactly what was going on. So I did get the garden all cleaned up and feeling kind of proud. I was trying to think the last time that I weeded the garden so early in the season and I couldn’t come up with the year. One time it was looking so bad that I literally took the lawn mower and mowed in between the rows. It was when we were first married. We still milked cows, Kyle was little, and Daryl and I were working in town at the time. For some reason I thought mowing would make it look better. I’m thinking that it didn’t. Anyway, for today it’s all weeded and watered and man she’s look’n good! I picked the first crop of strawberries tonight. We don’t have a large patch, but we’ve been lucky getting quite a few strawberries these past years.

First crop just waiting to get made into jam

So tonight, I was thinking that maybe we should do something fun. Like a bonfire or maybe a movie? Guess what we ended up doing? If you guessed picking rocks – you are the winner! It really wasn’t that bad and there are more in this bean field that should be. The only bad part of this whole deal is that we didn’t get the field done before the wagon was filled. That only means one thing, that we’ll be back in the field again soon. I’ve added a really cool rock that William found when he was picking this week. I’m not sure how it was formed, but I’m guessing it is one of a kind.

Isn't this a crazy rock?