WOW - has it been that long?

So many things has happened since my last post - um - over a year ago.  Last Christmas, Jonathan got these great corrugated steel raised beds.  We were so excited.  Ooh'd and aah'd over them and there they sat, leaning against the wall.

New Year's  came and went.  

Easter came and went.  

Finally, the weekend came for us to really, truly put them together.

All was going fine until I decided we needed to turn it over.  There he is, turning this steel rectangle over.  He steps in to finish flipping it over and IT grabs his shoestring.  Oh -- did I say the edges are super sharp and you have to wear gloves to handle them?  Down he goes catching the edge in the stomach.  There was so much blood, I thought I had killed him.  Just a bruise at the ribcage and a pinhole on his cheek.  All that blood from his cheek.  (I still feel guilty but don't tell him that.)  That was enough for a couple of days.  Didn't want to even look at the offending things. 

We did move the new raised beds and the horse troughs off the patio and down to the far corner of the yard.  Okay, far corner may be an exaggeration but down the hill and at least 100 feet to the north of the patio.  Let the planting commence.  Yeah, right! 

We did plant.... tomatoes (which were few and far between), peppers (amazing), basil (did great but we never harvested any), lavender (wow), mint (which didn't spread - what's up with that), squash (apparently the native bunnies love the blossoms so alas no squash), onions and sweet potatoes.

Well, Texas had this flood.  Our house is 20 feet above the creek yet the creek decided to flood the garden, chicken coop and compost bed.  We got this call from our house sitter - yes, we actually took a vacation - (a) should there be snakes in the chicken coop, and (b) can't get to the chicken coop because there is 2 feet of water in the yard.  That was followed by the voice mail from a neighbor asking if we knew our chickens were in the street.  Teach us to take a vacation.  After the flood was a drought and legal watering only every 2 weeks.  Not so good for a garden. 


We attempted to increase our flock this year.  The newbies did great for about 5 weeks.  Lost 2 to the aforementioned flood, 2 to the hawks and 2 to the drought (hens were hoarding the water).  The surviving 2 are doing great and have reordered the pecking order.   

Fall is now upon us according to the calendar (it's still in the 90s during the day).  We used the peppers throughout the season with more still in the garden.  We got a large grocery sack of sweet potatoes which my brother said were some of the best he has ever eaten.  Go figure, I don't eat sweet potatoes unless my mom makes them for the holidays.

We have a new friend that we introduced to gardening.  She and my youngest son (ahem 20) helped plant collards, green leaf lettuce, cabbage and cauliflower.   Of course, I forgot to label any of them.  Little sprouts are coming up and we see what is what. 

The only pest this fall is the person that keeps throwing a tennis ball into the garden for the dog to retrieve. 

Happy trails.