Random moments in the week

Such exciting and busy times for our family...  there is a lot going on right now (more than I share here) so my posting has been scarce.  It's all good - just very busy with family life and of course, it's full steam ahead with the garden here at Little Home In The Country :)

                     

Our oldest son, Mitchell and his wife, Kelsey bought a lovely old boat (complete with a trailer) for a few hundred dollars.  They both love to camp and fish, so this is a wonderful thing for them and their future family. Our kids pitched in to help clean it up and get it ready for their first weekend camping trip (which was a success).

Another wonderful thing - as a complete surprise, Paige and Reece made supper for me all on their own.  A spinach salad with fruit (YUM!) and some wraps complete with candles and a nice little table setting on the deck.  Moments like these are unforgettable - this Mama LOVES tender gestures such as these...  

After a brief rain, a beautiful double rainbow graced the sky tonight.  What a spectacular sight - they were HUGE!  I couldn't get them all in one picture, so I had to take 2.

Not all of my gardening efforts are utilitarian food production.  After a few years without much in the way of flowers, it was high time to bring some blooms back into my life.  I'm enjoying my pots of flowers so much - it's amazing how much happiness some flowers can bring.

Today found me dealing with an urgent problem.  These are the youngest chicks that we hatched out last month in our incubator.  I had put them in with the older pullets yesterday, but the babies were getting pecked too much, so I had to build this enclosure today to give them some space to grow a little bigger before introducing them to the other chickens again.  Poor things were terrified and all huddled up in the corner of the chicken tractor. They are now happily scratching about in this small pen and we plan to bring them greens each day to supplement their feed and keep them healthy.

These raspberry canes are LOADED with blossoms and as a consequence, the bees are literally buzzing in the patch ALL DAY LONG.  I can literally hear the buzzing from 50 feet away!

Finally, my carrots are up enough to actually SEE them in a photo.  5 long rows should keep us in carrots for the winter... last year I planted 4 rows and we sadly ran out.  the beans and greens are all doing well - with the sunshine we've had, things should be taking off and growing rapidly now.

I'm excited to have some Hollyhocks in my vegetable garden this year!  I planted them last year in hopes of enjoying some blooms this summer while I work away in the food garden :)

I also planted some flowers in this old dresser...  I love how the peeling paint ads to the charm of it.  You might think it's ugly, but I love quirky things in my garden :)

The tomatoes are doing well - this is what they look like after some severe pruning.  I'm trying to maximize the harvest and reduce the foliage to keep blight and mildew out of the greenhouse.  Lots of air flow is important so I've always got a good cross breeze blowing through.  Still lots of blooms can be seen and there are bees buzzing around in there so hopefully, I'll see some tomatoes soon!

...and lastly - we had our son, Ian and a friend of the family working on our new deck all last week.  We are so excited to finally have an area for seating the family for outdoor meals and entertaining friends.  It's a little hard to tell, but when you come out the side door, you will be able to access the deck from a set of stairs leading down to the lower level.  By the end of this week, it should be done so stay tuned for more pictures.

Have a great week!