Where has August gone??? School has started and Robby and I get to spend every morning together. So far I haven't done very well putting together Preschool ideas. I really need to get on the stick. He has painted a little and we have played a little ball tossing and jumping on the trampoline, but I am not a very good morning person! I've been trying to read to him, but he isn't really interested. He has become a TV GOON and would rather watch videos, or PBS shows. Help!

My "Giant Redroot Forest" has been growing exponentially. I have not gotten the weeds under control yet. I'm about ready to give up for this year and am thinking of some drastic things to do next year involving old newspapers, compost and bark chips.

On Monday and Tuesday last week, I decided that my kitchen and sewing room looked terrible, so I spent those days cleaning up a storm. Lynn came in and asked me if we had company coming, since I was cleaning so much. Little did I know that we soon would have company. Kathleen and her step mom and dad came over on Wednesday and then Pam and Steve Halford and her parents came on Friday. Thank goodness my house was clean! Now I just need to get all my cabinets cleaned out. When you run out of room to put things in a house this big, it just means that you have too much stuff! This weeks edition of the Mormon Times has a list of how to get things under control. I'm going to cut it out and post it where I will use it as my guide.

I am posting pictures I took of the yard a couple of weeks ago so you can see how out of control everything is. I can't seem to get them to upload right now, will try again later. Looks like the photos showed up finally. These are all from the South yard.

I am sad to see the end of the Day Lilies. I have about 3 plants that still have a few blooms on them and then it is all over. Summer is over!

Wheat ready for harvest

After the heat of the day, the wheat takes a while to cool off. When we open the windows at night you can smell the wheat. I didn't realize how much you could smell it until tonight.

Here are my agapanthus. I don't know why I get so excited when they bloom. Maybe it's because after having them for ten years, they have only bloomed 3 times.

Today I cut some branches off the pine trees to the south of the house. Now I have a big pile of branches to haul off. I will have to cut them into pieces before I can haul them away. Ten years ago I planted a wildflower mix that contained Yarrow, and some type of gaillardia. I have been trying now for three years to get rid of it and it seems to be impossible. I planted Iris and Day Lilies there and the wildflowers are crowding them out. It has really looked quite pretty with the wildflowers and the daylilies, but now they have all gone to seed (the wildflowers) and that means they will multiply. There is also a lot of quack grass. I am going to try digging it all out and then putting Preen on it. I use my Earthway weeder to go under everything. Then I pull it all out. I am getting a pretty big pile. Lynn gets cross with me because he has to haul it all away.

There is always so much to do, I can never get it all done. I am just glad that I am still able to get out and work in my yard. I worry that the day will come when I can't.

Summer Gardening

My daylilies have been really beautiful this year. I am always sad when they start to wind down. When I go out to deadhead and find only one or two more buds left, I know they are almost done and summer will be over soon. I have several that will need to be divided or moved this year because they are so big and aren't blooming as much as they could.

My agapanthus are blooming again this year. I have them in big pots on my back porch. It has taken several years for them to bloom. I have had them now for 10 years. They say not to divide them until they break the pots. This year one of the pots was broken when I went to put them out. I didn't actually divide them, but I did put them in a larger pot. I used to store them in the basement for the winter, but since we finished the basement that wouldn't work anymore. We put new insulated doors on our garage two years ago and so we stored them in the garage and it has worked out really well. The garage never drops below 40 degrees now and it is great for storing the agapanthus. I tried saving a geranium in it's pot and that has really worked out well. The geranium is putting on lots of new growth and will be blooming soon. (I forgot about it until two weeks ago and I cut it back and started watering it.)

Things on the farm are beginning to move quickly. Lynn told me this morning that there will be beans to can next week. They looked so tiny last week when I took lunch to the field as Lynn did some dammer -diking. (This is accomplished with a tool that looks like rows of paddle wheels attached to the tractor. It digs a little hole every so often in the row and makes a place where water can sit and not run off.)

The sugar beets are finally taking off and growing. We had to replant after a hard freeze on May 7th. Those farmers who had planted in March and had beets up that could withstand the frost now have beets that have bolted (gone to seed) and they will have to get rid of all the "bolters". We were late planting and so it just killed our beets. Who would think that would be a blessing, but it was.

I tried to some pictures, but so far no luck. My internet has been really spotty for the past few days. Something to do with the heat I think.