Too fast

Another weekend gone by.  I don't know how it flew by so quickly.  A massive rainstorm moved in late Saturday morning (while I was planting the last of the strawberries) and hung around until the wee hours of Sunday morning, so we lost most of that day for outdoor work.  But that was okay, as we had not one but TWO birthday parties to attend, and it was kind of nice to take that time to enjoy the company and friends without the guilt of knowing there was garden work to be done. 

However, today was bright, sunny and windy.  The wind is still gusting out there, blowing the dark grey clouds over the full moon.  As the moon rose tonight it went through four costume changes... as it first crested the horizon, it was flamingo pink.  As it rose a little higher, it changed to a lovely peach color... then golden yellow, then finally its usual attire of brilliant white.  Positively gorgeous.

Today I finished double-digging the smallest of the garden beds (3'x17'), mixed in compost and soil acidifier, and planted the Atlantic, Ivanhoe and Herbert blueberry bushes that have been languishing on the front porch for nearly two weeks.  The second bed has our Ozark and Tribute strawberries... and I'm hoping that the massive amount of compost I dug in helps them thrive in what was heavy clay soil.  We broke sod on the third bed (raspberries!), but have not tilled nor enriched that soil.  I'm hoping to finish that tomorrow and get the red and black raspberries in the ground, but we'll see what happens before I go in for my night shift.

We did FINALLY get around to painting the beehive, with the help of my mother and sister (who visited today).   Honeybunch inoculated four big logs we cut from one of the felled trees with reishi and oyster mushroom plugs.  Tomorrow I'll seal up the holes with beeswax, and we'll set them in a moist and shaded place... hopefully in a few months to a year we'll have lots of mushrooms.  We've been growing some indoors (shitake, oyster and pompom) with success, but in very small quantities.  We hope to have a more impressive harvest from the logs.

Aside from all that, we got to enjoy just being alive on this beautiful piece of earth we call home.  The daffodils are popping up all over the place, the chickens are thrilled to be scratching around in the seemingly endless grasses and leaves, and the cats have taken over the cushioned dining room chairs as their own personal nap spaces.  Now if I can get the rasberries, asparagus, apple and cherry trees settled into their niches here on the homestead, we'll all be in good shape!  Happy Sunday!