Snapshots and snippets of the beautiful, crazy world right out our front door.
If you’d like to share some of your own photos or a blog post, please leave a link in the comments!
My husband Brian has an affinity for earth-moving. He loves to create terraces, sod mounds, trenches, and earth berms. His latest project was to dig a small pond for the four ducks (two Khaki Campbells and two Cayugas) that joined our homestead a month ago. Early each morning, I’d find him digging, moving topsoil, packing down clay, and creating a beautiful semi-circular pond. The only thing missing was water.
For the past few weeks, we’ve had a lot of sun and dry weather. Approaching rain clouds fizzled away to nothing and only a few drips of water landed on our property. Then, this week, two major storms came through – one producing strong wind and quarter sized hail in addition to torrential rain, the other just heavy rain. Within a few days, over 4 inches of rain filled our water barrels and ponds.
Happy, happy ducks enjoying their new pond! The first time we herded the ducks into the pond, they hesitantly approached the edge, then cautiously went in the water. From that point on, it was as if they had a Eureka! moment, and realized what fun was to be had in their new digs!
The kids also had a great time in the rain and mud! Nothing like making mud slurry and then pouring it all over yourself!
The garden had slightly less fun in the storm. Most of the plant damage came from strong winds snapping young plants in half, but some hail balls managed to rip right through leaves. Luckily, most of the damage was cosmetic, and the plants have seemed to bounce back pretty strongly. We badly needed the rain, so I’m very grateful for these spring storms.
What’s happening out your front door?
Caitlin | belong with wildflowers says
Glad to see/hear your plants are bouncing back from the storm! We had a high wind storm recently, and a few of my stems snapped as well. Fingers crossed they pull through!
PS – The ducks look so, so happy. What fun!
Teri Page says
Everything seems to be doing just fine! The tomatoes were all indeterminate, so I wasn’t too concerned about them. But even the plants with giant holes look like they were never bothered!
good luck with yours!
Isis- Little Mountain Haven says
Hurrah for a duck pond! But wow, that’s a lot of storm damage 🙁
I hope your garden rebounds quickly
It’s finally raining here today, I’m super grateful for all the cool weather loving vegetables really needed it. This weekend we’re finishing the polytunnel (apparently it takes 3 weekends to build one when you have a 1 & 4 year old 😉 ) and cleaning out the chicken coop (fun!)
Have a great weekend!
Teri Page says
Sounds like a busy weekend full of great homestead projects!! Good luck getting the tunnel finished!
Tracy says
Wow! I can’t believe the damage to some of those plants, Teri. I’m glad to hear that they’ve bounced back.
Looks like the ducks had a blast, though. How fun!
Outside our door we don’t have as much excitement right now, but I’m fussing merrily over our beans in a square foot garden raised bed. So far so good!
Thanks for sharing a peek outside your door!
(PS: that mud slurry photo is adorable!) 🙂
Teri Page says
Beans sound great! What kind are you growing, Tracy? I came home to the mud slurry photo. My husband was home with the kids, and they were just having the best time! Glad that they can be kids and get dirty!
Tracy says
Beans this time around: “Ideal Market” Green Beans, Purple Podded Peas (good for soup, I hear), Sweet Snap Peas, beans from my Dad – we’re guessing Italian beans of some sort? And beans my mother refers to as “Nary’s Beans.” 🙂 I have no idea who Nary is, but I’m growing her beans, LOL!
Teri Page says
that’s great! What a nice variety! My kids just planted a few different beans in their beds, although I’m not quite sure how they’ll do, since I didn’t supervise the planting this time! Depth is a little variable when a 3 year old is planting!
Dianne says
Great pics! Come along and see ours at Unruffled Forest Farm!
Teri Page says
Thank you! I will!
Annie @ Montana Homesteader says
We’ve talked about building a small pond but it is so dry here we figure it won’t hold water for long. We’re actually having quite a drought. I would love to have a few heavy rain storms since our garden is really struggling to grow even though we’re trying to keep it watered in such dry conditions!
Teri Page says
What kind of soil do you have there, Annie? Ours is heavy clay, so it really sticks together well and holds water very effectively. I’m sorry to hear you’re having a drought. We had two months without water last summer and I spent so many hours hauling water in buckets from our pond, all the while feeling grateful that we even had a pond! Good luck!