Weekend at the Farm January 30 - 31, 2016

 The left side neighbors' dog and the right side neighbors' cat - making themselves at home.  I should discourage it, but I don't.

Arrived Friday afternoon.

• Walked all around the place looking at things.  Set all the sprinklers to water over night because it looks pretty dry.
• Bert and I sat in the cub cadet watching robins flying overhead in groups of twos and fives and tens, their red breasts glinting like bright lights in the waning sunlight.  So pretty.  We wondered where they would sleep that night and hoped they would return in the morning and sip water from our bird baths.
• Went to bed early, I was asleep by 7:30!
• Saturday morning, woke up at 7:00, took a walk around the perimeter of the place which is about 1 mile.
• Drove into Carmine to see if the feed store had cottonseed meal to fertilize my fruit trees, but no luck.
• Cut away some ginger debris in the Greenhouse Garden.  Raked in there as well.  
• Bert and I messed with the hoses so I could have a really long hose that reached the farthest area of the Orchard.  The young trees and the new trees really need to be watered with a hose in the summer.  I watered the Crabapple, 3 in 1 apple tree, the Jujube, the Mayhaw, and the four roses I planted a few weeks ago.  
• The day was so beautiful, I sat in the Orchard for a long time enjoying the weather.  Sunny and cool, perfect weather.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Shade Garden, the driveway, the Rose Garden, the Star Garden, the Medicine Garden, and the Orchard.
• Cut away ginger and canna debris in the Star Garden. 
• Watered in the Star Garden.
• Cleaned some of the furniture around the pool with some bleach water and a scrub brush.  It was in serious need of attention.  I'll do the rest tomorrow. 
• Rode around the property with Bert at dusk enjoying the cool evening air.
• Sunday morning took a walk around the property with Bert.
• Cut away more canna debris and carried it to the burn pile. I don't like those thick canes in my compost pile.
• Cleaned 3 more pieces of pool furniture with the scrub brush and bleach water.
• Cut back my morning glory tree down to the ground and hauled the dead branches to the burn pile.
• Cut away dead salvia. Cut off some dead canes on my roses.
• Jeff and Amy came by to show us their new dog.  Beautiful red and black shepherd puppy.  She quit her job and went back to school to get her masters in some sort of program related to landscaping / land management.  She is very interested in Texas natives, and she is returning her pasture land back to a native grassland.  Fascinating.  She just bought some hay bales of native grasses and spread them around her place.  They live just up the road.  
• Collected morning glory seeds off my dead vines in the Star Garden and spread them along one of the fence lines in the Orchard.
• Cut back the Castor Bean plants in the Star Garden.
• Fed the bees some sugar water. The hive looks pretty good to me.  Lots of activity.
• Cleaned the rest of the pool furniture.
• Took one last walk around the property and headed home.